Misha

Cold. Lore found themselves alone in an icy tundra. Stalagmites of ice as tall as buildings dotted the scene, broken from a mountain of snow; a massive dome provided the only contrast for kilometres. Luscious green trees surrounded a city on a hill, all encased in a dome of glass, protected from the snow. The New Hologram appeared. “Welcome to Illia. Its said to be the first planet that humanity colonised however, thanks to The Temporal Sciences Guild, that distinction didn’t last long. It was however the site of a major experiment.”
“What happened? They want to see how well people can live in a dome?” Lore shrugged.
“Not quite.” The New Hologram shook its head. “The original plan for Illia was to fill a colony ship with people, set them up and then cut their communications off for ten years and see what happened. Humanity was expanding rapidly and technology wasn’t quite up to snuff yet so they were worried about the effects of a major communications blackout.” Lore nodded. “The Military Guild suggested taking the experiment a step further. They changed the colonists from regular people and replaced them with bigots.” Lore glared at The New Hologram. “Their justification was that if they really wanted to check the effects of a blackout then they had to use people with radically different views. The Temporal Sciences Guild was in charge of sourcing the bigots, recruiting from the years after the Faochite Incident and before the Null Equality Act. They were put into cryo stasis and launched here.” The Dome appeared to come zooming towards them; the warmth embraced them immediately as did the smell of the trees and algae. It was a more natural smell than they were expecting as they flew towards the city. “Loren was sent here to set up the final stages of the experiment. They brought with them a monitoring post called Sanctuary Point and a few, more updated, pieces of equipment.”
“But what about this Misha?” Lore looked around, looking for Loren. The New Hologram just clicked its fingers.

The streets of the town were full. People were enjoying the artificially nice weather, taking advantage of their breaktime to get out of the office and get some fresh air. They were blissfully unaware of whatever was happening. A tall woman, with dark skin and a soft face appeared from the building behind Lore; she was outfitted in strangely heavy tactical armour, carrying a rather large rifle slung over her shoulder. A familiar face followed behind her. They were both giggling about something Lore couldn’t quite hear. Loren caught up to her and extended his hand. She took it and wrapped herself around his arm like ivy up a building. They walked together for a while, stopping every now and then for Loren to wipe his nose or for the woman to show off another part of her home city.
“Celreagaire is very clean. Love you’re green spaces too.” Loren remarked, blowing his nose for the umpteenth time.
“We pride ourselves on ensuring we have an environment everyone can enjoy.” The woman returned. “Of course, we could do better but…” She stopped herself. “I’m sorry sir, it would be wrong of me to speak out of turn.”
Loren smiled. “Please do. I’m here to learn all I can about Celreagaire; can’t do that if people are keeping things from me.”
The woman sighed. “The current Prime Minister, Rhys, is also our Commander. He’s balancing two jobs and, while he has been able to do it effectively for a while, he’s not getting any younger.”
“Thank you Leftenant.” Loren paused. “Undulia isn’t it?”
“Please.” She gave him a knowing look. “To you, it’s Misha.”

The buildings and the people melted away and reformed into another, similar settlement. At its core, a looming communications tower, surrounding it on all sides, walls of ice and snow. People in hard hats and high-vis jackets darted around the settlement carrying blueprints, materials and tools to complete construction as quickly as they could. Loren charged down the road and towards a building by the main airlock. They climbed the stairs, two at a time, before abruptly stopping at an office door. They paused before entering. “Commander Theresa Farkle.” Loren started. “How are things?”
“By the gods Loren…” She set her glass down before she spilt any more. “Forgot they never taught you Inquisitors to knock. Things are progressing fine. The base should be up and running before the end of your visit; we’ve got our agents ready in Celreagaire and the terminals have been linked so we can collect any data we need too.”
“Fantastic.” Loren smiled. “Remember. Once I’m gone…” He was cut off.
“Ten years, no data to Celreagaire. Not a magazine, not an article. I do know how to do my job. I get enough of this from Danica.” She took a sizeable swig from her glass. “Are the satellite buoys in place?”
Loren nodded. “Almost everything is in place. I just have two stops left and then, the experiment can begin.”
“A little rendezvous with a young Leftenant perhaps?” She teased.
“I’ve actually got to see a bloke about some clones unfortunately.” Loren sighed. “And then a young Leftenant yes.”

A single chair sat in the centre of a bank of consoles. A combination of touch screens, buttons and levers surrounded it on all sides, monitors and overlays trilled and beeped as the ship idled. Loren got comfortable or as comfortable as they could before opening a channel to Crait. “Things are in place.” He smiled. “Its actually going to be an interesting experiment now. How did these people elect the only competent person to be their Prime Minister AND their Military Guild Commander…”
“Hopefully that solves itself then.” Crait scoffed. Their face quickly dropped. “I know you’ve been there for a week and we were looking forward to getting some joint missions in but, I’ve got an assignment I can’t pass up so I need a favour…” Loren sighed. “I’m supposed to be securing the mining rights to this planet, place called Quatarr, but I’m needed on Faendrosis. Can you go instead?” They held their crossed fingers to the monitor. Loren nodded. “Thank you!”
“I’ll need the briefing.” Loren sighed. Departing Illia for a war zone, without any gauntlets. Clarity.