The lower figure was not enough.
Juno left it visible while the delegates read the upper one. Between the two lay uncertain arrivals, equipment awaiting inspection, and a site whose government still threatened its foundation. None could be made reliable by selecting the more hopeful end of a range.
“The narrower opening has a staffed sequence,” she said. “The full transition does not.”
The interpreter repeated her words. Eli watched the listeners take them in after a day in which stone had fallen close enough to make every later warning sound either urgent or exhausting. The reservoir did not care which reaction they had left.
Mira asked how the latest deterioration changed the time available. Juno placed the newest independent readings beside the earlier ones. The change was worsening. Its precise pace remained uncertain, but the slower end no longer justified treating the summit’s next work as leisurely construction.
A representative asked whether the vote should therefore be expanded into emergency authority. The moderator said changed conditions required an account and a decision under the agreed process. They did not silently rewrite what had passed.
The envoy asked each dungeon site to confirm the conditions under which it could still be counted. Component access, local inspection, accepted contribution limits, reserve handoff, and independent security arrangements all had to be verified. She repeated the withdrawal condition when the summary threatened to compress it into a general statement of cooperation.
