Earthward Bound

Rapid rummaging. After taking the ticket from Lore, Tay began an impromptu and increasingly violent strip search of the garage and loading bays. Lore tried, on several occasions, to ask what she was looking for but she either didn’t hear them or was too busy to respond. The search came to an abrupt stop when Tay emerged holding a small capsule aloft.
“And you need that why?” Lore asked as Tay began working out the best way to insert the ticket.
“Trust me. It’s… it’s going to be amazing.” She smiled.
Ticket in place and capsule securely closed, Tay fiddled with her Breacher. Lore watched as the date from Alodrass’ letter flashed across its screen before a small window into the space above Earth appeared. She dropped the ticket through the window before it closed, grin beaming across her face.
“There we go… Best get to the bridge.” Tay sprinted for the bridge, Lore soon behind.
The doors flew open as both Tay and Lore leapt onto the bridge. “What the bloody hell’s gotten into you two?” Char turned her chair to face them. “We’re just outside of the Solar system, we’ll need to jump to the right date though.”
“Fifty two years…” Tay smiled as she sat down. “I wonder how long it’s been since Alodrass and I broke up?” Lore gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder before taking their own seat.
“Any ideas on how we’ll find her once we get there?” Lore turned their chair to face Tay.
“Well… This is going to sound worse than it is but it shouldn’t actually be too hard.” Tay’s smile turned to a look of guilt. “For our first anniversary, I bought her this necklace, delicate little thing made of Di’Frei Durhl.”
“You cheap git.” Char looked to Lore as if to incite their outrage but a lack of knowledge left them clueless. “It’s one of the cheapest metals Quatarrians make jewellery out of. At least it doesn’t tarnish.”
“Hey, it was a nice piece. Anyway, she never took it off, even after we split.”
“How do you know?”
“Durhl, despite its abundance on Quatarr, is rather rare on most planets, making it easily traceable… Hang on!” The penny dropped. “Hey, hey, hey! I was just buying a cheap necklace. The tracking was an additional bonus.” Tay’s face had turned a deep red.
“I doubt the Paragon of the Future considered stalking but, how accurately can we trace it?”
“On Earth, in the twenty first century, extremely easily.”
“Then let’s get going.” Lore slammed their Breacher onto the console with more force than they had intended. With the date and time readily inputted, they were on their way. Their departure was nothing special but on re-entry, there was a slight thud as The Destiny hit something. “What was that?”
“Something has just stuck itself to my hull.” Destiny peered her face from out of the main monitors. “It appears to be one of my emergency storage containers.” Lore looked to Tay then back to Destiny.
“Leave it there.” Tay said, trying to contain her laughter. “Trust me.” Destiny nodded before returning back into the ship.
“Just started a scan of Europe and… There it is.” Char pointed to a small red dot just past the border of Scotland.
“We best Breach down. No chance of explaining Destiny in this time zone.” Lore flipped through their terminal. “We’ve got access to a safehouse nearby so I say we Breach down inside and use it as our base of operations while we get a better scan of the local area.”
“Follow your lead then.” Tay rose from her chair.
After setting Destiny’s scanners on the highlighted area for a better look, they headed down to get the rest of the equipment they needed. Bags packed and safehouse chosen, they prepared for the journey down to Earth. Tay was already dressed appropriately but since their target was a sheltered location, it wasn’t too important. White light flashed and they found themselves in a similar house to the one in the middle of England.
“Same layout. I kept things nice and simple.” Lore smiled “ Got to love TATS.” They pointed to the boiling hot kettle. “Temporally Activated Tea Service. Best part about the European and Asian houses. I tried it in America but...” They shuddered. “No.”
“Since I’m already dressed properly, I’ll make the tea while you two get changed.”
Upstairs and in the second room they came to was a bed for two with an arched wardrobe entrapping it. Char made her way around the bed to what she assumed was her side while Lore dug into their wardrobe. They smiled as they pulled out the clothes they had once chosen for themselves, a simple grey undershirt with a flannel overshirt and black jeans.
“Are you serious?” Char looked to the clothes on Lore’s pile as they grabbed a fresh bra from their side. “That’s the same as last time!”
“No it isn’t.” Lore held up the overshirt. “The last one had orange and white lines while this one is only red and navy. Plus the jeans are a different colour.” Char sighed.
Half way through getting dressed, something stopped them. Ringing through the house came the sound of metal on metal. It sounded as though someone was trying to break the door down. Tay came to the bottom of the stairs and confirmed as much but then returned to making their drinks, disregarding the noise completely, leaving Lore to deal with it. With only their sports bra to cover their chest, they grabbed their overshirt as they made their way downstairs. Making a mental note to point out the differences when Char came down, they wrapped themselves up before answering the door, pinning their shirt shut with their metal arm.
“Well, hello there.” There was a man outside of their house. “I’m Neil from next door. We’ve been waiting a spell, wondering who would move in since we got here.” He spoke with a Southern American accent which, apart from his presence threw Lore off.
“Hi…” Lore panicked. “I’m…” They quickly realised Lore wasn’t going to fly. “I’m Llên. We’re Welsh.” They blurted.
“Nice to meet you Glenn.” He held out his hand. Lore went to extend their right arm but thought again. The left hand shake threw him off but he obliged with a hearty laugh as he invited himself in. Act Natural.