**Status:** working systems contract for the cooperative return in [Coming Home](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Coming%20Home). The owner tentatively accepted this equipment-loan direction (“keep. I think.”), not a complete colony economy or a requirement that every scene consume scarce material. Human effect and production cost remain unvalidated.

One ordinary relay-family part returns from the station. While carried it occupies shared capacity. A live return brings it aboard; death also brings it and every other still-carried item aboard with the astronaut under the owner’s rule. It remains in the rig if installed there, otherwise in ship storage. A relay deliberately left in station infrastructure was not carried and stays installed. Dorn and Yeva show their incomplete work, but neither silently takes or reserves it.

The player may seat or remove the relay at either project, carry it on departure, or postpone with it stored. The relay is reusable equipment under [Build Rules](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Build%20Rules): removal returns the same part and stops the powered device. No timer, degradation, upkeep demand or relationship penalty advances while either project waits.

| State | Relay location | What operates | What survives removal |

| Carried in station | Astronaut rig or pack | Neither project | Existing records; death brings the carried relay aboard |

2. Seat it in the bench, prepare the departure canisters, and reclaim it.

Both ship projects are dark on departure. Nothing is duplicated: prepared charge and communicated knowledge persist because they are produced results, not operating benefits. Leaving the relay in the bench remains permitted but gives no additional established benefit for this departure. Darkness during the expedition and unspecified ship time are not invented costs.

Other participation choices remain honest. Leaving the bench powered leaves the relay aboard and offers no additional established benefit to that departure. Postponing sends the relay out in the rig with ordinary canisters and no reading. Selective listening or packing is also possible. These are choices about which human activities and information the player engages with, not exclusive material expenditures.

After listening, Dorn unseats and returns the relay himself, thanking the player specifically for a loan. At the bench, Yeva says the canisters are his work as much as hers and returns the relay beside them. On postponement, Yeva says she would rather hear no than have Dorn keep asking through her; Dorn says the panel will still be there. Neither withdraws anything. When told the reading, Yeva asks which side of the seal the pressure line currently samples, giving the player a specific connection to trace at the known panel.

The crossed-out-name disagreement remains an ordinary later conversation, not payment or punishment. Neither memory is made station history.

Necessary room states are both devices incomplete/dark, receiver powered, bench powered and both dark after reclamation. Dialogue variants cover inspect, listen, share, pack, remove, postpone and return after checking the panel. The sequence's strength is visible cooperation without manufactured loss. Its risk is becoming an automatic pre-departure checklist rather than time among people. Irreversible commitment remains credible for another project whose material and experience justify it. Reopen this choice if the interaction becomes compulsory repetition or a concrete permanent project supports a stronger human decision without hidden degradation, delays or loss rules.