The coordinates on the System panel began to change, new numbers shimmering over the top of the old ones. My pulse sped up, and I glanced quickly over at Melusin. Her expression was blank. She hadn’t heard the voice. She couldn’t see this.

I was the only one who could see it.

And I recognized these coordinates.

My hands were shaking as I closed the System panel, set the posternkey aside. Melusin did not seem to notice.

“It is vital that you learn everything about how he came to be here, Nadin,” she said. “If there is any chance that we can use this information to reestablish our evacuation colony on Simos, we must do so at once. Time is running out.”

Her words shook me out of my fog. “I thought our evacuation colony was already established on Hamos,” I said. The third planet, Hamos, was far closer than Simos. And, like Iamos, it lacked a magnetic field, which meant there would be no interference with the System, or the posterns.

“Hamos is proving to be a poor option for colonization. It is too tectonically active.”

There was another meaning to her words. I could feel it, but I couldn’t discern it. “The System’s early warning protocol—”

“—is unreliable,” Melusin interrupted.

I frowned. The System had been developed over a period of centuries. It was infallible. “Gerouin, what are you not telling me?”

She didn’t answer at first. She picked up the posternkey again, running her fingers over the rusty hinges. “There’s been an accident,” she said at last. “There was an earthquake today. Ascendant Dawn’s citidome was severely damaged.”

“Ascendant Dawn? But that’s where Ceilos’…” I trailed off, staring at her, stunned.

“Gerouin Clodin was critically injured. The report came in while you were outside the dome.”

My chest clenched. “Does Ceilos know?”

“Antos and I informed him just after we spoke with you on the hospital level. Antos is with him now.”

No wonder he hadn’t answered his comm. The clenching feeling in my chest sank down to the pit of my stomach. My fingers wrapped around my medallion as I stood. “I will do everything I can, Gerouin.”

Melusin stood as well. “The people of Iamos are relying on you, Nadin. If you can prove yourself on this occasion… we would be willing to consider offering you another evaluation.”

My heart stuttered at the words. Another chance. With as much composure as I could muster, I placed my fingers on my brow. “You will not be disappointed.”