Cath

The Cradle

“Nice!” Freyr nodded. She was impressed by the Speaker’s ingenuity, but her mood dipped again when she realised Roth’Orsa was right about Masgard. He’d popped up immediately after the incident in Boycott Park and declared himself to be her representative through some obscure bylaw.

“I don’t know... I think I can trust most of my team? The old guard at least. What about...What about…” A thought suddenly occurred to Freyr, spurred by remembering her first contact with Masgard. “What about the Skinner’s Guild? They’ve been around since the beginning, and they hate the Cradle, maybe they know something? Come to think of it, that probably means they hate me too, perhaps that's a bad idea...”

The Cradle

Freyr shook her head in small, rapid movements and stuttered as the questions continued to roll in. “I, I don’t know, I just don’t know. I’m only a scientist, not a government official. No one will talk to me about these things. Same goes for you. Even if I cut the Director-General open right now and studied his brain, I couldn't be sure without historical benchmarks.” Freyr punctuated her remarks with a vicious chopping hand motion before stopping to think again.

“I’ll try Masgard. He seems to know things. In the meantime, I agree with you. We should try to learn as much as we can from the object in the week before the move. I’d like to insert myself this time with a team, if the entity will allow us. I know Datius ‘Jharn is keen for me to stay out of harm’s way… But I’m useless on the outside, and we know what we’re up against now.” Freyr appealed to the Speaker. “It’s not a decision I take lightly, and I'm terrified even thinking about it, but I’m most effective where the action is.”

The Cradle

“Hmm, i don’t know. If the Cradle could do that, why not convert everyone? Why not convert me?” Freyr speculated, receiving the folders from Roth’Orsa and glancing distractedly at them. “The Cradle has been producing organic strains for months now, but nothing as sophisticated as this.” Some of what the Speaker said next surprised her, but Freyr didn’t have much to add until the end.

“The rumours could be nothing more than people creating excitement where there previously was none. However, I did suppose it could stem from those mythical stories from the very beginning of our society’s interaction with the Cradle. There is no surviving footage of the first year, so we could only rely on their word. I had to recite this particular story for my Outremer citizenship test.” Freyr chuckled absently, looking distantly into a corner of the conference room.

“When the very first Humans accessed the Cradle simulation, most of them were confronted with a yawning abyss of blackness, featureless except those veins in the sky and the ashy material you find floating in parts of the Cradle not yet terraformed. But a few of those colonists saw lights blinking in the distance, like a city shrouded in fog. They argued - most thought some of their number were hallucinating, and begged them to stay with the group, where it was safe. But the few who saw it were convinced that they weren’t alone in this simulation. Eventually, they snuck away from the camp, presumably to go to these lights.”

Freyr squeezed her bottom lip between thumb and index finger. “Supposedly, they were never seen again. Over the years the Border expanded, but the mirage that group swore they saw weren’t detected again. Which makes it perfect bait for conspiracy theorists and gossips to latch onto and say they’re still out there.”

The Cradle

Freyr could feel herself blushing as the Speaker once again unpacked her emotions like an overstuffed suitcase. It wasn’t bad advice, just heavy-handed. She nodded politely and then listened to Roth’Orsa summarise what they knew. Eventually, she got the gist of the Rothian’s thinking.

“You think something is controlling them remotely, is that it? Like the Cradle?” Freyr pouted, eyes down and left as she considered the possibility. “I suppose theoretically it could be done, but that’s why we have the biosphere. It’s like a thick blanket insulating it from the rest of the universe. All external signals have to go through Human tech, and we’d be able to spot that kind of activity right away. ”

The Cradle

“Ok, sure thing. We’ll just talk later.” 595 flipped from smiling sweetly at the Speaker to fixing Freyr with the trademark glare she knew so well now. Freyr withered a bit from the giddy heights of privilege under the Agent’s gaze, but still had the presence of mind to dismiss her team. “It’s alright - I’ll be fine, you guys go on ahead. I’ll catch up.” Freyr smiled encouragingly to the people around her as the Speaker led her away.

Freyr didn’t feel comfortable enough to take a seat when the strange Rothian led her into the room. So she just stood awkwardly opposite the speaker, fingers interlocked in front of her waist, listening for Roth’Orsa to begin.

She nodded politely at the Speaker’s first question, then chuckled morosely when she realised what this was about. “I know they will force me to tell them whatever i tell you.” Freyr ran a hand through her hair and looked into the distance for a moment. The weight on her shoulders was unbearable, and she had no idea which choice was right at this point. It was all just too much.

Eventually, Freyr turned off her implants. She blinked a couple of times to clear the cloudiness from her vision before looking back at the Speaker.

“I don’t know anything about them, is the short answer. Ever since being inducted into the government I’ve heard...stories, I guess, about shadows controlling the Cradle from New Antioch, or somewhere beyond the Border. But I never gave them any serious thought until this all started. Now, they own my department and who knows what else, and the Agent has barely left my side for weeks.” Freyr stopped and sighed, breathing deeply to calm herself. She massaged the bridge of her nose, then chopped her hand down in front of her.

“There is something going on behind the scenes, I can feel it. But everyone, including me, is too terrified to do anything. Who knows what they’re capable of? I have...people, counting on me to stay alive and figure all this out.” Do not cry, do not cry - not in front of the Speaker. Freyr thought to herself.

The Cradle

Freyr had gotten up to leave with the rest of her team when she noticed the Speaker was approaching them. Several of the Human scientists stopped in their tracks as she drew near, unsure of whether to scoot past or wait respectfully. Freyr tried to remain calm when it became clear Roth’Orsa wished to speak with her. “Yes, of course. Happy to help.” Freyr smiled nervously.

“Ooh, are you proposing a tryst? I’d like to join if that’s ok? Xandrus too.” 595 butted in, motioning to the public relations executive who had been sitting inconspicuously among the Human congregation. He looked up quizzically from the holopad he’d been engrossed in for half of the meeting. "Just to ensure there's no misunderstanding." 595 smiled politely.

The Cradle

President DeWinter stole a glance at 595, who was staring up at her from beneath her eyebrows, head tilted slightly down. The president also nervously looked off-screen at something for a moment. “Noted. We’ll discuss that privately and see what we can do.” She replied half-heartedly. She looked glad when her copy of the timeline arrived. Freyr saw her face light up marginally when she opened the file. “Excellent, thank you. Dr Lang, do you have any thoughts?”

Freyr nodded quickly, scanning the timeline as well. “Yes. Our teams will need to be in-situ on Outremer before the object arrives. Since the source gate here on Rothia will be deep underground, I imagine we’ll need to pair another one elsewhere for key personnel to jump in just before?”

The Cradle

Freyr could see that the President was now well out of her depth with these technical details. And in the absence of the Director-General, it finally fell to her to organise everything. She jumped as soon as the President shifted her gaze to look at her. “We have a full suite of monitoring equipment with us on the Barbarossa. Ideally, we would have a team inside the simulation at all times. Our first port of call should be attempting re-entry, using the newly consolidated codebase.”

Freyr considered the next part carefully. “The Cradle itself is in a secure environment underneath Babylon, built to contain sustained nuclear fusion on the inside and orbital bombardment from the outside. In theory, the city is totally safe. However, we don’t know the outward capabilities of this entity nor the Cradle. To be on the safe side, I would also recommend evacuating the city.” 595 kissed her teeth and shook her head derisively at this point.

“But that is your call, Madame President.” Freyr pressed on despite the distraction, shooting an corrosive look at the Agent beside her.

DeWinter nodded gravely, calculating the political risk behind her eyes. “I’ll consult with my cabinet, but it may be difficult to achieve without declaring a state of emergency. And once we go down that route, I can’t stop what happens next. What else?”

The Cradle

“You want to know what it said?” 595 purred, leaning forward with her glass resting in her lap. “I couldn’t hear it very well because it was fading fast. But it pulled me closer and whispered…” 595 grinned, showing perfectly aligned teeth, before putting on an uncanny impression of the energy creature. “Save me...from all these endless posturing meetings. I’m dyingggg.”

The Agent hung her tongue out the corner of her mouth, crossed her eyes and made a loud choking noise. “That’s nothing to joke about!” Freyr protested angrily, which only made 595 laugh harder. “You are too easy! It didn’t say anything; not that i could make out anyway. It just grabbed me, the temple thing that we were in began crumbling, then blackness. Next thing I remember is staring up at a hunky medic.”

Soon after that, the screen behind 595 blinked into life with President DeWinter’s face on it. She began speaking before everyone could find their seats again. 595 made no effort to move right away, forcing Freyr to wrestle her seat out from under the Agent's feet.

“Hello again, apologies for keeping you waiting.” DeWinter began. Lord Hale and Benoit Souza appeared on screen on either side of her. The other officials, including the Director-General, were missing. “After some discussion, we believe we can accept your terms, in principle. Our team will be in contact with a legal agreement text shortly. Please make all necessary preparation for moving the object ahead of time - let us know how we can assist. Do you need anything else from us before we get started?”

The Cradle

Freyr followed Vreta’s gaze to Roth’Orsa. The Rothian was beginning to arouse her interest, both as a biologist and as an AI scientist. But her mind was still mostly focused on the intelligence they’d found just hours before, and Freyr was conscious about making any potentially seditious comment while situated among all these important officials. Freyr nodded sagely at Vreta’s analysis. “Yes. If i’m not dismissed, I’ll try and get some more answers before we leave Rothia.”

“Get your hands off me, Vreta’Sori.” 595 growled when Vreta came over. I’ll scan my own brain, thank you.” The Agent shot out of her seat and perched on the edge of the conference table to get away from both of them. She grabbed a nearby flagon of water and poured a large glass for herself. Freyr watched 595 greedily finish the whole glass before changing the subject. She didn’t want to antagonise this temperamental woman that appeared bound to herself by an invisible string, any more than she already was.

“So...the Cradle Institute. That organisation the Director-General mentioned... There are a lot of institutes based in the Cradle, but I suspect this one is new to me. Are you a member too?” 595 displayed a wry smile. “Sure. Why not.”
“Will i find anything if i search for the name?”

“I highly doubt it.”

“What’s it’s function?”

“We function for all of Outremer, and the Diaspora.”

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

595 shrugged, pouring herself another glass of water.