Fall

You ever experience mammalian dive response in the air?

When you fall, air rushes to meet your face. The tiny monkey that lives in the back of your head feels this and panics. You've clearly fallen into water. You need to stop breathing so you don't drown. No matter how hard you scream THIS IS AIR, YOU IDIOT, WE NEED IT TO BREATHE at that tiny monkey, it screams THIS WORKED FOR ALL OUR ANCESTORS back just as hard.

Logging on directly is kind of like that, but for the brain. Your VR rig lets you cruise the information superhighway like you're driving a cybertruck - or at least riding in the bed of one. I don't even get the luxury of flowing through tubes.

I fall. Nodes pass me like stars at warp speed. I grasp at them, trying to slow myself down. One sticks, letting me trail a string between it and myself. Then another. Strings snag more nodes. I keep weaving my improvised web until I can think again.

I'm hanging above (beside? within?) the city. The node I'm searching for is right in front of me. Keeping it in mind as you log on is basic net safety, drilled into everyone from the very start. I just have a lot less margin for error.

I reach out for the node and enter.