The dock was loud with returning students and their sub-units, the sound of a hundred people putting five days down and picking up everything else. Vane came down the ramp from the assessment transport and immediately felt the crowd close around him.
Ashe got through it first.
She pushed through the dock without particularly caring who was in the way and reached him before he'd made it ten steps. She looked at him the way she looked at things she'd been watching from a distance and now finally had close — checking the shoulder, the face, the general state of him. She grabbed the strap of his pack and pulled it straighter on his shoulder, which was a thing to do with her hands while she processed whatever she was processing.
"Your scoring log," she said.
"Sixth place."
