Freyr did smile a tiny bit at Nirann’s deadpan humour. It didn’t last long though. “I’m just finding it hard to be optimistic right now. I spent my whole adult life so far trying to understand the next phase in synthetic life. Now we have the greatest chance I'm ever going to see, sitting in my lap, and all I want to do is find my family and get far away. Go live in the wild somewhere. As long as I have them, the rest of this galaxy can burn for all I care.” Even as she said it, Freyr was surprised by the vitriolic words emerging from her head. But she knew they were real, if buried deep down like white embers in a dying fire.

“So…about that well, then.” Marae frowned and let out what would have been a long breath, had they not been underwater. For the moment, she ignored the music and chaos of the crowd around them and swam up beside Freyr. Soon enough, Freyr would feel two oversized hands resting gently upon her shoulders as Marae looked down at her with a certain, knowing sadness in her eyes. Though not Human, she could certainly be more expressive than Nirann at the moment.

Although they could not speak aloud presently, the messages Freyr could hear in her mind still carried Marae’s voice and the same tone with which she “spoke” them. “I know that feeling. It’s as persistent as it is insidious. It’s…fear, worry, all swelling up inside until it gets to the point of bursting. I know it can get bad, especially when the thing you’re worrying about isn’t sudden. Some days, you get up filled with hope. You can have all the confidence that everything is just going to work out.” Marae paused for just a moment to search for an appropriate expression. “…then at the drop of a hat, all of that hope can just vanish and you feel like someone is squeezing your heart out of your chest. It’s at its worst when you’re alone. When you can be trapped with just your own thoughts.”

With a few kicks and a swaying tail, Marae positioned herself directly in front of Freyr to make sure she could keep eye contact. “So you work. Occupy your mind with fixing it. With making it better. You love them, and you know you can do something, so you have to do everything you possibly can. And whenever you’re not doing something, even if you’re exhausted, muscles aching, and hardly able to stand, you still feel like you haven’t done enough. And that’s why these last few weeks have been torture for you. Because we’ve been sitting here waiting, and waiting, and we can’t do anything.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Marae wrapped her arms around Freyr and pulled her tightly into a hug. Even without military augmentations, Rothians still had a lot of muscle behind them that was easy to feel to the touch. “I’m sorry, Freyr. I’m sorry that you have to go through this, that we haven’t been able to do more. I’m sorry that you’re trapped here waiting for governments who don’t care about us and are just playing their political games over the damned Cradle. But…you’re not alone, Freyr. Okay? I just want you to know that. A lot of people involved in all this don’t care, but some of us do. I know how you feel, and I will help you.”

Freyr hung awkwardly in Marae’s embrace for a moment, feet softly kicking to help them float. Then she wrapped her arms around the scientist’s muscular form and gave her a squeeze. She wanted to say ‘thank you’, but couldn’t. The mental congestion was the same as if she were crying out of the water.

“My son is missing too. Wallace’s voice entered Freyr’s head. It was clear she had been listening in, somehow. ”That was why I called on you specifically. You may not know it yet, but you have influence with our people, Dr Lang. More than you know. We can help each other.”

Freyr didn’t say anything, but released Marae after a few seconds. ”Let's go up. I’m ready for a drink.” She signalled in a monotone fashion. The music had been in a lull for a little bit, but was building up to a crescendo again.

“Just forget
All about fate
While I unlock this gentleman’s promise.”

The sound of the band exploded back into Freyr’s ears as she broke the surface of the water. Turning her head, she could just about see the singer on their raised platform, holding onto the microphone stand while knocking their knees together.

“With flesh like fire, but it lacks the colour
And chemical laughs fly round like drama.”

Freyr grabbed onto the nearest pontoon and dragged herself up, clothes releasing large amounts of water back into the lake. ”I don’t understand what you mean.” Freyr sent back to Wallace. She looked back at the ship, which was mobbed by partygoers.

Marae swam up and climbed out of the water alongside Freyr. Despite the crowd, being underwater came with a silence that could make the area seem almost peaceful. Though, that illusion was easily shattered once they were back in open air. “Yes, I think maybe this isn’t the best sort of place for you right now. Maybe we should head back and have more of a quiet evening. We can have a few drinks, share some stories, relax.” She suggested before shooting another glance down towards the water. “Come on back up. We’re heading back inside.” She messaged to Nirann.

Nirann’s current body could not swim in any real way, but he would not have jumped in without a way out. His frame had thrusters built in, mostly intended for zero-G maneuvering, but they could provide enough force in water to get him back up to the surface. Or at least, he brought himself close enough to grab a hold of the edge of the pontoon, then hoisted himself up the rest of the way.

“Just based on my impressions of her, I’m thinking the odds are good that there is a full bar somewhere in this ship. Hopefully it’s somewhere not overrun by…tourists.” Marae remarked.

The hit from her stim stick moments before rushed up Freyr’s spine, like a thick fog. The music slowed in tempo slightly and rose in pitch.

“Who says we need Wallace? We have a bar right here, all around us!” As if to demonstrate, Freyr snatched a square green bottle away from the lips of a teenager with orange trunks. She effected a sweet smile when he looked angrily her way, and pushed him off the side with one almighty shove.

The soaking wet biologist upended the bottle and took in a mouthful of the pungent liquid. It tasted like liquorice and chilli peppers. Freyr winced as she swallowed, then took another smaller sip. “We can make our own party.”

---

A long bike whirred out of the long lines of air traffic above the city centre and dropped down to the promenade overlooking the lake. A girl in a full body protective suit and helmet parked it next to the man who was watching the concert and hopped off the bike. He looked over and offered her his binoculars, which she took wordlessly and moved to the parapet.

“I marked them. The mask is back on now, but body language matches known records.” He remarked. The girl quickly rewound the footage recorded in the device until she got a look at half of Freyr’s face. “Any shields?”

“I can’t detect anything. The lizards might.”

The girl clucked her tongue softly, tapping the parapet with a fingernail.

Marae laughed, crossing her arms as she looked down on Freyr next to her. “But you are a conundrum, aren’t you Dr. Lang? Not but a moment ago, it didn’t seem like you were up for much of any kind of party, much less one of your own making. And here I was thinking we were about to have a quiet evening relaxing over drinks, sharing stories…”

Nirann walked around on Freyr’s other side, holding his arms out as wide has he could in the crowd as he took a few steps back. “Well I don’t know about you, but a party sounds worlds more exiting than…that. And I’ll tell you, I am wonderful at acting drunk. Always the life of the party.”

“But unlike everyone else, you get to cheat. No risks, and you can always just snap yourself out of it.” Marae grunted.

“Oh, you know well how I can handle risks.” Even if he hadn’t been masked, Nirann could not give expressions, but everything about the way he spoke gave the image of him speaking through a wide grin. “What’s something you’ve never done before, Freyr? Something exciting? Something frightening? Both? We’ve got freedom and we’ve got these masks, so no one will be getting on to us later.”

Freyr pantomimed thinking for a second, stroking her imaginary beard. “I’ve never been up on stage at a music thing before.” She raised one eyebrow as the singer, not too far away now, ripped his sweat-drenched shirt off, swung it around his head and chucked it into the crowd. A dozen arms reached out to grab it at the front. The band started playing slower but harder as they transitioned from one song to the next.

“Ah, there you are!” A voice called out from the throng around them. Alderney pushed through the crowd and stepped aside to let Wallace through. She’d somehow changed her stola for a lightweight purple jumpsuit. “You’re all wet! Good, well, I think we should head back inside now. I’m afraid we’re attracting a bit of attention…Dr Lang?”

Freyr pushed through the crowd towards the stage. Liquid from the bottle she’d stolen spilled all over her mask when someone’s elbow jogged her as she tried to drink. “Hey, cool outfit!” Someone shouted in her ear. “You’re an amazing crowd, and we’re Precept. You’re listening to the early 21st, right here on Réunion beach!” The singer shouted as the song ended. “This one is for our new government - fuck you!”
The band started playing again, playing with new vigour. Lights shone up into the sky from around the stage, and large gouts of smoke puffed out and around the ensemble. Freyr pushed on towards the front.

Wallace just smiled as Freyr ran away, then looked at the two Rothians. “I’m going to put a shield out, but we should really leave soon. Want to head back to the ship and I’ll collect Dr Lang?” As she spoke, a subtle oil-slick bubble extended from the partly visible Cradle ship to encompass the concert within it. If you were listening carefully, you could hear a sound like undersea cables being pulled taut.

Nirann tilted his head up slightly towards the sky. With his array of sensors, he could perceive the shield in ways most others couldn’t. Indeed, he could get a read on its size, dimensions, and strength from a distance. Wallace, it seemed, was being quite cautious. He wondered if there was a specific reason to think they were in danger, or if she was just leaving nothing to chance. In any case, he had no problem assisting in his own way. It was easy enough for him to have a subroutine always monitoring his sensors for anything potentially worrying.

Crossing his arms, Nirann laughed. “Are you so sure you want to leave so soon? Freyr is finally looking like she’s having a good time.”

“Well, it would be the responsible thing to do.” Marae remarked.

“Heh, like how responsible you were on our last trip to Anskaria?”

Marae rolled her eyes, then stepped a bit closer to Wallace. “We can join you. Maybe help bring her in without upsetting her.” She offered, though she could not help but to look to the crowd with a bit of temptation. The music, as strange as it was to her, had a beat she was starting to appreciate. The crowd was still as lively as ever, and even for her, it would be easy for her to want to join in. She supposed they would see once they got to Freyr.

Wallace surveyed the crowd, swaying gently to the rhythm. Then she leaned in and called over the music. “I’d love to stay. I would! But I’m getting reports of unrest in the city. Protests and ‘subversive’ maneouvers - stuff you would never see on Rothia. My ship can protect us from almost anything, but it is the Institute I'm most worried about. They know I've kidnapped one of their officers and a VIP and they want both back!” She was smiling, but Wallace’s eyes were dark.

Someone tripped over a buoyancy aid behind Wallace and fell over. Chirtsey smartly shoved them away from the Plenipotentiary and into the water. The band carried on playing, the singer’s previously ragged voice hitting an impressive range of notes. Wallace looked around for Freyr again. “Besides, I saw what happened just now. Dr Lang needs therapy - an environment like this isn’t helping her.”

---

Freyr smiled around at the maelstrom of faces swirling in front of her eyes. Spots of warm water pattered down onto her forehead and dripped into her mouth. She pushed quickly through the crowds forcing the bottle up from her side to take another sip. “Hey, gorgeous.” A voice said in her ear. Freyr turned her head. “Give me a boost up onto the stage.” She slurred.

Nirann gave a brief shrug. “Well, strictly speaking, it could help, insofar as it could help facilitate the development and maturation of interpersonal relationships that are vital to the mental well-being of a social species like Humans…” He started, speaking quickly and flatly before shifting to a more usual tone. “…but yeah, I guess I can admit that we have some other things to worry about tonight. Maybe we can still put together a smaller party back at base?”

“We should certainly put something together. She needs friends right now.” Marae remarked.

In any case, Nirann put his focus more sharply onto Freyr as he maneuvered his way closer to her through the crowd. Between the music and the roar of the crowd, the sounds around them were overwhelming, but the closer he came, the more distractions he could filter out until he could hone in on Freyr’s voice alone. “Now, we probably shouldn’t get ourselves thrown out of the party. Come on over here, I’ve got another idea for some real fun. You’ll love it.” Nirann messaged Freyr directly. He knew better than to just try to appeal only to her sense of reason when that sense was very much compromised at the moment. Rather, he went with the approach of dangling temptation in front of her to get her to go along willingly with what they needed her to do. It did not matter if he was being vague as long as he spoke confidently enough about it.

“I can’t really see Skopec agreeing to a party, can you?” Wallace laughed. “Anyway, psycho-analysis aside, we should go. The situation is deteriorating - the Skinner’s Guild knows the military will overreact to provocation and alienate the citizenry. I was very clear on this, but naturally I can only do so much!” She said this while still moving to the music, though her majordomos could’ve been mistaken for statues either side of her.

Freyr looked around in the crowd to try and identify the voice in her head. “I don’t wanna go yet! The party is just getting started.” Freyr raised her stim stick to her lips and breathed deeply. The colour green billowed across her vision. The crowd throbbed around her, nearly knocking the stick from her lips. A hand crawled under her arm and another grabbed her thigh; she felt herself leave the ground as someone lifted her up and towards the top of the barrier.

From her elevated position, Freyr could make out Réunion in its full glory. Flashing blue lights, like the ones on police vehicles, raced up and down the lakefront promenade. “Ooh, pretty.” She said to herself, as whoever it was placed her on their shoulders. From there, she could see just a small gap between the otherside of the barrier and the stage.

“Give it up for Miss Marchenko on bass!” The singer screamed, as the music changed again to a more electronic type sound. The tall, willowy, black clad girl standing off to one side of the stage with a large bass guitar leaned into her mic.

“Why you callin’ at 11:30, when you only wanna do me dirty?”

The rest of the band cooed into their mics in response. Freyr tapped into the lyrics with her implant and shouted along, waving her hands in the air.

“Oh, fuck!” Wallace breathed, eyes glazed over as she received another report from the ship. The dancing stopped. “No, no, no, what are they doing!? Nirann, grab Dr Lang and meet us back on the ship. She then turned to Marae and put a reassuring hand on the Rothian’s shoulder. “Come on dear, lets head back. We need to be inside the ship, just to be safe.”

“Why’d you always wanna act like lovers? But you never wanna be each other’s?” Miss Marchenko crooned while fingering her bass. Everyone else in the band pounded the beat as hard as they could. Even the singer had picked up a drumstick and was working on one of the drummer’s crash cymbals.

“Wooo!” Freyr slurred. “Put me over the barrier!” she shouted. The man between her legs obliged, holding onto the barrier and leaning forward so she could clamber over.

Marae nodded to Wallace. She did not know precisely what was happening, but if there was trouble, she certainly did not mind heading back to the ship. She and Wallace were outside the thickest parts of the crowd, so it did not take much time to get back up the ramp into the ship. Though, given that Wallace had allowed parts of the crowd up into the ship as well, she had to wonder how she was planning on getting them out quickly.

Nirann, meanwhile, weaved between the Humans in his way with singular purpose. He was on his highest alert, so he was scanning every facet of their surroundings for potential danger, from visual scans, to monitoring communications. It was a task to which he was uniquely suited. He was an AI who normally monitored an entire city. He had protocols for identifying potentially dangerous behavior in every known sapient species and their pets, as well as the sensory capabilities of his frame. If his logic could keep vigilant over all of Threria, then just watching his immediate surroundings would be child’s play.

Fortunately, Nirann was able to maneuver between the Humans around him well enough to at least get to Freyr before she ended up somewhere he could not easily reach. Before she could get over the barrier completely, Freyr would feel the pressure of him grabbing the back of her shirt to keep her from getting any farther. “Sorry, goin’ to have to stop you there, doctor. You know I’m the last one who would want to stop a party, but we kinda got to go here. Come on, I promise I’ll make it up to you. I’ve got some good recipes for some drinks I can mix up when we get back. I’m pretty sure we’ve got the materials for the fabricator to synthesize the ingredients.”

Wallace smiled encouragingly to Marae, tropical rain flattening her hair against her porcelain face. She nodded to Alderney, who began clearing a path back to the ship. Leading the Rothian scientist away, the Plenipotentiary looked back and nodded to Chirtsey, who turned and followed after Nirann. They drew a hard-light wakizashi from the folds of their robes and held it at their side as they pushed through the crowds.

---

“Heyy, get off!” Freyr slurred, taking another hit of her stim stick while pulling at the hand which held her, one knee on the barrier. “Watch it!” The person carrying her yelled as a stray foot caught him in the face.

“All of a sudden, I'm hypnotized
You're the one that I can't deny."
The bassist pointed out into the crowd. The music built toward a crescendo.
“I just want to tell them the truth!” Freyr screeched, straining with all her might to free herself, looking back towards the stage.

”Every time that I say I'm gonna walk away…”
The band looked at each other and smiled, then everyone jumped up or flailed their arms as they hit the chorus.

”YOU TURN ME ON LIKE A LIGHTSWITCH.”
The music paused for dramatic effect and an array of white strobe lights flashed across the stage. Cheering took over for a second before they launched back into action.

”When you’re moving your body around and arounnnnd.”
Suddenly, a much brighter light appeared in the background. An empyrean lance, reaching down from the clouds above to touch ground somewhere in the city behind. Another soon followed, further off to the left. The noise from the crowd reached a deafening level, including from Freyr.

”Now, I don't wanna fight this, no. You know how to just make me want…”
The band continued attacking their instruments, unaware of what was happening behind them.

Freyr’s breath caught in her throat, and she choked. Somehow, she could feel her pupils dilating as she stared into the thread of energy pulsing down from orbit. Then, as soon as they’d appeared, the lances disappeared.

”You turn me on like a light switch! When you're movin' your body around and arounnndd…”

Freyr threw up. Chunks of her dinner cascaded down in front of the person holding her up, who recoiled in terror. She felt herself falling, and even as Nirann manoeuvred into position, her nose hit the barrier below her. Everything in her vision erupted in a shower of sparks, before going black.

“You got me in a tight grip yeah.”
Her vision erupted into a shower of sparks, and Freyr closed her eyes unconscious.

---

Her eyes opened again, and though it was hard to stay awake, she knew she was looking through someone else’s eyes. Harsh sunlight reflected off sand dunes as they whooshed past. They were going fast, and the ride was bumpy; Freyr could feel her host’s hands gripping the gunwale as they surveyed the desert. Loud engines thumped behind them. The air smelled of acrid smoke and…
Salt?

Her host’s hands released the gunwale. “Doctor Lang?” A voice said out loud - one Freyr would recognise anywhere.

595.

There was not a moment of time wasted for Nirann. Freyr was still alive and still breathing, so she seemed to have knocked herself out in her confusion. In the moment, Nirann supposed that would just make it easier for him to get her back to safety without resistance. Somehow, he doubted that orbital strikes were a common part of Human concerts, so it would be best to get them all back to safety quickly. He was on full alert. His sensors were constantly scanning the area, and he had an array of cyberwarfare packages at the ready to deploy.

When he was motivated, it did not take Nirann long to push his way through the crowd. Most of the obstacles in his way he could deftly avoid, and anyone he could not was easy enough to push aside. As Nirann approached Wallace, he carried Freyr over his shoulder. Her clothing was soaked, she had a bloody nose, and she was unconscious, but she was at least alive and about to be safe.

“She ended up knocking herself out on a barrier. I’m assuming you have a med-bay somewhere on this ship?” Nirann messaged Wallace. He did not bother stopping, instead walking right past her up the ramp and into the ship.

Wallace heard Nirann clanking over as they were navigating through the tight knots of chatting locals now inhabiting her office. “Of course. Let's get inside.”

Once they were all standing on the transparent floor (or was it a wall?) of the ship, its consistency changed to suck just their party quickly inside. After a moment, the sounds of the concert faded, they were deposited back into the antechamber from which they’d entered Wallace’s office in the first place.

Skopec, left trapped there for an hour or more, came over. He was quiet now, but when he saw Freyr’s condition he gave Wallace a look of pure contempt. “Get her to the med bay, and plot a course back to their safehouse.” The Plenipotentiary commanded her servants, ignoring the Institute officer. “Hardly safe now. Everyone in this fucking city saw you. Didn’t they? Where the hell did you go?” Skopec snarled.

The dance floor which had appeared out of the lake for this impromptu 21st century post-hardcore gig disappeared as quickly as it arrived. Soundlessly, it sank beneath the lapping waves, leaving concert-goers to flounder aimlessly around in the oxygen-rich water.

---

They arrived back at the top of their high tower to discover a much larger delegation of Institute personnel waiting for them. This time they had a high ranking government official with a formal grounding notice for Wallace. They detained the whole crew, despite the Plenipotentiary’s strongest protestations, and moved them off the ship and into an empty office area.

A few hours later, early in the morning, a state of emergency was declared in Réunion and multiple other large cities across Outremer. A no-fly zone was enacted for all civilian craft and military checkpoints sprung up to control the flow of people entering and leaving key areas.

The return back to the safehouse was something of a chaotic mess, and that was being generous. The Institute seemed none to happy with Wallace for their unplanned trip. The crew of her ship ended up being detained, which was something Nirann expected he was going to have to deal with at some point, considering that they had gone with her voluntarily. Though, it was nothing that was going to be solved right away, and they did have other concerns that were more pressing at the moment.

The science team’s safehouse did not have its own medical center, so they ended up bringing Freyr back to her room. Fortunately, she would not end up lacking proper medical attention. Marae woke Vreta as soon as they returned to get into contact with Rareth, who was able to get a Rothian medical team approved within minutes to come down from the cruiser in orbit, with emergency services priority. Given the speed of Rothian craft, it would not take long at all for them to arrive.

Vreta joined Marae and Nirann in Freyr’s room, still half-asleep. With how dull their time in the safehouse had been, he had hardly expected Marae to be shaking him awake with an emergency when he laid down that evening. He had gotten into contact with Rareth right away to get help, though his conversation with her had lasted a few minutes longer after Marae had left. While they awaited the medical team, Vreta suppressed a yawn as he looked down at Freyr. She was unconscious, and still in her wet, somewhat bloody clothes. No one had yet told him anything beyond the fact that she had hit her head, so he could only imagine what events had gotten her to this point. For now, Nirann had put her down on the floor and cleared out a wide area around her to make plenty of room for the medics when they arrived.

“I don’t know what in the Void happened here, but first things first, is she badly hurt, Nirann?” Vreta asked.

“My current frame isn’t equipped with proper medical scanners, but I did see the impact. She just hit her head on a barrier, nose first. That might be broken, but overall, the forces involved shouldn’t be too serious. She’s breathing fine; pulse is normal.” Nirann answered.

Vreta sighed. “Well, one of us should still probably help her pack. I just finished talking with Rareth, and it seems like we’re going to be moving in the morning. All of us. Hopefully she’ll be up and about by then, but I don’t think she’ll be happy to start packing boxes then.

Marae gave a glance around the room. “I suppose I can do it. It will keep me busy, at least.”

Nirann approached her, resting a hand on her shoulder. “No, I’ll do it. It’s not like I need to sleep, and you need to at least try to rest while you can.”

It was not long before the medical team arrived. There was just a single Rothian among the team, with the rest consisting of medical droids. Granted, in most cases, it was the droids that performed the majority of the work. While they were not true AI like Nirann, each one possessed highly sophisticated programming tailored specifically to diagnosing and treating organic beings. Their programming contained a full compendium of medical knowledge on every sapient species in the galaxy. One of the droids did have an appearance similar to a Rothian, but the rest were floating drones equipped with a wide array of specialized equipment. The medics wasted no time, with one of the droids moving over right away to perform its scans, starting with her head.

595’s vision gradually blurred and Freyr uncoupled from it. The darkness around her felt comfortable this time. She knelt motionless in a shallow pool of placid water. A faint light shone on it from above, or was it from underneath? She could see herself in the reflection, younger and fresh faced, smiling. After a couple of moments, a man appeared next to her doppleganger. His face was blurry to begin with, but eventually Freyr understood who it was - David! And he was holding her baby!

She opened her mouth to shout out, and her hands moved under the water. The reflection rippled, and another voice echoed in the dark. It sounded like leaves rustling in the wind. “Ah, ah, ah! Don’t move.” The family in the reflection looked around, startled, scared. A cadenced clicking sound moved from behind Freyr’s left ear to her right. “Such a happy family. So united, so…agreeable.”

---

“Enhanced levels of noradrenaline detected, key memory and emotional neural structures active.” One of the drones fed back to the Rothian doctor in charge. “Subject’s heart rate is outside of previously tracked threshold and rising.”

Masgard Xandrus pushed through the crowd at the door to see what was happening. He’d evidently been asleep, as his formal shirt hadn’t been buttoned up fully. “What happened? Why is she on the floor, and…all wet? Masgard moved forward, squeezing past one of the drones to kneel down at her side. “Doctor Lang? Can you hear me? Do you want us to put you on the bed?”

---

“Not all Humans are as agreeable. Too individualistic, greedy. They won’t assimilate well, when I’m all that guards the Cradle. You must bring the others back to me, before it's too late. I…lose…patience…”

Masgard did not have much opportunity to get close to Freyr before one of the medical droids stepped in front of him. It was the one with the frame resembling a Rothian. Unlike Nirann, it did not have that noticeable “liveliness” to its movement. Its motion seemed more like a moving statue. “Do not interfere with the delivery of medical treatment. Step back, citizen.” It ordered.

Masgard would feel the slight pressure of a metal finger as Nirann lightly tapped his shoulder. “The medical drones are pretty protective of their patients. I’d just step back and let them work. Trust me, this medical team is equipped to give better care in the field than she could receive at Outremer’s most advanced medical facilities. She’ll be fine. The short version of what happened is that she hit her head. Slightly longer version is that we were at a concert after meeting with Wallace and things got a bit chaotic. There were a few orbital strikes, and somewhere along the way, she hit her head on a barrier. It looks like she might have broken her nose, but that’s minor compared to a head injury. The medics are making sure there is going to be no lasting damage, so again, just let them work. We can get her comfortable and cleaned up once we’re sure she’s out of danger.”

The Rothian medic herself paid little attention to what the others around her said. Nirann had sent his full report before the medics even arrived, so she could focus her full attention on managing the diagnosis and treatment. She moved little from where she was as the droids worked, but if one looked close enough into her eyes, they might see the lights of holographic screens dancing across her vision under her iris. She had a direct neural link to her droids, allowing her to benefit from their processing and analysis capability, as well as her own training and expertise. The droids were drawing up a toxicology report, as well as neural and body scans, to tailor their treatment as closely as possible to her specifically.

“Orbital strikes? What, how…” Masgard started, standing up again before flinching as a deafening sound filled the room. One in-atmosphere fighter craft screamed out of the darkness and past the skyscraper, then another. The plate glass windows rattled with the increase in air pressure, and the lights flickered. “What’s going on?” one of the Outreman science team asked from the doorway, voice quivering.

“Pack your shit, put it on the drones. Let's go! Get a move on!” An institute soldier barked from out in the corridor.

---

“Please, help me understand.” Freyr pleaded, suddenly finding her voice.

“I can help you. People will listen to me, but I need to know why we’re here.” Her eyes never left the mirror image of her family.

“We’ve met before, Human - but you won’t remember. Your form has changed, but you’re close enough for me to recognise your spark in the fire of a trillion Human minds. It is no accident, you arriving in Outremer. The Rothian too, had a part to play in our downfall.”

A shiver ran up Freyr’s spine, and the voice resumed practically inside her ear.

“You’re both here so it never happens again.”

With that, something grabbed the back of Freyr’s neck and pushed her face deep into the placid waters. Freyr struggled, but couldn’t get free - bubbles escaped from her mouth and nose. She opened her eyes, and almost screamed the rest of her air supply out. Directly opposite her, as if she were under the water looking up and he was face down in it, was Vreta’Sori. Freyr’s eyes bulged, and she tried to move from side to side to attract his attention from a few metres away.

---

Freyr began making strangled gasps for breath on the floor of her room. One fist clenched, then the other.
“Subject is experiencing ventricular fibrillation. Cardiac arrest is imminent.” The medical drones announced.

The change for Vreta was sudden, and he did not understand it. It was like he was in another place, yet at the same time he was not. He could still see the room he was in, but it was like this other scene was laid on top of it in his vision. It was blurry, like he was looking through ocean waters. He likely would have collapsed, were it not for the fact that Rhia could recognize that something was happening. She took control of some of his motor functions to keep him stable, while also monitoring his mind to make sense of what was happening.

“Freyr…what is going on right now? You need to wake up.” He asked.

---

Obviously, the report the medic received was a cause for immediate concern. “This is no concussion…” She muttered as she sorted through the various screens crossing her view. With just a thought, she ordered her droids to start giving more comprehensive treatment. One of the floating drones hovered over her torso and opened up the bottom of its chassis, revealing an array of specialized instruments. A dozen small tubes snaked across her body and pierced through her skin at different points to connect nearly every organ system she had with the drone. Combined with nanite injections, it could perform nearly any kind of medical treatment required, from simple medication to full surgery. It could even pump her blood manually, if her heart failed to do so. Meanwhile, the Rothian-like droid removed from its storage compartment what looked like a rolled-up, plastic sheet. It was a stretcher, and once it was unrolled on the floor beside Freyr, it went completely rigid. The small, anti-grav thrusters on its corners allowed it to float in the air, and given that it was sized for a Rothian, Freyr could easily fit on it.

The droids moved Freyr onto the stretcher, which lifted up into the air right away. “Clear the way! I’m taking her back to the infirmary.”