Nabil had six minutes before blood loss took the choice from him.
Iseul gave the estimate without rounding up. Pressure slowed the wound, but the missing relation under his foot kept opening a new edge whenever he shifted.
The manual ladder route to the lower excavation landing took six minutes and forty seconds for an uninjured climber.
Kestrel looked at the drilling platform.
Its winch could lower two people and the Sovereign medical case in thirty-eight seconds.
"Powered cable makes one path from motor to platform," Elara said from Mercy. "Grass takes relations. The motor will keep declaring both ends connected after they are not."
"Can Caleb's frame break the path?" Kestrel asked.
Kikaru checked the five sections.
"It can carry weight at a midpoint. It cannot make the winch forget its own cable."
"Manual descent misses Iseul's window."
Nobody disputed the arithmetic.
Kestrel called Mazen Taha over from the rescue truck.
