The World of Light

~ 0.3 million years ago

The outer swarms have succeeded in increasing the length of time they can exist in the world of light. They have found that an entire swarm can't move effectively outside of the atmosphere. Flat pairs are able to make progress in a slow tumbling motion, and individuals can support themselves with their arms forming a circle on the solid part.
Some of their observations:

• There is an animal in the outer part of the world that produces a painful amount of light. We would have expected that bioluminescence would be unnecessary in a world so bright, but this animal apparently compensates by emitting more light than is already in the world. It's so bright, in fact, that it's impossible to determine its shape or appearance. Parts have damaged themselves trying.


• Sand is very sticky in the world of light. It coats the outside of any part that touches it. This has the unfortunate result of making it harder for part pairs to keep their balance and their grip on each other. It doesn't affect their ability to retattach to the swarm, since the sand falls off when the parts return to the atmosphere.


• Light has a sleep cycle. At times, swarms have reported no increasing brightness as they approach the boundary layer. When they reach the world of light, the entire expanse is as dark as the Exchange Layer. The bright animal appears to sleep at the same time, producing much less light when it rests. During this time other bioluminescent animals appear.


• The outer part of the world of light is not unpatterned. Sometimes glowing clouds move through it, thick enough to hide the animal from sight. They don't seem to affect each other, since the clouds and the animal part ways unchanged, although the clouds are less bright when they hide the animal, which is the opposite of our expectation.


• Moving dark objects form another pattern in the outer region. These appear irregularly and move swiftly. They have not interacted with anything else in the world of light, and we're unsure whether they are alive or not. The fact that they move leads us to favor the idea that they are another kind of animal, but we have seen non-living things moving through the atmosphere, so we can't be certain.