Episode 55: Layers of Attention
Echo sounded a quiet tone as the sixth beat completed its circuit.
Several people looked toward the station. Then they returned to their tasks.
“Was that necessary?” Eshan asked.
“Only once. I wanted to know whether the timing was audible from the work areas.”
Kahlia watched the next sequence in silence. The intervals were growing more exact, though the strength had not increased.
“Keep the tone off during rest shifts,” she said.
Echo made a small, offended bow. “My reputation for consideration survives another day.”
At hydroponics, the younger woman had a new detail to describe. A flat stone lay above the tide line in her memory. She felt certain something had been left there for her.
“I want to say I can see it,” she admitted. “But I can’t.”
The older woman pulled a spare slate closer. “Would drawing the place help?”
The younger woman sketched the shoreline, then left the space above the stone blank. Her hand hovered there.
She put the stylus down.
“That’s as far as it goes.”
“Then that is where the drawing stops.”
Later, the quieter historian joined a sensor crew studying repeated observations. One asked how long it took before he trusted a pattern.
“Long enough to notice what stayed the same when I wanted it to change.”
Kahlia heard him from the station. She looked at the pulse, then at her own notes.
Before leaving, she added a question rather than an answer.
The younger woman tucked her unfinished drawing beside the growth records and went back to work.
To be continued…
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