Freyr had hoped Rareth would come aboard. She’d stayed by her station in the centre of the action while the Datius did the rounds. When the giant Rothian approached her and began speaking, she looked over as if she’d been engrossed in work and hadn’t noticed. She smiled, said hello, and reached out her hand. As expected, after studying Rareth gently grasped her hand and they shook.

Freyr began answering the question out loud with one track of her mind. Regular metrics that didn’t mean much to the uninitiated - deliberately quite technical. With the other track of her mind, Freyr opened a physical data connection with Rareth, and gave her the real answer.

That night in the club with Plenipotentiary Wallace and Kalax Verengonig had inspired this idea. Freyr had watched them grasping each other's arms and communicating in complete secrecy by sending chemical & pheromone signals through their bodies. She’d studied body chemistry alignment, but had never practiced it before now.

Freyr knew it’d be much harder to communicate with a Rothian in this way than with another Human, but this was the best way she could think of to talk without drawing attention. While their regular implant comms would be quite secure, it was another matter to obscure the connection completely. 

Fortunately, she had an innate grasp of her implanted firmware, and manually programmed some additions to make the translation of her body chemistry into something a Rothian implant could understand.

The sensation of making that connection was strange, like interlocking fingers, toes, tongues and hair with something completely alien to her. Every nerve ending in her body jangled and sang. But she kept her expression plain and initiated the chemical signal she’d worked on. If everything went to plan, it should feel to Rareth like her own subconscious was saying these things to her.

[i]><^ Don't be alarmed, just listen.><^

><^I've configured the rig to search for information connecting this entity to the Cradle, and for proof of the ‘Hegemon’.><^

><^It said all meaningful records were stored in the Cradle, but there might be usable imprints hidden somewhere in it’s memory.><^

><^The Cradle has obscured origin logs for centuries, but this entity is vulnerable, and not as vast in scope. We might have a better chance now than we’ll ever get again.><^

><^We might learn where these things came from, and perhaps secrets about intelligent life itself.><^

><^Please trust me when I say it’s important we try. I can feel something isn’t right. Do not make this information public. My life is in danger. Do NOT offer me asylum or try to intervene, I have to save my family.><^[/i]

The last segment was rushed and crammed together, as Freyr felt rising nausea threatening to disrupt the flow of actual words coming from her mouth.