1:1:9 Beginnings (Part 2)

 Lore found their way to the living room and Char, casually fiddling with their sleeve and Breacher, trying to find a way to keep their sleeve tight but the Breacher accessible.
“Don’t even bother, for now, it’s better no-one knows you’ve got one.” Char turned back to her computer. On the monitor, a map of a sector of space with several planets, a nebula and two interconnected space stations. “Well, it could be longer I suppose.” Char jabbed one of the planets and drew a line between it and the stations.
“Is that where they are?” Lore drew in closer.
“Yeah. It’s a good hour’s flight from the hangar to the station but after that, we should be alright to Breach to wherever they want us.” While she was talking, Lore took a closer look at the route Char had planned. The planet she had designated as the start of their journey was mysteriously missing the thick band of nebulous gasses that the planet they were on was infamous for.
“Where’s this hangar then? Nearby?” Lore asked, fiddling again with the strap on their jacket’s wrist.
“Yes and no.” Char wobbled her head from side to side. “It’s within walking distance but it’s also on another planet.”
“That forest planet?” Char nodded. “How does that door even work? This whole system is supposed to be unbreachable.”
“That’s only true if you one, don’t have the precise co-ordinates and two are assuming that you are using a handheld or human made Breacher.”
“Loving the human slander.” Lore tried sarcasm. Thanks to her memories of Lore still being extremely fresh, Char understood but it was hit or miss whether she did. “So, why a treehouse then?”
“Because that planet and this one share the same rotational speed, size and gravity. That tree was only chosen because it is at the same relative co-ordinates to that door over there.” She pointed at the bungalow’s exit. “With everything being the same, it’s easy to entangle both entrances to allow one to consistently lead to another, no Breaching required; it’s just a massive faff and only really works on perfect twin planets. It’s one of the few secrets The Council managed to set up that The Protectorate still don’t know about.”
“Ok.” Lore nodded. “So, if we can just jump to that planet using the doorway, then why do we need to take the ship to the station?”
“It’s for Silus. According to what we’ve been told, after our meeting, he’s going to need a way home.”
“So we really have to take the shuttle then…” Lore was beginning to worry.
“I know about your travel sickness so you can sit in the front if you need to. It’s a pretty stable shuttle so it shouldn’t even really be a problem.” Char checked the clock on the wall. “We should get a move on, Silus will be getting to the station soon.”
No further questions, Lore gathered what little they had and stood by the door, ready to go. They went through their bag one last time and noticed that apart from the book, the only other possession they had to their name that they weren’t wearing was their staff. They remembered seeing something on their trousers when they first put them on and thought to double check. Because the trousers were so closely tailored to their body, a belt would almost never be necessary; on their waist, where a belt loop would have been, there was a small, cylindrical pouch, just long enough for their staff in its compacted form. Lore moved the staff from their bag and into the pouch, leaving the book alone in their bag. Not much later, Char emerged from the bedroom.
“You forgot these.” She waved Crait’s gauntlets.
“For a reason.” Lore scoffed. “The person those belonged to just tried to have me killed… It wouldn’t…be right?” They weren’t sure of themselves.
“Armour’s armour and as armour goes, this stuff isn’t too bad.” She flexed the polymer wrist guards. “Just take them. We will probably find somewhere we can replace them anyway.”
Lore took them from her and layered them over their jacket. As they did so, they noticed a small label along the inside edge. As well as detailing the protection level and calibre of the polymer, the label also instructed the user on which gauntlet to put on which wrist. On both gauntlets, the indicator had been crossed out and replaced with the opposite arm’s designation, left was written on the right one and right was written in the left. This confused Lore until they tried to put them on in the way chosen by the manufacturer; while the one on their left wrist was rather loose fitting, the one on their right compacted their Breacher into their bone. Swapping them made all the difference as now both arms were adequately protected and they could still access their Breacher in an emergency. They nodded to Char who tapped at the control panel by the door. She opened it, revealing the interior of the tree house.

Stepping back through doorway, they found themselves in the round front room of the tree house. For whatever reason, they had expected more but everything they could have possibly needed in a safe house could be found in the tree’s solitary room. Char ushered them to the small square of carpet that sat between a desk and the bunkbeds. She tapped her heel twice on the rear right corner. There was a jolt before the carpet began to rise, elevating them to the next level. They climbed higher and higher into the tree, they passed through the ceiling of the first floor. Travelling through the second level took longer than they would have initially thought with their destination floor being nearly ten metres of solid wood. Then the reason for this became clearer. They knew there would be a shuttle but they, for whatever reason thought, there would be a little more space on this second floor but to their dismay, the shuttle was crammed in there. With nary space for a hair, Lore and Char sidled across the wall, ducking under the wing and crouching into the rear loading bay. Now with more space, Char made her way to the cockpit; Lore followed close behind. All of the controls were at a height designed for either someone half their size or someone sat down but there were no chairs to be seen. Char approached the panel and sat before it. Before she could hit the floor, a swarm of metallic orbs pooled around her feet and travelled up her leg. Defying gravity, they adhered to her before cascading down to the floor. In less than a second, Char was no longer floating in mid-air but sat on a perfectly sculpted stool. She beckoned to Lore to sit beside her, tapping the air in front of her neighbouring console. Lore performed the same action exactly as Char had but as they tried to maintain their pose, their knee buckled.
She winced for the tiniest of moments but soon she found it a strain but managed to somewhat maintain her composure as she watched her companion bang their coccyx on the shuttle’s floor. “I forgot this model is only designed for one pilot seat.” She paused before properly laughing. “Sorry.”
Lore groaned as they picked themselves up from the floor. They rubbed their lower back as they hobbled to the cabin. “Ready when you are.” They gently lowered themselves back onto the floor.
The ship whirred into life. From the front window, Lore watched as the tree wall ahead lowered with chains, clunking as they dropped. The engines continued to purr but that soon became a roar as the docking legs were retracted and Char floored it. The whole ship rumbled as they charged at the atmosphere but once they had broken free, everything became eerily quiet. The residual shaking from their sudden exit coupled with her general excitement and the current lack of artificial gravity sent Char rocketing into the ceiling. Bumping her head, she decided to try and utilise this moment of weightlessness to make a hasty retreat to Lore in the cabin. She got about half way. Slamming to the floor, she couldn’t help but laugh. Silus.