1:3:10 Blue (Part 2)

Sirens blared painting the whole bridge red around them. Crait just stood there, smiling, the storm all around them; every warning sign Simplicity had was displayed before them, strobing to the point of being painful to Lore’s photosensitive eyes. Time slowed. The rapidly expanding ball of gas formerly known as Mauve lingered along Simplicity’s hull. Lore closed their eyes. At the start, she was only a dot on the horizon but she soon came into focus. Even with their eyes closed, they could recognise her face. Char hovered just outside of where Simplicity ended.
“What’s going on?” Char had tears in her eyes. She went to speak but nothing came out, Char just stumbled closer toward Lore. She fell into their arms. “Please tell me I don’t have to watch that again.” Despite the height difference, Char looked and felt more than comfortable in Lore’s embrace.
Lore looked at her. “You’re a sight for sore eyes.” They cradled Char’s face. “I’m so sorry.” They placed a gentle kiss on her cheek “I know it’s bad but… Now’s your chance.” Lore tapped at Char’s wrist.
“What?” Char pressed herself into Lore.
“Here.” Lore tapped the co-ordinates to Reid’s ship into Char’s wrist. “Come and get me.” Lore opened their eyes and time resumed. After a moment, the final warning sign lit. Lore smiled as they saw Crait fail to react to the Chronometric sensors warning them of an impending boarder.
“Pathetic.” Crait shook their head. “Take them back to their cell…” Crait paused. “Actually, I’ll do it.” They grabbed Lore and pushed them from the bridge to the rear of Reid’s ship before vanishing themselves. A fraction of a second later and they would have seen Char materialise. 
She looked a little worse for wear compared to how she had appeared to them on the bridge but Lore wasn’t complaining.
“That actually happened.” They smirked.
“It would seem it did.” Char rushed at the cell. She hesitated at the boundary before realising it had not been activated. She pulled Lore in. “Where did you learn how to do that?”
“I thought that was you. Aren’t Quatarrian’s telepathic?”
Char shook her head. “They were touch telepaths and even then it was only a small minority.” She shrugged. “Nothing like that.”
“Then let’s just be thankful it happened and get the hel out of here.” Lore tried the airlock. “Ah. Explains why the cell wasn’t active.”
“Can you Breach out?”
“Not without triggering the sensors on the bridge. Might be able to manage Breaching around the ship but I’d guess the bridge and escaping would be off limits without a distraction and I really hope no one else is planning on throwing themselves at Crait.” Lore gave a half smile. “That ship was empty though, right?”
“Mauve.” Char’s voice barely finished his name. “He didn’t even tell us that was his plan.”
Lore was taken aback, wounded nearly. Although they barely knew him, they knew that he didn’t deserve an ending like that, no one did. “I’m so glad you’re still alive.” They leant in to kiss her. Feeling her breath on their face snapped them from their trance disappointing both of them. “We should probably talk about… Whatever this is…” Lore backed away, blushing.
Char just nodded. “I’ll just open a channel to Destiny. Yep.” She seemed uncharacteristically awkward as she tapped at her wrist.
“What the Hel is going on? I get on board and suddenly the whole place is shaking.” Destiny whispered over the line.
“I’ll explain later. You’re with the clones aren’t you?” Char brought up the holographic map of Simplicity.
“Yeah, we’re somewhere on deck five… I believe it’s officially designated as engineering access port three but you aren’t accessing anything from here.”
“So it’s a prison.” Char tried to work out a way to them in her head.
Destiny’s voice lagged for a moment before her sentence came through properly. “E…E… Exactly. Are we coming to you or you to us?” Char marked Destiny on her map.
Char checked her pocket and ran her fingers along the spirals of Syd’s pen. “There’s something we need on the bridge. Up to date star charts. Lore and I are heading that way but if you meet us in service corridor seven on deck two, we’ll give you a Breacher so you can get out.”
“I’m sure we can get there. See you in a bit.” Destiny’s holographic representation gave a little salute before vanishing, leaving only the open blueprints.
“Best get a move on ourselves then.” Lore nodded at the door. They took Char’s hand and, with a flash of white, Breached through it and into the corridor. They waited a moment, no news was good news so they pressed on.

Destiny longed to return to Curve’s embrace but realised that, with her siblings present, that it would be less than comfortable. She was also aware of their limited time. Destiny placed her hand on Curve’s wrist and ensured that the Macrocomps were appropriately shared between them. The other clones got themselves up off of the floor. Their armour was battered and chipped in places from where they had been thrown and piled on top of one another in the cell. Destiny approached the door and forced her hand into the circuitry. She fiddled around with the internal mechanisms but found herself unable to find the correct circuit to bridge. Curve gently moved Destiny aside and drew her sabre; she forced it between the doors and used it as a lever. With the combined might of her and her siblings, the clones quickly forced the doors open. They hadn’t considered much further than that so the two guards standing with drawn weapons surprised them more than they should have. Without thinking, Curve took her sabre from the door and slammed it, blunt side first, against the closest guard’s helmet. In his stagger, his weapon discharged sending a flash of purple plasma careening into his ally. The charge spread across her armour, disabling her almost immediately. He looked to his fallen comrade, stunned; dazed and confused, he neglected Curve’s shield as it rose from his peripheral and collided with his temple. Both soldiers on the floor, the troopers were able to begin the obstacle course up to deck two. Curve, Destiny, Ace and Midpoint stepped over their jailers but Magpie knelt down beside them. He waved his wrist over both soldiers in turn.
“Hey, their guns are set to incapacitate.” Magpie called over. “I mean why not just say stun?” He muttered to himself, inspecting the rifles.
“Maybe they don’t want us dead.” Ace beckoned Magpie over.
“Yet.” Midpoint brought the mood back down.
Before catching up, Magpie reached over to the guard Curve battered and removed his insignia from his shoulder. A gold and black symbol made of several concentric circles overlapped by a Valknut. Magpie pocketed it. He wondered about its potential uses as he caught up with the rest of the group. Destiny led with a holographic map.
“Do you have to?” Ace shook their head. “Time and a place.”
“I’ve got a feeling.” Magpie tapped their pocket. Something chirped.
“And I’ve got a feeling you’ve picked up a communicator.” Ace forced their hand into his pocket. Magpie resisted, falling against the wall. Ace held the badge aloft and, as they did, the wall fell away and the two of them fell with it.
“Why wouldn’t they put lifts on the schematics.” Destiny double checked her hologram. “Best not to look a gift horse in a mouth.”
It was a small lift car but they all managed to squeeze in. Midpoint struggled but finally managed to wriggle his finger to the button marked for the second floor.
“We’ll have a bit of a walk between here and corridor seven.” Destiny tried to show the clones the map but failed.
“Why don’t we just get the charts? Surely you’re a better choice Des?” Curve whispered into Destiny’s ear.
Destiny thought about it for a moment. “There’s got to be something… No…”
“What?” Curve’s breath condensed on Destiny’s neck.
“They’re going after Crait.”
“Or Reid.” Curve returned.
“What’s with the whispering? We can hear you both.” Magpie chuckled.
The doors opened. Lore and Char were behind them.
“What a coincidence.” Lore smiled.
“Their idea.” Char shook her head. “They were like ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if we tracked Destiny’s Macrocomps and met them the moment they reached deck two.’ They’re such a child some times.”
“I seem to remember the plan I proposed was about saving time but if we’re going to stand around chatting then…” Lore raised an eyebrow judgementally as they removed their Breacher. “Take this and get back to The Destiny. Char and I will go on and get the updated charts then jump back to The Vengeance.” Lore nodded. “All good?”
“What about the chronometric sensors?” Curve asked.
“You’re escaping so hopefully they won’t go off.” Char shrugged.
“Maybe this will help?” Magpie held up the badge. “If you wear it maybe we can trick the computer into thinking it’s a prisoner hand off?”
“Either way, you guys are guaranteed to get off safely so make the most of it. We shouldn’t be too far behind you.” Lore reassured them. They had no idea if what they were saying was true but it felt correct, it felt like they already knew somehow.
“Stay safe.” Destiny gave a solemn smile before Breaching herself and the clones away and aboard The Destiny.

Alarms were screaming and the whole ship was shaking as it finished avoiding a torpedo. While things had been calm on Simplicity, the exact opposite was true outside of it. The Rexel fleet swarmed randomly around Simplicity’s hull while The Syndicate ships did something similar from a further distance. The Destiny’s movements were still in close step to those of The Vengeance. Destiny cast off Lore’s Breacher, tossing it to Curve, before she dove into the bridge’s central console.
“What’s going on?” Destiny shouted over to The Vengeance.
“Are we good to go then?” Sky called back.
“Lore and Char are still on board.” Destiny switched the ship into its attack configuration, revealing two jump drive powered cannons.
“Woah, what the hel is going on?” Blue pointed to The Destiny on their viewscreen.
“Why are we attacking?” Destiny loaded her cannons with a rook each, took aim and fired; the chess pieces hurtled through the vacuum at nearly the speed of light, creating two pinprick holes in the hull of Simplicity.
“Their jump drive was coming online so we had to do something. We couldn’t lose anyone else.” Sky swallowed down the lump in their throat.
“They should be out in a moment but we should be able to pull back a bit for now. They try to jump away, they’ll find themselves in more than a couple of pieces.” Destiny chuckled at her accidental pun.