The second clamp would not seat.
Hester enlarged the collar view. A thin ridge of old protective compound lay across one guide face. It had been invisible until the two surfaces came together. Nothing living, nothing mysterious. An ordinary installation remnant in the place an ordinary installation remnant could kill them.
"Back a fraction," she said.
Mara backed the tram. Nessa kept the bundle from folding under the receiving frame. The first clamp released. Through the interior camera Mara saw five bodies sway together, caught by their restraints.
"What's happening?" Kit asked.
"Cleaning the mate," Hester said. "Stay seated."
The crawler was already at the refuge service collar. Mara transferred its control to Hester, who brought the short gripper across the docking face and scraped the soft compound clear. A piece drifted into the water. Hester washed the surface, inspected it and moved the tool away.
"Again."
Mara brought the tram forward.
Both clamps seated. The third followed. The docking space drained and its pressure matched the dry rooms on either side. The door indicators turned green.
For a moment no one moved inside the tram.
Jonah had his eyes shut. Leonie was staring at the release light. Kit looked up from the pump as if he had forgotten the meaning of green. Nessa kept her hand on the guide control, waiting for the next thing that would go wrong.
"You can open it," Mara said.
Benji laughed. The sound came through the speaker very close. "We know."
He unfastened his restraint, got one foot into the aisle and discovered there was nowhere to put the other without stepping on the pillow. Kit moved the pillow for him. Benji thanked him with an awkward nod and reached the hatch.
The door opened.
Behind it waited the empty room they had watched on the camera: the folded bunks, the strapped kettle, the broad window. Benji put one foot across the sill. His line drew tight. He stopped.
"Local manifold first," Leonie said.
He looked down. "Right. Sorry."
Nobody called him careless. The room had been so near, so ordinary. Mara had wanted to step into it too, forgetting the distance between her own body and its little live image.
Leonie opened the destination branch. The new exchanger carried a bright moving trace. Whole source circulation remained connected while the cradle traveled its last short movement toward the gradient. Jonah held manual balance; Kit managed the return slack. Nessa passed the first local line into Benji's hand.
Keeping the supported hand against his stomach, Benji followed each connection while Leonie seated the couplings. He opened each branch with his good hand. The supply stayed live. The return cleared. He stood for a moment with one foot on either side of the hatch, waiting for his body to object.
It did not.
He went in.
Mara put the internal refuge camera on the main screen. Benji crossed the floor slowly, looking around as though he had never been there before. He set the green pillow on a bunk, took the wrapped mug from under his arm and laid it on the table. Then he went to the window.
He did not say anything.
Mara gave him the silence. Behind her the original station made a little creaking movement, but the bearing number held within its new position. She stayed with the rig and let him look.
Leonie came next, leaving Jonah with the manual control until the new branches were ready. She opened her medical case on the refuge work surface and laid out fittings in the same order she had used at the station.
Nessa moved Jonah's line. He turned his head, checking her work. She looked annoyed, then realized he was checking his own body and not her competence. She let him inspect the coupling before opening the return. He nodded, unfastened his restraint and stood.
The tram seemed smaller with each person who left it. Kit was last except Nessa, who stayed to work the guide while Mara placed the source. He rose carefully, leaning on the seat. The changed hip had stiffened during the crossing, and the sleeve-edge mark from holding Nessa's line had darkened. He kept his arm clear of it. Leonie stepped toward him from the refuge door, stopped, and asked if he wanted help.
He looked at her, then beyond her at Jonah.
"Him," he said.
Jonah came back. He put an arm beneath Kit's, waited until Kit had his footing and helped him cross the sill. Leonie moved aside. The rejection hurt her in a way Mara could see from three hundred meters away. She still kept his branch clear.
Mara brought the cradle onto the destination support.
The cradle hung above the pale fans beside the Bell. Mara needed its lower intake in the rising dark plume. Nessa guided her from the bottom camera while Benji called from the window, seeing the water change before it reached the intake. Jonah stayed on return; Leonie watched the branches.
"Left foot over the pale ridge," Nessa said.
Mara moved it.
"Too far. Back. The intake's pulling clear water."
Benji interrupted. "Wait. It's opening on the lower edge. Give it a moment."
Mara held.
The exterior fans unfolded. The dark plume entered the cradle's screened channels, met the clearer water and disappeared into the layered tissue. A wave passed along the source's lower half. The local charge trace rose, overshot, settled.
"Source taking destination," Leonie said.
Nessa checked it herself from the tram. "Not enough load off the station yet. We still have tension in the old support."
"I know. Source first."
Mara lowered the feet. One, two, three. The receiving structure took the static weight. She eased the handling rig until the cradle stood on its own supports, circulation pumps working, the living bed opening around it as if nothing human had happened at all.
The charge held.
Nessa left the tram and crossed into refuge. Five people. Mara counted without speaking. Leonie at the branches, Jonah at the balance, Benji by the window, Kit on the far bunk, Nessa checking the destination guide. All five had crossed the black water alive.
Imani made a small broken sound beside Hester.
Mara turned. The oceanographer had one hand pressed to the front of her mask. Tears had gathered above its upper seal. She wiped them clumsily before they could run inside.
"Sorry," she said.
Hester put a hand on the back of her neck, briefly. "Don't apologize for a system working. It doesn't happen often."
Imani laughed, then cried harder. Mara turned back to the screen so she did not have to make herself stop.
At the refuge Benji opened the cupboard containing water. He set five cups on the work surface, stared at them and put out a sixth by habit. He looked at it. Jonah took the extra cup and put it away. No comment. Mara was grateful for that too.
Sal called.
Mara reported. Five arrived. Source output stable at destination. Dock intact. Old station-side service support still attached, local release pending. He repeated it back. Above them the support package was being moved into the launch frame.
"You have your power coming once the rail's clear," he said. "Refuge transponder's answering. I'm moving the deployment point to its dock, not yours."
"Good."
"Now finish and come up."
She looked at Hester. The pilot was already checking the capsule dock. A small frown had appeared between her brows.
"Working on it," Mara said.
The station moved.
This time it did not feel like a shiver. It felt like a slow turn of the floor, something heavy settling under Mara's right boot. She caught the console. Imani took the wall. The bearing number jumped and held at a new value.
On the refuge feed Nessa's head snapped toward the guide display.
"Old support's loading us," she said.
Mara put the bearing camera on. The service arm between the old station and the refuge-side rig had gone taut. It was not carrying the cradle's vertical weight anymore. It was carrying a new sideways pull from the settling hull. The rail assembly bowed under it, small on the screen, huge in what it meant.
"Destination carriage locked?" she asked.
"Locked. All five clear."
"Local flow independent?"
Leonie answered. "Holding. Return loop set."
Mara reached for the local-control drawing. The station-side arm had to come away before that sideways pull reached the cradle.
Hester called her on the crew channel.
"Mara."
She looked up.
The pilot stood at the Bore Room entrance, one hand holding the capsule's dock reading where Mara could see it. The mating frame had begun to drift toward its tolerance limit. Not gone. Going.
"We need to leave the station feed," Hester said. "Get onto departure air. Now."
Mara looked once at the five people in the new room. Kit had sat down. Nessa was standing at the guide. Benji's hand lay flat on the broad window. Leonie watched Jonah drink water from a cup he held himself.
Mara took her hands out of the rig controller.
"Keep the camera on the bearing," she said. "I'll be back."