Juno drew a small box around the switch on the surface diagram. The discrepancy vanished when the switch opened. That made the box a place to begin, not a boundary beyond which the fault could be trusted to remain.
The local operator repeated her two readings. She sounded apologetic about how little separated them. Juno asked her to stop describing the difference as little until they knew where the missing contribution went.
“Neither is beyond the tested range,” the operator said.
“I have that. Does the independent instrument measure the same branch?”
A pause followed. Paper moved against the transmitter. Someone at the surface asked someone else to move a lamp.
“It measures the feed before the switch.”
Juno moved the second mark on her drawing. Across the junction room, Eli watched her pencil. The central controls remained shut beneath their guards. He had begun to hear the waiting captives in every ordinary delay, though the actual contact circuits were still dark. He knew what he was supplying to that silence. Knowing did not make it easier to bear.
A commander on the other line asked whether the difference could be accounted for during the first release. The reservoir had lost another measurable fraction of its stable interval. The repaired anchor’s backup had already gone off its accepted shift. Other workers would be reaching their limits while this inspection took place.
