Slingshot

Outside. Almost immediately after returning, The First and the other Lores had been ejected from the diner, finding themselves huddled around in the car park.
“We talked about everything The First learnt and how them knowing everything changed things. We had always assumed Crait had a degree of foresight thanks to The Oracles but finding out how absolute their knowledge was, changed things.” The Hologram brought Lore closer to the group. A Breacher lay on the pavement, projecting a holographic model of the Milky Way as Tree energetically pointed out all the areas that would make adequate bases of operation based on Crait’s activity.
“My money’s on here.” They circled a nebula; their faux Irish accent particularly strong in their pronunciation of money. “This area has one of the densest gas clouds examined and has been like that for most of time. There’s a few planets nearby but, apart from that, even The Temporal Sciences Guild don’t know much about it.” There was a pause as the Lores and their Chars discussed the proposal.
“What did you say about the nebula cloud?” Truly turned back simulated time on the holographic map. “Either your Breacher’s broken.” She slowed her rewind as much as she could but the nebula seemingly disappeared out of nowhere. She fast forwarded time just as slowly, returning the nebula cloud. “Or this cloud appeared almost instantaneously.”
“A fake nebula. And it formed before the Cycle...” The First shook their head. “That’s where our base will be.” They stood.

The planet didn’t look like much. It had a surface similar to Earth’s moon but its craters and crevices were much less pronounced and the ground took on a more yellowish hue, looking similar to sand while retaining the sharp, gravel like texture. Pre-built before them, as if awaiting their arrival, a small metal building. The First strolled over to it as if they owned the place, leaving the remaining Lores and Chars to wonder where it had come from. The Hologram nearly blended into the group. “The First never told us how they had stolen a pre-fab hub from The Guild. Their whole reason for meeting Crait was to get the hub; somewhere we could call a home base that wasn’t Char’s small bungalow or The First and their Char’s somehow smaller house.” Lore found themselves dragged in as the space around them moved them through the walls of the hub. “It wasn’t much to start with but it was an entirely modular construction system so adding to it was a breeze.”
“Why are you different?” Lore looked The Hologram up and down. “You don’t seem… as formal.”
The Hologram sighed. “The Hologram capture work from most of the important memories was done by The First unless it required some emotion then Emm did it. Emm was supposed to do all of this bit but they were busy recording the last few memories with The First so… I said I’d step in. I’m an imprint of Lore number thirteen or Potts, my ‘Char’ is over there.” It pointed at Truly. “Anyway, where was I?”
“Something about this place being easy to expand.” Lore reminded it.
“Ah, yes!” It exclaimed. “Within a few days, and a few trips to The Guildhall, we stole enough modules to properly make this place into a home away from home. We called it ‘The Campus’. I had a lab, Ant had a lab, the others had their areas… And The First had their meeting room.” The floor, again became a conveyor belt as they were pulled towards the next memory.

“Now, onto the matter of the nebula. Any ideas as to how we can achieve it?” The First opened the floor.
Several Char’s raised their hands. The First nodded to one. “Pepp sir. I think Ant and I could potentially construct a series of drones with specially adapted Tempora cores that could be programmed to collapse simultaneously, leading to the creation of nebula like conditions with the advantage of us being able to undo the damage at will.”
“But how much Tempora would we be needing?” Tree butted in.
“Therein lies the problem.” Ant shook their head. “We’d need fifty two drones to cover the entire system and that means fifty two Tempora cores.”
“Why can’t we harvest the ships and drones around Quatarr?” The First’s Char raised her hand.
Ant and Pepp whispered to on another. “That… Might actually be viable.” Ant continued. “We’d jut need a ship.”
“And one that is capable of getting into Quatarrian space without alerting Crait.” Pepp added.
The First stroked their chin. “I’ve got an idea but I’ll need some time.”
“Sure enough, they vanished for a few weeks and reappeared with a Faochite ship. No questions no explanations. We got the cores and, within the week, we had a togglable nebula.” The Hologram directed Lore’s attention to the sky which soon filled with dark brown clouds. “We made sure that every settlement that would be in the nebula was self sufficient and protected… Before you ask.”

Lore’s point of view rapidly shifted as they found themselves floating above The Campus. Time advanced. The nebula flickered as it was enabled and disabled temporarily to allow a small group of ships to land and depart, resupplying the base. From those resources, a structure formed at the centre of The Campus in the courtyard.
“That was the unexpected advantage to building here.” The Hologram appeared beside them, waited and paused playback when the nebula next vanished. “See that light there?” Lore nodded. “That’s Quatarr. This planet virtually mirrors Quatarr’s orbit so, we used it to our advantage.” Their focus was drawn to the new addition. “That’s The Slingshot, a piece of technology that I worked on with Ant, Pepp and Truly. Capable of launching a ship into a Breach, allowing it to travel in time. The simplest way to get a small military to past Quatarr.”
“A military? Of just Lores and Chars?” Lore looked at them confused.
“Ah, we weren’t the only ones that lived here.” The Hologram smirked. Colonies.