ROSLYN INTERVIEW ROOM: 42 hours, 30 minutes after the Global Grid failure.

  Yumi and Kyle sat across from each other in a small briefing room, neither of them quite sure what to say after everything they'd heard. The room was sparse, a metal table and a few chairs, lit by the harsh fluorescent lights that seemed to be everywhere in this facility. They were escorted here right after the presentation ended. They were told to wait for further instructions.

  A figure shimmered into view at the head of the table without warning. ARi's projection appeared. She looked like she did during the briefing--a woman in her mid-twenties. But now she wore different clothes. Instead of the white dress, she wore jeans, sneakers, and a fitted graphic t-shirt that read ‘This girl was AI generated.’

  "Okay, so look, do me a favor. Can we skip the part where you freak out about me being an AI projection? Yes, it's weird. Yes, I know it's a lot to process. But we don't have time to go over all of that again, and I need to have a quick conversation with both of you."

  Kyle opened his mouth and closed it again. Yumi's expression shifted from shock to something that looked almost like excitement, a grin spreading across her face.

  "I know you were both briefed on the way here, but I need to hear from you firsthand that you understand what we're asking you to do." ARi's voice softened and became more serious. "This is important, because I won't have you tricked or integrated into my systems without your explicit understanding."

  Kyle glanced at Yumi and back at ARi. "Well, I gotta tell ya, the alternative isn't appealing either. Why would I want to be a small cog in a giant machine in one of these think tanks they're putting together? I wouldn't have any real say, I wouldn't have any control, and my contributions would be..." He paused, searching for the right word. "Small. Incremental. What you're offering is a chance to complete many lifetimes' worth of research and development. Work that would normally have to be passed from one generation to the next. I wouldn't be dreaming about the future. I'd be designing it, building it, being part of it." His voice grew stronger as he spoke. "This is the opportunity of a lifetime. They'd have to drag me out of this place kicking and screaming."

  Yumi was still grinning, practically bouncing in her chair. "Miss ARi, I have no idea why I'm here specifically, and honestly? I don't care. Yes. Absolutely yes. This is the kind of thing you only read about in books."

  ARi's projection smiled, genuine warmth crossing her features. "That's all I needed to hear. Have you had a chance to meet the others yet?"

  "No, not really," Kyle shook his head. "They said something about a brilliant engineer, a biochemist, and some kind of computer expert."

  "That's pretty accurate." ARi's smile turned into something more mischievous. "But this next part is where things get interesting."

  The door opened, and three people stepped inside. A young man who looked like he hadn't slept in days led the way. He was followed by a woman with dark hair and sharp eyes, and finally another young man who looked like he'd rather be anywhere else.

  Yumi sat up straight, her eyes going wide. "Gavin?"

  "Hello, Yumi." I tried to keep my voice casual, but I could feel heat creeping up my neck. "It's been a while."

  Timothy frowned, looking between us. "You two know each other?"

  Yumi's face flushed red, and she quickly sank back into her chair, burying her face in her hands. I could see her shoulders shaking, though whether from embarrassment or laughter I couldn't tell.

  "Yeah, we met before." I kept my tone even and professional. "But that's not why I recommended her to the Colonel. Yumi's a brilliant roboticist. She's exactly what our team needs to round things out."

  She peeked up from behind her hands, still blushing. "You know what? I don't care. I don't care why I was picked or how it happened. I'm just happy to be here."

  ARi's grin widened. "Excellent! That's the spirit!"

  The five of us arranged ourselves around the table. I found a seat that happened to be across from Yumi. I caught myself glancing in her direction more than I probably should have, though I tried to be subtle about it.

  "Well, I think at this point it's safe to say we all understand what we agreed to do, right?" ARi looked at each of us in turn.

  Kyle let out a long breath. "Yeah, I do. And I'd be lying if I said it didn't scare the hell out of me."

  Timothy nodded. "Yeah, tell me about it."

  "Well, don't say anything to the Professor or the Colonel yet, because I still have some things to sort out with them." ARi's projection leaned forward, her expression growing serious. "But I've gotta tell you guys there's a third set of schematics we didn't bring up during the briefing."

  She swept her hands across the table, and a holographic schematic bloomed into existence above the surface, rotating slowly in the air. It was complex, full of strange geometries and components I didn't recognize.

  "I'm fairly certain this device might be a way for us to integrate you into the system without destroying your physical bodies." ARi's voice was careful, measured. "But I need to be honest with you. It's a hypothesis, a best guess. We won't know what the device does exactly until it's tested. The good news is, we're gonna find out. I'm simultaneously sitting in a meeting with a bunch of higher-ups right now, and they have approved a project to build one of these things."

  I'd already made my peace with the scanning process possibly killing me. And now ARi was saying maybe it wouldn't? I didn't know if that made things better or worse.

  "As complex as the device is, I don't think it'll take much more than six weeks for us to complete construction. Which is good, because we don't have a lot of time." ARi paused, looking at each of us. "In the meantime, though, you need to figure out who's going first. They only approved the creation of one cradle."

  The room went quiet. I looked around the table at the others, seeing my own fear reflected back at me.

  ROSLYN CRADLE CHAMBER -- 6 hours until the Initial Cradle Test.

  Six weeks had gone by faster than I could have imagined, and I wished I had had more time to get to know my new teammates. Don't get me wrong, every single one of them was an amazing representation of their field. Kyle came across as brash sometimes, but the guy was absolutely brilliant. He and Timothy spent most of their time with ARi, the three of them working through theoretical problems and running simulations.

  ARi had surprisingly fallen into place as another member of the team. Though she was a member who could watch you at every moment and listen to everything you said. If those home-assistant devices had ever weirded you out, ARi would've made your skin crawl. But the truth was, I liked her. Yumi and Tanya became instant friends. Sometimes I could sense ARi felt jealous when they laughed together.

  As amazing as the situation had been for us living at the facility, none of it compared to what was being accomplished around us. Every day, military transport trucks brought resources and supplies. Their old diesel engines rumbled through the compound. The whole place was an anthill of activity, people moving with purpose in every direction.

  Within the first week, a massive chamber had been carved out deep underground. The schematics called for a specific kind of insulation to be placed around the cradle, and it was unlike anything I'd ever seen. Instead of lining the walls with lead or other traditional shielding. The chamber had hollow walls filled with some kind of liquid. I didn't understand the chemistry involved in whatever this stuff was, and it wasn't anything we'd ever developed on Earth. That made me wonder if insulation was even its real purpose.

  All of it felt strange, alien in ways I couldn't quite articulate. But the cradle itself didn't look that strange at all, which made it worse. It looked almost terrestrial, and I wondered if that wasn't our interpretation of the plans we'd been sent rather than the actual design.

  The cradle sat in the middle of the chamber, and at first glance, it looked like some kind of medical chair or examination table. When it was in the open position, it had an adjustable surface that could recline at different angles. But when the cradle closed, the surface went rigid and flat, pulling itself down into a cylindrical container. The front of the cylinder would rotate, sealing off the occupant completely.

  The thought of being inside that thing made my claustrophobia flare up, and I hadn't even tried it yet.

  I sat with my back against the chamber wall, legs crossed, sketchbook in my lap. We weren't supposed to bring cameras in here because of security protocols, which I thought were pretty stupid at this point. It wasn't like information could spread on the internet anymore. ARi had said it best when I first complained. Sometimes it was easier to let bureaucrats think they had control. Classifying things as secrets made them happy.

  Funny enough, nobody ever said anything about my sketchbook. I wasn't a decent artist. But sketching helped me relax. It helped me work through problems in ways that thinking couldn't.

  I was focused on the drawing, not paying attention to what was going on around me. That's probably why I didn't notice my father had entered the chamber until he was already lowering himself to the floor beside me.

  It must have been quite a sight. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff sat on the concrete floor. A decorated general sitting next to some scruffy-looking graduate student.

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  "Dad, I didn't even know you were here."

  "Yeah, I would've called ahead to let you know I was coming, but we're living in a strange new world now." He smiled, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. "Honestly, it feels like I've stepped back into my own childhood, back when phones were attached to walls with those spirally cords."

  I managed a small laugh. "Uphill both ways in the snow, right?"

  "Yeah, something like that." He looked up at the cradle, his expression unreadable. "So this is it. I wish we knew more about how it works."

  "Look, Dad, I know ARi told you this technology might be some kind of saving grace for the scanning process, but I don't want you to get your hopes up. We don't understand exactly how that part's gonna work." I set down my pencil. "Or if it'll work at all."

  "I know that, Gavin." His voice was quiet. "But it doesn't mean I can't have hope. A lot of things are being stripped away from us these days, and I'd like to hold on to hope as long as I can, if that's all right with you."

  We sat in silence for a moment.

  "Did you have a good visit with your mother?"

  "I did. It was interesting, to say the least. She spent half the time trying to smack the hell out of me for agreeing to do this, and the other half refusing to let me go."

  "Yeah, well." My father's voice was rough. "It's not easy being a parent, Gavin."

  I took a breath, steeling myself for the question I'd been avoiding. "Dad, I have to ask you something. You didn't pull strings or use your rank to manipulate the situation, did you? Is that why they chose me to go first?"

  My father stood up slowly, brushing dust off his uniform. He put his hat back on, looked down at me, and extended his hand.

  "Gavin, I don't want to upset you, but I have to confess something." He waited until I took his hand and let him pull me to my feet. "I did try to use my rank to pull some strings. But not so you could go first. I tried to get you pulled from this program entirely. I didn't want you anywhere near that thing." He met my eyes. "But I didn't follow through. I couldn't do it. I don't like it Gavin, but I do understand. And I promise you, your mother does too, even if it kills her."

  I swallowed hard, caught somewhere between anger and gratitude.

  "So how long before the show starts?" he asked.

  "ARi said the cradle would be ready in about six hours."

  "Well, sounds like we have time to go grab some coffee, maybe even lunch. What do you say?"

  My father squeezed my shoulder, and we walked out of the chamber together.

  ROSLYN -- CRADLE CHAMBER -- The Initial Cradle Test.

  I lay in the cradle, staring up at the chamber's smooth ceiling, thinking about everything my father had said during lunch. I couldn't hear anything from outside. The walls of the cradle were thick enough that the world beyond had become completely silent, which made everything worse.

  I could only assume the observation deck above was buzzing with activity. It was filled with technicians and scientists monitoring every readout and every sensor. The others would be up there too, watching.

  ARi appeared beside me, her projection hovering in the air since there was no floor for her to stand on next to the cradle. The light from her form cast strange shadows on the smooth interior walls, making the space feel even more confined than it already was.

  "So, how's it going?"

  I managed a weak smile, though my heart was pounding hard enough that I could feel it in my throat. "Well, ARi, I'm lying in this thing, hoping it doesn't fry my brain like an egg."

  "That's fair." She tilted her head, studying me with an expression I couldn't quite read. I could tell she was genuinely concerned. "Needless to say, this is your last chance to opt out."

  The words hung in the air between us. I could hear my own breathing, shallow and too fast, echoing in the confined space. My hands were clenched at my sides, and I forced myself to relax them, to spread my fingers flat against the surface beneath me.

  "ARi, I don't know if you understand this, but I have to do it." My voice came out steadier than I felt.

  "Gavin, you might be surprised, but I think I do understand." Her expression softened in a way that made her look more vulnerable than I'd ever seen her. "Better than you might think."

  I swallowed hard, my mouth dry. "Can they hear what we're saying right now?"

  "No, but they can see us pretty clearly through the observation window." She moved closer, her projection flickering. "Gavin, I wanted you to know that I'll be here the whole time. You won't be alone in this."

  I tried to keep my face neutral, knowing that everyone was watching from above through that thick glass. My father was probably up there: Tanya, Timothy, and the others. All of them were staring down at me lying in this alien machine, waiting to see if I'd survive the next few minutes. I only wanted them to see my resolve, not the fear that was making my hands shake.

  But quietly, almost in a whisper, I asked the question that had been eating at me for weeks: "Will this hurt?"

  ARi's projection seemed to waver for a moment. "I don't know, Gavin. But I can tell you the process should be instantaneous, regardless of what happens."

  Instantaneous. That could mean a lot of things. Instantaneous success. Instantaneous failure. Instantaneous death. I forced myself to take a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to calm the racing of my heart. It didn't help much.

  "Okay." My voice sounded small in the enclosed space. "I'm ready. How do we start this?"

  "Well, I'm sure they would've loved me to do some kind of elaborate countdown or something dramatic." ARi's smile turned sad, and for the first time since I'd met her, she looked genuinely uncertain. "But you know what? I don't think I'm gonna do that. I think that would make it worse."

  I appreciated that more than I could say. The thought of lying here, counting down the seconds until my potential death had been making my stomach churn.

  "ARi, I have to confess something." My voice cracked, and I didn't bother trying to hide it anymore. "This scares the hell out of me."

  "If I'm being honest, Gavin?" Her projection dimmed. "I'm scared too. I don't know what's going to happen when this activates. I don't know if you'll still be you when you come out the other side. I don't know if I'll be able to reach you if something goes wrong." She paused, and when she spoke again, her voice was barely above a whisper. "I don't know if I'll lose you."

  The admission hit me harder than I expected. I'd been so focused on my own fear that I hadn't thought about what this meant for her. If something went wrong, if I died in here, she'd be the one who had to live with it. She'd be the one who had to tell the others.

  The last thing I saw as the cradle began to close was ARi's face. That gentle expression of concern and hope mixed together in a way that made her look achingly human. The cylinder rotated with a mechanical precision that felt wrong, sealing shut with a soft hiss that sounded far too final. The world went dark, and the only sound was my own breathing, fast and panicked in the absolute blackness.

  For a moment, nothing happened. I lay there in the dark, waiting, my whole body tense with anticipation and dread. My hands were clenched into fists again. I could feel sweat beading on my forehead. Every second felt like an eternity.

  And everything changed.

  I felt weightless, like I'd been yanked out of my body and left suspended in empty space. My stomach lurched with the sensation of falling, but there was no direction to the fall, no sense of up or down or sideways. Every instinct I had screamed at me to reach out, to grab hold of something solid, to stop myself from falling, but there was nothing. Endless darkness pressed in from all sides, thick and suffocating.

  "Gavin, can you hear me?"

  ARi's voice cut through the void, clear and close, like she was right beside me even though I couldn't see anything at all. Not even my own hands in front of my face, if I even still had hands.

  "ARi, where the hell are we?" My own voice sounded strange, hollow. "Did it work? Are we in your system?"

  "Yeah, it worked, Gavin."

  Her even tone did absolutely nothing to settle the panic flooding through me. My pulse hammered in my ears, or at least I thought it did. I could feel my heart racing. I could feel the adrenaline flooding through me, but at the same time I wasn't sure if any of that was real or my mind trying to make sense of whatever this was. Could I even have a pulse here? Was I still breathing? Did I still have a body at all?

  "ARi, don't take this the wrong way, but I was expecting the inside of your system to be a little bit more..." I searched for the word, my thoughts scattering. "Vibrant. Or something. Anything other than this empty nothing."

  There was the faintest pause before she answered, and in that pause I felt my stomach drop even further, if that was possible. Something in her silence told me I wasn't going to like what came next.

  "Gavin, we're not in my system right now."

  The words hit me like ice water, freezing every thought in my head. My mind raced, trying to process what she'd said, trying to understand what it meant. If we weren't in her system, where the hell were we? What had the cradle done to me?

  Before I could process it, before I could even begin to ask what she meant, something else pressed in on me from the darkness. A presence. A force. Like static electricity crawling across my skin, threading its way into my thoughts. Foreign and vast and utterly terrifying. It felt ancient and cold and impossibly large. Like swimming in an ocean and realizing that something massive was moving in the depths below.

  And I realized, with a horror that made my nonexistent blood run cold: we weren't alone.

  [SYSTEM MESSAGE:]

  Cradle connection accepted. Scanning for eligibility. . .

  I froze.

  "ARi, what the hell was that?"

  "Shh, Gavin, stay quiet, please."

  Her tone snapped sharply, leaving no room for argument.

  [SYSTEM MESSAGE:]

  The Guide meets eligibility requirements. Scanning host. . . The Host meets eligibility requirements. Does the host agree to represent the whole of its world and species, and to accept all terms and conditions?

  [YES] [NO]

  My breath stalled. It was as if the air itself had been sucked away.

  "Gavin Daniels, don't say a word," ARi said quickly. "As the guide, I am requesting all information about eligibility requirements and the terms and conditions."

  [SYSTEM MESSAGE:]

  Does the host agree to allow the guide to represent him throughout this query?

  [YES] [NO]

  My hands clenched reflexively.

  "ARi, I hope you know what the hell you're doing. Yes, the host agrees to allow his guide to represent him through this query."

  The presence seemed to shift. Every second dragged.

  ARi spoke again, firmer. "Yes. Yes, Earth accepts these terms and conditions."

  My pulse kicked harder.

  "Gavin, say yes!"

  "ARi, what are the terms and conditions? What am I accepting?"

  "Gavin, please--trust me."

  I forced the words out, my throat dry. "Yes, the host accepts."

  [SYSTEM MESSAGE:]

  Earth's eligibility has been verified and accepted. You have five of your Earth days to return to the cradle with Earth's champions.

  And like that, the void collapsed around me.

  The front of the cradle slid open, and air flooded in. My lungs burned as I dragged in a ragged breath. I sat bolt upright, blinking against the sudden light, the platform rising beneath me.

  "ARi, what did you do?"

  The First Cradle. I've got other stories posted that you might enjoy as well. Feel free to check out my profile!