Lucas expected something aggressive.
A summons stamped urgent. A formal anomaly review. Even a disciplinary hearing would have made sense.
Instead, what arrived at 7:14 a.m. looked painfully ordinary.
SUPPLEMENTAL CHANNEL MAINTENANCE — TIER B
Evaluation Window: 10:00–12:00
Attendance Required.
He read it twice while sitting on the edge of his bed, the room still dim from early morning light. Around him, the dormitory slowly came alive—doors sliding open, showers running, someone laughing too loud in the hall like the world hadn't shifted at all in the past two days.
Channel maintenance.
The phrasing irritated him more than a warning ever could have.
Maintenance implied upkeep. Adjustment. Something routine and harmless. The message didn't accuse him of instability, but it didn't need to. The timing alone was accusation enough.
They'd seen it.
Not the surges from last week. Not the turbulence everyone could notice.
The compression.
