1:4:10 Crait (Part 2)

Red lights flashed throughout the ship; sirens wailed in their wake. All of the Lores appeared to be moving to their action stations, including Sam.
“What’s going on?” Char asked, still not fully awake.
“I haven’t a clue. If we wait a moment, I’m sure they’ll say.” Sam stopped by the door and waited with her.
The sirens continued for a minute or so before the Lore responsible for the announcements made it to their station. “Alert! Alert! Unexpected life signs detected in and around Johned campus. Lores and Chars please report to your stations; clone units, please prepare yourselves for combat and make your way to your pre-arranged hangar bays for deployment. Rexian pilots please report to your ships to be deployed as aerial support. This alert will be looped once every five minutes.” There was a crackle as the microphone cut off and the alarm sound resumed.
“There you go, there’s something nasty down by there on the surface.” Sam smiled. “Nothing to worry about.”
Char’s eyes widened. “How many something nastys?” She was awake and on her feet. “I need to see The First.”
Sam closed the door and re-entered the room. “You need to get some sleep. You’re still recovering.”
Char nodded and allowed them to tuck her back into her bed.
“I’ll be back soon. Go to bed, this’ll all be over when you get up.” Sam smiled then vanished into the corridor.
“Right then, let’s get an idea of where everyone is.” She smiled. She scanned the room from her bed, looking for any technology that looked as though it could be connected to The Razor’s main network. For a medical bay on what she had been led to believe was one of the most technologically advanced ships humanity had ever produced, it was frighteningly analogue. It was also boring. There was no difference between the material of the floor and the walls with everything being a dull, steely grey with the occasional light dotted about to illuminate the room. As she was supposed to be sleeping they had been dimmed but the lack of light did little to impact her search. But there was nothing. A clipboard and papers sat hooked over the end of her bed meaning the only active terminal in the room was the fabricator. She made her way over to it and started prising off the panelling that linked the unit to the walls around it; she smiled as she discovered that it was a bank of familiar cables that linked it to the rest of the ship. “Yes!” She exclaimed in a whisper as she yanked one of the back-up data transfer cables and thrust it into her wristband’s computer. While it connected properly, she loaded up a decryption program and waited. The screen changed to confirm that the new connection was ready to use an, once she opened it, she was sorely disappointed. “And it’s not even encrypted…” She shook her head. “Okay, so where’s The First?”
Char waited until she heard the second announcement before leaving her room. Map of the ship ready, she made sure no-one would see her leave. She sidled her way down the corridors, heading towards her ultimate goal of the command deck. Although she was going out of her way to move stealthily, the lack of cover meant that should anyone have decided to walk down the corridor, she would have been seen immediately. Realising all of the Lores were at their stations by now, she abandoned stealth and continued as quickly as she could to The First. After missing a couple of turns and getting a little confused by the seemingly nonsensical layout of the ship’s interior corridors, she made it to a lift.
“Deck one.” She hoped the lift was voice activated. She breathed a sigh of relief when it started moving. She tapped her foot the whole time she was travelling.

The doors opened. The First turned their chair to face her as she alighted.
“Char.” They smiled. “To what do we owe the pleasure?”
She took a deep breath. “Those life signs on Johned, they’re not hostile, they’re our clones!”
Charrlene turned her chair, a subdued but cheeky smile across her lips. “And how would you know that?”
“Lore saw that there were too many of us on a picture you took at The Slingshot so we went and had a look. The clones are down there, securing the site.” Char took a step back only to feel the lift doors against her head.
“I knew it!” Charrlene’s smile became much more obvious. “They were looking at that picture funny the whole time we were talking.”
“Hold on, you’re telling me that you’ve got a team down on the planet’s surface?” The First looked at the updated scans they’d just received. “I think you’d better tell us what’s been going on.”
Char wracked her mind for the best place to start. She decided on the beginning. “After we saw that there were too many Lores on the picture, we needed to get off off the ship.”
“So you faked a Drive core detonation to escape the nebula.” Charrlene looked impressed.
“Yes…” Char dipped her head. “After that, we split into two groups, the clones went to secure The Slingshot here in the present and Lore and I went back to the day you took the photo to catch the imposters.” She waited for The First to interrupt or ask another question but they simply gestured for her to continue. “Lore and I found that we were the two extras but the figures in the background were Loren and Undulia.”
“Loren?” The First turned to Charrlene who shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t remember that.”
“It’s a clone that Crait made using material that was left on Illia… They’re still after Lore though. Anyway, they were trying to sabotage The Slingshot so we followed them around and stopped them.”
“So where’s Lore?” Charrlene asked.
Char started fidgeting with her hands. “One minute they were running next to me, the next they were gone. But I think I know where they’ve gone.”
After a long pause, The First spoke again. “You definitely managed to undo all of the damage they caused?”
Char nodded. “They never made a dent. I sorted everything. The Slingshot should be exactly how you left it.”
“Well, that’s something.” They sighed. “Stand down alert. Tell the clones that they still need to be preparing though.” They turned back to Char. “Thank you for preventing the sabotage but you should have really waited for us.”
Char’s face reddened. “If we had waited, there wouldn’t be a Slingshot to use. We removed a device that none of your geniuses would have even thought to look for that would have destroyed The Slingshot and killed us all. You don’t know how much you owe us.” The First looked to their Charr but she was already in the process of clapping.
“Well said!” Charrlene smiled. “I want you with me. We’re going down first.” The First didn’t seem to like the idea but knew their protestations would do little to change her mind. “No time like the present!” She stood. With a tap on her left shoulder, a vaguely familiar armour materialised across her body. It was styled exactly like the Quatarrian, hardened leather armour however the reds had been replaced with a deep green. Once fully dressed, she put her arm around Char and led her back to the lift. “Good on you.” She whispered. Once in the lift, with the doors closed, she spoke again. “They’re just a bit jealous that you worked out what was wrong with that picture and they haven’t. It’s been bugging them for ages.”
“Lore worked it out.” Char timidly met her gaze. “And now they’re the one trapped on Quatarr.”
Charrlene halted the lift. “How’d they get there?”
Char shrugged. “I don’t know. I just know they’re there. The month was nearly over and there they were.”
“Well, once we get The Slingshot working again, we can go and get them.” Charrlene embraced Char. “Don’t worry.”