Occam’s Orbit

Co-ordinates prepared. Paragon seated, they were ready to depart yet Tay insisted they wait. So they did. Ship signatures began to appear, leaving Earth’s atmosphere and yet Tay still insisted they wait.
“They’ll only follow us.” She checked her Breacher. “You need to buy us a few minutes.” She tapped Lore’s shoulder before helping Alodrass with a chair.
“And if I can’t?” Lore turned to her.
“You can.” She checked her Breacher again and was somewhat concerned that it hadn’t changed yet. “Five minutes.”
The closest ship to The Destiny came to a stop. There was a gap of around fifty metres between them. If either ship fired, both would likely be destroyed. The ship pulled away slightly reducing those odds. Lore was about to open a communications channel but the other ship beat them to it.
“Glenn? You’ve got some nerve coming back after what you’ve done.” Neil’s face appeared on the centre console.
“Neil. I haven’t the foggiest what you mean.” Lore set a timer according to Tay’s prediction.
“Well, my friend, someone really needs to change their Breacher ID because we spotted you a mile off. I gave you the benefit of the doubt at first but then I did some digging and lookie here.” His face disappeared, being replaced by a series of documents listing Lore and Char’s crimes. “Looks like we’ve got public enemy number one in our sights. You’ve got some serious accusations against you.”
“You couldn’t be more right.” Tay whispered to herself. “But it’s not what you think.” She chuckled to herself.
“So what are you going to do? Because if you intend to kill us, well…” Tay mimed stall to Lore. “What if someone else did it?”
There was a moment of silence. “But they didn’t. It’s your file. We don’t want to kill you. We’ll give you a fair trial.”
“Who’s to say the file’s real? Innocent till proven guilty.” The timer seemed to slow the more they looked, they tried to avert their eyes .
There was an awkward pause as Neil shouted to his second in command to confirm the documents for him. “Fine, we’ll check them out. In the meantime then, that house you were in wasn’t Guild property so, I’m guessing it was yours?”
“It is.” Lore had to force themselves to remember that the longer they talked, the closer to Tay’s time they came unscathed. “Bought it a few years back. A part of my retirement plan.” Lore was talking out of their arse but surprisingly, Neil was listening.
“Sounds nice. The wife and I have been planning that sort of thing for a while now but I’ve never had the time.” Half way there. “Always wanted to see the falls on Utopia four but there’s always another mission. I’ve been days away from retirement for the last three and a half years.”
“Sounds rough. I’ve only just got married and so far it feels like I’ve spent the majority of my little honeymoon at my mother in laws.” Lore was increasingly confused by the candour in their rapport with Neil and how calm this stand-off had become.
“Last file’s just verifying and then we’ll be able to see about getting you back to your honeymoon.”
“Can I ask something? Why are you being so friendly with us? We could be the fugitives you’re looking for, but you don’t know that and we’re talking about retirement plans.” Lore couldn’t take it any longer.
“When you’ve been with The Guild as long as I have, you learn a few things. If you are who we think you are, we’ve only got authorisation to arrest you so we might as well be friends and make that process easier.” He had a point.
There were only a few seconds left on the timer but as they ticked down, more ships joined the fray. Both sides had been stalling.
“Well, isn’t this a coincidence.” A new face barged onto Destiny’s viewscreen. “Here’s me getting ready for Rexel and you come to meet me half way.” Reid’s ships weaved between Neil’s and bolstered his lines. There were obvious differences between them. While Neil’s fighters were small, lightly armed and carrying a Grappler, Reid’s were mostly weapons. Single crew vessels with enough armaments to level a city.
“Well isn’t this a coincidence.” Tay echoed as more vessels pinged on The Destiny’s scanner. Twenty brass spheres surrounded The Destiny before firing beams of light at one another. Completely surrounded by both The Guild, Reid’s fighters and this new enemy, Lore turned to their daughter. “Answer the call then.” She pointed to the new channel the spheres were attempting to open.
“USER L ZERO FIVE TWO OMEGA. YOU ARE HEREBY UNDER ARREST ON THE AUTHORITY OF THE MINISTRY OF EXTRAPLANETARY AFFAIRS.”
Lore looked to Tay. “What did you do?”
“More rather, what didn’t you do?” Her smugness put most spreadable condiments to shame with how thick it was.
“Extraplanetary affairs. Can I please have the charges you’re arresting us on?”
“USER L ZERO FIVE TWO OMEGA IS FACING A FINE OF UP TO SEVENTY THOUSAND OPEK AND THIRTY YEARS IN A PENAL COLONY FOR OUTSTANDING PARKING FINES.”
“You’d have thought after fifty two years they would have forgotten.” Lore turned back to the viewscreen to see Reid’s ships attempt to fire at them. Much to their pleasure, the Soloss drone’s restraining field was doing an impeccable job of protecting them. “So, I get that they’re saving us from Reid but what now?” Tay tapped her Breacher. “Good point.” Lore slammed their wrist against the interface, triggering the jump. Their position relative to Earth remained the same but their view improved significantly. “Destiny, can you please remove the ticket from your hull?”
“Already destroying it now.”
“Good work. Thanks.” Tay gave a slight bow. “And there he is.” The Razor was coming into view. “Lore to Razor, permission to dock.”
“Razor to Destiny, you are cleared for docking. By the gods is it good to hear someone else’s voice.” Lore restrained themselves from commenting on the laugh track being piped through Brian’s microphone.
They slowed to a snail’s pace as they manoeuvred through the strangely tight docking bay doors. As always, Lore handed over the parking job to Destiny while they and the rest of the crew prepared for disembarkation. Razors Revealed.