1:4:2 Tarthesis (Part 1)

Quiet. In the nearly hour and a half since they had left the canteen, neither Sky nor Blue had left or even attempted to communicate with anyone outside of the room. They had an hour left and both of them seemed intent on spending it exclusively in the other’s company. The canteen door slowly retracted into the wall revealing a sullen Blue.
“Sorry.” They closed the door behind them. “I think they just need some time to really think about it.”
Lore was taken aback by Blue’s sudden maturity. “What are you thinking about then?”
“How lucky we are to still be alive. I was nearly shot on Illia and then I nearly died in the firefight over Rexel. I don’t want to think about how close some of those shots came.” Blue wrapped themselves around Lore. “Thank you.”
“It’s for the best.” Lore tried to separate themselves from Blue but failed. “Is there anyone you wanted to say goodbye to?”
“I didn’t really get along with any of the fleet. That was more Mauve and Sky’s thing.” Blue shrugged.
“We’re an hour or so out and we’ll be meeting Dee a bit after that; you’ve got time if there’s anything you want to do.” Lore wasn’t sure how to comfort them.
Blue just nodded before returning to the canteen and to Sky.

Lore returned to the bridge. Char was sat laughing with Destiny and Curve. “When did you have time to do all of that?” Char scoffed.
“Lore gave us their Breacher…” Curve squirmed on Destiny’s lap.
“And we didn’t use it.” Destiny nodded at Lore with her head. “We definitely didn’t use it.”
All eyes turned to Lore. “What?” They tapped at their Breacher. “They didn’t use it. Or at least there’s no records of them using it to go anywhere but The Vengeance and The Destiny.”
“That’s because I used it to Breach us to The Vengeance’s recreational suite. Jo’tastia’t’s pretty chill.”
“Really? I didn’t think she’d allow humans on board without a Quatarrian.” Char doubted.
Destiny looked to Curve and Curve looked to Destiny before they both looked at Char. “Neither of us are human…” Curve began. “Least not entirely.”
“I’m a computer and she’s half Quatarrian. ‘Tastia’t was fine with letting us have a little fun. And anyway, you four were gallivanting around on Earth so I thought it was only fair we got some downtime.” Destiny patted Curve’s shoulder.
“Ace and the others really enjoyed using the training facilities. Not my idea of relaxing but still, got to keep fighting fit I suppose.” Curve got in closer. “I’d never been to a beach before…”
“How long until we get to Tarthesis?” Lore looked to the viewscreen. “Hang on, is that it?” There was a tiny planet on display.
“Oh yeah, we’ll be in orbit in about ten minutes.” Destiny double checked. “Twelve minutes.”
“I thought we still had an hour to go.” Char looked at the console in front of them.
“We’ve got an hour until the meeting. Twelve minutes until we land.” Destiny smiled. “Sorry for any confusion.”
Lore moved closer to the main console. “Right then, best get researching.” They formed a seat beneath them and started reading about the planet. “Standard gravity… Earth-like atmosphere… Oh but only in some places. There are tiny pockets dotted all over the place where the air is inhospitable to humans but not unbreathable for other life forms. Safer than Rexel but still not nice.” Lore continued, muttering to themselves.
Char moved from her own chair and hopped aside Lore on theirs. “I remember Tarthesis. It’s had a name change though. We called it GweddenLlond… The Widow’s moon. The locals were lovely.”
“Seems like the population’s mostly human now.” Lore sighed. “Sensing a pattern.” Lore returned to their research.
“So… What else exactly did you two get up to on The Vengeance then?” Char moved back to her own chair to better chat with Destiny and Curve.
Destiny looked at Curve as if waiting for her to start. “No, okay. As I said, we started off with a trip to a recreation of an Illian cafe. Before we.” Destiny gestured at herself, Lore and Char. “Got there. We had a cuppa and enjoyed the parks in the upper towns. We then moved down into the undercity, incited a rebellion, fought our way out then we moved to the simulated beach.”
“Oh, that was lovely.” Curve fawned. “I have never been so content while having something stuck in every nook and cranny of my body. I think I’ve still got some of that sand in my shoes.” Curve smiled.
“Are you two a thing then?” Char’s smile only made Curve’s blush deepen but it also achieved the impossible in causing the same reaction in Destiny’s synthetic skin.
“Maybe?” They shrugged. “No.” They said in unison.
“Maybe one day but not today.” Curve confirmed.
“It’d be fun. Just let us get to know each other properly first.” Destiny added.
Char’s smile only grew at them. “You two are really cute you know.”

Nine minutes later and they were just about to enter the atmosphere. The bridge door opened and Sky stepped through. They stood there in silence, staring at the viewscreen.
“That’s it then?” Sky stood directly behind Lore’s seat. “Not much to look at.”
“It’s just the meeting point. You’ll likely not be there for long.” Lore tried to move their chair forward but found it resistant to the notion, preferring to remain as Sky’s arm rest. “Taking us down.”

Descending through the atmosphere of Tarthesis was more akin to their landing on Illia than Rexel. There were times they intersected the native ‘wild’ zones and the viewscreen fogged over but those were few and far between as they passed through the clean and clear skies; outside of the ‘wild’ zones, in addition to the more hospitable air, spanned fields of amber grass and trees with leaves of orange. Their meeting point was a small village. It had only a handful of buildings and a single, solitary landing pad; surrounding the village to the east, a field of wheat like crops spread.
“Tarthesis settlement, this is The Destiny requesting permission to land.” Despite the lack of traffic, Lore only thought it polite to ask.
There was a crackle of static on the comm line then nothing.
“I’m receiving something in the lower bands.” Destiny forced her finger into her chair. “Putting it on speakers.”
There was yet another crackle before the tinny audio began. “Hello, hello? This is Treenam.” The voice sounded old and inexperienced. “Destiny.” He chuckled. “You’re cleared to land.” The line went dead.
“Wow, I didn’t know fabricators could be used as microphones.” Char laughed.
Sky tried hard to maintain their stony stoicism but found themselves unable to, cracking the smallest of smiles.
“Char and I will scout ahead. You’re free to join us if you want.” Lore got up and adjusted their top. “I think we ought to pay our traffic controller a visit.”
“Okay then.” Sky turned and left.
“They’ll come around.” Char put a hand on Lore’s shoulder. “Blue did at least.”