Not Long...

The state of TIAH

November 17th, 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 for free – just go through the Add to Cart system to get it) 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 on board the Mary Celeste and suspended in raw alcohol inside barrel #1701, Azâzêl begins to awaken from his long dreaming. It won’t be long now. -entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!-

in 1968, John Forbes Kerry reported for duty at Coastal Squadron 1 in Cam Ranh Bay in South Vietnam, where he served as an officer in charge of Swift boats, leading five-man crews on a number of patrols into enemy-controlled areas. Of strategic significance throughout history, both the French and the United States used the military facilities in the bay during the Indochina Wars. Indeed Admiral Rozhdestvensk used the bay as a staging area for the Imperial Russian fleet prior to the Battle of Tsushima in 1905. Ironically, the Vietnamese turned the military facilities in Cam Ranh Bay over to the Soviet Union after the fall of Saigon. In 1979, the Soviet government signed an agreement with Vietnam for a 25-year lease of the base. Cam Ranh Bay was the largest Soviet naval base outside the Soviet Union, allowing the Soviet Union to project increased power in the South China Sea. In his inaugural address, Kerry gave Cam Ranh Bay as an example of the moral bankruptcy of the Domino Theory, a 20th Century foreign policy theory that speculated if one land in a region came under the influence of Communists, then more would follow. More importantly, he said, America could "do better" in the 21st century, as the defeated nation sought to climb out of the ashes of defeat in the Cold War. -entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!-

in 1990, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and US President George Bush share a telephone conference call to review the Kuwait Crisis. Although history records that Thatcher told Bush it was “no time to go wobbly” it was in fact a miserable exchange of views on their mutually low job approval ratings with the electorate. Inflationary pressures caused by mismanagement was threatening the right-wing control of transatlantic government which had held together since 1980. Agreement was reached that it was an appropriate time to switch the public's attention elsewhere – this time, to a new post Cold War hate figure – Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majidida al-Tikrit. -entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!-

Before(cont.)
The well-paved road was a welcome sight for Janice after so long on the crappy little country roads she had been on. The Guard trucks gathered along it were less so.
They waved her to pull over and she rolled down her window. “Howdy, officers,” she said chirpily. “Can you tell me how to get to Dime Box?”
The young corporal who had waved her over looked a little puzzled. “That's like a hundred miles away, ma'am.”
“Man, I'm lost,” she said, pulling out a map of Texas. “Where am I?”
“You're about 10 miles from Waco,” he said, looking at the map with her. He pointed at a spot just outside the city. “See, you're just about here. This whole area is under quarantine,” he said, indicating a wide area around Waco and neighboring Crawford, “so, you'll need to avoid them, OK?”
“I sure will,” she said, nodding enthusiastically. “I don't need any radiation poisoning!”
“Yeah,” the young man said, looking over his shoulder in the direction of Waco. “Wind's blowin' away from us toward Crawford, they said, so we're OK for now.” He looked back at her and leaned in a little closer. “Thing is, the wind can change in a minute. Wish I had me a suit like those guys that're going into the city.”
“Whoa,” Janice said, feigning shock. “They're sendin' people into the city? That's just crazy!”
“S'posed to be things they gotta get out, from Baylor and some other places,” the corporal said. “Anyway, they get the big ol' hazmat suits, and I'm just sittin' here in my uniform. We got the Geiger counter an' all, but what am I s'posed to do if it starts spikin' up?” He shook his head. “Friggin' Army.”
“Farrel!” A man who was obviously the corporal's superior shouted at him. “Get that car on its way and stop jabbering!”
“Yes, sir!” The corporal straightened up and pointed down the road. “You need to get on out of here, ma'am.”
“Oh, yes, sir, Mr. Farrel, I'm turning around right now.” She smiled and waved at him and wheeled her car around to the crappy dirt road again. Once she was out of sight of the Guardsmen, she slapped her steering wheel. At least this checkpoint had given her a little more information. She flipped on her recorder again. “On my third try into Waco, I've managed to glean some information from the men blocking the way. There are people going into Waco, and probably Crawford beyond that, making at least the show of wearing hazmat protection suits. While I'm still going to make a stab for Crawford, if I'm forced to abandon that, I will try to get into Waco and see what these men are 'risking' their lives to get.” She turned off the recorder and looked at her gas gauge. She was running dangerously close to empty.
She went further along her detour than she had intended in order to stop at a little gas station she had seen a few miles away. Once she got there, she walked into the deserted store and up to the older man behind the register. He gave her kind of a half-smile, then turned back to the television behind the counter. The Emergency Broadcasting System was showing maps of central Texas and areas that were deemed off-limits to the public – for their own good, of course – and telling everyone to remain calm.
Janice got a sandwich from the cold case next to the counter and slapped it on the counter, startling the proprietor. “Sorry, ma'am,” he said, ringing her up. “Just a little jumpy, I guess.”
She laughed and smirked. “Who isn't?” She pointed at her car next to the gas pump. “I'm gonna need about 30 bucks in gas, too.” He rang that in and turned the pump on with a little console. Something occurred to her at that point. “So, I guess y'all must have heard the explosion.”
He shook his head. “Nope. I was home in bed; my wife always said I'd sleep through the end of the world.” That thought was a little dark for him, so he cast it out of his mind.
“Was anybody here?”
“No, we don't open till 6.”
She looked around at all the lights still on. “I always thought that the pulse thingy from a nuke was supposed to scramble electronic equipment.”
He looked around with her. “Guess we're far enough away.”
She flashed him her teeth. “Good thing. You have a good day, sir.”
“You too, miss.”
She pumped her gas and then got back on the road. The cover story was looking more porous with every passing hour.

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