[IC] The Cradle

[Cath]

They fitted Freyr into her harness last. From there, she could just about see the command consoles and the crew they were leaving behind to coordinate the mission. “Ready, Doctor?” One of the technicians loomed over her, making final adjustments to the harness. “Yeah, launch the drone.” They nodded, relaying the instructions across the vast room.

Freyr’s team launched a small remote controlled drone at the approved coordinates. It was deliberately quite basic, to avoid interference while it completed its task - testing the inhabitability of the environment. The whole room was quiet while a few people focused hard on the readouts. The Captain had offered more Bridge staff to help with management of the mission, by way of reconciliation. She watched proceedings from a raised platform.

After a short pause. Dr Apalkov called from the command area: “Atmosphere is stable. No signs of disruption! Beginning insertion sequence.” Freyr cleared her throat. “Good luck everyone.”

---

Her limbs were on fire! Freyr waved her arms and legs but couldn’t find purchase anywhere. She realised she was airborne milliseconds before she slammed back first into a hard surface. Freyr’s teeth rattled inside her helmet and a pained grunt escaped her lips. She fell onto her front and found ground beneath her; she spread her arms out to avoid falling anywhere.

“Freyr, you ok?” The Agent’s distinctive voice asked her from nearby. She felt a hand checking the apparatus cocooning her then teasing her head off the floor. “Open your eyes sweetie, It’s alright.”

As Freyr opened her eyes, lights on the outside of her helmet flickered on to illuminate her surroundings - the suit's night vision hadn't kicked in yet. 595 was crouching over her prone body, resting a big energy rifle on her knee. Gradually, the burning sensation subsided and Freyr felt sick instead. She grasped the Agent’s hand, hauling herself up and looking around.

She’d crashed against one of the lab’s giant wheels. Looking up, she could see auxiliary lights flickering into action on the two decks above and in the cockpit. six multi-jointed appendages hung folded away along the top. The gantry running along the outside edge of the rig was empty - Freyr supposed they’d just entered. Her memory was a little foggy. “Did we just get here?” She asked 595.

“Yeah, about twenty seconds ago.”

Freyr saw Dr Wetherall being helped to his feet by Thebes and waved. She could taste blood in her mouth and her tongue hurt. Wind roared out of the dark at them, sticking large blobs of snow and ice on Freyr’s visor.

[EliteCommander]

For Vreta, entering the Cradle was never the most pleasant experience, and it seemed no different for this object. Though, by this point, he had grown accustomed to it. Rhia had the pleasure of experiencing it for the first time, and even being an AI, she did not find herself immune to the discomfort. She made that clear to him as soon as they came to consciousness, though Vreta could not help but to wonder what that feeling was like for a being without a physical form. Was she just sharing in his feelings, or did she experience something else entirely? In any case, Rhia did not waste too much time dwelling on it. ”Okay, that’s a new one. Let’s see…cold, howling winds, and snow. What a paradise. Let’s just get this done quickly, yeah? Checking on the team’s vitals real quick and…I don’t see any serious problems. Why don’t we go be neighborly and check up on the Humans? Need to get to having that chat with the Agent as soon as we can.”

The Rothian team had mostly inserted close together. Since Rareth was not entering the simulation this time, three Rothian soldiers took her place. All of the Rothian members of the expedition had been outfitted for combat, but the soldiers themselves still stood out like a blunted claw. Like Rareth herself, they towered over the rest of them, especially in their full-body powered armor. They were what the Humans would consider supersoldiers, like the Sacred Band. A normal fireteam would be larger than three soldiers, but Rareth was acutely aware of the limitations on their numbers. Unless he had a more important task to deal with, Vreta was expected to join them in the defense of the team, if it became necessary. Despite their limited numbers, the team was still well-equipped for a variety of situations. Most Rothian weapons had multiple firing modes that could change the behavior of a weapon, sometimes drastically. Even a standard rifle could switch between automatic or single fire, charged blasts, scattershot, and electric discharge. The team’s sniper had a weapon that could switch between being a high-powered particle cannon, or quicker shots that made it perform more like a marksman rifle. The third soldier carried the same sort of heavy weapon as Rareth had used during their first expedition, though his micro-missiles were not enhanced with antimatter charges.

Vreta could see that the Rothian scientists were quickly getting their bearings. The very first thing Nirann had done after powering up his motor functions was to rush over to Marae, help her up to her feet, and check on her well-being. The other two scientists did not get quite so much personal attention, but they looked to be getting ready to board the lab. For Vreta himself, he went straight to Freyr and 595. His official role in this mission was to try to make contact with the entity, so he could lean into that.

Vreta’s silhouette soon appeared through the snowstorm in front of Freyr and the Agent. He could not help but to be glad to be wearing climate-controlled armor, at this point. “No problems with the Rothian team, as far as I can tell. The science team is getting ready to board as soon as they can.” He informed the pair before turning his head towards what appeared to be the structure the team had discovered during their first expedition. Although it was somewhat hard to tell through the storm, the structure appeared to be a ruin compared to what Vreta had seen in the recordings. “I suppose you could say this place doesn’t quite look like the brochure. You were right there in the middle of it all last time, Agent. Do you think it was the storm that caused this, or something else? In any case, I need to at least try to find the entity, if I can. You spoke to it directly, right? What did it say in those last moments? I wasn’t able to watch your recording.”

[Cath]

595 studied Vreta through her reflective visor. She realised she was hungry again, and that the Rothian looked quite tasty. She felt different now - powerful, like if she jumped up she wouldn’t come down again. The Agent breathed very carefully in through her nose. She needed to keep everything under wraps on this mission.

“It didn’t say anything. Certainly not about this. Could’ve been the storm I suppose.” The Agent turned her weapon upside down to check the battery. Satisfied everything was working, she turned it on with a satisfying click and hum. “What now?”

“Now, we attempt contact with the entity.” Freyr nodded, opening the team channel again. “Everyone alright? No one hurt?”

“Vitals all stable, everyone accounted for.” Knossos replied immediately.

“Good. Alright team, let's get the lab operational right away - I want to know how long we’ve got. Then, I want to know if anything is still in this temple.” Freyr ordered.

“Yes boss. You heard the lady, let's get a hop on.” Dr Wetherall confirmed, clapping his gloved hands together as he waded unsteadily through the snow.

“We’ve got aerial mobiles off to port. Think they’re checking us out.” Athena reported, watching shadowy forms floating in the air off the side of the mountain. Visibility was awful, so she could only detect their movements, not what they looked like. The fliers that brought them here in the first mission came to mind.

“Hold your fire unless they make a move. Use a carabiner on the ladders, people.” Thebes advised the group - they were a potential weak point to aerial attack.

“Come on, let's get you in the nerve centre.” 595 urged Freyr, holding out an arm for the scientist to totter toward a ladder in her unfamiliar combat suit.

[EliteCommander]

“Unfortunate. I know you had some strange experiences in this simulation. I did see Rareth’s perspective, and you definitely disappeared entirely in that cave. I have a feeling that the rules here can be…different from reality.” Vreta commented .

For the moment, Vreta moved with Freyr and 595 into the lab. He did need to make contact with the entity, but it was not as if he was simply going to wander off into the ruins on his own. He hoped the equipment on the lab would help him in making contact. He followed the pair up the ladder onto the vehicle, followed shortly by Marae, Nirann, and the rest of the scientists. The soldiers were the last up, as they covered the area until the civilians were on board.

As they headed to the nerve center, Vreta continued to speak to both the Agent and Freyr. “I know you may not have the answers, but I would appreciate any advice you can think of. I need to find some way to make contact as soon as I can. I would prefer to be able to open dialogue with the entity before we make any drastic moves here in the sim. I hope you are aware that Rareth has ordered us to call off our attempt if the entity objects to it. We don’t want to harm it. Remember, the whole point of bringing the object to Outremer to begin with is so we can help the entity recover. Even your Institute is willing to reunite the two, which is honestly not the answer I was expecting from the Director-General, I’ll admit. At any rate, I’m just glad we can agree on something. Let’s just try not to sabotage our own mission while we’re here.”

[Cath]

595 didn’t reply to Vreta - she had nothing to say to him right now. She busied herself with guiding Freyr onto and up the ladder instead. Dr Lang fumbled clumsily with her carabiner until the Agent gently took it from her and attached it to the ladder’s guide rail.

Eventually, they made it up onto the rig’s lower deck. A thin metal pathway with a support railing wound the whole way around both decks. Freyr led the way towards the front of the massive vehicle, holding on carefully to stop the wind buffeting her over the side.

They approached a solid set of blast doors in the side of the vehicle with a keypad to one side; snow was already beginning to settle in the panelling. Freyr jabbed her pass sequence into the interface and the doors swooshed open. They clanked into a cramped heptagonal room. Five of the walls were covered in consoles and screens, with a holo-interface in the centre. The door they entered through occupied another side and another door opened on their right once Freyr went in.

“We need to check the simulation isn’t going to crash around our heads in five minutes time first.” Freyr answered. “And then, we will try and make contact with the entity together. The rig’s energy distribution is compartmentalised, so we can set up basic monitoring and comms without turning the primary power source on. We have Marae to thank for our improved efficiency here.”

Freyr hit a few toggles on her wrist holo and the room they were filing into lit up. The screens populated with graphs and fluctuating spirals. “Comms.” Freyr announced into the room. “Dr Chanthara, you’re up.”

“We should have someone outside guarding this door. Question is - one of yours or one of ours?” 595 asked Vreta.

[EliteCommander]

“That depends, how comprehensive is the lab’s surveillance system?” Vreta questioned. “I would say we should position the soldiers to cover any blind spots that might exist. Otherwise, they should position somewhere central to be able to reach any part of the rig quickly.”

Although Nirann was nowhere to be seen around them, he was evidently close enough to listen in, as he soon came in on their comms. “I’m heading up to the bridge right now. I’ll start up the sensors right away so we can get sights on our surroundings.”

“Good, safety is Rareth’s priority here.” Vreta answered back, though he quickly returned his attention back to what was immediately around him.. Unlike Marae and her team, he had not been instructed in the operation of this lab, but as an observer, he could still make sense of most of what he saw on the consoles around them. He hoped that the entity would have the ability to communicate through the comms system the lab was using. His job would be much easier if he did not have to go out into the storm. “Rareth also instructed me to make sure transit stations are prepared for activation as soon as possible. She wants everyone close enough to a station that we can all evacuate in under twenty seconds if we encounter trouble.”

[Cath]

“The only blindspots are inside the rig. Outside, we have a full spectrum view in three hundred and sixty degrees from maneuvering cameras and technical instruments.” Freyr explained as she led them through the interior door back towards the middle of the craft.

“The last thing we need is soldiers in full battle dress clogging up the gangways.” 595 countered Vreta. “The Norse can’t even stand up in here.”

“It is okay - I man turret instead!” Kjartan boomed over comms from somewhere on top of the vehicle. “Reminds me of home.”

“The soldiers can traverse the length and breadth of the rig from the outside. Or they can carefully set up in the common room on the top deck. It has easy-ish access to most exterior doors. And...you’ll be pleased to know that most compartments in the rig are equipped as a transit station too. Only the power plant goes without. We’ll need them for outside though.” Freyr offered helpfully as they emerged from a tight corridor into a slightly larger rectangular room. Her mouth dropped open slightly.

The consoles and holos in what should have been a sensory suite were stuck halfway between fully assembled and the folded down state where the rig could reconfigure the layout. Equipment jutted at strange angles from the floor and walls, jerking as the mechanisms caught repeatedly. “Richard, can you get to B2 please?” Freyr called over comms. “Nirann, are you wired in yet? Can you detect any malfunctions in the sensory suite?”

[EliteCommander]

“On it.” Nirann answered briefly, in a hurried voice. Vreta frowned as he looked around at the mechanisms, but he decided to hold on for Nirann’s assessment before saying anything about it. He intended to counter with his own recommendations for their defense, but another voice soon spoke up through their comm channel: Eti’Prar, the leader of the Rothian fireteam.

“We can move inside later. Until we have a full sensor sweep of the area, security personnel should keep watch on the hull. My recommendations are attached.” She remarked. At the moment, the Rothian team was still outside, patrolling the outer walkways. Each of them positioned to be able to cover different angles, but also to be able to see at least one of their allies at all times so that they would be in a position to be able to quickly assist one another if needed. The file that Eti attached in her message were the basic schematics of the rig, overlaid with the recommended positions of the members of both teams. For interior positions, once they moved inside, her plan involved splitting the members of the teams strategically so that someone could reach every part of the hull quickly in an emergency, while still having overlapping fields of fire to be able to cover one another on exit. It would also prevent them from having to crowd the interior hallways, so it was altogether well thought out.

As confident as Vreta might have been in his own planning capabilities, he still trusted their own soldiers to be able to lead themselves effectively. And fortunately, it also did not take too long for Nirann to get back to them on the issue he was dealing with. Although, it was rather obvious that he found some solution right away, considering that the mechanisms around them suddenly folded up into their compartments before deploying once more, this time correctly. “Got it. Just had to reset the system. I’m also on the external cameras, so I’m going to go ahead and start a sensor sweep of the surroundings now.”

Vreta was momentarily relieved that the problem had been solved, though he still could not help but to hold some concern. They could not afford “surprise” issues. “Good, but still run a full diagnostic on every system you start up, regardless. If there has been some kind of damage to the rig, then we’ll need to call this mission off. We need everything to work right the first time. Freyr, Agent, are hiccups like that normal for equipment in the Cradle? If something about this place is introducing unexpected errors, then this becomes a lot more risky.”

[Cath]

“Mmm, agreed.” Thebes gave his stamp of approval for Eti’Prar’s plan.

Once order had been restored to the sensory suite, Freyr beamed at the people around her. “Excellent work, Nirann! Thank you.” Just then, Dr Wetherall pushed through to the fore of the group. “What’s the problem?” He panted. “Seems we had a glitch somewhere in the system, can you check this room out please?” Freyr asked the veteran Systems boffin before leading the way up some steep stairs to the top deck.

“I don’t think the rig is damaged. If we’ve aligned the code base, there shouldn't be any issues... It could be due to the plate we’re sitting on… I remember from the recordings it lit up just before the creature grabbed the team. Might have some kind of manipular field which is interfering now…” Freyr mused, responding to Vreta’s question.

They entered through another blast door at the end of a short corridor at the top of the steps. The room that greeted them had a central control interface, complete with a large three dimensional holo map that was slowly populating right in front of them. Three jump seats were fixed to the walls and floor with small screens clustered around them. A single door opened at the other end of the room and another door exited on the same wall. “This is the bridge, through there is the cockpit. And the one on your right heads back to the common room.” Freyr announced.

Dr Lang moved to the command console just when Thebes updated them on the general channel. “Lots of movement up here now. They’re smaller than the fliers we took last time. Looks like they’re attracted to the lights.” A few pictures came through, showing what initially just looked like the blackness of night. Then Freyr focused on the picture and could discern individual winged bodies, a bit like large bats. They were swarming together, like one being. “Interesting. Don’t shoot unless they come within touching distance. And then try to capture one alive!” Freyr replied.

“Now, Nirann. Any signs of life in that temple over there?” She asked after a short pause to check the equipment.

[EliteCommander]

Nirann hummed a moment as he took a few more seconds to run a few extra scans, but all of them returned similar results. “Oh, there’s signs of something in the area. Unfortunately, I think that “something” is a jamming field. Or something that is acting like a jamming field, at least. I’m having trouble getting readings with this hardware.”

Vreta observed each development silently as they came. He did not want to interrupt Freyr too often, but he did tag along to keep up with what was happening. Although, each new development just seemed to be worse than the last, and Vreta was not too keen on taking risks here. “Errors, energy fields, swarming mammals? I don’t like any of this. It may be best for us to simply call this off. Nothing seems to have gone smoothly so far.”

“We do have transit stations ready, so we can evacuate at any time.” Marae remarked from the other side of the small room. “Though, we’d be going back empty-handed. Dr. Lang, can we guarantee that the terrain itself is safe for us? If this energy field is interfering with those sensors as well, then it may actually be best for us to simply leave. We need to make sure the lab itself is in a safe spot before we can perform any tests.”

[Cath]

“I agree with Vreta, for a change. We can’t risk something more serious going wrong at a crucial moment.” 595 chimed in, holding her hands out in front of her like weighing scales. “I need to keep you all in one piece.”

“No.” Freyr answered them both firmly, staring at them both in turn. “We’re not pulling out yet - not until we give this a proper try.” She opened the team channel. “Dr Wetherall, have we got an idea of runtime yet?”

“I’m waiting on some systems to come online but it looks like days or hours, not minutes.” Came the reply. Freyr breathed an audible sigh of relief.

Freyr then looked at Nirann’s droid body, wired into the system from the corner of this room. She knew it was just an empty shell now, but there was no other point of reference for the AI. “We can replicate some of the telemetry a Terraformer & Builder would’ve afforded us with the rig. For the best quality feedback we’ll need to strike a groundmast though - let's move off this plinth first. Plot a course please.”

Freyr walked over to the cockpit door before turning back to her two shadows. “How about making sure everyone is settled in? I’ve got things under control here.” She smiled sweetly.

[EliteCommander]

“We need to be cautious, all the same.” Vreta warned. Among Nirann’s many responsibilities was to dive the rig, so he was the one to plot their course off of the plinth. For a moment, Vreta nearly lost his footing when the vehicle started to move. The interior of the rig was rather cramped to a Rothian, but there were plenty enough handholds for Vreta to use to make up for the awkward posture he had to use to move around.

Freyr seemed to want to take control of the situation herself at this point, but Vreta did not leave her be right away. “Sorry, but I need to speak to the entity as well if we can make contact. And that is our first priority, yes?” He remarked. Much like Freyr, he also looked over to Nirann’s body when he spoke to him, despite the fact that Nirann could easily hear any word spoken in any room, at this point. “Does this rig have the instruments to determine how much energy the entity has remaining? If we can’t make contact, I would like to know what kind of an impact our plan will have on it.”

Despite her insistence to the contrary, Vreta approached Freyr regardless. “I’ll still follow your lead for now. Let’s try to make contact. But, let’s not do anything drastic until we know it is safe.”

[Cath]

Freyr held onto a handhold by the cockpit door, watching through the toughened concave windows as the rig rolled over the snowladen mesa. She glanced back as Vreta approached her. “Dr Wetherall just said we have hours or days at our current power consumption - I expect he’ll have an exact time shortly. This must be down to all the energy efficiency upgrades we’ve made. At any rate, we have enough time to attempt contact.”

Freyr gave Vreta a knowing look, then flicked her eyes over to 595. The Agent was engrossed in who was studying the holo-map in the centre of the room. “Nirann, turn us around, please, so we’re facing the ruins.” She instructed Nirann. She knew the lab’s strongest armour was in the front elevation - reactive plates would even roll over the cockpit in an emergency.

“Dr Wetherall, prepare a groundmast for once we’ve stopped please. I want a full workup of the whole mountain and this complex in front of us ASAP. Dr Chanthara, is this field accepting a handshake?”

“Negative. Trying all frequencies and entry methods. Seems dead.”

Freyr pursed her lips. “Marae. Are you set up in the code lab yet? Can you put together a package to cut us a small hole in this field? See if we can get a message through.”

“Umm, have we tried just using a loudspeaker?” 595 offered, looking between them both.

Freyr paused, perplexed, before shrugging her shoulders, tapping Vreta with her knuckles and pointing to a console. “Mic is over there. Give it a go.”

[EliteCommander]

Vreta did not seem to be nearly as enthused by the estimates Freyr gave as she was. “Hours or days? There’s quite a large margin of error in that estimate.” He remarked as Nirann started to turn the rig around. Despite some of the inconvenience of its design for a Rothian, it was at least large enough to be a smooth drive even on rough terrain. Perhaps unless something disturbed it too much.

Marae did answer back quickly, though as she spoke, she did seem to be otherwise occupied by her own tasks. “I’ve just started my own analysis of the field, but I can see what I can do. Just from my first impressions, there are some distinct similarities to other examples of the object’s code base, so there may be something I can latch onto.”

While Freyr was working, Vreta observed from the sidelines. In those idle moments, Rhia’s avatar appeared in his field of view. She stood right alongside Freyr, seemingly watching her closely. “So this is her: the Cradle expert. Her psychological profile is…quite something. I’d watch this one carefully. She’s a dedicated one, but not necessarily to the same things as us. Nor her own people, to be fair. She has her own goals, and right now, those goals want this test to go through no matter what. Careful that she doesn’t pull a fast one on you. I’d have Nirann double-check any calculations she gives you, just in case.”

”I’m surprised you don’t want to do it yourself.” Vreta commented within his mind.

Rhia’s avatar simply shrugged and leaned back against one of the consoles. ”Oh, I will, but if Nirann does the fact-checking, it gives you something you can actually act on without drawing suspicion.”

”Fair point.”

Of course, Vreta gave no clues to his conversation. He had still been aware of the discussion around him, and he responded immediately when Freyr pointed him to the rig’s loudspeakers. “Very well, I can try.” He replied as he stepped up to the mic. He hovered his finger over the button to activate it, but did not do so right away. “Okay, where to start? I…wish I knew this thing’s name.”

In any case, after taking a moment to collect his thoughts, Vreta pressed the button to begin. “For our host, if you can hear me, we would like to speak to you if at all possible.” Vreta began. The entity had referred to the first team as its guests, so he decided to keep up that analogy. “We would like to inform you of the plan we have made. We believe we have a plan that will accomplish what you asked of us quickly.”

[Cath]

The bridge was silent while they waited for a reply. Seconds ticked by, and then a minute. The only sound they could detect from outside was the fluttering of thousands of wings from the swarm above. It flitted into view of the front flood lamps, a dark shoal of eyes and teeth. This was punctuated by a faint scraping as the groundmast went into the earth beneath their feet.

“Must be asleep.” 595 remarked, eventually. She’d peeled her visor back, and was studying both Vreta and Freyr closely. She watched from behind as Dr Lang scratched her neck, arms folded across her chest. The scientist was staring off at the snow-shrouded ruins in front of them.

Suddenly, a loud ping heralded a new visualisation on the holo-map. An intricately detailed 3D model of the mountain they were sitting on slowly rotated for all to see. Above it, a countdown clock spun up to six hours and fifty one minutes. Freyr looked round, before moving to the holo. “Okay. We have time. Hold on…What’s this?”

Freyr cut the mountain open with her finger, and it exploded open in a cross section. Underneath their position, the plinth was just one face of an enormous cube - it must have been two hundred metres across. Most of it was buried deep inside the mountain, with just two vertices on the top face jutting out nearby. “Fascinating, isn’t it?” called Dr Wetherall, who would have seen the data seconds before pushing it to the bridge. “Some kind of power storage?” He mused.

Freyr hummed to herself, before deciding what needed to be done. “Dr Zimmermann, prime Rübezahl Three for injection via the groundmast, please.” The fourth Human scientist, who was currently split between Synthesis and the code lab, responded: “Very good - five minutes.”

[EliteCommander]

Once again, there was a lot for Vreta to take in with his observations. Considering that this was the location where the first team had encountered the entity, the cube-like structure was highly likely to be directly related to the entity. It was indeed quite a curiosity, Vreta did agree. Scanning it would probably be their best opportunity to learn something of value, but Vreta still did not lose sight of his objectives. His superiors of course wanted to learn what they could just like Freyr did, but not at the cost of damaging the entity.

It was disappointing that there was no response from the entity, but Vreta supposed that approach had been a long shot regardless. He hoped they would be able to find some other way to make contact, but for now, he took a few moments to watch the holograms. He did not necessarily understand the significance of what they had discovered in the same way as the scientists, but the countdown clock was something that he took a particular interest in. “Okay, so could you explain exactly what that clock is counting down to? Does it represent the energy remaining before we need to leave? As in, the entity will still have enough energy once that reaches zero. Or is that the countdown until the entity runs out of energy entirely?”

[Cath]

Dr Wetherall answered Vreta directly over comms. “The clock counts down to when we have to leave. It factors in time required to move the object into a stable orbit around your system’s black hole. There are thousands of variables that will affect the final countdown, which should reflect what you see on the bridge.”

Agent 595 took her turn next. “Okay. Now, what is this...Rubezahl thing? Is it going to put the creature in danger? What is it?” Freyr sighed, feeling a bit like her own university professor. She looked down at the floor and thought about her answer for a moment before delivering it.

“When it comes to simulations like this one, it’s important not to get too attached to the idea of seeing things as they appear....This mountain may look like a giant rocky thumb on the outside, but under the surface, it is part of the most complex, powerful computer known to both our civilisations. Some of it is dead, some of it is teeming with ‘life’. The Rübezahl we’re releasing is specifically programmed to integrate with the section we’re currently connected to via the groundmast, and to investigate whatever we deem important. Right now, that’s the underside of this cube, to search for a way to contact the entity, if it’s nearby.”

[EliteCommander]

Vreta was glad to hear that they were at least accounting for their time restrictions, though it did not dispel all of his doubts. “I hope it accounts for all of the time we need to move it. The object will need to return to normal time for a short while after its flyby of the void star as well. Perhaps it would be best that we leave some time on that clock as well, just to be safe. Nirann, could you make sure to keep scanning and recalculating to make sure nothing changes that time limit without us noticing?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll dedicate a subroutine to it.” He answered.

Beyond simply how long they would be investigating, the method of investigation would be just as important. He had read up as much as he could on the capabilities of this rig, but in the limited time that had been available to him, it was not as if he could become an expert. Marae and her team would certainly understand it, and he hoped that she would alert him to anything that might be too dangerous to try.

“What exactly does it mean to ‘integrate’ with the object?” Vreta asked. "I find it likely that this object is related to the entity itself. It may even be the entity. It did identify itself as a synthetic being, so what the first team met in the temple may have simply been an avatar.”

[Cath]

“Rübezahl becomes part of the mountain. Looks for an underground path we can use to make contact, zo to speak.” Dr Zimmermann replied in a thick Swiss accent, which Freyr always found charming when she considered that he’d been a citizen of Outremer for much longer than her.

“Mmhmm.” Freyr actively confirmed the scientist’s assessment, then tagged on the end. “We can keep the integrity of whatever this object is intact. Rübezahl Three has instructions to be delicate on its mission.”

“Ja. It is ready, by the way.” Zimmermann reported. “Excellent. Prepare for launch. Marae, how are you getting on with the front door?” Freyr looked vaguely into the air while communicating with invisible colleagues.

“Hold on, i still don’t like this.” 595 walked over to Freyr. “Why don’t I just go and take a look around with my own eyes first? Maybe the...avatar is still functional? That way, we can avoid using any safecrackers.”

[EliteCommander]

While the others were speaking, Marae had been devoting her full attention on her work. She had to start essentially from scratch on making a program to get them through the field, but she worked remarkably efficiently. Her own neural implants were different in form and purpose to the likes of Vreta’s, but they were specialized to the kind of work she did. She could quickly perform complex calculations, as well as craft programs with thought and intention, rather than purely coding. Much of the work was happening within her mind, though she always had four or five holographic screens floating around her with reference information.

“It progresses. I would say…ten or so minutes.” Marae answered.

Vreta, meanwhile, observed the hologram of the cube with a frown, which was only broken when he gave a sideways glance over to 595. He certainly still did not trust her, nor her intentions. He did agree with Rareth that the behavior of the institute as a whole was suspicious, but in this case, he found himself forced to agree with her. If the entity was friendly, then harming it could be an irreversible choice. “I…actually agree.” Vreta spoke up. “This object is a real unknown for us. Is it such a good idea to modify it, even delicately, without even knowing what it is? We could be prodding at the entity’s brain for all we know. Is there no way to scan from the outside first? Like doing a brain scan, instead of a biopsy? If nothing else, I could go with 595 and we could try to speak with the entity together.”