Episode 9 — The Witness Channel

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Episode summary

Mara climbs the dead antenna spine to let the residents speak for themselves. An outside witness can preserve their evidence, but keeping the channel open demands another sacrifice.

Transcript

Far Signal - Volume 1, Episode 9: The Witness Channel

By Saffron Satellite / WebtoonHaven Studio. Published under a Studio pen name. AI-generated artwork with integrated comic lettering.

Reading order: top to bottom. Eight sequences, 32 panels.

Panel 1. Mara and Sio face Inez and Oren on separate amber and cyan terminals. The grey reserve battery remains connected beside two empty evacuation cradles.
Mara: We can keep you here only if the dismantling crew knows these rooms are occupied.

Panel 2. Inez looks steadily out from her amber terminal.
Inez: Then let us tell them.

Panel 3. Oren appears on a cyan terminal beside an abstract equipment record.
Oren: Our memories disagree in places. Put that in the record too.

Panel 4. Vale appears on a violet screen beside a tug route and three empty schedule blocks.
Vale: The tug reaches this branch in forty minutes. Its order lists empty machinery.

Panel 5. Mara shows Sio a tablet with separate columns for records and evidence.
Mara: The pump log, the missing queue, and what each of you chooses to say. Separate sources.

Panel 6. Mara listens as Inez gives her chosen statement on the amber terminal.
Inez: I will give my name. I was waiting for an evacuation that never came.

Panel 7. Oren appears on a cyan terminal beside a live camera view of the ship and stars.
Oren: Use my name. Include the failed transfer. We are not evidence only when rescue works.

Panel 8. Sio stands beside an anonymous amber waveform, with the reserve battery and other equipment nearby.
Sio: The private resident permits the same short statement. Nothing else.

Panel 9. Vale appears on a violet screen beside an interrupted antenna link diagram.
Vale: Port Safety will hold a witnessed channel. But this branch sits behind the dead antenna.

Panel 10. Mara looks out of the ship hatch towards the huge dark antenna spine, with a tether anchor beside her.
Mara: We need a line above the shadow.

Panel 11. Mara opens the service rack to reveal the black converter with copper fins and orange latches. The failed blue survey processor is separately tagged.
Sio: The salvage converter could power a bridge from the ship bus.

Panel 12. Mara touches the copper-finned converter while Sio watches.
Mara: If we take it out, the cutting rig cannot work. Leave it ready. First, the cable.

Panel 13. Mara steps from the docked ship onto the relay hull with a yellow tether and cable spool. Sio remains inside the hatch.
Caption: Six minutes later.

Panel 14. Mara secures a second yellow tether clip to the upper rail.
Sio: Second anchor engaged.

Panel 15. Mara climbs the massive relay spine, with the docked ship below and a cable trailing behind.
Mara: Keep the line slack. I am going around the broken panel.

Panel 16. Mara grips an intact handrail and braces beside a fractured metal panel.
Caption: The handrail holds. The old panel does not.

Panel 17. Mara holds position on the relay hull as a loose metal panel drifts across her route. Her yellow tether remains clipped.
Sio: Hold position. Debris crossing your route.

Panel 18. Close through her intact helmet, Mara watches the drifting debris, reflected in the visor.
Mara: Holding.

Panel 19. Mara reaches the antenna junction above the shadowed spine, still tethered to the structure.
Caption: Four minutes later.

Panel 20. Mara seats the cable connector in the junction; its indicator turns green.
Mara: Bridge connected. Try the witness channel.

Panel 21. Sio stands alone at the relay terminals: amber Inez, cyan Oren and a green audio waveform for Port Safety.
Port Safety: Live audio received. I can record statements and the equipment readings. I cannot cancel a salvage order.

Panel 22. Inez speaks from her amber terminal with Sio listening nearby.
Inez: My name is Inez. I am still here.

Panel 23. Oren speaks from his cyan terminal beside the star-camera view.
Oren: I am Oren. The last transfer cost me two minutes. Moving us is not automatically saving us.

Panel 24. Sio stands beside the anonymous amber waveform and the separate green witness waveform.
Private resident: I did not consent to being taken apart.

Panel 25. Vale, physically in her pressurised Operations room, places a blue equipment-record card beside the display.
Vale: The queue was omitted from the cleared count. My signed correction is attached, with the original log.

Panel 26. Tethered outside, Mara listens to a green witness waveform on her wrist terminal.
Port Safety: Witness record received. Statements and source records remain distinct. Channel stays open while you have power.

Panel 27. Sio watches rising amber load bars beside the connected grey reserve battery with yellow protectors.
Sio: Bridge load is draining the ship bus. The reserve cannot cover both.

Panel 28. Mara looks down towards the lit ship hatch from the relay spine, still secured by her yellow tether.
Mara: I am coming back. Do not touch the residents' supply.

Panel 29. Mara returns through the ship hatch with her tether still attached; Sio waits beside coiled cable.
Caption: Eleven minutes later.

Panel 30. Mara examines the copper-finned salvage converter in its rack. The blue survey processor stays separately tagged.
Sio: We can strip the converter into a low-loss local supply. It will not drive the cutting rig again.

Panel 31. Mara and Sio look through the porthole towards the approaching tug light.
Mara: How long before the tug?

Panel 32. Sio faces the copper-finned converter beside three amber indicator bars.
Sio: Enough to choose. Not enough to keep everything.