“Yes of course. If there are any signs of terminal strain on the simulation we’ll pull out immediately. We want to keep this thing alive.” Freyr assured Datius. The thrill of discovering an entirely new species was not lost on her. If it weren’t for all the other extenuating circumstances, she’d have already laid the foundations for formally introducing this entity to the galactic community once the mission was declassified. It might have been her crowning achievement - uncovering a lifeform that was potentially millions of years old and one of the final puzzle pieces to her life’s work - uncovering the secrets of the Cradle.

“The drone is already prepped. I’m not injecting it until we’re in a ready position, so we can quickly follow it and minimise runtime waste.” Freyr frowned at Rareth’s next question. “Yeah, I discussed them. Andersen came down from thirteen to ten marines, plus the Sacred Band. That was after I explained that the modifications to our lab mean only eight are required to control it. She won’t budge any further.”

“Boss!” Dr Apalkov called from the other side of the holo-table. Freyr moved all the floating items with a ‘through the bushes’ motion of both hands. “What do you have for me?” She asked.

“I’ve locked onto the mountain, using the extraction file. Want me to lock that in again now?”

“Good work, yes please. That’s where we last saw the creature.”

Freyr looked back at Rareth, hands resting on the table. “There’s no easy way down the mountain for the rig if our friend isn’t there. I hope the anti-gravity generators you installed work as described. Do you have [i]any[/i] more questions for me or can we get this show on the road?”