The technical reserve leader had laid the original exposure sheet beside Mira’s revised gate report. The two pages did not describe the same assignment. She said that first, before anyone could tell her that her people had known the work would be dangerous.
The commander listened from the outer supply post. She had selected the crew because they knew the exposed junction’s regulator. Replacing them would mean sending people toward equipment they had not maintained. The first release wave had already consumed its planned spare interval through surface repairs, and the inner brace would not hold for the full separation.
“I need you to reconsider,” she said.
“We’ve considered these readings.”
“You know that regulator better than anyone available.”
“We know where we’d be standing if that seam fails.”
The leader’s voice reached the junction below through a speaker set beside Juno’s open schedule. Eli stood at the marked waiting point, three equipped channels quiet within their agreed limits. It would be easy to think the crew’s refusal had arrived after all the real decisions. In fact, their two pages showed a decision that had never been theirs.
The commander asked what position they could accept. The leader named the protected side of the service wall and asked for the updated time estimate to reach it. A surface engineer said the existing cable could not reach from there. Another route might, but no one had yet traced it through the old service descent.
