Tal walks onto the Vagrant Star at Nightfall's docking ring. He's unhurt, slightly sunburned, and carrying a bag that clinks.
Cutter: "How."
Tal: "The Cult gave me a lift. Very nice people. Very ideologically committed. They offered me a job."
Cutter: "Did you take it?"
Tal: "No. But I'm reconsidering the Wolves contract." He sets the bag down. Bottled spirits, clearly purchased for the occasion. "I don't know what you're doing, but I've been watching, and it seems important. I'd like to help, if the pay is acceptable."
Cutter looks at the crew. They look back. No vote. Juno says: "Pay is zero and you probably get hurt." Tal: "Standard terms, then." He pours four glasses and one for himself.
Tal joins the crew temporarily as an asset — Wolves operative with local knowledge, no faction affiliation currently.
Nightfall: the original node. The Anchor has been suppressed by Dr. Nen for six years. The Remembrancer has been at the ruins entrance for four days. He has not found the access sequence. Dr. Nen hasn't moved.
Plan: Consort. Detail: Juno's relationship with Dr. Nen from the Extraction job — she knows Nen, Nen trusts her.
Engagement roll: 2d → 5. Controlled. They reach the ruins before the Remembrancer tries anything drastic. He's there, watching them arrive, furious and exhausted.
He sees Sera before he sees anyone else. The expression on his face is complicated. She walks past him into the ruins without stopping.
He blocks the crew. "The Witness is a node. The Mirror is aboard your ship. The Anchor is twenty meters underground. You have the Gate Key. Do you understand how close we are?"
Juno: "Yes. That's why we're here to talk to Nen, not you."
He steps aside. Not gracefully.
Nen is sixty meters underground in a chamber that has become, over six years, something between a camp and a meditation retreat. She stands when Juno enters. She doesn't look surprised.
Nen: "I felt the Mirror wake. And then go quiet. That was you."
Juno: "Yes."
Nen: "And the Gate Key?"
Juno: "Us too."
Nen sits back down. Long pause. "Then you're not asking me to stop. You're asking me what I want."
Juno: "Yes."
This is the scene the Extraction job was building toward. Nen has been holding the Anchor in suppression because she believed she had to — because no one she trusted had ever asked her what she thought about it.
She thinks for a full minute before speaking:
Vess has been listening from the passage. They step in.
The crew steps back.
Vess and Nen look at each other across the chamber. Two nodes. One found, one suppressed. Both waiting.
Vess: "I've known for a while. I said it wrong before — I said I wasn't afraid. I am afraid. But I'm more afraid of not choosing than of what happens after."
Pause.
Juno is very still.
The GM does not describe what Juno is feeling. The player does.
Sera tells him.
He's standing at the ruins entrance when she finds him. She explains what Nen said, what Vess said, what the crew has decided.
He is silent for a long time.
Then: "I kept the gate from you because I thought you'd stop."
Sera: "I might have."
He: "And now?"
Sera: "Now I'm choosing. That's different from you choosing for me."
He doesn't argue. He's not forgiven. He knows.
No payoff. Upkeep: -2. Debt rises to 4.
GM note: Debt should start generating consequences. Next session, a creditor makes contact. Not violent — just present.
Juno — sits with Vess. No roll. Just time. She marks XP for the scene (compassion, no action required).
Sable — prepares the Gate Key for use. Study: 6. She understands the activation sequence fully. She can do this when they're ready.
Rack — calls Ohe. Tells her what's happening. Ohe: "I was afraid of this." Rack: "Are you going to stop us?" Ohe, long pause: "I want to." Longer pause. "No." She closes the channel. She doesn't move the Steadfast.
Cutter — pays debt installment. Side job: Sway, 5. +2 cred, debt -1. Net debt: 3.