Three days after the battle, the base settled into something that resembled routine.
Due managed his threads at the table, hands working in their settling gestures at the slower pace that had become normal since the Expression cost. Elara had swept the entryway twice already. Alistair ran Edgeform sequences outside, then came back in and sat down without saying why he'd stopped.
Nobody was doing anything. Everybody was avoiding the same thought.
'The Record coverage turned us into something people talk about. The question is what Caldren does now that people are talking.'
Eventually, in the late afternoon, the Sovereign Record arrived again.
Due caught the dissolving paper with both hands, already reading before the edges went transparent. Routine coverage mostly. Settlements and trade, and the usual noise.
However, between the standard dispatches, there was a new entry—Caldren's official public response to the battle.
