Short post for once. :-)
Mark Levin (sorry for picking on you, Mark, but that's what you get for becoming the current Encyclopedia Marathonica) pointed out in the Volunteers series that your attempt to euthanize Durandal on Hang Brain before the Pfhor could capture him was unsuccessful. When you get to his core, you find Pfhor and Compilers already waiting. The next timeline-jump apparently results in your not shifting timelines at all, and you reappear in prison shortly after Durandal's and your capture.
However, Tycho's first message to you on By Committee says that "The bugs didn't like being robbed of their prize," which implies that you were successful in killing Durandal. Tycho also refers to Durandal's death rather than his capture. Doesn't this suggest that you switched timelines after all?
I think the reason you go through Electric Sheep Three is that you got to Durandal just a little too late to prevent his capture in the timeline ending with You're Wormfood, Dude. So you hopped to a very "close" timeline where you got there a bit earlier and successfully killed him. (Again, in my view there's always a Marine doing his thing in every timeline...it's only your higher consciousness that hops between timelines and makes one of them "real.")
The unusually tricky jumps and narrow path in Electric Sheep Three (compared to its sister levels) could be taken to represent the especial finesse such a tiny timeline-adjustment requires.
--SiliconDream
