Chapter 404: Through the Joint

The branch was already warm when Ren arrived for the next work window.

Tobin had maintained the second trial setting between visits, tending the release while the replacement lining remained under supply. Ren changed his port hand covers for the inspection gloves and fastened the clear face guard. Beside the holders lay Tobin’s record from the first heating.

The chalk outline enclosed the internal joint beside the dressed seat. Tobin indicated the contacts on each side before Ren began: one set on the section with the thicker bearing edge, the other toward the middle of the replacement.

"Keep each face with its own inner point and rear contact," he said. "Read both sets."

Ren used fresh tips for each test, keeping the pressure and count consistent. The sleeved holders seated against their stops at the deeper contacts. He recorded the face and inner readings together, with the seating readings in separate columns.

Tobin checked the downhill end and the other positions along the branch before returning.

"The end is responding better at this setting. I’ll keep it." He brought the record beside Ren’s notebook. "Your patch is everything inside this outline."

He compared the baseline readings, then entered the limits for the session.

"One band between face and inner on either side: call me. One band between these two faces: call me. The rear contacts have their own limits here." He pointed to those entries. "Hold the last agreed release while I take over. Don’t make another change to fix it yourself."

Ren checked the named pairs against his page. Neither comparison had reached its call point, and both seats were within their limits.

"Two increases above this setting today," Tobin said. He showed Ren the marks on the slide. "We’ll hold at each. This upper one is where we stop, below ordinary supply."

Ren wrote the starting setting beside the baseline, leaving room for the two increases. Tobin kept the release steady while Ren matched it across both sides of the joint, then withdrew his contribution from the patch.

Ren followed the working through the fitted contact. The release continued into both sections as Tobin stepped back to check the readings once more.

"It’s yours," the keeper said. "First increase."

— • —

Tobin moved the slide to the first of the two higher marks.

Ren felt the incoming heat strengthen behind the seat side before the change became clear in the middle side. He checked the nearer pair. Both contacts remained in their previous band, but heat was still entering the inner layers.

He eased the outward release a little, allowing the face to warm with what was reaching it from behind. His adjustment continued across the joint. He could follow it through the contact, and expected it to change the release sufficiently on the other side too.

The next tests showed otherwise.

At the middle side’s inner point, the lower grade softened while the next remained firm. The face still lay in the band below it.

"Call point. Middle side, inner one band above the face. I’m holding the release."

Tobin left the feed at its mark and came to the patch.

"I’m taking it."

Ren withdrew as the keeper’s working replaced his. Tobin checked the contacts, reduced the middle side’s outward release, and maintained it while they waited. In the next readings, the face entered the inner point’s band without the inner rising farther.

"Where did your change stop being enough?" he asked.

Ren traced the connection through Fire, keeping his hand clear of the stone. His adjustment had crossed the fitted contact, but its effect had weakened within the adjoining cultivated layers. That section had continued releasing more readily than he intended while heat accumulated behind its face.

"Here. It reached the other piece, but I stopped following it too soon."

Tobin indicated the chalk boundary beyond the joint.

"You can reach that part. Follow the change into it."

Ren watched the keeper adjust through the connection into the middle section. He could recognize where the release altered within the layers, beyond the place he had treated as the end of his first adjustment.

After fresh readings confirmed the patch was below both call points, Tobin handed it back. Ren matched the corrected release across the two sections. The feed remained at the first higher mark.

The lining continued warming under that steady supply. Ren kept the setting Tobin had given him while comparing the two sides. Before changing it, he took fresh pairs. The middle face and inner point still lay in the same band, but through Fire he could follow heat accumulating behind the face while its outward release continued.

He made a small reduction through the existing connection. At the fitted contact, he paused to follow the effect into the adjoining layers. On his first attempt, he had felt the adjustment reach this point and turned to the readings. Now he stayed with it until the middle section’s outward release eased too, remaining within the chalked patch.

He checked the seat side as well. Its release remained suitable; extending the adjustment into the middle section had not required him to reduce both by the same amount.

The next tests placed each face and inner point in the same band. The two faces also remained in the same band, and both seating contacts were within their separate limits. Ren reported the readings.

"Keep that setting," Tobin said.

Ren let the cultivated working maintain it without continuing to press the change through. He remained responsible for the patch, following the release and taking the next readings while Tobin checked the end of the branch.

The working retained the adjustment. Ren entered the unchanged bands beside the previous set. There was still heat moving through the layers; the tips gave him no finer reading to write down.

— • —

Tobin returned before the final increase and examined the latest entries.

"What do you expect at the next mark?"

"The seat side answered first during this rise. I expect it to again." Ren indicated the middle-side column. "Its release is lower now, so I expect it to need less easing. I’ll check what that side needs before changing it, and follow any adjustment through the joint instead of stopping at the contact."

"And after?"

"Leave it if the readings stay inside the limits."

Tobin moved the slide to the second higher mark, the upper setting he had shown Ren at the start.

Heat strengthened in the seat-side layers first. Ren read both contacts before making a small reduction in the outward release. He followed the effect across the joint, then checked the middle section as its incoming supply increased.

That side needed less correction than during the earlier rise. Ren carried a smaller adjustment into its layers and watched the release settle before taking another set of readings.

Neither face/inner pair reached its call point. The comparison between the two faces remained below its boundary too. The seating readings stayed within their limits.

Ren left the working at those settings through the next checks. The faces warmed with the inner layers, and he kept recording the readings without trying to make every test produce a change.

He alternated which side he read first, returning each holder to its labeled slot before choosing the next grade. When a reading crossed into a higher band, he checked its paired contact and reported the pair before going on. The changes remained within Tobin’s limits. Neither side needed him to keep forcing the adjustment into place.

Tobin examined the downhill junction. Joss passed behind him on his round of the cavity opening and the gallery flue. There was no hot discharge from the repaired stretch, and the ventilation remained directed along the cleared wall.

Lenna checked the accessible bedstone beside the dressed seat with her palm and rod, then compared the contact marks. The inspection cover stayed secured. Tobin retained responsibility for the rear-contact temperatures while she checked the structure around them.

When Tobin returned to Ren, the middle side’s release had remained unchanged through another set of tests.

"Nothing more there?"

"Its face is following the inner point. Both are rising without reaching the call point." Ren showed him the entries. "The setting is still doing what we need."

He checked the seat side before putting the holders away. The two sections did not need another adjustment simply because the supply had increased. He could follow the working maintaining the release through the joint, with the readings confirming its effect on both sides.

Tobin held the feed at that setting while they completed the final comparisons. The end contact had improved too, though the keeper continued checking it separately.

"That’s the run," he said. "Tell me what you’re holding."

"The release on both sides of the internal joint, within the chalk. The connection is maintaining the settings."

"I’ll take it back."

Ren withdrew as Tobin took responsibility for the patch. Once Ren’s contribution was gone, the keeper checked both face/inner pairs and the seating contacts. He then eased his local contribution enough to verify that the adjusted working continued maintaining the release. The feed and the wider branch remained under his care.

Tobin turned the section record toward Ren, leaving a space beneath his own entries. Ren copied the final pairs and seating readings, put the feed setting on its own line, and added his initials. Tobin compared the figures with his independent readings and entered his verification beside them before closing the record.

Ren went to return the inspection gear while Tobin continued his round. Alone at the bench beside the stair, he asked the System privately for the result.

[FIRE: 19.0% → 20.5%.]

He set the face guard beside the gloves and put his port hand covers back on. The chalked patch remained visible from the bench. He had needed Tobin to take it once; during the later rise, he had managed the adjustment across the joint himself.

Tobin returned to the feed control and checked its setting before looking toward him.

"I’ll ask Maren for the ordinary-supply window. We’ll bring it up in stages. I want Lenna’s and Joss’s checks with mine, and the growers to look at the position above."

"And if it passes?"

"Then I can accept the branch. Lenna has to accept the receiving structure, and Maren’s people need to be satisfied with the growing conditions." He glanced toward the row above them. "Once those are agreed, they can get the bed ready to go back."