By noon, the workers had turned Yan’s name into an argument on the shift board. One crew wanted him fed before everyone else. Another said he should stay out of the furnace until the regulator was inspected again. A gray-bearded operator placed a stool by the door and called it Yan’s throne.
Yan sat to humor him. One leg was shorter than the others. The stool tipped, and Yan caught himself on a wash basin. Lian laughed hard enough to cough. Qinghe moved the basin away before the new schedule got soaked.
An operator named Jor approached with a dark bottle. “This keeps me awake through the second cycle. Want some?”
Yan read the paper sleeve. The label promised alertness but named no ingredients. He recognized a cheap stabilizer used in some cultivation mixtures, the sort that could harm the kidneys when taken every day.
“How long have they given this to you?” Qinghe asked.
“Since I came to the station. Years, I suppose.”
She turned the bottle to find the supplier mark. “Do you have another one?”
Jor said the kitchen kept a case for the night shift. He did not want the station to throw it out before someone knew what it was. Qinghe agreed to test a sample and asked that the remaining bottles be held aside.
