The first reading looked clean until the independent receiver disagreed.
Juno had applied the controlled test source to the detached junction model. One instrument showed the expected separation. The receiver showed a faint rhythm where the represented compromised signal should have been blocked. Eli saw the technician lean toward it, already looking for a setting that would make the display agree with the result everyone had come to see.
Juno stopped the test.
The physical cutoff was used, the test source went dark, and the observers confirmed the state before anyone touched the leads. The family representative stood in the doorway of the private room, watching the comparison that had cost her household its immediate inspection place. Eli could feel the whole hall wanting the problem to be small.
“We have interference,” Juno said. “We haven’t established where it enters.”
The independent engineer asked everyone to leave the setup as it was while he checked the source and receiver separately. A nearby circuit had been used to power the hall’s ordinary equipment. Its changing draw aligned with the faint rhythm. The model’s lead placement allowed that interference to enter the observation channel. It was an ordinary setup problem, not proof that the intelligence had crossed into the detached apparatus.
