The Empire's Return (Original Fic)
Posted: 2010-08-22 08:17am
Little do most people know that the shadows of potentiality, the what-ifs, the could-have-beens, the never-weres, have an existence of their own. They exist in universes very much like our own, and sometimes, they make contact. It is almost never permanent - flashes of inspiration, the ranting of madmen, delusions and dreams. And sometimes the contact is bigger than mental, sometimes it is permanent. People who you swear you never heard of until you met them, mysterious disappearances, those are reality's way of opening the pressure valves between universes.
The shadow of the historical event about to take place on 1st September 1939, was readily apparent to 'sensitives', the knowledgeable, the intelligent, but they took no heed of it in their conscious minds. The pressure was rising rapidly, faster than anybody had anticipated. From midnight 31st August 1939, the possibilities that led from the next day and the events that would take place upon it, were, to the sensitive eye, literally endless. It was around such times that happenings and objects from other realities tended to bleed in, surreptitiously and barely noticed by anyone.
But one thing was going to happen, something never seen in recorded history. For the universe was struggling to release the immense historical pressure that was rapidly rising, and thus, with the massive pressure, a breach was opening. Just a tiny one from the point of view of the universe, but immense from the perspective of Earth.
Something went through, appearing in a flash of electric-blue light and a sound of thunder that was heard and seen from France to Poland, from Scandinavia to the Balkans. This was unexpected, and so large that reality could not account for it or remove it, so it simply closed the breach and let the thing that had entered exist normally. Lots of people were confused and violent afterwards, but on the whole it stopped a lot of unpleasantness from having occurred, which is perhaps on balance a good thing.
+++
The next morning
Neville Chamberlain, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, woke up, dressed, and was immediately told about the flash, and the strange radio calls that had been picked up. He looked at the quickly-created map of Europe, with the area affected lined in red ink.
It covered entirely many countries in Central Europe (including Luxembourg for some reason), and included parts of Yugoslavia, Poland, France, two tiny provinces of Belgium, and parts of Italy. Chamberlain had a suspicious feeling - he knew that something about it reminded him of something else.
'Get me a map of Europe,' he said. 'Made before the Great War. And be quick about it.'
+++
The ships were still busy performing their exercises in the Baltic Sea, the grand aircraft carrier the focus of it, before they were ordered to return to port, by no higher an authority than the Kaiser himself. The Admiral, Otto Von Falkenstein, still remembered the flash of electric-blue fire that had come at midnight, and had found it strange and utterly bizarre.
He had no idea of what had truly happened.
+++
The generals were military men, from all around Germany in stock, from Vienna to Berlin. They were intelligent, and most of them had fought in the last war. Not fought directly of course, but they had supervised the fighting, and that was what was important. So now, they were fervently attempting to establish radio contact with the territories of Germany.
'Vienna?' one asked.
'Yes,' another replied.
'Milan? Venice?' another asked.
The same reply was given.
For several hours it continued, before the generals were satisfied.
Germany was safe.
+++
Neville Chamberlain put the two maps side-by-side, noticing one very peculiar fact. If one added up the territories of Germany and Austria-Hungary on the 1914 map, one saw that the result was very close to the area affected by the event. Close, but the area affected was somewhat larger.
'My god,' he said.
He was terrified.
The shadow of the historical event about to take place on 1st September 1939, was readily apparent to 'sensitives', the knowledgeable, the intelligent, but they took no heed of it in their conscious minds. The pressure was rising rapidly, faster than anybody had anticipated. From midnight 31st August 1939, the possibilities that led from the next day and the events that would take place upon it, were, to the sensitive eye, literally endless. It was around such times that happenings and objects from other realities tended to bleed in, surreptitiously and barely noticed by anyone.
But one thing was going to happen, something never seen in recorded history. For the universe was struggling to release the immense historical pressure that was rapidly rising, and thus, with the massive pressure, a breach was opening. Just a tiny one from the point of view of the universe, but immense from the perspective of Earth.
Something went through, appearing in a flash of electric-blue light and a sound of thunder that was heard and seen from France to Poland, from Scandinavia to the Balkans. This was unexpected, and so large that reality could not account for it or remove it, so it simply closed the breach and let the thing that had entered exist normally. Lots of people were confused and violent afterwards, but on the whole it stopped a lot of unpleasantness from having occurred, which is perhaps on balance a good thing.
+++
The next morning
Neville Chamberlain, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, woke up, dressed, and was immediately told about the flash, and the strange radio calls that had been picked up. He looked at the quickly-created map of Europe, with the area affected lined in red ink.
It covered entirely many countries in Central Europe (including Luxembourg for some reason), and included parts of Yugoslavia, Poland, France, two tiny provinces of Belgium, and parts of Italy. Chamberlain had a suspicious feeling - he knew that something about it reminded him of something else.
'Get me a map of Europe,' he said. 'Made before the Great War. And be quick about it.'
+++
The ships were still busy performing their exercises in the Baltic Sea, the grand aircraft carrier the focus of it, before they were ordered to return to port, by no higher an authority than the Kaiser himself. The Admiral, Otto Von Falkenstein, still remembered the flash of electric-blue fire that had come at midnight, and had found it strange and utterly bizarre.
He had no idea of what had truly happened.
+++
The generals were military men, from all around Germany in stock, from Vienna to Berlin. They were intelligent, and most of them had fought in the last war. Not fought directly of course, but they had supervised the fighting, and that was what was important. So now, they were fervently attempting to establish radio contact with the territories of Germany.
'Vienna?' one asked.
'Yes,' another replied.
'Milan? Venice?' another asked.
The same reply was given.
For several hours it continued, before the generals were satisfied.
Germany was safe.
+++
Neville Chamberlain put the two maps side-by-side, noticing one very peculiar fact. If one added up the territories of Germany and Austria-Hungary on the 1914 map, one saw that the result was very close to the area affected by the event. Close, but the area affected was somewhat larger.
'My god,' he said.
He was terrified.