The Skin of the Wall

The outer shell had developed a thin flexible layer across a breach too narrow for a person to enter. It looked like skin, accepted pressure like rubber and hardened whenever the wind changed.

The Firstfailure witness touched it and felt several contradictory responses at once: warmth, alarm, invitation and withdrawal. No instrument could reproduce the sequence.

The team cut no sample. MOTHER's report calls the layer a repair material. The witness's note says it may be the first repair in AFTERSEED that did not come from inside.