Freyr fainted at least twice in between their last expedition inside the Object, and the proposed date of its return to Outremer. The Barb’s physicians scanned her out of an abundance of caution, but found nothing wrong with her. The Rothian brain scans also came back inconclusive. Dr Lang was stressed, tired and grieving still, but those were all normal, Human responses.

Freyr pushed her team as hard as she pushed herself. They had an enormous reservoir of information to make sense of from their expedition, and very little time to make an impact. She tried not to resent Nirann for forcing her to leave the Rübezahl’s final uplink inside the Object. She had programmed it in secret to aggressively mine data bearing similarities to the galactic signposts left inside the Rothian DNA. 

Nevertheless, Freyr held out hope that something else would come up. The analysis of Human DNA hadn’t yielded any clues as to the location of other Objects. The team used a second range of samples from scientists and crew members after hers had been misplaced.

Dr Lang was still working as the Barbarossa's lab was stripped of anything the team might need while operating from Outremer again. Technicians and academics flitted about her as she stared intently at the map they’d started to draw of the Object’s innards. Freyr was so engrossed that she jumped when Dr Wetherall placed a hand on her shoulder. “Time to pack your things, Freyr. We’re going through the gateway now, won’t be long until we’re home.”

“Mmmm. Fine.” Freyr admitted absently, waving him away.