Page 298 of Commander’s Mate

A mother added child comfort objects.

A man from Breskaa said rescued workers should be asked what systems they knew before military engineers rewrote everything.

Zared looked at him.

“Agreed.”

The man blinked.

“You listen?”

“Sometimes.”

Pyrr said, “Rarely.”

Zared looked at him.

“Lieutenant.”

“Commander.”

The room relaxed.

A little.

By hour three, the process diagram looked terrible.

Arrows everywhere.

Exceptions.

Loops.

Notes.

Tivid hated it.

“This is inefficient.”

I looked at him.

“People are inefficient.”

“Yes.”

“Still people.”

He sighed.

“Unfortunately.”

Ari laughed.

We kept going.

The final question came from a young woman whose name I did not recognize.

“What if I do not want recovery?”