1:4:1 Cambridge (Part 5)

Char was stunned with how quickly and deftly Lore had been able to bend the truth. “Yeah, thanks for inviting us over, it’s been a tough few days and the kids could do with the distraction.”
“Sorry to hear it.” Rolanda looked to one of the guards. They checked their watch then nodded to her. “Well, this park is always a great place to go to let your hair down.” She tapped at her collar; her skin looked as though it was burning with a new pigmentation rapidly developing just below its surface. She went from a slightly tanned but still admittedly pale to a dusty gold similar to Char. It wasn’t just Rolanda as the other picnickers followed suit. “It’s okay, there’ll be no-one walking around this park for the next forty five minutes.” Rolanda stretched, sunning her newly gilded skin.
“You’re not.” Char managed to force out between waves of confusion and joy.
“Not what?” Rolanda held out her hand for Char, concerned that she may faint.
“Quatarrian?” Char whispered.
“Don’t you go telling everyone.” Rolanda joked. She squinted at Char. “That’s a good holographic shell. Where are you two from then?”
“Lore’s a human but I’m Quatarrii.” Char dropped her disguise. She had been expecting hostility but received a smile.
“It’s nice to see the Easterners finally spreading out.” Rolanda reached over Jo and grabbed a plate.
“What?” Char sat down and took the plate Rolanda offered her.
“Last time we were passing by Quatarr, the western continent was pretty full but you Easterners were still underground. How did you solve the temperature problem?” Rolanda started piling a plate high for Lore while gesturing for Char to begin to fill her plate.
“You’ve not been back since?” Char grabbed something that looked like a flatbread.
“Well, after the first war we saw an opportunity to make something of our technology and skills.” Jo handed Lore their own flatbread.
“You’re the nomads.” Char gasped. “Wow.” She wrapped herself around Rolanda.
“Are you alright darling?” She smiled at Char then gave Lore a confused look. “Not that I’m not enjoying the hug but I’m only Quatarrian. Nothing special.”
Char was going to say something but her throat was nearly closed. Teardrops ran down her face and onto Rolanda’s top. Lore moved a little closer. “You may have missed a thing or two.” They spoke calmly and quietly. “What year are you from originally?”
“We’re from this year. Earth year two thousand and nine.” Rolanda shrugged.
“And when was the last time you visited Quatarr?” Lore knew Char was in no state to deliver the news but had no idea how they were going to do it.
“It’s been a while. We left at the end of the first civil war so Earth year eighteen forty seven maybe?” Rolanda waited for a confirmatory nod from Jo. “Eighteen forty seven.”
Lore looked shocked. “You look good.” Rolanda beamed at the complement. Lore took a deep breath. “There was a second civil war. Nineteen forty five to nineteen seventy three. Humanity got involved and caught the Quatarrian’s off guard. Only the Quatarrians who were off world are left now.” Char grabbed on harder.
“You mean, Quatarr’s gone?” Jo joined the conversation, placing a hand on Rolanda’s shoulder.
Lore simply nodded. “The Inquisitoriam set about hunting down every surviving sect and group. They never found you though.” They paused. “Sorry.”
Jo and Rolanda’s upper lips stiffened. “I suppose it makes sense. We’ve only really heard from a handful of people from the old days. I just hope they’re still alright.” Rolanda patted Char’s head. “You’re alright darling.”
“So are you.” Lore smiled slightly. “They’ll never find you.” They weren’t sure how or why they were so confident but they knew that they were right.
“Thanks.” Jo nodded. “I’m guessing you’re not the Inquisitoriam’s biggest fans either.”
“I’ve apparently split my own timeline several times trying to save Quatarr. Right now, there are twenty five of us, running around, making plans to bring Quatarr back. They fought in the second civil war and now they’re fighting to set things right. We’re doing the same but differently.” Lore’s smile developed as fully as they were able to. “Put bluntly, the Inquisitoriam hate us.”
“I suppose that makes you alright in our books.” Rolanda unhanded Char and shook Lore’s hand. “If you have the knowledge, could you share with us how our planet died? We may have left it many years ago but it was still our origin point.”
“Where should we begin?” Lore set down their plate.
Char rested her hand on their knee and slowly closed her eyes. “Allow me.” She began talking in her native tongue, sharing her people’s final story. “I wasn’t even supposed to be there.” She began. Lore tried to translate some of it but found themselves quickly overwhelmed. She spoke quickly but never too much so and she spoke with such passion and emotion that it was clear to see her audience was feeling it too; although at first merely relaying the events, it soon became apparent that she and the other Quatarrians were reliving the events prior. “It never seemed to end. Longest thirty days of my life. We didn’t even know about the time loop till about half way through.”
“A time loop?” One of the other parents raised their hand.
“Lore.” Char switched back to English. “Did any of the cubes show the start of the war?”
Lore nodded. “I got the whole three years. Why?”
“They’re just wondering about the time loop.” Char opened the floor to them.
“Where to begin? I was called to Quatarr at the request of The Western Continent, to bring about a resolution to the conflict.” Lore paused, the Quatarrians hanging on their every word. “I knew that The Guild wanted me to ensure mutual destruction; I couldn’t let that happen.” They projected a hologram of their ship on Quatarr. “I used my ship’s Grapple Tether to link its computer core to the planet’s natural Tempora ore veins.” They removed their Breacher. “I adapted my Breacher to accept Quatarr as its power core and set it to create a temporal field around the battlegrounds; there were only four of us that saw every day of those three years.”
“Three years?” Jo nearly choked on her drink.
“The four of us needed to maintain the loop. We fought every day and if the results weren’t what we needed, we started that day again. The only way to minimise the casualties was to keep the fighting going, counter intuitive as that sounds.”
“I didn’t realise there were four of you.” Char started. “Who were the others?”
“There were a couple of knights; Allana and Luscillus and then Silus. They opened my eyes. I can’t speak for the original Lore though. They went in and came out with the same outlook.”
Char gasped. “Silus… Makes sense now. They resigned a week after the peace accords were signed. Three years would do that to you.”
“It wasn’t the fighting. That wasn’t the worst part. We had to watch our troopers, the people who we came to know better than our own families, die over and over again. We never knew how long each trooper would last or when they would die their last.” Lore blinked the beginnings of a tear out of their eye. “Funny, the version of me that fought in that war would have given anything to forget it and now, it’s one of the only things I remember.” Char rested her hand on their shoulder reassuringly.
“Thank you.” She whispered before continuing her retelling of the thirty days. “It’s said that on the last day, both sides saw an apparition of Time. It was enough to halt the fighting so Lore could propose a ceasefire. They sat down with both leaders and somehow, convinced them to stop.”
Lore had a rough idea where Char had ended the story so did their best to fill in the gaps. “The Guild didn’t want the war to end like that so they sent a squadron of fighters disguised as a peace keeping team to ‘check up’ on Quatarr. Three Inquisitors used the hole I had drilled to breach the planet’s core. A single shot from their pistol was enough to trigger a Tempora cascade that cracked the planet like an egg.” Lore bowed their head. “Anyone on the planet at the time was killed nearly instantaneously.”
“Thank you for that.” Rolanda offered them another drink. “Being as divorced from everything as we have, we’ve not really been privy to such developments. This is the first planet we’ve landed on in nearly a hundred and thirteen years.”
Char virtually jumped down her throat. “So the legends are true then?”
Jo politely pushed Char back to her seated position. “What legends?”
“They said that there was a colony of Quatarrians out there. A fleet of ships that travelled as one city; the last refuge of Quatarr. Somehow completely hidden except to those in need.” There was a twinkle in her eye.
“I’m afraid not. Well, they aren’t entirely wrong. They were right about the ships. We fly as a synchronised fleet, interconnected by a series of struts and energy cables; and we do help those who find us but…”
“It’s pretty much exactly like what you said…” Jo smiled. “Except we don’t actively look for people to help, they just sort of find us. We make sure they almost never find us twice though.”
“Everybody gets one.” Rolanda nodded.
“I get why you’d want to stay hidden but why avoid people you’ve already helped?” Char took another drink.
Rolanda thought for a moment before speaking. “You say you saw Time on the battlefield at the end of the war. How did you know it was Time if you only saw it the once?”
“I suppose we didn’t. It was just faith.” Char scrunched her face slightly.
“If they only see us once then there’s plausible deniability. One meeting and people could be mistaken or lying but more than once and people start learning things like how to track us or where we’re going.”
“How do you avoid them then? Ship IDs?” Lore asked.
“We add their ship IDs to our nav-computer then we plot our courses around them. We tend to avoid heavily populated areas anyway but it’s better to be safe than sorry.” Jo brought up a holographic list. “We’ve been travelling for centuries but we’ve only met with forty six ships.”
Char scanned the list. “Hang about. That’s my ship. Eight six four dash nine eight nine was the registry of the ship I escaped Quatarr on. Nine eight nine was the military code for my order.”
“And they were the pilot.” Jo gestured at Lore who immediately turned around wondering who she meant. “One of your other selves I suppose then. They were very interested in our dimensional projectors.”
“That was a fun weekend though.” Rolanda giggled. “Well worth the trade.” Lore and Char shared a puzzled expression. “They gave us the codes for our fabricators so we could make spring wine as well as access to their musical database of nearly every song written on Earth between the years nineteen forty five and nineteen ninety nine. In return we gave them one dimensional projector and a screwdriver.”
“It’s one of their most used pieces of technology now.” Char began.
“They can’t live without it.” Lore scoffed. “Literally, our home at the moment is a cube in an alley. Much bigger on the inside though.”
Rolanda and Jo were taken aback. “We realised they were smart but not quite that smart.” Rolanda began. “It took us nearly a century and a half to perfect them. Originally, they were the size of one of the human’s cars…”

Lore’s focus drifted as something caught the edge of their perception. Out of the corner of their right eye, somewhere behind them, an electric blue figure strode by. They turned to actually see what they had perceived but found their view mostly blocked by the park’s wall. “Sorry… I’ll be back in a moment.” Lore’s voice softened as they rose and wandered away. Having both eyes open made it hard for them to pick out the bright blue in the more open areas of the city. They walked for short periods, chasing the light with one eye closed, using only their spectral footprints to keep them from colliding with any of the other pedestrians. As they pursued the figure deeper, the shadows cast by the historic architecture worked to their advantage, allowing both eyes to work more effectively together. Lore couldn’t tell much from their current position behind their target but they knew that they were humanoid and that they had knowledge of the local area; they also likely knew that Lore was tailing them. That didn’t deter either of them as they both continued. The blue aura teased them as it snapped around corners, leading them on a seemingly endless chase that came to a rather abrupt end as Lore found themselves entering a cafe. They hovered by the door, reading a sheet of paper that had been placed over the open sign.
“Closed for an official function.” They peered through the glass door, there were more than a few empty seats.
The blue aura returned to the door. “Come on in.” They beckoned.
Lore followed the stranger into the cafe. They scanned the room once again. They hadn’t been able to get a good look at the occupants faces but now they were passing through, they saw that there were only three unique ones in the room. A Lore, a Char and the stranger.
“You’ll talk to them later. It’s my turn first.” She sat down and offered Lore the seat opposite. “Where are my manners? My parents taught me better than that; I’m Tay.” She smiled, holding out her hand.
“Lore, but something tells me you knew that.” They accepted apprehensively. They opened their mouth to talk but found themselves too overwhelmed to say anything.
“Too many questions… Too little time.” She smirked. “Let’s see if I can answer a few of those for you. We’ve met, at least from my perspective. In fact, I’ve not long seen you… Again, out of order and like I told you last time, I can’t really tell you who I am but when you find out, you’re going to love it.” Tay flagged down a waitress.
“What’ll it be and don’t ask for champagne because we don’t serve it… Had to kick two tables out.” She turned from Tay to Lore. “Sorry duck, not the best with names; have we met?”
“Who? Me?” Lore looked around.
“I swear I’ve seen you in here before.” She took her notepad out. “Must have been someone else. What can I get you?”
“A pot of tea for two and two rounds of toast please.” Tay smiled. The waitress nodded then disappeared.
“Poor thing’s surrounded by so many cloaking circuits, she doesn’t know if she’s here or there.” Tay dismissed the thought and returned to Lore. “Judging by what I’m seeing, you’re pretty young. How long has it been since Valhelderen?” Lore looked at her blankly. “Sorry, how long has it been since you woke up in the cave?”
“Just under a week.” Lore counted the days on their fingers. “That sounds about right.” They reassured themselves.
Tay just stared at them. “Wow… I was sure you lost your eye later than that.” She removed a sheet of paper and put a cross in a box. “It was Crait that did it though wasn’t it?”
Lore nodded. “What’s that?”
“It’s the list. All the questions I have for the people I meet.” Tay stashed it away in her pocket. “I’d love to cross a few more off but I’ve not got long, flying visit. I was only supposed to make sure you were in the right place at the right time so you’ll have to enjoy the tea without me. You won’t be drinking alone though.” She smiled. “Two sugars and a splash of milk. Ask for an extra mug.” And with that, she left. She ran her hand along the table as she left; a scrap of paper was left in her wake.
“Here you go.” The waitress smiled. “Two rounds of toast and tea for two. Anything else I can get you?”
“Could I have another mug please?” Lore felt almost impertinent for asking.
“Of course.” The waitress walked away slowly, looking at Lore, trying to place their face.
Lore unfolded the slip of paper. “Forty five seconds.” They whispered. They checked their Breacher before pouring themselves a cup of tea and preparing a second to the specifications left by Tay.
Twenty seconds elapsed and the waitress returned with a third mug. They had no idea how to make the third cup so left it in the pot. Fifteen seconds later, the door to the cafe opened again and two guests entered.
“See they knew we were coming, they’ve even got us a booth ready.” They turned to their partner.