"All I'm saying is we have a watchtower now and we can literally see the hospital from up there."
"Seeing it and going to it are two very different things Maya."
"Sera I know that, I'm not saying we run over there right now I'm saying we make a plan and—"
"We have a plan. The plan is to finish Tier 2 and then—"
"The plan was made before we had a watchtower and before we could see exactly how close it is and before Dr. Kang made the list—"
"I'm not disagreeing with the list—"
"Then what are you disagreeing with?"
"I'm disagreeing with the timing."
"The timing is fine."
"Maya."
"Sera."
"Both of you."
That was Dr. Kang. One short sentence and the room went quiet the way it always did when she used that particular tone.
The argument had already been going for about ten minutes by the time Michael came down from the watchtower and walked into the living room to find all three of them arranged around the coffee table like a debate that had been waiting for a moderator.
They all looked at him at the same time.
He looked back at all three of them and then at Shin who was sitting on the couch watching the whole thing with the expression of someone who had been enjoying the entertainment and was slightly disappointed it had been interrupted.
"About the hospital," Maya said immediately, pointing at him like he was a vote she was claiming.
"We were discussing it," Dr. Kang said, which was a generous description of what had been happening.
Michael crossed to his spot on the floor and sat down and looked at the three of them. "Talk."
Maya went first because of course she did. She laid it out the way she had clearly been rehearsing it in her head.
The hospital three blocks north was visible from the watchtower, the route was looking clear on the pulse, Dr. Kang's list of supplies could be covered on the shop but at a high cost of SP than they could generate.
The fact that the base was stable enough now to support a raid of that scale. She talked with her hands and made eye contact with each of them at the right moments and finished with her arms crossed like she had rested her case.
It was honestly a pretty good argument.
Sera went next and she wasn't disagreeing with the hospital raid, she was disagreeing with going with their current numbers. Two people on a raid left three in the building and three in the building with the signatures under the third floor still sitting down there unresolved was not a situation she loved.
She wanted the Tier 2 completion first, the full perimeter system active, at least one more upgrade on the gate before anyone went three blocks from the building.
Also a pretty good argument.
Dr. Kang didn't argue either position. She just picked up her list from the coffee table and held it out to Michael and let it speak for itself.
He took it and read through it for the third time this week. It was longer than before. She had added two new sections since the last time he had seen it.
He put it down and looked at the Blueprint Interface in his vision. Tier 2 was already close to being completed and was just two upgrades away from completion.
He looked at the pulse but the third floor signatures still had the same behavior pattern, they moved didn't move much and stayed in a single spot without aim.
He looked at the gate confirmation sitting solidly in the corner of his vision.
Then he looked at all of them.
"Two days," he said. "We can finish Tier 2 first and upgrade the gates, the full perimeter systems and the pluse relay extended. Then we can go."
Maya opened her mouth.
"Two days Maya," he said. "Then we go."
She closed her mouth and the expression on her face went from about to argue to satisfied in about one second which told him she'd been expecting a no and had gotten a yes with conditions and was smart enough to take it.
Sera looked at him. "Who goes."
"You and me. Maya stays."
"Absolutely not," Maya said.
"You just won the hospital argument," he said. "Don't push it."
She stared at him. He looked back at her steadily and after a moment she sat back against the couch with her arms crossed and the expression of someone adding something to a list.
"I want to go," Shin said quietly from the corner of the couch.
Everyone looked at her.
"Your leg—" Dr. Kang started.
"Is fine," Shin said simply. She looked at Michael. "I can pull my weight."
Michael looked at her. She looked back at him with that quiet steady warmth that didn't push but didn't back down either and he thought about how she had climbed the watchtower ladder on a healing leg without asking for help.
"We'll see where you are in two days," he said.
It wasn't a yes but it wasn't a no and Shin nodded like she'd take it.
Dr. Kang set her list on the coffee table and folded her hands on top of it. "I want everything on that list if it's there. The top section is priority, bottom section is secondary. Don't leave without the top section."
"Noted."
"And Michael." She looked at him steadily. "Come back."
He looked at her and the way she said it was matter of fact like a direct statement from someone who had done the math on what this group needed and had factored him into it.
"That's the plan," he said.
She nodded and picked her list back up and that was apparently that.
Maya was already at the viewport looking north toward the hospital. "Two days," she said, not to anyone in particular, just out loud like she was marking it.
Michael pulled up the Blueprint Interface and started on the final two Tier 2 upgrades.
Two days.