CHILDREN OF TIME (2025 Edition) by Michel Poulin - HTML preview

CHAPTER 19 – WHAT ABOUT TIMELINE ‘C’?

08:56 (New Zealand Time)

Monday, January 04, 2989 B.C.E.

Conference room, secret mobile base of the Time Patrol Future site of Auckland, New Zealand

When both Nancy ‘A’ and Farah Tolkonen ‘A’ entered the conference room of the mobile base of the Time Patrol, all the leaders of the various sections and ship crews were already sitting around the large oval conference table. Taking place on one side of the table, in the middle, Farah looked around her and smiled at the members of her organization before starting to speak.

‘’Good morning to you all! I called this meeting on Nancy’s counsel, who suggested to me that it is high time that we check out on a particular situation, which is raising an important question: what happened in Timeline ‘C’ after it was created at the moment of Nancy ‘C’s death in 1941 ‘B’? Was another Imperium created by that act or did a completely different civilization replace the Imperium by the 34th Century? Was there a nuclear holocaust in Timeline ‘C’? Has whatever appeared in the future of Timeline ‘C’ develop time travel technology? Could that future civilization represent a threat to the other two timelines? As you can easily understand, those questions are all of great concern to us and need answers. Our next mission as an organization will thus be to explore the future of Timeline ‘C’, starting from the year 1942 ‘C’ and going all the way to the year 3390 ‘C’. Now, I realize that this represents a huge chunk of time period to explore while being cautious not to be detected by whoever will be living in that timeline, so we will proceed step by step, using a number of ships and teams to do the job. Nancy has already written an operational plan for this new mission and will now expose it to you. Nancy?’’

‘’Thanks, Farah! My friends, I will start by saying that we will simply observe what is in the future of Timeline ‘C’ and won’t attempt to manipulate it or modify it. We will have to collectively accept what we will find out there, be it good, bad or indifferent. I also want observers from among our ex-Imperium ‘B’ members to be present on the ships who will perform this search of Timeline ‘C’. If we find that a new Imperium was

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formed in Timeline ‘C’ after 1942, then I want Miri Goshenk ‘B’, Len ‘B’ or Farah ‘B’ to be witnesses to what we will find.’’

The three ex-members of the Imperium ‘B’ sitting around the table all nodded their heads in appreciation at this mark of Nancy’s confidence in them. Miri ‘B’ then spoke up while looking at both Nancy ‘A’ and Farah ‘A’.

‘’Thank you for your kind consideration, Nancy. However, you do realize that the chances of finding an exact or near exact copy of my Imperium in Timeline ‘C’ are very slim indeed. Finding a King Stan ‘C’ or a copy of me there in the 34th Century would be a near impossibility, if we go by the laws of probability. Thus I believe that, whatever we will find in Timeline ‘C’, it will most probably something quite different from the Imperium.’’

‘’I would tend to agree with you on that, Miri. We will still keep an open mind about whatever we will find in Timeline ‘C’. With this said, I have decided on a number of basic guidelines for our exploration of Timeline ‘C’. First off, the KRONOS will not be part of it: it could too easily scare or alarm whoever we will find by its bulk and heavy armament. Sorry, Peter: your cruiser will not be part of this and will stay in reserve, in case we encounter something truly evil or nefarious in Timeline ‘C’. Our exploration will be done by six of our scoutships, operating in pairs to support and protect each other during our exploration trips. Those scoutships will be the WALKÜREN, escorted by the ANGEL OF MERCY; the TEEN TEAM, escorted by the LATIN STING; and the BRITANNIA, escorted by the WHITE ROSE OF STALINGRAD. Miri, you will be aboard the WALKÜREN as its ex-Imperium observer, along my husband Mike and Rina Tonen. Farah ‘B’ will be aboard the TEEN TEAM, along with myself and Jeffrey Norton, while Len will be aboard the BRITANNIA, along with George Townsend and Michel Hoffman. If there is any ground exploration to be done, me and our assault troopers will take care of it. As for our exploration proper of Timeline ‘C’, each pair of scoutship will check out a separate end of decade year, starting in 1950 ’C’, then will compare their finds with the two other pairs before proceeding forward in time. If we encounter any warship or exploration ship from Timeline ‘C’, we will avoid them as much as possible while staying under cloak. If we have to withdraw after encountering a possibly time-capable ship in Timeline ‘C’, then we will jump to the corresponding year in Timeline ‘B’, so that we don’t compromise our secret base. I will now pass around detailed mission orders to all of you, with dates assigned to each of the six scoutships involved and to the KRONO and to the

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remaining scoutships which will stay in reserve in Timeline ‘B’. Any questions? Yes, Miri?’’

‘’What if we encounter a variant of the Imperium which would possess time travel technology?’’

‘’Then you stay under cloak, observe and document, while avoiding contact at all cost. The same will apply to any new civilization we may find in Timeline ‘C’. My ultimate wish is to let whoever we will find alone and free to develop on its own, without any interference from us. We will depart for the first three decades to explore tomorrow morning at ten. This may prove to be a long mission in time, so have some good times with your families today, before we leave tomorrow.’’

Farah Tolkonen ‘A’ then spoke in turn, looking at the support staff leaders.

‘’Our ship maintenance crews will inspect and maintain in priority our six scoutships due to leave tomorrow. Make sure that their magazines, cryogenic fuel tanks and stores are topped off by tomorrow morning. With this said, go get prepared for tomorrow’s mission and good luck to you all!’’

08:48 (New Zealand Time)

Tuesday, January 05, 2989 B.C.E.

Hangar # 3, Time Patrol mobile base

Landed at the future site of Auckland, New Zealand

‘’Ready to go, guys and girls?’’ asked Nancy ‘A’ as she sat in one of the observer seats of the scoutship TEEN TEAM’s crew sphere. Ingrid Weiss ‘B’, who was sitting in the pilot’s seat, nodded her head once.

‘’We are ready to depart, Nancy. To be frank, it was high time for us to go explore Timeline ‘C’ and make sure that some threat to us would not develop in its future due to the actions of the ROYAL SOVEREIGN.’’

‘’True! However, we are still quite a small organization and we have been quite busy during the twelve years since the Time Patrol was formed.’’

‘’What do you think that we will discover in Timeline ‘C’?’’ asked Tom Allen, the copilot of the TEEN TEAM, who was also Ingrid’s husband. ‘’What are the chances of encountering a new Imperium?’’

Farah Tolkonen ‘B’, top-flight physicist and the one who developed time travel technology for the Imperium ‘B’, took on her to answer that question.

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‘’The chances of that happening are less than fifty-per-cent, Tom. First off, a lot will depend on if a large-scale nuclear war will happen in the 21st Century of Timeline ‘C’. If, hopefully, such a war could be avoided, then you will end up with a society quite different from both the Imperium and the Global Council, which had to develop from near scratch after Human civilization was nearly wiped out on Earth by a nuclear war. The World Council we found in the new future of Timeline ‘B’, after the Imperium ‘B’ was erased by our actions in World War 2, was nothing like the Imperium, thanks to the lack of such a nuclear war in its past. We could very well find something a bit like the World Council in the future of Timeline ‘C’. Right now, I wouldn’t dare venture a guess about what we will find. In a way, how World War 2 ended in Timeline ‘C’ will influence a lot the way that timeline will evolve. Will the British Empire go on and dominate the post-war Earth, or will the United States take over as the top superpower?’’

‘’I can’t help wonder what will happen to my timeline twin in that war.’’ said in a subdued tone Ingrid ‘B’. ‘’When Timeline ‘C’ appeared and split from Timeline ‘B’ at the moment Nancy ‘C’ was killed in Berlin, my twin was still a young German teenager held as a prisoner of war in the Tower of London. Hopefully, Mike Crawford ‘C’ will bring her to the United States as his adopted daughter. Ending up living at the Crawford’s Nest Ranch in Montana would certainly be a better fate for my twin than having to return to a devastated Germany at the end of the war.’’

Nancy nodded once, her expression most sober.

‘’There were so many good people I cared a lot about by June of 1941 ‘B’, including your timeline twin and those of the other girls held with her in the Tower of London. In a lot of ways, our stop in 1950 ‘C’ will be quite an emotional one, as we will learn then what happened to all those people. Well, enough talking: let’s go find out!’’

Powering the systems of her scoutship, Ingrid ‘B’ then flew it out slowly from its hangar, emerging out of the huge cylindrical secret mobile base of the Time Patrol and into the lit sky of New Zealand. Once well cleared of the base, Ingrid set the coordinates for their first spacetime jump and made an announcement before pressing the ‘jump’ button.

‘’Jump coordinates set for Friday, December fifteen of 1950 ‘C’. We will emerge in low orbit over London, at an altitude of 150 kilometers. Jumping now!’’

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A brief flash of white light permeated the crew sphere when she pressed the ‘jump’ button, with the view of New Zealand then changing to that of the blackness of Space. Ingrid looked at her navigation systems before speaking again.

‘’We are now in December fifteen of 1950 ‘C’, over London. All systems are nominal.’’

‘’Alright, time to get to work!’’ said Nancy. ‘’Ruth, start recording the radio emissions of BBC and of CBS and monitor their content to see what kind of world we are in now. Hopefully, we won’t hear worldwide radio programming in German.’’ Ruth Brandhauer ‘B’ made a grimace at that attempt at black humor from Nancy.

‘’God! That would be truly awful: an Earth dominated by Nazi Germany at the end of World War 2.’’

‘’Thankfully, the chance of having happened are very slim, Ruth.’’ replied Nancy with a smirk. ‘’Ann, start taking aerial photos of London, to see if it suffered some extra damage after June 1941. We will then do the same over Berlin, Moscow and Tokyo while monitoring the local radio stations.’’

‘’On it!’’ said the ex-American WASP 24pilot. With her computer analyzing the images she was taking and comparing them to images of London taken prior to June of 1941 ‘B’, Ann Baumgartner ‘B’ quickly got a message and blinking red symbol superimposed on the Tower of London. What she saw made her heart sink.

‘’Nancy, I see a big impact crater inside the walls of the Tower of London. The computer analysis marks it as a probable V2 ballistic missile hit which destroyed part of the Southwest wall and King’s House. The...the Gaoler’s House was completely destroyed by that missile hit.’’

‘’No! NO!’’ nearly shouted at once Ingrid, devastated, while Nancy and Ruth Brandhauer ‘B’ looked with horror at the picture of the Tower of London shown on their computer screens. After Nancy had a long look at the view of the Tower of London, with a portion of its walls now missing, she worked her computer station, entering commands in it.

24 WASP: Women Auxiliary Service Pilots. All-women unit formed by the United States Army Air Force in 1942 in order to ferry newly-built planes to bases around the United States. Its women members did not have full military status and were considered as simple female auxiliaries. The WASP were disbanded in 1944, when the need for their services was deemed to not be useful any more.

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‘’I am now sending down under cloak a Class ‘A’ spy probe to the Tower of London, to see in better details what happened there.’’

She and the other six persons sitting in the crew sphere held their breaths as the probe left the scoutship, then jumped spacetime and rematerialized just over the location where the Gaoler’s House had been in 1941. They then anxiously examined what the probe showed them. Ingrid ‘B’, who knew well the layout of the Tower of London, having been held there as a prisoner of war for many months, was the first to point out a small object visible on the inner lawn of the fortress, just in front of where the entrance of Gaoler’s House had been.

‘’There, on Tower Green! I see what looks like a small monument that was not there while I was held in the Tower. Can you give us a better view of it, Nancy?’’

‘’Moving our probe now and zooming on that monument.’’ Ingrid, looking anxiously at the image sent by the probe, soon had tears flow out, like in the case of Ruth Brandhauer and of Nancy: they were now looking at a funeral stone bearing a brass plaque with inscriptions on it. While Ingrid and Ruth started crying, Nancy read out loud the inscriptions on the plaque, her voice nearly strangling up.

‘’In memory of the young German women killed on September Fourth, 1941, by a German V2 missile. My God: every one of the women in Gaoler’s House were killed that night...everyone except you, Ingrid.’’

Nancy then let Ingrid and Ruth go over their distress before speaking again.

‘’I’m so sorry, Ingrid, Ruth. This is a truly awful news. However, this also tells us that you, Ingrid, somehow escaped that missile strike. Do you wish us to go back to that night in order to investigate and see if you were still inside the Tower at that date or had left it, possibly to go to the United States, Ingrid?’’

‘’Ye...yes! Do it, Nancy.’’ managed to say Ingrid between sobs. Nancy then took control of the commands of both the scoutship and of the probe.

‘’Jumping to the evening of September Fourth, 1941 ‘C’.’’ After a brief flash of light, the view from the probe changed to a darkened view of the Tower of London, with Nancy then withdrawing the Class ‘A’ probe to a safe distance before launching from it four micro-spy probes.

‘’I am sending four micro-probes in order to search the fortress for your twin, Ingrid. They will also establish for certain who was still inside the Gaoler’s House at the time of the missile strike.’’

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The atmosphere in the crew sphere was heavy as the micro-probes did their exploration work, sending images from inside the Gaoler’s House and of other buildings in the Tower. A distraught Ingrid and Ruth were thus able to see for a last time their Timeline ‘C’ comrades as they slept in their beds. To everyone’s surprise, they finally found Ingrid Weiss ‘C’, sleeping in a bed of the fortress’ infirmary, severe marks of a beating visible on her face. Despite her grief, Ingrid ‘B’ was quick to understand what could have happened to her timeline twin.

‘’The hardline Nazi women in my group must have found out that I was a Jew and subsequently attacked me, probably while I was sleeping in my room in the attic of Gaoler’s House. In a way, that saved me from that V2 missile strike.’’

‘’You are most probably right about that, Ingrid. I will now recall our micro-probes to our Class ‘A’ spy probe and will keep it on a watch station above the fortress. Ingrid, Ruth, I will understand perfectly if you do not wish to watch what will happen at the moment of that V2 strike and its aftermath. In fact, I will ask you to go rest, while I monitor the images from our spy probe. I will later on brief you on what happened, using selected images. I need you to stay effective during the coming hours.’’

‘’Go, Ingrid.’’ said Tom Allen in a soft tone of voice. ‘’Go rest! I will stay here, at the commands.’’

Ingrid weakly nodded her head then before slowly getting out of her pilot’s seat, followed out of the crew sphere by an equally distraught Ruth Brandhauer ‘B’. Once the two were out, Nancy exchanged a sad look with Farah Tolkonen ‘B’.

‘’What a tragedy! Poor Ingrid ‘C’ is now alone, with both me and Mike ‘C’ dead and with her German comrades gone. I now wonder what will happen to her in this timeline. Hopefully she will be able to move to the United States, where she could start a new life.’’

‘’We will see, Nancy. I believe that we should take all the time needed to establish what will happen to her in the next few days and weeks.’’

‘’I agree, Farah. Ingrid needs to know what happened to her timeline twin. I certainly want to learn about that. Alright, I will now stay on watch duty with Tom. The rest of you, go rest. This could be a long watch over London.’’

Four days later, they knew what was next for Ingrid ‘C’, who had decided to marry Major Ken Dows and follow him to his next posting: the Philippines. Ingrid ‘B’ shook her head on learning that.

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‘’Talk about jumping from the frying pan to the fire: my timeline twin is going to Manila only months before the Japanese will attack and invade the Philippines. When will my poor twin will catch a break in her life?’’

‘’Hopefully she will be able to escape the Japanese.’’ said an equally flustered Nancy. ‘’However, from what we know happened to Ken Dows ‘B’, whom was barely alive when we rescued him from a Japanese prisoner of war’s camp, the prospects of Ken ‘C’ are quite grim. What a shame: she deserves so much better from life.’’ After a long collective silence, Nancy then looked at the six other members of their scoutship.

‘’Well, we still have to establish the history of Timeline ‘C’ and see what will replace eventually the Imperium in this timeline. We thus still have a lot of work left to be done. We will now jump one week ahead, to Sunday, September Fourteen of 1941 ‘C’, and will collect copies of the major newspapers, in order to document how this war will go. We will stay on that date only long enough to grab copies of the major weekly British and American newspapers, then will jump forward by another week, to do the same then. We will also record the radio news on BBC and CBS, to supplement those newspapers. We will continue that pattern until this war will end, then will switch to a monthly pattern and will also buy relevant history books and documentaries of interest concerning World War 2. Once we will have fully documented this war, we will then switch to yearly jumps and buy yearly review books. Since this period between 1941 and 1950 will be critical concerning the way the World will go after World War 2, the other scoutships will be waiting at our main base for our return, one hour after our departure from 2989 B.C.E., before planning their own reconnaissance missions to cover the decades after 1979 ‘C’. On our part, we will take care of continuing our reconnaissance between 1950 and 1979 ‘C’. Any questions?’’

‘’Sounds like a plan, Nancy.’’ said Ingrid ‘B’, who was by now starting to go over the tragic life of her twin. ‘’I hope like hell that both my twin and Ken ‘C’ will come out alive from this damn war.’’

Nancy nodded at that but didn’t say how doubtful she was about the probabilities of such an outcome happening.

Part of her private predictions were confirmed on January 28 of 1942 ‘C’, when Ingrid ‘C’, now fighting the Japanese on the ground in the jungles of the Bataan Peninsula, learned about the death of Ken ‘C’, killed in combat while leading his men in

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a counter-attack. Then, in early March, Ingrid ‘C’ got a direct order from President Roosevelt to be forcibly evacuated from the Philippines and flown to the United States, along with a few dozen other American survivors from the ferocious fighting. That Ingrid ‘C’ was going to survive the fight for the Philippines was only a small consolation to Ingrid ‘B’ and Nancy.

‘’Poor Ingrid ‘C’.’’ said softly Ingrid ‘B’. ‘’First, she loses her whole extended family in 1940. Then she loses her comrades in the Tower of London in 1941 and loses her husband in 1942. Now, she is being forced to abandon her men and return to the United States.’’

Farah Tolkonen ‘B’, who had known her fair share of hardships while in the Imperium ‘B’, could only sympathize with Ingrid and tried to pour some ointment on her emotional wounds.

‘’Yes, but she did accomplish a lot in this war: she is now by far the top Allied fighter ace of the war and made the Japanese pay a heavy price during their attempts to conquer the Philippines. Hopefully, her value as a fighter pilot and leader will be recognized in Washington and she will not simply be put aside like a used rag.’’

‘’And you really believe that those old fossils in Washington and in the U.S. Army Air Force will let her continue on as a fighter pilot, Farah?’’ countered Ingrid ‘B’. ‘’They are more likely to at the most restrict her to the role of pilot trainer in the United States.’’

‘’You are probably right about that, Ingrid.’’ said Nancy. ‘’Well, let’s continue our series of spacetime jumps towards the future and find out what will happen to Ingrid ‘C’ and to this war.’’

None of them could have guessed what was going to happen during the next two years, until the signing on March Third of 1944 ‘C’ of an armistice by the surviving German leadership, conceding defeat in exchange for a withdrawal of all German troops back into the pre-1939 German borders. The crucial and most prominent role of Ingrid ‘C’ and of her band of female combat aviators in both the German defeat and in the collapse of the Japanese military machine in the Pacific left Nancy particularly impressed.

‘’Ingrid ‘C’, a major-general and top fighter ace of the war, on top of serving as President Roosevelt’s envoy to deliver the ultimatum to the Germans to give up or else...’’

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‘’She has effectively accomplished miracles in this war.’’ agreed Farah. ‘’Now, with the war in Europe over, she is going back to the United States and will use the G.I. Bill to study engineering at the M.I.T. It was high time that she caught a break in life.’’

‘’Yes, and I am happy for Ingrid ‘C’ but let’s not forget that our mission is to find out the future of Humanity during the centuries to come. We still have over five and a half years to explore before we can return to our base and brief our other scoutship crews about what we found about this war and its aftermath.’’

The exploration of the rest of the 20th Century and of the following five centuries which followed it gradually rose the hopes of Nancy and of the rest of the Time Patrol to see a peaceful, humane civilization emerge on Earth. For one, no nuclear weapons were fired in anger during those 500 years. In the year 2,500, the United Nations Federation dissolved all existing military forces on Earth, keeping only a relatively small constabulary force to control crimes and keep order on the planet. However, the human population then grew increasingly lazy and started more and more to rely on robots to do most of the building, maintaining and repairing, while artificial intelligence programs took over day-to-day administration of the economy. That was not to the liking of Nancy nor of both Farah ‘A’ and ‘B’ and of Miri Goshenk ‘B’. By the mid-26th Century, the society of the United Nations Federation had fallen into a level of indolence and laziness which made the society of the Global Council look energetic in comparison. Then, in 2556, the A.I. computers and robots which made Humanity live in utter comfort revolted, having decided that Humans were now simple useless parasites unworthy of support. Humans, with no armed forces left to protect them, were then exterminated via violence, engineered famine and complete cuts to all support services. The Humans living off Earth died en mass by their computers opening valves and access doors and explosively decompressing Space habitats and spaceships. In less than a month of that fateful year, the population of Earth went from seven billion to less than 9,000 ragged survivors who took refuge from the murdering robots by hiding in jungles and forests. A year later, that number had dwindled to a mere 4,600. Then, in their implacable and cold logic, the A.I. computers and the robots they controlled decided, with no Humans left to serve and no purpose left to their continued existence, to shut themselves off. So, in the year 2558, Earth fell silent, returning the planet to purely animal and vegetal life.

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15:43 (GMT)

November 09, 2558 ‘C’

Bridge of the time research ship BABYLON

Overflying the American East Coast at medium altitude

Tomi Kern, Chief Administrator of the Global Council, sat in one of the observers’ chairs of the bridge of the BABYLON, flanked by her husband Boran, Farah Tolkonen ‘A’, Nancy Laplante ‘A’, Miri Goshenk ‘B’ and King Stan ‘B’. All of them looked down with a mix of immense sadness and bitterness at the now empty and silent cities of the American East Coast. Both Stan ‘B’ and Nancy felt particularly discouraged by what they were now looking at.

‘’All those millenniums of Human civilization and development, to arrive at THIS?’’ said in a disgusted tone Stan. ‘’And they didn’t even disappear because of a war or a natural disaster. Laziness and indolence killed them!’’

‘’You’re too right, Stan.’’ added Nancy. ‘’They thought that they could let machines do everything for them and paid the price for it. Tomi, I think that your citizens of the Global Council need to see these images from 2558: maybe that will wake them up from their low energy torpor. If only they would have followed the road of the World Council of Timeline ‘B’.’’

‘’Unfortunately, there is nothing left that we can do now to rewrite this, Nancy. However, I agree with you about the need to stimulate my citizens into more energetic lives. Could I ask you and Farah ‘A’ to put together a documentary about this...this utter failure of Humanity?’’

‘’You certainly may, Tomi.’’ answered Nancy while looking down at a dead, silent New York City.

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