Planet B-17: The Beginnings

7,000+ Reads Bonus Chapter: The Choice-Ribbons

Dedicated to @vyomaa_verse @kasross @isthisnametakentwo @powersohm @chrissydsvid and @CJJurgens

Thank you for all the love and support. 

See, Zadek, you thought you'd ask...

How clear it is that remarkable knowing that all is well in one's life, thought the elder Zadek as his younger self had been carried away back to his timeline. How wonderfully complete we are at all times, in all the moments of our lives, he went on thinking.

How complete are you now? asked Omiran.

The elder Zadek looked out through the glass-wall, whose doors were ajar, past the white, transparent curtains swaying in the breeze, and said, "I like who I've become."

Then you are complete, remarked Omiran, but there was a lingering half-thought/half-feeling merged into oneness as well, as if Omiran may have easily continued that sentence into something vastly arcane, incomprehensible, at a higher level than all the mind-stretching, soul-expanding, wonderful blessings in disguise that were, at times, his riddles.

Am I? said Zadek, deciding to play along.

Would you like to see for yourself? his Maker asked.

Of course! came Zadek's reply, unexpectedly faster than he would have imagined.

Omiran laughed. Your younger self has stirred within you a spark you've put aside in a while. He's reminded you of himself.

There you had it: the riddle. One of those which he most enjoyed giving.

You have me confused now, Zadek answered, for if he's reminded me of who he is, then who am I in the bigger scheme, and why am I not him?

Because you have travelled beyond that timeline, and he's free to move around and make choices that are different from your own.

The choice-ribbons, commented Zadek, nodding.

Exactly, answered Omiran. And if you remember what you've just said about the other one who's made a different choice regarding Lera, then you understand.

Zadek scanned Time-bands in search for an answer to a new curiosity he immediately had.

Omiran laughed. How many of you are there now? He seemed overjoyed.

Oh, the games you play! thought Zadek, a big smile on his face. "I like them. I love them, in fact!" he said aloud, a bit louder than he might have thought.

Then Omiran asked, How many?

Zadek paid closer attention. I see four, he then said. This encounter has added two more possibilities for our lives to unfold. Then he corrected himself, My life. Then paused. Ours?

No answer came from Omiran.

Stage two of the riddle, thought Zadek. Fun. Omiran selectively responds.

Then he perceived emotions swell in his energy field in front of his chest. He counted the pattern signatures. He needed a moment or two to adjust, thus took deep breaths in and out, slowly and patiently, observing without reacting, detaching as he'd learned a long time ago by imagining he were swaying on gentle, etheric waves that surround him a bit higher than chest-level, his mind soothed of all unwelcome thought, his emotions balanced, simply observing without interfering.

A pattern emerged with clarity.

That one is my own, he deduced. My own from now. Z1, I'll call it. Good.