Ash lay on the platform for about an hour after the last session of Day Three. He had meant to sleep. He didn't.
The ceiling above him was plain and high. The soft hum of the array under the floor was the only sound in the sealed room. He stared at it for a long time, turning the same number over in his head.
"Eighty-eight percent," he said quietly to the ceiling. "That's twelve left."
He lasted another ten minutes. Then he sat up, laughed once at himself, and moved back to the middle of the array.
"Fine. Just a short one."
It wasn't short.
But it was easy.
