Dock Ring Three — Intake Corridor
Dock Ring Three — Intake Corridor
The docking bay did not hum like the Forge.
It moved.
Atmospheric seals cycled in patient intervals. Cargo haulers glided along mag-rails in staggered procession. Void-facing shutters pulsed open and closed with the measured indifference of systems that did not care what passed through them — only that tonnage was recorded.
Eidram Vôr-Index stood beside a suspended manifest column, optics adjusting as lines of data scrolled in steady green.
IMPORT CLASSIFICATION: NUTRIENT SUBSTRATE
ORIGIN: Iron Hands Auxilia / Medusa Fringe
VARIANCE: +4.2% OVER BASELINE
PROJECTION: ACCEPTABLE
He recalculated.
Margin drift: within tolerance.
Behind him, a salvage barge disengaged from the outer clamp. Its hull bore the blackened scarring of Necron lattice contact. Docking arms locked. Hazard crews advanced.
Durn Khel watched the maneuver without approaching the command console. His hands were folded behind his back, gloves still marked with coolant stains from an unfinished stress cycle.
“The intake lane is occupied,” he said.
Eidram did not turn. “Temporarily.”
“Temporarily repeats.”
Another hauler slid inward — cylindrical, white-coded, temperature-regulated. Nutrient paste, compressed algae sheets, protein cultures sealed in translucent drums.
The salvage barge waited outside the threshold longer than standard.
Eidram adjusted the manifest feed.
“Food imports compensate for internal yield shortfall,” he said. “Current exchange ratios remain favorable.”
Durn stepped closer to the viewing slit. Beyond the containment field, he could see the asteroid’s curvature — scarred with intake ports, reinforced by rib lattices that had grown thicker with every cycle.
“Compensation occupies mass,” he replied. “Mass occupies space. Space requires structure.”
“The Hold’s internal cavities remain within projected tolerances.”
“For habitation,” Durn said. “Not for expansion.”
The mag-rail shuddered as two cargo lines intersected. A warning glyph flickered amber along the ceiling before stabilizing.
Eidram paused his recalculation.
“Trade demand has increased,” he said. “Export reduction would alter influence stability.”
“Increase production,” Durn answered evenly, “and you hollow the stone further.”
The salvage barge finally received clearance. It began to drift inward, slow and deliberate. As it crossed the threshold, a third shipment signal pulsed across Eidram’s display.
INBOUND VESSEL — NUTRIENT CONTRACT EXTENSION
REQUESTED DOCK PRIORITY: ELEVATED
For a moment, no one adjusted anything.
The intake corridor narrowed with traffic.
Cargo handlers redirected one of the salvage carts to a secondary lane. The maneuver clipped a guidance rail. The cart lurched, corrected, and continued, but the rail remained slightly misaligned.
A minor deviation.
Logged.
Durn’s eyes tracked the subtle bend in the metal.
“It held,” Eidram said.
“Once,” Durn replied.
Another hauler eased through the void shield. The corridor lights dimmed fractionally to accommodate power redistribution. Somewhere deeper in the asteroid, a reinforcement rib took on a marginal increase in load.
The manifest column continued to scroll.
IMPORT: ACCEPTED
EXPORT: DELAYED
THROUGHPUT: COMPRESSED
Eidram recalculated projected stability over ten years.
Acceptable.
Durn watched the salvage crews reroute around stacked nutrient containers that now occupied the primary intake floor.
The corridor felt narrower.
Not visibly.
But measurably.
A cargo drum slipped from its clamp and struck the deck with a heavy, wet thud. Workers converged to right it. Traffic paused. Signals stacked in queue.
The salvage barge idled, lattice fragments cooling in vacuum beyond the field.
Eidram recorded the delay.
Durn recorded the weight.
For a fraction of a second, three vessels occupied space designed for two.
Systems compensated.
The intake resumed.
No alarms sounded.
But the rhythm had changed.
And neither of them said anything further as another shipment requested priority.
