Freyr sighed. It felt like they were getting ahead of themselves again. “Gentlemen, I don’t believe this is the forum to discuss [i]how[/i] we’re going to do things, but rather to establish [i]what[/i] we’re going to do.” She looked at the clock - somehow they had been talking for hours already. Freyr hadn’t gotten exactly what she wanted out of the engagement, and suspected part of the reason for that would be all the recent terror and upheaval. People still hadn’t had enough time to synthesise all the information.

“Let's leave it there for today…I think we can all agree that we’ve been through a traumatic experience. So I want people to be kind to each other, and take time out to consider what’s happened objectively.” Freyr slurped her coffee, and met the eyes of some people. You could hear a pin drop in the room.

“We may be standing on the precipice of something beyond even our wildest imaginings. So I also want you all to consider what is best for the people we serve. This is not just about scientific discovery anymore; however vast that opportunity is. Billions of lives are potentially at risk, trillions even. Untold thousands are already gone, totally invested in a saga which I fear will paint the galactic canvas for millenia. Now go, relax. We’ll regroup tomorrow.”

[hr]
The days immediately following the meeting seemed to blur together. There was no big debriefing from the government, and indeed very little contact from the outside world. The teams worked hard to make sense of the mountain of data pulled out of the Cradle, with little else to occupy them. Their safehouse encompassed the top twelve floors of a tower on the east edge of an [url=https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/bad1320d-4852-43fa-b8f1-eb4b4e0bbbd8.jpg]enormous arcology[/url], but the Outreman scientists were forbidden from exploring the rest of it, or the city below. 

With little else to occupy them, the teams worked hard to make sense of the mountain of data pulled out of the Cradle. In between sessions, Freyr paced the corridors while reading the news. She investigated every aspect of the leisure level sampling the bounty of delicacies on offer. But after less than a week, she had seen everything there was to see inside. And then she discovered OCI controlled the garden ringing this cupola they inhabited. Skopec was adamant that no one could go down there, to begin with. But after a full-on shouting match, he relented, and they got their garden.

Réunion was hot and humid, even at night, which made a nice change from the dry cool inside. A light breeze ruffled the carefully manicured shrubs and trees lining the walkway around the edge of their building. Warm rain pattered down on the concrete pathways.

Freyr stood by the parapet, looking down at the glittering lights of the city cascading towards the sea. She sucked vapour from a soothe stick and blew it out in a tight plume above her head. She took in the flat hoverbot whirred above her head, protecting her from the rain. 

Eventually,Freyr reached into one pocket and retrieved a hard copy of David & Amy’s picture. She studied it hard in the half-dark, trying to memorise every detail of their faces. She had a great memory for data, but struggled with faces. And it was becoming harder to recall them without help, and she hated that.