Before picking up his pen, Haeseong brought another empty chair.
Told that only the representative needed to sit, he answered that people who would not sign today must be able to ask questions too. Darae laid an individual-property list before that chair. A representative's acceptance of a home and each person's receipt of belongings could share a page without sharing authority.
It was the morning of the thirty-sixth day after temporary handover, in Raon's limited-acceptance briefing room. Four modules underwent unoccupied maintenance and specialist inspection in their management orbit. The faulty module remained isolated, S-6 separate. All twenty-three residents still received Raon support, with long-term homes undecided.
Over five days, specialists had checked structural condition, pressure-tightness and power-isolation and maintenance conditions in stages. Authorized inspectors had made limited visits. Those were not resident-entry permissions. Darae corrected a schedule that had turned inspectors' entry into the start of habitation. Who had gone, and why, came first.
Today's acceptance concerned custody and management responsibility for identifiable communal assets, with associated records. It did not bring everything inside the modules onto a Raon desk. A representative's signature would decide neither residence rights nor final-use permissions nor uncertain ownership. The facilitator read that scope from the beginning.
Haeseong examined current-condition material for the four remaining rooms. The folded table had been identified within the relevant property check and remained in place. Part of the cooking counter awaited safety review, its use suspended. Personal cooking support and communal-equipment contributions occupied separate lines. Calling it a home recovered must not swallow all its rights.
The woman with the leaf container explained her entry within the limited meeting. She still intended to go elsewhere. Agreement to communal custody today would not change that. Haeseong agreed, then checked that the acceptance document said so too. It must not remain merely a private promise between them.
Future table-use conditions continued their earlier agreement. Defined actual use or handover would trigger agreed settlement; undecided items were not donations. Without use approval, today could not be marked payment complete. Someone leaving did not lose a share simply by standing outside this circle of chairs.
The other relocation applicant identified a tool for which he wanted physical delivery. Specialist checks had established identity and safe recovery scope; one small item had reached Raon on authorized cargo transport. Darae read its position separately from everything still inside the habitat. Objects traveled more slowly than documents.
Before handing it over, she checked the packaging seal. The exterior owner's name was correct; the photograph reference pointed to another tool. Familiar, similar white dots caught her eye again. A wrong photograph did not immediately justify demanding a different physical object.
Original recovery checks, physical features and the designated custodian's acceptance explanation were compared. Repair marks and identification matched the tool; only the cargo-sheet photograph link was wrong. Staff retained the correction and old link. The recipient read the corrected verification before taking his tool.
“Taking it doesn't leave me owing the future home, does it?” he asked.
Haeseong let the responsible staff confirm scope. This was delivery of an object with established personal rights, separate from payment for use of other equipment. Signing receipt promised neither a future home nor restoration labor. The familiar tool went into its owner's bag.
The woman's cooking support remained inside the habitat. Safe separation and recovery conditions needed further checks. Another person's receipt must not turn her own request into completed work. Darae read its waiting state, current custodian and next inquiry route, and confirmed receipt of that explanation.
The woman asked for a photograph to see its condition. The specialist provided permitted views of the object, excluding private papers beside it. She recognized her support but declined public use of the picture. An object awaiting return had no obligation to become promotional imagery.
The injured resident was still comparing consultation information. Sitting here did not become a third confirmed relocation application. Darae showed a revised form without a housing-choice box beside property receipt. Nobody should lose a handkerchief because they had not yet chosen a destination.
Staff also explained the current state of twenty-three personal pouches already at Raon. Items taken out for present use had their handovers recorded and were secured again. Closing packaging did not forbid opening it. People continuing their lives could not freeze their belongings for some future voyage.
With a guardian, Maru briefly took out the notebook. The old night-contact roster lay folded inside. Maru first asked whether the new document had created a technical-staff box in that name. Resident views and daytime learning continued, staff explained; no signature assigned navigation or hazardous night duty.
Maru wrote a question directly: would there be a place to do homework after returning? Darae said everyday space, physical care, guardian accompaniment and education links in four nonrotating modules were still being verified. Before choosing where seeds could go, they needed somewhere a child could rest and learn.
At lunch, Haeseong left the representative's papers unfolded. He took his worn table photograph from his personal pouch and laid it beside them. Darae remembered confusing the six drawn rectangles with six actual people. Looking at the same image now, she did not count that day's residents from it.
“It feels strange, accepting a home while sitting at a desk,” Haeseong said.
Darae had always thought her office simply returned things. Today's home could not be lifted by hand. They were accepting where it was, who held responsibility and the conditions under which the next person could touch it. Still being unable to live inside did not leave it without responsibility.
After lunch, the facilitator read uncertain assets. Some property inside the isolated module still needed location and condition checks. There were boxes with unknown owners and disputed items too. Blanket representative acceptance could speed the process while erasing other requests from the people concerned.
Haeseong asked to exclude those entries from his signature. Actual staff were assigned continued designated custody and holds on use or disposal. His nonacceptance did not leave the objects without anyone to look after them. Darae checked that uncertain did not become a blank with nobody responsible.
The first representative signature field said receipt on behalf of all residents. Haeseong put down his pen. He held only the authority delegated to him for communal management; he could not surrender individual property, choose homes or receive every private belonging. Staff changed the sentence to match that mandate and explained it again to rights holders.
A resident asked whether they could change representatives later. The facilitator explained management scope and the change route. Recovering a home did not make one person its permanent manager. Haeseong added the designated desk and handover method to use when he could not be reached.
Darae matched the list of custody material actually received. One link retained the former five-module bundle title. Current four-module, isolated-module and S-6 records needed separate routes. The old bundle stayed as history; the present search paths were divided and tested.
A test opened a private photograph as a communal-asset attachment. The link confused Haeseong's original table image with the permitted copy. Staff corrected permissions and references. The original was already in his personal custody; only the authorized copy belonged in relevant work. Another staff screen was actually retested before signing ended.
Late that afternoon, Haeseong signed limited communal-management acceptance. The facilitator read its effective scope and time; specialist custodians confirmed continuing safety and inspection responsibilities. Residence approval still remained ahead. This signature was no stamp passing technical verification.
Nobody proposed sending residents out immediately after acceptance. Microgravity health care, pressure, ventilation, heat, shielding, adult relief staff and eating, sleeping and learning spaces must actually be ready. Darae received plain-language next responsibilities and check dates and passed them to resident support.
Questions also concerned the pump and candidate cartridge. Both remained in Raon specialist storage; today's inventory did not mark them installed. A verified application plan would require each custodian's handover, transport, installation and testing. The three existing S-6 canisters would not be removed to fill that gap.
Faulty 7-B, original card and packaging remained under Office 4 emergency preservation. The original thirty-six hours had long elapsed without automatic disposal. Communal-management acceptance carried different authority from final treatment of evidence. Darae explained that distinction when asked whether receiving the home meant they could clear away the cartridge.
Haeseong placed his final copy in the document holder. The woman separately gathered the custody reply for her cooking support. They faced the same home but took different papers away. Watching them leave the consultation room in a different order, Darae refused to count signatures as people's wishes.
Acceptance had reduced real unanswered questions. The four modules now had a communal-management contact; individual belongings had identifiable inquiry routes. Where people would live and what they would do there still required their own new decisions. A home accepted could not own its people.
Back at the office, Darae checked the empty storage position of today's returned tool. Other people's pouches remained; unreturned entries still had next contacts. One small object accurately restored to its owner stayed more tangibly with her than dozens of signatures. Where its owner carried it was his choice.
Her terminal carried the recovery-fee investigation briefing schedule. Separate review of completed-work codes against actual performance was nearing its end, with Giwan's submissions and objections considered. Detailed results would be provided at the designated meeting.
Darae did not place that notice beside today's acceptance form. Receiving the home must not look like approving old charges. Past nonperformance and today's real acceptance were different work on different days. At the next briefing, they must read that unfinished calculation again through the lines of what had actually been done.