1:4:7 Solutions (Part 1)

Blinking. The suns burnt high in the sky and without the nebula to block them out, they were blinding to the unprepared. There was scaffolding everywhere despite the buildings being finished and structurally sound. It was hot but not unbearably so and the air smelt somewhere between an active exhaust pipe and a burning bread factory. Lore stuck both of their arms up in the air; when neither of them came crashing down on them, they returned them to their sides. The gravity was Earth-like which was a welcome reprieve from the near Quatarrian gravity of The Razor. It was like stepping into a sauna or getting out of a pool. There was a faint sound of machinery in the distance; grinders screeched and hammers crashed and there was a slight but noticeable, constant whirring that backed the cacophony. Lore and Char took a moment to survey their surroundings; a quick scan told them that there were indeed, only twenty six Lores and twenty six Chars, confirming they had landed at the right time but none of them were in their immediate vicinity. The maps were scaled to the interior dimensions of the main building so made The Slingshot installation look larger than it was, with the exception of The Slingshot itself which was comprised of two, sky scraper sized, towers of metal, wiring and conduits. The campus that surrounded the towers was just over half a square kilometre in area, with fourteen sides and The Slingshot taking up a large portion of the central courtyard. There were other, smaller buildings orbiting the campus, each connected by a large pipe or track. They oriented the plans with their reality and searched for the nearest entrance to them. Their plan to avoid suspicion and immediate detection had developed a slight flaw as they were about a five minute walk in the open away. They took their first step towards the entryway and the crunch underfoot gave Lore pause for concern. Slowly, they looked down, wincing, but their worries were quickly assuaged as the ground was merely dried dirt rather than dreaded sand. They walked slowly so as not to fill their shoes with it.
“You alright?” Char double checked the planet’s gravity. “You’re not as… Energetic as you usually are.”
“Sorry?” Lore shrugged.
Char stopped and let them catch up. “You usually walk like a penguin with their arse on fire.”
“I don’t want to get whatever this stuff is in my shoe.” They carefully kicked up some of the dust. “There must have been better planets in this system to do this on…” They grumbled. “They could have at least built a path or something...”
“It’s a bit rough isn’t it.” She sympathised. “Come on, the main entrance shouldn’t be too far away. Hopefully they’ve got a proper floor in there.”
“Oi! You two!” A voice with the cadence and tone of a mildly annoyed, welsh fire fighter called out at them. “Ain’t you forgetting something?” They turned to see a strange Lore bashing themselves in the hard hat. “Helmets need to be on when you’re within twenty metres of scaffolding. Rule’s there to keep safe. Come on…” They sounded almost disappointed. “Don’t tell me, you’ve lost it? Must have lost your tongues too. Right, with me.” They grabbed a wrist from each of them and started pulling them towards their destination. “Bloody newbies, I only came looking for Elle but no, I had to find the only two clowns not wearing their protection.” They grumbled as they walked, their captures trailing behind, no longer resisting. “You two got names?”
“I’m Lore.” Lore coughed through the trail they were kicking up.
“And I’m Char.” She tried to readjust the strange Lore’s grip on her wrist.
“And I’m a monkey’s uncle. I can see that!” They threw Lore and Char ahead. “Which Lore and which Char then? Number’s will do.”
“Fifteen and Forty.” Lore lied. They tried to subtly count on their fingers to find the correct, corresponding Char to their Lore.
The strange Lore grabbed them both again and Breached them away.

“They’re nothing if not unoriginal.” Although their left eye was still adjusting to the near pitch black room they had Breached into, their right eye allowed them to sense their surroundings enough to know that they were in a room not unlike the one they had been taken to on The Razor or the one they had been questioned in after their mission to Quatarr. “I wonder how many times they’ve rebuilt this room. Seems like a waste.”
“It is a tad pretentious.” Char concurred.
A spotlight illuminated them while making it nearly impossible to see any of the Lores and Chars that had gathered in the boxes around them. Four white flashes around the circumference of the room were the only tell that anyone else had joined them. They waited in silence until one of their captors chose to speak.
“So… You two claim to be Fifteen and Forty… Interesting.” The First illuminated their box. “Your DNA is a match for ours however, Fifteen and Forty or Han and Prinn as they now go by are sat in their box.” A second light lit showing a confused Lore and Char pair. “You are both wearing functional modes of time travel and you do pass all biometric tests so, for now, we will entertain the notion that you are who you say you are.” The First paused. “You will be allowed full access to this site on the condition that you are under the escort of a member of our council at all times and you remain a suitable distance from Han and Prinn for the duration of your visit.” The room was flooded with light, again blinding them while also disguising the retreat of most of the council members.
“Come on then you two.” The strange Lore that had caught them, caught them again. The name’s Sam by the way.”
They walked for a moment before Lore couldn’t stop themselves. “Sorry, I really need to know and you’re free to tell me to piss off but why do some Lores have noticeably different accents? I know I sound like I’m from a different part of England to the others but at least we’ve all got accents from the same country so why do you have a Welsh accent?”
They shrugged. “I spent a lot of time working in and around Cardiff. There’s a power plant just outside of the city which managed to produce an element that we thought we might be able to use instead of Tempora. We managed to use it but it’s only really good for one way travel so we put it in our Shredders.” They waggled a small cannister that was attached to their belt “If I ever come close to death it activates itself and brings me back here or to wherever we programmed it for.” They turned a corner and it was if they were back on The Razor. The corridor ahead looked almost identical to the one on the ship. Windows on one side and a series of doors on the other; rather than a hangar, the windows looked out on the surface of Johned. “Right then, our rooms are in there, we’ve got a church through there and at the end of the hall…”
“Is a meeting room?” Char finished.
“Oh… I suppose you remember from now?” Sam scrunched their face up in confusion. “The guest rooms are right at the end. You’re looking for a door with no name on it. Sorry but I’ve got to pop off, Elle needs an extra pair of hands.” A quick nod from all present and they were gone.
“At least this time we’re not under house arrest this time.” Char shrugged. “Though I thought we were supposed to be under guard?”
Lore looked around. “I don’t think they’ve got the staff… Still, Sam must trust us. Makes a change. Fancy a look at the room?”
“Go on.” Char opened the door for them and waved them in.
Again, another familiar corridor. A thin strip of carpet separated them from the cold, steel flooring. Either side of them were doors with the various Lore and Char couple names. They wandered down to the end where they found that the last four rooms were designated for guest use. Lore opened the door and poked their head through.
They returned with a disappointed look on their face. “We are bloody lazy.” Lore shook their head.
“Cambridge?” Char sighed.
“Cambridge. At least this time though there isn’t an angry Lore pointing a gun at us.” Lore pushed the door open and held it for Char. “I bet they’ve got a hel of a fabricator network here.”
“It’s probably the same as on The Razor.” She rested her hand on their shoulder. “Quantum storage is incredibly space efficient.”
The room was surprisingly nice. The carpets looked as though they had never been looked at let alone walked on, there wasn’t a speck of dust anywhere and the room looked and smelled brand new. The more they looked around, the louder the question in their head became until they both had to ask.
“Why do they have guest rooms?” They shouted at one another. “Good question.”
“It’s nice though isn’t it?” Char looked impressed.
Lore just nodded as they continued looking through the room. It was spartan beyond their wildest beliefs, there was just enough for two people to live comfortably; two dinner plates, two cake plates, two glasses, two bowls and two chairs. There was a small kitchenette opposite an open plan living room with a small dining table separating the two. On the table was a small fruit bowl, stocked with the shiniest apples Lore thought they had ever seen. They followed the path they did last time to get to their room but were surprised to find the long corridor replaced with a spiral staircase. Slowly and while gripping the bannister rail with most of their strength, Lore ascended to their room’s second floor. There was only one room and the staircase acted as its door; it was as large as the rooms below it and just as filled. A bed made from two king sized matresses side by side and some storage were the only things in the room. As they got into the room properly, they noticed a fabricator built into the wall.
“That’s… A bed.” They called down to Char. “Come up here! You’re not going to believe this.”
Char rocketed up the stairs and stopped just behind Lore, using them to stop herself from flying into the room. “Bloody hel. That is a bed.”
Lore removed their shoes and lunged at the mattress. They were swallowed by its foamy embrace, drowning as they sank, flailing and kicking. “Help!” Their screams were muffled by the duvet that had somehow trapped them. They were still laughing which was a good sign.
Char chuckled then took off her own shoes and mounted the bed beside them. She joined in on the joke as she wobbled and struggled to stay upright. “I thought you were joking. This is like walking on sand.” Although she was better prepared, she still struggled to get to Lore. Once she found her footing, she waddled over and pulled Lore from the deep pit in the foam they had created. She flipped them over to find them laughing to the point of asphyxiation. Somehow, their impact had formed a crater nearly as deep as the mattress itself. Carefully, they both rolled off of the bed before lifting the mattresses. There was nothing but a small, black rectangle under the bed.
“Who installs foam mattresses without putting supports in below?” Char gestured to where the support bars should have been.
“How do you put a bed together without the supports? How was that keeping the bed up?” Lore put their foot on the lip of the bed frame and showed how little of their foot could fit on it. “Hang about, what’s that?” They picked up the rectangle and flipped it over. “Another tablet.” They shook their head and handed it to Char.
“It apparently controls the bed’s firmness.” She tapped at it and a set of slats extended from the frame. “I think that might increase it, drag it and we’ll see.”
Lore hesitantly sat on the bed only to find that now, it functioned like a normal bed. “Better. Still a little too soft.” She swiped her finger across the tablet again and Lore slowly rose as the bed became firmer. “Perfect.”
Char sat beside them. “I’m glad that we can control both sides separately. This is awful.” She crawled across the pile of bricks they were calling a bed before reaching the other side and feeling herself drop into the softness. “Just a little bit firmer I think.” Another swipe sorted it out. “Now what?”
“Cup of tea?” Lore got up.
“Go on then. Splash of milk, two sugars.” Char waved them down the stairs.
Lore laughed. “Cheeky. You’ll have to come and get it then.” Their face immediately dropped as they started down the stairs. They clamped their hand again on the bannister before taking a step back and Breaching downstairs instead.