Cath

The Cradle

“Ok, sure thing. We’ll just talk later.” 595 flipped from smiling sweetly at the Speaker to fixing Freyr with the trademark glare she knew so well now. Freyr withered a bit from the giddy heights of privilege under the Agent’s gaze, but still had the presence of mind to dismiss her team. “It’s alright - I’ll be fine, you guys go on ahead. I’ll catch up.” Freyr smiled encouragingly to the people around her as the Speaker led her away.

Freyr didn’t feel comfortable enough to take a seat when the strange Rothian led her into the room. So she just stood awkwardly opposite the speaker, fingers interlocked in front of her waist, listening for Roth’Orsa to begin.

She nodded politely at the Speaker’s first question, then chuckled morosely when she realised what this was about. “I know they will force me to tell them whatever i tell you.” Freyr ran a hand through her hair and looked into the distance for a moment. The weight on her shoulders was unbearable, and she had no idea which choice was right at this point. It was all just too much.

Eventually, Freyr turned off her implants. She blinked a couple of times to clear the cloudiness from her vision before looking back at the Speaker.

“I don’t know anything about them, is the short answer. Ever since being inducted into the government I’ve heard...stories, I guess, about shadows controlling the Cradle from New Antioch, or somewhere beyond the Border. But I never gave them any serious thought until this all started. Now, they own my department and who knows what else, and the Agent has barely left my side for weeks.” Freyr stopped and sighed, breathing deeply to calm herself. She massaged the bridge of her nose, then chopped her hand down in front of her.

“There is something going on behind the scenes, I can feel it. But everyone, including me, is too terrified to do anything. Who knows what they’re capable of? I have...people, counting on me to stay alive and figure all this out.” Do not cry, do not cry - not in front of the Speaker. Freyr thought to herself.

The Cradle

Freyr had gotten up to leave with the rest of her team when she noticed the Speaker was approaching them. Several of the Human scientists stopped in their tracks as she drew near, unsure of whether to scoot past or wait respectfully. Freyr tried to remain calm when it became clear Roth’Orsa wished to speak with her. “Yes, of course. Happy to help.” Freyr smiled nervously.

“Ooh, are you proposing a tryst? I’d like to join if that’s ok? Xandrus too.” 595 butted in, motioning to the public relations executive who had been sitting inconspicuously among the Human congregation. He looked up quizzically from the holopad he’d been engrossed in for half of the meeting. "Just to ensure there's no misunderstanding." 595 smiled politely.

The Cradle

President DeWinter stole a glance at 595, who was staring up at her from beneath her eyebrows, head tilted slightly down. The president also nervously looked off-screen at something for a moment. “Noted. We’ll discuss that privately and see what we can do.” She replied half-heartedly. She looked glad when her copy of the timeline arrived. Freyr saw her face light up marginally when she opened the file. “Excellent, thank you. Dr Lang, do you have any thoughts?”

Freyr nodded quickly, scanning the timeline as well. “Yes. Our teams will need to be in-situ on Outremer before the object arrives. Since the source gate here on Rothia will be deep underground, I imagine we’ll need to pair another one elsewhere for key personnel to jump in just before?”

The Cradle

Freyr could see that the President was now well out of her depth with these technical details. And in the absence of the Director-General, it finally fell to her to organise everything. She jumped as soon as the President shifted her gaze to look at her. “We have a full suite of monitoring equipment with us on the Barbarossa. Ideally, we would have a team inside the simulation at all times. Our first port of call should be attempting re-entry, using the newly consolidated codebase.”

Freyr considered the next part carefully. “The Cradle itself is in a secure environment underneath Babylon, built to contain sustained nuclear fusion on the inside and orbital bombardment from the outside. In theory, the city is totally safe. However, we don’t know the outward capabilities of this entity nor the Cradle. To be on the safe side, I would also recommend evacuating the city.” 595 kissed her teeth and shook her head derisively at this point.

“But that is your call, Madame President.” Freyr pressed on despite the distraction, shooting an corrosive look at the Agent beside her.

DeWinter nodded gravely, calculating the political risk behind her eyes. “I’ll consult with my cabinet, but it may be difficult to achieve without declaring a state of emergency. And once we go down that route, I can’t stop what happens next. What else?”

The Cradle

“You want to know what it said?” 595 purred, leaning forward with her glass resting in her lap. “I couldn’t hear it very well because it was fading fast. But it pulled me closer and whispered…” 595 grinned, showing perfectly aligned teeth, before putting on an uncanny impression of the energy creature. “Save me...from all these endless posturing meetings. I’m dyingggg.”

The Agent hung her tongue out the corner of her mouth, crossed her eyes and made a loud choking noise. “That’s nothing to joke about!” Freyr protested angrily, which only made 595 laugh harder. “You are too easy! It didn’t say anything; not that i could make out anyway. It just grabbed me, the temple thing that we were in began crumbling, then blackness. Next thing I remember is staring up at a hunky medic.”

Soon after that, the screen behind 595 blinked into life with President DeWinter’s face on it. She began speaking before everyone could find their seats again. 595 made no effort to move right away, forcing Freyr to wrestle her seat out from under the Agent's feet.

“Hello again, apologies for keeping you waiting.” DeWinter began. Lord Hale and Benoit Souza appeared on screen on either side of her. The other officials, including the Director-General, were missing. “After some discussion, we believe we can accept your terms, in principle. Our team will be in contact with a legal agreement text shortly. Please make all necessary preparation for moving the object ahead of time - let us know how we can assist. Do you need anything else from us before we get started?”

The Cradle

Freyr followed Vreta’s gaze to Roth’Orsa. The Rothian was beginning to arouse her interest, both as a biologist and as an AI scientist. But her mind was still mostly focused on the intelligence they’d found just hours before, and Freyr was conscious about making any potentially seditious comment while situated among all these important officials. Freyr nodded sagely at Vreta’s analysis. “Yes. If i’m not dismissed, I’ll try and get some more answers before we leave Rothia.”

“Get your hands off me, Vreta’Sori.” 595 growled when Vreta came over. I’ll scan my own brain, thank you.” The Agent shot out of her seat and perched on the edge of the conference table to get away from both of them. She grabbed a nearby flagon of water and poured a large glass for herself. Freyr watched 595 greedily finish the whole glass before changing the subject. She didn’t want to antagonise this temperamental woman that appeared bound to herself by an invisible string, any more than she already was.

“So...the Cradle Institute. That organisation the Director-General mentioned... There are a lot of institutes based in the Cradle, but I suspect this one is new to me. Are you a member too?” 595 displayed a wry smile. “Sure. Why not.”
“Will i find anything if i search for the name?”

“I highly doubt it.”

“What’s it’s function?”

“We function for all of Outremer, and the Diaspora.”

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

595 shrugged, pouring herself another glass of water.

The Cradle

“It feels strange, doesn’t it? Being helpless.” 595 murmured, looking into the distance. Freyr glanced down at the black-clad Agent. She had gone from looking deathly pale to being quite flushed. Freyr quickly put the back of her hand to 595’s forehead. She pushed Freyr away but not quickly enough. “You’re burning up. What did the medics say?”

“They said I'm fine, it’s just a reaction to re-entry. Leave me alone and I’ll be right as rain in a minute.” 595 snapped, shifting away from them in her seat.

Freyr looked back at Vreta apologetically. “Sorry. I would like to say i’m confident we will reach an agreement...But, as always there are strong opinions on all sides. My worry is that we’re moving heaven and earth for a creature that hasn’t actually given us empirical evidence to back up it’s story. Ideally, we’d gain more information before making a decision we’ll regret. But i don’t think that is a priority for everyone at this meeting.”

The Cradle

Freyr looked at Vreta and smiled without showing any teeth. “Oh, hi. Thanks, I’m hanging in there. I’ll probably have to offer my resignation tonight. Clearly my judgement is compromised.” 595 chuckled into a cough from the chair beside her. “You can’t resign; we need you.” The Agent mumbled. Freyr’s eyebrows bounced and she looked down at the lounging individual. “Lucky me.”

She looked back at Vreta and crossed her arms. “You’ve seen almost everything i’ve seen recently. How do you think this will go? Are you worried?”

The Cradle

Freyr could see most of the Human delegates on screen trying their utmost to retain a neutral expression. Pretty much all, in fact, apart from the Director-General, who’s jaw tightened and his eyes narrowed. He began speaking, but was promptly muted by someone else in the conference.

President DeWinter smiled diplomatically. “Thank you very much for expanding more on your offer. I think we’d like to take a short break now to discuss internally. Please excuse us.” The screen abruptly went blank right after, replaced by the sigil of Outremer’s government.

The Speaker gave the Rothians leave to break for recess, and people began standing up and or talking. Most of the Human scientists began chatting among themselves. Freyr stretched her arms, reaching for the ceiling, before linking hands and gently twisting her back. She then rubbed her eyes, yawned and stood up. She caught 595’s eye again. “How are you feeling?” Freyr asked.

“Never better.” 595 grunted distractedly.

“You should get some rest. You’ve been through the wringer.”

“I plan on sleeping for a week once this meeting is done.”

Freyr nodded, patting the sitting Agent on the shoulder and surveying the rest of the room.

The Cradle

“I can take that first part for you, Madame President.” The Director-General asserted. DeWinter nodded, glad to put some distance between herself and this problematic legalese. The man with the shining eyes answered the Speaker.

“The Cradle has always been categorised as a ‘colonised habitat’ belonging to Outremer, ever since we founded New Antioch. For the past...three hundred and sixteen years it has been sub categorised as a ‘Tier 1 government installation’. This means we are authorised by Diaspora law to deny access for any reason. Given these unique circumstances, if this intelligence can prove that the Cradle is it’s home we are prepared to fast track it’s repatriation. But we cannot do that if you are holding it hostage and withholding it’s equivalent of medical assistance. You may well be contravening the Native Populations framework if you refuse to move it to Outremer.”

Freyr hung, speechless, on every word of this exchange. It was noticeable how much better prepared the Director-General was now, when compared to the last time they’d been together at the Rothian embassy on Outremer. She saw a man who had inadvertently opened up a can of worms, and was now painstakingly catching and killing all of the loose fugitives with the precision of a surgeon. Freyr also noticed that after his initial admonishment of herself, Smith had become utterly emotionless, perhaps to mirror the Speaker herself.

“Thank you, Director-General. I would like to add that we are well aware of the scale of this discovery. We’re looking forward to working together as allies to find a solution. I’m sure we can find some middle ground with regard to data sharing. We will also of course involve Rothia and any other civilisations in the decision-making process.”