1:2:2 Re-Introductions

Sweetness. The air was fresh and smooth. Although it was chilled, it did little to lower the body temperature as it swirled around them. The native plants were in season, wafting a pleasant and fruity smell into their car. Pleasant for everyone bar Lore who was constantly scratching the back of their throat with their tongue.
“Glad to be back?” Undulia rested her hand on Lore’s knee. “I certainly am.”
“Definitely.” Lore sneezed. “Forgot how beautiful Celreagaire was in summer.” They remembered their mission. “Amongst other things.” Lore winked.
“So, since when have you needed help? Nearly got yourself an entourage there.”
“Comes with the job. They love over complicating things; now I can’t even itch my nose without them handing me something for it.”
Taking the hint Lore hadn’t even meant to give, Char reached into her bag and produced a small pill box. She removed a capsule and handed it to Lore. Lore nodded in thanks and swallowed the capsule down. Near instant relief. “And you wouldn’t believe the paperwork.” Lore rolled their eyes. “But I think we can keep this visit between us, don’t you?” The fact she smiled and nodded only made Lore feel worse. That they could get away with such a deception. Every second they maintained the act, every second they were pretending to be Loren, made them want to vomit. Their relatively recent exposure to his personality made it easier but they were still having to put on the show. But the stage wasn’t the frightening part, the character was.
“And how much are we going to be keeping between us?”
“I’m not sure. We’re here until our mission is completed… With a little leeway I’m sure.”
Destiny discretely handed Lore the tablet, making sure not to show anything to Undulia. “The briefing sir.” Lore nodded.
They were expecting more but the list was remarkably short and it seemed oddly achievable:

• Acquire the Amulet of the Reaper
• Find Arnib Tolan
• Don’t let Undulia catch on

They nodded and highlighted the second objective before handing the tablet back to Destiny. She too nodded before stowing the tablet away in her bag. Char looked to them expectantly but Lore just nodded. With Undulia so close, there was nothing they could do. At least not for now.
“Who’s your pet then? Skin like that says it’s not from around here.” She scoffed. “Especially not here.”
“She’s a…” Lore ran through the list of lies they had prepared. “She’s my ward. Just come off her training mission. Earth has had some weird fashion trends over the years.”
Undulia sighed deeply. ”Thank the gods. For a moment I thought they were letting freaks into the Inquisitors. I’d sooner trust nulls.” Lore wanted to squirm but held it in.
“Only one null I trust, and they earned it. All the others…” Lore couldn’t bring themselves to finish their sentiment but they had made their point. Undulia poured two glasses of sparkling water. She handed one to Lore and set her own down before pouring another. She offered the third to Destiny who politely declined but was hesitant to offer the same gratitude to Char. Lore and Undulia clinked their glasses together before drinking.
“We’ll be approaching the station soon. Here on out, low profile.” She smiled apologetically. “I couldn’t resist rolling out the red carpet when I saw your code get deleted from our system. All gone now.”
“That’s what we like to hear.”

They had passed a great many residential buildings and parks, all perfect in their white and silver but the building they had stopped in front of was different; while it boasted the same polished marble walls, the trim and highlights were bold and golden. Emblazoned in gold on a black stone wall, the insignia of the military guild followed by text in font nearly a half meter tall denoting the building as ‘Celreagaire Military Guild Outpost’. Its brutalist structure did well to emphasise that fact. Lining the path between their car and the building’s entrance, two walls of personnel, fully outfitted in high impact armour and weapons drawn.
“We don’t get many opportunities for ceremony. I’m sorry.” Undulia opened the door and bolted to attention with her troops.
Awkwardly, Lore, Char and Destiny filed out and onto the walkway. The first soldiers in line saluted then stowed their weapons at their sides. Undulia closed the door behind them then marched towards the outpost. Lore followed; as they did, the soldiers they passed performed the same action in a rhythmic wave: Presenting their rifle then stowing it by their side. At the entrance, Undulia saluted Lore then waited. There was an awkward pause before Destiny showed them what they needed to do. As Destiny had before them, Lore saluted the troops, dismissing them back to their duties. Pageantry over, they could finally enter. Lore had to check their Breacher as they cleared the foyer and entered the station’s main area.
“All of these cultures conquered and nothing learnt.” Lore remarked as they walked the identical corridors.
“What do savages know about interior design, most haven’t even invented the carpet!” Undulia scoffed.
“Still, a bit of variation is good for the soul. Variety is the spice of life.” Lore ran their finger along the grey walls.
“Regulations state that all Protectorate installations must comply to these design specifications so as to ensure military readiness regardless of posting. It’s efficiency over aesthetics.” Destiny’s revelation stopped the group in their tracks. “Any officer from any posting with any level of experience could be transferred to any Protectorate outpost and would instantly know exactly where everything is.”
“Exactly,” Undulia smiled, “Human ingenuity at its finest, planning for the future.” She led them through the building and up multiple flights of stairs before they reached their destination. “My office.” Undulia held the door open, allowing Destiny and Lore to enter easily but she stepped away as Char tried to enter leading to an awkward moment with the two of them getting in one another’s way as Char tried to re-join the group. As a parting gift, Undulia shared a pointed look with Char. “Make yourselves comfortable.” There were only three chairs and Undulia was already occupying one. Lore sat in another. Destiny gestured to her chair, offering it to Char. She accepted, much to Undulia’s apparent discomfort. Not so subtly, Undulia made sure she was closer to Lore. “Could I offer you a drink? Water, tea, something stronger?”
“A Tea would be great thank you.” They looked to Undulia then to Char and Destiny.
Char was about to make a request until Undulia stuck her head out of the door. “Could we get a pot of tea and two mugs in here!” Her voice pierced Lore’s ears and could certainly be heard by all present in the building. Undulia bobbed her head back into the room and smiled at Lore. “Won’t be a moment.” She reassured them. She was right as within moments, a terrified officer, with the balance of a tightrope walker, was running at Undulia with a tray. He handed it to her and froze. She scanned the tray noting the teapot, two mugs, milk jug, spoons, biscuits… All she had to do was stare at him. She did but that was only the first step on the officer’s journey. She took a deep breath; he crumpled in on himself. Expecting a shout, Undulia began in a whisper. “Tell me, Private Jeremiah, what is missing from this tray?”
This was worse. “The sugar.”
Undulia smiled and closed her eyes. It was so much worse. “So,” She continued in a hushed, bright voice, “if you knew it was missing, why did you even bother bringing the tea in the first place?”
“I… I…” Jeremiah hadn’t sweat this much since basic training. “I… didn’t realise until I was already here.” He lowered his head in shame.
“What are we going to do about it then?” She hadn’t even finished her sentence and he was gone. Her smile grew more genuine. “Sorry about this.” She returned to the room. Hurried footsteps took her back to the corridor. The tray now completed, she dismissed Jeremiah and slammed the door closed with her heel. “There we go.” She set the tray down on her desk then dragged a small, stool like table from under it. She took the two mugs and placed them on the stool. “Still like it the same way? Splash of milk and plenty of sugar?”
“You know me, same old Loren.” Lore began to remove their jacket. “You’ve got some interesting artefacts in here.” Lore gestured to a mounted CD box. It depicted a crouched man with bleached hair, a label warning the listener to explicit lyrics covered the artist’s name.
“I respect the classics. And everything sounds better on physical. Sure you can fit more onto your communicator but on physical, you get the grit.”
“Couldn’t have put it better myself.” Lore smiled. They brought their mug to their lips and took a sip. Slightly bitter and yet too sweet at the same time; it also scalded their tongue but that was expected. The first sip of tea always seemed to do that. “Would now be a good time to talk business?”
“Go on.”
Lore paused. Time did too. They knew the next words from their mouth could make or break their mission. They also knew that if anyone knew where any of the things they were looking for were, it would be the Commander of the local law enforcement. Lore only had a moment so they chose the least suspicious of their two options. “We’re looking for a Arnib Tolan. I can’t tell you why but it is imperative we find them.”
“Arnib.” She too scalded her tongue. “That’s a name I haven’t heard in a while.” She set the drink down. “He’s where he belongs.” She placed heavy emphasis on the pronouns as she spoke.
“And where might that be?” Lore tried another sip. Still too hot, they lowered their mug. “We really do need to find him.”
“We’ll get to him.” Char was about to speak up but Undulia ignored her and instead got up and made her way over to her shelf. “Before we do though, I think I have something you might want back.” She removed an octagonal box, tapped her monitor and returned to her chair. She handed the box to Lore.
“Thank you?” Lore said hesitantly. They examined the box; on one end, the number fifty two, on the other, The Protectorate’s logo. It was made of the familiar polymer that they had come to expect of The Protectorate. Unlike their armour, which Lore thought had been well maintained, the box was flawless, not a scratch, not a scrape. Lore opened it slowly, as if there was the potential that Undulia had just handed them a bomb. To their surprise, she was right. They did want the contents of the box. They finally opened the case revealing two red and black gauntlets. Lore immediately removed Crait’s gauntlets and replaced their own into their armour. As they tightened the straps, the red faded to aegean to match the rest of their armour. “Thank you.” They said more definitively.
Undulia was glowing. “You left them with me last time. Seems you found a replacement though.” She rested her hand on Lore’s knee.
“Not a replacement.” Lore checked over the gauntlets. Again, not a scratch. “Never a replacement. They gave me them to go on a mission. There was no deeper meaning, just to keep my arms from breaking.” They smiled.
There was a moment of silence between the three of them; Lore and their gauntlets and Lore and Undulia. Undulia tried to look into Lore’s eyes and she thought they were looking at her but instead, they were still inspecting their gauntlets and the remarkable condition she had kept them in. This silence grew uncomfortable for nearly all involved but especially so for Char and Destiny. “We really do need to find Tolan.” Char broke the silence.
Undulia shook her head, waking herself from Lore’s apparently dreamy eyes. “Of course.” There was a knock at the door. “Come in.”
Jeremiah popped his head around the door. “There’s been a disturbance at the museum.”
“Are the children still there?” Undulia was now behind their desk, filling their belt.
“No, the entire area was cleared.” Jeremiah looked to Char. “I would have thought you’d have known. Isn’t that one of the teachers?”
“I’m sorry what?” Char looked to her jacket. Undulia hid behind her hands, stifling her chuckles.
“What sort of disturbance?”
“There’s been a break in. It’s him again and again, he’s gone.” Jeremiah passed through a file. Undulia looked at it then passed it over to Lore.
“Come on Loren. All this assistance, bet you haven’t raised a finger in years.”
“They keep me on my toes.” Lore smiled at Char and Destiny.
“Are you sure he should be getting access to all of this?” Jeremiah’s eyes darted to Lore then back to Undulia as he spoke in a hushed voice.
“Do you not know who that is?” Undulia could have killed with her glare. “What did you think you were doing outside?”
“The display? I was told it was a drill.” Sweat was beginning to form oceans across his skin.
“That is Loren. Head Inquisitor of the Fifty Second order. He outranks me so yes, I think he should have access to this.”
Lore opened the folder staring back at them, the photo of the serial disturbance causer. Wild eyes and dyed hair were the only features of the target that survived the pixelation from the ratio shift, zooming and cropping of the footage from assumedly the museums camera. “Do we have a better image? One where you can perhaps better see where the person ends and the building begins?” Lore squinted at the picture again. “Why is this image so low resolution?”
“That picture was taken from one of our cameras outside of the museum today.”
“And if this is from Protectorate property then again, why is the resolution so low.” Lore looked again at the image. Char was worried that Lore was getting too much into it.
Undulia looked to them defeated. “Budget cuts and the non-existent imports from The Protectorate have taken its toll.” She dismissed Jeremiah and waited for him to be well out of earshot. Still, she spoke in an angered whisper. “What’s with that? You show up and tell Rhys that now Illia is self-sufficient, Protectorate efforts are better spent settling new colonies then nothing for ten years?”
“It’s a matter of distance.” Lore looked to their Breacher. “Illia was the first human colony. Our shining debut on the galactic stage. But do you remember how long it took to get the settlers here and all that equipment?”
“Our texts say our colony was founded nearly seventy three years ago and back then, it took nearly that long for the colony ships to get here.”
“Exactly. We made sure you could handle yourselves before we set you free to develop. Granted I do find it odd you’ve had no contact but I suppose you are on the edge of Protectorate space.” Undulia was right, nothing new coming in for that long was strange. They knew that Illia had been whitelisted for trade and all other communication but the reason why was never stated. “Now, you didn’t hear this from me but, The Protectorate is on the verge of developing faster than light technology meaning that soon, it won’t matter that your colony is the furthest from Earth because the galaxy is about to get a whole lot smaller.”
“Still, it would be nice to get some information from the home world. Even a magazine on Earth trends. We’ve had no contact since the last ships left.” Undulia had given this a lot of thought.
The cubes hadn’t included a response to this so Lore did their best to improvise one. “Those ships deposited satellites as they made their way home. Because they rely on EM broadcasts, they’re still limited to light speed. We’re in the process of upgrading those but it takes time to break the laws of physics.”
“Like you don’t on a regular basis.” Undulia gave Lore a suggestive look. “We’ve all heard the rumours about The Inquisitors and I think you…” She stroked their face. “are proof those rumours are true.”
“I can’t confirm nor deny this.” Lore smirked. “Let’s go see what’s happened at this museum then.”
Undulia nodded “We’ll skip the cars. Speeders are this way. Hope you still know how to ride.” She led the way. Missing.