“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?”