Triggered Zaalt before Kara; can I still get the psi amp?

[Arcane Howitzer]

This is all based on what the wiki says, so wanted to double-check that it's still accurate.
Anyway.
I have just received Zaalt's distress signal (still on the "Help Him/Ignore" screen). From what I have read, clicking "Help Him" will railroad me through to the end where rewards are given, but getting the Broken Psi Amp is only possible if it's Kara on the other side of the table, which only happens if you've beaten all of her quests on Myrellion, which I have not done (I haven't even been to Myrellion yet!).
On the wiki he is listed as an unrepeatable encounter, so I am assuming that if I hit "Ignore" he suffocates alone in the darkness of space never to be seen again.
So, is there a way at this point for me to get the psi amp without loading a prior save?

 

[Rear Admiral Chimera]

Not without editing your save I believe. If I recall correctly, as long as you don't answer the distress call, you can safely ignore it so that you can try again later.

 

[Theron]

Distress Calls can be safely ignored if you do so before you know which Distress Call it is. You can get it again. If you're unsure, make a backup save, either in a new slot or with Save to File.

If you've done the quest all the way through, you can use the Cheat Menu to give yourself the Broken Psi-Amp.

Spoiler: Cheat Menu

1. Load a save.
2. Go to the Title Screen.
3. Click the 'i' in TiTS 3 times.
4. The Cheat Menu will be a new tab in the Options Menu.

Spoiler: Zaalt's fate if ignored

My understanding is it's a setup. Zaalt was never in any actual danger, he just needed a patsy.

 

[Arcane Howitzer]

Ah, well here's hoping whatever it ends up being used for is really, really cool, because that is some serious Guide Dang It material.
Seriously, it's kind of absurd when you sit back and think about it.
1) It's in a random encounter, hidden behind a generic distress signal, which completely locks you in literally before you realize it's happening, and can spawn starting at level 6. This means that responding to any distress calls between reaching 6th and activating the trigger runs the risk of losing the amp permanently.
2) The trigger itself is completing a sidequest that you can't reasonably be expected to even get to before level 8, which can be locked out depending on your choices in a prior sidequest that must be completed first, and which has its own choice that can lock you out of the amp even if you do finish the quest (that choice being between getting paid an extremely large bribe, or fighting what is probably one of the hardest boss fights in the game if you don't know/can't exploit the boss's main weakness. And of course, the correct choice isn't the bribe).
3) Upon reaching the encounter with the trigger toggled, you have to go for a specific ending which involves not turning the mentally unstable smuggler over to the proper authorities or killing him when he attacks you in a fit of berserk madness. And even once you reach the table, there are two points in the conversation where you can choose to just leave with a large sum of cash instead (probably the easiest part of this process).
And you aren't even told the psi amp exists until halfway through that random encounter that locks you in literally before you even know it's happening, and you have no reason to suspect that you can actually obtain it until the very end of this entire long, convoluted chain of events with at least five potential points of failure not even counting the choices in the final conversation.

 

[Theron]

4) (IIRC) It's mutually exclusive with a scene that requires you obtain the AI cores.
5) The Ice Queen encounter is often recommended for getting to Uveto early, which will lock you out of the Psi-Amp.

It's yet to be determined how player Psionics will be implemented, or if the player will get them at all (design intent is leaning yes, past trends lean no).