E Being

A man converted into an energy-based form after his spaceship reached light speed finds himself among sentient, round electromagnetic beings and transported to a vast world of mush, interconnected electron tracks that can mimic matter. He learns their modes of communication and the physics that let energy condense into apparent objects, explores food streams on a doughnut-shaped surface, and inadvertently disrupts and consumes the energy of others, realizing human patterns persist as energetically mapped structures. The story examines the literal and ethical consequences of shifting between matter and pure energy and how technological achievement reshapes identity and perception.