Rack picks up the maintenance report chatter on Hegemony civilian channels. Attune (ambient, 4/5): The Way-noise is coming from Varn's estate on Sonhandra. The Governor's artifact is waking.
Cutter runs the numbers: if Varn's artifact wakes fully, it activates the Mirror. The Mirror activates and broadcasts its location. Three nodes active and pinging will give the Carrier enough resonance to draw the signal together without the Key. The lattice doesn't need the Key to fire — the Key just makes it faster and more directed. Without it, the signal could still broadcast, but with catastrophic instability.
Juno: "So if we do nothing, Varn accidentally starts this for us."
Sable: "Not for us. For everyone. Without the Key, the gate doesn't open properly. The lattice fires and tears itself apart instead of channeling."
They need to deal with Varn's artifact before it wakes.
Employer: No one. Self-generated.
Type: Heist
Target: Varn's private collection, Sonhandra estate. Remove the artifact before it wakes. No diplomatic incident.
Plan: Deception. Detail: Sera's Cult credentials get them access as a "Way-artifact appraisal team" — Varn has been trying to authenticate his collection for years.
Engagement roll: 2d → 6. Controlled and advantaged. Varn's staff welcomes them. Varn himself is present and flattered.
Governor Varn is a collector, not a politician. He is charming and completely unaware of what he has. He walks the crew through his collection room with the pride of a man who has spent a fortune on beautiful things he doesn't understand.
The artifact is on a dedicated plinth. It looks like a hand mirror with no reflective surface. It hums. Varn describes it as "a Ur navigation tool, I'm told, though it doesn't do anything navigation-like."
Sable gets within three meters and the node fragment in her kit responds. The Mirror responds back.
Dr. Strange (Juno): 6. She asks: "What happens if we take this without suppressing the resonance first?"
Sable begins a suppression ritual. Attune: 5. Controlled. She needs two minutes of undisturbed focus in the collection room. Juno is her excuse — "The appraisal requires a baseline resonance reading, please give us the room."
Cutter manages Varn in the corridor. Sway: 4/5. He keeps the Governor talking for three minutes. Consequence: Varn's head of security checks his credentials against the appraisal company's registry. The registry is real but the crew's names aren't in it.
Rack handles the security chief before she radios. Finesse: 6. He distracts her with a forged digital addendum that appears to add the crew's names to the registry. It'll pass for four hours.
Sable completes the suppression. The Mirror goes quiet.
Varn allows the artifact to be taken for "external certification." He expects it back in two weeks. He signs the transfer form Cutter has forged.
Juno, under her breath as they walk out: "I can't believe that worked."
Cutter: "It always works on people who want to believe you."
In orbit over Sonhandra: the Steadfast drops out of hyperspace. Ohe hails.
Long beat.
Rack looks at the crew. Sable nods. He opens the channel.
Rack: "We're going to Nightfall. To Dr. Nen. And then we're going to figure this out together. All of us. No more running."
Ohe: "I'll follow at distance. I won't interfere unless the Cult moves without the crew."
Hegemony status: +1 → +2.
Payoff: 0 (no employer). Upkeep: -2. Debt +1 = Debt: 2.
The Mirror is now in the cargo hold alongside the sealed container's remains and the Gate Key. Three nodes aboard one ship. The Vagrant Star is the most important vessel in the sector and nobody outside this group knows it.
Vess looks at the Mirror for a long time. Doesn't touch it. "I can hear the Carrier," Vess says. "It's been asking something for three days. I think it's asking if anyone is home."
Juno marks XP (insight + compassion).