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Jessa leaned against the wall, arms folded. “You are welcome.”

“The useful information is in the task cache.” Tavi enlarged a sequence of symbols. “Retrieval priorities. Biological tolerances. Historical subject references.”

Kesta’s throat tightened. “Human subjects?”

“Not only human.”

Rows appeared, each marked by species code, prisoner designation, compatibility range, and outcome status. Most entries were corrupted. A few survived.

H-07: TRANSFER FAILED.

H-12: NEURAL REJECTION.

H-17: MOBILE. LOCATION UNCONFIRMED.

Kesta gripped the bench. “Seventeen.” Dreven looked at her. “Elara?”

“The transport manifest had seventeen women.” She pointed at the line. “Elara’s pod was the seventeenth.”

Tavi opened a nested field. The designation expanded.

H-17 / ELARA VENN.

STATUS: MOBILE ASSET.

Kesta stopped breathing. Elara had warned her on the transport that witnesses, not criminals, were sent to Kharon-Veil. Kesta had watched the seventeenth pod launch into cloud and believed it lost. Alive did not mean safe. Mobile asset did not mean free.

“Find the location,” she said.

“There is none.” Tavi’s fingers moved through the code. “Only route references. Hallow. Outer ruins. Nomad corridor. A transfer node identified as NARA.”

“Nara may be a person,” Sera said from the doorway.

“Or a site,” Keth replied.

Kesta searched the remaining fields. Another human name surfaced beneath three layers of damaged indexing.

LIO, IVEN.

STATUS: TERMINATED AFTER DISCLOSURE EVENT.

Her chest hollowed. Iven Lio had been the young orderly who refused to certify patients he had not examined after Kesta exposed the falsified deaths. The last time she had seen him, officers were taking him away because he would not support the lie. The empire had recorded his death as an operational outcome. Dreven did not touch her. In front of the others, he waited. Kesta placed her hand palm-up on the bench. His fingers closed around hers. No band light appeared. Tavi continued because stopping would not change the record. “There is a command string linked to H-PRIME.”

Kesta forced herself to look.

ANCHOR CANDIDATE.

PAIR COHORT: KHAROVIAN COMMAND STRAIN.

SECONDARY FUNCTION: NETWORK STABILIZATION.

Dreven’s hand became still around hers. Keth read the line twice. “Command strain means warlords?”

“Possibly,” Kesta said. “Or anyone bred or altered for command response.”

Tavi opened the cohort list. Most names had been erased by damage. One remained only as an imperial designation.

K-01 / DREVEN.