Anytime this quest is running, when the player gets within sight distance of the East Gate (called North Gate in data), a script on the Player alias sets stage 35 without conditions. That script (defaultaliasondistancelessthan) needs a PrereqStage 30.
See also
https://starfieldwiki.net/wiki/Starfield:False_Positives
During the quest, the player has to wait for 24 hours (stage 10). If the player does some other quest, such as The Empty Nest, and passes within sight of the gate for any reason, this quest is bollixed. The chief guard Davis Wilson stands there unable to respond, because neither stage 20 or 30 has been set.
Such a simple fix. But boy oh boy, it took me half a day to figure out!
Sadly [NR]. The only solution is to go back to a save before you got anywhere near that gate.