The stored energy entered the pumps with a sound like a train passing under the floor.
Tie Kuang watched the flow divide among the twenty-four sectors. Fifty thousand main jacks stood ready across the full universal shoring system, but he did not start them together.
“Perseus first. Ten percent stroke.”
Wu Ji opened the feed. The jacks lifted, and the inward motion slowed along the Perseus front.
“Sagittarius next. Orion after that.”
One sector at a time, Tie built a moving wave instead of one enormous blow. The expansion joints began to slide. The old Tribunal gates carried shield power toward the rim.
For twelve seconds, the plan worked.
Then the master valve seized.
