Inside the hidden refuge of Avalon Station, the crew of the USS Resolute begin their first cautious exploration of the facility that pulled them from the Badlands. With the ship badly damaged, the Pakled vessel under quarantine, and the Janus Core secured but unstable, Avalon may be their only shelter.

But the station is not merely dormant machinery. As teams push deeper into its corridors and locate Ops, automated systems begin activating around them, guided by an intelligence known as the Custodian. Avalon recognises the Resolute as Starfleet, but its scans reveal something impossible: the ship and crew carry a different universal signature.

To fully activate the station, Avalon requires command-level authorisation. When Saelira Venn presents her codes, the Custodian struggles to reconcile conflicting records. Its own database identifies a Saelira Venn from this timeline, once assigned to the USS Vigilant, while the Resolute’s records name her as captain. After analysing the ship’s logs and confirming her alternate-reality signature, the Custodian accepts her authority, granting the crew access to Avalon and confirming the truth they can no longer avoid: they are not in their own universe.