The first target name belonged to a dead child.
`MERA ILN, AGE NINE, CURRENT DEATH AFTER WHITE LINE.`
Charcoal wrote the record across the island control-room ceiling. A second line named Ora Bett, age forty-two. A third named Lio Senn, age eleven.
The fourth record described a living pump keeper with burns to both hands.
Kail Oru read every line from the cable gallery while Sali Morn was carried above him.
"Our test reached people," he said.
The island council added the target deaths to Bela Dinn's firing record. No identity had been verified beyond the returning signal, so Tali marked them reported current deaths pending independent contact.
Several political feeds called the message a copied defense made by Black Grass.
Rina agreed that copying remained possible.
"We test the people," she said. "We do not erase them while testing."
