The Solaria Array beams orbital power to rectenna fields through protected sky corridors that cost a fortune to keep clear, calibrated, and defended from drift. The established regions that built the corridors want the newer settlements drawing power to pay a maintenance share proportional to use. The settlements say the corridors were a gift of the recovery, not a toll road. When one operator briefly narrowed a beam to 'test load balancing,' a rectenna field went dark for an hour, and everyone understood the message. Engineers, grid financiers, and settlement envoys now argue over a bill that is really about power in both senses.
Raw telemetry shows the hour-long rectenna blackout was a manual order from above the crew, not a load-balancing test — and the corridor dispute just became diplomacy.