Freyr returned Marae’s hug in kind. It was good to see her - their bond had been forged mainly through a mutual love of science. But the main thing that drew Freyr to the pre-eminent AI specialist was that she wore her heart on her sleeve.

“Thank you. Yes, very good job.” Freyr beamed, eliciting smirks from a few on her team.

“Let's go and stretch our legs.”

As a loose group of incongruously dressed individuals, the scientists exited their big tent and meandered through the shaded field, talking quietly among themselves.

After a minute or two, Freyr found herself on the edge of the river. Well, it was quite thin for a river at this point. More of a babbling brook that washed over a bed of smooth stones. Some of them shone in the artificial light…

“Boss?”

Freyr woke from her reverie. She realised she must have been staring into the water. She turned and found everyone gathered around. Some were looking round at the scenery but most were focused solely on her.

For a few moments, she didn’t know what to say. So she just started and hoped it would come to her.

“Some of us have worked together for a long time. The Rothians here won’t know him, but before he was killed in the Cradle, Dr Childermass and I had known each other for some eleven years. Some of you have been experts in the field since before I was born.”

A little girl laughed, somewhere far behind her. A man called that girl’s name. Freyr looked round, but couldn’t hear anything out of the ordinary. Just the water. Nothing moved on the other side of the river. She looked back around to face the scientists again.

“Together, we’ve applied learnings from the Cradle to problems that exist in our reality. How do we…communicate, across the vastness of space? How do we provide long-term energy sufficiency to new and remote colonies? How do we shield space-faring vessels against harm? All of these advances in technology were catalysed in this…thing, we found underground.”

All faces were watching her now. She studied them.

“But now, the problem is the Cradle itself. It has killed thousands of innocents. The entity buried on Rothia - the Navigator -  It says it was running. Running from something it says is even more powerful, and unfriendly. It wants our help, but I swore to protect you when I took this job. And I can't guarantee safety anymore. I don’t know if anyone can.”