Cath

The Cradle

The ship nudged gently against the flotilla, and dropped down to allow Nirann and Marae to exit onto it if they wished to. Warm water sloshed onto the deck of their half-opened orb and quickly around the seating area until it was ankle high. Freyr squealed, partly from trepidation and partly from pure excitement after so long without stimulation. She leapt back onto the bean bag she’d been on before and laughed. “No! You go if you want, I’ll try in a minute!”

Wallace waved out to the wild mass of partygoers perched on the creaking flotilla, beaming as the music undulated around them. Several people jumped from the platforms onto their watery deck and rushed forward. Freyr didn’t notice, for she was too preoccupied with all the moving objects, but Chirtsey and Alderney flinched. Their hands started to move, but one tiny motion from Wallace stopped them dead in their tracks. Freyr did happen to spot a tiny thread of flickering light, like spider silk, connecting the back of the Plenipotentiary’s head to a shield generator hidden out of sight.

The audio quality from inside the half-exposed orb was excellent, rivalling that of anywhere near the band. So the revellers swept up their group for a drunken greeting and compliment of the grand entry. They then began swirling around the space, dancing and knocking jovially into each other to this energetic music. “Hello, nice to see you. Please, make yourselves at home. Hi!” Wallace called over the music, hugging and shaking hands with several people; servants never more than an arm’s length away. It was like the Plenipotentiary knew everyone at the event.

“This looks comfy!” A tall thin woman with dark red hair and a swimsuit shouted, falling into Freyr’s beanbag to hug her.

“Oh, hey!” Freyr laughed tolerantly, patting the woman’s back as the wetness seeped into her own clothes.

Halo: Aegis Team

Tar had always loved climbing, so pursued the dim light at the top of the Tengmaa’s chamber with vigour. Brissekh was packed full of cliff faces to scale, and in a way she could remember the routes up and down them better than her way around the frigid woodland. It was the excitement of knowing a shortcut which stuck in her head, Tar supposed.

The rock face here was shrouded in vines, but the Commando quickly figured out a way up, spotting hand and foot holds which jogged distant memories of this place before it became a death trap. The fresh water streaming in from above was cold and refreshing after the warm, smelly interior. The sound gradually built to a crescendo of howling winds and rain at the top, perfectly masking the sound of Tar hauling herself up.

As soon as she was away from the hole, she crouched down and drew her Carbine. The spikes on her feet scraped against the craggy ridge. Visibility was shockingly bad, but Tar knew that could all change in a moment if the wind changed direction. “If they have any sense, they will be inside until the storm passes - we should move quickly. We do not want to be up here if the wind speed increases.”

The Cradle

“Bravo!” Wallace clapped her hands together and began manipulating the controls again. “I think we have some full-body masks somewhere…” After a few moments, a quartet of mannikin type shapes appeared behind the Plenipotentiary. Two were entirely obfuscated like the ship, two just had blurry faces.

“I am not swimming out there.” Freyr laughed, pouring herself another cup of tea. “I’m certainly not dressed for that.” Wallace looked at her, raised one eyebrow and rolled the control ball over with one finger without looking. The concert began coming closer, with the ship silently navigating the placid waters. “Don’t worry! If you want a full suit, it will repel the water. But I was thinking we could bring the concert to us in the beginning anyway. It's safer like that.”

Chirtsey and Alderney, Wallace’s servants, wafted back into the room via newly reformed blast doors. The faint sound of raised voices followed, but was abruptly cut off when the doors closed. They landed gracefully back on the floor and walked in tandem over to the suits.

“Help our guests with their gear, please.” Wallace instructed without looking, fiddling with the controls. The music from outside was of a lower volume for the moment, but Freyr noticed the band reaching the end of their song. The scruffy lead singer waved to the crowd, other hand resting on his guitar.

“Thank you! You’re awesome. Thanks to Kaftari for letting us play for you at such short notice too. There’s nothing like a humanitarian disaster in the capital to shake up the set list eh?” He turned and laughed with the rest of the band, who were either hydrating or tuning their equipment.

Alderney came over and offered Freyr a blurry mask. She nodded and the servant went round the back of her chair to attach it. After an initial moment of disorientation, the mask moulded her face and her vision returned. It was like the mask wasn’t even there anymore. Freyr gingerly felt her head and confirmed that it was, in fact, still there.

“We have a special guest at our little gathering, folks!” The singer suddenly announced, scanning the water beyond their little flotilla. “If you’re here, get outta my head and give us a wave!”

“The good thing about a camouflage ship is that it is…customisable.” Wallace grinned. Accessing the neural lace of most everyone in the vicinity, the Plenipotentiary first marked the outline of the ship. As everyone turned to look at them, now only a couple of hundred metres away, the outer surface of their craft rippled with a kaleidoscope of colours that mingled with the dark background of the mist upon the water. Wallace knew it would be different for everyone, finely balanced to stimulate the amygdala.

The crowd burst into rapturous cheering, and as if it were planned all along, the band burst into a new song. Detecting the rhythm, the ship automatically synchronised. “They love it!” Wallace announced. “Time to meet our adoring fans - everyone suited up?”

“This is attracting a lot of attention, maybe we shouldn’t-” Freyr began, but their host had already set the process in motion. The orb’s outer shell began peeling back as the ship floated the last few yards toward the flotilla. Wallace stood up and adopted a show woman's pose, her silent attendants standing at attention behind.

The Cradle

“We love to dig up the past!” Wallace called over the music that now filled the room, conducting a quick search. “This type of music really is old - so much so that they thought to name it ‘rock’. How dynamic!”

“I’ve got no prior experience of dancing to music like this.” Freyr admitted, still swaying from side to side in her seat. “How is everyone else doing it?” Wallace duly obliged, shifting the lens from the singer’s sweaty face to the dimly lit crowd. Freyr noticed that the Plenipotentiary’s ship enhanced the scene until it could’ve been under floodlights.

The rickety flotilla contained hundreds of people in swimming shorts or bikinis, jostling against each other. Most of their hands were in the air. Dozens of people were either jumping off or climbing back aboard at one time. “Oh gods, do they need rescuing?” Freyr asked.

“I think they’re doing it on purpose!” Wallace laughed, taking them silently a bit closer. Freyr hadn’t noticed, but the ship had actually rotated in the preceding few seconds so the aft orb was the only part protruding from the water. Their room acted as if it were gimballed, but for the rest of the ship (now pointing toward the lake bed), magnetic fastenings and anti-gravity were enabled to keep people safe.

“Shall we go and join them?” Wallace turned to look at her guests with a mischievous look etched across her face. “We can wear masks, so no one will recognise us - it could be fun! I do so enjoy mingling with the masses.”

The Cradle

Wallace looked at Freyr while Nirann & Marae conversed. “I was sadly a bit preoccupied when we last met, so I couldn't join your party. Sorry about that.” Freyr shrugged and blushed, trying to recall the night. “That’s quite alright. I think it went a bit awry quite quickly. Our Institute attaché seemed to react quite badly to that thing you gave us.”

Wallace chuckled, looking back at Nirann and Marae. “I have something a bit softer if you’d prefer. I come from a long line of imbibers, but can exercise restraint when the situation demands! I leave it up to you.” With that, the Plenipotentiary waggled one finger and the holo of that nanobot dissolved, reforming into a control interface.

With the array floating closer to her chaise longue, Wallace grasped at an orb in the centre and moved it carefully upwards. The water on the outside of the room immediately began swirling as they rose to the surface. “Such a fun toy. I can see why everyone wants the Cradle. I’d take this over a phallic space brick any day.” She murmured. Freyr giggled, she was beginning to feel a little light headed.

After a second, the vast inky bubble of the ship’s aft section broke water, narrowly missing a pleasure yacht heading to shore. Freyr looked up and saw a few stars peeking through the clouds. “Ah! Music…” Wallace purred. Freyr followed the Plenipotentiary’s finger and saw a large stage erected on the sand, facing out onto the lake. It was quite far away, but with one small motion the orb’s lens-like surface magnified the scene many times.

A Human band of musicians stood on the stage, energetically playing an assortment of guitars, drums and keyboards. Thousands of people were listening, dancing and playing around on an interlinked flotilla of platforms, water slides and buoyant inflatable chairs. “Let's listen in, shall we?” Wallace tapped another sequence on her control panel, and sound steadily filled the room, picked up from nearly a mile away.

“Sing it back to me; this is your life story
You didn't even know it you're trying not to blow it
Because you're kicking back a death wish and here I am just riding out the storm
Believe me when I say that I want to give up
I want to give up but its bad enough to keep me hooked
Just to watch you curse my name and toss and turn”

The volume increased, sensors perfectly tuned to pick up every nuance in the sound. Several thin wisps of sweet-smelling steam sprayed into the room. Freyr began shimmying in her seat in time with the music.

“Turn around and cross the line you so casually walk between function and fashion
Are you dressed to kill or dressed to impress?
Don't act like you can do better than this.”

As the rhythm guitarist repeated the last line the lank-haired lead singer, mouth practically touching the vintage microphone, raised an arm and shouted “Sing it!”

“Let me see you put your hands upon the stereo
Its spitting out a ridiculous frequency
But turn it up turn it up
Break a sweat
Cause were just burning up and hitting up the scene that was ours to hit up
Take take me out because I'm ready for your best shot
Make make me out to be a bullet from the pulpit
Or anything that would make you believe!”

The Cradle

“Heyy, we are doing things.” Freyr pouted at Nirann, still thinking. She didn’t want this person to think they’d been sitting on their thumbs this whole time.

“I agree, Marae. We should monitor them from a distance. If they are part of a Cradle entity, they could be advanced beyond our capabilities to handle if we rush in.” She continued.

Wallace weighed them all up with her eyes individually, sucking her cheeks in around another piece of sweet pastry. Freyr began to feel a little uncomfortable again, and squirmed a little under the Plenipotentiary’s gaze.

Eventually, Wallace gulped the pastry flesh down and smiled widely. “Excellent. I think that’s all I needed to hear right now. I will speak to the Datius and my colleagues in the government. We are technically in a ‘transitional authority’, but there are a few immovable rocks who won’t be changing seats that I can connect with. As I said, you’ll likely be moved from this black site to some kind of mobile command centre. It’ll be harder for terrorists to corner you that way.

“What about the rest of my division? Not everyone was taken to the safe house.” Freyr asked. She had lost too many people already - keeping everyone together seemed like the best way to preserve life. Safety in numbers.

“I’m sure we can figure something out. I’m told that your headquarters has been evacuated, with the equipment decentralised and most personnel working from home. But if you want to bring them all, that's something we can discuss. Now…” Wallace sat up, perching elegantly on the edge of the chaise longue. “With our business concluded for now, do you want to see what's happening up on the surface?” Wallace's eyes flashed with an impish excitement.

The Cradle

“I can’t divulge all of the context yet, I'm afraid. The situation is very delicate, involving a dispute between two species. And because of the distances involved, the less information that’s sent through relays, the better.” Wallace leaned back, quickly glancing towards where the door would have been.

“But what I do know is that these things took control of comm arrays attached to this factory system and began pinging nearby systems. It says they also disrupted the early stages of a Ga’Brosh tournament on a nearish Orbital, and-”

“Hold on.” Freyr held out a hand. “A, umm…thing, did that inside the Cradle too. It found the Navigator on Rothia after it finally decoded a message carved into Rothian DNA. Took control of comm arrays, I mean.” One of Wallace’s eyebrows raised ever so slightly. “Ah… is that so?”

“Mmmhmmm. These beings have never generated matter outside of their shells before though. If they’re connected, it's a big step forward. How big are we talking?”

“I, ah..”

“Computer, add a credit card for scale.”

A physical payment chip appeared in the hologram next to the hacker bug, dwarfing it. “So they’re nanobots - intriguing…”

“Quite. That’s why I brought this to you. Is it worth investigating?”

The Cradle

“I will speak to Datius Jharn, but I wanted to get your opinion first. You are the experts my source has requested, after all, and will be able to assess whether this lead is worth investigating.” Wallace purred, clicking her fingers. “Foremost, have you ever…

Hardlight generators clicked on, hidden within the ceiling. A three dimensional hologram appeared in the space between them. Gradually, the outline of something began to appear.

“...seen this before?”

Freyr shuffled forward on her giant pillow, pulling her overlay glasses out of a pocket and popping them on her head in one clean motion. “Wowee.” She murmured, as the object gained form.

It looked like an armoured insect, with two sets of steel wings extending above its bulky carapace. Six manipulators sprouted underneath like legs, waggling in every direction. Ten light blue emitters blinked out from its flat face.

“I haven’t. Have you?” Freyr looked at the two Rothians perched next to her. After half a second she looked back at Wallace. “Where did you find this?”

“I didn’t find it. But my source sent me the imprint after these things took over fifteen orbiting factories and began making more. Bigger ones."

The Cradle

Freyr jumped in after Marae, now that one of her favourite subjects was being discussed. “These entities have had countless millennia to diverge. Their architecture may be completely different! We just don’t know yet - the Cradle doesn’t have any kind of imprint for each of these life forms that we can detect.” She smacked her lips, tasting the tea on them. “The Navigator - what the one we found on Rothia calls itself - doesn’t like to talk straight with us. Another one may be more disposed to letting us in on their secrets.”

Wallace’s icy white eyes lit up at the mention of secrets. She grinned luxuriously and looked to Nirann, still draped over the chaise longue. “I do hear whispers, now and again. Information, wafting through the ether from dark and developed corners of this galaxy alike. One particular bit of information may be of use to you.” The Plenipotentiary finished her tea and rested back on the attendant tray with a soft clink. “But fair warning, my source will not surrender this intelligence unless you do something for them first.”

Good morning :)

Welcome to the Guild! Hope you have a lovely festive period