“Hold the lower gate. I’m coming back.”
The words came from beyond the next row of stalls, in a voice too flat for Eli to judge distance. He stopped with one hand raised. Behind him, the carriers halted at Sera’s marked point rather than crowding toward the sound.
Lale brought the recorder clear of her coat.
The voice repeated the sentence.
An Aegis hunter looked at the joint record keeper. “That’s in the mining incident file.”
“Which file?” Tessa asked.
“Edrin Koss. Last recorded transmission before his unit lost contact.”
The keeper found the limited missing-person entry supplied for the expedition. It included the quoted final transmission and an equipment description, not a finding that Koss had died. Eli read the line while the sound waited beyond the stalls. A repeated last message could come from a person, a recording or something whose relation to either remained unknown.
