Chapter 10: The Ninth Night — Kael Opens the Chip

The new case stayed in his queue until 1800.

He did not finish it. He logged a notation — case under active review, secondary source citation pending — and submitted a status flag that would hold the file overnight. He had done this twice before with complex multi-colony batches. It was within protocol. Tael had done it four times in the three weeks he had observed her work.

He ate his evening meal in the commissary. Protein block, water, a compressed grain supplement that tasted of nothing in particular. He sat at the end of a table near the ventilation panel and chewed methodically and did not look at the other personnel in the room with any focus. There were six of them. Administrative grade, mostly. He recognized two by sight from the Level Nine corridor.