CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: WHAT BREAKS WITHOUT COLLAPSE
CHAPTER 22 — WHAT BREAKS WITHOUT COLLAPSE Failure did not announce itself. There were no alarms, no cascading faults, no redirection of attention toward a single point of concern. The colony woke as it always had—lighting rising in measured increments, air circulation smoothing into its daytime pattern, gravity steady beneath every footstep. Systems reported nominal. Power distribution held. Environmental buffers remained well within tolerance. Nothing collapsed. And yet, the shape of the day was unmistakably different. The first sign was not damage, but delay. A meeting scheduled for early cycle did not begin on time. Not because anyone was late, but because the participants arrived uncertain of whether the meeting should occur at all. The agenda had been generated automatically, ba
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