595 stepped into the shower and turned her face into the stream of scalding water. As Vreta spoke, she examined these unwanted phantom memories again. They felt at odds with all her experiences around it; a cuckoo in the nest. It was too intimate for her, sharing the same emotions when they were two separate people.

She lightly tapped her head against the wall-side of the shower cubicle. “Get out of my head…” She mouthed silently to herself, a tear creaking from her eye to mingle with the streams of water rolling down her face. She didn’t reply right away, clearing her throat a couple of times to make sure her voice was steady.

“Thanks for stopping by, Vreta’Sori. My suit will show you out.” She said, finally.

Right away, her suit unfolded its arms and took a small step forward, motioning with one hand where the door was.

Vreta gave another look towards the suit. There was more he wished to say, but he was not going to be too insistent just yet. He could guess that the ideas he wanted to present were in her head; that seed just needed to grow. “Very well. If you insist, I will take my leave. We will need to discuss some of this later, though. The memory with the cephalopods especially. Rareth has already scheduled a meeting to address that topic. Being that we experienced this together, I was merely hoping we might come to a better understanding if we discussed it together.”

As requested, Vreta started to take his leave. He walked past the suit and to the door, though before opening it, he glanced back. “Just think about it. I wouldn’t expect this to be something you can just process all at once. If you want to talk, you know how to contact me.”

595 remained silent, waiting until Vreta left before jumping out of the shower. Her suit closed and locked the cabin door as the Agent stalked back into her sleeping area with a towel around her middle. Her skin was pink from the hot water, which now dripped down her face and legs onto the floor.

She stared at the floor for a long time, just thinking to herself. A whirlwind of ideas and possibilities raged around her. Then, very deliberately, she looked back at the suit of armour that was standing to attention in front of her. “Show it to me again.” She ordered.

The suit held out a hand, palm up, and a small holo projector flipped out. It shone a 3D map of the galaxy into the air all around them, filling the room. Though incomplete and damaged, as if ripped straight from someone’s memory, it was still stunningly detailed in places. Hundreds of alien symbols danced above celestial bodies, including some that were larger and more urgent looking.

---

Early the following day, once everyone had had a chance to recuperate, an urgent meeting was called to discuss next steps. A large conference room near the bridge was made up to link the Barbarossa, Outremer and Rothia together.

For the Rothians, there was nothing more pressing to discuss than the foreign scanning attempt that had transpired near the end of the mission. They were still early in their investigation, but from what they could tell, the signal was carried along an FTL medium and had performed a scan of the planet, in addition to the hack on the networks connected to the Object. For the answers they had figured out so far, they still had many more questions. They had a probable source, but that source would need to be considerably advanced to be able to act at such a distance. Director Valic’Ans was serving as the leading representative for Rothian interests, and he had no objections to a join venture to investigate this signal. In fact, he was the first to suggest it. He suggested that they send a small team aboard a Rothian stealth ship to scout the system and find any trace they could of the signal source.

For now, the Rothians were intent on still following the plan. The Object appeared to be safely in its orbit of the void star, so it would not experience near as much time as the rest of them would in waiting for their gateway to arrive at Outremer. Although, they still did certainly want to discuss the matter of the memories that the team experienced at the ruined temple. Rareth and Valic had been able to view a recording of the event copied from Rhia’s memory. During this “vision”, she had not been able to record her senses in the usual way, but as an artificial being, her memories themselves could still be extracted and converted into a viewable format. Though, for the purposes of their meeting with the Humans, they did act as if they were working off of the reports of Vreta and Eti’s team.

The memory itself seemed to portray a cephalopod-like species being invaded by the Hegemon. Ultimately, its veracity could not be completely verified, but the Rothians were willing to consider it as a potential source of intelligence. Unfortunately, it was difficult to establish the strength of the Hegemon forces purely from what they had seen. The cephalopods seemed to have been a primitive species in comparison to the Rothians, or even Humans. As such, they had much less ability to fight back effectively. However, the memory did seem to at least establish the Hegemon as aggressive beings who expected submission, even quasi-religious devotion. If this ended up being true, it would seem to preclude any hope of finding a peaceful solution.

Having already been briefed on the alien signal and its supposed origin, Outremer’s Navy Board contended that speed was favourable to stealth. Their nearest spycraft was much too far out, so they’d scrambled a nearby Fast Recon Picket to the system instead. They’d arrive marginally before the Rothians ordinarily, but after some negotiation it was agreed the forces would enter the system at the same time, albeit from different angles.

There were a lot of opinions on what this signal could mean, but the evidence seemed to point towards it coming from one of the object’s ‘family’, or it’s hunter. So the two sides agreed to proceed with caution, and continue evaluating the evidence in the meantime.

595 had already given private testimony to what she’d seen in the temple, so Outremer was not completely shocked by the Rothians’ report. Nevertheless, when the floor opened up for discussion, proceedings quickly devolved into chaos.

A few loud sceptics made evidently clear they’d prefer to leave the Object where it was and fight the Hegemon without its assistance. Other officials were clearly terrified by this unknown threat and wanted the Cradle gone as soon as possible.

Their cause was aided by a dire update on the condition of the simulation inside the Cradle. Forty years of terraforming had been rolled back in a month, and increasingly sophisticated and violent denizens were engaged in an arms race with Outremer’s Cradle apparatus.This outraged the hardliners, who were adamant they could subdue this threat too, without the Object’s assistance.

Facing all-out rebellion, President DeWinter stepped in, recommending all due haste with progressing the Object back to Outremer. The call ended abruptly, leaving those assembled in the Barb’s conference room in stunned silence.

The results of the meeting were at least acceptable from the perspective of the Rothians. For now, they were not opposed to continuing with the plan, which was ultimately the decision they had made. However, the lack of unified direction among many of the involved leaders was a concern. This investigation would be returning to Outremer soon, and though they had negotiated full cooperation between the two species, they could expect more obstacles in the weeks to come.

In the meantime, though, it was still possible for the Rothians’ opinions to change, especially based on the outcome of the conversation Vreta had in mind with Agent 595. The memories he had seen had provided evidence, and it was now time for him to confront her with it. Vreta waited a few minutes after the meeting’s end to let 595 take her leave of the conference room. Granted, he was on Rothia, while 595 was up on the Barbarossa, so he just had to guess roughly how long it would take for her to be on her own again before making his call.

“Well, I think we can both agree that was…not entirely ideal.” Vreta remarked after 595 answered his call. “There are a lot of moving parts surrounding this project, and it’s starting to seem a bit rudderless. I’m not sure they know what to make of those memories we saw. I know I sprang some of this on you rather suddenly last night, but now that you’ve had some time to think, do you want to try to figure this out? We could sit down, get some lunch, and just talk it out.” He suggested.

595 hid at the back of the conference floor, leaning against the wall with her arms folded. The tiny grimace on her face could’ve been a smile. She didn’t have the whole plan, but from what she knew, things appeared to be progressing as expected.

She hadn’t been able to contact the Director-General since the simulation, and noted that a subordinate had spoken of the Cradle in his stead. In some ways she was relieved; it gave her more time to deliberate on what she’d found. But it was concerning that she was effectively pushing from the inside with no equal external pressure - more risk that way. She resolved to try him again this morning.

After the meeting, 595 weaved through the clusters of conversation bubbling up throughout the room and checked in with Freyr. She looked pale and tired, so the Agent kept her company while they walked from the room. 595 half-heartedly agreed to go back through events again, but fortunately was saved by an incoming call from committing to a time. She ground her teeth when she realised who was calling, though. “Sorry, I guess I should take this.” 595 apologised to Freyr, before stalking off and accepting to call.

“Contrary to what our shared experience may have you believing...we aren’t pals, Vreta’Sori.” 595 growled. “I’m a government agent charged with protecting a VIP while she and her team conduct vital research which may decide the fate of both our species. I’ve given verbal testimony regarding our run-in with the Hegemon - I suggest we leave the actual analysis to experts, ok?”

Vreta had gone out onto a balcony looking out over the city of Threria. All of its millions of inhabitants still went about their business oblivious to the historic events transpiring under their noses. He almost envied them…especially when part of his job was trying to find a way to get through Agent 595’s thick skull. “I know very well what you are, Agent. I may not be familiar with the ethos of your organization, but I have to assume you bear loyalty to your people, at least. Your planet. Is it much of a risk for me to say that you want what you believe is best for the people of your planet?”

Leaning forward onto the railing in front of him, Vreta carefully weighed his words in his ming before continuing. “Is it so hard to believe that I want the same for your people? That we want the same? I’m not going to claim that we are just charitable saints looking to be heroes to all the other species, but believe it or not, life is actually something we cherish. Even ignoring everything about the Hegemon, Outremer is facing what you would call a…humanitarian crisis. Your central organizing infrastructure is collapsing, which by itself could create refugees numbering in the billions. That kind of suffering, that loss of life, that’s just not something we can ignore. You’ve felt my mind, my memories, you know I’m telling the truth. Add the possibility of the Hegemon on top of that, and I think it’s undeniable that we stand a better chance working together. You have your secrets, and I respect that, but I saw your memory too. I know there is more about your organization than meets the eye. Would we not stand a better chance if we can cooperate without the lies? Would we not get more done if we weren’t constantly second-guessing one another? You might find us more agreeable than you’re expecting.”

595 grimaced as she emerged onto a central causeway joining each of the Barbarossa’s levels. Streams of personnel broke around her like water around a rock. She switched to talking via her implant, while trying to make her way to the side of the passage so she could have a bit of privacy.

“That’s not my decision to make, Vreta’Sori. I’m just the instrument, remember?” She replied internally, pushing past a gaggle of off-duty crew. She sighed. She had a pool of dreadful excitement bubbling in her chest at the prospect of her meeting with the DG later. He’d be equal measures furious when he found out what she’d done, and proud when he found out what she’d gained.

”Outremer is resilient. We have contingency plans in motion even as we speak, believe me. It’s just a shame our politicians see fit to argue in public; we might even project strength at a time like this. What was it that you wanted to talk out, exactly?"

“True, maybe it isn’t your decision, but you still have choices, Agent.” Vreta replied. “Do you truly have no influence? Is this “will of the Cradle” concept floating around in my memory a literal one? By that, it would sound like there is something intelligent within the Cradle that you follow. Perhaps you do, perhaps you don’t, but either way, would it surprise you to learn that it would not be a ‘deal-breaker’ for my people? We just want to know who we are dealing with, to understand. This has become about more than just Humans or Rothians. You heard what that entity said firsthand. If it was telling the truth, then it created my people. And we are willing to help it reunite with the Cradle. When it does join with the Cradle, do you think it will still want to push us away, as your people have? Or will it want to continue working with us?”

Vreta could not help but to be frustrated by the uncertainty of it all. The memory of 595’s he now had did strongly suggest there was more to the Institute than they let on, but it was still only a slice of the truth. He was not lying about the fact that they would still be willing to work with them, but that did rely on the Institute not having too objectionable of goals. If they were working for the betterment of Humanity, that would at least be something the Rothians could work with.

The Agent pulled absently at the tight blonde plait down the back of her neck. “No, i think it’ll want to work very closely with you.” She sent back, with a smirk on her face. ”Something tells me this thing keeps its young close, unlike yourselves.”

A cargo droid shooed 595 off of the crate she’d sat down on. She started moving again, weaving through the throngs of people. “How are you feeling, Vreta’Sori? You’ve been through a lot. Do you feel anything out of the ordinary?”

Vreta chuckled slightly, crossing his arms as he paced back and forth near the balcony’s railing. “You say that, but you haven’t seen what a Rothian does when one of our children is threatened. It’s less that our parents are attached to us, and more that we are attached to all of our children.”

Eventually, Vreta took a moment to call for a shuttle to bring him home. He would be heading home regardless of how 595 answered him, so there was no point in delaying. “Personally, I feel fine, though I don’t think there can be anything ‘ordinary’ about having someone else’s memories in your head. I remember being you. Your thoughts, emotions, sensations. I didn’t notice it as much at the time, but now that I’m thinking back on it, there’s all these little details that just stand out to me. The way my, or…your hair feels, your clothes brushing up against your skin, or that feeling of sweat on your brow. I always thought there would be some sort of sensation accompanying your pores secreting water, but it was just…there all of the sudden. Of course, your memories are a curiosity to me, but the important ones right now are the ones we were shown of the cephalopods. I remember being the senator, the one who made the decision to evacuate their world. Do you think you would be willing to come down here to talk? After what happened with that signal scanning us, I’d rather talk in person. Freyr will be perfectly safe up on the Barb, and I would like to figure out if there is something in our memories that will help us locate those cephalopods’ world. If we could actually find their world, that would go a long way towards proving this story about the Hegemon.”

595’s skin crawled again as Vreta described parts of what was supposed to be her memory. She restrained herself from validating what the Rothian said on that front - it was still just a vision. There was nothing that could prove it was real.

The Agent bit her lip as Vreta carried on. Digging down in this mystery with the squids would almost certainly compromise her mission even further. But she was starting to question even those parameters now; was it not her duty to read between the lines of Outremer’s divine plan?

That being said, 595 still greatly distrusted the offer of an excursion on the planet below. The entire apparatus had clearly aligned on the goal of extracting information from her. ”I don’t know...i kind of like it up here.” she answered. ”Why don't you cancel everything and come see us?”

“Maybe I will.” Vreta commented as he was climbing into his shuttle. “You should come for a visit, though. Like I said, we can get lunch. Besides, there was something I wanted to show you. Still, it’s not like I can force you to do anything. I just hope you will think on all you’ve seen. With what you saw, it’s fair to say that you know me better right now than anyone else, except perhaps Eti’s team. You’re not the one in charge, I know, but that doesn’t mean you’re powerless. Your people don’t have to stand alone.”

---

At the very least, the team did not experience any more complications to their plan. Every part of their plan, from the gateway’s arrival at Outremer to the Object’s return from its orbit of the void star, had been calculated down to the minute. The Object, which was currently slotted inside a specially-built frame with gravity thrusters for propulsion, was moved into position within its gateway’s transit zone.

As for the Barbarossa, it was finally cleared to move into position to transit to the larger gateway the Rothians had brought to Outremer. It was accompanied by a Rothian frigate outfitted to the Rothian science team’s specifications. Though, much of the lab equipment on-board was intended to be transferred to the Rothian cruiser already on-site eventually. The science team had grown larger over the past few days as more specialized experts were assigned to join, but all of the faces that the Humans were familiar with would still be joining them. Naturally, Rareth’Jharn was given command of the Rothian contribution to the operation, and even Nirann was able to come along, in a manner of speaking. His AI core was still vital to Threria’s infrastructure, and it was not practical to remotely puppet an avatar across light years. But, just as he could copy his mind to enter the Object, so too could he send a copy to join the team.

Freyr fainted at least twice in between their last expedition inside the Object, and the proposed date of its return to Outremer. The Barb’s physicians scanned her out of an abundance of caution, but found nothing wrong with her. The Rothian brain scans also came back inconclusive. Dr Lang was stressed, tired and grieving still, but those were all normal, Human responses.

Freyr pushed her team as hard as she pushed herself. They had an enormous reservoir of information to make sense of from their expedition, and very little time to make an impact. She tried not to resent Nirann for forcing her to leave the Rübezahl’s final uplink inside the Object. She had programmed it in secret to aggressively mine data bearing similarities to the galactic signposts left inside the Rothian DNA.

Nevertheless, Freyr held out hope that something else would come up. The analysis of Human DNA hadn’t yielded any clues as to the location of other Objects. The team used a second range of samples from scientists and crew members after hers had been misplaced.

Dr Lang was still working as the Barbarossa's lab was stripped of anything the team might need while operating from Outremer again. Technicians and academics flitted about her as she stared intently at the map they’d started to draw of the Object’s innards. Freyr was so engrossed that she jumped when Dr Wetherall placed a hand on her shoulder. “Time to pack your things, Freyr. We’re going through the gateway now, won’t be long until we’re home.”

“Mmmm. Fine.” Freyr admitted absently, waving him away.

Vreta was some distance behind Freyr, halfway across the room. The form of a brightly-colored Rothian woman loomed over her, watching her screen from over her shoulder. Though, of course, Vreta was the only one to see her. ”You’re actually worried about her.” Rhia remarked.

By this point, Vreta had grown accustomed to avoiding giving any reaction to Rhia that an onlooker might notice. ”Even I’ve noticed that she doesn’t seem to be in a good place. Sure, all of this does have me worried, but it’s a lot more…personal for her.”

”Yes, yes, that much is obvious. I wasn’t wondering why she was upset. I was wondering why it bothers you.”

Vreta grunted…mentally, at least. ”What, are you not programmed to feel sympathy? I thought you were an AI, not glorified software.”

Rhia’s avatar quickly re-appeared just beside him. “I can feel sympathy just fine. Sometimes it’s just better to stay detached on a mission.”

Vreta pushed himself away from the support column he was leaned against. ”Well, you can just ‘detach’ yourself from my field of view. We’re about to traverse, and things will probably move quick once we’re there.”

From the perspective of those inside the ship, away from any viewport, there was nothing at all to hint at the activation of the gateway. It warped spacetime to the point of punching a hole through it to a point many light years away, but from the perspective of the ship, they simply…arrived. The gateway had been brought into orbit around a gas giant in the same system as Outremer, though the Object itself would have been sent straight to the planet itself. The counterpart to the much smaller gateway it had used had already been assembled near to the Cradle, so an Outremer team could handle the start of its arrival. The Barbarossa and the Rothian frigate would not be far behind. Already they were calculating their jumps, so it would only be a few moments to their destination. It would take much longer to actually get down to the surface from orbit.

Finally, Vreta approached close enough behind Freyr to be noticed. Provided she was paying attention. “Need any help packing? I’m sure you don’t want to keep the shuttle waiting.”

Freyr almost didn’t respond to Vreta. His words ran down her neck like warm rain, completely unnoticeable until they hit a dry patch. After a couple of seconds, she looked up and turned slightly to look at the Rothian. The feedback loop in her mind replayed his question to her. “Oh, thank you. That’s very kind, but I think I can manage.”

She smiled at him distractedly, then sighed. “It seems we’re in the middle of a labyrinth, Vreta’Sori. Every step we take just seems to muddle the way through even further. And now, we’re introducing the biggest change to the Cradle’s conditions in potentially millions of years, and I’m still not clear on what exactly will happen. I was close to piecing some things together in the simulation, but now we're out of time...How do you feel about re-entering the Cradle, after what happened last time?”

Vreta leaned somewhat onto Freyr’s desk as he stood beside her, looking down at her screen. “Honestly, I don’t think we should go back in right away.” He answered. “From the reports we’ve gotten, the simulation has become terribly dangerous. Maybe we just need to let the entity “do its thing”, so to speak? I imagine it understands the technology within better than any of us. Surely it doesn’t need our help to do what it needs to do?”

It did not take long for the Barbarossa to drop out of FTL above Outremer. From orbit, the planet hardly looked any different from when they left. There were occasional power outages that darkened some areas, but for the most part, cities were still lit up and active. Outremer’s defense fleet was still on its guard, ships still moved from the surface to the orbital stations above, trade still flowed. The planet’s citizens knew something was happening; that much was unavoidable. But, they did not yet know of what could happen.

After a moment, Vreta looked at Freyr more directly and let out a chuckle. “Though, something tells me you’re about to give me a reason why we have to charge head-first into a virtual warzone. Go ahead, I’m prepared for it.”

Freyr chuckled humorlessly with Vreta, looking surreptitiously around her. There was no sign of Agent 595; Freyr supposed she was packing her things. Dr Lang then fixed Vreta with a steely stare.

“Lets just say i have a bad feeling about this. I need to return to my division headquarters in New Antioch, where we have the best possible view of any changes to the Cradle macrocosm. There is a risk of disentanglement if this new object decides to try and escape with it, but we’re completely powerless on the outside. I can use more people I trust on the inside. People with...nerve.”

Freyr didn’t quite know how to word the Rothian’s surprisingly competent handling of stressful situations. It was certainly something she could use more of - her hand still shook from their descent down the side of that mountain. She supposed 595 was right that he must be some kind of secret agent; at least that might mean the two of them would cancel each other out.

The Barbarossa pulled up slowly alongside a geo-sync docking station and they latched together. Only the slightest vibration registered in the lab. “Ladies and gentlemen, we need to go! Freyr, Dr Khatri packed your bag and sent it on. You were never going to do it anyway.” Dr Wetherall called from across the lab, slipping his coat on.

Vreta shrugged. “Perhaps being powerless isn’t the worst thing here? If everything goes to plan, the entity will be able to solve your problems with the Cradle. If not, well..we might not be able to do much ourselves regardless.”

There were just a few seconds of silence before Vreta let out an audible sigh. “I know I’m not going to dissuade you. I’m not entirely sure why I tried, to tell the truth.”

Vreta stuck alongside Freyr after Dr. Wetherall convinced them to get moving. Vreta had already been ready to leave, so he could simply follow her straight to the shuttle. “Well, at least I can take some comfort in the fact that we…might have some extra protection this time around. I was talking to Marae earlier and she thinks her emergency protocols are ready for their first trial run. She did stress to me, about seven or eight times, that she can’t guarantee they will work. She thinks they will, since they performed well in simulations, but the problem was more difficult than she was expecting. Still, the Rothians are going to have the protocols active on all our harnesses. I’d suggest you do the same for yours. Even if we can’t guarantee they’ll work, well, they only trigger in the event of Cradle death, so it’s not like it would hurt to have them. Hopefully, we won’t need them.”