The neutral clerk copied the revised schedule onto a board beside the harbor register. The matched-input test was suspended. A replacement reference had been requested. No new measurement interval would begin until calibration and the required permissions were in place.
Beneath the schedule, the movement field remained blank.
Eli read both before the clerk covered the register against the dust coming through the loading doors. The coastal core was still inside the isolation bay. Aegis technicians continued maintaining the inner equipment under witness, while the neutral guards held the outer access and custody seal. The loss of independent reference had changed the laboratory’s capabilities, not the order governing transport.
Juno checked that the raw files from the running Aegis instruments had reached both designated laboratories. Their baseline limitation accompanied the copies. She would not let the postponement become a period in which only one organization held the measurements, however incomplete their independent verification now was.
The transport vehicles arrived before the next committee consultation.
Sera saw them turn into the harbor approach and recorded their arrival from the public observation position. Two carriers, an escort vehicle and a crew truck stopped outside the loading barrier. The drivers stayed at their controls while an officer approached the neutral clerk carrying a document sleeve.
