They did not first send Haeseong a picture with one room removed from the home.
Darae waited for Safety's defined explanation. Unacceptable deformation was confirmed at one module's connection; that did not immediately permit removal. No occupants meant they could keep people out of danger. It did not cancel obligations toward property or other orbital users.
The local operation still continued twenty-five days after the day of the residents' completed temporary handover at Raon. The first tug held connection. Narae occupied the observation state secured with some reserve; the second vessel's thermal and waiting margins were shrinking. Safety first read the time limits within which another decision was necessary.
The specialist explained repeated deformation near one structural connection and load transfer differing from original permitted conditions. It could not be pulled with the same force as the other four modules. Full damage causes awaited later inspection. Darae recorded confirmed defects separately from proposed explanations.
The first option was moving everything connected under lower load. With updated measurements, that connection could not retain permitted conditions. Slow movement would not eliminate the structural problem. The specialist rejected the option and restated the limited conditions for maintaining current attachment.
Next came the original module separation function. Preserved designs, relevant revisions and the joint plan's reviewed scope for unoccupied operations were retrieved. Certified equipment aboard the vessels was compared with actually accessible controls. Darae checked accepted equipment numbers and current connection configuration against those records.
The second tug reviewed supporting the faulty module separately, then managing it along another route. Its equipment configuration, present condition, thermal and fuel margins and interruption allowance came first. One ship would not hold five rooms while another tore one away. Both loads and relative motion required control before release.
Darae read the separation target's identification. It was one of the five main modules, not S-6. The detached service module already occupied a separate unoccupied tracking entry. Similar names could not make it today's target. Beside isolation, she entered the actual number and exterior features.
Seo explained that specialists would verify isolation and preservation conditions for intermodule power, fluids and communications. Darae would cut no lines. If conditions for operating the original function could not be established here, the plan must stop. A paper separation command was not an actual releasable state.
One confirmation signal failed to arrive. The specialist did not assume closure and proceed. Unoccupied measurements and other state indicators established the relevant isolation. The missing signal proved a reception-update omission. An empty response did not immediately prove device failure; other indicators did not erase the missing response either.
Haeseong received the designated explanation: preserving one room might endanger everything; separating it did not abandon its property or rights. He offered views within his communal-asset authority. No representative signed away every person's belongings inside.
The woman with the leaf container asked where her cooking support was. Staff explained what existing inventories established and what field checks had not. Darae did not promise its return first. Preserving personal rights and assigning subsequent checks were today's possible answer during necessary safety isolation.
Giwan said isolation changed the number of recovery targets. The operating cooperative logged safety separation and changed asset-treatment scope separately. Unperformed work would not be labeled performed to cover a schedule change. Today's new work sheet showed Darae again why the old invoice was a problem.
Final permission specified two vessels' roles, pre-separation checks, conditions to maintain after interruption and each target's later management route. Narae retained observation and communications support. No new maneuver consuming further reserve was assigned. Mujin read return conditions after completing necessary checks here.
The second tug approached in approved order. Before the next stage, the first and Narae aligned receipt confirmations. Images overlapped as vessels drew closer; withdrawal routes did not. One initial alignment condition failed, causing a brief hold. They proceeded after checking updated measurements.
The second actual connection was confirmed. Initial contact alone again finished nothing. Configuration, locking, permitted load and releasable state were verified. The first tug prepared to take responsibility for the four retained modules; the second for the separation target.
Darae abandoned her image of two people pulling a box. In space, releasing a hand would not leave anything quietly on a floor. They must reduce relative motion and loads, then verify paths after separation. Seo read measurements on the retained structure and waited for the specialist's response.
Unoccupied isolation began. On Darae's permitted display, connection indicators changed in sequence. One light going out early did not mean the module had detached. Specialists required separate measurements of actual release and the two targets' separation.
Even after the final structural connection released, the targets appeared together awhile. Nobody pushed them to create a dramatic gap. Maintaining approved small relative motion, each vessel moved its target safely away. Designated measurements confirmed separation; structural states on both sides remained within permitted limits.
Darae's grip relaxed. Four rooms remained; one traveled separately with the other vessel. No resident was inside. No hero had rushed in to shut a door. Qualified adults outside, using actually prepared functions, divided the connection before danger could spread further.
“Isolation confirmed. Disposal is not complete.”
She read her summary aloud. The separated target had tracking and a responsible custodian; property rights remained. Moving four modules onto a stable management path was unfinished too. One successful release could not stand in for the rest of towing.
Narae handed current data and responsibilities to the next observation route. After confirming specialist receipt and both tugs' states, Mujin began return. Narae's departure must not leave an unseen interval. Existing observation coverage and actual receiving staff took over.
Twenty-six days after handover, Darae released her seat restraint at Raon's north port. Narae returned within separately preserved margin; actual consumption and remaining reserve stayed in its navigation log. Her bag contained permitted records, not habitat property or S-6 support supplies.
In the rotating ring, faint pressure returned beneath her feet. She still felt the habit of pulling her shoulders toward the seat. A colleague checked her rest period. She set aside the urge to rush straight to residents and first handed received material to designated staff.
Haeseong came at the scheduled explanation time. Could the separated room be reattached? Darae had no answer. The specialist explained current defect scope, isolation and further inspection. A home of five modules becoming a four-module reuse candidate was no small change.
Beside a guardian, Maru studied the home drawing again. A pen poised to color the missing room, then lowered. Were its things gone too? Darae said some locations still needed checking, but separation had not made them discarded property. Maru wrote stored separately beside the gap, leaving professional drawings alone.
Over several days, towing continued in stages. During working hours after rest, Darae received designated summaries. Updated observations, maneuvers, thermal-recovery waits and actual permissions were checked separately. This was no process of moving a line once across a screen and thereby declaring the actual home at its destination.
In the first summary, she found the faulty module's receiving contact still listed as the old work desk. The new operator had actually received its navigation state; questions about custody of the property could nevertheless still be sent to the previous work desk. She compared custodians and contact routes, then corrected the reply for rights holders. An isolated object's inquiry desk must not disappear too.
At twenty-eight days, the first target's intermediate state was confirmed. Loads and attitude of the four retained modules stayed within plan. The second vessel's isolated target followed another management route. S-6 was attached to neither and remained separately tracked. Darae did not enter three targets under one arrival field.
On the morning of day thirty-one, Safety's final relevant explanation arrived. Four modules had entered the approved management orbit, with subsequent observations confirming required maintenance conditions. The separated module had been handed over to unoccupied isolation management in its designated area. This did not mean they had brought the home up to Raon and fastened it onto one of the station's ports.
The specialist read out exactly what stable orbit meant in this explanation: they had secured the orbital conditions needed for current access and management of the structure. Long-term habitation remained a separate inspection. Pressure, ventilation, heat, power, shielding, living spaces and health conditions remained. S-6 was still unsuitable for long-term residence; residents remained at Raon.
Darae closed the relevant habitat-towing stage. She did not record all five recovered to one place. The four rooms they would retain, the one they had isolated and the separate service module each showed a distinct present state. Brevity must not lose what they had actually achieved.
The twenty-three pouches remained in storage. A colleague asked why they had not been returned yet. Because belongings were not signatures choosing a new home, Darae explained. Requested receipt continued through existing support arrangements; destination transport awaited actual decisions.
With the next shift, she checked 7-B's seal, original card and packaging. The sound main cartridge and two temporary canisters remained in S-6; pump and candidate cartridge remained in Raon specialist storage. Separating one room changed none of those locations automatically.
The cooperative arranged document review for limited resident-side acceptance: who would receive which structure in what state, and how individual property and communal-equipment rights continued. Darae first checked that the signature field did not carry the words residence approval.
Four rooms remained, still unable to call people home. Yet their belongings needed a current custodian, rather than treatment as lost labels. Darae unfolded Haeseong's documents. Instead of saying the home had returned, they must read the actual lines: what could be accepted, and in what condition?