Cath

The Cradle

“Mmm, agreed.” Thebes gave his stamp of approval for Eti’Prar’s plan.

Once order had been restored to the sensory suite, Freyr beamed at the people around her. “Excellent work, Nirann! Thank you.” Just then, Dr Wetherall pushed through to the fore of the group. “What’s the problem?” He panted. “Seems we had a glitch somewhere in the system, can you check this room out please?” Freyr asked the veteran Systems boffin before leading the way up some steep stairs to the top deck.

“I don’t think the rig is damaged. If we’ve aligned the code base, there shouldn't be any issues... It could be due to the plate we’re sitting on… I remember from the recordings it lit up just before the creature grabbed the team. Might have some kind of manipular field which is interfering now…” Freyr mused, responding to Vreta’s question.

They entered through another blast door at the end of a short corridor at the top of the steps. The room that greeted them had a central control interface, complete with a large three dimensional holo map that was slowly populating right in front of them. Three jump seats were fixed to the walls and floor with small screens clustered around them. A single door opened at the other end of the room and another door exited on the same wall. “This is the bridge, through there is the cockpit. And the one on your right heads back to the common room.” Freyr announced.

Dr Lang moved to the command console just when Thebes updated them on the general channel. “Lots of movement up here now. They’re smaller than the fliers we took last time. Looks like they’re attracted to the lights.” A few pictures came through, showing what initially just looked like the blackness of night. Then Freyr focused on the picture and could discern individual winged bodies, a bit like large bats. They were swarming together, like one being. “Interesting. Don’t shoot unless they come within touching distance. And then try to capture one alive!” Freyr replied.

“Now, Nirann. Any signs of life in that temple over there?” She asked after a short pause to check the equipment.

The Cradle

“The only blindspots are inside the rig. Outside, we have a full spectrum view in three hundred and sixty degrees from maneuvering cameras and technical instruments.” Freyr explained as she led them through the interior door back towards the middle of the craft.

“The last thing we need is soldiers in full battle dress clogging up the gangways.” 595 countered Vreta. “The Norse can’t even stand up in here.”

“It is okay - I man turret instead!” Kjartan boomed over comms from somewhere on top of the vehicle. “Reminds me of home.”

“The soldiers can traverse the length and breadth of the rig from the outside. Or they can carefully set up in the common room on the top deck. It has easy-ish access to most exterior doors. And...you’ll be pleased to know that most compartments in the rig are equipped as a transit station too. Only the power plant goes without. We’ll need them for outside though.” Freyr offered helpfully as they emerged from a tight corridor into a slightly larger rectangular room. Her mouth dropped open slightly.

The consoles and holos in what should have been a sensory suite were stuck halfway between fully assembled and the folded down state where the rig could reconfigure the layout. Equipment jutted at strange angles from the floor and walls, jerking as the mechanisms caught repeatedly. “Richard, can you get to B2 please?” Freyr called over comms. “Nirann, are you wired in yet? Can you detect any malfunctions in the sensory suite?”

The Cradle

595 didn’t reply to Vreta - she had nothing to say to him right now. She busied herself with guiding Freyr onto and up the ladder instead. Dr Lang fumbled clumsily with her carabiner until the Agent gently took it from her and attached it to the ladder’s guide rail.

Eventually, they made it up onto the rig’s lower deck. A thin metal pathway with a support railing wound the whole way around both decks. Freyr led the way towards the front of the massive vehicle, holding on carefully to stop the wind buffeting her over the side.

They approached a solid set of blast doors in the side of the vehicle with a keypad to one side; snow was already beginning to settle in the panelling. Freyr jabbed her pass sequence into the interface and the doors swooshed open. They clanked into a cramped heptagonal room. Five of the walls were covered in consoles and screens, with a holo-interface in the centre. The door they entered through occupied another side and another door opened on their right once Freyr went in.

“We need to check the simulation isn’t going to crash around our heads in five minutes time first.” Freyr answered. “And then, we will try and make contact with the entity together. The rig’s energy distribution is compartmentalised, so we can set up basic monitoring and comms without turning the primary power source on. We have Marae to thank for our improved efficiency here.”

Freyr hit a few toggles on her wrist holo and the room they were filing into lit up. The screens populated with graphs and fluctuating spirals. “Comms.” Freyr announced into the room. “Dr Chanthara, you’re up.”

“We should have someone outside guarding this door. Question is - one of yours or one of ours?” 595 asked Vreta.

The Cradle

595 studied Vreta through her reflective visor. She realised she was hungry again, and that the Rothian looked quite tasty. She felt different now - powerful, like if she jumped up she wouldn’t come down again. The Agent breathed very carefully in through her nose. She needed to keep everything under wraps on this mission.

“It didn’t say anything. Certainly not about this. Could’ve been the storm I suppose.” The Agent turned her weapon upside down to check the battery. Satisfied everything was working, she turned it on with a satisfying click and hum. “What now?”

“Now, we attempt contact with the entity.” Freyr nodded, opening the team channel again. “Everyone alright? No one hurt?”

“Vitals all stable, everyone accounted for.” Knossos replied immediately.

“Good. Alright team, let's get the lab operational right away - I want to know how long we’ve got. Then, I want to know if anything is still in this temple.” Freyr ordered.

“Yes boss. You heard the lady, let's get a hop on.” Dr Wetherall confirmed, clapping his gloved hands together as he waded unsteadily through the snow.

“We’ve got aerial mobiles off to port. Think they’re checking us out.” Athena reported, watching shadowy forms floating in the air off the side of the mountain. Visibility was awful, so she could only detect their movements, not what they looked like. The fliers that brought them here in the first mission came to mind.

“Hold your fire unless they make a move. Use a carabiner on the ladders, people.” Thebes advised the group - they were a potential weak point to aerial attack.

“Come on, let's get you in the nerve centre.” 595 urged Freyr, holding out an arm for the scientist to totter toward a ladder in her unfamiliar combat suit.

The Cradle

They fitted Freyr into her harness last. From there, she could just about see the command consoles and the crew they were leaving behind to coordinate the mission. “Ready, Doctor?” One of the technicians loomed over her, making final adjustments to the harness. “Yeah, launch the drone.” They nodded, relaying the instructions across the vast room.

Freyr’s team launched a small remote controlled drone at the approved coordinates. It was deliberately quite basic, to avoid interference while it completed its task - testing the inhabitability of the environment. The whole room was quiet while a few people focused hard on the readouts. The Captain had offered more Bridge staff to help with management of the mission, by way of reconciliation. She watched proceedings from a raised platform.

After a short pause. Dr Apalkov called from the command area: “Atmosphere is stable. No signs of disruption! Beginning insertion sequence.” Freyr cleared her throat. “Good luck everyone.”

---

Her limbs were on fire! Freyr waved her arms and legs but couldn’t find purchase anywhere. She realised she was airborne milliseconds before she slammed back first into a hard surface. Freyr’s teeth rattled inside her helmet and a pained grunt escaped her lips. She fell onto her front and found ground beneath her; she spread her arms out to avoid falling anywhere.

“Freyr, you ok?” The Agent’s distinctive voice asked her from nearby. She felt a hand checking the apparatus cocooning her then teasing her head off the floor. “Open your eyes sweetie, It’s alright.”

As Freyr opened her eyes, lights on the outside of her helmet flickered on to illuminate her surroundings - the suit's night vision hadn't kicked in yet. 595 was crouching over her prone body, resting a big energy rifle on her knee. Gradually, the burning sensation subsided and Freyr felt sick instead. She grasped the Agent’s hand, hauling herself up and looking around.

She’d crashed against one of the lab’s giant wheels. Looking up, she could see auxiliary lights flickering into action on the two decks above and in the cockpit. six multi-jointed appendages hung folded away along the top. The gantry running along the outside edge of the rig was empty - Freyr supposed they’d just entered. Her memory was a little foggy. “Did we just get here?” She asked 595.

“Yeah, about twenty seconds ago.”

Freyr saw Dr Wetherall being helped to his feet by Thebes and waved. She could taste blood in her mouth and her tongue hurt. Wind roared out of the dark at them, sticking large blobs of snow and ice on Freyr’s visor.

The Cradle

“Yes of course. If there are any signs of terminal strain on the simulation we’ll pull out immediately. We want to keep this thing alive.” Freyr assured Datius. The thrill of discovering an entirely new species was not lost on her. If it weren’t for all the other extenuating circumstances, she’d have already laid the foundations for formally introducing this entity to the galactic community once the mission was declassified. It might have been her crowning achievement - uncovering a lifeform that was potentially millions of years old and one of the final puzzle pieces to her life’s work - uncovering the secrets of the Cradle.

“The drone is already prepped. I’m not injecting it until we’re in a ready position, so we can quickly follow it and minimise runtime waste.” Freyr frowned at Rareth’s next question. “Yeah, I discussed them. Andersen came down from thirteen to ten marines, plus the Sacred Band. That was after I explained that the modifications to our lab mean only eight are required to control it. She won’t budge any further.”

“Boss!” Dr Apalkov called from the other side of the holo-table. Freyr moved all the floating items with a ‘through the bushes’ motion of both hands. “What do you have for me?” She asked.

“I’ve locked onto the mountain, using the extraction file. Want me to lock that in again now?”

“Good work, yes please. That’s where we last saw the creature.”

Freyr looked back at Rareth, hands resting on the table. “There’s no easy way down the mountain for the rig if our friend isn’t there. I hope the anti-gravity generators you installed work as described. Do you have any more questions for me or can we get this show on the road?”

The Cradle

Freyr had hoped Rareth would come aboard. She’d stayed by her station in the centre of the action while the Datius did the rounds. When the giant Rothian approached her and began speaking, she looked over as if she’d been engrossed in work and hadn’t noticed. She smiled, said hello, and reached out her hand. As expected, after studying Rareth gently grasped her hand and they shook.

Freyr began answering the question out loud with one track of her mind. Regular metrics that didn’t mean much to the uninitiated - deliberately quite technical. With the other track of her mind, Freyr opened a physical data connection with Rareth, and gave her the real answer.

That night in the club with Plenipotentiary Wallace and Kalax Verengonig had inspired this idea. Freyr had watched them grasping each other's arms and communicating in complete secrecy by sending chemical & pheromone signals through their bodies. She’d studied body chemistry alignment, but had never practiced it before now.

Freyr knew it’d be much harder to communicate with a Rothian in this way than with another Human, but this was the best way she could think of to talk without drawing attention. While their regular implant comms would be quite secure, it was another matter to obscure the connection completely.

Fortunately, she had an innate grasp of her implanted firmware, and manually programmed some additions to make the translation of her body chemistry into something a Rothian implant could understand.

The sensation of making that connection was strange, like interlocking fingers, toes, tongues and hair with something completely alien to her. Every nerve ending in her body jangled and sang. But she kept her expression plain and initiated the chemical signal she’d worked on. If everything went to plan, it should feel to Rareth like her own subconscious was saying these things to her.

><^ Don't be alarmed, just listen.><^

><^I've configured the rig to search for information connecting this entity to the Cradle, and for proof of the ‘Hegemon’.><^

><^It said all meaningful records were stored in the Cradle, but there might be usable imprints hidden somewhere in it’s memory.><^

><^The Cradle has obscured origin logs for centuries, but this entity is vulnerable, and not as vast in scope. We might have a better chance now than we’ll ever get again.><^

><^We might learn where these things came from, and perhaps secrets about intelligent life itself.><^

><^Please trust me when I say it’s important we try. I can feel something isn’t right. Do not make this information public. My life is in danger. Do NOT offer me asylum or try to intervene, I have to save my family.><^

The last segment was rushed and crammed together, as Freyr felt rising nausea threatening to disrupt the flow of actual words coming from her mouth.

The Cradle

“There is evidence from our research of the Cradle to suggest these things can practice a dormant state, with no power usage over long periods. That could be how it escaped detection for so long...” Freyr explained, biting her lip. “We don’t exactly know what would happen if it ran out of power completely, but there is undeniably significant risk of permanent damage."

“So we are torturing it for information!” 595 snarled from off camera.

Freyr snapped her head up to look at the Agent. “So you think we should just take the thing’s word for all this paradigm-shifting new information? That the Cradle is actually home to a quartet of life-giving machines, and that some new threat approaches our door? There are questions that need answering before we reunite it with the Cradle, not after!”

595 nearly said more, but held her tongue. She was wary of giving away any more information. They were clearly arrayed against her, so she’d need to be much more subtle.

Freyr looked back at Rareth when she began explaining her idea. “That could certainly improve the odds! Do we have a firm grasp of the object and the capabilities to move it into orbit?”

The Cradle

“No, sorry, I think you misunderstand.” Freyr sighed, massaging her eyelids and trying to maintain an even tone. “The rig doesn’t need terraformed ground to work, and we agreed not to terraform at Marae’s request. All I’m saying is it makes comprehensive analysis of the simulation like conducting open heart surgery without clamps and forceps. We’re also at risk of becoming collateral damage if things become more liquid in the sim, as our Builders can’t construct a secure foundation or defences around the rig.”

Freyr shook her head, trying to focus her thoughts. “Anyway, droids are technically an option, but like i said...we could only have a few minutes to try and make contact, and then potentially manipulate a rig designed for twelve crew into running a diagnostic...”

Freyr paused, glancing round to watch her team hard at work preparing more harnesses behind her. Dr Wetherall straightened up to hand one of the yellow Tech drones its laser cutter back with a grin and an affectionate pat on the casing. “The only solid evidence we have that there may only be one shot is the way it closed down the sim so abruptly last time. The entity could barely speak by the end, and may well run out of energy completely before this week is out. We have to assume we’re in there to get everything we need in one hit. The consequences of not doing so could be catastrophic.”

Freyr varied her gaze between the Captain and the Datius. “My team is the best in the galaxy at what they do. They understand the stakes, and the risks, better than anyone.” She studied Agent 595, who was still watching from a distance, before staring back at the Datius. “We won’t leave our chance at understanding what this thing is before we reunite it with the Cradle to droids.”

The Cradle

“I considered this, and it’s certainly an option. But, we don’t know how many chances we’ll get to collect the data we need. We might only have one more opportunity, lasting just a few minutes. Even if we can insert safely this time, without enough people to man the rig, we'll be running virtually blind again, unable to make a proper judgement.” Freyr glanced at the Captain, who was listening intently. She was glad people were beginning to take the risks seriously. She had only just gotten started explaining those.

Freyr tapped her nail on the holo-screen’s base. “My preference is to go in with a full team of scientists and a minimal complement of military personnel, to collect as much information as we can as fast as possible. Marae expressed her concerns about terraforming the ground we use, which increases the risk of this strategy even higher, but I believe it's our best shot at gaining useful intel if the entity is unable to respond. The payload may not take too kindly to this, but the rig is defensible. I think we can manage.”

"It's my head if we lose our best scientists because of a lack of security. I have to insist we send my marines in to guard the rig. That leaves the Rothians and the Sacred Band free to neutralize any threats before they get close. Right?" Captain Andersen directed the last syllable at Rareth, still unsure what role Rothia was going to be playing.