The elevator shoots upward and slows to a stop. Captain Blitner steps off and crosses the atrium, an empty room with tall glass windows and a half-ring of couches facing them. The windows overlook the Embassy’s entire southern sector. Beyond the cluttered city, rolling hills and vibrant forests stretch to the base of the distant gray mountain. Somewhere in those trees is the Hania Reserve. Now that I think about it, the Hania River might be the same river I saw when I flew to Subari.

Captain Blitner sighs. His eyes stay fixed on the forest. “I used to know those trails, one in particular. There was a split tree…cracked by lightning, by the looks of it. We would climb it and sit high above the ground. The sunlight would cast golden shapes on the ferns and grasses below us, and the wind would rustle the canopy.” He turns away from the window. “It was a beautiful kind of quiet.”

I follow Captain Blitner to a door labeled Visitor Supplication. We check-in with a Belvish Official, who lets us inside a room filled with workstations. It reminds me of the Records Room on the Ember.

“I am sorry that you will be here,” Captain Blitner says when we’re settled. “You should be out there, enjoying yourself.”

“Ha, it’s fine.”

“Did General Orcher explain what we are doing?”

“Briefly.”

He demonstrates what we’re doing by pairing an excavation team with a location. Two tabs vanish from my screen, one from each list.

“Our systems are linked, so there should not be any chance of multiple assignments.”

“Do certain groups have to get assigned to certain areas?”

Captain Blitner’s cheeks quiver when he shakes his head. “We just need to make sure everyone has work.”

So that’s what we do: combine teams with the approved locations. It only takes an hour, and after we complete the assignments, Captain Blitner sends them to Belvun’s resource committee for the final approval

Simple.

“What will we do tomorrow?” I ask as we wait for the elevator that will take us back to the lobby of the tower.

Captain Blitner rubs the tips of his fingers together. “By then, some of the teams will have sent us numerical data to process, in order to know whether they are collecting the right samples. Our job will be to examine the data for anomalies. Unusually high acid levels, mineral content, or unbalanced chemical compositions.”

The elevator opens and we step inside. A Narvidian Official jogs to catch it, too, so I hold it for him.

“Our goal is to obtain samples that represent an untainted ecosystem,” Captain Blitner continues. “That way, the chemists on Daliona can develop a balanced Faustocine compound. Think of it as a kind of fertilizer. Faustocine will harbor the growth of biological compounds that we introduce to the environment until they can survive on their own.”