The investigation took three days to prepare properly.
Not because access was complicated—by now, archived section work was familiar enough that the technical process required minimal setup. Because what they were looking at deserved careful framing before they looked at it. Ancient material predating biological life wasn't the kind of thing approached casually, and Timeline's expressed vulnerability in asking—the fact of asking being itself significant—meant the investigation should serve Timeline's genuine need rather than satisfying curiosity efficiently.
