Note: This is a Stranded in Space™ fanfiction, all Characters and locations appear courtesy of Wildman Games. More on them at the end of the story.The Third Option
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The many-worlds interpretation posits that everything that can happen has happened somewhere in some universe. Every breath we take, every possible eye roll and muscle spasm, or lack thereof, has its own universe to exist in. Essentially creating an infinite number of different universes, almost identical except for one small detail.
This is nonsense.
People championing Chaos Theory and the Butterfly Effect want us to believe that the smallest changes in the initial set of parameters can cause ever more extreme differences in their results as the time frame we observe them in grows longer. Every choice we make could theoretically lead to either our death or our survival.
This is nonsense.
Some people think our universe is entirely deterministic. Every particle has a set position and course in space and they all react according to the carefully arranged laws of the universe. There's no room for variation. Everything that has ever happened and will happen was encoded at the beginning of time. It just has to play out.
This is nonsense.
The concept of free choice might have us convinced we can change our future. You guessed it; it's nonsense.
As any writer worth his salt could tell you, there are only a handful of moments in our lives that we can truly influence. Choosing between tea and coffee in the morning does nothing in the grand story of your life. Events that were meant to happen will happen regardless. But every now and then, for some of us more often than for others, our story diverges. We are given a major decision and our story can be split into two distinct narratives. You could commute to work via public transportation and possibly meet the love of your life. Or, you could drive yourself, come in early and because of that gain that huge promotion you've been hoping for.
It is October 19, 2169 and somewhere on the route from Earth to Elysium, we find a casually floating vessel full of women and a single male. It has been sixteen days since Blake Aster awoke from cryogenic sleep to find himself Stranded in Space with more beautiful women than he could have wished for. He now stands before the closed doors of bridge control. Paige, the AI ensconced in his brain, is trying to calm his nerves. He is moments away from a bifurcation. The continued story of his life will drastically change today. He must make a choice between Ariel, a blond bombshell of a girl, and Haylee, her sexy, red-headed sister.
"...Just shoot me." The words cross his mind, unbidden, as the doors to bridge control slide open. The two Kirsen sisters are waiting for him in silence, their backs turned to each other and the doorway. Blake remained still, admiring the two beauties from the open doors.
"Bang!" as always, Paige is more than happy to accommodate him. Their silent banter always managed to lighten his spirits. "It'll be okay, I promise!" she reassures him, "Just choose who you like more! It will all work out in the end; I can feel it!"
The girls turned to face Blake as he stepped inside the room, offering him nervous smiles. Ariel, wearing a black form hugging suit with red and gold accents, stuttered a small welcome, "H-hi, Blake... It's nice to see you...".
"How excited are you to see us? You look thrilled!" Haylee smirked, determined to come across as more confident than she truly felt. Her blue overalls with the deep décolleté left little to the imagination. Both girls looked stunning, and Blake was about to dive into a desperate ramble when Ariel interrupted him.
"Haylee and I talked last night, Blake. If you don't choose..." she trailed off in that shy demeanour that made her irresistible.
"Then as we said already, we're both walking away." Her sister finished the thought.
"Yeah... We're determined... I'm sure you're wondering if we might eventually give in..."
"We won't. Ari won't let me, and I won't let her."
Ariel began to find her own determination in her sister's confidence, "Yeah. We made a pact. To break that pact would mean abandoning our relationship as siblings and friends. I would never speak to Haylee again. She would do the same."
"Which is why we're not bluffing." Haylee nodded in complete agreement.
The moment of choice was rapidly approaching. It was clear the two girls were not going to let Blake off the hook. Two paths stretched out in his mind's eye. He could pick Ariel. The beautiful blond virgin would love him with abandon, but she was also naive about his wilder, more promiscuous side. Ignoring all the shipwide banter about his sexual escapades and harem building. In stead, she chose to fantasize about living life with just the two of them. The other path offered Haylee, less interested in building a nest and future with him but far more adventurous and accepting of his current lifestyle. The story of Blake's life would be drastically changed by this looming Major Decision.
Indescribable amounts of neutrinos pass harmlessly through planets, moons, spacecraft and biological lifeforms each and every nanosecond. A neutrino colliding with any other particle is one of the rarest events in the universe. Deep in Blake's head, right on the barrier between his biological brain and Paige's artificial home, a neutrino collided. An event so rare, it triggers the nigh impossible. An event so rare that its occurrence breaks the laws that govern our narrative and makes it possible for Blake to force the Third Option.
"It's not going to work, you know." He let his head hang in surrender. "Whoever I don't pick will resent the other. Whoever I don't pick will be jealous of the other. How will you two hang out after I choose? In the future, I mean. Imagine the conversation. 'What did you do today?' - 'I was with Blake.' Do you see that going well?" He had a pleading look on his face.
Ariel seemed to want to interrupt with some twisted logic but Blake wasn't done with his cosmically inspired rant. "It's dumb anyway. There are fifteen other drop-dead gorgeous women on this ship. All willing to share without restrictions or terms and conditions. I'm not the one with an issue here. Why should I even indulge your demands?" Despite his words, Blake felt no anger. He was calm and collected; rational.
The two girls watched him gesticulate with his hands, as if he was collecting the words from a week's worth of frustrated thoughts, hardly taking the time to stop and parse them through a mental filter. pace to and fro, spewing forth his frustrated thoughts from the last week. "Do you even understand what you are asking of me? You claim you're okay with me having sex with anyone else except your sister? You want me to provide joy, gratification, love and caring to any of the other girls who ask it of me, except your sister? You want everyone to be happy and comfortable, except your sister? How twisted is that?" He stopped to look each of the stunned girls in the eyes.
"...B-but..." Ariel began with tears welling up.
Silence fell, and with his inside voice, Blake pleaded with his AI companion. "I should just walk away, Paige. I shouldn't even have entertained this notion of theirs. It's as dumb as you are."
"...That might work, but..." Paige atypically ignored Blake's jab, "...They genuinely seem resigned."
"I don't care. I'd rather they're united against me than divided because of me." he told his incessant companion before continuing his conversation with the sisters, "It's you two who seem to take issue with this, so it should be you two who need to figure out how to proceed. Not me. I shouldn't have even let it go on for this long. I will conduct all my relationships aboard the Endurance the same way. You are both still welcome to hang with me if you want. I will not lie to keep a secret fling, but at the same time, what we do together won't be shared with anyone without your express permission. I will continue to treat both of you the way I deal with anyone else onboard. We talk, we hang, maybe we flirt and it's up to you how far you want to take it. I won't volunteer anything we share, but nor will I lie about it." He paused for a few seconds, letting the girls mull over his words. "Please know that I am not angry, nor do I hold anything against either of you, but the ball is in your court now."
With that speech, Blake Aster had picked the third of two options and forced the universe to change to accommodate him. Oblivious to this momentous occasion, he turned around and left the room, leaving two silent sisters staring at the closing doors.
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It is October 20, 2169, and somewhere on the route from Earth to Elysium, we find a casually floating vessel full of women in cryogenic stasis. A precious accident of fate has awoken a small number of them and thrust them into the life of one Blake Aster. Today one of them, Tiffany, followed her feet into the hydroponics rooms to enjoy the plant's fresh oxygen. Heated Muffled voices trickled in from the corridor, too muffled by the metal doors to make sense.
"... it your way, Ari. It didn't work." Tiffany could barely make out the words through the metal doors. She opened them.
"What's going on out here?" the words fell from her lips, involuntary and irresistible, as if she were meant to speak them. For some reason her mind lingered on she expected to find Blake, but he was nowhere to be seen. She saw only the two sexy Kirsen sisters in the hallway
"Hey, Tiffany..."
"Hello..."
The sisters did their best to keep their voices in check, but their flushed faces spoke volumes about their emotional state. Tiffany frowned, "Hi there." She appraised them with alarming speed, "Is my rival giving you two problems? Your expressions look grim."
