Juno saw the mark just before a carrier set a case in front of it.
“Hold there,” she said.
The carrier stopped with the case still on its trolley. It belonged to the expedition’s exterior equipment, checked for movement through the harbor approach but not yet inside the gate. Beneath its intended resting place, three strokes and a curved line had been cut into the outer stone near the entrance recess.
Sera took out the drawing’s identification card.
They did not place the card against the stone or rub the surface to make the resemblance clearer. Juno photographed the mark from the approved exterior position, recording the scale she could establish and the edge she could not see. The carrier moved the case to another marked place after the record was complete.
On the card, the repeated mark sat near figures whose relationship remained unknown. On the stone, a worn section interrupted the curve. The resemblance was close enough to justify attention and incomplete enough to resist the word identical.
“Does that tell us who made the drawing?” the local observer asked.
“No,” Juno said.
