595 looked up at the massive lizard, towering over all the apes on the platform. “Great! I’ll sleep better at night now. How many of you are there?” Meanwhile, she quickly crossed over to the smirking bald man and shook his hand. “Facilitator?” She asked, reading the title he’d beamed to her from his eyes. “Hello, Agent.” The man responded.

“What are you doing here? This is my site!” 595 snapped at her counterpart via implant.

”We thought you could use a little help. Your most recent reports have been troubling.” The man replied, a smug smile on his chops.

”You know I work alone.”

”It seems that right now, you’re working with the whole of Outremer, and Rothia, Agent.”

595 let go of his hand.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you. Thanks for getting them here safely - I hear you had some trouble. Don’t worry, you’re in safe hands now.” The man smiled, surreptitiously wiping his own hand on the thigh of his uniform.

“Thank you, Datius.” Freyr replied to Rareth as well. “We’ll use whatever help we can get.” She arrived at the pair of researchers, who exchanged a friendly greeting with everyone before handing out data-pads.

The Vault’s infrastructure operated on a closed circuit, with even the CRD HQ in Babel having significant delays and checks applied to any information flowing out of it. Now that they had access to the network, Freyr could feel the urgency of their situation even more keenly.

The Object had ramped up its efforts to break through from the staging box into the Cradle’s enclosure. Technicians were keeping it locked down for now, but the fact that it had made inroads at all was worrying. The Vault was supposed to be impregnable, from the inside and out.

Still looking down at her pad, Freyr started dishing out orders. “We need to give it something to use that energy on. Is Marae at the Vault? Send her the dummy receiver we created from the codex. That should buy us some time.”

Though not one of the scientists himself, Vreta, at this point, was closely-involved enough with the project to have an informed opinion. Indeed, he and 595 had been personally closer to the entity than most of the others in the project. “Are you sure that is worth the risk, Freyr? We don’t know how much energy this object has left. If it thinks it has accessed the Cradle, it might expend more energy than it can afford to lose. If we are choosing to trust this entity, then we don’t want to hurt it.”

Based on their current course, Vreta felt his concerns were justified. Although, he would be lying if he said he was certain about the course they had chosen. Especially knowing more of the history of the Cradle, it seemed like a risky object to work with in any capacity. Rhia had started searches on public networks to identify each and every person they saw who was there to greet them on the platform, so he was fairly certain he could tell which ones were Institute personnel based on which ones had redacted files. He had no more trust now for the Institute than he had at the start of the project, so he was curious about how they would react to what he had to say next.

“And that is a key word: if.” Vreta continued. “I don’t think there are any guarantees, here. I feel it should be known that we do not know what will happen when the object interfaces with the Cradle. We know the object is technologically similar to the Cradle, certainly related, but we only have the entity’s word for what it will do. This could conceivably harm your world as much as it could help it. Just…be sure you are okay with that risk. If you feel we can trust it, then I think we should start quickly and keep it from having to wait any longer.”

Rareth nodded in wordless agreement to Vreta. In this case, they were agreed about the risks, but it was ultimately the Humans’ risk to take. “Marae and her team are already set up in the lab. We can send them the codex you mentioned, or you can simply get in there and get started right away.”

“It’s not a true connection, so the working hypothesis is that Object will try to troubleshoot the array’s missing piece. We can then create a bottleneck through which it will test our defences. Makes it easier for our engineers to keep it stationary, so to speak. Should keep power usage to a minimum too.” Freyr explained. Some of her team nodded along with her encouragingly.

“This operation has a green light from the President, so we don’t need to be ‘ok with that risk’. We’re here with a job to do. Get the asset to stabilise the Cradle, then convince it to stay and work with us.” The bald man reminded the group, arms crossed. “Now, if we’re all done with this tea party, the trucks are ready to get you into position.”

Vreta gave a sideways glance towards the bald man. Rhia had no file on him, so he was likely an Institute member. He did note that the man was quick to dismiss any notion of wanting to second-guess their plan. It did seem to be the Institute’s position that this reunion between the two objects should happen as soon as possible. That they knew more than what they were letting on seemed to be a given; all that remained to be seen would be if that was a good thing for Outremer and its population.

In any case, there were no objections to getting the group moving again. There were trucks ready to get them to their destination, so under the guidance of their protectors, the science team started to board the trucks. The only condition which Rareth had was that she insisted upon riding in the same truck as Freyr and Vreta. Even out of her armor, she took up no small amount of space, but Vreta would always feel safer with a Datius as a guardian.

Once they were seated, Vreta looked down a Freyr beside him. “Once we get there, how long do you think it will be before we send the object in?”

Like so many things on Outremer, the trucks waiting to take them to the Vault were not designed for Rothians. This was especially true for the Datius, who ended up sitting awkwardly on the floor of the eight-wheeled transport.

The vehicle was meant for twenty four Humans, but only five other people joined Rareth in the back: Vreta, Freyr, the CraSec officer who coyly reintroduced herself as Major Osman from the Cradle bomb investigation, 595 and the bald Vault Facilitator.

As soon as they sat down in the lead truck, it powered away from the Mono terminal and through the bustling command complex. The inside shook violently on the uneven ground, with Osman nearly flying into Rareth with a worried expression flashing across her face. She managed to grab hold of a hoop at the last moment and stashed her weapon so she could grab one more.

Freyr was pleased to see Osman again. She was a sort-of-friendly face in an otherwise uncertain sea of people. “Four, six hours, maybe? This might be our last chance to collect data, so we can’t rush it.” Freyr reiterated. “We will get an indication of the Object’s condition once it begins interacting with our dummy array. It’ll be perfectly safe, while we try to piece together what will happen next.”

”Don’t make any sudden moves in here, Agent.” The Facilitator remained completely motionless while talking to 595, who sat next to him. ”Naval Intelligence, the Skinners, the Rothians, Earther scum - they’re all trying to crawl up your ass to learn our next move. You can keep a secret, can’t you? Just like you’re keeping secrets from us about your latest interface with the Navigator.” 595 turned her head to look at the man, who returned her stare.

”Nice try. My report was comprehensive.” She replied.

“Hmm, I suppose you are more of an expert on this particular subject than I. My instinct would be to start this process as soon as possible, I simply hope the Object does not do anything…unexpected. There is much we do not know about it.” Vreta remarked, though he reasoned that his feelings on the Object were well-known among the team by this point.

Rareth did not give her opinion, whatever it might have been. Her expression was quite impenetrable, even to Vreta. He did notice the worry in one of the Humans’ expression when looking at her, though that may have just been because she wanted to avoid smashing into her once their ride became more bumpy. On Rareth’s part, her mass gave her substantial inertia, so she just had to keep one hand pressed to the roof to keep herself in place.

In any case, Vreta quickly compared the image of Major Osman’s face to examples from his memory once he heard her name. He had thought it sounded familiar. “Osman, it is good to see you fully recovered. Though, I suppose the Cradle does not leave any permanent marks, as long as you survive the initial injury. I would say that I’m surprised you’re willing to go back into the Cradle after what we went through, but…here I am about to do the exact same thing. I suppose we’re both just a little crazy.” Vreta chuckled.

“Relax, champ! Let the good doctor do her work, eh? The asset is snug like a bug in a rug, as they say.” The Facilitator smacked Vreta’s knee heartily from across the aisle. 595 chuckled. “There's nothing to fear, we’ve made sure of it.” He continued. Freyr stared at the two of them. Were they a couple?...Perish the thought.

Osman inclined her head in a polite gesture. “Thanks. I needed therapy, but I'm in fighting shape now. Someone has to keep the lights on, don’t they?” She gave off a haunted grin. “My sub-unit will protect you while you’re inside the Cradle, and get you out again if things go sideways. Just a warning though - New Antioch is a ghost town right now, so bring whoever you’ll need to pull levers with you. Any questions?”

Vreta did not seem nearly as amused as the bald man. Given his likely associations, his confidence was more unsettling than reassuring. He did not immediately understand his gesture, so he ignored it for now. “This is your planet I am concerned for. I am just trying my best to help keep it and its inhabitants safe. It is wise to search for flaws in one’s own plans.”

As much as he wanted to learn about the man, Vreta doubted he was going to be able to gain any meaningful information. Continuing down that line of conversation would likely just be a waste of effort. He soon turned his attention to Osman instead. “I will make sure to keep that in mind. I’m guessing you know that my people like to be particularly thorough in our preparations. Some of what we have encountered in this project…our preparations have paid off before. Have you been able to read the reports of events on Rothia, Osman?” Vreta asked.

“Those which weren’t covered in black bars.” Osman purred. “The Cradle is less predictable now than when you left. We will need to keep our wits about us, and look out for each other. Like you two did for me, back when this all began. Thank you for not leaving me to die, by the way. I won’t forget that.”

”Why did you attach her to these two? They have history.” 595 asked her counterpart.

”I didn’t - she volunteered. Why...are you expecting problems?”

”Maybe. I don’t want them making more friends. Run a background check on the Major; i’ll keep an eye on them in the sim.”

”Before you go in, the DG wants to talk to you about next steps. We need to be prepared to move fast. Do you know where the other assets are?”

”You don’t need to know anything about that.”

”If you’re withholding information, there’ll be very serious questions to answer”

595 didn’t reply.

The truck bounced one more time, before rumbling to a halt. The doors opened, and they exited out into a vehicle park outside a low building that hugged three bottom edges of the cube. Freyr’s neck twinged looking up to the top, and her eyes flickered across the lifts that scaled the faces with people inside. The Vault itself was a shiny chrome colour, with darker shades indicating access plates. “The rest of the team is already inside. Shall we join them?” The Facilitator asked. Freyr nodded.

Vreta nodded, his memory briefly returning to the start of this crisis. The first encounter with those creatures in the Cradle had been a slaughter. The weapons they used were ineffective against the toughest creatures, and none of them had been prepared for that kind of a fight. Himself least of all. This time, though, they would be going in equipped for war, and any other circumstance they could reasonably, or unreasonably, think of. He had to assume the Humans were doing the same. The Cradle was inherently unpredictable, but they were expecting to have to be adaptable this time. “Let’s just hope that the people we have already lost will be the last to die to this crisis. If all goes well, this will be over soon. If not…let’s just be prepared for anything.”

Once they had came to a stop, Rareth was the first to climb out without a word, which made it considerably easier to maneuver out of the back of the truck. She was a comforting presence for Vreta, but the quality of life issues he faced on Outremer were magnified for her tenfold. Regardless, they were at the vault now and would soon be able to get to work. Looking up at the chromed surface of the cube, Vreta did find the vault to be impressive for a Human construct. They put their best into anything related to the Cradle, which certainly underscored its importance to them. “Yes, let’s hurry. I still think we should avoid any delays we can.”

They all trooped into the Vault access building. It acted as a control centre for all signals interacting with and being extracted from the Cradle, and more recently, the new asset found on Rothia. It was buzzing with activity, as hundreds of people worked to maintain the Vault’s unique homeostasis.

The Facilitator led them through the fray to a set of heavy blast doors down a narrow corridor, guarded by half a dozen heavily-armoured CraSec troopers and two drone-cannons. Sensors scanned the group one by one from all around, filling the air with green lasers. “Ordinarily, weapons are not allowed inside the Vault. But since our esteemed Rothian guests are part-weapon, we’ve decided to make an exception just this once.” The Facilitator pontificated before the blast doors swished open.

Freyr walked into the airlock along with some others and raised her arms. Decontamination jets sprayed them from all angles, but Freyr’s gaze was fixed straight ahead of her. The next few hours could determine the fate of Outremer, did she really have what it took? Could she trust herself to stand by her oath to champion the greater good? No one appeared prepared to stop her if she couldn’t.

The opposite door of the airlock hissed open, and the first group walked out into the lab. Nestled on the inside of the Vault’s thick mechanical skin, Freyr smiled when she caught sight of team members she hadn’t seen in weeks. They were similarly busy to the people outside, scurrying between banks of consoles under sickly blue light. CraSec guards and suits carrying close-quarter rifles were everywhere, watching on.

Freyr’s mouth dropped open involuntarily when her gaze shifted to the large, incredibly thick viewing port on one wall. It afforded them an uncomfortably close view of the Rothian Object, which hung eerily suspended inside the staging area. Like the feed Freyr had seen earlier, it was so black that light didn’t reveal its spherical nature; rather it appeared as a black hole in the wall behind it. A low humming sound trickled through the speakers listening to it. “She’s a beauty, ain’t she?” The Facilitator cooed, walking around Freyr. “Dear gods.” Dr Wetherall muttered from behind her.

Vreta supposed the bald man was partially correct. Vreta himself did not have much in the way of integrated weapons, but Rareth was another matter entirely. It was essentially impossible for a Datius to make themselves “safe.” At least, not a Datius of Rareth’s specialties.

Regardless, now that the teams were in the lab, they could actually start getting to work. Personally, Vreta wished he could be more involved in this part of the project. He remembered his own days working R&D on new, experimental technologies. So many experts of different disciplines coming together to push the boundaries of what they would consider possible. If his life had gone differently, he might have been working right alongside Marae and Freyr, but at this point, he just had to trust their expertise.

Freyr was not the only one to find themselves taken in by the otherworldly object just outside their window. Even Rareth paused behind them to look out into the veritable void before them. Vreta had read the descriptions of it, but they did not quite compare to seeing it in person. It’s design was just as much of a mystery as its purpose, and if he was being honest, it did unsettle him. He hoped for the best for this project, but he could not pretend he would not be doing things differently were he in charge. If this were a Rothian project, they would have taken both the Object and the Cradle itself to some faraway planet outside settled space if they wanted to carry out a plan with such unknown results. They would not do it underneath the most populated city on the planet, especially without an evacuation ahead of time. He wondered if it was pride or fear that drove the Human leadership to take these measures.

“It is an unknown variable.” Vreta commented after the others.

The scientists Freyr had chosen to descend into the Vault with her fanned out into the room, rejoining their colleagues. There were more relieved hugs and hurried conversations as they got up to speed. Freyr emptied a pill into her palm before throwing it into her mouth and swallowing. She took a few deep breaths, then leapt into action.

She approached Marae, who was in the thick of the action. “Hey, we’re here. How's it going? Did you get the array we sent you?”

Marae had been rather wrapped up in her work as Freyr approached. She had stood to greet the rest of the team from the surface on their arrival, but had gotten right back to work immediately. She switched periodically between several holographic screens floating around her showing diagnostic data from their scans of the Object, the Cradle, and her own simulations. Currently, she seemed to be running an analysis comparing signals observed from the Object with those observed from the Cradle.

“Hmm? Oh, yes, I put Sken’Brara on that.” Marae answered. Briefly, she brought one of the screens off to her side front and center and read through the data. “The object’s behavior is following projections for now. Sken is performing all of the analyses you requested, so the data should be available to you.”

Marae returned just as quickly to the screen she had been watching before, though the look she gave Freyr was notably uncomfortable. “Am I right that you want to observe this little ‘reunion’ between these objects from inside the simulation? Are you quite sure that’s wise? We really don’t know what kind of solution this entity has in mind to fix your Cradle. What if its solution is to reset the whole simulation, with you inside? I know my protocols are ready for field trials, but I want to stress that I don’t know if they will work. Not at this early stage. What do you have to gain that you couldn’t get by observing from out here through automated sensors?”

“Well…” Freyr tried to collect her thoughts. Marae made a lot of good points. Was she making bad choices right now? “We’re unable to influence the Cradle’s internal systems from outside. We’re only able to interpret and redirect the signals it emits...This docking array is the first step in...years of development towards some kind of exterior command module. But right now, if something were to go wrong, our best chance of correcting things will be inside the Cradle. New Antioch is something of a ‘cockpit’, see? Or at least a saddle with stirrups. For when we need to do more than observe.

Freyr chuckled, feeling exhausted at this point. “Whether it’s wise to go in or not... I think we all understand the risks by now. But I have instructions to superintend from wherever gives us the biggest element of control over proceedings. There are potentially millions of lives at stake above ground, which the government saw fit to keep in play. I intend to keep them safe.”

Marae sighed, looking slightly away from Freyr. She seemed frustrated, though it was hard to say exactly at what. She could have been frustrated with Freyr’s decisions, or perhaps with the Outreman government for pressing them into this sort of situation. Either way, she could recognize what they could and could not change at this point. It would be best to evacuate the city, or even move the Cradle itself. It would be best to collaborate and design an automated system that could do what they needed it to do, but they did not have time. They did not have the option to do what was best; they would only be able to do what they could.

“Well…look, can we at least do what we can to limit the danger? How much of our team will truly be needed in there? Maybe we should just send only those who absolutely need to be there in person? Everyone else can still keep in contact from here to give advice and lend their expertise. If you want to decide who that would be, well…just think about it this way. This object we have found, and the entity it contains, it is exceptionally advanced. Its programming and hardware architecture is something even I can’t just look at and understand right away. For a being that advanced, if its plan fails, what do you think we would be able to do that it couldn’t? What advice or assistance do you think any of us would be able to give it that it couldn’t already do better than any of us? Whatever those things are, the people responsible for them should be the ones to go in the simulation. Everyone else can stay out here.” Marae suggested. She hoped that sort of compromise would be something they could work with, though if she was being honest, she did not know off the top of her head what they would be able to contribute that the entity could not handle on its own.

Freyr nodded, pretending to think it over and trying not to appear nervous. It seemed Marae had still not fully understood the powers this new codex afforded them. This had been Freyr’s hope and intention - the next part would’ve been significantly harder if she knew the truth. Her top-secret directive from the top of government was to eject the Object from the Cradle if things went badly.

A proxy from the President’s staff had opened a secure direct line to her via Captain Andersen, after the incident inside the Rothian asset’s simulation. It’d become clear to them that the entire venture was compromised, and that they couldn’t reasonably stop it without losing the confidence of the government. Apparently, the anti-Cradle faction within Parliament held strong momentum, and saw this recoupling as an opportunity for a new beginning.

The proxy asked for assurances that they’d be able to persuade the Cradle to stay in position, at least over the short term. Freyr said no such guarantee could be made. So they ordered her to make a contingency plan.

“Agreed. I’ve already got the three volunteers I need from my team. Just enough people to operate the essentials, who know it best.” Freyr turned to Vreta and 595. “You don’t have to come, but I could use a couple of sets of ‘layman’ hands, so to speak. I can’t guarantee your safety, but you already know that.”

595 smiled, standing up tall. “I thought you’d never ask.”

Though he was halfway across the room when they started talking, Nirann seemed to have no trouble overhearing Marae and Freyr’s discussion. On Rothia, he had always used his holographic avatar outside the simulation, but this time, it was heavy, metal footsteps they would hear as he approached. He could not always be guaranteed to have access to the local network on Outremer, so he had uploaded into a Rothian military droid for their stay on Outremer.

“You know, I might be able to help keep our numbers down even more.” Nirann remarked. Already, Marae was glaring at him, to which he put up both hands. “I know, I know, dear. But you know, everyone has their strengths, and mine is being able to carry out more digital operations in a second than you could even think of in an hour. Chances are, I can do the jobs your volunteers are going to do well enough to let them stay in safety. And if we stay in communication, with all the experts we have giving me instruction, I can carry out all those instructions at once.”

Personally, Vreta found himself somewhat surprised at Nirann. His plan did put himself at risk, for the sake of just a few Humans. Vreta did not doubt his capabilities, but most Rothians would be more hesitant about taking such risks. Marae was evidence enough of that. Either way, Vreta knew he would be going in as well. In addition to providing some extra security, the Rothians needed to have a voice present if they needed to speak with the entity again. “Whether it is Nirann or your volunteers with us, I will be there as well.”

“I can’t sanction that.” Freyr shook her head immediately. “The Cradle is nothing like the Rothia Sim for AIs - it's utterly unforgiving. However advanced you think you are, it will find a way to consume you. We can’t risk it. I’m sorry.”

“Power expenditure rising!” Someone called out. Freyr’s gaze snapped away from Nirann immediately and identified who was reporting in. “Show me.” She commanded, moving quickly across the blue-lit room to a long row of consoles facing the Object’s porthole. The young researcher pulled up a larger graph showing energy the Object was deploying inside its hermetic chamber.

It was still tiny by comparison to the Cradle, but its effort was tightly controlled, and no longer seemed intent on the dummy array. “It’s sniffing the partition again. How does it know where the Cradle is?” They speculated, incredulous. Absolutely no signals from the Cradle could escape the confines of the Vault. The only way out for its emissions was through the nest of filters and comms equipment on the top face.

“It’s much cleverer than all of us.” Freyr concluded, poring over the details. “The engineers just sent their report; they can’t keep the doors closed indefinitely.” Dr Wetherall shot Freyr a serious stare from across the room. She nodded. “The countermeasures were worth a shot, but I’m afraid we need to go in right away.”

Freyr straightened up, levelling a troubled look at Marae before and clapping her hands loudly. “Ok listen up!” She shouted over a growing hum from machinery built into the walls and floors all around them. “I’m our timeline forward. Get set for doors open in one hour! Those of you entering the Cradle with me, be ready in the Green Room in five! Facilitator, inform upstairs to initiate the Sliske protocol, right now.” The bald man, sweating a bit, nodded before grabbing a hardline and began keying in a passcode immediately

Freyr then turned back to Marae. “Can you hold things down here while I go in?”

Nirann was about to argue with Freyr. In terms of the structure of his mind, there was not much to separate him from the average Rothian. If the Cradle could corrupt his mind, then it could corrupt any organic mind as well. If he was being honest with himself, he worried that might have been true. In any case, the alerts that their sensors were receiving from the object put an end to his argument before he could start it. The Object was not going to wait on them to make their decision. He understood as well as any of them that they needed to act quickly, and whether he was right or not, they could not afford to waste time with the discussion. He could still have plenty of impact directing their systems externally. If he could breathe, he would have sighed, but did give a slight nod towards Marae.

“We’ll be able to handle things here. We’ll stay in communications as much as we can, and we’ll be sending you in with all the portable equipment we’ve developed during this project. And again, I do hope you consider enabling my protocols. Ideally none of you will need them, but…well, it can’t hurt, right?” Marae replied.

Vreta actually found himself feeling proud of Freyr for how she was taking charge, despite all the uncertainty surrounding the situation. Even with his own misgivings about the plan, he was ready to follow through with it. He stood by Freyr, ready to move to the Green Room as soon as someone told him where that was.

Freyr’s orders were all Eti and her team needed to spring into action as well. Given the chaos ever since their landing, the Human and Rothian teams had not been given much of a chance to coordinate, so they may have been unaware that Rareth was assigning the Rothian soldiers to the mission as well. Her armored footsteps echoed even more loudly through the room than Nirann’s had. “My team stands ready. Just point us where to go.”