Darae pressed HOLD instead of COMPLETE.
Faulty 7-B was on Raon's isolation rail. The box about to open aboard Narae contained a sound replacement. Similar names could not make one item's return complete another item's departure.
“Registrar, the return transaction and emergency support are linked. The original item is still in the office.”
During the short scheduled contact, Oh Jingyeong inspected the screen and opened the issue category directly.
“The sound replacement was linked to the same intake. I'll separate them. The deadline record for 7-B stays.”
“Passing that deadline doesn't make their use of the support wrong?”
“Emergency-support approval and ownership proceedings are separate. The original deadline decision will use the preserved material after the rescue stabilizes. Nothing is being disposed of now.”
Jingyeong entered the correction under the registrar's own name. The old screen remained in the change history; the replacement acquired a separate emergency-support number. Darae read it back. Making two buttons was not enough. Someone had to know that the actual items were in two places.
Mujin continued flight checks throughout the call: Narae's connection to S-6, the return mass of three passengers, the receiving berth at Raon. Darae secured her terminal rather than leaving it floating in the passage, then answered Seo.
The work sequence lay beside the main cartridge's packaging. They had checked the empty position in S-6's main removal system and its connections. Limited operation using initial sorption without regeneration had been reviewed. At the top of the receipt, Seo stated that replacement would not restore capacity indefinitely.
“Can we take the existing canister out once this is fitted?” Haeseong asked.
“Don't touch it before switchover checks. We'll divide the load after checking the new flow and readings. The regeneration heat source remains disconnected.”
He marked the actual circuit diagram. Darae added label numbers instead of relying on color. A dimmed or monochrome display on the other side still needed to be readable.
Nobody moved passengers while the work area was cleared. Two adult contacts prepared tools. Maru identified the information's location, then withdrew. Quick hands did not make an apprentice the right person to receive components at the end of a cramped bench.
Darae read the main box's seal and equipment numbers. At the port, she had considered which way its handle should face, even the receiving person's gloved hands. That label now faced the far end of the passage. She released only the transport restraints, keeping the internal protection intact.
Seo checked the actual item. Haeseong and the adult maintenance contact read back the receipt number. When Darae released the handle, the cartridge was secured to the receiving mount. It had not been used. Receipt and operation received different times.
“One sound replacement handed over as emergency support.”
Haeseong confirmed receipt and read the purpose aloud: limited initial sorption, continuous regeneration unapproved. Someone asked whether the room would now cool. He repeated Seo's explanation. Carbon-dioxide removal and heat rejection were separate jobs.
Darae checked the temporary canister left aboard Narae. One of the pair was already operating in S-6. The remaining question was whether to hand over the second as an unused reserve. Seo and the Safety Office judged it necessary for support until the next vessel approached. It had been loaded for S-6 from the start; they were not stripping Narae's own emergency stock.
Could the reserve be installed immediately? Seo told Haeseong to keep it sealed in the designated position until instructed. Changing three devices together would make the causes of altered flow and alarms harder to distinguish.
Darae marked the second with a different restraint. One operating; one unused. Identical items had different present states. The adult receiving them read back both numbers and positions.
The pump stayed aboard Narae, its replacement outer seal from the earlier restraint work still visible. Coolant flow was maintained. Seo confirmed again that there was no reason to replace it. This time, bringing an item and not using it did not feel like failure.
Cartridge connection began in S-6. Seo entered the designated short work area to check with the adult maintenance contact. Pressure boundaries and passage conditions remained controlled. Darae stayed at Narae's handover position instead of pushing another face into the narrow route.
A protective cap opened slowly under the flashlight. A pouch for removed components had been secured first. Used tools returned to closed compartments. Darae matched Seo's reported numbers to the physical labels. Keeping to the work she understood gave her enough to do.
After a verified switchover, the new cartridge took its first load. Flow, pressure difference, and readings from other positions followed in order. The air did not all change immediately. The existing backup and installed temporary support canister continued sharing the load as approved.
Darae watched the boarding labels while they waited. Putting one component in place must not delay three passengers. Mujin announced the remaining permitted connection time. They would not extend the job by spending the reserve needed to return.
Initial observations were within limits. The cartridge began limited support. The improving carbon-dioxide trend and continuing heat were checked separately. Seo gathered the tools and returned to Narae. S-6's adult contact accepted the follow-up checks.
“Who do I write as the recipient?” Haeseong asked. “It isn't becoming my property.”
“The adult maintenance contact and representative received emergency-support equipment. That isn't a signature deciding where the residents will live.”
He showed the physical locations to another contact. The labels were not private names only he could understand. Darae remembered the request on the first box: do not erase it because it has no owner.
Today she could put an item where it was needed without naming a single person its owner.
The replacement and two temporary canisters' records matched their actual states. Ownership of the faulty cartridge remained unresolved. Darae closed the separate support transaction and left the preservation case open. What she privately called the first return was not 7-B reaching home. It was an item reaching hands that could put it to work.
Now the people had to cross.
The three priority travelers received final explanations at their places. Seo checked the passage and necessary supports. Mujin authorized movement. Darae secured everything at Narae's receiving position.
The adult came first, changing handholds with the maintenance contact's help rather than being pushed through in one motion. Darae took the little photograph envelope and fixed it in a separate net, so reaching for photographs would not cost the passenger a handhold.
Once the adult was restrained in an approved seat, Darae read the boarding code. The S-6 contact confirmed that person had left the passage. The current head count changed for the first time.
Twenty-two in S-6. One passenger aboard Narae.
The guardian and child followed in the agreed order. Adult helpers maintained their own attachment points along the passage. Nobody hauled the child from a distance or tossed a body from hand to hand. What looked light in microgravity still needed support to stop.
The child first asked where the star container had gone. Darae showed the closed pouch. Instead of reaching, the child nodded. Guided by the medical team, the guardian checked both their own place and the child's supports.
Three seats were occupied. Roughly forty minutes had passed from preparing the cartridge handover to confirming the passengers.
Darae had not erased her own name. Three operations and support personnel, three passengers: six people in Narae. Twenty remained in S-6—seventeen adults and three minors, Maru among them.
She read the totals against Haeseong's current position chart. Now was when planned became actual. The remote screen could not keep the old count after the child crossed.
The seated adult checked the photographs again. Darae indicated the envelope; the passenger thanked her and closed their eyes. She did not decide whether that meant sleep or rest. Seo checked the medical connection. Darae checked that the water pouch was in reach without needing to wake the passenger.
The guardian did not ask the child to look outside. First came Narae's attachment markings and the guardian's hand. Sightseeing could belong to another time. Today they could return with their eyes closed.
In S-6, somebody asked to use a vacated position. Haeseong first requested a passage and ventilation check. Three departures had not made the room a spacious home. An adult adjusted the space around the two people needing medical observation and recorded their new positions. Before Darae closed the first passengers' records, the next check for the other twenty was already open.
The follow-up vessel received departure approval. Its approved passenger places could accommodate the remaining twenty people's support requirements. Actual mass, medical needs, and guardian arrangements were reviewed separately, along with its own certified connection equipment. It would not simply inherit Narae's deployed adapter.
Mujin read back the estimated approach range and communications route after separation. The vessel had departed; it was not nearby. Rendezvous and connection checks would still take time. Haeseong received an approved current plan and abort conditions, rather than a promise of arrival.
Narae's inner door closed according to procedure. Looking at it, Darae wanted to write TWENTY larger. Equipment handover was finished. The people staying were not completed items.
“Ms. Darae, received,” Haeseong said. “I'll read the next contact time.”
He read that before the new cartridge number. She matched it to her terminal. Somebody on the other side had taken over.
Mujin began separation preparations, checking coupling and pressure boundaries and following the Safety Office's approved sequence. No one pushed the vessels apart first. Darae checked the passengers' restraint indicators and the pump pouch's seal once more.
New measurements arrived from S-6.
The carbon-dioxide trend was improving. Temperature was 32.3 degrees.
The cartridge had begun its work in the right place. Time to get people out of the hot room was still shrinking.