|---|---|---|

| Prepared | Travel air connected and confirmed **by Dorn**; chosen short route traversed this life; designated abort refuge stocked; route equipment ready; the current encounter quiet; and a retreat line armed that he can operate without the astronaut. The handed-over canister must read at or above the route's **full-attempt return mark** — the outward attempt plus the longest return from any committed segment, including cycling back out of an unclosed ship airlock — confirmed on the local preparation gauge | Request movement; Dorn confirms readiness and his preference. An under-supplied request refuses before the refuge door opens |

The short defence uses ordinary hordes. Clearing the route first can reduce pressure but does not promise an empty crossing. The astronaut chooses route, timing, diversion and abort; Dorn crosses under his own power, operates controls and can call an abort. Both staged movement and continuous escort require survivor behaviour.

| Outcome | Persistent result | Player's next choice |

| Astronaut dies before a departure | Everything still carried returns aboard with the astronaut. Dorn remains in his current waiting refuge, not necessarily the original room | Resume rescue, recover committed equipment, or pursue another objective after revival |

| Astronaut dies after Sent | Dorn remains aboard; everything still carried returns with the astronaut | Continue with Dorn still part of the colony |

Requests, radio confirmations and a crossing in progress never count as Sent, and neither does standing inside an **unclosed** ship airlock: that delivery freezes at the lethal instant, and under the pending safeguard he cycles stationward on his own reserved margin rather than closing the airlock himself to finish the mission. If a final approach cannot supply that survivor-operated return, the marked margin and a local tell, the crossing is not eligible to begin and he waits. Failure is locally reversible but consumes travel air and staged reserves already spent and may leave installations committed.

The earlier continuous-escort comparison explains the original tradeoff, but a long escort is ruled out (cooperative rescue must stay short), and a repeated refuge chain is outside this one-junction scene. The current short-route comparison retains preferences, cooperation and the canister commitments at one junction. Reopen its local design if the crossing feels automatic, Dorn's actions are unclear, or the short defence cannot carry the intended human stake.