Page 5 of Warrior’s Mate

"That's military for yes."

"It's military for probably not."

He dismissed the notice. A moment later Maelis's wrist chimed too. She looked down. Her expression tightened.

"What?"

"Two produce convoys from the southern farms just dropped off the exchange queue."

"Mechanical?"

"Both at once?"

"Communications lag."

"Local agricultural traffic doesn't route off-world."

Kaiven glanced back toward the settlement.

From here, Wasaytu looked impossibly peaceful. Pale roofs in the valley. Children crossing a footbridge toward the school district. A flock of small silver-winged harvest drones lifting above the grain.

Nothing was wrong. Or nothing visible was wrong.

"Send me the incident IDs," he said.

Maelis didn't tease him this time.

"Already did."

They continued the route test. By noon, Kaiven had invalidated almost a third of the official evacuation plan. He was not pleased about it. Maelis was.

"You enjoy being right too much," he told her as they returned toward the exchange.

"I enjoy people not dying because someone finally checked a map."

The answer landed harder than the joke deserved. He looked at her. She was watching the school bridge where a teacher shepherded a line of children across the canal.

"You think that's likely?" he asked.

"What?"

"People dying because of the map."

Maelis took a moment before answering.

"No."

He waited. She sighed.

"But emergency plans exist for the day when unlikely stops mattering."

That, at least, they agreed on completely. They walked the rest of the way without arguing. At the exchange entrance, Maelis paused.

"Captain."

"Registrar."

"If you actually get those routes updated, I may revise my opinion of Military Civil Defense."