The third crew had used its last intact coupling on the reserve feed. Its leader met Sera with the empty packing still in her hand. She had kept it because the storekeeper wanted the marked sleeve before issuing a replacement, and there would be no replacement until a supply route opened.
“You want it dismantled,” she said.
“I want the monitoring branch inspected.”
“And if your inspection finds something that needs the coupling we don’t have?”
Sera looked past her to the low equipment room. The reserve line had not yet carried its planned later contribution. It still powered instruments and held a charge ready against an expected fall elsewhere. Taking it down would spend part of the very margin they were trying to protect.
The first two access locations had yielded no new defect. Their crews had found ordinary wear, an old stain and a loose cover that predated the contractor’s visit. Sera reported those results alongside the reason for coming here. She laid the disputed handoff copy on a crate so the crew could read it without gathering inside the room.
The leader examined the two times on the page. She asked which part had been proved. Sera told her: the backward component, its diverted load, the replacement’s isolated behavior and the contractor’s recorded entry. The copied signature remained disputed. His entry did not establish that he had fitted the part.
