The edge-monitoring station sat twenty meters outside the core residual field, a low concrete pad with three secondary displays, a single clamp interface locked out of primary mode, and a narrow bench that faced the perimeter fence.
The residual field hummed at its reduced baseline. The numbers on the displays held steady. Ryn sat with her hands on the console, fingers resting light on the edge of the input pads.
She tracked flow rates, residual bleed, and secondary channel stability the way she had been trained to track them when the loads were higher and the margin was real.
Her hands were steady. The residual tolerance that used to live in the nerves under her skin was not.
She was not allowed back on the clamps.
A calibration kit clicked against the pad floor. The technician from Node 8-A set it down without ceremony.
