Columbus Sails The Ocean Blue

August 3rd, 2005

in 1492, Christopher Columbus set sail from Spain for India, traveling west across the Atlantic Ocean. Unfortunately, his crews mutinied when it appeared that he had underestimated how long the voyage would take, and he was killed and thrown overboard. The Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria became pirate vessels, waylaying ships traveling in the western Atlantic.

in the Dreaming, using a web they have created on their own, the people lift up the body of Anansi and cast it into the Heavens. Their mourning cry is heard across both land and sky, and is joined by all those who have been aided by the great spider.

in 1851, rum-runner Lady Isabella Caroline Somerset is born. Lady Isabella was famous for the flow of alcohol at her parties resembling a large, heady river. Oscar Wilde once said of her mansion, “If you removed all the bottles, it would be a quaint cottage with one bedroom.”

in 1891, the Congress of Nations authorizes an expedition to the asteroid belt to gather material to strengthen the earth’s crust. The wealth of all the nations on earth is bent towards this endeavor; ships are built or modified to fly in intrastellar space as quickly as possible.

in 4675, Emperor Deng Ziopeng establishes the first Chinese colony outside the solar system with the beginning of Yang Gao in the Tchou star system. Yang Gao will grow to rival the earth itself, one day.

in 1982, the arrest of Michael Hardwick on sodomy charges in Georgia creates a national movement for sexual privacy. Hardwick had been in his own bedroom, and the sex was consensual. President Ronald Reagan joined in, saying, “I said that I wanted government off our backs, and that includes getting them out of our bedrooms.” The next year, the 27th Amendment to the Constitution is passed, finally encoding a right to privacy into the Constitution.

in 1996, Dr. Noah Hathaway is killed in an automobile accident in London. Dr. Melvin Courtney contacts the magazine Hathaway edited, Archeological Review, to see if his paper on the Chimanimani object will still be published, and they have no record that he ever submitted such a paper. Courtney calls up his expedition team member Malcolm Thomas, who tells him, “I have an alternative outlet.”

in 2000, in a small church in Las Vegas, Velma Porter and Mikhail von Heflin begin their own chanting; they are attempting to draw the presence unleashed the night before to them so that they can banish it from their world. Unfortunately, it manages to resist their call, and destroys the block around them; the church they are in is untouched. “Time for plan B,” the Baron says.

in 2003, the harsh restrictions of Pope Righteous I have produced a band of outlaws that refuse the mark of righteousness, produce literature that denounces the Pope, and declares that the Holy British Empire is Babylon reborn. Most sensible people ignore these Protestant heretics, but many are convinced to join their number.

in 2004, scientists working on the Lalandian secret weapon think they have it; it is some sort of amplifier for ultra-violet light. According to the Lalandians, the Elders are very sensitive to ultra-violet. President Gore of the U.S. and Secretary-General Kofi Annan of the U.N. convince the world’s governments to fund massive construction of these devices. The broadcast from Lalande 25372 is becoming increasingly grim; they speak of mass executions in retaliation for the Lalandian resistance.


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