Alternate Routes

The state of TIAH

January 14th, 2007

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Alternate Historian's Note: I'm almost fully recovered, so everything should be back to normal after today. We have a side-project that was announced yesterday – a collection of several timelines with more-or-less complete stories inside them – The Fall, the Tolman timeline, the Mormon War and more – that will be up for sale on Lulu, as soon as we have it edited together. If you would be interested in this, or would like to suggest something for inclusion in the collection, please email me and let me know. Meanwhile, enjoy Guest Historian Stephen Payne's entry for today, followed by the continuation of our NaNoWriMo novel.

Halifax	In 1947 Lord Halifax cables Fuehrerhauptquartier Wolfsschanze (Wolf's Lair) to accept in principle the peace offer of the Nazi Government. Halifax and Princess Elizabeth I invite the Fuehrer Adolf Hitler to a January 28th meeting on neutral territory in Reykjavík, Iceland where the British ..
.. Government in Exile will handover to the Nazis both the renegade Churchill and also the keys to the Royal Navy. ~ Authors Note: 'The translation of Adolf is noble wolf and indeed the nickname for Hitler was wolf.'
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - you're the judge!

In 1942 an irresistible force is about to collide with an immovable object in French North Africa. The British Eighth Army led by Field Marshall Bernard Law Montgomery faces the Desert Fox known as Brigadier General Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle and his La Grande Armée Afrique ..	Monty
.. for a fight to the death. Both Commanders have a cautious nature, essentially because they are concerned about their places in the history books. A phony war therefore develops in the desert of North Africa. De Gaulle knows that reinforcements are heading through Spain and therefore is considering whether or not a pre-emptive strike is the glory-bound option.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

George W Bush	In 2011 at Camp David US President George Walker Bush prepares to write his auto-biography marking his retirement maturity age 65. In 'A Charge Kept' Bush's ghost writers describe the consequences of mid-term defeat in 2006 that ultimately forced a softening of the line on the Axis of Evil. ..
.. By then both Iran and Korea were members of the nuclear club, and an exchange of thermonuclear strikes in mid 2008 led to the extirpation of life above ground. In the closing chapter 'And now begins the long, long winter' W talks about the unexpected third term Presidency forced upon America by the collapse of civilian government in the continental United States. More than anything, he misses the jogging although on balance it has to be said that his second marriage to Condoleeza Rice marked an improvement in his personal happiness. He had stopped drinking again.
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - you're the judge!

In 1941 British Prime Minister David Lloyd George instructs his Minister of War Winston Churchill to reinforce the land-side approach to Singapore. It would after all be a damn fool mistake to just prepare for a naval assault by the Japanese. It is his grasp of the minutiae that give the ..	Lloyd George
.. Welsh Wizard a cutting edge as a proven wartime leader and ultimately why the nation turned to him again in 1940. Winnie was great on rhetoric, most definitely up for the fight - but he just wanted to do everything. Seeing the blind spots was required, mused Lloyd George, particularly when your forces are spread throughout the World, and your enemies are focused on their own theatres.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

After(cont.)
There was surprisingly little trouble for them. They had hit a checkpoint leaving Bryan, but their story of lottery millions easily fooled the young man checking them through. They had followed Highway 21 out of town and were now on the far side of San Antonio. Curfew would hit them before they could reach the border with New Mexico, so the plan was to get as far as they could by the afternoon, and then check into a nice hotel.
Steph looked down the road and saw a lot of nothing. She felt a little pang for the trees and hills of Austin. Mike was saying something while she mused, so she stopped daydreaming and paid attention. “Once we hit 277, we'll turn north and we should be able to make it San Angelo; that's a big enough town to where we can spend the night someplace OK. In the morning, we follow 87 out west, and it's almost a straight shot to the border.”
Joan piped up from behind them. “What if there's fighting at the border? I mean, you guys said that New Mexico was resisting the martial law and everything, so what if there's a war goin' on when we get there?”
Mike and Steph met eyes for a second. “Well, we'll just have to try to avoid that,” Steph said. “This thing can go off-road. We can probably skirt around any fighting on the highway.”
“OK.”
Joan had been worried for the last hundred miles or so, so Steph asked, “Baby, is there something bothering you?”
She shook her head. “I know it sounds like a movie and all, but I expected us to have to go through like a checkpoint in every town. We haven't hardly seen a soldier since Bryan. Where are they all?”
“Most of Texas lives behind us,” Mike said. “They need those guys to pacify the big cities.”
“Or to guard the border,” Joan said.
That brought a little pause to Steph and Mike. “Good point,” Mike muttered. “The lottery story should still work. I mean, what harm can it be to let Texas' newest millionaire leave the state?”
“None, I guess,” Joan said, looking out the window. “Unless you don't want anybody to leave the state.”
Steph looked over at Mike. “If we get turned back at the border, we find a way to get across without using the roads, that's all. Illegals do it every day; we can, too.”
“I think I have a map saved on my laptop that shows a few non-traditional routes away from Texas. We'll look through it tonight at the hotel.”
They returned to driving in silence, except for the sounds of the cartoon playing on the small screen TV in the back that George was watching happily. Joan leaned back and tried to nap, and Steph turned the radio on quietly. It was more of the Emergency Lady, so she only half-listened.
After a couple of hours, though, something that the woman on the radio said caught her attention. “... repulsing the invaders. With this in mind, it is the request of the State of Texas that all able-bodied citizens living within 100 miles of a border arm themselves and be prepared to assist the Texas Guard in fighting off these terrorist sleeper cells. Details are being worked out to integrate these citizens into the nearest Guard units, and will be broadcast as soon as possible.”
Steph looked back at Joan's sleeping face, then turned to Mike. He was wearing a worried look, now. “Looks like we'll be needing that non-traditional route pretty bad, Mike.”

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