They lit the furnace before dawn.
Iven arrived in the yard while the first smoke was still thin enough to disappear against the dark roofs. The college’s test coal stood in weighed sacks beside the tender. Yessa checked the issued amount, the remaining stock and the names on the shift before handing the firing sheet to Lio.
“Today,” she said, “we find out whether we repaired a machine.”
Lio opened the fire door.
The new light touched everyone’s face.
It was the five hundred and sixty-eighth morning. Sen was a day into her return road, the new bearing had passed its cold and warm checks, and every person in the yard knew something that still had to be watched. Vara held the pressure sheet. Corven had stayed for the loaded test. Yessa’s students stood beside the oil readings with their pencils already moving.
Iven walked the carriage once before taking his place.
The repaired cross stay, the new lining, the renewed steam seal and the replacement blade pair were no longer separate achievements on benches. They had to work together.
