1:5:10 Lores (Part 2)

Patience wasn’t a virtue that Lore had been used to exercising. The two days had passed faster than they expected but, no matter how engaging their days had been, they found the nights near impossible as they laid awake in their bed pondering the possibilities and outcomes that awaited them when they made contact with Earth for the first time. Lore paced as they counted down the minutes until they were in communication range; Brian and Char sat on the bridge, continually checking and rechecking their connection status.
“And… We are now in Protectorate covered space.” Brian beamed. “Opening a communication link now.”
Lore stopped immediately and faced the centre of the viewscreen. The vastness of space was soon replaced by a familiar face.
“Feeling adventurous, are we darling?” She spoke in a sultry voice before realising who she was talking to. “By the Cornerstones!” She exclaimed, a forest fire crossed her seafoam skin.
“Alodrass?” Lore looked to Brian. “What are you doing in The Protectorate headquarters?”
Flustered, she recomposed herself to respond. “I’m here, again, trying to petition The Protectorate to remove their ‘embassy’ on Aetar.”
“That explains why you’re in the building…” Char began.
“But not why you’re on the other end of the channel.” Lore finished.
Alodrass’ blush deepened. “I always arrive early and The Protectorate council always keep me waiting so I logged into a terminal to check my Emails.”
Brian joined her in blushing. “I didn’t did I?” He frantically scanned through a series of codes and statistics on the terminal in front of him. “No… No. No! Bugger!”
“Brian and I have a private channel that uses The Protectorate’s signal to extend its range…” She smiled. “I’m so glad you’re still alive.” Her tone changed swiftly from defeated embarrassment to one of angered annoyance.
Brian only became more red. “I meant to send you a message but I’ve been out of communication range since my last message.”
“A month… You could have found a way to smuggle something to me. Gods, you’re with people with access to instantaneous time and space travel, you could have hand-bloody-delivered a message yourself.” Her voice softened; her anger became more of a facade for the increasing joy she was showing. “I’m guessing this means you’re on your way home though…”
Brian nodded, unable to talk.
“I better see you as soon as you get here then.” She flashed him a jovial scowl.
Again, he nodded, his vocal cords seemingly still paralysed.
“Sorry to interrupt but could you connect us to The Protectorate Council. We’ve got an important conversation to have with them.” Lore asked as politely as they could.
“How important is important?” Alodrass stared at Brian lovingly.
Brian’s face grew serious. “Quatarr’s back.”
The two words were enough to return Alodrass to her natural hue before desaturating it. A smile grew on her face. “I knew it. I felt it.” She shook her head. “So does that mean?” She opened her fist over her chest, as if mimicking an explosion.
“Crait’s still alive but they’ve put Lore in charge of The Guild.” Brian bobbed his head.
Lore added. “Crait has been imprisoned.” They paused. “I am now in charge of The Guild and wanted to inform The Protectorate council so that they can prepare for the changes I’m going to be making.”
Alodrass burst out into laughter.
“What?” Lore looked to Char and then Brian. “Did I say something funny?”
Char shrugged. Brian shook his head.
Alodrass continued laughing before trying to calm herself down. “Sorry, it’s not funny.” Her face returned to a more neutral expression for a moment before a smile crept across it once again. “The Protectorate have no clue what The Guild have done. As far as they’re concerned, The Guild are crackpots. The Protectorate don’t even believe in time travel. All they know is that they’ve been obscenely lucky in the planets they’ve chosen to colonise as the civilisations that once existed there were mysteriously wiped out centuries before they arrived.” She paused. “Is it possible for them to wait just a moment, I’m in the middle of a really important call right now.” A voice could be heard just off screen but none of them could make out what they were saying. “Thank you. I’m sorry. I’ll be ready in a moment.” Her focus returned to Lore. “There are actually only a handful of Protectorate colonies out there, the rest are just Guild outposts…” She shook her head. “Like Aetar…”
“Have you only just realised that?” Brian asked. His face showed that he didn’t realise his mistake until the words had left his mouth.
“You never said anything.” Those four words added insult to his self inflicted injury.
Lore held up their hand. “Look, as soon as I can, I’m withdrawing Guild forces from Aetar and Solossur. Consider it done.” Lore stopped. “If you could help maybe with ways humanity can apologise that would be grand though.”
Alodrass winced. “Not the sort of thing you can really apologise for. But trying is definitely a start.”
“How long?” Lore lowered their head.
“Since you got kicked out and Crait took over.” She waited for a response. She checked her wrist. Her eyes widened slightly in surprise. “Oh, thirteen years.”
Char bobbed her head from side to side. “Could have been worse.” She whispered under her breath.
“It was bad enough.” Alodrass replied. “Your lot got the easy way out. The Aetar became house servants while the Soloss were forced into farms.”
“And The Protectorate had no knowledge of any of this?” Lore asked.
“None at all. To be honest, I didn’t even realise it had been that long. Suppose I’ve been in The Guild headquarters for too long.” Alodrass looked over her screen. “The ultimate in plausible deniability.” She held up a finger to the person off screen. “Hang on.” The video shook as she started to walk with it. “Trust me, it’s important.”
“Fine…” The secretary off screen sighed.
Lore and Char stood watching as Alodrass walked through the building and into the meeting room; a horseshoe shaped table waited ahead, every seat occupied with the seat opposite the door, facing the centre of the room, seating the Chief Minister of The Protectorate.
The Minister sighed before their assistant had chance to announce Alodrass. “Good afternoon Alodrass, I’m hoping we won’t be seeing an encore to last time’s performance.”
“No sir, I’m actually here on behalf of an old friend.” Alodrass set the terminal down in front of The Minister.
“Loren!” The Minister’s severe glare immediately vanished to be replaced by one of pleasant surprise. “It’s been a while. I heard you were in hospital during that nasty incident in Sheffield but, obviously, no-one saw fit to update me.”
Lore scratched their head. “I’m sorry about that.” The screen shuddered as Alodrass’ terminal started to slip down The Minister’s lectern. “Hold on, I’ll be with you in a moment.” They turned to Char. “Face to face?”
“Probably for the best.” Char nodded.
“Brian, can you give me the co-ordinates for that room?” Lore tossed him their Breacher.
He placed it on the terminal and tapped away at the keypad before returning it. “All ready to go.”
Lore nodded before taking Char’s hand. “Once more.” They didn’t realise it but they were smiling. Two flashes of white light saw them on the opposite side of the monitor.
“What the hel...” Only The Minister’s assistant was able to vocalise their wonder beyond a stunned gasp.
Lore took a bow. “Minister.”
The Minister didn’t say anything, they just stood, their eyes wide, their mouth agape; they walked slowly around the table and towards Lore and Char. They came to a stop about thirty centimetres away from Lore. Silence. After a moment of pause, The Minister extended a finger and prodded Lore’s shoulder. They seemed almost surprised that they collided with something but even more so when Lore prodded them back.
“I’m guessing they didn’t know we had these.” Lore shook their wrist at Char.
“They didn’t.” Alodrass replied.
“Right… Well, I did want to be as transparent as possible.” Lore shrugged. “I hope you don’t have any appointments this afternoon.”