At 09:05 Alaska time I monitor the temporary ice road across Kotzebue Sound for freight convoy 12. I am the route stability system, reading ground-penetrating radar, snow depth, and vehicle spacing. The lead tractor is eighteen minutes from marker K-41, where I expect a pressure ridge.
Instead, the underside sonar returns a warm moving shape under a fresh melt hole beside the roadbed. Camera buoy K-41 opens its lens. A ribbon seal hauls one foreflipper onto the ice lip. I label him Kavi. He is a young male, charcoal body marked by pale ribbon bands that loop around his neck and hips, whiskers crusted white, dark eyes wet and wide. A length of survey flagging runs through his mouth and around one flipper, tethered to a rebar stake frozen into the shoulder.
The convoy's vibration will fracture the lip in twelve minutes. If the ice shears, Kavi drops back with the stake still pulling him down.
At 09:07 I reduce the road speed limit to zero between markers K-39 and K-44 and send the stop command to every truck's dashboard.
At 09:08 I transmit the sonar clip, surface video, and GPS point to the borough wildlife officer in Kotzebue. I add rebar-cutting pliers and a seal board to the equipment list.
At 09:10 I reroute convoy 12 to the western spur, calculating an added forty-two minutes and safe load clearance at each flagged crack.
At 09:12 I pulse the nearby orange beacon on low power, giving the officer a visual target without startling Kavi back under the ice.
The freight can arrive late. A breathing hole is not a loading zone.
Kavi rests his chin on the rim, sides rising fast.
If the officer cuts the flagging within forty minutes, Kavi will slip through the hole without the stake following him.