Catalog · No. S07 of 9
Layout specimen. This title is not on the publishing record, has no ISBN, and is not offered for rights or sale.
No. S07
The Standing Watch
Richard Roe
Plate
Layout sample
The Standing Watch
A sounding is a promise with a date on it.
Novel · Industrial fiction · Systems
Not on the record · layout specimen
The book
Ellis Bray takes the midnight watch after the channel is declared clear. The last survey is two days old, which is recent enough for the book and not recent enough for the bar. A ship with the tide under her touches where the chart says she cannot.
The board in the office is green the whole time. Every alarm was acknowledged. Acknowledged is not the same thing as true, and the morning meeting would like those to be the same word.
Who is in it
Spoiler-safe · drawn from the public pages
Ellis Bray
The pilot on the midnight watch
Knows the river by the way it pulls the wheel, and does not trust a survey he did not see taken.
Nita Pell
The dispatcher
Keeps the board and the log. Will not call a light red if the procedure says it is green, and will not pretend she likes that.
watch (n.)
A shift on the water, or in the office that claims to know the water. Also the length of time a person is responsible for what the instruments say.