Cath

The Cradle

“Knowing what we know now, i agree with you, Datius.” Captain Andersen’s hologram spoke up. “We can’t afford to lose you, Dr Lang. By all means, elect enough deputies to set up shop inside this thing without your help, but i can’t allow you to go in with the first wave. Agent 595, i’m transferring operational command of the Sacred Band to you. Once a beachhead is secure, get word back and we can funnel more resources in if required.

595 bounced excitedly on the balls of her feet. Freyr bit nervously down on her bottom lip and clenched her fists repeatedly. She wasn’t happy to put other people in danger like this. What if they faced something they didn’t understand that she could help with if she were there? But it did make sense - she had to pick her battles. Especially when being brave was getting her nowhere. “Ok...Lets do it!” She conceded, trying to sound positive. She looked around at her team. “Ngata, Dlamini & Wetherall. Will you go in for me? I’ll understand if you don’t want to.”

Wetherall looked at the other two, who nodded. “We’ll do whatever is necessary.” Freyr nodded and smiled, giving his shaking hand a reassuring squeeze. “Thank you. Happy?” She directed the last question at Andersen, who nodded her approval unequivocally this time. She then looked at Rareth, who also gave the green light. “Okay, positions, people! Let’s be ready for insert in fifteen minutes. Apalkov, I need you to dial in suits and equipment for these three! Give Wetherall the transit gear.” The lab exploded in a flurry of activity, leaving Freyr momentarily free to bite the nail on her right thumb and wonder if she’d made the right choice.

The Cradle

Freyr didn’t answer immediately. She took a moment to organise her thoughts, arms crossed, head slightly tilted down, perfectly aware most eyes in the lab were now on her. A flicker of blue light shone in her periphery; glancing over Freyr saw two half-body holograms of Captain Andersen and the Outremer Security Council delegate had appeared on a pedestal nearby. It looked like they were in a conference room up on the Barb.

“I am an academic, like many of you here today. I’m happiest with a careful, methodical, inexorable march toward the truth. I want nothing more for us to set up a robust programme of research from the safety of the FOB. But i’m afraid, we all know that this kind of work takes months, years even, to fully unlock results. This is time we simply don’t have. I fear lives are at stake on Outremer right now, many more than we’ll be risking with our journey inside this object. Two of those lives are my husband and daughter, who were kidnapped right at the start. So yes, i believe this is a necessary risk.”

Freyr paused temporarily, to avoid her voice breaking. She took a second to compose herself before looking straight at Rareth. “I can’t force anyone to enter the simulation, as i won’t be able to guarantee their safety. But, i am going in there myself, regardless. If we go in as a cohesive unit, we stand more chance of learning something and coming out alive.”

Everyone was silent for a millisecond, until 595 called “Ooo ra!” across the room. Her rallying cry made Freyr smile with emotion she wiped her eye. The Sacred Band all stamped their feet in unison, creating a hollow boom that rolled across the lab. “We’re with you, Dr Lang!” Dr Wetherall gaver her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. Captain Andersen nodded opaqely and shared a muted word with the delegate on screen.

The Cradle

“That’s correct. We...um…We think it learned our language from kidnapped Humans. For the centuries before that we’ve never had direct communication from the device.” Freyr answered.

She took another deep breath, not quite believing she was volunteering for this. “I think we should get in there and find out exactly what is going on. Nirann, your analysis has already proved the simulation is livable, at least around our entry point. If we go in, we might be able to establish a two-way connection which will give us more reliable information to work with. Is that agreeable?” Freyr directed this to Rareth.

Freyr glanced over at the other side of the lab, where the Sacred Band were waiting patiently. 595 was over there too, deep in conversation with Thebes and gesticulating expansively. It looked like they might be discussing strategy, or at least one of them was. Freyr was surprised to see the agent had smudged some dark red battle clay over her face in a T-shape over her eyes, nose and mouth. “If you’re worried about putting Rothian lives in danger, I know at least seven Human desperadoes who’ll be willing to do the heavy lifting.” Freyr added to her question with a smile.

“Meanwhile, If we can figure out the language this thing uses, that could be the single biggest advance in this space for a century. I believe my team has sent over samples from Cradle creatures we've captured. There may be clues there if they do actually communicate through organic matter. However, even with all the computing power in the world, we’ll need some time to be confident we’re not going to piss this thing off with whatever message we try and send. Better to try a two-pronged approach.” Freyr finished her pitch by looking between Artek, Marae and Nirann.

The Cradle

“Very interesting...i don’t think we’ve fully considered that yet.” Freyr ruminated on what the monochrome Rothian had said about a DNA-based language. She turned back to her team, who had gathered around three consoles in the bank behind her. “Pull up the files on all the Cradle specimens we captured.” She turned back to Marae. “Yank the program for me, please. I want to see what data we have.”

---

“There’s hundreds more of them.” Freyr murmured in wonderment. Her overlay glasses were pulling out dozens of iterations of the same coordinates from the wreckage of the probe they’d yanked. She was very impressed that they’d collected this much, which she supposed was mostly down to the advanced Rothian tech. But what did it all mean?

Freyr took a deep breath through her nose, massaging her bottom lip with two fingers. Her back was starting to hurt, so she stood up straight again.

“Freyr, you need to look at this.” Dr Wetherall pushed in next to her at the conference table and splayed a mess of holo-pads out. “I tried to match up some of the information connected to the coords we pulled from the probe with the sample we took from Mr Sori. There are lots of slight changes, but i can see correlation too.” Freyr held two holopads up, one in each hand.

To her trained eye, one hand contained an atomic portrait of a Rothian. The other contained a fuzzy, indistinct, sinister looking cousin. “Do you think…?” Dr Wetherall asked, blinking at her. “Fuck, has it been staring us in the face this whole time?” Freyr asked back, staring off into the distance for a moment, lost in thought.

Then, she slid the two holo pads across the table to Marae. “We know that the Cradle captures and recreates things from outside the simulation. We also know it’s highly likely that this object had something to do with the patterns in Rothian DNA. But how did those patterns get there? We don’t know of any power these objects have to change genetics on the outside, but inside their domain? It’s plausible. And I think my astute deputy may have found the origin stock.”

The Cradle

“Wait a second. Let me see that, please!” Freyr interjected, hand outstretched just when Nirann made to disappear again. Using one hand, she moved aside constellations of data points like she was searching for a puzzle piece within a vast stack. With her other, she placed her overlay glasses back on her nose. The throbbing notification in the periphery of her vision subsided.

Eventually, Freyr found what she was looking for. A dizzying pattern of symbols that her glasses instantly drew connecting lines between and created a hologram for the rest of the group to see. “This sequence contains the co-ordinates we found in Vreta’Sori’s DNA. The set that led us to find this object. Your program must have picked it up inside somewhere.” Freyr scratched the top of her shoulder through the open neck of her environment suit. “What are you saying?” 595 asked, standing next to her.

“I don’t know, yet. Can we see any patterns between any of the data surrounding this sequence that may correspond to Rothian genetic makeup? See if we can isolate a life form.” Freyr asked, fairly openly to the group.

The Cradle

“Yes, to give us options we’ve queued up a Hunter Gatherer. It doesn’t induct via the harness like yours will; it instead relies on the object taking the bait and responding to a handshake from outside. It will then hopefully find a way in and begin reproducing.” Freyr stopped herself from explaining all the intricacies of the program and looked at her team. “Are we in position?” She got a unanimous nod in return. She looked back at the Rothians. “Let’s begin.”

---

“Nothing, it’s not taking the bait.” Freyr sighed, taking her glasses off again and rubbing her eyes. She was leaning in to study one of the holographic displays on the conference table. “Did you regain a connection?” She asked across the table to Nirann for the third time. “What about if we try to pull what we can back out again and retrieve the data that way?” People were beginning to shuffle uncomfortably where they stood or sat. This operation with the programs had been dragging on for nearly two hours, and there was very little either team could do once they were deployed. That is, apart from watching and waiting.

The Cradle

During the intervening time, Freyr ordered the requisition of a Hunter Gatherer program from the Barbarossa. A potent sim-virus, it had been specifically created to survive in Cradle space, and send translated data to the outside. Freyr made sure to remove all traces of Cradle learnings data from this iteration of the program, to ensure there wasn’t any cross-contamination.

Freyr also supervised the final touches to a pre-load template file. Once the team were confident it could work in an environment like the Cradle, Freyr put her best systems engineer in charge of building out files for the Human elements of the entry team.

They had planned for an ‘in-person’ eventuality, which meant it didn’t take 595 long to muster the Sacred Band. Six super soldiers clanked into the lab behind the agent, the leader of whom Freyr had already seen at the initial meeting between the Human & Rothian teams. This light-blue armoured titan strode over to her station with 595 while the others hung back slightly.

“Sacred Band, reporting for duty, ma’am.” He snapped smartly to attention. His voice was deep, measured and accented. “I’m Thebes, Fireteam Leader. Captain Andersen has put us at your disposal. Where would you like us?” Freyr glanced at 595, who looked slightly irritated but put on a brave face when she caught Freyr looking. “Don’t say i never get you anything.” 595 winked; Freyr ignored her. “Over there, by the harnesses for now please.”

Freyr turned away and headed to the briefing table. An assortment of Rothian & Human scientists, along with some other conspicuous characters, were assembling. She took her overlay glasses off and let them hang around her neck - a huffed silence fell. “So, are we ready to proceed?”

The Cradle

“That’s quite alright. I think you’ll be able to scan what you need using existing Rothian tech in the lab. We’ll just send you a template of the file for you to fill for each member.” Freyr explained. “I suspect we’ll be fine with the amount of harnesses we currently have in stock, but thank you anyway, Nirann. If you’ll excuse me, I need to check up on my team.” She smiled politely and turned away.

595 peeled off with her. “I’ll liaise with the captain and muster the troops; make sure we have all the gear we need for the expedition here on the ship.” The agent updated. “Good idea, buzz me if you have questions.” Freyr replied, cold as ice. 595 gave her a quizzical look, before they separated to go to their separate consoles.

The Cradle

“Ah yes, so we’re currently working on a solution for this.” Freyr replied. “The standard harnesses we use to access the Cradle are not equipped to generate non-organic matter. They just give you an ID code, which is used to provide you with authorised gear milliseconds after you spawn in. In the early days, this was simply because we didn’t know enough about the technology to pre-load assets. Now, this two-step process has been baked in as a failsafe to keep track of people and stop them bringing dangerous items in. Obviously the Skinner’s Guild found a way around this, as they brought a bomb.” Freyr explained, momentarily thinking back to that haunting camera footage of the would-be terrorists.

“That gave me the inspiration to start building a pre-load packet system. A kind of executable file which means we can specify the gear we want to bring with us before actually logging in. This does assume the object uses all the same language as the Cradle, But the notation we found in Rothian DNA is cause for cautious optimism. We can send you the process for scanning the items you want to assign to each member of your team as soon as it’s ready. Some members of my team are just finishing up the design.”

The Cradle

The moment the holographic Rothian mentioned a bet, Freyr communicated one again with the Agent via comms. “Do not take that bet, i am warning you! I will get the captain down here.” 595 shot her a wry look and stood quietly while the two aliens bickered. ”You love it.” Freyr ignored her, instead smiling politely and sympathetically at Marae’s exasperated aside. She knew how she felt.

“That sounds like a good strategy. Ultimately, the safety of the Human science team is my responsibility. I know Captain Andersen is committed to the success of the mission, but I will consult her on the use of any military personnel and materiel. And of course, top of everyone’s mind is the safety of Rothia. We are guests on your beautiful planet, after all. Any eventual course of action will be conducted with extreme caution.”

"Don’t roll your eyes." Freyr sent immediately after, without looking.

"I would NEVER!" Was the response.

“If it came to it, have you got a team ready to go into a simulation?” Freyr asked Marae.