Anton had expected the vast emptiness of space. Not really space, but the celestial aether of the multiverse. Light-less, colorless, breath-holding silence that whispered lazily for eons between each glittering universe. A disorienting nothingness navigable only through decades of meticulous research. Instead his tracking and communications display had exploded into chattering activity the moment the worm-hole closed behind him. His scanners were reporting an overwhelming 4,096 vessels; he was being hailed simultaneously on 256 channels.

Here's the thing about braining: it didn't turn out to be the godsend that it was cracked up to be.

There were two major unanticipated obstacles in the technology's development. At least two. Two that we know about.