Nahuli carries the isolated survey package into the compact survey compartment and lays approved spare parts across the bench. The beacon comparison remains read-only, physically outside its guidance channel.
Nahuli
Temporary optical timing rig only. We measure the pulse; we do not let it choose anything.
Ranuko watches the couplers and power leads while Nahuli aligns the optical head. Liyanu stands by the medical buffer, and Kiryati monitors the cold, locally armed emitters and the compartment boundary.
Ranuko
The rig is isolated, but its calibration draw is not free. Lahani’s station-keeping margin is narrowing.
Nahuli closes the final clamp. For three seconds, the optical receiver pulls power across the survey bus, and Amber Wing drifts a fraction toward the rogue planet’s nightside track.
Liyanu
Medical isolation is stable. I am setting a hard stop on any draw that threatens station-keeping.
Kiryati
Emitters remain cold. The boundary holds, but the orbit does not wait for a perfect measurement.
The rig’s lens resolves a cleaner timing edge from the nightside beacon. Lahani’s manual station-keeping controls remain ready, while Nahuli waits beside the cutoff and leaves the next correction to her.
Lahani's turn“Thing is, to navigate anywhere, you need a target point, and a star is far easier to navigate to than a rogue planet.”
SUCCESS (Superb Astronavigation, rolled +0)
Nahuli
A star gives us a fixed point. This rogue planet is moving through darkness, so its position has to be earned from every measurement.
Lahani compares the planet’s faint thermal drift, gravity signature, and beacon timing against the distant star field. The Navigation Computer turns those observations into a stable three-dimensional reference without accepting the beacon’s guidance.
Her Rim Tradecraft helps her recognize the practical answer: use the star as the fixed target, then define the rogue planet relative to it. Familiar traffic habits become a navigational advantage.
Nahuli
That gives us a target point we can trust. The planet is not the destination reference anymore; it is the survey body attached to one.
Ranuko watches the calculations settle while Liyanu keeps the medical buffer quiet and Kiryati remains at the defensive console. Lahani’s chummy running commentary keeps the cramped compartment cooperative rather than tense.
Ranuko
The star anchor removes the drifting reference error. I can certify the planet’s position from that frame and preserve the beacon as observation only.
The Navigation Computer accepts Lahani’s star-anchored plot and produces a clean approach reference. The rogue planet’s nightside orbit is now charted without surrendering course authority to its signal.
Nahuli
Good. We navigate to what stays predictable, then study what does not.
Amber Wing holds the corrected approach, with the star fixed ahead and the rogue planet precisely located against it. Lahani has turned an uncertain destination into a measured survey point.