The transit car settles into a steady hum, the tunnel light sliding in soft bands across bent metal and tired faces. For the first time in a while, nobody is running.
Nahuli angles the data shard under his scanner, its surface throwing back thin blue lines. The readout flickers, but it stays stable.
Serafina
You look almost peaceful when you are buried in a puzzle.
Nahuli
Give him a minute. He earned it.
Serafina leans against the bulkhead, one hand still near the rear monitor out of habit. Zoya keeps watching the dark track behind them, but her shoulders are no longer locked tight.
Serafina
If you want the truth, I did not help just to be noble. I needed out, and you were better at making exits than anyone I have met.
Nahuli
That is the most honest thing you have said since we met.
Serafina gives a small, dry smile, then looks back to Nahuli. The car keeps gliding forward, quiet enough to hear the cooling fans and the faint rattle of the rails.
“"Its nice not to be chased for once. While you two may be used to fighting, I prefer to avoid it." Now that things have calmed down, I can take a good look at my scorched arm and try to repair my augments. "This was supposed to be a simple recovery mission. Now, we are gods knows where and my people are probably looking for me."”
SUCCESS (Legendary Engineering, rolled +1)
Nahuli folds his scorched arm closer to the light and works the casing open with careful taps of his multi-tool. The transit car hums on, a soft metal lullaby against the tunnel’s darkness.
His scanner catches a warped contact and a heat-stressed relay. He resets the timing, reroutes the charge path, and the error spikes vanish from the readout.
Serafina
That looks cleaner than it has any right to.
The last burned seam seals with a tiny click. Under the soot, the augmentation’s surface sits smooth again, with one fresh diagnostic line lighting green.
Nahuli
Simple recovery mission, yes. Simple is what stations say when they want you dead without paperwork.
Serafina
Your people, wherever they are, picked a stubborn engineer to lose.
Serafina pushes off the bulkhead and glances toward the dim front of the car. The tunnel keeps sliding past, indifferent and unwelcoming, while the repaired augment quietly purrs against Nahuli’s arm.
“"Not as stubborn as Kaelen, though I hardly know the guy, or why I even ended up here. You once asked if I was security or scavenger. I don't even know if our two forces are at odds, but hopefully you see I've no ill intent to either of you."”
SUCCESS (Mediocre Diplomacy, rolled +2)
Nahuli
Not as stubborn as Kaelen, though I hardly know him, or why I ended up here. You asked if I was security or scavenger. I do not think our groups are at odds. I have no ill intent toward either of you.
Serafina
That is the first honest thing anybody has said to me since this tin coffin started moving.
Nahuli
Honest is not the same as harmless. But it is a better start than most.
Serafina studies Nahuli’s hands, then the clean line on his repaired augment, as if the proof matters more than the words.
Serafina
You talk like someone who fixes problems for a living, not someone who came aboard to make them.
Zoya’s gaze shifts from the tunnel window back to Nahuli, sharper now, but less closed off. The shuttle-car keeps its steady glide through the dark.
Nahuli
If you are not Kaelen’s people, and not station salvage, then say what you are when the door opens. It helps to know who survives beside you.
“"Kind of hard when you are staring at a bomb about to go off with a gun pointed at you. Physics rarely waits for explanations, only results." I take a closer look at the data core recovered long ago. "And this little toy I am not about to get too currious about."”
SUCCESS (Good Reasoning, rolled +2)
Nahuli bends over the data core, keeping his tools light and his movements careful as the car hums beneath him.
Nahuli
Kind of hard to think straight with a gun in your face and a bomb on the table. Physics does not wait for explanations.
The shard wakes under his scanner, lines of compressed station telemetry blooming across the display. Buried in the records is a routing tag, not local salvage, but an outbound maintenance beacon tied to a sealed transit throat.
Nahuli
That is not junk. It is a locator.
A second file opens cleanly, a fragment of Kaelen’s access chain and a repeated handoff schedule. Someone has been moving cargo through this station long after it was supposed to be dead.
Serafina
That core knows more than it should. Tell me you found a way out with it.
Zoya watches the screen, jaw tight, while the transit car keeps sliding forward in a steady dark blur. Ahead, a junction signal begins to pulse on the tunnel wall.
✓ Quest Accepted
Find a way through the sealed transit throat
“"Why do you think I have been running all this time? I need to get this core back home. Problem is, fate is being cruel." Casually, I head to a control panel and make the adjustments needed to reach the hangar.”
SUCCESS (Good Agility, rolled +0)