The first thing the boardroom showed Elias was not a person.
It was the planet.
A model rose from the center of the table, built from thin light and layered data. Cities showed as pale nodes. Military bases marked themselves in blue. Old attack zones burned red on the projection, quiet now but not forgotten by anyone who had survived near them.
Elias stood along the wall with Kikaru, Paul, Tidwell, and the other shard users. Nobody had told them to sit. That mattered.
They were not guests.
They were exhibits that could answer questions.
The Chairwoman sat at the head of the circular table, though the shape technically had no head. People made one for her anyway. Her hair was tied back, her uniform plain compared to some of the decorated officers around her, and every person in the room waited for her to move first.
A man with silver hair leaned toward the projection.
