The first vehicle had reached the receiving turn when the ordinary support beside the wider passage shifted.
Eli heard the local engineer call before he saw the change. A brace foot had begun to travel across fractured paving. The element it steadied leaned toward the route used by the last vehicle in the controlled convoy. The driver stopped short of the narrowest point, exactly as the route briefing required.
The physical crew moved with their replacement block and straps. They had prepared for a transfer, not an indefinite hold by Eli. The problem was reaching the failing section while the route remained clear enough to work.
Sera checked the landing point with the local responder. He signaled it open. Eli had the defined task, the observer, the short interval and physical backup ready to take over. This was the sort of constrained use the independent clinician had permitted, not a new claim that the evacuation justified anything.
He used Nara’s movement burst to cross the checked gap.
The arrival jarred his knees. He ended the burst at the checked footing. Before the next use, his observer asked him to name the support task and the release instruction. Eli answered without a new gap or confusion; the observer confirmed the brief comparison. Only then did he place his hand on the assigned element and apply Anchor while the crew seated the replacement support. His view narrowed to the angle of the leaning material, the worker’s gloved hands and the space the…
