The map had a room that no longer existed.
Iven found it on a tracing Tavin had pulled from a drawer: a narrow gallery beneath Mercy’s rear saddle, marked with three circles and a line leading toward the outer skin. A newer chart showed a solid maintenance wall in the same place. The two drawings disagreed about the location of a water line as well, but the old map’s room was the part Tavin had circled.
“What’s there now?” Iven asked.
“A sealed passage, according to the crew that inspected it twelve years ago. They didn’t enter.”
“Why not?”
“The report says the entrance had been filled. It doesn’t say who filled it or when.” Tavin placed a second sheet beside the first. “That mark appears on the plates from the Long Sill. It’s also in the old gallery.”
The mark was a pair of nested arcs crossed by a short line. Iven had seen it on the brass plates recovered earlier, but there it had been surrounded by wear and other markings. On the drawing it was precise enough to look like an instruction, though neither man knew what instruction.
“Could the old room be a route station?” Iven asked.
