"Hello, can anyone hear me? Respond please."
The voice came from one of the meeting rooms in the Nelagan-Gralan embassy in Nova Kajar. No diplomats were meant to be arriving this week, so the aide assumed it was someone lost.
"Hello, can anyone hear me? Respond please."
There was the voice, again. "In a moment!" the aide yelled, finishing off what he was typing.
"Hello, can anyone hear me? Respond please."
There was the voice, again, exactly the same. "Coming!" the agent said, exasperated. He sent the email, then ran into the room the voice was coming from, to see Andreas the Wise; Minister for Greed; and eminent Gralan, say again "Hello, can anyone hear me? Respond please."
"I'm here," the aide said, very surprised to see Andreas here.
"Name and rank," Andreas demanded.
"Er, James Smith, aide to the Nelagan representative for Gralus ..." the aide spluttered.
"Your rank is not high enough," Andreas stated, calmly. "Please return with the President, the Minister for Diplomacy, and/or the Commander in Chief. There is a grave diplomatic communication to be delivered - it is of the utmost importance it is delivered as soon as humanly possible."
"But why me, why now?" the aide asked, confused.
"I am sorry," Andreas said, "my responses are limited. You will have to ask the right questions."

It was at this moment that the aide realised Andreas' eyes were not looking at him. They were looking straight at the door. They had not moved at all to indicate they had seen the aide. The aide, curious, walked around Andreas, who was now silent, and soon found ... that it was not Andreas, but a flat projection of him. It was a hologram. The Gralans had hologram machines? Ones that could interpret and respond to basic verbal commands? That was amazing! But more importantly, he had to find the President, or CinC, or Minister, immediately!

An hour or so later, with some confusion and slight protestations, President Jonas and Gman, the High Judge, were standing in the room, to see this 'hologram machine'. "President Jonas here, and this better be important," Jonas said. "I'm missing breakfast."
"Voice recognised and approved," the hologram stated. "Message follows." For a moment the hologram flickered, and then Andreas stood there again, but much more naturally.
"Welcome," he said. "If you are receiving this message, it means that Q's prototype interactive hologram machine is actually working! That's a miracle in itself. But more importantly, if you are receiving this, it means the Fate Distortion project has been activated, at whatever time this message first appeared."
"Fate Distortion?" Gman muttered.
"Shh," Jonas said, listening to the message.
"The Fate Distortion Project was a secret project of MANA's, unknown even to the Triumvirate or the other Lord's of Magic. It was started after the Demon War, and designed as a last defence, to be activated in the event that we faced a foe so terrible we seriously doubted our chances of victory. When activated, it will remove all of Gralus' lands from space and time - we couldn't know in advance where we would be fighting this foe, so we did what we hoped will have removed all traces of it from Micras. Gralus' lands are now in an inescapable time loop, focused on that foe. It will endlessly repeat the events that led up to the Fate Distortion Project being activated. MANA, meanwhile, and all those loyal to it, will be outside, in a separate time/space area. We will be able to enter the time loop, and hopefully this time prevent whatever occurred. We have all of eternity to try and fix it, though we hope we'll do it sooner. Why are we telling you this? Well, a foe that would require the activation of the Fate Distortion project is a magical one so powerful that conventional military will be almost useless against it. It may even find some way to defeat us and break out of the time loop. We are warning you, to give you time to prepare. Keep watch. If ever Gralus' lands reappear, and they are ravaged and destroyed, then it will mean the foe has defeated us and escaped the enchantment. This message is being sent to you and Shireroth; the two other most magically powerful nations on Micras. If it has beaten us, only you two will have any chance of defeating it. If nothing else, go to Ptia - warn Sai'Kar. She may know what to do. If we should fail, there will only be you and Shireroth left. The fate of the world shall depend on you. Good luck."
The image of Andreas faded.
"Is that it?" Gman asked. Suddenly, the image reappeared.
"Oh, one last thing," Andreas said, with a wink. "Should any clowns at the MCS try and remove our claim just because we aren't on the land at the moment, please stop them. We'd hate to have just defeated the most dangerous foe Micras has ever seen ... only to arrive back and discover we'd crushed some foolish colony which had decided to try and settle our lands while we were saving the world." Then the image was gone, and the room went quiet.

Jonas was surprised by the hologram... and the news.
"Send our airships on patrol to Gralus, even if we have to break in in their airspace," said the president to the closest officer. Then he looked through the room and asked: "Where is our Commander in Chief?"
One of the present servants responded: "Err... Nick was a Gralan, sir, and disappeared."
That moment Jonas sunk in the ground of embarrassment.
"I assume we don't have any minister available who hasn't disappeared?"
"GMan, sir." responded the servant, "He stands next to you."
"Oh, err... yes, sorry Gman, it are the nerves," Jonas said, "Send the airforce!"

An half hour later, the first messages arrive at the Blue House of the president.
A communication officer runs in the chamber, where Jonas and Greg are heavily discussing about the nuclear waste in the lake (alright, they aren't very focused on the important matters). He approaches the president and gives him a full report of the situation. The president silently reads the letter, sits down and start to talk to Greg: "The Epoch Squad has confirmed that Gralus is gone. Literally gone..."

Greg, as Commander walked towards the president.
"We have to find thisd Sai'Kar person, mister president," he said.
"I know, Greg. But it's almost impossible to enter Ptia as non-Micron, let stand that we will actually find Sai'Kar."
"We can try..."
"Yes, we can..." wand with these last words, Jonas took his coat and left the chamber.

The president's phone rings... The Kaiser of Shireroth. Well, there's a guy who doesn't call every day.

The content of the call is a brief invitation to a council on Gralus, for which arrangements are quickly made.