The second step was time locked, requiring for us to first collect the Fusion Rifles in the wild (my theory is that the trigger for the second step of the Sleeper quest line will always start on the 7th of each month, but that's unprovable so far). There's no guarantee that it's gonna be smooth sailing from here on out, the same way we don't know if there's gonna be some super puzzle later on. Remember, we haven't gotten the Sleeper just yet.