“I don’t want anyone else coming into the simulation until we have the transit station up, and we know it’s working. Tell them to wait until we give them the word.” Rareth answered. Athena’s feed of the growing crowd of locals was overlayed over her vision. Rothians did not stand out as much in thermal imaging compared to warm-blooded creatures like Human, but their bodies still did not perfectly match the temperature of their background. “Just keep watching, and let’s keep eyes on any other approaches as well, in case they send anyone to flank us. Just don’t shoot anything unless we’re attacked first. If they get to us before we get the anthropologist in, I’ll be the one to try and communicate with them. Don’t point any weapons at them, and try not to seem threatening.”

[hr]

Marae, naturally, was the one to start organizing her team. She had already expected beforehand that they would need experts on ancient Rothian civilizations at some point, so her picks for that role were already essentially ready. Nevertheless, she double-checked that their equipment was already scanned. “Artek, Enha, between the two of you, I would say you have the best chance of getting through to whoever might be living in that simulation. Get ready by the harnesses.”

“Nir...” Marae began after she turned back to her workspace, prompting him to appear beside her. “Make sure you scan in the best translator they can carry.”

“Already done, but computing power will be more limited in there. They won’t have access to the Core like I do. Even the best translation algorithms could take up to a week to decipher an entirely alien language, without a supercomputer running the algorithms.” He answered. 

Marae’s eyes stayed on the collection of holographic screens in front of her as she answered. “That is true, but if we’re lucky, this won’t be an entirely new language. If they’re ancient Rothians, maybe their language has some common threads with ours that could speed up translation?”

Although Marae was confident in her selection of experts so far, she was not too proud to admit that she would still benefit from some advice. After all, she and her team were still catching up with their knowledge on the Cradle. It did not take her long to approach alongside Freyr. “I have made sure we will be as prepared as possible to meet with any Rothians we might find in there, but I am not yet familiar enough with this kind of environment to know all we might face. From your knowledge of the Cradle, what sort of expertise would be valuable?”