SecUnit, Overse, and Thiago enter the colony dock in EVAC suits after SecUnit forces the damaged DockSecSystem to admit them. Inside, the dock looks mostly unused but recent vandalism and system errors suggest Barish-Estranza arrived recently and mishandled or damaged the security install. SecUnit sends drones ahead, finds three dead Barish-Estranza personnel, and confirms the dock has no obvious place where prisoners could have been kept.

As the search continues, the team finds a fourth body: a dead SecUnit in unfamiliar armor. SecUnit explains that the unit was not killed by the Targets directly; its clients ordered it to stand down and then left, and its governor module killed it when it exceeded its permitted distance from them. The discovery upsets the human team and sharpens SecUnit's own anger and dread, because it is a direct reminder of what governor modules do and why SecUnit escaped its own control.

In the control area, SecUnit struggles through DockSecSystem errors while Overse and Thiago examine the room. Marker data hidden in an art installation reveals ambitious colony development plans, suggesting Adamantine expected a much larger future here. Thiago's language module lets ART translate local labels, and Overse finds logs for not just the main drop box but a hidden maintenance capsule inside the shaft. Before they can finish, ART detects the hostile explorer only minutes away, realizes it has been masked from scans, and breaks off to attack it, leaving SecUnit's team stranded on the dock.

While Overse and Thiago bring up exterior scans, SecUnit reviews the corrupted security archive. The footage confirms Leonide's account of the contact party: Barish-Estranza personnel emerged from the drop box, a SecUnit received a stand-down order, and Targets appeared. Later, after gaps and static, SecUnit catches blurred images of people in ART's blue uniforms running through the dock. That evidence, plus blood in the drop box passenger section and logs showing a second short trip to the surface, convinces SecUnit that at least some of ART's crew were alive and escaped to the planet. Because waiting on the dock is dangerous and the large drop box would be obvious, SecUnit decides to take Overse and Thiago down secretly in the maintenance capsule, leaving a drone behind with a full report for ART.

The embedded HelpMe.file excerpt shifts to an earlier memory: after the GrayCris attempt on Dr. Mensah's life, an injured SecUnit tracks the handler to Preservation Station housing, subdues him, and nearly kills him. SecUnit stops because killing the captive would destroy Mensah's trust, then calls Mensah and Senior Officer Indah instead. They take the agent into custody and arrange legal protection and secrecy around the case. In the addendum, SecUnit explains that it is sharing this memory to prove what it can do, why it is dangerous to targetControlSystem, and why its offer of governor-disabling code should be trusted.