After docking at HaveRatton, SecUnit avoids saying goodbye to the contract laborers, slips past station security, buys memory clips, and goes straight to the private docks. There, SecUnit finds the supply ship it had hoped would be heading to Milu, tricks the low-functioning bot pilot into allowing boarding, and erases the evidence of entry. SecUnit settles in to wait, expecting a quiet trip.

That plan changes when the ship’s life support comes fully online and the bot pilot reports that two passengers are boarding. SecUnit hides in a supply locker and watches through the ship’s drones as two augmented humans, Wilken and Gerth, arrive carrying combat gear. During the twenty-cycle voyage, SecUnit covertly records and analyzes their conversations and learns they are security consultants hired to protect a GoodNightLander Independent fact-finding team going to inspect GrayCris’s abandoned terraforming facility.

When the ship reaches Milu, SecUnit finds the station eerily silent and mostly shut down, with inactive businesses, sparse traffic, and weak security coverage. Realizing the station is half-dead but still usable, SecUnit hides the new memory clips inside its arm, leaves its bag behind on the supply ship, hacks the station’s minimal security, and manipulates the ship into remaining docked as a possible escape route.

SecUnit follows Wilken and Gerth through the dark station to the Port Authority offices and observes them meeting Don Abene, Hirune, and their human-form bot assistant, Miki. From the briefing, SecUnit learns that GoodNightLander Independent has reclaimed the abandoned facility and wants an initial twelve-hour on-site assessment before committing further resources. Because the terraform shield blocks outside scans and nobody knows what might now be inside the facility, the team is proceeding cautiously with hired security.

After overhearing the expedition’s shuttle plans, SecUnit realizes there is no easy systems-based way to get aboard unseen and decides to use Miki. Contacting the bot over the feed under the alias Rin, SecUnit claims to be a secret security consultant and persuades Miki to keep the contact hidden for the team’s safety. To SecUnit’s surprise, Miki is trusting, emotionally attached to Don Abene and the others, and willing to help; Miki grants full shuttle access and agrees to serve as SecUnit’s hidden eyes, sensors, and voice during the mission.