Sela waited beside the loss table while Han checked the station crew log.
The station archive held the original. Han had asked the clerk to bring it to the command tent, where she could compare it with the copies made during the evacuation. The crew log was damp at the edges but legible. Han read the entries in date order, stopping at each transfer mark. The pipe repair crew had been sent west after the overdrive order arrived. The next line showed the station officer’s signature. There was no counter-signature from the workers. Sela stood over the table, one hand on the page where her husband’s name appeared under the pipe repair crew.
“Here,” Han said. “He was taken west to the provincial guard post after the overdrive order arrived.”
The transfer note had been signed by an officer at the station, not by Sela or her husband. Han wrote the post’s location on a separate sheet and gave it to Sela. “The log says he was assigned to repair the pipe. It doesn’t say he agreed to transfer.”
Sela read the notice. Her eyes paused on the transfer signature. “That is not his handwriting.”
“No,” Han said. “It is the officer’s.”
