by gerald hall
Yesterday’s War
By Gerald L. Hall
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Dedicated to my wife who is known to all as ‘Rev Bev’. She’s the good Shepherd that this old ‘sheepdog’ has been working together in love with for over twenty-two years.
I also want to dedicate this to LTC Albert Clark Welch, US Army (ret). He was a ‘soldier’s soldier’, my Battalion Commander and most importantly, my friend. May you now rest in peace. © Copyright Pending 2017, Gerald Hall Image credits: Cover Art by Nijhia Serrano
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission by the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.
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Prologue: The year was 2040. Turmoil continued throughout the world. Various low-level conflicts raged over control of oil, water, arable land as well as the continuing Islamist offensives in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Europe. But the world’s stabilizing force for the past century was no longer serving in that role.
America had withdrawn from the rest of the world behind an extensive border wall and her large remaining inventory of strategic nuclear weapons. Isolationism had taken control over American foreign policy, especially after a general collapse of the superpower’s financial system. America’s navy now largely remained in port, including her magnificent fleet of nearly a dozen nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. The US Army was forced to place most of its troops into their reserves and National Guard and had stripped much of active duty force as an economy measure as had also the US Air Force. Much of the Americans’ advanced equipment now sat idle due to a lack of spare parts. The turn towards isolationism had taken place after a series of liberal administrations had essentially destroyed the US military with a combination of excessive military commitments and underfunding sustainment of the force. Morale within the US military sank dramatically while tens of thousands of experienced personnel left the services altogether. The new American leadership had closed its doors to the rest of the world after a series of terrorist attacks on its home soil by Islamists that had entered the US under the guise of being refugees.
China had taken advantage of America’s weakness by seizing control of Taiwan and virtually all of the contested islands in the South China Sea. China had even expanded its navy to include four aircraft carriers, though none of them were individually as capable as a US Navy supercarrier. Even so, the general worldwide economic downturn had adversely impacted even China. China’s neighbors were preparing to fight the Chinese behemoth in a move of desperation for all sides.
In Europe, Poland and a few other central European states were fighting a desperate holding action between an aggressive totalitarian Russia and Western Europe. Western Europe was increasingly being dominated by Islamists that had migrated from the Middle East and North Africa. Riots filled the streets while helpless Europeans huddled in their homes, afraid to come out any longer. The obstinate English had separated themselves from the rest of Europe. But even they were struggling against the tide.
But there were a few people in the twenty-first century still trying to make a difference and bring the world back from the brink.
Chapter One: Stevenson Industries Test Site Number Four Halls Creek, Western Australia
December 14, 2040
It was a typically hot, dry day at the edge of the Australian Outback about five-hundred kilometers southwest of Darwin near the town of Halls Creek. The small town was at the southeastern edge of the Kimberley Plateau. Billionaire James Stevenson had just flown in on his corporate helicopter to see how the new high-energy physics project was progressing. The brilliant, handsome and youthful James had already expanded upon his late father’s mining business to create one of the world’s most lucrative conglomerates. Now, the red-haired industrialist was investing heavily in various scientific research projects that offered to create immense technological breakthroughs. He had already achieved a tremendous amount even though he had not yet reached the age of thirty-six. But everyone who knew James Stevenson would say that he was only just getting started changing the world.
James had quickly stepped out of the helicopter, carrying a large tan knapsack over one shoulder. One of the engineers on the project, Andrea Townsend, came out to meet James at the helicopter pad.
“Hello, Mister Stevenson. We are all pretty excited about this project and your visit here for the big test, Sir.” The tall, lanky brunette yelled over the noise of the helicopter.
“Thank you, Ms. Townsend. This is a very special project for me. The facility here has the potential of both exploring the mysteries of our universe and potentially solving many of our existing problems with dealing with toxic materials, even from nuclear reactors. It was a dream that my late wife Judith had as well. I brought some material with me about what she had been working on.”
After both James and Andrea walked far enough from the helicopter’s rotor wash, James pulled out a lightweight portable computer of his knapsack and switched it on without even bothering to connect to the facility’s internal wireless network. Andrea could see from her vantage point that James’ computer had a massive amount of internal storage capacity with data folders on thousands of subjects. James opened up just a few of those folders to display hundreds of individual files each.
“Mister Stevenson, you do have quite a large personal database there on your portable computer.” Andrea noted.
“Yes, I do. During my trips to the Outback, I am often outside of the range of cell phone towers or any other form of communication. I know that I could easily just bring a satellite phone and connected to the Internet through it. But I didn’t want to bother with all of the other distractions of the Internet while out there in the wild. On the other hand, I still want to have access to a wide range of data, whether it is for business research or simply because I was curious about something.
So I had my portable computer fitted with the latest in data storage technology. It can hold close to a petabyte of data internally. I also have a couple of external storage units that each have an equivalent a petabyte of backup data storage.”
“Sounds like you are trying to keep a copy of the entire Wikipedia inside your computer.” The engineer noted.
“Not really, Ms. Townsend. There are quite a few elements of the Wikipedia that I simply have no use for. However, I do have a very extensive scientific and geological database here. I also have a very large, wide-ranging set of historical records because of my personal interest in history. Who knows how many biographies that I have stored here as well. After all, I can’t connect to the Internet while I am hundreds of miles from the nearest Wi-Fi hot spot.” James said before pausing a moment and smiling slyly before continuing.
“Well, that isn’t exactly true. I could connect via my satellite phone. But it is much faster to just have the data already available at my fingertips, especially with the AI expert search engine that is on my computer.”
“I suppose that your journeys to the Outback are why you keep that big portable solar panel rolled up with your rucksack, Sir?”
“Well, I have to have some means of powering my toys out there.” Steven said with a smile before continuing to speak. “There aren’t a lot of power outlets available out there on horseback in the middle of the Australian Outback. But there certainly is a lot of sunlight available.”
“There may not be much more of that available with the way things are going between China, America and the Russians. I’ve never seen this much saber rattling before. They could be going to finally go to war this time.”
“The Americans have been able to hold their own
against the Russians and Chinese so far without anyone shooting at each other. No one really wants to start a nuclear war. The consequences for everyone would be utterly disastrous.” James confidently answered.
“Rational people know this. But are all of the leaders out there rational? The damned Russians have been going back to a neo-Bolshevik police state ever since Putin came into power. They have been absorbing all of the former Soviet republics by any means necessary ever since. The Chinese Communists are little better with their continuing attempts to marginalize and overwhelm their neighbors. They have even instigated incidents with us in Australia. At the same time, the Pakistanis have resumed their saber-rattling against the Indians. The fission device that almost destroyed Tel Aviv was a Russian design, but was certainly manufactured by the Iranians. It is clear that Iran had been building nuclear weapons even before they finally admitted that they had become a nuclear weapons state. America has held the line for decades now, but they have dramatically weakened themselves with the fiscal mess that they have gotten themselves into.
I pray that all of these leaders manage to find a way out of this mess. It is growing more and more likely that one of these minor nuclear states will attack their neighbor. If the major powers go to war, who knows how far things will escalate. Even with all of the nuclear weapons treaties that have been signed, there are still thousands of those weapons out there.”
“Hopefully, what we discover here will help find a way to manage resources so that the reasons for going to war will be far fewer. That’s why I financed the Thorium power program here in Australia. The first five reactors have all worked well here. There is also hundreds of years of fuel available for them. Unfortunately, too many nations are wedded to using uranium-fueled nuclear reactors with all of the safety, waste and nuclear weapons proliferation issues that come with them.”
At that, James gathered up his computer and other belongings, then left the room.
“James, how was your walkabout beyond the Black Stump?” Jonathan Adams asked after James came back to the latter’s private office in the complex a few minutes later. Jonathan was James’ executive assistant as well as his best friend. They had met many years earlier while James was a young man walking through the Australian Outback. Jonathan had been a young aborigine who had a knack for organization that James quickly recognized. They became fast friends. It wasn’t very long before Jonathan found himself in a private high school, his tuition being paid by James’ family. They had remained close friends ever since.
“It was good to get away from things for a while, Jonathan. I remember walking around out there when I was a kid. It is just so peaceful out there. I would have stayed out longer, but I knew that the people here were about to do the full power test of the super collider. Judith wouldn’t have wanted me to miss this if she were alive.” James replied in an almost melancholy way.
“You know, it’s been nearly two years since Judith’s death. It’s past time that you went ahead and resumed your life. You need to get out there and start dating some. I know that you have a huge void in your heart still. It doesn’t do you any good to just leave it there unfilled, James.”
“I have a lot of work to do still to fulfill her dream though. Judith was the one who made everything happen in Israel to get their government’s financial support for this. But what she did in Tel Aviv cemented the deal and cost Judith her life.”
“Yes, she stopped that terrorist atomic bomb that would have destroyed the entire city. There is no doubt that Judith was a hero in the truest sense of the word. But all the walkabouts in the world won’t get her back.”
“I know, Jonathan. I was one of Judith’s three great loves. The other two were the State of Israel and this research project. I have to make this project work because of all of the good that it will do for the country that she loved more than life itself and in honor of her. Only then, can I even think about anything else.”
“Just don’t let it consume you, my friend. You have a lot more to live for than just this.” Jonathan said with a warm smile as he gave his friend a brotherly hug. It still did little to help with James’ continuing loneliness that he felt after losing the love of his life little more than a year earlier. James continued to smile and be sociable to the world at large. But deep inside, he was still full of pain after what was so suddenly taken from him.
It had appeared to be another normal day inside of the research facility when James walked into the control room.
“Good morning, everyone. How are preparations going for the next series of tests?” James asked Samuel Upton, the senior project manager.
“Very well, Mister Stevenson. We are about to do full power tests on the super collider with the Tokamak fusion power plant switched into the system tomorrow.”
“Are we still having those anomalous readings in the chambers between the Tokamak and the super collider, Sam?”
“Yes, Sir. We cannot explain what the cause of the readings or the strange images that our people have seen in those chambers during the earlier low power tests. A couple of our physicists believe that it could be an interaction between the magnetic fields of the super collider and the Tokamak. Our sensors have also been picking up a lot of exotic particles within that chamber including glueballs or guons. These are normally only associated with the super collider itself.”
“But weren’t they the same people who said that the Tokamak was adequately shielded from the super collider? We located the two devices right on top of each other to ensure that we could obtain sufficient power from the fusion reactor with a minimum of transmission losses.”
“Yes, they did. We are in uncharted territory here, I’m afraid.”
“Well, that is the whole point of this project, to explore the unknown here. I have invested nearly a billion dollars of my own money into this project. Our partners, including the Israeli government have invested even more. Unless someone can show me that this phenomenon is dangerous in some way, we are going to go ahead with the full power tests.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“I want every sensor that you can drag in here monitoring every inch of this complex, especially where we are getting those anomalous readings. If we are in any danger, I want to know about it immediately so that we can shut everything down before something dramatic happens.”
Early the next morning, the entire team was on site making final preparations for the first full power run. James and the complex’s senior staff were all in the control room waiting to begin.”
“Switch the Tokamak to full power and begin particle bombardment of the target object.”
“We are at full power now, Sir. Feeding protons into the accelerator array now.”
A technician at one of the other control panels suddenly called out.
“The anomaly has reappeared. Only this time, it is much more powerful and defined.” “Where is it at?”
“C Level, Chamber 3. That is almost directly between the Tokamak and the primary accelerator core, Sir”
“Can we see anything on the video monitors down there?”
“The anomaly appears to be like an optical distortion that is roughly oval shaped. It is like looking at a dark picture off in the distance that is out of focus. Our sensors here can’t tell anything else more definitive from out here. The boundary of this distortion appears to be about three meters in diameter. For now, it appears to be stable.”
“Can we see anything on the other side?”
“No, Sir. But we can put a few sensors on the end of an arm of one of our remote maintenance robots. Then we can extend the arm into the anomaly and try to get readings from the sensors.”
“Then hurry up and make it happen. We don’t know how long this anomaly will last.”
Ten minutes later, a remotely operated vehicle about the size of a golf cart running on tracks entered the chamber. It was controlled by a long fiber-optic cable running back to the complex’s control room. The robot slowly extended a mechanical arm
out towards the anomaly. On the end of the arm was a long metal pole with a large cluster of sensors attached. The sensors were connected by a fiberoptic cable to a radio transmitter on the robot itself.
The sensor unit began to penetrate the boundary of the anomaly. Almost immediately, data began to flow from the various sensors.
“We’ve got atmosphere, temperature and radiation readings coming in now, Sir.”
“How about visual?”
“We aren’t getting anything on visual sensors. It appears to be a near complete absence of light in the visual spectrum as though it were in the middle of the night. Infrared is picking up a few things. It appears to be a planetary surface, but very barren. It reminds me a lot of a desert here in Australia.”
“Well, this entire complex was built in what is essentially a desert. What are the other sensors saying?”
We have Earth-normal gravity, the atmosphere is essentially identical to here with the exception of some variation in trace contaminants and a bit less carbon dioxide. This is the sort of atmospheric conditions that I would ascribe to right here in Australia something close to one hundred and fifty years ago, in fact. If this is Earth we are looking at, then it has to be at least one hundred years ago because of something else I see on our instruments.”
“What’s that?” James asked.
“Earth’s atmosphere and everything else on Earth’s surface has been contaminated by certain radioactive isotopes that are the byproducts of the detonation of nuclear fission devices. There are absolutely none of those isotopes present in our sampling. That means if this is our Earth, it is in a time prior to even the Americans’ Trinity test at Alamogordo.”
“Are you telling me that we might have opened a door into Earth’s past right here?”
“It appears to be the case. We have to do a lot more research into what is happening here. But I can tell you one thing. I wouldn’t want to step through that anomaly for all of the money in the world, Mister Stevenson. If I am not right, who knows what we might find on the other side.”
