The home grew on the display. Mujin came no closer.
Darae recognized the window edges of the place where twenty-three people had lived. She wanted to say they had arrived. The connection points remained apart, however, and reducing approach speed was unfinished. Looking close and being able to finish the approach differed.
It was twenty-five days after all twenty-three residents' temporary handover at Raon, during the final observation window's local hold. Narae's display showed the first tug before the designated connection on the main habitat. The second maintained its separate safe holding path. Neither the five-module habitat nor S-6 held residents.
All twenty-three remained under temporary support at Raon. Narae carried no residents' moving belongings. Darae provided approved property-identification and records support; Mujin operated the vessel; Seo performed specialist maintenance checks. Nobody planned to enter the habitat.
The first tug reported its external comparison. Connection identification and expected revision scope matched preserved material; local observation found no damage requiring immediate interruption. That did not establish the safety of unseen interiors. Staff reread measurement and connection-stage conditions.
Darae compared the physical number with the acceptance copy. This was the real interface assembly whose packaging tag had been replaced before departure. Raon's unpressurized model had not become this spacecraft component. It remained in specialist test storage; this assembly had its own inspection and acceptance history.
Mujin did not push Narae immediately behind the connection. Required observation coverage differed from failure-withdrawal routes. After Seo confirmed the view, he maintained the designated observation state. Darae checked her seat restraint instead of leaning toward a better view through the window.
The first approach proceeded slowly. Two display lines nearly overlapped. Because the operation was so quiet, Darae almost felt as though nothing was happening at all. Yet changing measurements and brief operator responses continued within that silence. Having the power to move a home required no display of speed close beside it.
A small difference appeared at the last precontact stage. One reference line aligned later than expected. Specialists read the first tug's attitude measurements and the habitat's relative motion. Before numerical limits were exceeded, conditions permitting the next stage no longer held.
“Approach hold. No connection progress.”
Narae and the second tug read back that stage. Nobody suggested one more push. Mujin confirmed his holding state and reported a clear withdrawal route.
Darae's hand stiffened above her terminal. They had looked close enough. Seo left a precise line in his explanation field: conditions departed before contact; no locking attempt.
“Did the mechanism fail to fit?” she asked.
“We haven't reached engagement. We're reviewing relative motion and alignment.”
Yesterday's successful test could not explain every movement today. During review, the tug performed its planned small withdrawal within permitted approach-and-retry limits. They did not first consume return fuel or separate reserve to cover delay.
The second tug did not move in because the first withdrew. It retained the original holding stage and thermal-management state. A new sequence would require Safety's and each vessel's confirmation. One vessel's stop did not signal another's departure.
Darae changed docking failure to preconnection approach interrupted. Equipment never locked must not become equipment that failed to release in the next explanation. She kept the first draft together with the changed heading and the reason for changing it. Then she waited until the prescribed reporting sequence reached her, so that her correction did not cut across another essential message.
Specialists compared field video and relative-motion data. The habitat's slow attitude change lay near the edge of the first calculation's range; a small directional difference appeared larger at the reference surface. Original observations were not thereby entirely wrong. Updated field data required changed next-approach conditions.
Asked to move closer for a better look, Mujin checked views available within existing observation coverage and made no dangerous route change. Darae did not label a small magnified mark a crack. She referred it for Seo to compare lighting, angles and other observed faces.
The mark matched a surface boundary in repair records, without establishing internal soundness. The specialist confirmed only that scope. Unneeded speculation could lengthen the local hold. Darae kept visible features separate from professional interpretation.
Communications shifted through its scheduled stage. The rule against starting a new approach before an outage took effect. Mujin awaited restoration and status checks. Seo did not send long reference video first, leaving resources for essential measurements and instructions.
Darae wanted to send the Raon support notice immediately. People might worry. Its reservation differed from the specialist command route. She prepared the designated summary: an interruption had occurred; no immediate danger was confirmed; review continued. She waited for her transmission turn.
Meanwhile, her Raon colleague sent an ordinary receipt confirmation. Twenty-three pouches remained in designated storage; residents followed individual schedules. They were not gathered around one screen. Darae read and closed the terminal, grateful that waiting here had not required everybody else's sleepless watch.
The revised plan involved more than another harder push. It changed where relative motion would be reduced, alignment established and checks performed. Updated fuel and thermal margins, withdrawal, return and communications availability determined whether the first tug could retry.
Safety permitted a retry within defined limits. Conditions departing again might mean no completed connection today. Darae recorded that. No instruction said the time already spent getting here now required contact at any cost.
Mujin asked about her bag restraint. He had noticed more body movement since the first approach. Darae said nothing had loosened, but she had pulled her shoulders forward. She corrected her seated position and brought the needed display toward her. Small impatience became actual physical movement too.
Seo passed secured drinking water. She took a sip and closed it again. Waiting or fear might be making her hands tremble; she could not tell which. Either way, she read the next figures aloud and had them checked before entering them. Whatever made her hands unsteady, she could still take that step so that a reported number did not become a different number on her sheet.
On the second approach, the habitat still moved. Nearly motionless on screen did not mean fully stopped in measurements. They were matching motion within the small range permitting contact. Darae did not write that they had brought the home to a standstill.
At each stage the first tug reported connection and equipment status. Seo checked where accepted configuration and local conditions agreed. The lock could not haul the object into alignment to force away an error. Alignment and relative-motion conditions came first.
This time, the reference surfaces converged. Contact was reported. Darae held her breath. Mujin did not say complete. Initial capture, locking confirmation, permitted load transfer and release conditions after interruption remained. One instant of touching finished none of those checks.
After the first signal, one mechanical-lock indicator did not appear promptly. A small box stayed empty. Staff maintained the prescribed confirmation hold without pressing the connection harder. Darae did not repeat the same question. More words might delay the answer they needed.
Independent measurements and visual checks followed. Specialists checked whether transmission-update timing or actual locking state explained the difference. Subsequent material established the designated locked state; the receipt history of the originally blank indicator was recorded too. Its eventual appearance did not erase the delay.
Load checking began gradually. The connection held within the planned test range. This was the first actual attachment to the main habitat. Seo moved to the confirmation field and wrote connection confirmed. Neither towing complete nor habitable appeared beside it.
Darae looked outside. The unlit home remained at a distance, with another vessel's equipment now actually touching it. From the room of drawn lines to this place lay shifted schedules, cold meals and waiting people's time. None disappeared automatically behind one line of connection confirmation.
Mujin checked the second tug's next preparations. The second vessel reported that it was still in the designated holding state and gave its own thermal margin. The next preparation had not silently become another completed attachment while they watched the first. Narae maintained observation and return plans. Three vessels connected would be false. Today's actual confirmation concerned the first tug's designated attachment alone.
The Raon summary included interrupted first approach, revision and confirmed connection on retry. Darae did not cut out only the successful last scene. Haeseong's explanation retained no resident movement and reoccupation unapproved. Nobody should take a packed pouch to the port on hearing this news.
The summary went in its assigned communications turn. Support staff confirmed receipt and would explain through the promised resident routes. Nobody requested Maru's direct live interpretation. Later questions could become learning about why they stopped. Current operational responsibility remained with qualified adults here.
Darae checked Narae's loading list again. They had collected no personal belongings from the habitat or touched S-6's support equipment. Raon's faulty 7-B, original card, unused pump and candidate cartridge remained where they belonged. Touching the home did not mean returning everything within it.
The first tug continued measurements and sent another report. As load settled, the habitat's slow attitude change approached the edge of the expected stable range. The connection had not broken. Before the next joint stage, however, another adjustment review was needed.
Mujin opened Narae's fuel sheet. The line dividing planned reserve from return fuel remained. He had not yet ordered reserve use. He reported their current role and available adjustment scope to Safety and requested a decision. Joy at the first connection did not outrank another vessel's safety margin.
Darae pressed the restraint end once more. Today they had reached the home because they had not forced the ending with a push. Now, after touching it, they must actually decide what their retained margin would be used for—and whom that margin would bring back.