The lance of packed void-spark struck the apex of Hexagonal Panel Forty-Two at sixty thousand feet.
For an ordinary stonework castle, a point impact of such total size would have punched through three miles of stone.
It would have created an impact crater fifty leagues wide, vaporizing Haven-Hold into a blazing bright cloud of core dust.
Instead, the physics of Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic shape intervened.
The black glass beam connected with the shield. Then, the entire six-sided panel flashed from cool sapphire blue to brilliant, radiant amber.
On the watching terrace of Central Dispatch Tower, Giles Croft stood firm against the stone low roof wall.
He had pulled his dark shade-five welder’s goggles down over his eyes to protect his eyes from the blinding flash.
Reflected in the dark glass lenses was a fine, detailed, pulsing web of golden stress lines spreading outward across the sky.
