At Level 75, Sol-Alpha and Sol-Beta shared one outer envelope.
Matter moved between their cores in a steady loop. The painful sideways shear was gone. Austin’s foundation and grid links spread the remaining pulse through the same paths they had used since the first morning.
The added gravity pressed Austin against the deck. He clipped two more ballast bars into his harness, bringing his ballast to exactly eight hundred pounds, and waited for his hip dampers to adjust before standing straight.
Above Sunset Peak, the two suns formed a bright figure-eight. Power flowed into the continental grid without a break in service. “Neat cosmetic lighting,” Austin muttered. “Zero frame drops.”
The tower did not become perfect.
One of Tie’s fast dampers heated under the stronger pulse. Its crew reduced the load and switched to the backup loop. Several spring stacks showed new settling and needed inspection. The revised connection had room for adjustment, which was why it still worked.
Austin opened the new blueprint.
He looked at the captured counterweight and the thirty disabled dreadnoughts moored along the current. The next project had a dry dock, raw metal, and power. It was a plan for another season, not a reason to skip today’s checks.
