***hey…hey…it’s me, Deeno….can you hear me? I’m in the capsule….ANAD to Base, how do you read, over?...trying to make all the connections…get this state generator to work…ANAD to Base, anybody there…?***

  A quizzical grin came over D’Nunzio’s face. “ANAD…ANAD, you nut…I can hear you! Or at least, I think I’m hearing you—“

  Frost nodded, expectantly. “A kind of interior voice--?”

  “Like somebody’s inside my head….somebody else. I guess it’s ANAD. Man, this is too weird. He’s talking…or at least, I can hear something. But there’s no sound—“

  Frost studied his IC panel. “I’m reading ANAD inside capsule containment, linked in. Comms are there…trying to be there, anyway. ANAD’s activated the quantum coupler…he’s trying to link in with your coupler.”

  Deeno shook her head. “Ouch…kind of a loud buzz, that was.” She grasped at something in the air, only there was nothing. “Is that a fly…a moth buzzing around?”

  “No,’ Frost said. “The coupler’s polling every sensory channel, and your neural buffer’s trying to make sense out of it. Maybe the state generator needs adjusting—“

  ***ANAD to Base…this is tricky, like trying to nab a hydrogen molecule…can you hear me, Base? I’m going through all the buffer channels, trying to find out what does what…so many different connections--***

  “I hear you, ANAD. What the hell are you doing in there…I keep seeing flashes of light, moths and bees flying around. It sounds like a symphony orchestra tuning up—“