FC

Expeditionary-response hull, colony-assigned — the crossing hull

Response Two – Hull Two

The only pressure hull on the ground with a flight plant in it. Choi wrote her off flying in March and Choi was right: she was mid-turnaround when the sky went, her coolant loop broken at the exchanger and her propellant faces capped with yellow plugs, and the gasket set and face seals she needed could not be made on Fifteen in February, never mind after. She flew anyway — on her own drawings, with the corrections in, with a part in her plant that should have been there all along — because she was also nine hundred square metres of repair plate, two pump housings for a line going single string in September, and the one thing on the ground that could stop twenty years of going down slowly from being the whole of it. Navarro burned the best plant the colony owned on a bet. This is the hull the bet was made on.

Operator
Hart colony flight, Launch Spine – Lieutenant Choi, pilot
Registry
Hart response hull two
Series
The Chosen Dark
Drawn as
As she came off the Launch Spine at four minutes past nine and eleven seconds, loaded, with twelve aboard — and as she stood in the next bay on 17 March 2349 with her cabin access panel against the wall and her assemblies tagged on a bench.
Sheet 1 General arrangement — profile, looking to port 52.0 m overall · 52 frames at 1000 mm
GA Cabin — three seats, forward port, systems panel — General arrangement · frames 1–9 · published R2-CAB Custody locker — General arrangement · frames 9–10 · published The long bay — forty-six positions — General arrangement · frames 10–36 · published R2-BAY The set — bay bulkhead — General arrangement · frames 34–36 · published Flight plant — the two channels — General arrangement · frames 36–44 · published R2-PLANT Chambers and pump housings — the section that goes — General arrangement · frames 44–52 · published R2-ENG THE PLANT — two channels, 35 of 35, twice. The part that should have been in it all along went in on 8 July. Nobody will say the odds. THE LONG BAY — unlined, bare frames, forty-six positions. Twelve people. Grey dust the whole length of it at forty seconds. CUSTODY LOCKER — the March seal, unbroken. The thumb-length crystal off their vehicle. 1 20 40 FRAME
Sheet 2 Deck plans — 1 decks, looking down 7.0 m maximum beam

Forward to aft: the three seats, then the bay everybody else rides in, then the plant that has to hold thirty-five out of thirty-five.

Cabin — three seats, forward port, systems panel · frames 1–9 · published · One Road Out – Ascent: the lap belt marked in June with the couch still on a trestle; the forward port; the sequencer on the systems panel; the panel between the seats Cabin — three seats, forward port, systems panel Custody locker · frames 9–10 · published · One Road Out – Handover: 'it came out of the hull's custody locker in the case Okonjo had carried since March, the March seal unbroken' The long bay — forty-six positions · frames 10–36 · published · One Road Out – Ascent: 'no lining anywhere in the long bay … all down both sides the coiled webbing on the bare frames snapped taut'; Home: 'thirty-four positions down both sides of the bay had the webbing coiled and wired off along the rail. The other twelve had people in them' The long bay — forty-six positions The set — bay bulkhead · frames 34–36 · published · One Road Out – Fire: 'Aguda had the set on the bay bulkhead and both hands on the log' Flight plant — the two channels · frames 36–44 · published · One Road Out – More Time: 'the only pressure hull on this ground with a plant in it'; The Wall: 'both channels held thirty-five out of thirty-five … with the part in it that should have been in it all along' Flight plant — the two channels Chambers and pump housings — the section that goes · frames 44–52 · published · One Road Out – Ascent: 'Chamber two'; 'at six minutes forty the first section went and the hull got light'; Rhee: 'two pump housings that fit the west line' Chambers and pump housings — the section that goes 1 20 40 PORT STBD
  1. R2-CAB Cabin — three seats, forward port, systems panel Fr 1–9 published One Road Out – Ascent: the lap belt marked in June with the couch still on a trestle; the forward port; the sequencer on the systems panel; the panel between the seats

    ⭐ Three seats: Choi flying, Abbott on the systems panel with the sequencer, Solano with her thumb on the count and the card. A forward port with frost standing on the pad rail below it at four minutes. The couches were on trestles in the shop in June and the lap belts carry marker-pen marks from then; Choi pulls his to the mark and checks it with two fingers, four times. ⚠ The main cabin hatch seal is a moulded item in place since the hull was built — every time it is opened a seal is spent and there is no way on the planet of making another, so it is opened as few times as anyone can live with. Okonta spent a morning bringing it to temperature off the crawler's heaters before he would seat it.

  2. R2-CUST Custody locker Fr 9–10 published One Road Out – Handover: 'it came out of the hull's custody locker in the case Okonjo had carried since March, the March seal unbroken'

    ⭐⭐ THE EVIDENCE. The case Okonjo has carried since March, seal unbroken, holding the thumb-length crystal off the visitors' vehicle — run three times off Hart's precision reader and not touched since. What the whole crossing is for.

  3. R2-BAY The long bay — forty-six positions Fr 10–36 published One Road Out – Ascent: 'no lining anywhere in the long bay … all down both sides the coiled webbing on the bare frames snapped taut'; Home: 'thirty-four positions down both sides of the bay had the webbing coiled and wired off along the rail. The other twelve had people in them'

    ⭐⭐ Unlined. Bare frames with webbing coiled on them, deck plates, a rail down both sides, an aft bulkhead. Forty-six positions, twelve of them with people in them, thirty-four wired off. At forty seconds the load came on and grey dust came up off the deck plates the whole length of the bay and went aft in one movement and stayed against the aft bulkhead, and weld scale came off the frames with it, and a wire tag worked loose and there was nobody who could go and get it. The crossing left the bay smelling of hot varnish off the light fittings past midnight; two rolls of webbing came down off their wires at the aft end; the cold wall sweated when the temperature went about, and Boateng wrung the cloth into a cup and wrote down what came out of it.

  4. R2-SET The set — bay bulkhead Fr 34–36 published One Road Out – Fire: 'Aguda had the set on the bay bulkhead and both hands on the log'

    The ground channel, on the aft bulkhead of the bay. Aguda's station. The channel stayed open the whole time.

  5. R2-PLANT Flight plant — the two channels Fr 36–44 published One Road Out – More Time: 'the only pressure hull on this ground with a plant in it'; The Wall: 'both channels held thirty-five out of thirty-five … with the part in it that should have been in it all along'

    ⭐⭐ THE BET. Two channels. Both held thirty-five out of thirty-five on 30 June and again on 8 July, the second time with the part in that should have been in all along; the gap at temperature under one per cent and not moved between the two. Nowak signed the chain on the eighth. Ortiz has what is measured and will not say the odds. ⚠ Before terminal black this plant needed a heat-exchanger gasket set and both propellant face seals that the colony could not make in February either — 'that's not what terminal black did to us. That's just what a colony is.'

  6. R2-ENG Chambers and pump housings — the section that goes Fr 44–52 published One Road Out – Ascent: 'Chamber two'; 'at six minutes forty the first section went and the hull got light'; Rhee: 'two pump housings that fit the west line'

    The chambers – Choi calls chamber two by name under load — and the two pump housings Rhee wanted for the west line going single string in September. ⭐ At six minutes forty the first section goes and the hull gets light and loud in a different way, and somebody in the bay makes a sound that comes up the intercom and is not words. The second burn ran nine seconds long against the derived profile, and Choi wrote the nine seconds down and left it where he had written it.

Key

  • Command
  • Propulsion
  • Habitation
  • Stores
  • Communications

Grade of every figure on these sheets

  • published Stated in the books. If a drawing disagrees, the drawing is wrong.
  • derived Arithmetic on published facts; the working is given.
  • fixed Canon was silent here and the drawing decided.

Principal figures

Canon fixes the mass, the frame run and the hull's age directly. The length follows from the frames; the beam is the drawing's own decision, bounded by what the books rule out. Each figure says which it is.

  • Length overall

    52 m

    derivedOne Road Out – Rhee's inventory: 'nine hundred square metres of skin'

    Derived, not stated. Nine hundred square metres of skin on a hull with a bay long enough for forty-six positions down both sides gives roughly this length at a seven-metre diameter, allowing for the tapers. The diameter is the drawing's.

  • Beam

    7 m

    fixedspec ruling 2026-09-14

Systems

The plant

published

Thirty-five out of thirty-five, twice

  • ChannelsTwo — both held 35/35 on 30 June and 8 July 2349
  • Gap at temperatureUnder one per cent, unmoved between the two tests
  • The chainSigned by Nowak on 8 July; Ortiz has read every page under her name
  • Ground side, 21:26Plant at band and holding; chain conditioned and at band; rejection side at ninety-one with all four fans on it. 'Every figure above this line came off a gauge, and I have read them myself' — Ortiz
  • ⛔ The odds'I've got what's measured. That's what the hardware does on this side of it, and it's all I've got.' It's a bet

One Road Out – The Wall; Fire

Ascent and crossing

published

Nine hours to the window

  • Off the Spine09:04:11 — the eleven seconds came off the top of the window, and Solano wrote them on the card
  • Loaded'The way a full skip comes off a wet slope'
  • StagingFirst section at 6:40. Second burn nine seconds long
  • To the approachRoughly nine hours on conventional propulsion to the 84,000 km approach volume, under a precomputed hard-state flight plan
  • AboardTwelve persons
  • After'The hull did not know where it was, and it was asking anybody at all to say so.' Abbott put a known star through the boresight twice off two edges of the plan, and the mount had not walked. The receipt came back at six thirty-two

One Road Out – Ascent; Home; The Chosen Dark orbital geometry

What she was worth on the ground

published

Rhee's list, for the record next to Navarro's

  • SkinNine hundred square metres — repair plate for twenty years
  • FramesFour
  • Pump housingsTwo, fitting the west line
  • PressureThe only vessel on the ground that holds anything above ambient
  • Sinter stockFor the printers past any date anybody has given
  • Verdict'It's the best plant we own and I'm going to burn it.' — Navarro

One Road Out — the technical review

What was checked

The books state distances aboard this ship. The drawing has to produce the same ones or it is wrong — so it is made to, and the working is shown. These run again on every build; a compartment moved by a metre fails them.

  • “Twelve aboard for the crossing, forty-six positions in the bay” One Road Out – Home: 'twelve persons aboard'; 'thirty-four positions … the other twelve had people in them'

    34 + 12 = 46 positions along the bay rail, and the twelve who fill them are the crossing complement the series clock closes at twelve. The bay is drawn for forty-six; the sheet does not decide whether the three cabin seats are among the forty-six or in addition to them, because the prose counts the twelve in bay positions after the crossing and in cabin seats during the ascent.

  • “She flew on a plant that was unfixable in March” One Road Out – Exterior: the heat-exchanger gasket set and both propellant face seals 'we can't make a single item on that list'; The Wall: 35/35 with 'the part in it that should have been in it all along'

    R2-PLANT's note records both states. What changed between March and July is not a new seal — the colony still cannot make one — but a part that was missing from the plant as built, found and fitted. The sheet does not say what the part was, because the books do not.

  • “Nine hundred square metres of skin” One Road Out – Rhee

    A hull 52 m long at 7 m diameter with tapers over the forward eighth and aft twentieth has roughly nine hundred square metres of skin. The length is derived from that figure and the bay's forty-six positions; the diameter is the drawing's.

Service history

What this drawing does not decide

A blueprint that answered everything would be inventing. These are the things canon has not fixed and this sheet deliberately leaves for a book to claim.

  • ⚠ LENGTH IS DERIVED FROM SKIN AREA; DIAMETER IS THE DRAWING'S. The only dimensions stated are nine hundred square metres and four frames.
  • What Response Two was assigned to Hart to do. She is a 'response' hull of the same programme as NV Kestrel, colony-based; the books never say her mission before March.
  • The part that should have been in the plant all along. Found and fitted between March and July; never named.
  • Response One — the rescue shuttle with a cargo door that flew Cold Run. Whether her plant was cut on the tenth to fit Two, or what else was taken, the prose says only 'cutting a flight plant out of a hull on the tenth'.
  • The staging. 'The first section went' at 6:40 — a drop section or booster, never described further.
  • Whether the three cabin seats are counted among the forty-six positions. See the check.
  • ⛔ Where she is now. Home ends with a receipt and Handover with the case; the hull's fate after the Cairn is not in this trilogy.

Compiled from

  • One Road Out – Exterior; The Wall; Cold Run; More Time; the technical review; Fire Order; Ascent; Fire; Home; Handover
  • the first hull of the same response programme