The noise was no longer a sound; it was a physical force that rattled the teeth in their sockets and tore the air from their lungs.
Thirty feet of cold-rolled manganese steel and bronze logic drums keeled sideways, shearing through its structural rivets with screams like tearing artillery shells. As the main tower of Prime Calculator Zero-B tipped forward, a cascading wall of molten copper, white-hot vacuum filaments, and pressurized steam swept across the granite floor.
"Elara! Down!" Bastian roared.
He did not calculate the trajectory or evaluate the risk. In two long strides, Bastian covered the distance between the gallery ladder and the mahogany field terminal, throwing his heavy frame over Elara. He tackled her beneath the heavy lip of the granite worktable just as a three-ton section of the primary gear housing slammed into the floorboards three feet away.
