Launch

The state of TIAH

November 7th, 2006

Alternate Historian's Note: November is NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month. In 2004, we produced our novel Warp, and last year we got a start on The Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion during this annual event. Both of these novels were based on timelines from TIAH – Warp was based on the Mlosh timeline, and Protocols on the Greater Zionist Resistance timeline. Although we posted numerous links to these novels on Lulu, TIAH didn't post any excerpts from them. We're going to do it a little differently this year. This year, the November posts on TIAH will be excerpts from the novel that is being written by us for NaNoWriMo. We will still have Guest Historian entries – Stephen Payne (who has compiled several and made them available on Lulu) has some already written and waiting – so, if you want to make a Guest Post this month, go ahead and send it to us, and it will appear along with our novel post.

in 1872, a 103-foot, 282-ton brigantine set sails for Genoa, Italy. The ship was built on Spencer's Island, Nova Scotia in 1861 and originally named the Amazon. Due to misadventures and bad luck, she had changed hands several times before being renamed the Mary Celeste in 1869. On-board is a cargo of 1701 barrels of industrial alcohol shipped by Meissner Ackermann & Coin of New York City to H. Mascerenhas and Co., of Genoa, Italy. Captain Benjamin Briggs has a crew of seven and two regular passengers: the Captain's wife, Sarah E. Briggs (née Cobb), and two-year-old daughter, Sophia Matilda, making 10 people in all. Plus one other passenger inside barrel #1701. His accursed name is most assuredly missing from the ship's manifest. -entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!-

in 1956, following the signing of a secret mutual assistance pact in Paris, Anglo-French troops fighting alongside the Israeli Defence Force wrest back control of the Suez Canal, recently nationalized by Egyptian President Gamal Nasser. British Prime Minister Anthony Eden receives urgent demands from US President Dwight D. Eisenhower to withdraw . Having spent many years being overshadowed as Churchill's deputy, Eden refuses to accept this demand, viewing it as a bitter personal defeat that would invite unfavorable comparisons with his former boss. Eden threatens to unmask American hypocrisy by revealing that the overthrow of Mohammed Mossadegh's Iranian government in 1953 was a coup mounted by US and British Agents on much the same terms as the Suez invasion. Unwilling to risk his position during the presidential election month, Eisenhower backs down and reluctantly throws his support behind the colluding allies. Most historians now agree that these duplicitous acts by the British Government fueled reactionary imperialism at a point of divergence. By fortifying the refusal to accept nationalist pressures, the Suez campaign destroyed sympathies for Britain in their former colonies leading to the premature dissolution of the Commonwealth in the late 1960s. -entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!-

in 2126, the work of the Peace and Reconciliation Committee of the Reconstructed United Nations reaches a climax with the showcase "Georges" Trial. In the dock are King George V of the former United Kingdom of Great Britain and George Washington 1st President of the former United States of America. The charge sheet reads a) conspiracy to perpetuate the European possession of North America b) criminal subterfuge through false declaration of independence inter alia. Meanwhile, on the Committee Mullah Elijah Rafsanjani is suggesting that trying arch-criminals is not sufficient to achieve a breakthrough. The Hussein-Sadat time dilation device should be used to go back and correct these historical injustices. -entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!-

Before(cont.)
Janice was still trying to access a news site or two on the Internet when another message came across the EBS on the television. “All citizens currently on the road are requested to move to the shoulder of the road for the next few hours while the National Guard moves its people into place. Your cooperation is appreciated.” The last couple of announcements, Janice noted, were polite, but quite firm. And, no politician had been on to make a statement, not even the governor.
She was still unable to get onto anything other than the most inane web sites; for a system that was specifically designed to survive a nuclear strike, it wasn't behaving well in the face of one that didn't even hit anywhere near a vital hub. She couldn't access anything outside of the US, either. She had tried to get onto the BBC site, and had been stymied. Even the news blogs were down.
But Disney, of all things, was up. The University of Texas web site was down, but a web site about longhorn cattle was up. It was really frustrating her tremendously. There weren't even any local conspiracy nuts available.
Then, she had a thought – there was a web site she knew of that aggregated all of the crank sites on the web. She entered the address into her browser, and it came up, surprisingly. She then went into the conspiracy nut section and started going down the list of terrorist conspiracy sites. On her fifth try, she found one that was still up.
“I dont know how long this will remane up,” it said at the top, complete with the atrocious spelling of the truly insane. “Since about 5 this morning, all of the sytes that I link to hav been going off-line, one by one. If you are still able to read this, please spred the truth – they're was no nucular exploshion in Crawford, Texas. Akordin to my sorces, the millitari is fed up with the civvilian goverment, and has planid the story about the exploshion so they can seaze power. Get thre truth out!” There was a link at the bottom to go to the next page of this rant, and she clicked it.
A 404 Error popped up immediately, telling her that this web site was inaccessible.
She went back to her crank site and examined the list again. It took eleven more tries before she found another one, and it expressed the same sense of panic, as well as the reiteration that there was no nuke at Crawford. She felt pretty confident that would be a recurring theme on some of these sites, but she expected to find one or two that would call it an Islamic terrorist attack. When she found one she felt certain would say that, it was off-line.
A knock at the door startled her. She picked up her gun and walked over to the door and looked through the peephole. A scruffy man in a coverall was on the other side. “I have a gun. Who are you?”
“Whoa, lady, I'm here to help out with the car.”
She relaxed and opened the door. The auto club's tow truck was plainly visible in the street, and she saw his name badge – Marco – on his chest now. “I'm amazed you were able to get here.”
“Yeah, traffic was a bit – I mean, traffic was bad. Specially since my radio got busted last week, wasn't even able to listen to tunes.” He was walking over to the garage outside as he talked.
“You mean, you haven't heard?”
“Heard what?” He stopped and turned around. The look on her face made him concerned. “Crap, it's not like the towers again, is it?”
“No – well, kind of.” She followed him over to her car in the garage that she had left completely open; she chided herself for forgetting that. “Martial law's been declared because a nuke went off in Crawford. They don't know if the president was there or not.”
Marco looked like he had been slapped in the face. “Holy Mother of God.” He leaned against the garage wall and for a minute, Janice thought he might throw up.
She walked over and patted him on the shoulder. “Yeah, I know. So,” she said, pointing at her car with her pistol, “you think you can get this thing working?”
“Huh?” He looked at her, dazed.
“My car. You know, the big thing with wheels here. I'm not really crazy about being stuck here without a ride.”

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