Three days after the sixth Keystone's reading fell, Aliyah ran the morning instrument check the way she ran it every morning.
For the first time in longer than she could easily remember, every number on the page was one she was glad to see.
The third Keystone held at its small permanent increase, unchanged, exactly as it had been since the chamber probe, exactly as Darak's analysis said it would remain.
The second Keystone cycled, the same rhythm it had held for weeks, the impatient entity testing the same binding the same way it always had, neither advancing nor retreating, simply persistent.
The sixth Keystone sat at its new number, lower than it had been a week ago, the first Keystone reading in the facility's history to have ever gone down and stayed down.
Prenn was still at his station, because his standing assignment had not changed, even though the thing it had been watching for had already happened and, for now, was not happening again.
