Founding and the Arrival of Time

Rex Bale read the Deep-Set report pinned to the bulkhead in the red light of the transition chamber before he had crossed into the room where the work was running. The fault-line shifted every four minutes and the boom moved through the granite and into the floor and Vahn, Eris, Lars, and Mina absorbed it with their knees bent and their boots planted. The density reading was already in Lars’s log in his own figures. Rex folded the report and pulled the hatch closed behind him.

The fault-line shifted at four seventeen in the morning and the boom moved through the granite and into the walls of the transition chamber where Rex Bale was pulling on his pressure boots. The vibration ran up through the soles and into his knees. He stood, crossed to the inner hatch, and turned the seal. The air on the other side was dense and metallic and smelled of crushed stone and the deep-red safety lamps threw everything into shadow. The Deep-Set report was pinned to the bulkhead beside the hatch. Rex read it there in the red light without moving further into the chamber.

The Fault-Sync required the press-chamber to remain perfectly level for seventy minutes while the tectonic plates held maximum alignment and the diamond-lattices fused. If the chamber rotated by more than a fraction of a degree the lattice fractured into worthless carbon-shards and the hydraulic fluid ignited under the sudden friction.

In the earlier years of the operation Rex had to be present for the Fault-Sync. Vahn Kalo, the fault listener, pressed his temple to the ebony rod and felt the seismic grind move through the bone and waited for Rex to interpret it. Eris Nyx, the compression warden, stood at the hydraulic levels with her oil-stiff apron and her hands on the valve and did not move without instruction. Lars Thorne, the lattice registrar, watched the brass float in the displacement tank and called out the reading to Rex rather than entering it anywhere the next set could use. Mina Sol held the iron stethoscope to the chamber supports and waited. When the fault shifted and the boom came through the floor the four of them looked to Rex. When the seventy minutes ended and Rex left, the next Deep-Set began when he returned.

The air in the sphere was dense and metallic, smelling of ozone and crushed stone, and it held a dry heat that made the skin on the knuckles crack. Every four minutes a subterranean boom moved through the granite fault and into the titanium floor, a concussive thud that the team absorbed by keeping their knees slightly bent and their boots planted. Through the narrow observation slit the fault-line glowed with a dull cherry-red heat that cast long oscillating shadows across the red-lit instruments. The floor was in a state of constant microscopic tilt as the tectonic plates ground against the chamber supports. Touching the ebony monitoring rod sent a teeth-rattling vibration through the jaw and the only sharp sound was the rhythmic clatter of the brass float as the diamond-lattice compressed.

Vahn stood with his temple pressed to the ebony rod and felt the seismic grind move through the wood and into the bone of his jaw, logging each interval reading in the production record each time the frequency held between booms. Beside him Eris stood at the hydraulic fluid gauge with her leather apron stiff against her thighs, adjusting the flow by degrees so small the valve handle barely moved. Lars watched the brass float in the displacement tank and recorded the density reading in his log before the next boom could disturb the surface of the fluid. At the chamber supports Mina moved the iron stethoscope from joint to joint, her knees bent against the tilt of the floor, recording the shear-pin readings in sequence without stopping.

Founding is the point at which an enterprise ceases to be a draft and begins to have a history.

Rex unpinned the report from the bulkhead and folded it. The fault shifted again and the boom moved through the granite and the floor tilted and corrected and the density reading was already in Lars’s log in his own figures. Rex turned the seal on the inner hatch and pulled it closed behind him.