The station logo flickers across the relay screen, half-swallowed by static. Around the table, the cantina noise stays low, like everyone is pretending not to listen.
The Mechanic
Secret bay gets you in, but it also gets you logged. We keep the lights down, patch fast, and leave before patrol cycles back.
The Dockhand
If they sweep this room again, I am done for.
Lahani slides the access map flat between cups, one talon pinning the service route. The secret bay sits two decks below the public docks, just off a maintenance spine with blind spots in the camera net.
The Station Clerk
I can open a ten-minute window, maybe twelve. After that, the corridor seals and the audit pings central security.
Nahuli gets the shape of it at once, a narrow chance to move the ship, refit the damaged systems, and vanish before the station decides to look harder.
The Dockhand
If you want the bay, you move now. The next patrol is already late.
✓ Quest Accepted
Protect the crew from the station's reach
“Why is security bothering the two of us like this?”
FAILURE (Superb Willpower, rolled -4)
The clerk lifts two fingers toward the cantina doorway, then toward the sealed route on the map. Their caution hardens into a clear warning.
The Station Clerk
Because security is not asking about you. They are asking who keeps moving people through my bays without paying for the privilege.
The dockhand swallows and looks away. The mechanic taps the map once, where the service spine drops out of camera range.
The Mechanic
They are pressing everyone near the refit lanes. If they catch your crew in that bay, they will want names, cargo, access keys, all of it.
The Station Clerk
I can hide the window, but I cannot hide you inside it. That part is on the people going in.
Lahani’s talon stays on the map, but her posture shifts, less pitch and more test. The dockhand keeps watching the door like it might open on its own.
The Dockhand
If you want us to walk into that corridor, tell us what stops security from pulling us apart the second we move.
“I tell the clerk about the unauthorized channel we found earlier.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Engineering, rolled +1)
Nahuli slides the datapad closer and taps the reissued seal. The clerk’s eyes track the motion, then narrow as he catches the old telemetry tag buried under the new wrap.
Nahuli
That unauthorized channel was piggybacking on our life support telemetry. We cut it off, wiped the stream, and it was still trying to trace us.
The Station Clerk
...Then someone is already past the polite layer of station access. Good. At least that part is honest.
The mechanic lets out a short breath and leans back from the map. The dockhand finally looks from the door to Nahuli, measuring him instead of the exit.
The Mechanic
That means your problem is real, not just dock gossip. Real trouble leaves a trace.
The Dockhand
If they were watching life support, they were watching everyone. That is worse, but it is also useful.
The clerk reaches over the table and turns the cracked relay screen a fraction, so the station logo stutters in the periphery while the map stays between them.
The Station Clerk
You have a clean window, a sealed bay, and a crew that now knows somebody else is fishing in the dark. That should be enough to make them choose you over the station.
✓ Quest Accepted
Prove the crew will be protected from station security
− Scene Quest Removed
Protect the crew from the station's reach
“I've no interest in getting involved with whoever is pulling the strings. thats a task for security. I would rather get to know the two new avali crew better.”
SUCCESS (Fair Diplomacy, rolled +2)
The mechanic’s shoulders loosen first. The dockhand follows, with a wary little nod toward Nahuli, as if that settles something private at last.
The Mechanic
You keep the work honest, we keep the work quiet. That is a trade I understand.
The Dockhand
And if station security comes sniffing, I do not want heroics. I want someone who knows where the exits are.
The clerk gives a dry snort and pushes the map back into the center, but leaves his hand there a moment longer, pinning the corner flat.
The Station Clerk
They are asking for competence, not vows. Which is healthier for everyone in this room.
Lahani leans in from the side, eyes moving from the mechanic to the dockhand, reading the silence between their answers more carefully than the words.
Lahani
They are not just recruited. They are deciding whether to stand with us when the station notices.
The dockhand taps the table once, then twice, beside the reissued seal on Nahuli’s datapad. The gesture is small, but it lands like a promise.
Quest Complete
Find more crew
Attribute Upgrade: Willpower Superb→Legendary
Quest Complete
Prove the crew will be protected from station security