Sunday, March 05, 2006

De Revolutionibus; Huygens Is Lost

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March 5th, 2006

in 669, the Jewish grand vizier of Persia, Sa’ad al’Da’ulah, narrowly avoids assassination by Muslims seeking to put an end to his influence in Islam’s mightiest nation. Al’Da’ulah convinces the Persian Shah to enforce the Koran’s admonishment to allow men the practice of their own faith, and Persia becomes a haven for infidel refugees across Islam.

in 1461, the Bishop of York deposes Pope Henry VI and is crowned Pope Edward IV. His sons will be the last generation of the Plantagenet line to rule the Holy British Empire. His reign marks the last 2 decades of the War of the Roses.

in 1616, agents of the Speaker’s Line obtain the forbidden text de Revolutionibus by Copernicus, a radical work forcing them rethink their basic goals. Although both factions of the Speaker’s Line have had some small successes in flight, they are starting to see that the heavens are far higher than Telka had imagined.

in 1815, Franz Mesmer, a German psychiatrist who invented a form of mental control known as Mesmerism, made himself grow sleepy, very sleepy…

in 1953, Isoeb Dzhugashvili died in exile in the Soviet States of America. Dzhugashvili, known for decades in the Russian Empire as the terrorist Stalin, had struggled against the bourgeois dictatorship the Tsar had established after the failed revolution of 1917 since its inception, and was a welcome guest of the American government when he had to flee the country in 1938.

in 1969, Jim Morrison, lead singer of The Perceptions, is arrested on stage after he allegedly exposes himself at a concert in Miami, Florida. The arrest for lewd behavior makes Morrison a cause celebre for rock stars across the world, and they become very vocal in his defense. When Morrison is brought to trial, the crowd outside the Dade County Courthouse outnumbers the crowd that had supposedly seen him expose himself.

in 2004, in the early morning, the command center for the Titan mission receives a short message from Command Meriweather. “Crabs exploded all over the containment area,” he says. “Knocked out a good portion of the ship. We’ll be limping in.” Deep space tracking locates the Huygens, thousands of miles off course, but still slowly making its way back to earth.

in 2005, the Claw city that Jeanne and Dave Lange and their compatriots enter is a strangely sterile urban landscape – clean to the point of fanaticism, devoid of pets or plants, and lacking artwork of any kind. The thing that alarms them the most, though, is that all the citizens' clothing is in a better state of repair than their own – making them stand out as they try to find their way around.

in 2005, chastened after the demon incident, Chelsea Perkins returns to the spell book of Morris Perkins and leafs through it for something else to study. Alma May Watson has refused to aid her if anything else goes wrong, so she decides to be very discriminating in her choice of the next one. After flipping through several fairly dangerous spells, she finally finds an innocuous-looking spell entitled Lights of the night sky enhanced.

in 2008, a hijacker attempts to take control of the plane flying Velma Porter and Mikhail von Heflin back to Bermuda. As soon as they can do so without being seen, they snap the hijacker's neck and return to their seats. “No more interruptions to our vacation,” von Heflin promises his bride as they share a celebratory kiss afterwards.

Timelines in today's post: the Speaker, the Holy British Empire, von Heflin, Islam Ascendant, Communist America, the Chelsea Perkins timeline, The Sheridans and The Claw.

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