THE SECOND CRADLE - BOOK TWO OF THE IRON CRADLE SAGA Chapter 1: CHAPTER ONE - We've been red-shirted!

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ROSLYN RESEARCH FACILITY: The Cradle Chamber 5 Days Remaining [SYSTEM MESSAGE:] Congratulations, Champions. You have completed the objective to quell the rebellion in Maelun and secure the progression node. The progression node has been captured and converted into a Territory Outpost. Your territory's influence has been anchored to this point and Its coverage now extends across the ancient metropolis. All technologies and schematics recovered up to this moment have been preserved and catalogued. Because no active champions were lost during this operation you qualify for an extraction of a single active entity to your home civilization via a compatible cradle. All participants must return to the Cradle before the deadline! You may choose any single active entity present and eligible for transfer. Warning: Selecting Your Guide for extraction may have unforeseen consequences. When this entity leaves the Cradle on your home world she will do so in her current form and maintain all knowledge and abilities granted via the Ascendancy. All participants must have an active guide. Your guide will become a human female. All rules in regards to participant death would apply to your guide the same as they apply to you. However loss of a guide in this form while not in the Cradle will result in permanent death and forfeiture. Return to Earth. [YES] [NO] The last thing I remembered from Adaeya was ARi's hand in mine. Then the blinding white ripped me from where I stood and pulled me into the void. I was almost becoming familiar with the void by now. The dark, the weightlessness. That stomach-dropping sensation of falling with no direction to fall toward. And nothing to grab onto no matter how hard your instincts screamed. The first time it happened, I panicked, but at this point, I was starting to think of it more like a lobby. Like an in-between for your consciousness while in transit from one place to another. Unlike the first time going in, there were no system windows, no prompts, nothing to pour my focus into. Just the dark and the falling and my own thoughts. I wondered how long we'd actually been gone. I thought about my father, about my mother, about whether any of the things we'd left behind were still the same when we got back. Then the world flashed, and it felt like something had grabbed me by the chest and slammed me back into the cradle. Something had knocked the air from my lungs, and I lay there in the dark, struggling to find a breath. I could hear the hum of the cradle and feel a vibration running up through the platform and into my spine. The surface beneath me was cold and hard, and the air was acrid with a metallic smell thick enough to taste. Every nerve in my body was firing at once. I hadn't realized my eyes were closed until I pulled them open and found the same darkness waiting, pressing in from every direction. I laid still and let it all wash over me. With a loud hiss, I felt the cradle slowly sink as the cover began to rotate open. I coughed, choking for air. I forced myself upright as the cradle lowered itself onto the platform. I tried to get out only to crash like a ragdoll onto the floor. After a moment, I dragged myself onto my hands and knees and made my way toward the empty cradles. Through a shortness of breath, I tried to call out to ARi. I was afraid something had happened, that she might not have come through. I scrambled, half-crawling and half-falling, across the chamber to the end of the platform. I pulled myself up into the first cradle, and my heart sank. It was empty; then I heard a gasp coming from one cradle over. I stumbled again as I made my way to the side, leaning over to see ARi trying to find the strength to push herself up. Her arms weren't cooperating either. "I'm fine, Gavin," she said, barely able to get the words out. "It's okay. I'm fine." I reached in and grabbed her hands and helped pull her up and over the edge, and the two of us dropped down with our backs against the side. Be