The captured frame gave Merrit's technicians a way to recognize the siege seed.
Every joint carried a repeating pattern that regulated growth, observation, and recovery. The frame did not think independently. It gathered information and returned it through the filaments to the object that created it.
The siege seed made the decisions.
"Can you use the pattern to disable it?" Max asked.
"Not from here." Merrit replied. "The frame contains instructions for a limb, not the entire device. We can interrupt communication and prevent recovery. Destroying the source still requires reaching it."
The technicians dismantled one outer joint without separating the central structure. Beneath the pale surface lay thin metal threads surrounded by hardened sap. The siege seed had not created the frames entirely from Orchard material. It consumed small portions of its own stored metal whenever it produced one.
"Then the supply is limited." Dagar said.
