Hey,
So I think you've stumbled into an edge-case with the persistence code:
- The distress call is technically the end of Act 1, where you "should" have finished it, then seen the Act Complete screen afterwards
- Because of this, behind-the-scenes I set Act 1 as complete in the game's save file
- From that, any completed Act cleans up such that when you select it again, it's from scratch (It'll undo saved choices too, so I think I need to add a dialog warning box for this; something like from other episodic story games)
With the build as-it-is, I'm afraid you'll need to start over, sorry ☹
When you say "played to the distress call", do you mean when the Operator calls you after chatting with Orby?