The morning after the gate frame was assembled, Sylvia stood in the middle of the underground hall and gazed at the colossal Black Starsteel arch before her, thinking hard. The indoor test had succeeded, but as she recalculated her grand plan, there was one fact she couldn't ignore.
"This place is too cramped," she murmured.
Noir, curled up on her shoulder, opened one eye. 'The gate is thirty meters tall and fifty meters wide. This hall is one hundred twenty meters. Seems like it still fits, to me.'
"The gate fits. The cargo ships don't," Sylvia answered. "Nocture's trade fleet is hundreds of meters long. They need water to maneuver. Besides, moving thousands of tons of cargo through a spiral staircase beneath the governor's mansion would be the same as inviting the suspicion of the entire city."
