The third journey began with a carpenter refusing to put a polished receiving plate beneath a grain sack.
“Scratches,” he told Kera.
“Cloth between them,” the freight captain replied.
“Weight.”
“Grain below, plate above.”
He considered the revised arrangement, nodded and helped make it secure. His name was Oren, common enough that Iven had checked he was not the man injured during the turn. This Oren worked with Neri’s cooperative. The second assembly worker, a broad young woman named Anja, watched the tie positions and marked them so the load could be repacked the same way after each transfer.
Five travelers. Ruka, Iven, Neri and the two workers. The frame parts had their own freight account and would not somehow become weightless because specialists walked beside the wagons.
They left Mercy on the morning of the two hundred and twenty-third day.
