A Way Out for the Loser
At the inter-station trials Gai's drill fails, and the log is kept by Alice — the one he has been arguing with all winter. One line suspends his station for a year. Another, just as true, gives him a re-run the same day.
The inter-station trials have run three hours and Alice's station has already beaten the standard and stands first on the table. Then Gai — the one Alice has been arguing with all winter — fails his second-to-last drill: the valve is not seated and the pressure bleeds away in front of everyone. By the rules the trial log is kept by Alice, and writing "seal breach" is enough to suspend Gai's station for a year and cost him his clearance. And it would be fair: all winter Gai said other stations run on luck while his runs on calculation. But the rules contain a clause on re-runs for a technical fault, provided the log keeper records the cause rather than the result. The difference is one line: "seal breach" is about a person, "valve failure" is about hardware. Both are true. Alice writes the second and marks a same-day repeat.
«The inter-station trials had run three hours. Your station struck its kit inside the standard, and the table showed first place. One station was left: Gai's, the one you had been arguing with all winter. Drift snow ran across the pad.»