“Hmm, i don’t know. If the Cradle could do that, why not convert everyone? Why not convert me?” Freyr speculated, receiving the folders from Roth’Orsa and glancing distractedly at them. “The Cradle has been producing organic strains for months now, but nothing as sophisticated as this.” Some of what the Speaker said next surprised her, but Freyr didn’t have much to add until the end. 

“The rumours could be nothing more than people creating excitement where there previously was none. However, I did suppose it could stem from those mythical stories from the very beginning of our society’s interaction with the Cradle. There is no surviving footage of the first year, so we could only rely on their word. I had to recite this particular story for my Outremer citizenship test.” Freyr chuckled absently, looking distantly into a corner of the conference room.

“When the very first Humans accessed the Cradle simulation, most of them were confronted with a yawning abyss of blackness, featureless except those veins in the sky and the ashy material you find floating in parts of the Cradle not yet terraformed. But a few of those colonists saw lights blinking in the distance, like a city shrouded in fog. They argued - most thought some of their number were hallucinating, and begged them to stay with the group, where it was safe. But the few who saw it were convinced that they weren’t alone in this simulation. Eventually, they snuck away from the camp, presumably to go to these lights.”

Freyr squeezed her bottom lip between thumb and index finger. “Supposedly, they were never seen again. Over the years the Border expanded, but the mirage that group swore they saw weren’t detected again. Which makes it perfect bait for conspiracy theorists and gossips to latch onto and say they’re still out there.”