Page 30 of Alien Burn

“I sent word.”

“Word doesn't have a face.”

Dhomhes had no ready answer to that.

Ruthak looked him over. His gaze stopped at the dressing around Dhomhes's hand, but he did not ask about it.

“The Hawn boy?”

“Still missing. Graecey too. Others.”

His father nodded once.

“I sent your drone request to the shift supervisor.”

“I saw. Thank you. I have another question. Is Complex Three expecting a structural audit?”

“No.”

“A terrain-mapping team was sent there from the search overnight.”

Ruthak turned toward someone outside the image and held out a hand. A data pad was placed in it. He read, scrolled, then read again.

“They haven't reported to operations.”

“Their transfer says they've been reassigned.”

“Transfer isn't arrival.”

Dhomhes sent him the order.

His father studied it with growing displeasure.

“I'll find them.”

“I need them on the slope.”

“I know where you need them.”

Ruthak handed the pad back. A male in the background began speaking into a comm.

“What can you spare?” Dhomhes asked.

“One inspection unit after its checks. Operator with it. The others are in the eastern galleries.”

“Could they come off rotation?”

“No.”

Dhomhes glanced at the search images still open beside the call. “Father⁠—”

“The Adelada protocols don't pause because the light side has a crisis.”

His mother's name brought him up short.

On the display behind Ruthak, an operator waited for a second worker to finish checking a reading before clearing a line for use. Two sets of eyes. Two confirmations. Dhomhes knew the procedure well enough that he watched for the second signal without intending to.

It came. The line turned green.