The first thing that matched was the outline.
Seo overlaid two drawings. The round fitting's diameter and some screw positions looked identical. The locking shoulder's cross-section differed. Watching the heavy overlapping lines, Darae almost missed the thin difference beside them.
It was the morning twenty days after all twenty-three residents' temporary handover at Raon. In the specialist maintenance records room, they examined original-design copies and revision histories formally supplied by the old manufacturer's archive. Nobody had brought S-6's actual fitting. It remained at its unoccupied location; flight and docking were unapproved.
The original design showed one revision of an old standard. The later circulating outline used another. Matching external marks and repair history to the fitting in space needed more comparison. The drawing number's final letter was no printing variation.
Seo pointed to the locking shoulder's contact surface.
“Door handles can look alike and catch differently inside. This is the surface that takes the load.”
The explanation stopped there. Next they must decide what they could actually build. Finding documents did not mean immediately manufacturing metal parts and sending them into space.
The existing test room had materials and time for unpressurized shape models. Its officer preserved essential reservations, offering only a limited free window. Materials came from test stock, not flight components. Darae recorded their purpose and return and cleanup requirements on the receipt sheet.
Their first model was a simple support following the later outline. It was a way to examine the geometry in the room, within the test resources already available to them. No universal machine instantly produced a spacecraft part. Permitted dimension blocks were fixed to an existing adjustable test plate to examine shape, not material, strength or pressure sealing.
Darae tethered the block box to the bench. Near the axis, even small parts could drift. Before opening it, she secured herself and its lid's tether. Seo checked the closed test plate with the assigned officer.
Pushed slowly, the model seemed to enter. White reference lines met. At the next locking stage, the handle stopped short. The test officer stopped rather than applying more force. Thin marking paper lay at the contact point.
Its impression appeared along one edge, not on the expected support surface. The outline matched, but the shoulder caught at a different depth. Seo placed the original cross-section alongside it. A small step omitted from the later drawing changed the engagement.
“Would pushing harder get it in?” Darae asked, hearing herself hurry the object.
The officer would not exceed the specified force range. A forced model that would not release could make even a failed test difficult to end safely. Darae put her hands in her pockets and checked the stop mark in the record.
Seo did not boast that yesterday's reluctance to rush the booking had proved right. He too had first marked compatibility as likely from the outline. Today he narrowed that statement's conditions and attached the failure location. One good judgment did not erase an earlier assumption.
Mujin came late, after readjusting the joint plan's waiting times. He looked at the model that would not seat.
“If it won't release here, I can't write a return timetable either.”
Connection involved more than attachment. The plan needed release when work stopped, removal of load and safe withdrawal. Seo explained that actual spacecraft conditions remained untested. They were narrowing which shape information could serve as their basis.
During dismantling, one block caught in its support. Pulling a small handle, Darae felt her foot restraint loosen. Her body moved first. Rather than pull harder to save the part, she set the handle down and caught the railing.
The officer supported the block while she tightened her restraint. It came free in the designated sequence. Clearing the failed model took time too. Darae checked when they had promised to leave. They would need the next window. Finishing the attempt did not finish the work required to leave the bench safely for somebody else.
Seo did not suggest skipping lunch for another attempt. An essential user came next, and they could not leave the model behind while handing over the room. They counted and stored parts, cleared the bench and set the retest for the permitted afternoon window. Actual failure had delayed their expected finish.
At lunch, Darae touched her secured spoon. Its handle loop was easy to use, but it did not have the same qualification as a test-room ring. Seo asked why she was studying it.
“I want to use anything if there's somewhere it fits.”
“Finding the right use is good. When you enlarge the use, you look again.”
She let go and ate. Objects could still be used in their proper places today.
After lunch, the records officer brought the archive's supplementary reply. It explained the omitted cross-section and stated the outline's purpose: checking external interference in transport packaging. It had not been supplied for assessing locking performance.
Seo admitted failing to carry over the small purpose statement on its cover. Darae had used the same picture in cargo preparation material, labeled only ADAPTER REFERENCE. They checked every affected sheet and supplied the scope correction to relevant staff. This misuse could not be blamed on the original drawing's author.
Receiving the reply, Mujin changed possible compatibility to on hold in flight review. Preparation for further tests continued, but assumed fit no longer justified a firm schedule. Darae notified the actual cargo-receiving desk of the delay so nobody would wait for an empty loading position.
That afternoon they repositioned the model's supports according to the original cross-section. Surfaces with remaining revision differences were separately marked. External marks and supplied repair records limited comparison with the fitting in space. Missing site dimensions were not filled from memory.
In the second shape test, the adjusted model entered to the specified depth. Its locking indicator reached the intended position. Darae almost wrote success before hearing the officer's next question. Would it release under the same conditions?
Without load, it released. Repeated limited tests found no catching. That approved neither vacuum sealing, load capacity, thermal deformation nor connection during actual relative motion. The result recorded verification of a particular difference in shape criteria.
Mujin linked that limit to joint flight review. Recovered original copies and progress in some shape tests justified preparing further professional checks. He did not change the plan to show a real adapter already loaded. Observations for the final towing window still lay ahead.
Asked about past repairs he could explain, Haeseong recalled a plate beside the fitting being replaced in a permitted photograph. Memory did not settle the design revision. Seo accepted it only as a direction for seeking records of what work had happened when.
Haeseong asked whether a skillful resident could refine the model. The officer explained qualifications and professional review. Skillful hands were not being dismissed; their actual assignment and safety responsibility needed definition first. Volunteering did not become unauthorized manufacture of field components.
Maru's name was absent from the test sheet. Through the guardian came only a question about learning why the design numbers' final letters differed. Seo would prepare a permitted explanation at an agreed time. A shortage of test staff did not borrow an apprentice's nights.
A new line on the next verification sheet required actual identification information for external equipment. Operations asked whether finding the documents meant they could build finished parts immediately. Seo sent equally sized photographs of the failed and passing models, explaining each test's purpose.
Darae withdrew a notice that had sent only the passing photograph as an example. Removing the other because it looked like failure could hide why the design had changed. Operations confirmed there was still no actual manufacturing schedule and retained the loading request's hold.
As cleanup ended, Darae found one marking sheet bearing the impression from the first model's edge. Keeping only the second test's correct line could leave the next worker unable to explain the repositioned support. The officer linked it to the failed-condition record.
Only after counting all materials did Darae close the receipt sheet. Used blocks returned to assigned storage; supplied designs went into specialist records. Faulty 7-B and its original card remained unopened. S-6's fitting had not been retrieved. A test's success did not move the original objects.
Seo attached a large label to the model: UNPRESSURIZED SHAPE TEST ONLY. NOT FOR FLIGHT USE. Darae read it beside him. A well-fitting model must not impersonate a real component aboard the next ship. After succeeding, they still needed to give success its properly limited name.
A relocation applicant's property inquiry waited at the office. Could the woman take a support from the communal cooking counter because she had repaired and used it? Her personal cooking support had already been reclassified; the adjoining shared equipment was another question. One person's work did not turn everything touched into personal property.
Haeseong contacted Darae separately. If departing residents wanted their shares of communal equipment, those remaining might suddenly face repair costs. She explained that concern could not erase the woman's rights. Actual ownership, shared contributions and replacement-use conditions needed examination together.
Putting both questions on one page clarified the next consultation. Fitting an adapter's shape would not fit everyone's shares in a shared home. People must decide what should be returned to whom and what those using the remainder would bear.
Tomorrow's property-division preparation notice arrived. The meeting would not immediately begin actual relocation or removal of possessions. Darae prepared separate lists of personal property, communal assets and disputed ownership.
At the top lay the woman's personal cooking support. Beneath it, the communal counter whose screws many hands had replaced. Both had first seemed things from one kitchen. Returning them would require different hands.