The exchange core reached First Vent before the temporary service ended, but not before the crew needed another day.
Iven watched Anra bring the loaded crawler through the final approach on the morning after its first hired stage. The repaired tracks held. Usto called the clearances. The ordinary rigging took the core from its cradle onto the prepared supports without asking a grafted man to become an invisible crane for the whole afternoon.
By evening, the heavy part stood in place.
The cold fit had passed. The working test had not begun.
Leth read the service agreement’s end beside the new work sheet. The Compact frame’s current term finished after that night’s ordinary turns, the thousand and thirty-third day. He would not treat an almost completed installation as permission to let the fuel account and operator appointment continue without an answer.
They asked for three more days.
Venn and Leva came to the station before the evening change. They examined the completed work, the untested paths and the actual fuel remaining in the service stock. The short extension ran from the thirty-fourth through the thirty-sixth, at the measured rate with the reserve separately counted. The paired safe stops remained. No permanent custody clause entered beneath the new date.
