The temporary braces held the foundation plates through the night. At dawn, the forty shafts sent a stronger pulse into the Floor Nine grounding loop.
Austin felt it before the alarms appeared.
Inside him, Sol-Alpha and Sol-Beta stretched toward each other. Their shared stream of fire stopped whipping from side to side and began moving in a steady circuit. One star gave up matter; the other returned it.
The force that had been kicking his ribs changed into a deep, even pull.
Austin bent his knees as the stronger gravity settled over him. He added two one-hundred-pound ballast bars to his harness, bringing his belt to six hundred and fifty pounds, and opened the damper valves another turn.
The change did not repair a single nut on the ridge.
Tie Kuang watched another chalked fastener move. “Your balance improved. My foundation did not.”
“Right. We fixed the source of the worst shear. We didn’t remove the waves.”
