Charter-Keeper: The Instrument Between

Mandate: An automated mining outpost pings weekly, then goes dark. A long-memory delegation must determine whether silence means failure, protest, or a claim obligation nobody living remembers signing. Route: Khesret → Ee'la → Oath-Aelith → Rim-Lantern Rise → Stonelaw → Old-Scroll Landing → Charter-Keeper. The clock closes before three missed measures trigger automatic suspension and competing salvage claims. The crew is hired as a neutral hull, witnessed courier of drafts, and working mediation team. Passenger comfort is part of the trip; it is not the contract.

At Weekly Measure Archive, the clean problem gets teeth. The outpost is Drassari, not Elari or Zatheeri. Its old charter ties continued extraction to weekly public measures and archive access; a successor operator kept the ore and quietly stopped the witness record. Every side has enough law to make a mess and enough standing to punish a lazy answer. The crew must hear the parties, protect the record, test side claims, and keep the table open when walking out would be easier.

Terms: ₡98,000 gross, 14% board cut, Rank 4, EXTREME threat. Full payment requires a witnessed, enforceable instrument and a clean return copy. Restore contact, hear the operator and archive claimants, and negotiate repair, disclosure, and standing obligations that can survive another century. Nobody pays this kind of money for dropping off a diplomat and waving from the ramp.