From the highest belfry to the deepest drainage water tank, the ten thousand statues of the Ark Nadir were now connected in a single, closed sound mesh.
Qiao Ming stood at the central watching pulpit of the Hall of Deep hum in Entry hall 970. This was the master high-pressure dispatch room of the entire vessel. A circular chamber carved from dark green jade. It was flanked by eighty-four brass balance scales, fifty-six liquid silver manometers, and a master tracking data slate three arm-lengths square, connected by clockwork linkages to every sector of the ship. Through these bronze rods and lead high-pressure tubes, the dispatch room received nonstop clockwork feedback from forty leagues of underwater rows of stone pillars. Each valve, each drain tube, and each spreading joint reported its state through the shifted weight of liquid silver columns and the ringing of tiny silver counter-weights.
The eighty-four brass balance scales lined the outer edge of the pulpit like an armada of tiny ships. Each scale was fitted with small, eight-sided lead metal bars stamped with ancient trigrams, representing the calculated mass and sound driving force of each single entry hall sector. If a sector suffered a pressure surge or a sound misalignment, the corresponding balance arm would dip, tripping a bronze chime that warned the land-mapper to adjust the ballast valves before the stonework could crack.
