Chapter 40:


    On the main stage, Belle Escobar was concluding her presentation. She wore a white power suit that looked tailored to within an inch of its life. Behind her, a massive screen disyed a rendering of “Eden,” SkyLine’s proposed Mars colony.


    It was beautiful. ss domes connected by shimmering tubes, lush gardens visible through the transparent walls. It looked like a five-star resort.


    “Our ‘Eden’ system utilizes the most advanced sensorwork in the industry,” Belle announced, shing a dazzling smile at the judges. “We prioritize the psychological well-being of the colonists through light and space.”


    Daron McKnight, sitting in the front row of the audience, led a round of enthusiastic apuse.


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    Grayson sat next to him. He wasn’t pping. He was staring at the technical specs on his tablet, his brow furrowed. The load-bearing calctions for those ss domes seemed… optimistic.


    “Thank you, SkyLine,” the moderator said. “Now, the challenger. Team Sophia, you have the floor for cross-examination.”


    Isolde didn’t stand up. She didn’t walk to the podium. She simply typed amand into her terminal.


    The massive screen behind Belle flickered. The beautiful rendering of Eden vanished, reced by a wall of raw data streams. Red numbers cascaded down the disy like a digital bleed.


    Isolde leaned toward the microphone on her table. She pressed the button on the modtor.


    “Ms. Escobar,” a voice boomed through the hall. It was deep, mechanical, stripped of gender and humanity. It sounded like a machine passing judgment. “What is the thermal runaway threshold for the K-Tech sensors you installed in the life support grid?”


    Belle blinked. She looked at the screen, then at the judges. “That… that is proprietary information. A trade secret.”


    “Incorrect,” the mechanical voice said.


    Isolde typed again.


    A document appeared on the big screen. It was a purchase order from SkyLine to K-Tech, dated two weeks ago.


    “ording to public procurement records,” the voice continued, “the K-T78 sensor experiences irreversible drift at 400 Kelvin. Mars surface temperatures fluctuate wildly. Your heating systems will push them to the limit.”


    Isolde hit Enter.


    A simtion began on the screen. It showed the Eden habitat. A heat map oveid the structure. As the virtual sun rose, the sensors in the ss domes began to turn red.


    “When the sensors drift,” the voice said, “the cooling system fails to engage.”


    On the screen, the temperature inside the beautiful ss domes spiked. The virtual nts withered in seconds. The pressure inside the domes rose.


    “Where is your redundancy?” the voice asked. “Or do you n to let the astronauts gamble with their lives?”


    The hall was dead silent. The judges, a panel of NASA veterans and academic elites, leaned forward, putting on their sses to read the scrolling data.


    Belle’s smile faltered. She looked toward Grayson, panic ring in her eyes. “We… we have a softwarepensation algorithm! It adjusts for the drift!”


    “Software cannotpensate for the physical breakdown of hardware,” the voice cut her off. “That is Engineering 101. First semester.”


    The insultnded like a physical p.


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