Episode 10 — What We Can Hold

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Episode summary

With the tug minutes away, Mara dismantles the equipment that earns her living. The residents choose what they can spare, and Sio agrees to help on its own terms.

Transcript

Far Signal - Volume 1, Episode 10: What We Can Hold

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. Vale appears on a violet communications screen beside the approaching tug marker.
Vale: Ten minutes to contact. The witness channel is still open.

Panel 2. Mara and Sio examine the black copper-finned converter; the failed blue survey processor remains separately tagged.
Sio: A low-loss supply will hold the bridge. The conversion destroys the cutting stage.

Panel 3. Mara rests a gloved hand on the copper fins, her face reflected in the dark rack trim.
Mara: What's left is a ship. Not a salvage business.

Panel 4. Mara holds Oren's cyan screen while he speaks to her.
Oren: You should not have to lose everything because we are here.

Panel 5. At the connected relay, Mara asks Oren on the handheld screen what he can safely spare. Sio stands near the reserve battery.
Mara: It is my equipment. This choice is mine. Tell me what you can safely spare.

Panel 6. Inez speaks from her amber terminal beside the two empty evacuation cradles.
Inez: Dim my display. Keep the voice and cooling.

Panel 7. Oren speaks from the cyan monitor beside the live star-camera inset.
Oren: My camera feed can wait. No cuts to anyone who cannot answer.

Panel 8. Sio faces a small anonymous amber waveform with no identifying information.
Private resident: My reserve stays mine.

Panel 9. Mara shows Sio a diagram separating protected and optional power loads.
Mara: Agreed. Only offered loads. No private reserve, no core power.

Panel 10. Mara kneels at Sio's eye level and offers an unplugged communications lead.
Mara: Will you bridge the local link while I move the converter? You can refuse.

Panel 11. Sio faces Mara with its tool arms folded and its communications port visible.
Sio: Ten minutes. Then I disconnect unless I choose again. No access to my archive.

Panel 12. Mara lays the unplugged lead on a crate beside Sio.
Mara: Those are the terms.

Panel 13. Mara isolates the copper-finned converter in its ship rack; the tagged blue processor remains separate.
Sio: Cutting circuit isolated. Residents' supply unchanged.

Panel 14. Mara lowers the converter onto a wheeled tray, leaving an empty slot in the rack.
Caption: The part that paid for the ship comes out first.

Panel 15. Mara uses manual cutters on the unpowered copper link. The detached orange-latched cutting stage rests separately beside it.
Mara: No putting this back between jobs.

Panel 16. Mara holds the severed copper link while Sio watches beside the removed cutting stage.
Sio: No.

Panel 17. Mara secures the remaining copper-finned converter to a carrier with insulated leads; removed cutting equipment lies separately on the work tray.
Caption: Four minutes later.

Panel 18. Mara pushes the converted supply through the connected passage while Sio walks beside it.
Mara: Cable clear?

Panel 19. Sio checks the cable route beside the carrier wheels without using its tool arms.
Sio: Clear. I am ready for the link.

Panel 20. Mara attaches a thin communications lead to Sio's side port beside the open passage.
Mara: Your disconnect stays within reach.

Panel 21. Mara connects the converted copper-finned supply to a separate relay junction. The grey reserve battery remains connected in the background.
Sio: Bridge on the converted supply. Core load steady.

Panel 22. Inez confirms her presence on the amber terminal.
Inez: I am here.

Panel 23. Oren confirms his presence on the cyan monitor beside the dark camera inset.
Oren: Still here.

Panel 24. The anonymous amber waveform remains active beside Sio, with the passage behind it clear.
Private resident: Here.

Panel 25. Mara watches steady load bars beside the wheeled converted supply; Sio stands nearby.
Sio: The bridge holds. The cutting rig is dead.

Panel 26. Port Safety's green waveform shares a display with smaller amber and cyan connection indicators.
Port Safety: I have the live channel and the signed equipment record.

Panel 27. Vale appears on a violet screen beside a safety-hold form diagram.
Vale: As duty engineer, I can issue a safety suspension on verified occupied load. The tug master must acknowledge it.

Panel 28. Mara faces Inez and Oren on their separate terminals with Sio at the local junction.
Mara: I cannot promise they will listen.

Panel 29. Inez faces Mara and Sio from her amber terminal.
Inez: Then keep the line open. We will speak.

Panel 30. The large grey dismantling tug approaches the relay with its cutting boom folded and blue manoeuvring lights lit. Mara's smaller ship remains docked below.
Caption: Contact.

Panel 31. Mara and Sio see the tug through the observation port beside the tug master's white audio waveform.
Tug master: Salvage control. Clear the structure for dismantling.

Panel 32. Mara stands aside from the Inez and Oren terminals. The green witness waveform remains active beside them.
Mara: The people you need to ask are already on this channel.