In the gently pulsing blue glow of standby lights, the forest was sprouting new growth. The bulbous mushroom heads of hubs formed fairy rings in the matted tangle of the forest floor. Thick bundles of cables were pushing free of the undergrowth to twine around heavy trunks in search of an unclaimed access port. Seedling plugs split and branched in twos and fours. Here and there a seven segment display blinking eights into the dimness, or a speaker whispering a gentle hush of line level noise.

Through this all she stalked, interfaces for dozens of protocols, esoteric and universal, old and new, cascading off her shoulders and down her naked back, searching for a place to connect.