“We are no longer under normal process.”
The oversight board convened at two.
Lawyers joined.
Mission directors.
Security officials.
Technical reviewers.
The metadata from Isaac’s original report had already complicated Nexora’s legal position.
Now the satellite had made the legal argument almost absurd.
The board authorized Isaac’s participation under emergency technical authority.
Cameron’s consulting arrangement was suspended pending review.
Again, nobody used the word vindication.
Isaac appreciated that.
Vindication did not stabilize orbit.
He was on a flight to Houston by sunrise.
He had not been back in six years.
From the airplane window, the city appeared slowly beneath morning haze.
Highways.
Industrial corridors.
Glass.
The geography of a life Isaac once understood.
His hands tightened slightly on the armrest.
Adrian, seated beside him, noticed.
“You okay?”
“Yes.”
“You’re lying.”
Isaac looked over.
“You’ve known me nine days.”
“You’re a repetitive man.”
Isaac almost smiled.
The airport terminal smelled the same.
Coffee.
Jet fuel.
Air conditioning.
Eleanor drove him herself.
“Security wanted to send someone.”
“You said no?”
“I said you’d hate it.”
“Correct.”
As they entered Houston, Isaac saw Nexora’s campus in the distance.
Glass reflecting morning sun.
He looked away.
Eleanor noticed.
She did not comment.
The NASA operations facility felt different.
Less polished.
More functional.
Cables.
Consoles.
Whiteboards crowded with notes.
People carrying real urgency instead of executive urgency.
Isaac received a temporary badge.
The security officer examined it.
“Merritt?”
“Yes.”
“My brother flies satellites.”
Isaac nodded.
“I fix trucks.”
The officer smiled.
“I heard.”
Inside the operations room, thirty-seven people waited.
OBSIDIAN-7 moved across a tracking display.
Altitude.
Velocity.
Pressure.
Thermal state.
Propellant.
The vehicle was over the Indian Ocean.
Seventeen thousand miles per hour.
Hundreds of miles above Earth.
And the solution to its failure had first been written on paper beside a truck in Harlow.
Isaac stood at the command terminal.
Eleanor to his right.
Adrian to his left with printed sequence.
Grace at structural dynamics.
Luis at controls.
Every parameter had been checked.
Then checked again.
Isaac asked for one final telemetry cycle.
Eleanor looked at the clock.
“We have margin.”
“I know.”
“Why?”
“Because the resonance peak shifted.”
Grace looked up.
“How much?”
“Point seven percent.”
Adrian checked.
“He’s right.”
Isaac frowned.
“Thermal contraction is increasing faster.”
“Does that change the sequence?”
“Parameter nine.”
“By how much?”
Isaac calculated.
Small adjustment.
Grace reran.
“Stable.”
Luis confirmed.