Music

Freyr removed 595’s hand from around her waist and slowly placed it on Vreta’s chest along with hers. She watched the agent take deep, laboured breaths as they traced a patchwork of individual scales together. Freyr leant in suddenly and kissed her neck, in the same way 595 had done to her seconds (or was it minutes?) before. The feeling of her lips slowly brushing against the woman’s taut neck muscles made Freyr feel as though she’d grown wings. A new set of unwieldy limbs on her back with exquisite feeling all of their own.

“Ohhh.” 595 moaned. “But we’re...dancing right now? What...incredible teeth you have.” Freyr watched the woman slowly raise her hand from Vreta’s chest upwards to try and touch his snout. Freyr could see 595’s mouth moving to form the words, and it was far too loud to hear her, but somehow she still understood. In fact, Freyr felt connected with quite a few people in the room. She felt she might be able to recall the name of the Tindrel dancing rhythmically nearby. She could tell Masgard was dehydrated as gyrated in slow motion with a female his own age. And not just because the strobe lighting illuminated his chest showing through the sweat-drenched formal shirt he wore.

Vreta had to admit the strangeness of the situation. Or at least, part of him recognized it. His mind was torn between his normal rationality and…something else entirely. He found himself easily losing focus and simply acting on impulse. Though, he did not feel that he had entirely lost control. He just no longer felt the need to observe certain inhibitions.

Vreta did not react immediately to 595’s hand on his snout. Even had he been completely lucid, he might not have known how to respond right away. Though, in this case, it was laughter that he replied with after a few seconds. “This is your dancing? Well, I guess I should join in instead of just standing around.”

For a while, Vreta made no effort to fight the impulses of his clouded mind and instead simply allowed him to dance with the agent and Freyr in whatever ways came to mind. Vreta was someone who had practiced dance in a more professional setting at one point in his life, during his more artistic phase. Although, that experience was five centuries in the past. He had, of course, had cause to dance recreationally in the intervening years, his instinct still wanted to call back on that practice he had drilled into himself so long ago. There was a certain grace and fluidity to his movements, but they still came at a fast, almost chaotic pace to match the temp of the music filling the air. The crowded dance floor meant that he was starved for much of the space he needed. He was not uncoordinated, but there were a few times that unexpected movements in the crowd caused him to bump his considerable weight into strangers, friends, or both.

Overall, the one Vreta danced the most closely with was Agent 595. At first it had been to pull her attention away from Freyr, but that motivation faded the more he allowed himself to become lost in the moment. He made the most use of the limited space he had by dancing around and between 595 and Freyr, depending on who his partner was at the time. Eventually, his motions brought him back to the Agent, whose hand he took in his own as he pulled her closer to him. He moved himself to her side, whipping his tail around behind her. The “correct” response was to entwine her tail with his own, but for a Human, that was obviously not an option even if she had known. For the most part, he just ended up slapping her with his tail, then wrapping it around her waist.

Freyr danced with all three of them, keeping to the beat of the music as well as all of their heartbeats. The edges of her vision were beginning to blur, and the colours were so vivid it hurt her eyes. Two tiny points were super sharp and zoomed in, if she squinted. Suddenly she was in the thronging crowd, trying to copy the rapid movements of a pair of Tindrel. She knew they were recreating Penultimate Rain Dance VII, and how she could help to complete the sequence.

Before they could finish, someone’s sweaty back barrelled into her from behind and sent her clattering to the floor. One of the Tindrel leant in close so she could use it’s legs as a support to get up. Turning around, she saw 595 with her hand around the neck of a very drunk, dazed clubgoer. He was suspended a couple of inches off the floor, his hands and feet dangling as he choked and spluttered. The agent’s head was tilted, studying his confused expression. “Agent...put him down!” Freyr could hear Kalax slurring from somewhere, was it in her mind? 595 smiled sweetly, set the guy down and patted his ruddy cheek. “Should we go to the next cl-”

---

Sunlight. Piercing her eyelids as a nimbus of burnt red pain. She opened her mouth and immediately regretted it. Dry, and smelling of alcohol and chemicals. She was somewhere soft, and realised slowly that it was in a bed. She slowly pulled the plush covers over her face. “Water...hangover cure...quick...please!” She sent out on all short range channels.

”Sleeping beauty is awake. I'll get it. Hydration, coming right up princess.” someone replied. After a short while, the red light appeared again; someone pushed a pull into her mouth and a small glass of water into her hand. ”You should really get this implanted.” they lectured. “Shhhh.” She replied, sloshing loads of water of her face as she tried to get a gulp in her mouth.

When Vreta lost his focus, it also became easier for him to lose his sense of time. He had been dancing at first with the Agent, then…others. He found himself gravitating towards Tindrel especially, and he did not question why. He simply did what he felt he should and let his impulses drive him, at least for a time. When he saw the “fight”, if it could be called that, which Agent 595 ended up in, it was enough to at least partially pull Vreta back into reality. There was a part of him in the back of his mind that, strangely, felt like he understood why she was doing what she was doing, despite the fact that he had not seen the events leading up to it.

In any case, there was enough lucidity in Vreta’s mind that he did not lose focus on what he felt he needed to do. By the time he and some of the others had approached the Agent, she had released her grip on the clubgoer, but Vreta still felt strongly that he needed to prevent it from happening again. “This is…getting to be too much. We shouldn’t stay here like this. My…my apartment. On the upper level of the city; let’s go there. Stay out of trouble…”

---

Vreta was awoken by a beam of light shining in onto his eyes early in the morning from one of the windows. Though, before he even opened his eyes, he was already receiving reports on his body’s current state from his neural implant. It was alerting him to seek water soon, as he was becoming dehydrated, and it was currently releasing a treatment into his brain to suppress a headache. He felt that he was laying on the couch in his living room, though more importantly, he was not laying there alone. In his arms, nestled between him and the cushions was a naked Human woman. His memories of how he came to be in this position were not returning to him immediately, but he did not feel that it would take many guesses to come to the right answer. It was uncommon of him to choose a partner that was non-Rothian, but it was not something that was entirely new to him, either. However, when he finally opened his eyes to see the person he was holding in his claws, he found that it was none other than Agent 595. That was…more unusual.

Vreta did not immediately get up. Instead, he laid his head back and started skipping through parts of his recording of the night’s events to jog his own memory. He started with the last point he remembered, then skipped ahead to start filling in the gaps. The more he remembered, the more…interesting the story became, and he expected he would be telling it soon enough.

“How are you feeling?” Masgard asked, sitting on the side of the bed as Freyr swallowed the pill and finished the glass of water. The cocktail of painkillers, stimulants and electrolytes suppressed her crushing headache and allowed Freyr to at least open her eyes. She moved the cover from over her head. Masgard was dressed in a new suit, light grey this time. He looked annoyingly put together, all things considered. “Rough. I’ll be ready in the minute. What happened last night?” Masgard chuckled, looking out of a window and scratching his nose. “Well, umm, Vreta'Sori and 595 got together.”

“What?!”

“Shhh, they’ll hear you! I just wanted to warn you in case they’re still on the couch.”

In the open plan living space down the hall, 595 woke up to look straight in Vreta’s eyes. She looked around and realised where they were. “Well, good morning.” She murmured, quickly levering herself up so she could look over the back of the couch. The room was massive, but that didn’t stop the sounds and smells of Kalax preparing breakfast wafting over from the kitchen island. He didn’t seem to notice her, so she dropped back down.

595 quickly slid off the couch and found her underwear in a pile. While hopping into her sturdy black knickers and bra, she spooled back through her black box recordings to fill in some of the blanks. Admittedly there weren’t many; she’d been filtering some of the effects so she was still somewhat able to discharge her duties. She bit her lip at the memory of hoisting that innocent in the club. Oops. Kinda invigorating though. Being the most deadly woman in any room was a key benefit of the role, she thought.

595 looked at Vreta. “Don’t get any ideas, big guy.”

Vreta sat up on the couch, briefly taking a moment to stretch out the arm 595 had been lying on all night. He watched her scrounge around and put on the clothes she found, though unlike most Human observers, her lack of clothing hardly even registered with Vreta. She could walk through Threria naked and most Rothians would scarcely notice.

“I don’t know what you mean.” Vreta remarked, and honestly, in this case. He did not have any of the anxiety she seemed to be showing, if he was placing that emotion correctly. At the very least, she had been in a hurry to get up for some reason. “That was more of a fun night than I had been expecting, I will admit. I’m looking through the recordings now. You did end up getting in a bit of trouble. I think you might have incurred some fines at the club.” He chuckled. “I think we got through the night without any major trouble, though. I don’t think any of us left after we came to my apartment, so there shouldn't be any more, uh, repercussions.”

"Really? I hardly touched the sweaty little man." 595 pouted. "I will admit this place is fun, but everyone needs to lighten up a little. I wasn't expecting that much pressure to return home after one minor incident in the line of duty. How much is the fine?" The agent asked, scratching her neck and carefully treading a path through the half-consumed drinks on the floor around the couch.

"Kalax darling, do you have food and clothing for me?" The Ambassador turned around from the hob. "Kedgeree and a tracksuit, my dear. Wallace sent over a change of clothes for all of us." Kalax himself was wearing his work clothes underneath a white chef's apron. He looked very fresh and handsome in an androgynous sort of way.

595 skittered over to the Ambassador’s lanky form. He held out a spoon of seasoned rice, dusted with flakes of haddock and egg. "Is this cooked to your satisfaction?" 595 maneuvered her mouth around the spoon with an exaggerated "NOM" sound. She swallowed and grinned. "Delicious. Where are the clothes?" Kalax turned and pointed to a large box on the other side of the kitchen island with his spoon. "You may want to wash first, you smell." 595 skittered round to the box and opened it. "Food first, wash later." She replied.

Back in one of the guest bedrooms, Freyr was blown away by this recent discovery. She'd sat up in bed, the duvet wrapped around her, a cup of water clutched in her hand. "So how did it happen?". Masgard glanced toward the door. "I think 595 was always going to hook up with someone last night. The pool of candidates just got a lot smaller when our outing was cut short.”

That response left questions in Freyr's mind, but she didn't get a chance to voice them before Kalax called over comms. “Brunch is ready! Don’t let it get cold.” Masgard levered himself off the bed. “Fresh clothes are here. Special delivery from Wallace.” Freyr was starving, so she jumped out of bed straight after Masgard exited the room, threw on the light, comfortable short-sleeve overalls, and followed him.

Vreta glanced at 595 and shrugged. “I don’t know; I don’t have access to your account. The fine’s amount would be auto-calculated based your income, total assets, and extenuating circumstances surrounding the event. The fact that you were not arrested might imply that your victim did something to instigate as well.”

Vreta too was keen to get up and walked straight to the kitchen for a glass of water. He raised up his snout and sniffed the air above the dish that Kalex had prepared to identify the ingredients within. “Fish, grains, eggs, and what is that scent…ah, my search says you call it ‘butter’. Definitely a Human dish. Where did you order the ingredients from? I imagine that, by this point, you have found the best option for authentic Human cuisine, Ambassador.”

Soon enough, Vreta’s other guests joined them in the main room. He looked back over his shoulder and nodded in greeting to them. “Good morning Freyr, Masgard. I hope my guest rooms were comfortable to your standards. It seems Kalax has taken the liberty of cooking for us. I don’t know what it is, but I am happy to try your cuisine.”

After a moment, Vreta gave another look to 595 beside him. “My shower is down that hall if you need it. Though for myself, I usually just bask in the pool outside. It can be heated like a hot tub, and the filtration system easily handles all contaminates. I find it a relaxing start to the day.”

“Oh, well. Seeing as i don’t have an income or any assets, the fines should be pretty low. I’m just a lowly warrior-servant, after all. I’m sure Kalax can pay my way.” 595 winked at Vreta just as Kalax playfully flung a rice-flecked spoon at her from across the kitchen. She plucked it out of the air without looking, put it back down on the island and pulled a stylish baggy shirt and skirt combination out of the box. “I suppose this will have to do.” 595 sighed, quickly changing into the outfit.

“Only the best ingredients, Vreta’Sori. I have an account with the Rothia Trading Company import office; they deliver the finest ingredients to me by drone each day.” The Ambassador deftly took the steaming pan of Kedgeree off the hob and onto a heat mat on the kitchen island as Freyr and Masgard entered. “Perfect timing! Come sit.” Kalax said to the new arrivals. 595 briefly acknowledged them before looking at Vreta. “Alright, message received! I’ll go and have a bath the moment i finish eating.” She turned to study Freyr’s dishevelled appearance. “By the looks of it, you could use a nice relaxing swim too. Interested?” Freyr nodded. “After brunch. I am famished.” All of the humans nodded; the Sthrirad had evidently worked up a bit of an appetite for them.

Vreta joined the Humans at the table for their breakfast. He was silent at first while he prodded quizzically at the meal Kalax had prepared. He took in its scent again in order to take stock of its ingredients and make sure he knew everything he would be eating. There were no two spacefaring species with perfectly compatible digestive systems, but digestive implants or specially-designed enzyme supplements could bridge those gaps and allow one to handle a wider variety of foods. Vreta’s enhancements were equipped to produce enzymes to aid in digesting nearly anything edible, but it still never hurt to double-check.

“I can’t say I’ve experienced something quite like that before, even in all my time. Looking it up now, I’m seeing that Sthrirad is none other than the Tindrels’ rather unique symbiote. I should have recognized the name. Though, if I had, I might not have partaken.” Vreta said with a shrug. “It was a fun evening, though. I do somewhat regret cutting it short for us all. I was just doing what I thought was best for our well-being.”

“Quite exhilarating, isn’t it?” Kalax responded to Vreta, carefully shuffling the kedgeree into a shallow bowl and sliding it across the island to him. He then did the same thing for 595, Freyr, Masgard and then himself. “Wallace was an Ambassador on Tind for a long time before becoming Plenipotentiary. I’m told she spent a year hosting the Sthrirad, to learn about it. Don’t worry about your Touch though, the Sthrirad can usually only stay in Human bodies for about six hours at a time, and Rothians about eight. She told me.” Kalax beamed.

“I had a great time right here, for what it’s worth.” Masgard offered, tucking into his bowl of kedgeree. “I still think we could’ve got away with sampling a little more Rothian nightlife. Even if it was to cheer Miss Morose up.” 595 pouted. “Hey! I’m not morose. I’m also still struggling to remember much. Is that a good thing?” Freyr asked.

Vreta laughed for a moment, though he still took his time to try this “kedgeree” before continuing. “I’m not sure that I would ever classify memory loss as a ‘good’ thing, myself.” He said to Freyr. “If for no other reason than it is nice to remember the things you enjoy. From what I remember of the club, there were a lot of drinks and dancing to be had for all of us. I distinctly remember you joining in some kind of organized dance with a group of Tindrel, which is impressive considering you have half as many legs as would be needed for that.”

Vreta paused briefly again to have another few spoonfulls of the mixture Kalax had put together. He had little doubt that the dish tasted fundamentally different to him than it did to them. As omnivores, they had a taste for plant-based foods, where as the grains and some of the other ingredients were much more naturally bland to him. Fortunately, he did quite like both fish and eggs, and the butter added considerable flavor for him.

“If you like, I could give you my recording of the evening, Freyr. I wasn’t watching you the entire time at the club, but it might jog your memory. Although, I will admit I’m not too sure what you got up to after we came here. I lost track of you once I started mating with the Agent here. Maybe the others can help remind you as well?” Vreta remarked in a distinctly casual, matter-of-fact tone.

“Oh yeah, i remember that.” Freyr confessed, shoving a big spoon full of kedgeree into her mouth. “I somehow knew all the moves to make, without anyone telling me.” Kalax nodded furiously. “The Sthrirad is really just a few dozen collective intelligences; I’m told it can quickly share information between hosts. Which is why we all knew what everyone was saying, even though I can see only garbled implant comms from late that evening.” Kalax surmised.

Everyone in that kitchen made some kind of noise and nervous movement when Vreta said the word ‘mating’. Kalax laughed, spraying kedgeree in front of him. Freyr and Masgard firmly clamped their lips together in an attempt to hold back laughter. Freyr studied the ceiling in a desperate effort to avoid catching anyone else’s eye. 595 groaned and placed her face in her hands. “Vreta’Sori. Please NEVER say ‘mating’ anywhere near me again. We, I...blew off steam. We didn’t mate. What're you laughing about?” She directed the last question at the rest of the group, eyeing each of them in turn.

Masgard blew air through his nose; Freyr began shuddering in her seat, unable to contain it all. "I agree, the word is uncomfortable to Human ears. But - i find it...sweet. That you guys had fun together." Kalax said very diplomatically, quickly regaining his composure.

Vreta did not initially expect such a strong reaction from the others as he described the events of the night. He knew of their taboos, of course, but he did not expect them to be strong enough to inspire such embarrassment and laughter. “Oh yes, Humans do have such strange taboos regarding matters of sex. At least, they seem strange to me.”

Vreta did take his time enjoying his meal. Although he did not show it as openly as Kalax, he too could not help but to find 595’s embarrassment delightfully amusing. She normally gave off such a strong, commanding presence that to see anything else from her felt like a rare opportunity. He supposed he should try to relieve her of her embarrassment…once he had his fill of enjoying it.

Eventually, Vreta did return his gaze to the Agent as he spoke up. “I will admit, it is quite odd to see you squirming like this, Agent. You are normally such a powerful, commanding presence in any room you’re in. You struck me as the type that would take the idea of shame and crush it under your heel.” He grinned, before giving a shrug. “But, perhaps I just misunderstand this part of your culture? Do you find it acceptable for me to ask for clarification?”

“I think we’d all find it acceptable if we just dropped the whole subject while having brunch, hmm?” 595 replied immediately. She looked round at the others, daring them to say anything. “Fine by me.” Masgard smirked. Freyr couldn’t tell if 595 was genuinely horrified, if she was winding Vreta up, or something else. She could’ve answered Vreta at a push, but she was too exhausted to argue with the Agent right now.

Sensing a bit of tension, Kalax pulled a chilled bottle of champagne out of the bag that had contained ingredients for kedgeree too. He deftly unwrapped the cork, popped the bottle open and poured out five glasses. “Here’s to Vreta, for being a fine host. Cheers!” Freyr grabbed her flute and raised it into the air with Kalax before taking a drink. “To go backwards slightly, thank you for the offer of a memory share. However, I think i’ll take a pass this time; I try not to live in the past wherever I can, unless it’s to recall information for work.”

Freyr had forced herself to stop watching recordings of intimate family moments about a month ago. She couldn’t dislodge a worry at the back of her mind that even reliving last night may tempt her to start again. She gulped down another spoonful of food when she got a private call request from Captain Andersen. She furrowed her brow and accepted the call. This was quite unusual.

“Good morning captain, everything okay?”

“..Good morning Dr Lang. I’m...sorry to be the bearer of bad news. But one of your team, Dr Hou, sadly died late last night. We think he committed suicide. Could you please return to the ship at your earliest convenience? We need to-” Freyr disconnected the call, in shock.

Once more, Vreta could not help but to laugh. It seemed his confusion would not end up being resolved in this conversation, but he did still accept the drink. “That does mean I shall continue to not fully understand you, but…I suppose that has worked for me so far. I will just say that, all my teasing aside Agent, I did enjoy our evening together. I would invite you to join me any time, should you want to repeat the experience.”

Vreta moved on from the topic as well and was the first to finish his meal. For a few minutes, they stared to return to other small talk as they shared Kalax’s champagne, but it was hard not to notice the sudden change in Freyr’s expression. Even Vreta could see that something was wrong, and he was the first to address is. “Is everything alright, Freyr?”

---

It had taken just a day for the detailed sensor sweep of the Humans’ provided coordinates to yield results, though it took a few days longer before the expedition was in a position to bring their scientists on-site. After they had confirmed a positive result on the sensor scans, they had to plan and requisition the proper equipment to reach the object. At the very least, what they had found did provide an immediate explanation as to why it had never been discovered throughout the Rothians’ explorations of their own planet. It was small at only about ten meters in width, the rock around it partially hid its signature on sensors, and above all, it was located extremely deep within Rothia’s crust. Not only was it under an ocean, but it was in a subduction zone near the edge of a tectonic plate. It had been pushed so deeply into the crust that it was nearing the planet’s mantle. Its location did present problems that would require specialized equipment to solve, but to the Rothians, it was nothing their technology could not overcome.

For the purposes of the excavation, a forward research outpost was being built from modular components at the bottom of the ocean. Scans had identified a suitable location close to directly above the object, at which specialized, prefabricated structures were being brought down from the surface to be assembled. Once completed, their research base would be able to hold all of their needed equipment, with plenty of space left over for to comfortably hold every member of the science team and maintenance crew. Until then, they were making use of a Rothian exploration vessel. It was a corvette-sized ship intended to scout newly-discovered planets and other celestial objects. As it was meant to be able to explore even hazardous environments, such as the atmospheres of gas giants, the vessel could easily survive the intense pressure at the ocean floor, and it had all of the sensors and instruments needed for the team to at least begin their research ahead of the completion of their base. Though, between the ship’s crew and the science team, the vessel did feel a bit crowded, and they had to make due with military-style barracks for their accommodations.

Nevertheless, neither the Rothian nor Human science teams intended to waste any time, so the vessel was already parked at the ocean floor directly above the object, performing a deep sensor scan in an attempt to non-invasively determine its material composition. The ship’s lab was crowded with all manner of equipment and people, both Rothian and Human like. Depending on their specializations, not all had much to do at the moment, but they were all preparing just the same. Their lab did afford them the opportunity for a wonderful view, as there was a large observation window that took up the majority of one of the walls of the room. There was, of course, no natural light that penetrated so deep into the ocean, but artificial lights had been placed all along the area, in addition to the powerful floodlights that could be found all across the exterior of their ship’s hull. Deep sea creatures that were not repelled by the lights could frequently be seen swimming or scurrying around outside.

Marae’Ano stood just next to the observation window, watching the laser drills being moved into place to start the first steps of the excavation. “How soon until we can send in probes for a closer look?” Marae asked aloud. Soon after, a full-sized hologram of a Rothian man appeared next to her. Compared to many of the more creative scale patterns of some of the other scientists, and Marae herself, his scales had a much more natural pattern with dark green scales and brown stripes.

“Rareth’Jharn has ordered a containment shield to be placed around the object before we do anything to the object directly. The object is deep, but luckily not too big, so it shouldn’t delay us by any more than six hours.” He answered.

Marae shrugged. “Yes, well, I suppose there’s no harm in being safe. Have the latest scans at least been completed, Nirann?”

“They have. One moment, I’ll bring them up.” He answered, motioning his hand through the air as he brought up another hologram between them, showing a distinctly octahedral object among deep, hardened rock.

Freyr walked over to Marae’s side from a nearby console to study the hologram. “Interesting. It’s a different shape and size to the Cradle.” She grabbed her AR glasses from where they hung around her neck and put them on. “Could be the same material profile. Hard to tell without a closer look. Have we detected any signals from it?”

Freyr then turned and called to a short, barrel chested man in a white lab coat on the other side of the lab. “Apalkov, any luck gaining access with the harness?” There was a short pause; the members of Freyr’s team with parts to play were all deep in concentration. “I think we’re getting close! I just need to make some adjustments to the chemical mix.” A murmur of excitement spread through the lab - Freyr just nodded, thoroughly in the zone. “Good, once you’re confident, i’ll go under and see if we can interface with it.”

“Definitely not. You’re too valuable to this mission; I can't allow you to go under. We have no fucking idea what's in there.” 595 sniped, moving so she stood right in Freyr's way. "What other options do we have? I'm not prepared to risk the lives of anyone else on this ship." Freyr retorted, more quietly. "Why don't I go? Let's face it, nobody cares if I live or die." 595 murmured, a sheepish smile on her face.

As 595 and Freyr argued, Nirann’s hologram soon appeared in front of them. “Sorry, but no one is doing anything with the object until we have the containment shield fully established. Rareth-Jharn’s orders. Whatever we do decide on can wait another six or so hours. Anything you want done to the object before then will have to be ran by her. Just don’t ask me to ask her; she scares me. And I’m all the way in Threria right now.”

Marae rolled her eyes with an impatient look towards Nirann before turning her attention to the Humans. “Unfortunately, my husband is right. We will have to be patient. We can still decide what we intend to do, though. I’ve read through all of the information you provided on your Cradle. Connecting one’s mind to this object is a dangerous prospect, for anyone. We have no idea if the simulated environment within this object is something our minds could even survive. Or if this object even creates a simulated environment at all. I do agree that this object is most likely of the same technology as your Cradle, but we do not know its purpose.”

Marae turned and looked for a few moments in silence across the lab at the harness the Humans had brought. Any Rothian, herself included, would have preferred to use their own technology exclusively, but she could admit that it would be more time-efficient to use the already-built, well-tested harness from Outremer. “Can we investigate the nature of the simulation without sending anyone in? Presuming it is a simulation, of course. We could, perhaps, connect an artificial mind with a simple scouting program.” She suggested.

“Yes of course, how stupid of me.” Freyr muttered. She’d been finding it hard to focus since the news of Dr Hou’s sudden death. He had been one of her most trusted colleagues and advisors; she didn’t understand how she’d neglected to notice he was unhappy. Her nights had already been fraught before this, now they were almost unbearable. Still, there was a lot riding on this expedition; Freyr wouldn’t allow it to fail on her account.

“We could try an AI. However it’s proved a very unproductive, unethical, dangerous method in the past. They’ve always gone rogue and either disappeared into the Cradle or tried to destabilise us; going after the biosphere et cetera.. All their readouts go dead immediately upon making contact. From what we can gather, the Cradle is a little too good at manipulating other machine intelligences; that’s why we had to go inside to set up shop ourselves.

Freyr turned to look at the hologram of the new object again. “We can test out the other communications packages our teams have collaborated on too. Like you say, there’s no guarantee it shares any similarities with the Cradle. I’m just going off what I know.”

Marae flicked her hand through the air and brought up another, scaled hologram of the Cradle on Outremer next to that of the newly-discovered object. She also reviewed some of the information the Humans had elected to release to them on the Cradle’s simulation. “It is still worth trying, I would say. No offense intended, but the artificial intelligence I have created are centuries beyond your own. Their creativity and complexity can be indistinguishable from a living mind, to the point that the difference between them is merely…hardware. I am not suggesting we send in a complete AI, but I should be able to craft a program advanced enough to keep to its purpose.”

In an instant, Nirann’s hologram flicked out of existence from in front of Freyr and reappeared next to Marae, with his hand on her shoulder. “Now, I think you’re overthinking this. We don’t need to send in the most advanced programs. In fact, I think we might try sending something very, very simple. We can send in the most basic, barebones program we can write that can still accomplish some the minimum level of scouting. We just give it some simple, hardcoded instructions and lock them down from being modified by any source, for any reason. It won’t be the most capable construct, obviously, but it could still give us a basic idea of what the simulation is like. At least enough to know if it is safe to send in a person. And if it fails, then nothing of value has been lost.”

With a grin, Marae leaned in and nuzzled her snout up against Nirann’s with closed eyes: a show of romantic affection similar to a hug or quick kiss. Being that he was appearing as a hologram, there was nothing for Marae to physically touch, yet it still seemed quite convincing that she was. Granted, even among Humans, the technology was readily-available for sub-dermal implants that could provide haptic feedback from holograms. After the brief exchange, she turned to Freyr once more. “I think he may be right. Simplicity might be the key here. Does your Cradle provide any resistance to uploading simple programs, or will we need to pack the program in a façade of a living mind, Dr. Lang?”