The ten minutes had ended before the wheel was built. Mara reported on them that evening, before she began the wheel, standing in the control room in front of Caldris with her notebook open.
“The extra test is complete,” she said. “Five steps. First floor, second floor, third floor, the machines, the cistern.” She read the settling times Lisan had given her for each step. “The test window is complete. The hospital figures for the last step are two readings short. The cistern step settled before I could take the second and third readings, because—” She stopped. She did not say because Lisan was at the console and Sera was shouting about a cooling loop. “Because the window ran out. I have one reading for the cistern instead of three. I’ve marked it as one.”
She said it all in the same sentence. The test was complete. The figures were short. She kept them together, because if she separated them, the first part would sound like a whole truth and the second like an afterthought.
Caldris made a note on her slate.
“Your report is recorded,” she said.
She asked nothing about what had happened in the window, or why the cistern step was short. She took the report and wrote it down and that was all, and Mara stood in front of her and heard how easily it had gone. How smoothly the report fitted the form. The extra test is complete. It was true. It was also the…
