So, it's been awhile since I'd played this game, so I was happy to find that Zheng Shi had more interaction with the mines than a bee-slave telling you about it. At one point, after picking up the slave uniform, I returned to the main station so I could sleep on my ship and level up but was given a prompt right then to use the uniform to join the slaves. I declined, because I really wanted to level up and empty my inventory, but now that prompt has not been given since. I even put the uniform on and tried walking around. Was that the one and only time I could have used the sneak way in to travel further?