Kalev’s POV

I was gone for a total of twenty-eight minutes. As I sat back down in my seat, the feed came back up. Viktor was at my side before I’d even taken a full breath.

"Terrain anomaly," he said, clicking his chin. He leaned against the back of my chair with his arms folded. "Is that's what we're calling it?" Her tone was sardonic, mocking.

"There's a briar formation on the western ridge that wasn't there an hour ago. I'd call that anomalous." I didn't look up from the console. The duty log was open in front of me. I was backfilling it with steady, boring lies. Ground survey....