FC

Junction-node ground authentication array with its own cell and loop; the pulse plant that opens the corridor window

The Array — ground authentication post and pulse shed

A shed with its own cell and its own loop, on a rise two kilometres from the settlement, designed by people who assumed that one day everything else would be gone. It was. The array went dark at one o'clock on the Monday morning of terminal black and nobody was in it for four days; when Liu's two people got the door — fifty minutes, because a fuel cell running inside a shut shed builds its own weather round the frame — the terminal set came up and worked. Through it the orbital station came over the rise and heard the count for the first time. And at the end, it is the ground half of the crossing: the plant that commits the final three-gigawatt pulse at fold minus thirty, measured by Sutter at the plant and by Nasser at the distribution room, with the gap under one per cent.

Operator
Hart colony route and node – Lieutenant Liu; Chief Ortiz on the rejection side
Registry
P10
Series
The Chosen Dark
Drawn as
As the shed stood at 21:26 on the night of the crossing, plant at band and holding, with all four fans on the rejection side and every figure on the sheet off a gauge Ortiz had read herself.
Sheet 1 General arrangement — profile, looking to port 40.0 m overall · 40 frames at 1000 mm
SHED Door and terminal set — The shed · frames 1–8 · published AR-DOOR Fuel cell and the loop — The shed · frames 8–14 · published AR-CELL The plant — The shed · frames 14–24 · published AR-PLANT Distribution room — The shed · frames 24–30 · published AR-DIST The cabinet — the chain — The shed · frames 24–30 · published AR-CAB The gate and the lamp — The shed · frames 30–34 · published AR-GATE Rejection side — four fans, two header reliefs — The shed · frames 34–40 · published AR-REJ THE PLANT — 3 GW at fold minus thirty. After 'Right', no handle on the ground can take it back. REJECTION SIDE — drawn for throwing heat into nothing. Four fans, two header reliefs, one wet burn. THE DOOR — fifty minutes. A fuel cell in a shut shed builds its own weather round the frame. 1 20 40 FRAME
Sheet 2 Deck plans — 1 decks, looking down 14.0 m maximum beam

Built to keep working after everything else stopped. It did.

Door and terminal set · frames 1–8 · published · Terminal Black – Keep It Running: 'it took them fifty minutes to get the door … and another twenty to bring the terminal set up, and then it worked' Door and terminal set Fuel cell and the loop · frames 8–14 · published · Terminal Black – Keep It Running: 'a shed with its own cell and its own loop' Fuel cell and the loop The plant · frames 14–24 · published · One Road Out – Fire: 'Plant at band and holding at 21:26, measured at the plant by Sutter' The plant Distribution room · frames 24–30 · published · One Road Out – Fire: 'measured … at the distribution room by Nasser, gap under the one per cent' Distribution room The cabinet — the chain · frames 24–30 · published · One Road Out – Fire: 'Chain conditioned and at band, measured by Kalb at the cabinet' The cabinet — the chain The gate and the lamp · frames 30–34 · published · One Road Out – Fire: 'Sutter's calling the lamp, June's on the gate'; The Chosen Dark orbital geometry: 'timing correction through line-of-sight optical and hard-line ground systems' Rejection side — four fans, two header reliefs · frames 34–40 · published · One Road Out – Fire: 'Rejection side at ninety-one and holding with all four fans on it'; 'Second header relief lifted on the rejection side' Rejection side — four fans, two header reliefs 1 20 40 PORT STBD
  1. AR-DOOR Door and terminal set Fr 1–8 published Terminal Black – Keep It Running: 'it took them fifty minutes to get the door … and another twenty to bring the terminal set up, and then it worked'

    ⭐ Shut since Friday with a fuel cell running inside; the shed built its own weather round the frame. Fifty minutes for the door, twenty for the terminal set, and then it worked, because it had been designed by people who assumed that one day everything else would be gone. The array post: two people and a vehicle slot, from that afternoon. The station came over the rise at eighteen minutes past six.

  2. AR-CELL Fuel cell and the loop Fr 8–14 published Terminal Black – Keep It Running: 'a shed with its own cell and its own loop'

    Its own cell and its own loop — independent of the settlement's grid, which is why it was dark for four days and not dead.

  3. AR-PLANT The plant Fr 14–24 published One Road Out – Fire: 'Plant at band and holding at 21:26, measured at the plant by Sutter'

    ⭐⭐ THE PULSE PLANT. At fold minus thirty minutes the ground group commits the final three-gigawatt pulse and abandons habitat heat to do it. Sutter measures it at the plant. Ortiz reads the ramp off the gauge at 21:55 and the figure is four minutes short of the paper, and she says which four minutes they are and where each of them went. After 'Right', there is nothing with a handle on it anywhere on that ground that can take the current back out of that circuit.

  4. AR-DIST Distribution room Fr 24–30 published One Road Out – Fire: 'measured … at the distribution room by Nasser, gap under the one per cent'

    Nasser's station. The gap between the plant reading and the distribution reading is under one per cent and Ortiz has read both.

  5. AR-CAB The cabinet — the chain Fr 24–30 published One Road Out – Fire: 'Chain conditioned and at band, measured by Kalb at the cabinet'

    Kalb's station. The chain conditioned and at band. He comes off the distribution room to stand here, and Sutter reads the gap on his own while he is away from it.

  6. AR-GATE The gate and the lamp Fr 30–34 published One Road Out – Fire: 'Sutter's calling the lamp, June's on the gate'; The Chosen Dark orbital geometry: 'timing correction through line-of-sight optical and hard-line ground systems'

    ⭐ The coupling gate and the optical lamp. June holds the gate; Sutter calls the lamp. The remote anchor packages execute a narrow certified sequence and the ground team corrects timing through line-of-sight optical and hard line. Ground control owns coupling and warning modulation; Sarah owns the corridor window; Choi owns the craft.

  7. AR-REJ Rejection side — four fans, two header reliefs Fr 34–40 published One Road Out – Fire: 'Rejection side at ninety-one and holding with all four fans on it'; 'Second header relief lifted on the rejection side'

    ⚠ 'That side's drawn for throwing heat into nothing, and it's throwing it into a shed with a roof on.' At ninety-one and holding with all four fans. The second header relief lifts and scalds Roos — right hand and forearm, a wet burn, Kim at the door. At 21:58 a fan stops, and Sarah hears it stop through the set a second before anybody on the ground says anything. 'Not till the shed's cold.' Ortiz stands on the rejection side because that is where it will bite.

Key

  • Command
  • Engineering
  • Power
  • Communications

Grade of every figure on these sheets

  • published Stated in the books. If a drawing disagrees, the drawing is wrong.
  • derived Arithmetic on published facts; the working is given.
  • fixed Canon was silent here and the drawing decided.

Principal figures

Each figure carries its grade: published (the books state it), derived (arithmetic on what they state) or fixed (the sheet's own decision, bounded by what the books rule out).

  • Length overall

    40 m

    fixedspec ruling 2026-09-14

    ⚠ NOT CANON. 'A shed' on a rise, two kilometres out. No dimension is given; drawn at the size a plant, a distribution room, a cabinet and a rejection side with four fans would need.

  • Beam

    14 m

    fixedspec ruling 2026-09-14

Systems

The pulse

published

Every figure above this line came off a gauge, and I have read them myself

  • CommitFold minus thirty minutes — the final 3 GW pulse; habitat heat abandoned to make it
  • 21:26Plant at band and holding. Chain conditioned and at band. Rejection side at 91 with all four fans. Signed Ortiz, chief engineer
  • 21:55The ramp off the gauge — four minutes short of the paper, each accounted for
  • 21:58A fan stops on the rejection side
  • AfterNothing with a handle on it anywhere on that ground can take the current back

One Road Out – Fire; The Chosen Dark orbital geometry

The array post

published

Dark since one o'clock Monday morning

  • Went dark01:00, Monday 21 March 2349
  • ReasonThe array link was lost with the eleven in the command pit — which is why the station had nothing off Hart for four days
  • Reopened16:10, Thursday — fifty minutes for the door, twenty for the set
  • First contact18:18 — 'Eighteen aboard. All eighteen.' Then the count, in order, with the sources, and nothing added
  • StaffingTwo people and a vehicle slot, from that day

Terminal Black – Keep It Running

What was checked

The books state distances aboard this ship. The drawing has to produce the same ones or it is wrong — so it is made to, and the working is shown. These run again on every build; a compartment moved by a metre fails them.

  • “The array is on a rise two kilometres from the settlement with its own cell and loop” Terminal Black – Keep It Running: 'A shed with its own cell and its own loop, on a rise two kilometres from here'

    AR-CELL is a separate compartment on the sheet and the post is drawn as a stand-alone structure, not a room in the settlement — which is why it survived terminal black dark rather than dead, and why the station could come 'over the rise' to it.

  • “The station had nothing off Hart for four days because the array link went with the command pit” Terminal Black – Keep It Running: 'Eleven out of the command pit and the array link lost with them, which was why the station had had nothing off Hart for four days'

    Dark 01:00 Monday to 16:10 Thursday is three days and fifteen hours on the ground; Okonjo's 'four days of not knowing' counts from the last window she had. Both are the same gap. The link the survival lock required Ch3/Ch4 to plant is this shed.

Service history

Compiled from

  • Terminal Black – Keep It Running
  • One Road Out – Fire