1:3:8 Retrieval (Part 3)

Reid snaked her way through the maintenance tunnels. Crait was waiting at the junction ahead.
“I understand we have guests.” They tried to maintain their composure. Reid was oblivious to the forming cracks.
“We’ve got Lore in the brig and I’d like to return five of your officers.” She sighed. “There are better ways to test my loyalty than faking an inspection.” Crait stifled a laugh. “What?”
“You’ve done a bang up job as usual. I honestly don’t know how you keep doing it. Somehow, you’ve managed to accidentally far exceed my expectations because I didn’t send those officers.” Crait smiled.
“Then who did?” She hoped she wasn’t right but Crait just nodded. Reid buried her head in her hands. “So what do we do about them then?”
“Keep up the ruse. Make them feel welcome. They’re not escaping either way so it doesn’t matter. We’ll deal with them properly in time.” Crait paused. “I really don’t know whether you’re an idiot or genius convincing Lore’s entire crew to surrender and come with you willingly.” They shook their head with a smile. “Anyway, what did you do with that Quatarrian cow I sent your way?”
Reid stood a little taller. “She’s dead, one and done.”
“Right. I think I’ve got my answer.” Unlike their laughter, Crait was more than capable of disguising their disappointment. “Leave Lore where they are but bring your new friends to the bridge; I’d very much like to meet the company they keep nowadays.”
“Right away.” Reid spun on her heels and began her trek back to the ship.
With Reid out of earshot, a figure stepped out of the shadows. “What are your orders?”
“We wait. It seems every time she screws up, the universe throws her a second chance and this one’s going to be good, I can feel it.” Crait slammed their fist against the wall. “Keep an eye on her though; the universe’s generosity is bound to wear off.”

Reid wormed her way back to her ship. The tight hangar made it incredibly difficult for her to open her ship’s airlock, let alone actually make use of it. She examined the door and her surroundings from every angle before finding her perfect vector of attack. The landing ramp meant that it was going to be an even tighter squeeze. Then she saw it; tucked away in the hydraulics, the secondary release. Once pulled it would lower the ramp giving her just enough room to work with. She flattened her hand and fed it through the machinery. Something on her wrist clinked against the rams. Without thinking, she withdrew her hand and removed the obstruction. It took her until she had pulled the release for her brain to register that the object now in her other hand was in fact, her Breacher. Not wanting to submit to the easy path, she continued to suffer and wriggle. Finally, she was back and once she was through the airlock, reality took a swing.
“Everything alright sir?” Destiny was standing so close that Reid could feel her breath on the back of her neck. It was weirdly cool. Now that Reid knew who Destiny was, something about her seemed off.
“I’m fine, fine.” Reid snapped back at reality. “I’m fine thank you. I’ve just had a word with Crait. They want to see you on the bridge right away.” She gave them an awkward double thumbs up.
“Well,” Destiny was taken aback but she managed to remain in character. “We’d be honoured.” She ran her fingers through her hair, combing it around her ear. “We’ll set off right away.”
“You’ll need a map or would you rather I give you the coordinates?” Reid chuckled. “I’d make sure the bridge was empty first though. Don’t want any splicing.” She Breached away from Destiny and over to her console. Reid downloaded Simplicity’s blueprints, then opened a camera feed. “Here. If you go now, you’ve got free reign. Place is empty.”
“Empty?” Curve spoke up.
“Crait’s just sorting out the paperwork for that ship that Lore’s alien destroyed. They’ll be with you as soon as they can.” Reid reassured.
Destiny typed the coordinates into her Breacher and tapped the activation key. It sparked and fizzed. “Just a prop.” She gave an apologetic smile.
“Best get walking then.” Reid handed over a tablet with the map and marked the bridge for them. “I’ll catch up, just got to make sure they’re secure.” She pointed at Lore.
“Of course.” Destiny scowled. “Would you permit me one indulgence sir?”
“Depends.” Reid’s focus tightened.
“I request just a moment alone with Lore.” Destiny’s request made Reid wince.
Reid considered her response carefully. “They are still technically under your watch so, you may.” Reid gathered the clones and prepared them for Breaching. “I’ll take them to the bridge then come back for you when you’re done.”
“Thank you.” Destiny nodded and suddenly, she was alone. She moved quickly, not knowing how long she had. The broken Breacher on her wrist dissolved into her skin. She knew she was on camera so she was going to have to be careful with whatever she did. She lowered the barrier separating Lore from her wordlessly. She just stared at them. Her face didn’t even change as her hand struck Lore’s cheek. Although she looked the part, her metal skin and skeleton left more than a dent. Blood began to pool in the areas where her knuckles had made contact. Without a moment of breathing room, Destiny dropped to the ground and drove her fist into Lore’s gut. As she pulled away she subtly deposited her Breacher’s Tempora Crystal in Lore’s lap. Destiny stepped away and feigned spitting on the wincing pile at her feet. She managed to get the barrier back up before Reid appeared. With her, Crait.
“All done then?” Crait got a closer look at Destiny.
She backed away slowly, never breaking eye contact with them. “Yes…” She forced out.
“Be back in a moment sir.” Reid smiled at Crait as she and Destiny Breached to the Bridge.

“Just you and me now. Just like old times.” Crait remotely disabled all of the measures keeping Lore incarcerated. “I wonder if the ship’s bringing back any memories? As I recall, you spent a lot of time in that cell. I suppose I did too.”
“I haven’t the foggiest what you’re talking about.” Lore coughed .
“Perhaps I had better jog your memory.” Crait lowered themselves to Lore’s level, picked them up by their collar then wrapped them in their embrace. Crait forced themselves onto Lore, as if trying to create a vacuum in Lore’s lungs. At the same time, they jabbed something into Lore’s side. A stream of memories came flooding back to them, memories of times spent ‘enjoying each other’s company’ in not only the cell but in various parts of the ship. It had changed significantly but it was still the same ship. “It’s been a while.” Crait’s voice was hushed and strangely sultry.
“What do you want?” Lore winced as Crait lowered themselves to Lore’s waist, their hands highlighted Lore’s scrawny frame.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Crait thought about what they were doing before deciding against it. They stood back up. “Come with me?”
“I don’t think I have much of a choice?” Lore felt their Breacher vibrate. They held out their left hand for Crait to take.
“No. You don’t.” The spectral interior of another ship appeared around them before becoming real. “Now I know this one’s in there somewhere.” They gave Lore a moment to look around. “Gideon, could you get the lights for us? Nice and slowly please, don’t want to hurt their poor eyes.” More memories.
“But… this, it’s impossible.” Lore glanced over the ship. A craft built for a crew of twelve but redesigned to be piloted by a single Inquisitor and maintained by a chained AI. “Quatarr…” Lore muttered.
“Before the simpler times came about, I visited Quatarr.” Crait began pacing by the main console. “There wasn’t a person on the planet who didn’t have a story about the great human that came to save them. They wanted to declare your ship a heritage site but I managed to convince a few old friends of yours that you wanted it back. It took them seventeen years to separate it from the planet. You really should have been more careful making a physical connection with Tempora like that… Could have caused some serious damage. But here she is.” Crait twirled. “Obviously I’ve modified her, the AI was missing and she was woefully outdated but look at her, still the original interior, still owned and operated by the Head of the Inquisitoriam. Still the leader of the fleet. She might not be exactly the same but, like you, she’s close enough.” Crait tapped at Lore’s wrist. “Still rocking the retro look.” Crait rolled up their own sleeve. “Snap.” They too had what appeared to be a Type Seventeen on their wrist. “Same case, different hardware.”
“Why am I here?” The pain was beginning to come back to their shoulder. They tried to disguise their discomfort.
Crait snaked around them, nursing their wounds sensually. “Your troopers really did a number on you. Here…” Crait’s voice faded to the background as Lore felt something course through their veins. Warmth spread across their body but it seemed to focus on their shoulder. It got hotter but never unpleasantly so; it should have been disturbing but for some reason, they just submitted to it. A new wave of memories rode on the heat. Long nights and even longer mornings lazily floated by. More days and years than Lore even thought possible tried to impress upon Lore’s woozy brain. When they eventually came to, they had no idea how long had passed and for a moment, where they were but once their eyes had readjusted, they knew exactly where they were.
“Home.” Lore sighed as they swooned into Crait’s arms. Crait just smiled. Lore’s shoulder no longer hurt, their body no longer ached. They felt reborn. “Shouldn’t we be getting ready for our briefing? They’ll be waiting for us.” Lore stared into Crait’s eyes lovingly. For the first time in a very long while, Crait smiled an honest smile; their eyes started to well up.
“We could… We could call in sick.” Crait feigned a cough “I’m sure they wouldn’t mind a lie in.”
“If we were initiates then maybe but come on, number one and two of the Fifty Second Inquisitoriam not showing up for their own briefing…” Lore shook their head. “I’m afraid we’re going to have to.” Lore paused suddenly, the words felt wrong in their mouth. The feeling quickly faded. “Come on, we better get going.” Lore hadn’t even realised that their jacket was hanging off of their shoulders. They tried to fix it but Crait protested.
“I’ll sort it.” Crait flickered for a moment. Lore wasn’t sure if they had actually seen anything. “Done.” Crait exhaled sharply. They took a moment to catch their breath. “How about we go back to bed. I’ll pop the kettle on.” Crait ushered a bed from below the flooring. “Come on.”
Something again felt off. “Fine.” But again, Lore went against their judgement. They let Crait undress them as they walked over to the bed. Lore slapped Crait away before they could remove their bra and boxers. They slid under the covers and watched as Crait did the same for themselves. “I forgot how much I’ve missed this view.” Crait neatly folded their clothes before collecting Lore’s.  They raised a spotlight at the end of the bed and posed. Crait had always been thin but the white light against their pale skin didn’t help make them look more alive. Their skin looked vacuum sealed against their muscles and bones; a pair of scars underlined their pectorals. With those exceptions, their skin was flawless, not a mole or blackhead. After giving Lore time to marvel in their brilliance, they slicked back their oily black hair and joined them in bed. Their body was warm.
“You alright? Looking a bit out of it…” Crait looked at them with such concern.
“Just trying to wrap my head around how long we spent like this the last time we were on deep space assignment.”
“The timeless voids can certainly have that effect.” Crait wrapped an arm around them. “That was an interesting hundred and thirty years though.”
“Hundred and thirty!” Lore’s eyes virtually popped out of their skull. The focus on Crait set them right but they still couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. “You look good.”
“I’m nearly three hundred and twelve now. At least that’s what the old chronometer tells me.” They both chuckled. Crait drew in closer, they tapped their ring to Lore’s temple and placed a kiss on their cheek.
One last memory. They were stood, hand in hand, atop a cliff; diamonds of water and ice cascaded around them. In the valley below, a small village slept, barely visible in the starlight. Three moons did their best to illuminate the scene but even together, they couldn’t reflect enough light; the whole scene was bathed in a pale blue hue. They hadn’t even made it out of their iron age yet watching over them, two strangers that had seen civilisations rise and fall.
“Come on then.” Crait nodded then moved closer to the cliff’s edge. “Work your magic.”
“We’ve got a…” Lore squinted through their binoculars. “Post iron, pre medieval civilisation. That down there represents one of the planets major country factions. They’re currently engaged in a war with two other factions over possession of some naturally luminescent stone.”
“Yaay.” Crait sighed. “More rock worshipers. Seems like every other planet with ‘sentient’ life has bloody rock worshipers.”
“Well, I might consider worshipping this rock. It’s kicking off all kinds of energy. I mean, if our initial readings are anything to go off, this rock could be huge.” Even through the helmet, Crait could tell that Lore was excited. “I need to get closer to get a proper look at it.”
“Do we know what the locals look like?” Crait tapped at their wrist.
“Should be in the interface as Species One Three Seven B.” Lore went back to their binoculars. “Colour palette Four.” With that, their armour transformed to allow them to blend in.  “You remember to charge your Jumper?”
“Obviously. I mean it’s impossible to wear the thing around the ship without it charging passively right?” Crait shrugged.
“Not quite how the wireless charging works there babe.” Lore walked over to them. “You’ve got one jump left in you.” They tapped their wrist to Crait’s. “There. Two’s enough.”
“Thanks.” They retorted sarcastically before vanishing in a flash of light nearly bright enough to blow their cover.
All was quiet in the village and apart from a handful of wild dog like creatures, there was no-one around. Lore tapped at their wrist, creating a holographic interface. It pointed them toward the largest house in the village. Lore nodded and Crait followed. The starlight was just enough to navigate by. The door ahead was locked. Crait prepared their leg to change that but Lore was quick to stop them. Lore picked up a twig from the floor and inserted it into the lock; they jostled it about for a moment before hearing a heavy clunk. Lore pushed the door ajar. Unlike the rest of the village, the longhouse’s interior was filled with light; an unstoppable blue glow had caused its owners to board up all of their adjoining doors and windows. Fabric filled every crack allowing none of the stone’s light to leave the main room.
“No indications of any form of monitoring technology or traps. We should be alright to go in and get it.” Lore took a step into the longhouse. Nothing happened so they took one more. Crait followed suit. They shrugged at each other before pressing onward. The stone was on a wooden adjacent table at the end of the room. They stealthed towards the table. The stone’s light reflected in their synthetic approximations for eyes.
“What is it?” Crait couldn’t take their eyes off if.
Lore just shrugged. “Hel if I know but this thing is kicking off energies I’ve only seen in the labs when we started the Shredder project.” Lore’s readout was slowly ticking but it only got faster. “I think it’s safe; it’s not registering as dangerous by any of our standards.” They looked at the stone from a variety of angles. “Ok… We need to find a way to get this home. This is going to be revolutionary.” Lore looked around the base of the stone for anything they may have missed before gently lowering their hand onto its surface. It was about the size of both Lore and Crait’s torsos combined but weighed next to nothing. They had both tried to lift it thinking it to be heavier but had inadvertently launched it into the air. On a planet with such strong gravity, they had expected a louder reaction however, it fell like a feather. Lore checked their wrist; the computer still read that the gravity was thrice that of Earth. Excitedly they plucked the stone from the air and began their escape.