The transit car lurches to a crawl. Ahead, the sealed bulkhead hangs under the tunnel lights, its seam lines trembling as Nahuli’s override bites into the lock.
Nahuli
You’ve got it moving. Tell me that door opens before whoever’s behind us catches up.
Nahuli’s multi-tool spits a bright arc into the console. On his scanner, the routed maintenance beacon blooms beside Captain Kaelen’s encrypted access chain, a map and a warning at once.
Serafina
That chain is not just clearance. It’s cargo authority. Kaelen was moving something through this route.
Nahuli
The beacon is tied to the hangar line.
The bulkhead groans wider by a handspan, then stops. A second lock catches deeper in the throat, and the car shivers in place while the tunnel behind them echoes with distant impact.
Nahuli
If you can spoof that second lock, we get through. If not, we hold here and make a very bad stand.
Nahuli reroutes the beacon, and the seam splits open just enough to reveal the dark transit throat beyond, leading straight toward the hangar and whatever Kaelen hid there.