The safe room breathed.
Not metaphorically.
The machines upstairs cycled through their late-night loads, and the vibration came down through the floor in slow, even pulses, like something large and calm keeping its own time.
Everyone was asleep.
Nia on the floor with a jacket over her face.
Rin at the table, head on her arms, recorder still running, capturing the silence for reasons only she understood.
Tal and Suri back to back against the wall, sharing a blanket neither of them had claimed out loud.
Rell upstairs with his mother, which was the only place he should be.
Mara had gone home two hours ago, the message from Rian folded in her pocket like something she hadn't decided what to do with yet.
Aiden sat at the dead console and watched the door.
He'd told himself he was monitoring the drone feed on the portable screen beside him.
He wasn't.
D-14 had settled into its new arc forty minutes ago.
He was watching the door.
* * *
Kael came down at 03:47.
