The first dot was not departure permission.
Darae compared the overnight notification with the morning display. The received measurement had passed review and been accepted. Beside it, the second observation remained pending. Coloring the same dot differently would not make two.
It was the morning twenty-five days after all twenty-three residents' temporary handover at Raon, at the Safety Office's orbital briefing. The main habitat's five modules and separately moving S-6 had different tracking entries. Today's joint towing candidate concerned the main habitat. The plan contained no second stop at S-6.
The observation specialist displayed the first measurement's source, time and accepted scope. New and previous prediction tracks diverged slightly. That entire difference did not represent an actual altitude change; observation uncertainty and modeling differences had changed too.
“Has it stopped getting lower?” Haeseong asked.
“One observation hasn't removed the trend. We're reducing uncertainty in position and motion for the approach plan.”
Instead of repeating the long perigee explanation, the specialist displayed two candidate windows. One offered broader communications availability; the other made equipment and return-port adjustments easier. Which actual position and relative motion would permit required further comparison.
Mujin opened Narae's fuel sheet. Approach and relative-motion adjustments, withdrawal after interruption, return to Raon, and planned reserve occupied separate entries. Longer waiting would not divert return fuel to an earlier window. Both tugs brought their own thermal and fuel limits.
Darae checked the property sheet. The designated tug had accepted the actual interface assembly and sent restraint-check material. The unpressurized test model remained at Raon. Identification and permitted configuration of the first vessel's real equipment linked to its test-result number.
Before the second observation arrived, operations asked about including the first window in an announcement. They wanted good news for residents. Final acceptance and assessment remained pending, Safety replied. Darae changed today's scheduled decision to next status-check time.
Haeseong's expression tightened. While scheduled kept becoming next, people struggled to arrange their lives. Darae did more than repeat uncertainty. With support staff, she checked what continued despite delayed flight decisions: temporary support, personal-property storage and relocation-offer consultations.
Haeseong selected the reply needed for his work schedule. Joint towing need not determine whether every part of life could move. Without choosing his final home, he could book an evening consultation. Darae confirmed its actual receipt.
The second file arrived midmorning. It contained a measurement from another observation route, not another calculation of the first data. Staff compared device, time and target identification separately. Two files alone did not establish two independent observations.
One dot initially appeared outside the predicted range. The room went quiet. Mujin left his sheet open without advancing. Observation staff checked coordinate reference and application time. The comparison display retained an earlier transformation setting.
Should Darae receive only the corrected diagram? The specialist would retain the original display and transformation-error scope, reviewing acceptance of the actual measurement separately. Fixing a screen could not by itself establish the observation's validity.
Another officer compared original measurements and transformation conditions again. Under the corrected reference, both observations' uncertainty ranges agreed within the permitted review. Identification matched the existing main habitat. They had not substituted S-6's dot. Darae read every target label.
Safety accepted the two independent observations. Only then were relative-motion and candidate-approach calculations updated. Two dots led through another assessment, not directly to towing. Structural, operational, communications and return conditions had to match the new information.
The first window failed. With updated attitude and approach direction, the first tug's interruption-withdrawal zone did not separate sufficiently from the second's waiting area. Better communications could not remove that overlap. A problem corrected during the room rehearsal had to be calculated again under actual updated conditions.
Mujin did not simply spread the vessel magnets farther apart. Magnets moved easily; changed flight paths required fuel and time. Specialists examined alternatives, but could not preserve the first window within existing permitted limits.
Giwan said another ordinary-cargo schedule change must be communicated. Darae did not dismiss that as obstruction. Actual cargo was waiting. Operations retained the window's candidate status while reporting the changed review state to the relevant desk. Never having promised a confirmed departure did not eliminate the need to explain.
The second candidate required changing one return port. Its officer compared actual availability with another service operator, including adult staffing, relief and rest. Space for a vessel did not operate a port by itself.
Agreement and receipt confirmation arrived after lunch. The alternate port's inspection and accepting officer were assigned. Additional operational hours and other cargo delays entered cost review. Anticipated refunds from the old billing investigation did not finance today's work in advance.
Darae brought her work bag for Narae. Her approved role covered cargo checking and records support. Mujin and specialists held flight and depressurization decisions. No task involved entering modules to collect belongings. She had handed custody of all twenty-three personal pouches at Raon to her colleague.
“I thought you were taking everything,” the colleague said, studying the empty loading sheet.
“Today's cargo isn't people's moving belongings.”
Preparing a home for possible return differed from sending people there now. All twenty-three residents remained under temporary Raon support. Housing choices and property rights did not become signatures cheering on towing success.
Final afternoon review reread the real connection equipment's conditions. Original-design inspection, pressure-tightness, load and thermal review, and release after load removal applied to the designated configuration. Different local appearance or identification meant no connection. Yesterday's passed test did not establish suitability for every state encountered in space.
Seo displayed the identification in the acceptance copy. One character in the displayed identification did not match the character on the packaging label. Those two versions of the identifier needed checking against the actual equipment, even if the difference looked small. Darae did not call it a printing mistake without comparing packer and actual equipment records. The assembly was correct; outer packaging retained a tag from an earlier adjustable configuration.
The officer checked the physical item, formally replaced the tag and linked change history. Correct equipment could still carry a label leading its recipient to wrong conditions. Rechecking delayed the next review. Darae did not move the written acceptance time backward to conceal the delay. The next review had really started later because this recheck was necessary, and that was the sequence the record would retain.
Their final communications test included holding before an outage and checking states after restoration. No response meant no next stage. This window avoided overlapping scheduled relay maintenance with a new approach; a different actual connection state would still require a local hold.
Mujin checked Darae's safe seat, body restraint and reporting sequence that would leave operational communications clear. Darae had taken part in the earlier rescue passage, but that experience did not mean she could skip the briefing this time. She listened and checked the conditions for the seat and body restraint again. Mission and cargo differed. Seo boarded as designated specialist maintenance support and reread his measurement and reporting scope.
Support staff managed resident notices at Raon. Nobody asked Maru to monitor live communications. Beside the guardian, Maru checked the route for receiving confirmed departure news. At night there could be sleep, followed by the next scheduled summary. Protecting one's home in orbit did not require watching a screen all night.
Shortly before evening, Safety selected the second candidate as the final operational window. Conditional approval covered approach and connection review against current observations, with stop criteria, a final tracking update and actual predeparture checks attached. This permission belonged to this plan, not every future occasion.
Support checked whether the notice resembled an instruction for residents to go to the port. Its opening said departure preparations; who would go hid further down. Darae moved the explanation to the front: approved specialists would operate the vessels, and residents would not be moving. Closed pouches made misunderstanding especially easy today. The receiving colleague confirmed those stored pouches had not gone onto cargo carriers. They must check the unopened home's door before bringing people's belongings to it.
Haeseong kept his consultation appointment after receiving the notice. His life must continue while he waited for a safe plan, he said. Darae did not announce that as a representative's perfected resolution. It was the schedule he chose today.
The leaf-container woman checked again that this was not property recovery yet. Her cooking support remained on site and would not be handed over today, Darae confirmed. The woman understood. Her answer would not count as surrendering property; agreement and handover already retained that condition.
At the office, Darae briefly checked 7-B's seal with her colleague. Original card and packaging stayed in place. The unused pump and candidate cartridge in Raon's specialist storage were absent from this loading list. S-6's three support items retained their unoccupied locations. A new passage did not bring old objects aboard automatically.
Darae boarded Narae and fastened her work bag at its designated point. A restraint end trailed beneath the communications panel. Before tightening it, she moved it clear of the lines. Obtaining the final window did not excuse skipping a small attachment check.
Immediately before departure, Mujin read back updated status and authorization. Both tugs confirmed actual receipt, ready to leave Raon in their assigned sequence. Narae departed first. Secured in her seat, Darae watched Raon's lights slowly change their angle.
Three vessels did not charge toward the home together. The first tug entered its prescribed approach stage; the second followed a separate holding plan. Narae's field-observation role connected their work. Relative motion with the main habitat remained under measurement. S-6 retained its separate tracking entry.
During the final preconnection hold, the main habitat's external connection appeared on Darae's display. Expected identification was visible; its surface still needed checking. Mujin requested the next-stage authorization and waited. Two independently checked dots had opened a route to the home. The last distance would have to close more slowly still.