Nessa pressed her empty wrist against the black plate. The metal bent around her pulse cage before her elbow reached it.
House Twelve held level under her palm.
Beneath the floor, Lenn Cor carried enough borrowed down to keep Parel standing on another road. The plate accepted both loads and gave no sign which body hurt more.
Nessa bit the molar control once. A needle inside the cage touched the plate. Two others measured how far her shortened ring finger lagged behind the middle one.
The plate changed its curve to meet both.
West Four had spent five intact pulse cages and Davi's sixth to move civilians through the brewery tunnels. Its west wall brace had fallen. Thirty brewery evacuees slept in Shelter Ring Two because their orbital transfer left without them.
Four pieces of this metal had just held an occupied house through a failed floor turn.
The speaking tube beside her wrist still carried the man's offer.
