Behind the thick granite shelter of the dark rock recess, the second watch’s four-breath window closed fully across the northern slope. Thirty paces upslope, the lower returning hub spun back up to its full, unbroken deep ring. Six paces outside the eastern lip, where Vaska Ren’s eight-inch iron wedge and cut horsehide glove-fingers had held the near recess guide-rod open for four breaths, the central drum finally rerouted its southern commutation path through a deep bedrock bypass. That left the burst bronze junction box dead and dark in the snow. Meanwhile, the main lower returning plane resumed its nonstop, thickened sweep.
Inside the recess, Commander Keth Or knelt beside Daro Kesh’s left shoulder. It caught his breath after the sledgehammer impact of Daro’s flat blade against his breastplate. Looking out through the narrow gap between the corner stone props at the dead junction box and the shifted angle of the eastern returning plane, Keth Or tried to put a seasoned staff officer’s comforting spin on what had just happened.
“Look at the bedrock bypass light along the eastern trench,” Keth Or said, his voice rough as he pointed a gloved left finger at the pale glow now running deeper beneath the shale. “By drawing the hub’s attention down into the eastern ditch when Seyun turned back from the center line, we forced the drum to switch onto its backup underground bus. That pull-back from the center worked as a feint—it tricked the Measure into showing us where its deep bypass…
