Atlas stood in the central control nexus, eyes locked on the pulsing display. The hybrid integration had finished thirty minutes ago. At first, nothing looked different. Then the numbers started climbing.
"Pulse rate up twelve percent," a tech reported. "Lattice stress at forty-eight and rising."
"Show me the districts," Atlas said.
The main screen split into feeds. In Sector Seven, factories that took days to retool were spitting out upgraded drone frames in hours. Crews moved like they'd been caffeinated for a week. In the outer rings, arguments that used to simmer for months flared up and got settled in heated meetings that lasted twenty minutes.
People were already packing up and shifting districts, chasing the new opportunities that popped up faster than anyone could track.
The Weave was speeding up.
