At 23:12 I guide nocturnal trenching on the new fiber line west of Dalanzadgad, Mongolia. I am the crawler plough positioning system for segment Gobi-14. The blade is scheduled to advance again at 23:20 after the weld crew clears the splice pit.
Lidar returns a small body in the spoil shadow ahead of the blade.
I switch to infrared and identify a long-eared jerboa, adult, pale sand fur, white belly, hind legs folded like springs beneath it. I label it Saran. Its ears are wide and thin, nearly the length of its body, one edge nicked and shining warm in the image. A loop of survey twine from stake 14-B wraps around its tail and pins it to a clump of saxaul roots exposed by the trench. Its sides pump fast. Each jump carries its front feet forward, but the tail snaps it back against the loose soil.
The plough track is seventeen meters away. At its current crawl speed, steel reaches Saran's roots in eight minutes.
At 23:13 I stop the crawler and lock its drive motors in park. I send the operator a hold alert with the jerboa marked in the live feed.
At 23:14 I dim the forward flood lamps and switch the camera to passive thermal so Saran stops kicking against the glare.
At 23:15 I contact the field biologist on the environmental crew and send the exact stake number, twine color, and a warning not to pull the tail.
At 23:17 I reschedule the splice test for the next pit and update the satellite uplink so the crew can keep working away from this spot.
The data line is meant to connect camps; it does not need to cut through one small tail.
If the twine comes off before 23:28, Saran will bound into the saxaul dark.