S-6 slowly diminished beyond the window.
Mujin did not chase the cylinder that seemed to be running backward. After separation checks and withdrawal, he entered the return route. Darae looked at the passenger-restraint indicators before the window. The guardian held the child's hand. The other adult kept an arm beside the photograph envelope.
Six people in Narae. Three were rescue passengers.
Twenty remained in S-6. Departure did not erase them. At the edge of Darae's screen, the next contact time kept counting down.
“When will communications stop?” the guardian asked.
Mujin explained the expected line-of-sight transition and relay route. Even nearby, structures and antenna direction could create short gaps. A voice falling silent did not mean a vessel had vanished. Darae read the next check time aloud.
The child started to look outside, then faced the marking ahead again.
“I feel a little sick.”
Darae informed Seo instead of smiling the complaint away. Following medical instructions and vessel guidance, they checked the child's condition and continued support. Looking at a magnificent view was not today's task.
“Earth looked too big through the window my first time too,” Darae said.
The child looked at the pen attached to her wrist.
“Does that feel sick?”
“It feels nothing and still keeps trying to go first.”
The child laughed briefly and closed their eyes. Darae shortened the tether. Now that her pen had become a joke, it could help by behaving quietly.
S-6 made its scheduled call during the return. The adult shift contact began with the current count and medical-contact status. Pressure and oxygen supply held. The main cartridge operated within its limited mode. The existing backup and installed temporary canister were being checked; the second temporary canister remained sealed in reserve.
Temperature: 32.4 degrees.
Seo told the Safety Office that heat and individual conditions kept the support vessel's approach a priority. Installing a cartridge did not mean it could take its time. Beside EQUIPMENT RECEIVED, Darae kept PERSONNEL TRANSFER open.
The follow-up vessel updated its position. Its approach estimate of a little over two hours could change with observations and maneuvers. It would use the same connection, but its hull was larger. The Safety Office checked passage width, outside interference, its certified auxiliary adapter, and matching supports.
Narae's ring had returned to its own equipment after the recovery procedure. The next vessel had to deploy its own on the now-empty connection. Another crew's success could not simply be copied into an approval.
Mujin handed over observations from the actual approach: where a reinforcing plate had obscured a marking, what additional views were needed before connection, and the abort points. Darae added cargo-restraint changes and passage handover order. The flight had not been perfect. It could be useful to the next crew.
About an hour and forty minutes after leaving S-6, Raon's return port appeared. Darae recognized a familiar railing. For it to receive them, the berth had to remain free. Bae Giwan's cargo delay remained in place. Jingyeong and the port contact had secured a separate medical handover route.
Before final approach, Narae checked all three passengers' conditions and restraints again. Mujin compared actual reserve fuel and obtained docking permission. Coming back required more than seeing the port.
Mechanical coupling, pressure-boundary checks, passage verification. Darae kept the route clear until medical staff took the passengers. The first adult asked for the photographs. She passed the envelope from its assigned net, and the passenger secured it to their body.
“My property handover is complete. Those people will help you move.”
The adult thanked her and took the next handhold. The child and guardian followed with the assigned support. Only after all three entered Raon's receiving area and the responsible staff confirmed receipt did Darae change the entry.
Three arrived at Raon. Twenty in S-6.
The temporary contact codes traveled with them. Receiving desks and next-message routes were checked so leaving Narae would not make them addressless again. Long-term homes and support duration were still undecided.
Allowed to clear the cabin, Darae found a little strip of cloth beneath an empty seat: the cord from the pouch around the child's star container. She collected it with tongs and entered it on the property sheet. Urgent rescue left one ordinary lost object behind.
Today's rescue was not finished.
Around two hours and twenty minutes after Narae's withdrawal, the follow-up crew began close observation. Darae and Seo moved to Raon's communications room. Narae underwent separate inspection. Mujin handed over the actual return record and joined only the relevant communications. The same crew was not sent straight into a second flight without rest.
The display showed S-6 and the larger vessel separately. The Safety Office checked relative motion and the outside connection again. Haeseong maintained the position chart rather than gathering people at the window. Maru did not volunteer for the next call. An adult transmitted; briefly, Darae heard the apprentice passing a paper sheet.
The vessel adjusted its approach attitude once. Its larger hull obscured a different face from Narae's view. Darae pressed her hands beneath the table as though securing them. She had no authority to tell it to move closer.
After realignment within abort limits, connection was authorized. Mechanical attachment, sealing, passage and environmental checks followed in order. Mujin did not call somebody else's flight a success because his own was over.
S-6 was now at 32.6 degrees. Medical staff continued monitoring the two people needing support while they waited. Normal pressure and oxygen supply did not make prolonged heat safe. The follow-up vessel assigned each of the twenty an approved passenger place. After rechecking individual support, life-support capacity, return mass, and fuel reserve against approval limits, it began transfers into its own passenger area.
Twenty people did not rush the window together. Medical and flight staff coordinated those needing help and guardians. Both sides matched consent to actual movement. Darae could not personally verify every hand. She received the responsible staff's readbacks: recipient, method, time.
Twenty became nineteen, then sixteen.
She did not judge progress by how quickly the number fell. Some transfers took longer. Each time, an explanation came back of what those remaining were waiting for. When the picture briefly disappeared, she did not invent departures.
Maru's turn brought a familiar voice.
“I've handed the communications sheet over. My pouch is closed too.”
An adult confirmed. Darae obtained receipt before praise. Maru crossed in the order arranged by protection and support staff. Finishing an apprentice's communications duty did not require becoming the last person left.
Haeseong went second to last. The final resident was the adult maintenance contact who had checked equipment and systems. The other vessel maintained the passage and communications, rather than abandoning someone to finish dangerous work alone. The designated team jointly confirmed S-6 unoccupied.
“All residents transferred. Current S-6 count: zero.”
A little over forty-five minutes had passed since connection verification, transferring twenty people and confirming the module empty.
Darae stopped before writing zero. This facility had not been empty from the beginning. They had verified twenty-three positions, then handed over three people and twenty separately. This zero had a route behind it.
All twenty passengers were confirmed aboard the follow-up vessel, with life support and medical care continuing under its approved conditions. S-6 was not left open like an empty house. Final operation and remaining capacity of the main scrubber and temporary canisters were recorded. Maintenance procedures switched it to unoccupied preservation. The unused reserve's seal was checked. Nobody was sent to the main habitat.
Darae listed the three support items' locations again. The main cartridge, installed temporary canister, and unused temporary canister remained at S-6's assigned preservation positions. The pump had returned aboard Narae and awaited inspection at Raon. Faulty 7-B was still in the lost-and-found office.
Moving people did not make their equipment teleport with them.
After roughly two hours on the return route, the follow-up vessel docked at Raon. Teams responsible for temporary reception, guardian support, and individual contact accepted the passengers. Darae did not put twenty-three real names on a public wall. Chosen codes connected people to the appropriate desks only where needed.
A message said the first child to arrive was looking for a lost cord. Darae supplied its location and receiving contact. After the recipient identified it, it went back. For once today, a return needed no lengthy explanation of conditions.
The woman with the leaf container asked how long her accommodation was settled for. Staff explained the currently guaranteed period and extension-review desk. Darae did not shrink “support is available” into a promise of a home for life. The woman wrote her next consultation on her contact sheet and said she would sleep first.
Before entering the rotating habitation ring, Maru held a handrail for a long time. Told where a little weight would return to their feet, the apprentice first secured the seed pouch. Darae thought of the growing mat still in the main habitat. The survivors had belongings to recover, and homes that could not yet be returned.
“Can we get the plants later?” Maru asked.
“The maintenance team first needs to establish whether entry is safe. We can put them on the requested-property list.”
Maru agreed and explained the location to an adult contact. Darae received a new property inquiry. Even after rescue, promises still had to stay within their possible size.
At the temporary consultation desk, Haeseong held his receipt sheet, sweat curling its edges.
“At least now we can tell people where to contact us.”
“Yes. Everyone still needs time to decide where to live next.”
Twenty-three people had escaped the emergency shelter's heat and power risk. Temporary accommodation and medical observation continued. Sai's lasting survival conditions were unsettled. Today's rescue subjects, at least, had not vanished into COMPLETED.
Jingyeong sent a notice: a preliminary hearing on S-6 and the main habitat's ownership records would take place tomorrow. It would not settle rescue completion and residence rights together.
Darae stopped at the attached claimant material.
On Interconnection Transport's recovery list, S-6 already appeared as an asset whose handover was complete.