Cath

The Cradle

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.”

The Cradle

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.”

The Cradle

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.”

The Cradle

“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.

The Cradle

“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.

The Cradle

“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?”

The Cradle

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.

The Cradle

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.

The Cradle

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.

The Cradle

“Yes of course. If there are any signs of terminal strain on the simulation we’ll pull out immediately. We want to keep this thing alive.” Freyr assured Datius. The thrill of discovering an entirely new species was not lost on her. If it weren’t for all the other extenuating circumstances, she’d have already laid the foundations for formally introducing this entity to the galactic community once the mission was declassified. It might have been her crowning achievement - uncovering a lifeform that was potentially millions of years old and one of the final puzzle pieces to her life’s work - uncovering the secrets of the Cradle.

“The drone is already prepped. I’m not injecting it until we’re in a ready position, so we can quickly follow it and minimise runtime waste.” Freyr frowned at Rareth’s next question. “Yeah, I discussed them. Andersen came down from thirteen to ten marines, plus the Sacred Band. That was after I explained that the modifications to our lab mean only eight are required to control it. She won’t budge any further.”

“Boss!” Dr Apalkov called from the other side of the holo-table. Freyr moved all the floating items with a ‘through the bushes’ motion of both hands. “What do you have for me?” She asked.

“I’ve locked onto the mountain, using the extraction file. Want me to lock that in again now?”

“Good work, yes please. That’s where we last saw the creature.”

Freyr looked back at Rareth, hands resting on the table. “There’s no easy way down the mountain for the rig if our friend isn’t there. I hope the anti-gravity generators you installed work as described. Do you have any more questions for me or can we get this show on the road?”