The shuttle team reacts badly to learning that Barish-Estranza has already reached the separatist colonists. Iris sends an updated report out of the blackout zone by messenger pathfinder so the rest of the mission will know their position if Barish-Estranza acts against them. Ratthi raises the possibility of freeing the Barish-Estranza SecUnit, but SecUnit explains that unlike Three, this unit cannot safely be approached: the controlling system and governor module would have to be neutralized, the clients might have to be killed to hide the act, and a newly freed unit might still attack the humans.

Iris opens a secure conversation with Trinh, AdaCol2’s primary operator, and warns that Barish-Estranza wants to claim the planet and exploit the colonists as assets. Trinh points out that Iris is also claiming to be there to help, so the separatists have little reason to trust either side. While Tarik, Ratthi, and ART-drone search for evidence and arguments Iris can use, SecUnit feels useless and decides to scout the Barish-Estranza shuttle’s location.

Guided by AdaCol2, SecUnit moves through dark, unused sections of the Pre-CR installation and explains the governor module to AdaCol2 after the system asks why the Barish-Estranza SecUnit will not answer connection requests. SecUnit finds a northern hangar and uses ScoutDrone2 to observe a Barish-Estranza shuttle, a person in its cockpit, and another SecUnit outside. The weather begins worsening, limiting pathfinders and visibility, while SecUnit and the others infer that Barish-Estranza may have learned of this site from a main-colony faction before SecUnit’s team arrived.

While waiting, SecUnit shares media with AdaCol2 and discovers a large Pre-Corporation Rim media archive, briefly distracting SecUnit from its anxiety. This triggers a reflection on SecUnit’s altered-memory failure and a flashback to Medical, where SecUnit told ART that something in SecUnit had broken; ART argued from trauma protocol that organic damage does not make SecUnit disposable. Back in the present, SecUnit realizes Iris has negotiated a possible in-person meeting and that Trinh has invited the team inside the installation for the night because of the storm.

SecUnit agrees to accept Trinh’s invitation because remaining in the grounded shuttle during worsening dust conditions would make the team vulnerable, especially to a stealth approach by the Barish-Estranza SecUnit. Bot pilot moves the shuttle to another hangar, and AdaCol2 guides Iris, Ratthi, Tarik, ART-drone, and SecUnit through lit inhabited corridors. The humans discuss whether Barish-Estranza might make an exploitative employment pitch, whether the separatists should leave or keep the option to stay, and whether a University research presence at the drop box station could help stabilize the colony’s future.

A nervous colonist named Lucia escorts the team to assigned rooms, but Iris’s attempts at friendly conversation fail, making the group worry that Barish-Estranza has already damaged their credibility. The humans eat and rest while SecUnit and ART-drone stand watch with drones posted as sentries; Ratthi and Tarik privately revisit tension in their relationship, which SecUnit tries to ignore. After several hours of anxious waiting as the storm peaks, Trinh contacts Iris with a new complication: Barish-Estranza wants an in-person meeting with one of SecUnit’s group.