Chief Ranger Arashobal (Krenyi, Quiet-Built)

The general operations log came up to the Chief's desk at the turn of the station's day, every section's, with the initials on it.

Dock Seven's carried one. The cadet's, under each line, as a cadet's did. Nothing struck. Nothing added. The time line carried the station's time from the left-hand instrument, marked, and under the time line there was no second initial at an hour no roster had set, and the absence had edges. Arashobal read the edges the way she read a thing left out of a file: a Chief had gone down to the dock on the evening of her order, with no watch to take and no desk to answer to, and had stood where the initial went, and had not written it.

The Quiet-Built kept no fact whose use was not yet shown. This one had shown its use twice on the same sill, in one summer and one evening, so she kept it, and returned to the department, whose outer docks were a Principal's until the spring, and whose log would carry one initial on that line until a Lead was found, which was the correct number.