1:5:4 Rewind (Part 5)

They returned soon after to Simplicity. They didn’t even have to speak, just a nod and they were off. Simplicity drew closer to the planet before halting in geosynchronous orbit with the largest continent.
Memory Crait turned their chair to their crew. “Someone tell me what I’m looking at?”
“Paraultis is a predominantly water based world, similar in size to Earth, with three main landmasses.” One of the officer’s tentatively spoke up. “Due to the aquatic nature of the Toiswuar, they haven’t used what we would consider habitable land and have instead built their entire society underwater.”
“Thank you…?” Memory Crait gestured for the officer to give their name.
“Yeoman Rach sir. I’m on rotation.” She saluted.
Both Craits nodded.
“Okay then. The mission is simple. You wait here while I make a few changes. Once the ships are gone, launch the habitation pods. When I get back, we need to install the temporal shielding then this planet will be the first of many outposts for humanity.” Memory Crait fiddled with their Breacher. “Now, what was the genesis event?”
“Sir, I’ve accessed their databases and cross referenced them with out own.” Rach started. “Both ours and their research has concluded that the ‘spark’ that brought life to this planet was this.” She transferred the image from her screen to the bridge’s hologrid. “It’s a highly charged, mutagenic compound, likely placed here by some higher species wanting to experiment on the effect of introducing such a compound to a barren world. Without it, the Toiswuar will never develop.”
Memory Crait marvelled at the image of the stone marble before them. “Such a small thing seeded an entire planet? Fascinating.” They paused. “Any idea where it’s located or when it appeared?”
“Scans show it appeared off of the coast of the eastern continent fourteen thousand years ago.” Rach continued. “Exact co-ordinates are being sent to your Breacher now.”
“So efficient. Shame we’re going to lose you.” Memory Crait flashed her a smile before vanishing.

A bubble of air followed them out of the Breach but it soon popped, submerging them suddenly under the water. Despite their years of training, they’d never swam in the sea. It was colder, and murkier than they had expected and the water seemed to resist more than it had in the pool back in base. They placed their breathing apparatus into their mouth before swimming deeper into the dark. Floating about ten metres from their Breach point, their target. Apprehensively, they approached the marble before extending a container to capture it. Lid secured, they tapped at their Breacher to return to their chair. Some of the sea came with them.
“Bloody Hel, that’s going to knacker the leather. And it’s brand new too...” Memory Crait shook their head. “Someone get this chair stripped and dried now.”
“Yes sir.” Rach nodded to another officer. They both rose and moved towards the chair; they looked around for a way to remove the seat cover but, after realising it would be more trouble than it was worth, they simply removed the bolts securing the chair to the floor and took the chair away to be sorted.
“Okay…” Memory Crait mimed sitting down. “Can someone tell me why the viewscreen is blacked out?”
“Sir, standard protocols.” Crait mimed along with one of the officers. “Temporal shearing from changes to the timeline.”
Memory Crait looked at them expectantly. “Get it back on then…”
Officer Beck’s fingers scrambled across their terminal screen, their face increasingly reddening. “Should be back online in just a moment. I think our proximity to the changes have caused some complications with the shielding matrix.” She continued to tap before holding the public address button and speaking into their terminal. “Could we get a repair crew to the fore viewport. Our Chrono-protective shielding has welded the shutters shut.” She sighed. “Sorry sir it’s relatively experimental technology still.”
Memory Crait nodded. “Are our scanners working still?” Beck nodded. “Target all scanners to the base co-ordinates. We need to make sure it’s not been affected either.”
“Retargetting scanners. Should have an image in just a moment.” Beck turned back to their monitor. “Why did this have to be my first assignment.” She whispered.
“Poor Beck. She had the makings of an excellent officer.” Crait looked at them. “Lost them during the Faochite incident.”
“Sorry to hear it.” Lore closed their eyes and bowed their head in solidarity.
“They had a good run and they died well. Fourteen commendations; she died saving her platoon from an ambush.” Crait joined Lore. “Can we move on?”
“Sure, we just need to know what happened next.” Lore gave a gentle smile.
The memory still paused, Crait continued. “We eventually got the scans through and the base had survived the transition. We didn’t even bother to check the rest because the mission was a success… And the repair team confirmed that there were no signs of the orbital stations.”
“So what was the next planet then?” Char pressed.
Crait shrugged. “The other three planets are a bit of a blur. With the Toiswuar gone, the other planets had no allies to protect them so we just had to go to each planet and remove the catalysts that brought about their species’ evolution.”
“Isn’t it strange that you visited four planets and each one had exactly one thing that needed to be removed to wipe out each species?” Char’s question raised a few eyebrows as they considered what she said.
After a moment, Crait spoke again. “You’d be surprised how fragile time can be… Especially when it’s been worn thin by other factors. Slight nudge here, skipped rock there and everything changes. Actually, in those cases, we didn’t properly remove the species, just delayed their evolution enough that they wouldn’t be an issue until after The Omega Outcome.”
“Surely you’d need to do more than that.” Char’s look was ever as sceptical.
Crait’s head bobbed from side to side. “You’d be surprised but… We may have made some... slight adjustments. A bit of terraforming here and there to stunt the locals without harming our colonists. Strategic settlement placement helped too.”
“What do you mean?” The First rejoined the conversation.
“On a couple of the planets, we Simplified them by controlling the surface sources of metals like iron, copper and tin. Without access to those metals, they could never develop past basic wooden tools… Or at least it took a fair bit longer.” Crait took out a small nugget of iron. “This is a part of the surface vein that allowed the Doraeas to enter their iron age.”
“Hold on… I get the Toiswuar and the Aetar, they’re pushovers who play the long game, but how, in any of the realms of Reality did you manage to subjugate the Soloss?” The First asked.
“Same way we ‘convinced’ the Aetar to work with us… We showed up first; bloody hel that was a pain in the arse. Had to build both of our complexes underground so they didn’t interfere with time or ‘Time’ didn’t interfere with them.” Crait tapped at their wrist. “Took nearly a hundred and forty simulations before we worked out the kinks and then we had the problem of choosing the right time to reveal ourselves… That took a few tries to get right too; too early and we got annihilated by savages, too late and out weapons were no longer superior. Well, that was Solossur. As you said, the Aetar were easy.”
“That’s what you get for messing with the Cornerstone species.” The First shook their head.
“At least they’ll be easy to dismantle.” Lore shrugged.
“Should we continue?” Crait waved their hand, starting the next memory.
“No… Thank you.” Lore stopped them mid transition. “I think we’ve seen everything we need.” They clicked their fingers. “Though I do have a question that’s been bugging me this whole time. I know why you showed us the other stuff but why were you so willing to show us this? You’ve just given us everything we need to dismantle a large portion of your outer rim operations… Why?”
“Because it’s a win-win.” Crait shrugged. “You get to play the hero and restore those civilisations, I still get my bases.”
“How?” Char looked to Lore.
“Temporal shielding.” They clicked their fingers. “It would have to be if they wanted to keep it safe from time travelling meddlers…”
“Which never came. We spent all of that time researching, developing and manufacturing temporal shielding just for you to not even bother…” Crait shook their head. “Seriously, it took so long and you never even went near any of our installations. These two are the first two of your lot to even consider changing things.”
The First rolled their eyes. “We were a bit busy with other things…”

A flicker of gold returned them to reality. The First fell to the floor while Lore and Char landed gracefully, hand in hand, fingers interlaced; Crait slumped back against the wall. Lore and Char looked at the crumpled body before them.
“What now then?” Char pointed at Crait. “What do we do with them?”
Lore slowly moved away from Char; they walked over to Crait and knelt beside them. “Can you help me with this harness?” Char joined them, setting to work immediately, unbuckling the harness. “We get this off of them then we send them on their way.”
Char stopped. Her eyes widened in disbelief. “You what?”
“We get this off of them then we send them on their way?” Lore repeated.
Char stumbled over her words in her confusion before finding her footing. “Erm… But… How… what? Erm… You want to let them go… Even though you know what they’re going to do?”
“They’re not going to be doing much. Crait tipped their hand.” Lore unhooked part of the harness and slipped Crait’s arm through it. “They told us that they’re not going to stop us saving the ‘simplified’ planets so there’s no problem there and they already have the other Lores in check so they’re probably just going to sit and wait for us on Quatarr.” Lore smirked. “Us handing them back is actually the best thing we can do.”
Char stopped and thought about it. “You’re right. If we didn’t return them, I doubt Undulia would sit on her hands.”
“Exactly.” Lore gave her the thumbs up. “Sounds counter-intuitive but makes total sense.”
“Would help if they weren’t unconscious.” Char struggled with removing the clips from around Crait’s crotch.
“If you asked, I would have helped.” Crait grunted. They sighed before slumping even deeper into the wall.
Char grumbled. “Dick.” She finished unclipping her half of the harness before looking over her shoulder. “Are they okay?”
Lore’s eye flickered light blue before they answered. “They’re fine. Just sleeping it off. Give them five minutes.” Lore finished their side. “Come on then, get up.” They held out their hand to stabilise Crait; Lore held their hand until they were on their feet. Before releasing them, they paused. “It’s been interesting…” Lore pulled them in to an embrace. “I’m sorry.” They whispered in Crait’s ear.
“Now piss off?” Crait finished. Char confirmed with a nod. “Thanks for having me. See you when I see you and all that.” Crait oriented themselves, tapped their Breacher thrice then vanished.
Lore and Char stood in the hall, the empty harness at their feet and a semi-conscious First behind them; they felt the weight of the universe drop down onto their shoulders. They turned to face The First, walking over before linking hands. “It’s our turn now.” Lore whispered.
“Let’s try and get it right then.” Char returned. She bobbed herself down to Lore’s level to deliver a swift peck on the cheek. “You do know none of that was your fault, don’t you?”
“I know.” Lore wrapped an arm around her. “But I can’t help but feel somewhat responsible and sorry. They’ve had a bit of a go of it.”
“Crait made their decisions just as The First made theirs.” Char looked at the form at her feet. “They may not have been the perfect donor but at least they managed to get it right eventually.” She leant in for a kiss. “Is this alright?”
Lore gave a subtle nod. The moment her lips touched theirs, it was as though they had ascended, become connected to their entire universe. There wasn’t a millimetre of The Razor they couldn’t see, there wasn’t a member of personnel who could hide from them. As if her kiss had sent a wave of invisible, white energy rolling over the entire ship that only Lore’s blind eye could see. Eventually, they separated but their enhanced vision persisted.
“Amazing…” Lore smiled.
“I love you too.” Char pulled them in closer. “You were talking about the kiss, weren’t you?”
Lore’s cheeks flushed bright red. “Of course.” They paused. “I just wish we had a little bit more time for us.”
“We could have all the time in the universe if we wanted.” Char winked.
“Things to do first.” Lore’s smile straightened into a flat frown. “Species to save and a planet to return.”
The First stirred at their feet. They managed to grumble a few unintelligible sounds as they unfurled themselves from the knot they had fallen into; they stretched and strained themselves as they rose from the floor. “I think it’s finally time.” They reached into their pocket and withdrew a communicator. “Charrlene? Assemble the council. It’s time.” Relief crossed their face as she confirmed the order. Forgotten.