Page 60 of Alien Burn

“Good workmanship. Very reliable.”

Sheira's mouth curved.

“Does she have a name?”

He reached for more bread.

Sheira let him have it. She did not, however, look away.

Ruthak came in carrying the audit order.

He had printed it. That was rarely a good sign for whoever had written it.

“My office has checked,” he said, placing it beside Dhomhes's bowl. “No order. No authorization. That reference number belongs to a completed inspection from last quarter.”

“Someone expected no one to check,” Dhomhes said.

“Someone expected checking to take longer.”

Ruthak washed his hands and sat. Dhomhes showed him the false seismic report beside the map.

His father studied it. “The slopes will still be dangerous.”

“I know. I want the commander making decisions from real information.”

“What do you need?” his father asked.

“The unit you offered. The operator with it. And a crew whose assignment can't be changed by the next message from an office on the light side.”

“The response office doesn't assign my crews.”

“It has managed to keep one waiting for most of a day.”

Ruthak looked down at the printed order again.

“Not another.”

Ruthak called operations and released the cleared unit and a relief operator directly to the search commander. Any reassignment request would come to him.

“You will have the names before you leave,” he told Dhomhes.

Dhomhes looked at the paper beneath his hand.

“Whoever issued these orders may try another department.”

“I have several departments, boy. They all know where to find me.”

For the first time since the midday report, Dhomhes could think about the search without seeing equipment sitting uselessly behind a locked door.

Tivek arrived while Sheira was bringing the rest of the bread to the table.

“You're in my chair,” he told Dhomhes.

“I've been in this chair longer than you've been alive.”

“You abandoned it. People move on.”

He took the place beside him and reached for the bread.