1:5:2 Fate (Part 1)

Roaring. The engines above howled as Char and Destiny double checked their limits. Data on the screen, they sent it down to The Slingshot team below. The air on the bridge may as well have been evacuated as the doors opened and Crait entered. Vacuum. Destiny melted into the console rather than endure the awkwardness to come. Crait looked at Char then reversed out of the room. They waited for the door to close, knocked on it and then entered again. Char turned to watch as they re-entered.
“So… This is nice…” They moved around the outer walls, inspecting the various panels. “I’m guessing most of these are redundant or are duplicated on the commander’s chair.” Crait nodded at the chair in the middle of the room.
“Lore’s chair can take full control of The Destiny if needs be.” Char made sure to emphasise Lore’s name while keeping things curt.
Crait sauntered over to the chair and got comfortable. “You know, the way I see it, it’s a little strange that you don’t like me. You’re a clone too. I haven’t done anything to you.”
“So you didn’t chase Lore out of the main headquarters in nothing but their skivvies and a jacket under threat of death?” Char slapped their legs off of the arm of the chair. “I guess you didn’t attack me on Rexel or free Undulia then set her on us after promising you wouldn’t.”
Crait leant forward, planting both feet on the floor. “I think you and I remember Rexel differently. You did that to yourself. I found you, nearly dead on that building; we had a nice chat, then I vanished. I barely laid a finger on you.”
“Simplicity then.” Char countered.
“Okay, you’ve got me there. That was messed up of me. I made a mistake and couldn’t correct it in time.” Crait looked genuinely disappointed in themselves. “I know I’ve already apologised but when we find them, I’m…” They took a breath. “I’m just sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt them like that.”
Char’s eyes narrowed. “How can you sit there and say that? You’ve hunted and persecuted each one of their Remnants. Hundreds of years of running for them but you didn’t mean to hurt my Lore?”
“Just because they hate me doesn’t mean I hate them. I can feel compassion.” Crait sighed. “Evidently, I feel guilt. But if they saw what I did, the way I did, maybe they would realise that I was right.”
“Anyway… Shall we?” Crait waggled their Breacher. “Save you some energy. It must burn every time you use that thing.”
“It’s worth it to know where I’m going.” Char vanished.
“Like I’d be thick enough.” Crait mumbled to themselves.
“I’m a ship and even I trust you about as far as I could throw you.” Destiny paused. “I know I don’t have arms at the moment but still, the point stands.”
“Where are you? I saw you, then you vanished. You definitely didn’t Breach away so…” Crait slowly stood and started prowling around the bridge. Every now and then, they would take an apprehensive step towards a console only to recoil back as if it had bitten them. “Where did you go?”
Destiny revelled in their caution before settling on the best vector of approach. After watching them lunge towards the main console for the third time, she decided to make things interesting. Before Crait could jump back, she struck; her hand formed and grabbed their wrist, holding them firmly in place.
“What in the… Hey!” Crait’s voice quickly became a garbled mess as the rest of Destiny poured from the ceiling, her other hand forming around their mouth as her grinning face fell into view.
“Shush.” She smiled. Her body rotated as her spine unspooled. “I never left.” She gently removed her hand from their mouth.
“Fascinating.” Crait tried to mask the adrenaline in their response. “What are you? Biological or organic? Faochite maybe?”
“Bio-Mech.” She let go of them fully and fell to the floor, her legs falling from her torso as she did. “I’m a hundred percent mechanical but I can fool the best scanners.” She winked. “You better get going, before I evacuate the oxygen or something.” She chuckled.
Crait couldn’t help but admire her. “I’ll be seeing you.” They smiled before fading to blinding white.

All eyes were on them; Crait had, without intending, made a scene. The Chars returned to work but most of the Lores continued to stare daggers.
Crait accepted their punishment, scanning their attackers for the weakest among them. “I’m sure I’ve met you before.” Crait scowled at Tree. “You were there at… The Paraultis system.” They tried to sound as insufferable as possible.
“I was.” Tree looked ready to attack them. “I was there as your ship reduced an empire to nothing. I saw the ships, torn from space by whatever evil your Simplicity wields.” They shook their head. “I heard their last messages.”
“So did I.” Crait smiled as they removed a small, circular piece of rock from their belt buckle. “This is the pebble, the radiation from which caused the mutations that led the single celled organisms in the Paraultian seas to develop into intelligent life.” They misted its surface with their breath before polishing it against their shoulder. “And it’s right where it belongs.” Crait returned it to their belt.
Tree flew across the room. Crait replaced them, Breaching away at the last moment.
“Now, that’s not very nice, we’re all allies here.” Crait smiled.
“Then perhaps, we should start acting like that’s true.” Char stepped in. “You lot, back to work or whatever you were doing and Crait… Stop trying to piss people off.”
The First nodded, agreeing with Char’s sentiment, setting the Lores back to work. A harmony of grumbles preceded their return to their given tasks. The First flashed a look of admiration before getting to business. “Come join us. We’ve been waiting for you.” They gestured for Char and Crait to take the seats opposite them and Charrlene. “Three… Two… One…” They waved their hand, heralding the entrance of four newish faces. Potts, Truly, Ant and Pepp walked into the room with grim looks plastered across their faces. They each nodded at The First before sitting. “How are things looking?”
Potts stood. “Not good I’m afraid.” They activated the table’s holographic projector. “We’ve had time to look over the numbers…” They displayed a model of The Slingshot. “We won’t have to adjust The Slingshot too much to make the jump, as nonsensical as it is…” Their voice trailed off.
“I’m sensing a but.” Crait lounged back in their chair.
“Even with all of the cells and backups here on Johned and on The Razor, we’ve just not got enough energy to safely manoeuvre you close enough to The Three Year Month without it being a suicide run.” Potts showed the data. The bar chart showed several blue bars followed by a rather large and aggressively coloured bar with the title radiation.
“What’s the closest you can safely do then?” Charrlene asked.
“We can get you there, guaranteed, for a week and a half after.” Potts lowered their head in shame.
Char looked at them confused. “Well, that’s fine isn’t it? We keep in orbit, Breach back a week and a bit, grab Lore and go?”
“If they can’t get close with a Spacio-Temporal Accelerator then a teleporter, and even a Breacher wouldn’t be able to get any closer.” Crait scoffed. “Lore channelled an entire planet’s worth of Tempora radiation into one area. You may as well Breach straight into whatever afterlife your people believe in. Save you the radiation poisoning.”
“Fine then…” Char sighed. “I’m sure Lore can survive a week and a half on Quatarr.”
The First’s face hardened. “Can history though?”
The table fell silent.
“Well, if you still go through with it, it’s going to be a rough journey.” Truly swiped through the holographic presentation. “We can only stabilise your flight path on this side of the Breach. Destiny is going to have to do the rest.”
“Or she would be if she let us update her framework. Who thought it was a good idea to give a ship a lippy AI?” Ant brought over a stack of silicon chips. They slammed them on the table beside Char’s elbow. “These are the upgrade cards if you can get her to install them.”
Pepper rested a hand on their shoulder. “Char, she’s your friend. If you can get her to install them or at least look through the calculations then you should be alright.” Her voice was smooth and calming. Ant instantly softened.
“Will The Destiny’s radiation shielding be enough?” Char span the model of The Destiny, noticing it had been highlighted and split into two sections: The rear and engineering section and the Fore and bridge section.
“That’s why we need Destiny to be ready for it. She’s going to be the only one who can safely stay on the bridge during the jump.” Ant shook their head.”Unless you two want to risk it.” They looked between Charrlene and Char. “And I wouldn’t mind it if he was up there too.”
There was another moment of silence. Anger flickered across Crait’s face but the flash lasted barely a nanosecond before it was replaced with a subtle smile. Crait stood and slowly reached into their jacket. They made sure to make eye contact with the rest of the table’s occupants as if to assure them they wouldn’t attack. Crait removed a small, heat-scorched, metal cylinder; they slowly approached Ant and placed the cylinder in their hand. The entire room felt their stomach sink.
“Why exactly are we working with him?” Ant threw it down, cracking the table. “Why… Why…” They stormed out of the room, their face reddening to the point of flame.
Crait picked the tube up again and handed it to Pepp. She smiled diplomatically before leaving to follow Ant.
“There’s got to be a way to re-route control to the drive section.” Char paused, trying to ignore and move past the event. “All we should need is a terminal and a monitor.”
Potts chuckled as they slapped their hand to their face. “We were completely overthinking it.” They started tapping away at the hologram. Images started flickering and changing as they edited it. “The energy requirements we were working on were based on trying to get you to The Three Year Month. If we aim to approach from the other direction, using the month as a buffer to slow you down…” The flickering continued to the point of strobing. “Maybe…” They muttered as they worked, their audience rapt. “Done! I think…”
“Done what?” The First looked over the new plans. Not much had appeared to have changed.
“How have you managed that?” Truly marvelled at the changes. Almost everyone else at the table just looked confused. “They’ve reduced power consumption by nearly fifteen percent. I just don’t know how?”
“It’s elementary; time isn’t a straight line.” They stopped.
“Okay?” The First prompted them to explain themselves.
“Right!” It was as if they had been caught in a trance. “When we visualise time, we often think of it as being a two dimensional plane that intersects our three dimensional universe at multiple points but rather it is, in fact, a separate, three dimensional plane of its own… At least for this demonstration it is. Meaning there is more than one way to get back to the war. We could approach head on, assuming time as being two dimensional, or we could curve around and instead slingshot around to here and approach it from afterwards.” They showed the new trajectory with a galaxy of temporal points rather than planets. A Breach in spacetime formed just to the right of The Three Year Month which a micro-scaled Destiny appeared from before being attracted to the sphere.
“Inspired.” Crait sounded utterly unenthused. “Are we ready to get going yet?”
“I will need to update The Slingshot and the others with the new calculations but we should be ready by the end of the day.” Truly transferred the hologram to her Breacher.
“I’ll be back on the ship then.” Crait sighed then blinded everyone present with their exit.
“I’ll keep an eye on them.” Char tapped her wrist.
The First crossed the table before she could get much further, grabbing her hand to stop her. “Be careful. They’re an arse but they’re a charming arsehole. Don’t give them anything. Nothing.” They let go.
“Trust me, I intend to take as much as they have.” Char brushed her wrist off before vanishing.