The district operator refused to answer Juno’s first question with the reserve total alone.
“That amount assumes the outer barrier keeps its present supply until the transport finishes,” she said. “If you want it earlier, you need the evacuation count beside it.”
Juno pulled a second sheet into the light. “Give us the count.”
There were residents already at alternate shelters, residents still waiting on vehicles, and households whose responses had not been confirmed. The district had patients known to Tessa’s network and others who had never registered for assistance. Its barrier was stable within its current band, but the nearby gate’s pressure had not returned to normal after the junction faults.
The operator gave the reserve’s accepted duration and the local cutoff. Then she asked what the line below would do with it.
Juno described the retrieval winch, the gate position, and the longer powered interval. She kept the calculation separate from its uncertainties. The descent test had carried weight through a passage. It had not reproduced the closing gate, the manual support’s movement, or the pressure the line might meet when Mira tried to leave the deeper position.
“So this buys a chance,” the operator said.
“Yes.”
