Chi Yuyan offered to become the centre.
No one answered at once. They all understood what she was risking. Her source was already being sustained by restored channels. If all the energy of the dying Heart were funnelled through it, not even a psychic trace of Chi Yuyan would remain.
"No," Fan Yuan said.
"We agreed to discuss the risks."
"We have. The chance of survival is zero."
"And the city's?"
"We'll find another way."
"In nine minutes?"
Nalan Qingxin cut the argument short. If they stripped away the remnants of the old protocol, the black heart itself could serve as a temporary centre. It was alive, but had no will of its own. All they had to determine was who would set its course.
Fan Yuan approached the core.
"I have no source for it to consume."
"And no power to issue commands," Vierlia said.
"But I do have hands."
Inside the shell, the mechanical controls from the first human expedition were still intact. No one had used them in fifty years because psychic control was faster. Fan Yuan opened the cover. Beneath it were two levers and an old screen that required thrust to be calculated by hand.
"You're going to steer an organism the size of a city like a cargo shuttle?" Su Zhihu asked.
"I never learnt to fly a shuttle, so I have nothing to compare it with."
Nalan Qingxin calculated a safe course towards the ocean. To turn the giant, every free unit in the swarm would have to transfer energy to the black heart for one hundred and eighty seconds. Not an order. A collective request with a precise objective, a fixed duration and an automatic disconnection.
Chi Yuyan sent it out.
On Earth, thousands of people received a message:
"The Heart of the swarm is falling towards the capital. A voluntary transfer of energy for three minutes is required to alter its course. The connection will terminate automatically. Refusal will not restrict access to the network."
Not everyone agreed at once.
In the hospitals, doctors feared the transfer would shut down their equipment. On the walls, fighters had only just survived being forcibly connected and did not believe the promise of an automatic disconnection. Residents of several districts decided the Upper City was once again asking the Lower City to pay for its salvation.
Under the old system, their doubts would have been declared cowardice.
The new network displayed the calculation for every node. A hospital could give two per cent without risk. Injured fighters could refuse altogether. The districts could see how much energy the government shelters and family estates were transferring.
The wealthiest district in the Upper City was the first to confirm. Its residents fed the power from their private domes into the network, though those domes had once protected only their own streets.
In the Lower City, Master Guo Wei, who had lost his wife to the Abyss, studied the request longer than anyone else.
"They want our power again," his neighbour said.
"This time they're asking. And showing us how much they're giving themselves."
"What if they don't give it back?"
"Then we'll know in three minutes, and we won't believe them again. But if we give nothing now, in two minutes there won't be a city left to believe or disbelieve."
Guo Wei confirmed one per cent. After him, the whole district chose its own acceptable share.
The energy accumulated more slowly than it would have under an absolute command. But people connected not out of fear, but because they could verify the terms.
The Eternal Brigade confirmed next.
Then Huangfu and the western wall.
The mecha-maidens of the Upper City.
The work units of the Lower City.
Even the monsters that had broken away began returning small shares of energy. Not all of them, though. For some, one central command had been enough for a lifetime. The network accepted their refusal just as it accepted everyone else's consent.
The black heart filled with light.
Fan Yuan gripped the levers.
The Heart of the swarm resisted through sheer mass, not will. He moved the first lever by one degree, and the overload travelled through his arms into his spine. A new line of descent appeared on the screen. Still through the city centre.
"Four more degrees," Nalan Qingxin said.
Fan Yuan pulled harder.
The skin of his palms charred. His empty source answered with phantom pain. The system offered one final emergency restoration.
"Return the central key. Control will be completed without injury."
"You really don't understand," Fan Yuan said. "If issuing one right order means restoring the right to issue any others, the price is too high."
He disconnected the system for good.
The screen went dark, but the mechanical lever remained in his hands.
Chi Yuyan stood beside him and placed her hand over his.
"This isn't psychic control," he warned her.
"I know. I'm just helping you push."
Vierlia, Su Zhihu, Nalan Qingxin and Mei Lan added their hands. Even the bound Murong was secured to an emergency bracket so the overload would not throw him clear.
The lever moved.
Below, the Heart of the swarm crossed the edge of the defensive wall. Its shadow covered both cities. People saw the wreckage of the orbital station, the black ribs and the light of the living core.
Its course shifted towards the ocean.
At that moment, the reserve nerve beneath the central tower tried to retake control. Nangong Ci and her group reached the node. The charge timer was not working, and the remote signal was being jammed.
"Someone has to stay behind," the engineer said.
Nangong Ci took the manual detonator.
Luo Jun's sister knocked it out of her hand.
"We've already discussed this."
They connected the charge to the mechanical valve of an emergency airlock. When the monsters broke into the tunnel, the group retreated, closing the doors behind them. The last creature pressed the valve with its own weight.
The explosion destroyed the reserve nerve.
Nangong Ci and the entire group escaped from the tunnel.
The one hundred and eighty seconds ended.
The network severed the connection at the precise moment promised. The black heart lost its energy and began to disintegrate. The container separated from the body of the swarm. Su Zhihu fired all nine engines.
Across the country, people checked their sources. The energy had returned. Not one hidden channel remained open. Even those who had refused could still see the shared map.
Trust did not appear overnight. But for the first time, the network had kept a promise at the exact time agreed.
Behind them, the giant plunged into the ocean.
The impact raised a wall of water, but the remnants of the fleet and the coastal mecha-maidens formed a shield. The wave broke a hundred kilometres from the capital.
The coastline still suffered. The port districts flooded, and several empty towns vanished beneath the water. Huangfu had evacuated the civilians to higher ground in advance, but volunteer groups remained at the dams until the last moment.
The units that had broken away from the swarm joined the shield as well. Enormous flying creatures took the first impact of the wave on their carapaces. Some died. Others held fast and passed energy to their neighbours as Chi Yuyan had taught them.
The people on the shore saw it and did not know whether to consider their former enemies allies. They would work that out later. For now, it was enough not to fire on those holding back the water beside them.
When the wave receded, fragments of the black heart lay on the sand. They no longer summoned the swarm or drained energy from sources. Now they were simply pieces of dark material.
The white figures inside the Heart rose above the water and dissolved one by one. Fifty years of unfinished orders had come to an end.
The container was falling behind it. The engines were failing, and the hull was burning in the atmosphere. Vierlia spread her damaged wings, Su Zhihu held the outer armour together, and Chi Yuyan formed a thin dragon shield.
At an altitude of twenty kilometres, the first engine failed. The container began to spin. Nalan Qingxin could not reach the panel because of the broken partition. Her father unstrapped himself from his seat and climbed through the burning compartment.
"Come back!" she shouted.
"The manual valve is behind the wall."
"You won't survive the overload."
"Then hold the line steady for exactly three seconds."
Nalan Qingxin directed what remained of the shield into the passage. Her father reached the valve and opened the fuel line. The flames scorched his face and hands, but the engine started.
Su Zhihu pulled him back.
"I have to stand trial," he rasped. "I can't die and leave my daughter with a convenient memory."
Nalan Qingxin squeezed his hand. Not forgiveness. A promise that he really would live long enough to answer for what he had done.
At ten kilometres, Chi Yuyan lost the dragon shield. The last scale went dark. Fan Yuan wrapped his arms around her, shielding her from the fragments with his own body.
"This is completely useless," she said.
"I know."
"Then why?"
"Now it's my turn to do something stupid after we've discussed it."
Chi Yuyan laughed. The container was spinning, the atmosphere burned around them, and her laughter sounded almost calm.
Mei Lan secured Murong with an extra cable. He stared at the people who were saving even him and could not understand what they expected to gain from it.
"Why don't you leave me behind?" he asked.
"Because the law applies before the trial too," Vierlia replied. "If it only matters after a convenient verdict, it isn't law at all."
They could not bleed off all their speed.
The container struck the shore.
Fan Yuan heard metal tearing, Chi Yuyan's voice, and then silence.
When he opened his eyes, above him was the same sky the dome had once hidden.
The system no longer existed.
The Heart of the swarm was silent.
The war was over.
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