The shelter receiver stood above the serving table, high enough that someone carrying a bowl could see the picture without stopping the line.
Eli arrived as a volunteer was cutting a damaged loaf into usable portions. A woman near the front asked whether the broadcast would delay the meal. The volunteer told her to keep moving. The food had come through a route coordinated by Aegis; the hands distributing it belonged to people who had been awake long before the official statement began.
Tessa took a bowl only after asking where the late medical transfers would be received. The answer was an ordinary clinic contact she already knew, with a current warning about the crowded approach. She sent that warning to her colleagues before finding a place along the wall. Sera stood where she could hear the receiver clearly. Juno had brought the corrected technical notes, leaving the reference case under the storage arrangement instead of carrying it into the meal line.
Rook appeared behind a protected lectern. Eli could see no crowd close enough to interrupt him. The backdrop carried the emergency authority adopted after the capital breach. It made the announcement look like the continuation of a rescue already underway rather than a new choice about who would control what came next.
