The city operator would not begin while the settlement remained at zero.
She said it calmly, with the roster beside her and her independent observer listening. Her site had agreed to an initial contribution, but its agreement assumed a partner moving with it. If the settlement waited for proof from the city, the city would take the first uncertainty alone.
Across the line, the settlement operator gave almost the same argument.
“They have more instruments,” he said. “Let them demonstrate the first stage. We will join when the curve is established.”
“You agreed to share the first stage,” the city operator replied.
“We agreed before the consumption accelerated.”
Both were right about something. Eli could hear how quickly the discussion might become a test of which community trusted the other enough to be exposed. He had spent too long watching useful cooperation collapse under questions that sounded like moral weakness when they were actually questions about who would take the first load.
Juno asked each observer to confirm the current roster and accepted limits. Then she brought the startup curve into the open.
