Cath

The Cradle

All of the scientists watched Vreta intently as he spoke, but none spoke out with any immediate questions. Freyr thought they looked tired, just like her. After a pregnant pause, she jumped back in. “Thank you, Vreta’Sori. Now, I'd imagine you all want to find your new quarters and unpack your luggage. As a matter of fact, i’d quite like to know where we’re staying too…” Freyr looked behind her at the lab. Just two technicians were left, fixing a wall divider/storage unit.

“Excuse me?” Freyr called to them. They didn’t respond, so she tried a bit louder. They both looked up. “Where are our quarters?” The standing one pointed over his shoulder, to another set of blast doors on the other side of the lab. “If you have a comms implant , the ship should feed you a map, ma’am.” One of them offered helpfully. Freyr thanked them and turned back to her team. “Let’s get settled in and start fresh in the morning. Thank you all.” The scientists began drifting off toward the blast doors with their luggage in hand.

A sudden hunger pang in Freyr’s stomach reminded her that she’d hardly eaten today. “Have they shown you your quarters yet? I’d quite like to find some food.” She asked Vreta, pulling up a map of the ship using her new clearance code to look for the nearest dispensary. “It seems our dorms have hot food and a dining area. Masgard?” Her lawyer shrugged. “I’m exhausted, but i suppose i could eat.” Freyr grinned sleepily. “That’s the spirit! Vreta?”

The Cradle

“Come then; we can pick this back up later.” Freyr got up and led the way out of her office. The cacophonous racket from the builder drones had subsided now. Just a couple remained now with Human technicians to make the finishing touches to their new lab. At a glance, Freyr could see many of the main pieces she’d asked for. The captain had done very nicely in the short time available.

Freyr traversed one of the primary walkways around the edge of the lab from her office to the exit, Vreta and Masgard in tow. She could see a few of her team had already got stuck into the equipment, hooking up data pads and continuing as normal. However, the majority of the new arrivals had congregated in a break-out area with sofas and potted plants. So she called out to attract everyone’s attention. “Good evening, everyone! Welcome to the OSC Barbarossa. Could i please speak with you all over here please?” The scientists in the lab area obediently dropped what they were doing and made their way over.

Freyr waited until everyone was in front of her before speaking, standing in the walkway with Vreta and Masgard at her sides. She smiled. “It’s good to see you all in person for a change. I trust you made it here without incident?” A few people nodded their heads, but most were just waiting patiently for what she had to say. A few eyed up the tall lizard alien next to her. “We’re about to embark on a two week journey to Rothia, to follow up a lead on a potential exo-Cradle object. I know some of you have family at home, so I thank you from the bottom of my heart for making this sacrifice. I wouldn’t have asked you if it wasn’t vitally important to the whole of Outremer.” Freyr’s throat was bone dry after the scotch, so she gulped to try and moisten it. Most of the scientists had figured out this was going to be an extended trip, space voyages often were, but none of them would’ve known their destination until now.

“To help prepare us for our time on Rothia, we have Vreta’Sori with us. He’s going to coach us on Rothian culture, capabilities and overall condition over the next two weeks. Once we’re on Rothia, he will be our primary liaison with our Rothian co-researchers. Any questions so far?” One of the more junior scientists piped up immediately. “Does that mean we’re supposed to share our research with the Rothians?” Masgard’s hand quickly touched Freyr’s arm, prompting her to stop with her mouth half-open as he answered. “Right this moment, that won’t be necessary. But once we know what we’re up against, we’re to collaborate with the Rothians on any details that may be pertinent to the potential...exo-object.” Freyr nodded quickly and turned to Vreta. “Vreta’Sori, would you like to say a few words?”

The Cradle

“Fifty two metres in diameter.” Freyr answered as she saw Vreta working it out. “It floats, we don’t know quite how, and it’s completely impossible to move. Believe me, we’ve tried. Which means that for all intents and purposes, the Sphere is weightless.” She stared up at the hologram above her desk, taking in the object’s featureless, off-white exterior.

“We think it actively counters all signals we fire at it, like some kind of defence mechanism. I believe the only way the hypothesis about organic matter came about was by analysing the signals that leak out of it every decade or so. They're so faint that you’d miss them unless you monitor the Sphere all hours of the day like we do. But they're rich with incomprehensible data when we unpack them. I used to think the team in the Vault were overly dramatic for describing the signals as ‘wails in the night’, but now with everything else I've seen, I'm not so sure…”

“Freyr, the rest of your team just showed up. ” Masgard jumped in while Freyr was mulling over the next of Vreta’s questions. He was looking over his shoulder at her from where he stood at the window. “Ah, great. I should address them.” Freyr looked back at Vreta. “How do you want to do this? Do you want me to introduce you now, and give you a chance to explain your role in the team?”

The Cradle

Freyr discreetly checked her watch as Vreta spoke; the evening was drawing steadily on. She noticed through the glass windows of her office that half a dozen more people on her team had just arrived in the lab, luggage in hand. Some of the people already working in the lab rushed over to greet them. She should probably address the team soon.

“Well, a full debrief would require data visualisations that i haven’t prepared for Rothian consumption yet. But you’ve already seen first-hand what the Cradle is. It’s a practically infinite virtual landscape, with varying geography just like in the real world. As we all know, it’s not a particularly welcoming environment, but nonetheless we’ve cultivated and occupied an area of the Cradle’s surface for many years. We’re able to tap into the Cradle’s processing power, and use it to power all kinds of things in the real world.”

Freyr took a last gulp of her drink and placed the tumbler gently back on the desk. “What you may not know much about is the physical form of the Cradle complex.” She cleared her throat again; the scotch sediment was irritating her mouth. Communicating with the lab’s database via her comms implant, Freyr pulled up an archive photo of the Sphere and projected it in 3D above the middle of the desk. “It’s buried deep beneath Babylon. We think there is organic and synthetic material inside, but it’s almost impossible to pin down. The Sphere distorts all our scanners and the exterior alloy is practically indestructible. Even if we were able to get inside, with everything that depends on the Cradle...It’d be like conducting brain surgery in the dark.”

Freyr leaned back and massaged the bridge of her nose. The scotch was making her sleepy, which was probably a good thing as she hadn’t properly rested in days. “That creature pinging a precise spot may have just been a mistake. But you can’t help but wonder if there are more of these objects floating about.”

The Cradle

Freyr frowned and cleared her throat, invoking a surprisingly pleasant aftertaste from the scotch. She leaned forward slightly, cradling her tumbler in both hands, and smiled sweetly at Vreta. “By the end of today, there’ll be twenty of the foremost minds on the Cradle aboard this ship. I’m privileged to lead them. Between us, we have about four hundred and fifty years of hands-on experience with a machine intelligence that’s almost certainly older than both our civilisations. The rest of my division is just a conference call away; at least another six hundred years of experience to apply to this problem. If anyone is going to be ‘catching up’, it is your team.”

Freyr leaned back and took another sip of her scotch, arms resting lightly on the arms of her seat. Masgard gave her an approving look from where he leaned against the plate glass window. “Your improved understanding of the natural world will come in useful, for sure. It may be that working around the Cradle may yield some kind of breakthrough. But let’s be clear - while the Cradle environment shares similarities with the outside world, it’s also infinitely more complex. We underestimated it before, and it took my family. I'm determined not to underestimate it again. We should prepare for all possible outcomes to this expedition. What kind of resources do we have at our disposal while on Rothia?”

The Cradle

Freyr shared a quick glance with Masgard while Vreta was just finishing his piece. He gave her an ...ok look before reaching for the bottle of scotch again. Freyr absently opened the top left drawer on her new desk, and was rewarded with the sight of four durable Navy tumblers tucked away in there. She quickly pulled three out and slid them across the metal desk toward the bottle and Masgard’s outstretched hand. “I mean, it is the weekend. And we’ve had something of a day.” Freyr explained to Masgard, her hands raised at her sides while she nodded to Vreta. Her lawyer grinned guardedly, his head tilted downward as he poured a double measure in each glass.

“I hope you are able to figure the Cradle out.” Freyr replied solemnly as she got her glass back, filled now, from Masgard. “Because, there is a distinct possibility we’re travelling all this way for nothing. But on the off-chance we do find something, it could change our relationship with the Cradle forever. Our saving grace, if we don’t find anything, is that we’ll still be able to work on the Cradle problem from our new lab. We can call it a very expensive cultural exchange mission.” She took a drink from her newly charged glass, and recoiled at the intense mix of flavours. “So, what would you say we need to keep in mind for our interactions with Rothia in general?” Freyr asked when she had recovered.

The Cradle

The corner office was small and boxy. But it did have Freyr’s name on the door, a desk with a small bottle of Angjuskian Scotch wrapped in ribbon atop it, and views of the entire lab through plate glass windows. She was pleased to see the office was soundproofed; when Masgard closed the door behind them the noise of rapid assembly outside lowered significantly. “Ahh, the good stuff. Complements of the captain; very nice. I don’t drink Scotch, myself. Do you?” Freyr studied the label before placing the bottle back down on the desk. She sat down and ran her fingers through her hair. It’d been another really long day.

“Well, i’m sorry you’ve been dragged back into this.” Freyr chuckled humourlessly upon hearing what Vreta had been up to. “I’ve been working nonstop, to tell you the truth.” She continued. “Masgard, what can i say?”

“We have an operational partnership with the Rothians, so whatever you think will be useful to the mission.” Freyr nodded gratefully.

“Then i can tell you that things are bad. We’re making good progress in developing weapons and structures that can combat the Cradle’s creatures. But so far we haven’t been able to stop this gradual encroachment on the occupied zone. The Border is currently consuming about 1% of the occupied zone per week. There are signs that may increase, too.” On a whim, Freyr grabbed the bottle of Scotch and opened it, taking a sniff. “It’s hard to predict what we’ll find on Rothia, if anything. But my hope is it’s something we can use to communicate properly with the Cradle. Negotiate peace with it; if it’s capable of rational thought.”

Freyr took a small sip from the bottle, and wrinkled her nose immediately. “Eurgh, that is strong.” She offered the bottle to Masgard, who took a gulp and seemed to quite like it. He offered it to Vreta.

The Cradle

“Quite.” Freyr agreed before introducing Masgard. “Have you met Masgard Xandrus? He’s one of the expedition’s public representatives.” Masgard, 595 and the captain exchanged knowing nods as they shook hands. “We’ve set you and your team up down the hall - A12. I must admit it was a rush getting everything on board at such short notice. I hope everything is to your satisfaction.” Freyr smiled gratefully. “I appreciate the effort you’ve gone to. The list I sent was pretty extensive.” The captain waved away the praise. “I trust your team won’t delay in boarding? With everyone in place, I want to push forward the launch to early tomorrow morning, Outremer time.”

“They’ll all be aboard this evening, I assure you.”

“Good. Other government elements are still making their way in from the countryside, so I expect there’ll be a debrief this evening. Until then, I'll leave you to get settled in. Pleased to meet you both. 595, a word.” The blonde-haired agent nodded. “I’ll catch up with you both later.” She said, giving Freyr and Masgard another cue to leave.

“Wasn’t that woman arrested by the Rothians after the Skinners attacked?” Freyr asked after they’d left the bridge.

“Yeah. She got out as part of our deal with the Rothians.” Masgard replied.

“She was innocent, then?”

“Apparently, if she’s free. It’s best if we don’t discuss it; the details are not public knowledge.”

Freyr frowned. She knew something just wasn’t adding up with all these government agents, but she tried to put it out of her mind. Right now, she was excited to see what she’d be working with for the next few months at least. That was what mattered.

Compartment A12 was a big space, and it was alive with moving parts at the moment. Builder drones fizzed through the air, clutching everything from scientific equipment to partition walls. Human technicians wandered around making the finishing touches. Freyr saw some of her team from the Division in among the action, directing the layout of the lab; one of them waved to her as they entered. By a wall near the entrance, she spotted the unmistakable Rothian form of Vreta’Sori standing awkwardly watching the assembly take place. “I see you found the construction site! You remember Mr Xandrus?” Freyr shouted over the din as they walked over. “I think that might be a corner office over there, shall we go see if it’s soundproof?” She grinned, motioning with her hand.

The Cradle

“Yeah, sounds good!” Freyr replied, glancing at Masgard who was mouthing ‘what’s he saying?’. She paused the call connection. “He wants to meet.” She relayed; Masgard nodded. Freyr looked next at the petty officer in the front passenger seat. “Is there some kind of lab set up for us?” Just then the buggy entered a wide cargo elevator which began moving upwards. “Yes ma’am, compartment A12 is being refitted as we speak. It’s near the bridge.” Freyr thanked him and resumed the call. “Can we meet at the labs? Apparently they’re in compartment A12. I shouldn’t be too long, is that alright?”

The buggy traversed the innards of the Barb at a steady pace. Everywhere they looked, sailors were getting the massive ship ready to go. “How many people are on this ship?” Masgard asked, his head swivelling as he tried to take in every detail. “Approximately seventeen thousand five hundred all told, sir.” The buggy parked in a garage with dozens of other vehicles and the soldiers dismounted. “Rest of the way is on foot. My men will take your luggage to your quarters. Come with me.” They both followed the petty officer through a maze of rooms and passageways until a big set of bulkhead doors greeted them. The doors hissed opened after a camera scanned all their faces.

The bridge was relatively dark, but floor lights marked a path for them to take. Freyr had never seen so many holo-screens in one place before. The walls were covered with them in place of windows; she supposed they must still be deep in the bowels of the ship. Officers walked between stations set into the walls, taking readings and instructing operators who sat at complex looking consoles. The centre of the room displayed a massive projection of Outremer, with military assets and other important things marked with a variety of shapes and colours. Consoles surrounded it, and hovering by one of these consoles they found the captain.

She was tall and well built, like an athlete. Freyr placed her as about fifty years old, with silky, shoulder length grey hair tucked neatly behind her ears. She was talking to someone Freyr recognised after a couple of seconds. The petty officer stood at attention to introduce them both on the bridge; both the captain and the black-uniformed woman she was talking to turned to face them. “Dr Lang, it’s good to meet you. I’m Captain Andersen; please allow me to welcome you aboard the Barbarossa. I believe you’re already acquainted with Agent 595 from Cradle Security?” Five Nine Five grabbed Freyr’s hand after the captain and shook it. “Very pleased to see you alive and well, Dr Lang. We have a lot to talk about!”

The Cradle

With one last clunk, their transport touched down and settled on its landing gear. After a few moments the ramp lowered; the sights, sounds and smells of an enormous hangar bay greeted the two of them. One side of the hangar was essentially a continuous opening to the vacuum of space, partitioned by a shimmering blue force field. Swarms of transport ships in varying sizes were entering and exiting via this opening at well practiced speed.

The floor of the hangar was humming with activity too. Deckhands retrieved cargo crates from the back of transports and loaded them onto trains of hovering platforms. Freyr could see dozens of these trains snaking through the hangar along set paths marked on the floor in fluorescent yellow.

There was so much going on that Freyr and Masgard must have looked quite lost as they wandered down the cargo ramp. Crewmen filed past them to begin unloading. Luckily, a voice called out to them. “Dr Lang?” Freyr looked toward the sound and saw a smartly dressed petty officer. “Welcome to the Barb, ma’am. The Captain would like to see you on the bridge.”

They followed the officer to a waiting buggy, where two more sailors loaded their luggage into the back. Once everyone was strapped in, they set off across the massive hangar space. "This place is huge…" Freyr whistled, looking up toward the distant ceiling. "She's state of the art, ma'am. The first of a new class." The officer proudly chipped in. Freyr was about to ask exactly how big the 'Barb' was, when a call request from Vreta'Sori popped up on her HUD. "Vreta's calling me." Freyr accepted the call before Masgard could respond.

"Hey, I'm aboard the Barbarossa. Heading to the bridge to meet the Captain now. Where are you? Are you all set up?"