1:4:9 Reclamation (Part 4)

Finally, they had reached The Slingshot; the doors weren’t even locked. Ace tried to pull them open but found their efforts met with resistance. They tried again, got slightly further, but still couldn’t open the door. They tried pushing it but that yielded even worse results. On their final attempt at pulling, they put in all of their strength. The door flew open. Humans. Hungry, filthy, humans. The four of them lowered their makeshift weapons and moved away from the doors as the clones and Amalgam filled them.
“I, Inquisitor Tadi of the Thirty-Second Order do hereby surrender to you and your unit. Under the articles of surrender, you are to see that my troops and I are looked after and fed… Please.” He dropped to his knees and begged. It seemed as though he had been practising that speech for a while.
Again, the clones stood there, bewildered by what was going on in front of them. “Sorry, what?” Ace ushered the clones in then closed the doors.
The room they found themselves in was completely unaffected by the nebula. It appeared to have been designed to withstand its effects. Air purifiers triggered as soon as the doors closed, vacuuming up any of the nebula that had entered with them.
“Start again please, who the hel are you and what are you doing here?” Ace gestured for the Inquisitor to sit down to tell his tale.
Tadi sat and caught his breath. “I was sent by the High Inquisitor, Crait, to capture this installation. Apparently it’s going to be of huge tactical significance one day… We entered the system then, poof, the nebula appeared. We spent fourteen weeks trying to get our bearings only to realise that we were nowhere near anywhere.”
His second in command shook her head. “We plotted a course here only for the computer to tell us it was going to take nearly two decades.”
“You’re looking good for it.” Magpie marvelled.
Tadi sighed. “We spent most of it in stasis. We were supposed to spend all of it in stasis but the nebula’s gasses eroded our power systems and our ship got caught in the planet’s gravity prematurely.”
“Twenty years… Give or take in stasis. Bit of a rude awakening.” A crewman shook his head.
“Well, then we had to find somewhere to land to begin an analysis of the nebula but instead, we misjudged how close we were to the surface and crashed here.” Tadi glared at a young crewman.
“It wasn’t my fault. I’ve been telling you since we got here. How am I supposed to fly without sensors in a ship with no physical viewport?” The crewman shook his head, another argument long rehearsed.
“Anyway…” Tadi continued. “We drove for three weeks before our tanks ran out of fuel just outside the compound then we made our way to the tallest structure assuming that’s what Crait meant when they said we should capture it.” He shrugged. “Only problem was, we had no communication equipment and we’d left all of our weapons in the ship’s wreckage. It’s a three week drive but this time, we’ve not got the tanks…”
“What about your Breacher?” Magpie pointed to Tadi’s wrist. A black band not too dissimilar to Lore’s encircled it.
“Doesn’t work.” Tadi was quick and abrupt with his answer. He refused to elaborate.
“Tadi… Inquisitor Tadi, had his Tempora crystal taken from him after the second cupboard incident.” Tadi’s second in command waggled her eyebrows.
“I told you that in confidence.” He snapped back.
“What’s a cupboard incident?” Aloe asked.
“No!” Tadi barked at her like a pet owner warning their pet.
“He used his Breacher to try and catch The Boss and his bit on the side doing the… You know…” She started kissing her hand. “Only it backfired and he ended up Breaching into a cupboard with Reid only to cause a scandal that got him demoted and Reid a huge settlement in a workplace harassment case.”
“What about the first incident though?” Blindside’s hand went up as they spoke.
“First incident was an accident.” She started.
“We’ll be having no more of that, thank you.” Tadi’s sunken face burned red.
“Anyway…” Ace removed their helmet. “Is this your entire Inquisitoriam? The four of you?”
“And the skeleton crew but I’m guessing they’re gone now so yeah, it’s just us.” The second in command held out her hand. “I’m Rach by the way.” She waited for a moment before nodding at her hand. “And you are?”
Ace quickly took her hand and shook it. “Sorry, I’m Commander Ace of…” They started strong but weren’t quite sure how to end the sentiment. “Of The Destiny.” They concluded. “And this, is my second in command, Curve.”
She stepped forward and removed her helmet. “Nice to meet you.” She took Rach’s hand.
“Right then… Now that we’re acquainted, are you going to arrest us or what?” Tadi held his wrists together so as to make it easier.
“We hadn’t really thought about it…” Ace shrugged. “I suppose we could but there isn’t really a point. We’re only here to make sure The Slingshot is usable.”
Magpie stepped forward. “When did you get here? All of the Inquisitors we’ve met have had proper armour. Never seen uniforms like those.”
“We’ve been here just over ten years.” Tadi scowled. “None of the Chronometers are set to tell the time, they’re just a countdown to something.”
“Yeah.” Rach added. “They’re almost at zero now.” She pointed to a monitor across the room. “According to that, we’ve been here ten years, three months and four days.”
“And you’ve been in here the whole time?” Magpie ran over to the terminal and started investigating.
“It’s not like we could stay outside. Plus our ship’s airlocks all failed after the crash.” Tadi shook his head. “Ten years in a building that we couldn’t leave. Bloody computers wouldn’t even let us die either.”
“What do you mean?” Aloe asked.
Tadi grabbed a knife and slit his hand open. “Just wait a moment.”
“First aid emergency detected.” A voice rang out over the room’s speakers. “Administering treatment.” A metal bandage appeared over the wound, it glowed for a moment before sinking into his palm. The wound that was below it had vanished. “No illness, no wounds. It cleans up any messes and makes sure we’re in peak health at all times.”
“I know it sounds like he’s moaning but it’s not been too bad. You’ve got one hel of an entertainment system. Got some true classics there.” Rach smiled. “Comedy package four is amazing.”
“Isn’t it though!” Curve, Magpie and Blindside agreed.
“We’ve also not been able to communicate with anyone outside of this building.” Tadi sighed. “Ten years of them. Ten… Years.”
“Years two to four were rough but even you’ve got to admit we had some good times after the automated therapy sessions.” One of the junior officers piped up. “Last week’s session was great.”
“Shut up Francis.” Tadi instantly covered his mouth. “Sorry.” He took a deep breath. “I shouldn’t be venting my anger at you, it’s unhealthy for both of us.”
“Glad to see you’ve had time to work on yourselves…” Aloe looked at them, confused.
Magpie shouted over from the terminal. “I think I’ve worked out what the timer’s for.” He made sure the other clones were paying attention. “It’s a countdown until The Razor gets here.”
“When’s it due then?” Aloe moved towards him.
“Fourteen hours and thirty seven minutes.” Tadi said with his eyes closed.
“Correct…” Magpie confirmed.
“We may have been clock-watching.” Rach frowned. “So what are we supposed to do then?”
“You lot, not sure really.” Ace looked around the room. “But we need to get this place as ready as we can for when they get here.” They started making a mental checklist. “What do we need to do? Magpie and Blindside, did you get those nebula controls working properly?”
“I don’t know. He left me pinned down in a corridor surrounded by those things.” Blindside slapped Magpie’s back.
“The secondary controls seemed to be working but I got a little distracted by Twelve and saving you.” Magpie chuckled.
“Right then, you two get that sorted and take Mid with you just in case. The rest of us are going to check The Slingshot itself over and make sure that lot haven’t done anything to it.” Ace nodded at the Inquisitors. “It was literally your only reason to come here so…”
“That’s true but… We left the majority of our gear in the wreckage of our ship so we haven’t done that much sabotaging apart from setting up the skeleton crew.” Tadi lowered his head, dejected.
“Still, better safe than sorry.” Ace smiled. “Off you go then.”
Magpie checked his helmet before opening the door. “Alright then, after you.” He held the door open for them, counting his troopers out as they passed. “We’ll keep in contact.” Magpie tried to sound official as he turned and left.
“Let’s get to work then.” Ace turned to their clones.

It could have been minutes or hours, she had no idea. She knew she had been moved. She was still roughly in the same place, it smelt the same, but she was no longer on the cold, hard, ground rather she founder herself tucked into a bed. Drifting into and out of consciousness, she tried her hardest to get up. Shaking the fatigue off, she sat up; her eyes opened for what felt like the first time in a century and slowly adjusted. White, polymer walls and harsh, fluorescent lighting told her exactly where she was: The Sick Bay. Char looked around for a way to communicate with the outside ship. She stopped on a large, red button. It clicked underneath her palm. She tried to compose herself before her guests arrived.
“You’re finally awake.” Sam gently put her back in bed. “You still need to rest, plenty of time before we get there.”
“Get where?” She agreed, getting herself as comfortable as she could.
“Johned. We’ll send the clones down then it’s up to us to make sure the site’s safe.” Sam tucked her in. “Then we’ve got the hardest job to do.”
“What?” Char was starting to drift off.
Sam sat back in their chair. “Activating The Slingshot. After thirty years, it’s going to need some work.”
Waning between waking and sleep, Char started to mumble. Only one word was spoken loud and clear enough for Sam to hear. “Crait.”