Chapter 78 - Chapter 77 - Retrieving the Lost

The twelve temporal anomalies who had accepted full integration were still present in the briefing room. Physically present. Breathing. Aware. But their consciousness had expanded into network structure in ways that made individual communication feel inadequate for expressing what they'd become. Talking to them was possible. But conversation required them to focus significant portion of expanded awareness on narrow human-level dialogue. And that focus seemed—effortful. Like asking someone fluent in complex multidimensional language to communicate through single linear sentences.