I thanked her and asked whether the dog in the photograph had recovered. She replied with an image of him carrying a shoe he had no intention of returning.
The exchange made the return feel less like entering a scene preserved for judgment. There were people at Port Kestrel whose lives had continued while the incident acquired a title.
Boone met me outside the operations building. He was carrying a coffee in each hand and had apparently decided I should arrive better equipped this time.
"Any surprises?" I asked.
"The projector works. We are suspicious."
Inside, Captain Voss chaired the conference. Harlan sat on her right with a notebook open in front of him.
He stood when I entered, greeted me, and sat again without making the room wait for evidence that we were comfortable with each other.
I appreciated the restraint. A public performance of reconciliation would have asked everybody else to treat his apology as an accomplished fact.
The follow-up exercise would test the revised coordination procedures under a series of simulated interruptions. There would be no ceremonial formation and no invitation to turn professional disagreement into theater.
Price began with equipment status. Ramirez then described the amended decision responsibilities, using the same terms in both annexes.
Dorsey asked whether a local hold could continue if the control cell was unavailable for more than the planned interruption. He kept his eyes on the page while he spoke.
Harlan answered too quickly. "They will not be unavailable that long."
The room changed by a degree. I saw Ramirez's pen stop.
Harlan noticed. He looked back at Dorsey.
"That did not answer you," he said.
No one moved.
He took a breath. "We need a duration threshold and a named alternate. Captain Voss, can we resolve that before approval?"
Voss nodded and assigned the action. Dorsey wrote something down, then raised his eyes.
It was a small correction made in time. Nobody applauded, and I hoped nobody would later inflate it into a complete redemption.
During the break, Harlan approached with the new annex. He asked whether I would review a section he had marked.
"I think we have made the hold authority clear," he said. "I am less confident about restart authority."
I read the paragraph. He was right to be uncertain.
The document said movement could resume when communication was restored, but it did not identify who confirmed that every affected station had received the updated instruction.
"A working link is not the same as a common understanding," I said.
He nodded, then frowned at the page. "If we require acknowledgment from every station, we could introduce a delay."
"Yes. What delay can the scenario tolerate, and what risk does it avoid?"
For several minutes, we discussed the tradeoff without discussing my qualifications. It was the most professional conversation we had yet managed.
He did not accept every suggestion. I did not expect him to.
One of my proposed checks duplicated something Price already performed. The chief explained the existing process, and I crossed out my recommendation.
Harlan watched me do it. Later he admitted that surprised him.
"Why?"
"You did not seem concerned about giving up the point."
"Price had answered the question."
He looked at the crossed-out line, then returned to his notes.
After lunch, Ramirez asked each section to explain its responsibility without reading directly from the slides. Two supervisors used the same phrase differently, and the discrepancy became visible before anyone went onto the field.
The room spent eighteen minutes resolving it. At one point, somebody joked that the clock was punishing them.
"Better here," Price said.
Harlan looked at the schedule, then closed it. "We have the eighteen minutes."
I wrote that sentence in my notebook. It was a useful observation, though not yet a conclusion.
When the meeting ended, Dorsey remained behind to clarify the alternate's contact method. Harlan answered, asked him to verify it with the support cell, and waited for the result.
Outside, Boone asked whether the visit had been better than expected.
"Ask me after the exercise."
He nodded. "That sounds fair."
I carried my coffee toward the parking area, thinking that fair was considerably harder to sustain than dramatic.
===
The follow-up exercise began under low cloud with a wind strong enough to make everybody grateful the briefing materials were clipped down. I stood in the observation area beside Voss while Price completed the final checks.