1:4:2 Tarthesis (Part 6)

A voice blared over the various speakers dotted around Treenam; it was muffled and distorted by static and nearly impossible to decipher but it was definitely a voice. The whole street ground to a halt and fell silent at once. The noise faded but the silence remained. Then, the voice returned. This time it was almost human sounding. A couple of words in English managed to break through the static.
“Calling… Immediate… Repeat…” The message looped with the static subsiding at the same points until it stopped all together.
Hesitantly, life in Treenam returned to normal. The locals went back about their business, ensuring they avoided Char, and Woolsly breathed a sigh of relief.
“Right then. Back at it! Preparations to be made!” He all but skipped away.
Lore turned to Char and Sky before inputting the co-ordinates for The Destiny into their Breacher. Before they could, another transmission began.
“This is The Republic ship Occams Razor calling Tarthesis’ human colonies with an immediate order to withdraw. I repeat, withdraw. You are in violation of local ordinance seven and Protectorate order thirteen, codex three. As a consequence, your land will be returned to the native species with your assets on said land acting as reparations for your trespasses. This event will occur in twenty three minutes. You have until then to begin evacuations. This message will be automatically repeated after three minutes have elapsed.” The speakers fell silent once again.
Lore, Char, Sky and Woolsly recognised the voice almost immediately.
“Lore…” Char and Sky stared at them.
“Well, this is going to take some explaining…” Lore looked awkwardly at Woolsly. His eyes poised, as if attempting to stare literal daggers at them.
“Why… Why…” He stammered. “Why did that sound like you?” Somehow, Woolsly’s eyes widened even further, to the point at which he stopped being entirely human and instead resembled some form of human fly hybrid. “What’s going on?”
“That’ll be one of those people who looks like me you were talking about…” Lore shrugged. They were trying to lift the mood but the storm clouds were already forming.
“What are you?” Woolsly shifted his focus from Lore to Char. “What are you?”
“We don’t need you bringing your trouble here.” Wreaves appeared out of seemingly no where.
The whole settlement was advancing around them. The subtle, accusatory glances had been long since swapped for stabbing stares of fear and aggression. Although only a handful of them were armed, their numbers more than made up for the deficit. The grumbling horde drew closer and space Lore, Char and Sky occupied grew ever more claustrophobic. Unbeknownst to Char and Sky, Lore had wrapped a part of themselves around them. Lore took a deep breath and activated their Breacher. There was a flash of blinding white and they were gone.

After a brief adjustment period, The Destiny came into focus. Lore rapped their knuckle against the landing ramp. Nothing happened. They tried again and still nothing. They shrugged.
“Why didn’t we just Breach aboard?” Char asked. Lore just looked at her as if the thought had never even crossed their mind.
“Ah… One moment…” Lore vanished and barely a second later, the ramp was down and The Destiny was open. “There we go. Now, let’s go see if we can’t find out whatever the hel an Occam’s Razor is.” Lore took Char’s left hand and dragged them towards the bridge.
“Hmm…” The bridge was unexpectedly empty. Pushing past their initial confusion, Lore jumped into their chair and initiated a scan of the nebula. There was a series of beeps and confirmatory noises from the central console which didn’t fill Lore with hope. “It’s too dense.” Lore scrunched their face up as they squinted at the read out. “There’s something there but… I wonder… Let’s see what we can do about this then…” They tapped away at the controls. Char behind them watching them work with a strange sense of nostalgic arousal. Something about watching Lore work was pleasing to her. Whatever they was doing, it didn’t matter, she was just enjoying the moment. The monitor flickered as the image changed; the nebula appeared smudged as the scanner revealed a distortion wave moving towards Tarthesis. “Give that a turn.” Lore pointed at a knob on the console behind them. Initially, Char didn’t react but she soon came to her senses.
“Sorry, what did you want me to turn?” She shook her head to return her focus.
“That knob there. Turn it just until three numbers appear on the read out above it.” Lore pointed again in the direction of the knob. Char made her way over and started twisting. “Could you please read the numbers out?”
Char twisted it a fraction further until the read out flashed with a third digit. She hesitated, re-reading the number before calling it out. “Four, three, eight.”
“Four, three, eight?” Lore confirmed. Char nodded. They typed in the digits and where the anomaly had once been, a fleet of ships appeared. The distorted smudge focussed, revealing a swarm of identical ships.
Sky approached the monitors. “That’s not possible.” Sky set the screen’s focus on the lead ship then started flitting between the other ships in the fleet. “Look at these ships, really look at them.”
Char and Lore both tried to see what they had seen. It took her a second but Char saw it. “It’s the IDs isn’t it? They all have the same IDs… They’re all the same ship.” Char gestured for Sky to stop; she pointed at the ship’s ID codes. “That’s one of the Rexian fighters.”
“Must be the nebula.” Lore tinkered with the console but nothing changed. “If we could somehow change the scanning band…” Lore muttered to themselves.
“Well, hang on a moment. What happened to the Rexian fleet anyway?” Char began. “We left them on autopilot on their way to the nebula but they didn’t follow us to Tarthesis. So where are they?” Char tapped the monitor. “I reckon that’s our fleet and one of the Lores has commandeered them.”
After a few minutes passed, the ships briefly became clearer; all except the leader of the pack. Each ship in the fleet regained its own unique registry confirming that the entire fleet from Rexel had joined whatever mission Lore claimed to be on. Lore scanned through the fleet again. They took close note of the registry IDs of each ship.
“The Vengeance… It’s missing.” Lore tapped through the ships. “It’s not registering as being a part of the fleet.”
Char came in closer. “Are these scanners sensitive enough to scan for a specific element?” She started trying to reconfigure the sensors.
“I think so, depends on the element. Got one in mind?” Lore opened the relevant scan window.
“The hull of The Vengeance and almost every Quatarrian vessel for that matter is made from a unique alloy, Di’Frei Durhl. It’s not naturally occurring and no other species knows how to make it so The Vengeance should be the only thing on the scanner.” Char removed a small triangular tag from around her neck and inserted it into the console. It scanned the tag and began its search. The rear of the lead ship lit up with a faint blue light.
“That can’t be right.” Char scanned the nebula again but got the same result. “But it is…”
“But why. What am I… What are they up to?” Lore turned to face Char. “We’ve got fifteen minutes.”
Char just shrugged.
“I need to talk to Blue.” Sky left the bridge.
“We could head back to Treenam. Lore did say that they would update the settlement as they got closer. Perhaps they’ve said something.” Char rested her hand on their shoulder.
“Sounds like a plan.” Lore sighed. They readied their Breacher. “We’ll have to lay low and avoid the locals.”
Char’s mouth darted around her face as she thought. “Maybe not…” She started. “Remember what Woolsly said the first time we met?”
“Bits… Anything specific I should be remembering?” Lore smiled at their flippant response.
“Protectorate law. It prevents them from killing any member of a species that doesn’t have a presence on any other planets. I don’t know if there are any Quatarrians on any other planets but neither do they. They’ll be more receptive to talking to you but at least this way we’ll both be safe.” Char took a breath.
“And that’s what matters.” Lore smiled before moving closer to Char.
Char moved in closer to them. Their faces were mere centimetres apart, the warmth they radiated mingled in the air between them. Char closed her eyes as she moved in. Lore focussed and adjusted their positioning to ensure that they hit their target. Eyes closed, they used Char’s aura to guide them. It felt like an eternity but the feeling of her lips against theirs sent shock waves down their body; energy radiated between them pushing them to move further. Eyes closed, Char’s hands gave her sight; they wandered around Lore’s form as she felt her way down their body. Still linked at the mouth, Lore could do little to protest traditionally. Conflict reigned within them; a part of them was enjoying the attention, the intimacy of the moment but at the same time they felt exposed, vulnerable and weak; their pulse quickened; they rapidly tapped at Char’s shoulder.
She jumped back, breaking their connection. “You okay?”
“Sorry… It wasn’t you, you were great…” Lore’s face flushed red as they became a stuttering mess. Char just smiled and pecked them on the cheek.
“No need to apologise. I got a little lost in the moment.” Char too was now a touch redder. “Shall we?”
Lore took a deep breath. “Let’s.” They tapped their Breacher.