Lessons

Blinking. Lore and Char were expecting a small twin bed room but the quarters before them were far from that. Their judgement was not made out of a false assumption, they were most correct in their original belief however, the room did not match its external dimensions.
“Modern marvel.” Their escort broke the silence. “You Lores are a thing of wonder.” They quickly added. “Chars too. Mustn’t forget the Chars.” They smiled as they handed over a pair of keys and departed.
“Bit much but I suppose that’s the council to a tee.” Char started looking around their new room. “This place is nice though.”
“Bigger on the inside. Reminds me of The Destiny.” Lore grabbed what they thought was an apple from a nearby fruit bowl.
“I’d be careful with that.” A voice came from the hallway. “Never know what the others have done to it.” They came closer before knocking on the open door. “May I come in?” Lore nodded. “The name’s Lore. But you knew that. And that…” They removed the fruit from Lore’s hand and took a bite. “This… Is a pear.” They grimaced as they politely finished their mouthful before continuing. “Everyone calls me Quart though.”
“Quart?” Lore looked to them puzzled.
“Well, when there’s fifty people with the same names, faces and voices we have to adapt so we gave each other nicknames. I’m Quart and my Char is Pitt.” They smiled. “So, new blood. How much do you already know about the project then?”
“We’re using a Slingshot to bring Quatarr back?” Lore looked to Char and shrugged.
Quart blinked in disbelief. “So we’ve told you nothing before sending you here?”
“Well yes and no.” Lore started.
“We were sent to reclaim the base after you lot had to abandon it but we weren’t too sure how to do that if we didn’t actually know what we were reclaiming so we came back to the past to get a better look.” Char’s tone got gradually more assertive.
“Right… Well, we must have had a good reason to not tell you anything… Unless…”
“Unless?” Lore cocked their head suggestively.
“Paradoxes. More specifically, predestination paradoxes. We can’t get The Slingshot to work but if we got you to help then maybe we could do it.” Quart scribbled with their finger on their tablet. “You say you only came back in time because we didn’t tell you anything, right. Then if you do help us complete the project we have to make sure that when we reach this point.” They hovered over a dot marked ‘Just before you go back in time’. “We remember not to tell you anything so that you do the right thing and go back in time. Genius!”
“Don’t you just love having multiple versions of yourself?” Lore looked to Char. She nodded.
“So, I guess I get the honours of telling you what’s up. So far, time travel is limited to people only and a maximum of three at that. We found a way to change that. The Slingshot is a prototype ship cannon which should be capable of launching our fleet back to the destruction of Quatarr so we can perform the switcharoo.” Lore spasmed as the words left Quart’s mouth.
“You’re trying to fire ships back in time.” Wide eyed, Char got up from the windowsill. “Plural?”
“Yes. We’ve been trying to work out a way to get most of our fleet through in one go but the power needed is, well, none existent.”
Lore looked to Char. Char looked to Lore. There was a moments silence as they collectively considered their next sentence. They looked around the room they were in then Char gestured for Lore to break the news.
“Why not build a single huge ship with a hangar that was bigger on the inside?” To them it seemed abundantly obvious. They had seen this ship but to Quart it was as if they had handed over a half dozen Christmases.
“Occam’s Razor.” Quart sighed in relief.
“Yeah, that’s what it was called.” Quart looked to them confused
“Yeah, the ship with the massive hangar was called Occam’s Razor.” Char chuckled.
“You’ve seen the ship. There it is. The paradox is complete.”
“Can we get a look at this slingshot then?” Lore snapped Quart out of their trance. They gestured to follow them out of the room.
Everyone in the corridor was either a Lore or a Char. Despite them all having the same origin and almost identical lives, there were slight but noticeable differences. Quart introduced Pitt and another couple, Geo and Jen who were all hard at work fitting capacitors to a station beside The Slingshot. The Slingshot itself was nearly a mile tall and with its arms extended, about half a mile wide and was supported by a series of thick, tense steel beams.
“We need to call a meeting.” Quart buzzed with excitement at their co-workers. “They’ve cracked it.”
“They know how we’re supposed to create one point two one to the eighty fifth power terawatts of power then?”
“We don’t need to… We just need to make a ship that’s bigger on the inside!”
“Why didn’t we think of that?” Geo and Jen chimed in slapping their foreheads.
“Well, if they cracked it then technically we did too.” Pitt shrugged before exploding in excited laughter. “We definitely should call that meeting. This is golden.” They paused. “Come on then!”
Quart helped them out of the pit before turning to run to the meeting chambers. Geo tapped at their wrist and they too were off. They were tracking grease across the polished floors and creating a major hazard zone in the process but the prospect of finally solving their problem outweighed their sense of safety. Lore and Char did their best to keep up with their doppelgangers as they did everything but break the sound barrier in their efforts to spread the news. They reached the council chambers in record time only to find the rest of the councillors in session.
“Even when you’ve called the meeting, you’re still late.” The First looked to Geo condescendingly. “So what’s this breakthrough you’ve got to share then?”  Geo pointed to Lore and Char.
“You’re going to need a bigger ship.” They started. Alternatives.