Sparks fall across Kestrel Dock as the emergency speakers repeat a voice Mara buried with her sister three years ago. Mara wants proof that the signal is real before the board shutters the relay trench at dawn. Ilan believes a public leak will get the dock sealed before they can verify anything. Mara believes caution is just another form of surrender. The first thing that makes staying impossible is simple: the signal contains a maintenance checksum that only Mara and her sister ever used on the old relay array. All of it is happening in Kestrel Dock Concourse, and at dawn the last tow ship leaves, and the relay trench will be welded shut behind it.