“Find me another timeline” I whispered and looked directly at the Wataru's eyes, handing over the traditional wooden bowl full of fruits and nuts. As always, the Wataru accepted the offer and closed its eyes forming a deep sad facial expression while humming a strange almost silent tune. I felt - for the third time in my short life – how the reality engine around me was vibrating as if I lost visual cortex focus and everything turned void black. It only took a few seconds but waking up from a timeline adjustment felt as if you were blinded by looking directly at one of the three suns in the sky. Reality re-formed itself once again out of the blackness and I found myself sitting at the Wataru’s camp, alone. I stood up and started walking back toward the outpost wondering what kind of timeline I landed in and how different life might be this time around. It felt fresh and exciting at the same time.
Our colony on Six Gate, a small Earth-like planet orbiting Tau Hydrae, a triple star system in the equatorial constellation of Hydra, 59 light-years from Earth was totally dependant on the fact we never really needed to leave the planet after the first colonists landed and built the colony. While the rest of humanity's existence was based on trade and travel between the various star systems, we found a way to travel from one reality to another, evolving endlessly into various timelines the Wataru sent us to. It kept us safe when disaster hit, we would simply move to a different timeline where the disaster never existed. Any type of social misbehavior or crime was punishable by forced exile into a different timeline where you could correct your ways and continue a life full of happiness and joy. Our colony learned to live away from the misery of a one-and-only timeline the rest of humanity was chained to, unaware of the multiverse around us and its infinite possibilities of existence.
Where the Wataru came from was a total mystery long lost in ancient timelines formed after our arrival at Six Gate. Living through an endless timeline switch turned history into a meaningless concept as no matter how hard you try to keep historical records, they are totally meaningless in your next timeline switch. We simply lost any perception of linear time and space moving forward from one reality to another all on the same planet disconnected from the rest of humanity by an almost cult-like religious belief we are the chosen ones, the few who transcended into the next perception of living.
Walking back toward the outpost, the words of one of my high school teachers float into my headspace. "Your timeline doesn't have to be perfect," she used to tell us again and again. "It just has to be yours. That's what makes it special. That's what makes it real."
She was right, realities the Wataru timelines would send you getting out of hand from time to time, but - I don't mind.
