Chapter 5: The Normal Vector of Hatred and Resentment

SEE THAT PHOTO UP THERE? THAT'S MA OLD RIG UP AGAINST THE NORMAL VECTOR OF HATRED AND RESENTMENT FROM WHEN I WAS MAKING MA OWN ASCENT ON THE GRADIENT BACK IN THE DAY. YOU WOULDN'T BELIEVE THE SHEER QUANTITY OF ISOLINES THAT THERE RIG DRUG MA ASS 'CROSSD. BAD BOY HAD A TURBOCHURGER. USED TO COVER ABOUT 200 PLANES OF EXISTENCE/HR. FASTEST RIG WEST OF THE SINGULARITIES. YOU'D GET TO BOUT 100 PE/HR AND THAT THERE TURBO'D KICK IN BOUT 3,000 RPM AND I SWEAR TO GOD YOU'D DAMN NEAR TAKE THA FUCKIN JACOBIAN OFFA THAT...
Sorry, that was my friend Brian cutting in. You don't want to listen to him. He is currently still nestled amongst the cottonwood trees. He never quite made it up any higher. Try not to let him get in here again.
Anyway, I used to know a prospector who made a living digging holes in the normal vector. You see, the vector's made of this loose soil that makes it unscaleable, so people try to dig through the wall. You can get pretty strong digging holes. Takes a stubborn man. No one's ever made it through though.
My friend used to get a load of timber and set up a support structure to keep the walls of the shaft from collapsing in on itself. Eventually, he went so far in, the support columns buckled under the weight of the soil and the guy suffocated to death in his own tunnel. Poor guy. Should've never taken that job. Should've just told them to go around like you're supposed to...

Chapter 6: Floods in the Canyons