1:4:1 Cambridge (Part 2)

Inside the cube was strangely, exactly what Lore had expected. They were in a room about two metres by two metres; a door and a button being the only things in the room save them. The grungy exterior matched the interior of at least the foyer. That changed quickly after Lore opened the door ahead of them. A modern, by two thousand and nine’s standards, looking room stretched ahead of them and wrapped around. Char soon joined them, Blue and Sky in tow.
“Nice place.” They looked around, gawping at the internal dimensions and their impossible correlation with their external dimensions.
“Isn’t it just.” A voice came from around one of the corners. A pistol appeared before the body and voice that owned it. “Now, would one of you like to tell me what you’re doing in my…” They stopped as soon as they came face to face with Lore. “Oh. You’re not supposed to be here.” A warped mirror stood before them, a pistol’s barrel between their eyes.
“Woah, woah.” Lore remained still but raised their hands slowly in surrender.
The other Lore didn’t relent, keeping their pistol trained on Lore as they reached into their pocket. They removed a small device, similar to Lore’s tablet and fumbled with it as they tried to use their non-dominant hand to operate it. They navigated through the device’s files and folders before closing what they were doing and doing it again.
“Can’t be right.” They mumbled. “Bear with me.”
Lore politely nodded.
“Who are you? Name and number.” The other Lore dropped the device into their pocket then firmed up their grip on their pistol.
“Lore…” Lore stopped. The other Lore gestured for them to continue. “I don’t have a number.”
They lowered their pistol slightly. It’s journey down Lore’s body took forever but eventually, it reached a point where it would no longer immediately kill them but would instead mortally wound. “I’m guessing the same goes for you Char?” They looked her up and down. “Nice disguise.” They looked back to Lore. “You two aren’t meant to be here. It’s not part of the plan.” The other Lore holstered their pistol and grabbed their phone; they took something else from near their pocket and drew closer to Lore. “This is my timeline. These are a few of the others but you… You are all the way out here.” The other Lore showed them a series of timelines on the phone screen then zoomed all the way out, passing twenty five wobbly lines before finally revealing a twenty sixth. “See, right now, you’re supposed to be following the tablet’s instructions.”
“What does ‘Emm’s Project’ mean?” Lore tried to swipe ahead to see where their timeline terminated.
The other Lore pulled the phone away. They thought for a moment. “What the hel, you’ll find out soon anyway. Emmett was your creator.” The other Lore grimaced. “They went behind our backs with a handful of Chars and created you two without creating a timeline remnant. If we lose, we lose.”
“Surely they can just make one this time round?” Char moved toward Lore.
“That’s not how the cycle works. They went back in time without making a remnant meaning they started the cycle without a remnant to take their place. They’ve had to do their jobs and the jobs their remnant would have to do while also delegating work to you two screw ups.” The other Lore shook their head.
“That still doesn’t explain why they can’t create a remnant this time.” Char moved even closer.
“I think I just told you why. Because they were so busy making you to make a remnant, they had to take on double duties while still babysitting you two, we lost access to the one place we needed to make remnants: The slingshot. Without The Slingshot, we don’t have the energy to make remnants. Because of you, we had to evacuate The Slingshot and deploy the countermeasures to make sure Crait and their cronies didn’t get it either.”
“What kind of countermeasures?” Char was hand in hand with Lore.
“The Johned Nebula. No one can Breach in and it’s a pain in the arse to fly through.” The other Lore took the hint and backed away slightly.
“The whole nebula… It’s just a defence mechanism for what, a space station?” Lore tried to think if they had seen mention of a space station on the tablet.
“UPC-052: Unknown Planetary Cluster fifty two. There’s a planet at the core of the nebula with a direct sight to…” They paused. “The final staging ground. You need to get there as soon as possible so stop arsing around here and get back to work.” The other Lore snapped.
“We have time machines mounted on our wrists. This is a saturated point. We’ve got all the time in the world.” Char started.
“What are you doing here anyway? Times like these are saturated for a reason. Can’t really change history surrounded by time travellers.” Lore finished.
“It’s about motivation. You spend too long here, you’ll forget what you were supposed to be doing and we’re all screwed.” The other Lore took out their phone again. “I’m here because one of us needed to lure Crait here to give everyone else some breathing room. I’m meeting them in a cafe on the day of the party.”
“Mauve just died. I think if anything, a break from all of that will increase their motivation.” Char scowled in a whisper. A crack appeared in the façade of The other Lore; worried confusion.
“Mauve’s dead?” They checked their phone again. “That wasn’t supposed to happen. Mauve was supposed to lead the cavalry charge on Quatarr…” They double checked their checking. Mauve was most certainly dead. They moved their lips to speak but then stopped.
“You going to let us go now?” Char poked at their shoulder.
“Sure. Just stay away from the Corn exchange.” They turned to walk away but stopped. “And don’t take all of the money. Two hundred quid’ll be more than enough for a couple of days out.”
“Just in case we run into you again, what’s your name?” Lore gave an awkward smile. The other Lore held their hand on the door handle.
“They call me Caff.” And with that, Caff was gone.
They all stood there for a moment, confused and shocked about what had just transpired. Blue and Sky entered the main room.
“Okay… Does that sort of thing normally happen?” Sky broke the silence.
“Not really but I think it’s probably going to be a reoccurring problem.” Lore chuckled. They thought for a moment then walked over to a nearby plant. They lifted the pot, revealing a small lockbox buried in the floor. They tapped in the code but it was unnecessary as the box was already unlocked. They withdrew two hundred pounds in ten and twenty pound notes but as they did, they saw something else beside the plant pot. A small vial with a needle tip labelled ‘In case of emergency’ had rolled from somewhere and had been caught by the drip tray below the plant. Lore was careful in the way they manipulated the syringe as they hovered it over their Breacher to scan.
“This is an injectable of Sevoflurane, a highly potent anaesthetic. There is enough here to knock out an adult Quatarrian for at least thirteen hours. However, this was designed by The Council for use on Lores who had deviated from their timelines; this would have rendered you unconscious for nearly a full day, allowing The other Lore to put you back on the right track.” Gideon chimed in.
“Oh…” Lore gently placed the syringe in the plant pot before moving it back over the lockbox. “Let’s get rested then have a look around? Sound like a plan?” Char and the siblings nodded. “Fantastic. Rooms should be through this way.” Lore led them to a door. They opened it. A hallway that stretched to a seemingly infinite degree stood before them. There were doors on either side, a meter between each room. Each door had a label on it and on each label, a name and a number.
“Trippy.” Blue muttered.
They started walking down the hallway. The rooms were in numerical order. The names for what they assumed were Lore’s on one side and Chars on the other. Between each pair, on either side, there were two filler rooms with seemingly random nouns and adjectives. A pattern soon emerged.
“Aloe, Edge, Blindside and Outlier… Deuce, Peak, Focus and Anomaly… They’re all synonyms.” Char tapped on a sign. “They’re all clones. Aloe is Ace, Edge is Midpoint, Blindside is Magpie and Outlier is Curve.”
“But who made them? Tolan only made the four.” Lore pressed on. Eventually, they reached their section, right at the end.
“We’ll stay in Lore’s room, you two can choose between the others but I’d recommend you stick to my room. I don’t know if the clones know about this place.” Char tried to open the door but it didn’t budge.
Lore placed their hand on the handle and a small window appeared on the door. “Hmm. Looks like I can add you to the biometrics… And change the configuration of the room too. I’ll get us sorted in here, could you sort them out in your room?” Char nodded.