After the meeting, they had a polite wrapping up and goodbye outside in the courtyard garden, by the cars. They all congratulated Freyr on her promotion again, then the Director-General requested Under-Secretary Sequeira and Masgard Xandrus ride with him. Freyr thought the man was struggling to hide his apoplexy, although that may have just been because one of the spotlights in each of his eyes momentarily blinked red. It happened so fast, as they were shaking hands, and the Director-General didn’t acknowledge Freyr’s concerned look, choosing instead to quickly retire to his flyer. But she definitely saw something lurking underneath his calm exterior.  

Once they’d gone, Freyr, Dr Uchida and Dr Kamau went for lunch together, closely guarded by plain clothes police officers. This lunch eventually turned into dinner and drinks, with the two esteemed scientists catching her up on everything that had happened during her absence from duty. 

Apparently, things had changed dramatically from that fateful night when Freyr’s husband and daughter were taken. A lot of the civil servants in senior Cradle management positions had been replaced by shadowy, highly knowledgeable individuals. Uchida and Kamau suspected these people reported into even more unknown quantities like the Director-General. 

This new management cadre was arguably far more capable in affairs of the Cradle than the previous elected representatives; they quickly and efficiently put the Cradle apparatus on a new path. One that focused less on expanding the Cradle’s usable territory and much more on trying to understand and dampen it’s capabilities. Kamau and Uchida suspected this group had the tacit support of the administration outside of the Cradle, as massively increased emergency budgets got signed off with practically no fanfare.

Freyr finally gave her statement on the events in Boycott Park to the police upon returning to her apartment. She started back at work the next day, logging into the Cradle from the comfort of her constantly guarded living room. She found out on her first day back that all private sector Cradle leases and contracts were now being bought out. All non-essential access had been revoked. Freyr also received a new and improved NDA to sign, making all new information about the Cradle classified top secret.

Freyr quickly confirmed her suspicions that the Cradle Research & Development division was in disarray. Giving a collection of brilliant but entrenched scientists a massive budget and lots of ambitious young graduates, and then changing the division’s entire mission statement within a few months was always going to be a tough ask. Karos had made a start, but he’d always been something of a traditionalist. So Freyr’s first major challenge was getting the team ready for anything.

She had her work cut out. A few weeks after the incident at the testing facility, the Border began encroaching on colonised territory in a few hot spots. Terraformers with upgraded gear successfully reversed the advance. Until a few weeks after that, when the Border began shifting again, all across the frontier. All manner of creatures ventured from beyond the opaque bulwark, wreaking havoc upon squads of Terraformers and CraSec guards. Strange power surges hit the occupied zone every week, momentarily changing the pearl white facades of the administration’s new fortress cities into…[i]something[/i] else. A twisted labyrinth of organic matter, like some sick perversion of the structures that had stood in their place just moments before.

A few months passed. Freyr found herself practically living in the Cradle, working day and night to roll back the advance. She’d almost forgotten about the meeting at the Rothian Embassy in the maelstrom of other meetings and planning sessions. That is, until she got a message from Masgard Xandrus, her public liaison and legal representation. It said the Outremer administration had made a good deal with the Rothians. They had a working partnership, and an expedition to Rothia was being made ready to leave tomorrow. Freyr was to lead it, leaving both her deputies, Dr Uchida and Dr Kamau (she hadn’t been able to choose between them), to hold the fort.