After the survey team docks with the baseship for the trip back to Preservation, SecUnit looks forward to a quiet return and reflects on how unusual it still feels to have privacy around humans. Ratthi visits to defend Thiago’s distrust as corporate prejudice and ignorance, and Overse thanks SecUnit for supporting Arada during her first survey as lead. SecUnit dismisses the praise outwardly, but the exchange reinforces how much it cares about keeping these particular humans safe.

When the ship exits the wormhole into Preservation space, an alarm interrupts SecUnit’s media. A vessel approaches without communication, confirms hostile intent, and fires a locator missile into the facility’s drive housing. The strike knocks out systems and cuts comm and feed links, so SecUnit uses a drone to reconnect the facility control deck with the baseship bridge. Roa reports that the attackers appear to be targeting the facility’s lower hatch, and Arada sends SecUnit to help Rajpreet defend it.

At the lower hatch, SecUnit and Rajpreet prepare for a boarding attempt while Roa explains that outside help is still eighty-four minutes away. The crisis worsens when the hostile ship uses tractor systems to seize the facility and begin dragging it toward the wormhole. Because the attackers may capture everyone if the facility stays attached, but may fire on the now-exposed baseship if it is jettisoned, Arada asks SecUnit for a recommendation. SecUnit chooses jettisoning, and Arada orders an evacuation to the baseship.

The evacuation begins, but it falls apart when Ratthi discovers that Amena and Kanti are missing and Thiago has gone looking for them on the lower level. While the attackers start breaching the matched lock, SecUnit sends Rajpreet back toward the gravity well and searches the damaged labs. SecUnit finds Kanti trapped behind a jammed hatch and frees her, then discovers Amena pinned under collapsed equipment inside the compartment. After sending Kanti toward safety under drone escort, SecUnit pries Amena loose and carries her out.

Before SecUnit and Amena can reach the gravity well, the hostile force breaches the lower hatch and sends drones aboard. SecUnit warns Arada to seal and jettison immediately, then hides with Amena until a relay message gets through: the facility has been separated, the others have abandoned the baseship for the safepod, and Overse tells SecUnit to try for the lower EVAC suits so the baseship can tractor them in. SecUnit and Amena reach the engineering lock, suit up, and open the airlock, with hostiles already aboard the drifting facility.