She opened her eyes.
She pressed the button.
Nothing happened.
One second. Two seconds. Three.
Then a sound, deep and low. A vibration that started in the engine block and moved through the concrete floor, up through Avery's boots, and into her bones.
The Titan was waking up.
The first cylinder fired, then the second, then the third. One by one, 16 cylinders caught their rhythm. The exhaust manifolds glowed faintly as heat moved through metal that had been cold for a decade and a half.
The turbocharger began to spin, pulling air through the intake with a rising whistle that filled the bay like a hymn.
The Titan roared.
Twenty-eight thousand horsepower shook Bay 12. The overhead lights swayed. Tools rattled on the workbenches. The sound hit the walls and bounced back, layering on itself until the entire building vibrated like a tuning fork.
Outside, workers in the adjacent bays stopped what they were doing. A crane operator 300 yards away looked toward Bay 12 and took off his hard hat.
The roar carried across the shipyard like thunder rolling off open water. People who had worked at Hargrove for decades recognized the sound. They had not heard it in 15 years, but they remembered.
Avery stood in front of the control panel with diesel exhaust in her hair and tears running through the grease on her face. She did not wipe them. She did not move.
The young technician who had handed her tools was crying. He did not try to hide it. A welder on the catwalk above pressed both palms flat on the railing and bowed his head.
Derek Simmons stood with his phone still recording, his arm slowly dropping to his side, his face blank.
Commander Hayes rose from his chair. He began to clap, slowly at first. Then the young technician joined. Then the two welders from the catwalk. Then a dozen more.
Then the entire bay.
Except Grant Whitmore.
Grant stood alone by the far wall, watching the engine he claimed to have built thunder back to life under the hands of the woman he had called hopeless.
Avery placed her palm flat on the Titan's vibrating housing. Warm now. Alive. She leaned close as if pressing her ear to its iron chest.
"We did it, Dad," she whispered.
The Titan answered with a roar that the whole shipyard could hear.
The applause lasted nearly a minute.
When it faded, Commander Hayes walked to Avery and extended his hand.