Eli asked Juno to begin with the slower bridge.
She pulled that sheet toward him. The supports from the unfinished workshop were reaching the service cut. Clearing had begun at both ends. The installation crew had confirmed the destination width, and a fitting that needed trimming was being altered before transport rather than after arrival. Those changes had narrowed the estimate. Its late end still ran beyond the reservoir’s projected failure window.
“If the structure holds toward the better end,” Juno said, “we may have time to do it without consuming your imprints.”
“And toward the worse?”
“More channels could fail while the additional bridge is still being assembled.”
She left the sentence there. No one added a count they did not possess. They had checked the accelerating consumption by two methods; they had not acquired a clock that knew the exact minute every captive would lose a chance.
Then she turned to the faster bridge. The two accepted reserves reduced its burden. The destructive sequence preserved some unspent fragments until later stages. The tested retrieval supplied a bounded mechanical way back, with unknown forces near the closing gate still outside its demonstration.
“It remains a serious risk to you,” Juno said. “Abilities and their attached fragments used as conductors will be destroyed. The particular return connection we discussed will be dismantled. Further permanent loss and death remain possible.”
