“We’ve inhabited your galaxy for hundreds of millennia. It’s not beyond the realms of possibility that one of us controls the Institute.” The Rothian mused, tapping one claw against its chin while watching Vreta. Its surface crawled as scales changed patterns like pixels changing on a screen. It was turning from black and white to green. “At any rate, you all have parts to play in the fight ahead. Cooperation won’t be easy at first, but I'll do my best to bring you together for the greater good.”

“Are you saying that you will tell them to be cooperative with us?” Vreta asked, though he could not help but to admit to himself some frustration with this conversation. At every turn, it seemed, the entity was giving vague or incomplete answers to most of his questions. It did not inspire much confidence that it was trustworthy.

Vreta looked over the Rothian carefully. “If you can see in my mind, then you know I want to help. But we still need solid proof, solid answers. But my leadership will still need to be convinced. They cannot know your intentions like you know mine. Do you intend to share the data we spoke of before on the Hegemon, and help to find evidence of its existence? Having detailed information on our enemy will go a long way not only to convincing my own leadership, but that of every other species in the galaxy as well. As you’ve said, cooperation is not going to be easy, and it is going to take a lot of work to get the galaxy together and convince them to work with…well, I suppose I do not even know what to call you. Perhaps formal introductions would also be a good first step?”

“After a fashion...yes.” The Rothian grunted, gritting their jaws together. The transformation gripping its body spread from its chest, crawled up its neck. Black and white scales flipped to a new dark green and yellow pattern in a matter of seconds. They spread their hands out to either side and looked up, closed their eyes.

“Raagggghhhh!” Their head was enveloped, flipping and folding like a paper ornament. Both fists clenched while their body floated in the ether across from Vreta. Then all at once, it was over. Both Rothians landed softly on an invisible floor, and two identical Rothians stood facing each other.

“I...Navigate.” The entity breathed a sigh of relief. “You are Vreta’Sori. I am you, and you are now part of me. Together, we are going to do great things.” The Rothian smiled warmly, encouragingly. The floor beneath Vreta began sucking him down into the blackness.

Vreta naturally noticed the strange occurrences around him, but there was little he could do to make sense of them. In general, he had no options except simply to listen to what this being had to say. Eventually, the being’s appearance took on one resembling Vreta himself.

“What does this mean?” Vreta asked the “Navigator” with a low growl. Unfortunately, he did not have time to search for other options before he fell and his perceptions grew dark.

---

Vreta awoke with a deep, gasping breath. He recognized right away where he was, as he was back in the Vault in his harness. He felt like he had a mild headache, but otherwise was just disoriented. Right away, he had Rhia start a full diagnostics on both his mind and body as he tried to remember what had transpired.

As Vreta gradually disappeared into the bed of black quicksand, a bright light shone through the clouds above. The Rothian doppelganger began floating up, like an angel of heaven. He stared down and sighed again at Vreta’s pained expression.

“I’m sorry. For what it’s worth, I didn't want to do this. I can tell you want to help, but I can't trust you to follow simple instructions when it matters. You have all evolved too far.”

The Navigator surveyed the Rothian agent as the black tar sucked up past his chest and lapped around his neck. His lizard head was all that remained, tongue noisily tasting the air.

“It’s alright. We can fix that together, can’t we? Dispense with the other intelligences and bring life to the universe, side by side...Shhhh. Sleep now.” The Navigator soothed Vreta as he disappeared into the Cradle forever.

---

Freyr choked herself awake in the big Vault harness. The harsh ceiling lights were partially blocked by someone running diagnostics on her panel. “These two are back. It’s ok, you’re safe.” Freyr kept breathing heavily, trembling softly.

She looked round and found Vreta, staring into space but otherwise awake. Freyr looked in the other direction - 595 was still asleep in her pod, as was Major Osman. “Where...where are we?” Freyr asked, confused.

“You’re in the Vault, ma’am.” The orderly confirmed, mechanically releasing all their inserts.

“Drink this water, you’re very dehydrated.”

Water splashed down Freyr’s front as she eagerly quenched her thirst. Eventually, she turned her focus back to the Rothian. “Are you alright? Where did you go? Back there…”

Vreta took a deep breath, growling slightly out of general discomfort. He was eager to take water as soon as it was offered, so it took him a few moments to actually get around to responding to Freyr. “I could ask the same of you. Everyone was going unconscious around me, then I…spoke to the Navigator.”

Vreta grimaced as some of the memories slowly came back to him. It was not entirely clear, at least not nearly as much as the events which had led up to it. “It spoke…more about the Hegemon. I remember it showed me some of what it could do. It believes we are going to need to work together against it, supposedly. I…it’s vague, but I think I know where we might find evidence of this Hegemon. It mentioned…you know it as Andromeda. The neighboring galaxy. The memory we saw back on Rothia happened in one of its satellite galaxies.”

“Me too!” Freyr exclaimed, eyes searching the room as she pieced together her experience. The orderlies helped them out of the harness - she felt really wobbly and had to grab one of them and sit down again. “It knows where my family is, they’re alive! It’s going to rescue them for me!” Freyr had found out a great deal more than that, but this is what floated to the surface of her memory first.

After a moment, Vreta’s own words sunk in. “Andromeda?” Freyr’s eyes were like saucers. “I remember the...Navigator saying that's where it spent most of its time, with its...family? I guess? My theory is that they have a deep symbiotic relationship with the Cradle. It's their home, hospital, interstellar craft, laboratory. In return, they-”

“Sorry to interrupt. Dr Lang, Vreta’Sori, you’ll want to see this.” Freyr looked past the orderly and saw the bald Facilitator standing in the control box through the observation glass. A technician at the console desk there was holding down the intercom button. The anonymous man motioned with his head for them to meet him outside the harness room door. “What about them?” Freyr asked, pointing to the still-sleeping 595 and Osman.

“We’ll keep an eye on them. Come with me.”

---

“Welcome back. We’ll debrief shortly, but I thought you’d want to see...” The Facilitator continued as they exited the harness room and followed him down a different hallway from the way they’d come in. This one went to the main observation lab, instead of the entry gate lab.

“After some initial chaos and turbulence, the asset appears to have bonded with the Cradle and we managed to close the seal. It seems calmer now.”

They entered into a slightly larger rectangular lab, with three banks of consoles facing a big viewing screen. The whole team appeared to have migrated in here while they were under. A few of them waved - there was a palpable excitement in the room. Freyr vaguely noticed that there were significantly fewer CraSec guards in this room, though a few extra suits with compact weapons had appeared.

When Freyr saw what was on the screen, she gasped, clasping one hand over her mouth as a tear of happiness rolled down her cheek. Her weakened legs nearly gave out, so she grabbed hold of a nearby table, supported by the Facilitator. “It’s...beautiful.” She eventually blabbed. Despite everything that’d happened in the Cradle today, she couldn’t help but be ecstatic. One of her life’s dreams had come true.

The picture-perfect screen depicted the Cradle in all its magnificence. Fifty-two metres in diameter, composed of an indescribable pearly white alloy. It hung motionless in the middle of the Vault’s central void. And around it flew the deep black octahedron they now knew as the Navigator. Freyr watched for a few seconds, as the smaller object looped around the Cradle sphere as though it were a shoulder sash, slowly turning on its own axis at the same time.

Although he was still generally disoriented, Vreta could still feel happy to hear that Freyr now had genuine hope for her family, as his smile would tell her. It seemed to rely on trusting the Navigator to help, granted, but if it was both willing and able to follow through on its promise, then that would at least be a good sign.

Vreta lacked the context to truly understand Freyr’s reaction after the Facilitator lead them to view the Cradle. This was his first time seeing the physical form of the Cradle itself, so aside from the presence of the Navigator, he was not sure if there had been any change to the Cradle to inspire her response. Regardless, he could finally see the object of so many people’s obsession for himself. It was simple, perhaps even beautiful to look at from the outside, despite the horrors that existed within. To Vreta’s knowledge, the Rothians had supercomputers of similar or greater physical size, though he had a feeling he had still not seen the true extent of the Cradle’s computing power to be able to meaningfully compare them. The size of a computer was only meaningful for similar levels of technology. He knew it could create a simulated world, of course, but even after all they had seen, its limits were still a mystery. For the sake of the people trapped in the Cradle, and those in the city above them, he hoped what the Facilitator said was true. If the Cradle did not continue to calm down, he did not want to guess what kind of harm it could cause.

To Vreta, his memories of what happened, especially in the final moments, were still fuzzy. Rhia was trying to clean up what she could, but even her normally crystal clear records seemed to have some kind of interference. It felt like a dream, but he knew better than to just discount what he had experienced. In the Cradle, even the strangest of experiences could still be meaningful.

“I think we need to focus on getting all of our people out of the Cradle. If the Navigator is truly calming it, then we do not want to interfere with our presence.” Vreta reasoned.

"The non-essential civilian drawdown is nearly complete." The Facilitator assured Vreta, flicking a map of the Cradle's surface up on a big screen by them. Numerous dots indicated evacuation centres, with datapoints listed to one side of each. "As these sites are closed down, CraSec, OCI, a mess of private contractors and your Void team are being pulled back to protect the Bridge and key transit hubs until this surge passes." He explained, pointing to a red hexagon that denoted the link between the Cradle and the outside world.

Motioning quickly, the Institute officer led them to the back row of computers, where a variety of military co-ordinators and high ranking officers had congregated. Rareth Jharn peered over them. "Run the clip we were just talking about." The Facilitator badgered one of the analysts on the end of the row. They ran a video in the corner of their busy screen.

It showed footage from someone's chest cam, amid a chaotic scene of smoke, plasma and shouts. The soldier was running along a high walkway on the side of the Bridge's main tower. metre long spikes rained down on the defenders, pinning people to walls in a mist of blood. Fleshy creatures with six legs, claws and a barbed tailed clambered up the sides of the tower around them. "Stop." The Facilitator said, and the frame froze.

"Zoom in. There they are. Comms are still patchy, but the unit you split up with made contact ten minutes ago. We also found them in this footage."

Vreta could not help but to be irritated by the state of the evacuation. Given how long the Cradle had been declining, nonessential civilians should have already been evacuated a week or more ago. The fact that there was still any meaningful number of people left to evacuate represented a failure on the part of Outremer’s government, in his mind. Soldiers were now forced to risk their lives unnecessarily.

Regardless, Rareth’Jharn was focused on dealing with the problems in front of her. “Void Company will continue to hold the Bridge until the evacuation is complete.” She remarked, watching the screen over the others’ heads from the back. “It may be necessary to send in more resources to the Bridge, but I do agree that we should be seeking to evacuate the Cradle overall. What is the current obstacle to clear communications? We need to direct any available forces within the Cradle to converge on the Bridge. Can we transit supplies or reinforcements directly to the Bridge to assist the defense?”

“We can operate most of the transit network, including at the Bridge. But a combination of signal black spots and inoperable infrastructure mean we only have about 5% coverage of a shifting comms web at any one time.” The closest analyst explained while multitasking on screens.

“21st Battalion is ready to go in. I have their orders here - six company locations..” Another older analyst piped up, holding a hardline receiver against their shoulder while they called across the bank of consoles. Pinching a file off the screen next to them, they threw it across the room at the analyst closest to Vreta and Freyr.

“Have we tried talking to it?” Freyr didn’t really want to be on the military side of the room. Her team were busily working away towards the front - she eyed them longingly. “Yes, nothing yet.” The Facilitator replied distractedly, as his pad began vibrating. He checked it. “You should know that word of what's happening here has leaked to the public. Your faces are all over the news.” He spun the pad round so they could see what was on the screen.

A respectable conservative news agency had published amateur pictures of CraSec shooting infected people in New Antioch’s administration district The title above them read: “SECRET PLOT TO ‘UNLOCK’ CRADLE LINKED WITH DEADLY EXPLOSIONS”. Below the main spread was a little security camera picture of Freyr & Vreta pushing through the crowd at the space station upon arriving back at Outremer. The space station that was now a floating cloud of debris.

“We have well and truly ripped off the sticking plaster now.” The Facilitator smiled grimly.

Vreta was not accustomed to being in the public eye, at least not since he had been the chief executive of a major tech company a few centuries ago. That had involved a fair number of public appearances, though that was quite a different sort of situation than the one he found himself in now. Regardless, a news article would not change his purpose here.

Rareth let out a brief huff. “Your people should keep better control over your news media. Misinformation does not serve your people’s interests.” She remarked, though her focus did not stray long from the matter at hand. “Once the civilian evacuation is complete, I would recommend removing all personnel from the Cradle. Our objective was to allow this entity, this ‘Navigator’, to stabilize the Cradle, which appears to be working. We should observe only from a distance and continue to attempt communication. We do not know what measures the Navigator will take to repair the Cradle; it may even reset the simulation entirely, for all we know.”

Shifting her attention for a moment, Rareth briefly regarded Freyr and Vreta. “We should also move the Cradle’s away team, and any other critical personnel not needed on-site, to safety. They need a complete medical examination after what they have been through, and not to mention the ability to make their reports in peace. The Rothian cruiser in orbit can provide a safe space for them to work, not to mention the best medical treatment available. Given the recent security incidents, we simply cannot guarantee their safety here on Outremer.”

The Facilitator didn’t seem keen on debating the merits of a free press right at this second. He also didn’t appear to think much of Rareth’s proposed strategy. He huffed himself. “Any of these geniuses will tell you that we need to be inside the Cradle to properly observe.” He motioned around the lab. “All of this equipment depends on readings taken from around our occupied space in the simulation. Isn’t that right, Dr Lang? We aren’t leaving ground zero - our people inside know the risks. If you want to pull your super squad out, one of these gentlemen would be delighted to give the order.” He waved his hand dismissively towards the planners sitting nearby.

Freyr looked round absently when her name was called, but she wasn’t listening anymore. One of her staff had sidled over and placed a summary document with everything they’d learned so far and enquiry paths they were to follow next. Practically everything on the page was a potential breakthrough they would’ve worked a generation for in the past. Freyr was still too wired up from her experience in the simulation to take that much data on board. “We need to find out how the Navigator forced the internal door open too. Can you follow up with Systems on that?” She whispered instead.

“I can’t let anyone leave this facility until we’ve been given the all clear.” The Facilitator carried on speaking to Rareth. “The safest place for everyone right now is inside this Vault, I can assure you. The staff here have been thoroughly vetted.”

“Void Company will leave the Cradle as soon as the civilian evacuation is complete, no sooner, and no later.” Rareth stated firmly. “I cannot force you to evacuate your forces, but you have been warned of the danger. I’ve only just started going over the recordings Vreta made, but what I’ve seen so far is nothing short of alarming. These observations of yours are not worth their lives.”

Rareth took just a moment to select a relevant point in the recording. Vreta’s implants had not captured anything that happened after Vreta passed out in the Cradle, but they did have the events leading up to that point, including watching the staff in the headquarters seemingly trapped in their own memories. With a hologram projected from her suit, Rareth showed Vreta’s perspective of them walking among the entranced Humans. “I may not know entirely what is happening here, but this is clearly not a danger that can be fought with guns and tanks. In no way can you guarantee their safety, so keeping them in there is a gamble with their lives as your chips. You say they know the dangers…so you are telling me that if you were to show them this, then give them the option to leave, none of them would take it?”

“Regardless of whether maintaining a foothold in the Cradle is worth it or not, those men and women are following orders. Just the same as all the rest of us here.” The Facilitator spat, sweeping his arm around the room again. His voice was low but pointed, so as not to disturb the others. The two of them had evidently been sparring for a while, Freyr thought, glancing back.

“You wanna leak more classified video to the press? Be my guest - the media has already splashed it all over the news cycle. We are seeing this through, unless we hear otherwise. The alternative is rolling back three and a half centuries of progress.” He argued.

“Sir. The Cabinet Office for you.” An aide waved a phone at the Facilitator from the wall behind them.

“One second.” The Facilitator turned and called to Dr Lang, who was staring intently at the report she’d been handed. “Dr Lang - please give me some good news when I get back!” He turned and brushed past Rareth to take the call.

“So you avoid my question, then? I think that is as clear of an answer as any.” Rareth remarked. It was clear that she would not be getting anywhere by speaking to the Facilitator, though that did not mean she was done. It merely meant that she would have to direct her efforts elsewhere.

This time, after the Facilitator stepped away, Rareth did not seem to have a problem wearing some of her frustration openly. She stepped up and took a moment to speak to Vreta and Freyr. “Why does it seem like I care more about Human lives than most of the Humans here?” She commented with a low growl. “We are going to need your reports on what happened in the Cradle. I have your recording, Vreta, but I think we will need your assessments all the same. Still, just don’t push yourselves too much and try to focus on recovering. I am going to see about getting both of you proper medical attention. We really do not know what might have happened to you in there. Now, I have some calls of my own to make.”

Vreta could certainly sympathize with the desire to get to work right away, but he had to admit that he felt mentally exhausted, with his body not being far behind. Everything he went through in the Cradle took quite a toll. “How are you holding up?” Vreta asked quietly to Freyr.

Freyr nodded appreciatively at what Rareth was saying. She slumped into a spare swivel chair, utterly exhausted. “I’m not holding up very well, I’m afraid.” She sighed, rubbing her eyes. “Everything is moving so fast. At this rate I'll need to start Glanding.” Any citizen on Outremer with a bit of money to spend could have custom drug glands installed in their bodies. These allowed owners to secrete on command any of a wide selection of synthetic drugs, from the merely relaxing to the mind-altering. Freyr had considered it in university, but never had enough funds. That wasn’t an issue anymore, though.

“How about you?” She asked, still cradling her datapad.

After a little while, the Facilitator finished his call with the Cabinet Office. “Alright, thank you. Call here once you know more. Bye.” He hung up the phone and wiped the sweat off his bald pate. He turned to an aide. “Turn the news on, up there.” He pointed to one of the big screens up front.

“DEWINTER RESIGNS. MARTIAL LAW DECLARED.” read the tape along the bottom. Images of cars arriving and leaving the Parliament estate played on screen. There were police and military everywhere. “Who needs enemies when you can do all this on your own?” The Facilitator murmured, crossing his arms and watching the screen.

Vreta rubbed his hand over his temples. “Tired. And I feel like I have a headache. I’m also worried about 595 and Osman. They haven’t come out yet. I suppose Osman is probably moving to assist at the Bridge with the rest of her forces, but what about the Agent? She was with us when the Navigator contacted us, and presumably she would have been incapacitated just the same. Why hasn’t she come back like the rest of us?”

Eventually, Vreta let out a sigh. “Honestly, I don’t think there is much else we can do right now. All there is left is to wait and see if the Navigator can stabilize the Cradle. We really should get some rest so we’ll be ready when we are needed. Between Nirann, Marae, and your team, I think they can handle the passive observation.”

Rareth, meanwhile, grunted as she looked up at the screen. She was still making her calls via her implants, though it was hard to tell from the outside how she was multitasking. Certainly, the news on the screen did change some of the calls she needed to make. “Perhaps your military can keep control of these people. All of this chaos was…avoidable. So as long as your leadership honors your agreements, it does not matter to my people who we are working with.”

“I don’t know, i-...” Freyr stared into the opposite corner of the room, trying to remember. She saw the ‘O’ of Osman’s mouth as she shouted “good….luck” through her clear visor in their direction. She blinked out a tear when the thought of those infected people baying for live blood.

Freyr remembered their walk through the flickering lights of the underground garage, and the ride through the subway under New Antioch. A shiver ran down her spine when she recalled their horrifying encounter with those bugs, and that massive amalgam in the park!

Freyr bit her thumbnail, still looking into space. She couldn’t remember much about GCHQ, except that it led to her meeting the Navigator. 595 was just snatches of conversation in her recent memory.

“She said she had to go for a while. Maybe that’s what she did.”

Freyr exhaled deeply, her whole body juddering with the stress. She looked over at the Facilitator. “Have you heard from Dr Wetherall? Is he alright?” The Facilitator nodded. “He’s safe at the Bridge, keeping the link active as planned.” He resumed tapping at his pad, standing in the middle of everything. Lights blinked on the map of NA and countless sounds dribbled into Freyr’s ears. She nodded gravely.

Hours passed. Despite everything, Freyr fell deeply asleep in her chair. Someone put a small cushion behind her head. David & Amy came to her in a dream, the fine details of their faces blurred and abstract.

Eventually, the battle map calmed down. The few remaining CraSec guards on duty inside the Vault were replaced by black-clad soldiers with ‘OCI’ freshly emblazoned on their chest plates. More high-ranking military personnel filtered in and out of the complex. At some point, Dr Wetherall wobbled from the harness room and plonked into a chair next to Freyr, his age-lined face pale and drawn. He sent for a cover, and carefully arranged it over his leader’s body. He then gratefully accepted a nice cup of tea.

The Facilitator took another phone call, then he motioned for Rareth to come over. “Top side is clear. You can take your team out. My orders are to move the CRD to Réunion while we check Vault integrity.” He talked quietly.

Vreta could not exactly bring himself to sleep, especially with the headache he had. Though, he did take some time to at least let himself relax while Rhia got to work medicating him. She was able to do a reasonably good job of soothing his headache, as well as calming his nerves to some extent. Although, there was no medication that could help with stress for Rhia herself. Software-based solutions did exist that could assist AI with mental stress, but Rhia wanted to make sure her mind was clear and focused for whatever might be ahead.

Outwardly, Vreta found a place to sit down and rest for a few hours, though he, Rhia, and Rareth communicated privately about everything that had transpired. With the exception of some events at the very end, they all had Vreta’s recording to review. Of particular concern to them was the attack by Human assailants that ambushed their convoy. They were well-armed, and clearly had their own harnesses, under their own control, with which to enter the Cradle. They also had access to technology which could manipulate the simulation itself, which supposedly should have been out of reach to those the Outremer government did not trust. This was not a terrorist attack by Skinner radicals. For the attack to have happened implied a great deal more division or corruption among the Outremer government than even the Rothians had suspected.

Rareth joined the Facilitator as soon as he grabbed her attention. “Understood.” She replied simply. Without hesitation, she sent a quick message to Nirann to give Void Company their orders to evacuate. Though, she certainly still had more to say to the Facilitator. ”Very well. I do approve of moving the science team somewhere more secure.” She said, speaking to him quietly. “But I will just say it plain, I want Rothian security on-site as well. Forget protocol, forget pride, forget ‘optics’, we need to keep our people safe. There have been two terrorist attacks, and an ambush by Human assailants within the last few hours. They had builder tech, for Eternity’s sake; the factions that oppose us have infiltrated to the very core of your government. Maybe you trust your own people, but unless you’re planning on depriving your Vault of a substantial number of security personnel, you and I both know you are going to need more manpower, and Rothian forces are the only ones we know have not been compromised.”