The engineers drew the new furnace plan across the workshop yard. Each community would connect its own channel through a bank of ordinary spirit stones. A local switch could cut the line if pressure rose.
Yan stood beside the diagram. Gu’s message came through the relay, his voice faint under the crackle.
“Mark which parts the keepers can maintain themselves,” Gu said. “A line that only the central engineers can repair will fail as soon as they leave.”
The local engineers added a row of stone sockets and marked where each one could be replaced. They left space for a second operator at the switch. Yan could add cultivation capacity during a test, but the node had to remain useful without him.
Jema, a village node keeper, crouched beside the diagram. “Why is the switch inside the coalition command tent?”
One engineer looked down at the paper. “That was the first version.”
“My crew has to reach it if the pressure rises. We don’t run into your camp to shut down our own barrier.”
Yan looked at the drawing. The switch had been placed near the central instruments because that was where the engineers expected to stand.
