Again

White. The flash blinded them but when it subsided, Lore found themselves standing on their own toes. The Hologram was uncomfortably close to Char. They had materialised in an alley. They walked out. The sky was clear and green, the gravity slightly heavier than they were used to and everything had a now homely retro-american veneer.
“We’re back here?” Char looked around. “How did you manage to Breach us here? The calculations alone…”
“Watch.” Lore pointed to the middle of the road. A second, blinding white flash dazzled them as Lore appeared. “That’s how. I just shifted the time back a few seconds. Enough to hit the planet and be somewhere safe but not to land directly where I did the first time around.”
“Are you out of your mind?” Char started flailing her arms at them, striking their chest and shoulders repeatedly. “Do you know what you’ve just done?”
“I did what was needed.” Lore grabbed her wrists and pulled her in. “I saw… something on Quatarr… Then it hit me: what’s the point of having access to time travel if you can’t use it to get a second attempt?”
Char gently removed herself from their embrace. “We’re going to have to be so careful.” She sighed.
“And we were.” Lore tapped at their wrist. A map of the milky way appeared. “I noted every planet we visited, every flight-path we ever flew. As long as we avoid them, we’re in the clear.” The holographic map faded. “I’ve got a few Rel on me. Let’s get started?”

“Not wanting to leave the relative safety of the Scilla system, Lore and Char booked passage to the next planet along. From there, they re-established a base of operations and started planning. They knew exactly what they did the first time around and they knew exactly where they needed to be when it was all over.” The Hologram narrated the flip-book of memories playing before Lore. Several proposals and domestic spats played out before their eyes. Time slowed; the time had come again. “They couldn’t put it off any longer. Even with our past selves to distract them, Crait seemed to have eyes everywhere. When the heat got too hot, we knew what we had to do.” The new house became Quatarr. “Not wanting to harm the timeline more than we had to, we Breached in just out of our own line of sight. Of course it didn’t matter.”
Lore found themselves in front of Crait, sat on the pile of rubble. Lore and Char stood listening to their speech.
“And here come my guests. Enter please!” They held their hand up. The first Lore and Char appeared. “You’ve had a good run, even with four of you… But now it’s time.”
Lore nodded to Lore and two at a time, they vanished.

This time around, they appeared in their new home. It looked significantly more run down than when they last left it. They both sighed as they rolled their sleeves up and got to work. In a week, they had the building ready for their past selves. Lore was about to post the keys through the window when they stopped. “What if we stayed?”
“We’d break time.” Char tried to take the keys from them. “Come on, we’re going.”
“Don’t you want to try it?” Lore pocketed the keys. “There was a theory that if you interacted with your past self, that version of you would then be independent; as long as it reached the end point of it’s journey, time would be fine.”
“You’re wagering a lot on a theory.” Char shook her head. “But I have heard the same.”
“And really, what’s the worst that could happen?” Lore took the keys from their pocket and tossed them over Char’s shoulder.
“Bugger.” Both Char’s sighed in unison.
“The universe didn’t end… So what happened?” Lore found themselves with The Hologram in the white void once again.
“The two Lores and Chars spoke for a while and discussed the slight variances in their journeys. They then elected to meet the third. From there, they chose to allocate themselves nicknames so that they’d be able to tell each other apart. Lore became The First, the third Lore dedicated themselves to the bit and chose to speak exclusively in an Irish accent so called themselves Tree and…” The Hologram faltered. “I can’t quite recall the second Lore’s name.” Tarquu returned. “Either way, after their meeting, they decided to follow the established timeline again just to make sure their meeting hadn’t impacted anything. Each mission still went the same way so, when they finally returned here, they had a plan: Meet up with the newbies on Rigel, fill them in on the plan then start gathering resources and knowledge to hopefully find a way to save Quatarr.”
“How many cycles ended like this?” Lore pointed to Crait sat on the rubble, surrounded by Lores and Chars.
The Hologram looked somewhat embarrassed. “Twelve…” It muttered. Lore gasped.

The thirteenth cycle started with twelve Lores and Chars descending on Rigel to find their newest counterparts. They returned to the diner and sat in wait. When Lore eventually arrived, they were greeted by twelve versions of themselves, in a booth, digging in to lunch. Awkwardly, they took the seat at the end of the booth and waited. Eventually, thirteen Chars entered. They spoke for a while, discussing how and why they did what they did.
“So… You’re all versions of me and we’re doing this because it’s our best chance for stopping the Omega Outcome…” The new Lore shook their head. “Okay… So, do we have a base? A ship?” The questions silenced the others who all looked to one another. “None of you thought it might be a good idea to use this time to prepare?”
“In my defence, we’ve been using Char’s bungalow.” The First chuckled. “But a true base of operations would help; especially with non-us co-ordination…” The First was cut off by their Breacher. One word crossed the display: Sheffield.