by Geoff Wolak
In 1974, Iraq’s ruling elite suffered numerous bomb blasts, most being killed, and in a bold move the Iranians swept across the border to Basra – where they were welcomed by their Shia brethren. The Syrians invaded from the northwest of Iraq and approached Baghdad, the Egyptians flying across and taking the Baghdad airport. It was all over in three days, a puppet socialist regime put in place, and a threat to many nations - including Turkey and Kuwait.
Additional American units landed in Saudi Arabia, and everyone believed that war was on the cards. Russia sent weapons and instructors to Egypt and Syria, and to the new Iraqi state. But then The West caught a break when the Shia south of Iraq declared itself independent, and a protectorate of Iran. The new Iraqi regime was not in favour of that, neither were the Suni Syrians, and a small internal war started. From that small war, a group called The Brotherhood rose up.
The Brotherhood decided that they didn’t like anyone who was not a devout Shia, and used suicide bombers to attack the Baghdad government, to attack the Syrian and Egyptian soldiers based in Iraq, and they even crossed into Kuwait. They gained recruits in the slums, and their tactics were soon wearing down the Baghdad government. But the crucible was Kuwait, British border units subject to suicide bombers dressed as women. And to top it all off, oil production in the region was down year on year, prices rising rapidly.
A year into the defence of Kuwait, the British people – and the British press – had had enough, and Britain pulled out, American units moving in. Meanwhile, along the Gulf coast, American units were suffering almost daily bomb attacks, the oil installations also suffering attacks. Yemen had also been subject to communist insurrection, and the British units fighting there - based around Aden – duly pulled out. That country elected a communist regime, received help from Russia, and started to mine the Red Sea entrance to the Suez Canal – which they denied. Oil prices were rocketing.
In one spectacular weekend, the ruling elite in Kuwait were all killed, but not on their home turf. They were in Paris for a conference on Middle East security, their hotel raised to the ground by suicide bombers – French communists. As those bombs were going off, a dozen other bombs destroyed Kuwait’s principal oil installations, oil flowing across the sands or burning, huge black plumes rising into the sky. Kuwait was abandoned, its people fleeing to other nations, and bombs were soon going off around Saudi oil installations.
America placed half a million men in the Middle East, fully expecting an all out war, and managed to safeguard the various oil installations. Problem was, some of the long-serving and loyal Arab workers were a tad more loyal to The Brotherhood, and sensitive equipment was damaged on a regular basis, fires started, oil prices still rising.
That increase in oil prices, a three hundred percent hike in five years, was having an effect on the economies of The West. A recession took hold. That recession led to a hard-line Republican entering the White House, and he was on a collision course with The Brotherhood. After discussing the Middle East with his Joint Chiefs, a plan was made, a bold plan. Israel was key to the plan, America’s aircraft carrier in the region.
Israel deliberately nudged the Syrians at the border, and the Egyptians moved units forwards in response. America accused the Syrians and Egyptians of planning an attack, and moved several carrier battle groups into the area.
Everyone in The West, and in Moscow, figured that it was just posturing – as usual. But one morning at dawn, American jets pounded the hell out of Damascus and Cairo, the Syrian and Egyptian air forces decimated on the ground. By the end of the day, not a single Syrian or Egyptian aircraft was left to fight, civilian airliners destroyed on the ground, or even shot down mid-air.
Government buildings in Cairo and Damascus were hit, dozens of them, as well as water works, power stations, bridges and key roads. The Russians protested, and made threats, but the Americans kept bombing, and dawn the next day saw Baghdad hit, as well as Tehran. US forces based in Saudi Arabia and the gulf struck at Iranian aircraft and surface vessels, but also at Iranian oil installations. It was fair to say that oil prices spiked a little.
A week later, and Syria and Egypt were back in the Stone Age, Iran suffering greatly, Iraq hit in many places. But that was not an end to what the Americans had planned. One day before dawn they dropped six tactical nukes on small and isolated towns across the region, just to make a point. The US President made a speech.
‘Those in the Middle East who attack our interests and our way of life … must now know that we will stop at nothing to secure our interests, and if necessary will kill every last one of our enemies. Syria, Egypt, Iran and the others … will now move back from a threatening posture, or they will be destroyed – completely destroyed.’
A week passed, and the Russians were sat with their thumbs up their arses, thinking about what to do – and if there was anything they could do save start a nuclear war. The people of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Egypt stopped to consider that they had pulled the tiger’s tail, and got bitten. And that it was probably best not to pull the tiger’s tail any more.
A kind of calm descended over the region, but that calm gave The Brotherhood what it wanted, exactly what it wanted. Recruitment us up, way up, and munitions had been easy to find since the various regional governments were not effectively governing at that time. Bombs started to go off in Cairo, Damascus and Amman, The Brotherhood on the move.
A month later, and the CIA were scratching their heads, since their old enemies were now tearing themselves apart from within, their economies ruined, the cities and towns subject to bomb blasts almost every hour some days. In Iran, the religious leaders and fundamentalists were nothing compared to The Brotherhood, who destroyed all of the Iranians’ oil installations. It would take years for the Iranians to pump oil again. The oil facilities around Basra were well and truly destroyed, some derricks having been burning for a year or more.
Israel, meanwhile, was worried, since it was now an aircraft carrier in a black oily sea that was on fire, bombs going off at its borders every day. Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Iran were all failed states, struggling with internal terrorism – for which those states blamed the Americans to start with.
Six months after the tactical nukes had been used, a meeting at the White House cited The Brotherhood as being more of a threat than the old regimes ever were. The President met with his allies, and even met with the Russians – since they were seeing uprisings in the Muslim Russian Caucuses. A line was drawn around the Middle East, borders closed or tightened, refugees turned away. That move just gave The Brotherhood additional potential recruits from the poor and disaffected citizens of the Middle East.
But almost a year after the start of the rise of The Brotherhood, the people of the Middle East themselves had had enough, a popular backlash against the terrorism witnessed across the region. America and Russia assisted the various weak governments with aide and supplies, and those governments started a programme of financial rewards for information about terrorists. Members of The Brotherhood were shot dead – from a distance – no trials conducted. Buildings were searched by people desiring the rewards, and the numbers of bombs going off diminished.
As the year turned to 1980, the Middle East was still a no-go zone, and America still had three hundred thousand men in place in the Gulf, but a new mood had come around. Syria, Egypt, Iraq and Iran had rejected communism as a bad idea, and even became a little democratic. They still suffered occasionally at the hands of The Brotherhood, but had rebuilt their nations.
At this point in the story I wondered why the Brotherhood had never gained enough momentum to do more damage, and to affect Europe. It was a different time line, yes, but the conditions were all there. Their rise was forty years or more sooner than on other worlds, and maybe that was it.
The 1980s had seen the Cold War continue, and weapons technology had advanced; I could understand the American desire for time travel. South America and Central America still suffered greatly from communist insurge
nts, and Malaysia and Singapore were constantly under threat, but the Middle East had quietened down a little. Oil was flowing, but in small quantities, and prices remained very high around the world, fuelling a continuing recession. It was fair to say that the GDP of The West was a fifth of where it should have been.
Since 1946, the people of the The West had suffered from the communist threat, and had suffered from high oil prices, and they had developed an attitude, a Cold War attitude – and then some.
By the early 1980s, America was running a huge deficit. Crime was high, the black market thriving, and race riots were constant in many cities. But the trade of oil in dollars, and the high price of oil, had helped the flagging US economy, as it had done in most time lines, and a succession of US Presidents had printed dollars. By 1984, America was in the same situation as it had reached in 2012 on my old world, only a great deal worse.
But during the 1980s, several accords had been signed with the Russians, and nuclear arsenals had been reduced a little. China was starting to grow its economy, and to trade with America – another accident waiting to happen.
In the later parts of the 1980s, the US economy and the world economy ticked up a little, but it was too little too late. The US economy was a giant Ponsi scheme, and they knew it, the problem always passed off to the next incumbent, and the next generation, as in my time line.
And so, in 1986, Dr Singh opened a portal, his hope being that the time line could be fixed. By this date he had been sidelined, but his theories had enabled a portal to be opened. That portal opened to a post-apocalyptic world, a glimpse of a potential future. The Joint Chiefs understood parallel worlds, and knew that they would have to jump across to one, build a portal, and jump back to affect their own time line. But President Clayton, a Republican, had been elected a few months before the first portal test had taken place, and now stamped his authority on the project: there would be no unwinding of the time line, since that would mean he did not serve his full term, or indeed two terms.
The scientists tried to argue the benefits, such as possessing a nuke in 1937, and the Joint Chiefs were in favour of destroying the communists and the Arabs early on, around 1930. Clayton was having none of it, but ordered that the portal operators look for worlds where they could find a more technologically advanced American nation, who could then assist Clayton in this time period with advanced weapons. It was an approach that made sense to him, and him alone, but it was also the approach the original Dr Singh had taken – the hope that help could be summoned.
A world was then dialled into at random, a post-apocalyptic world, but the scientific team that stepped through to have a look around soon heard about UFOs landing in Wyoming, and went to investigate. They found the Zim sat about the camp fire, and received a warm welcome.
At this point in the story I stopped, and I needed a drink, and to stare through the window for a while. I peered out over the town of Trophy, a town that had grown up around our efforts here, a peaceful and prosperous place where people said ‘hello’ to each other in the street, where crime was low, and where several generations of African blacks integrated with the Canadians. The parks were clean and well maintained, and the crime rate was low, very low. I could stand at this lounge window in my house and be proud, proud of what I had worked to achieve here.
My success here came on top of my success in Africa, and on top of those successes fixing my old world - with Jimmy’s help. I was used to making things and improving things, and I was proud of the advances I had made over on the Seethan world.
I shook my head, and wondered why some countries got themselves into a mess; after all, it wasn’t that hard. You worked within your budgets, you organised and motivated, you built and you led. But no, in some places - and at certain times, presidents came to power because they thought they could do a better job of it than the other guy, but were soon making deals and selling their souls to get extra votes, and taking action that was for the here and now, not for the long term benefit of their people – let alone the planet.
The Zim had landed in southern Wyoming in their advanced craft, and stepped out looking quite human. A side note in the story suggested that the Zim spent years in orbit first, undetected, and had duly learnt the various languages and customs before attempting to land. Having obtained human DNA at an early juncture, they adjusted themselves to make cooperation easier, since they figured they would live on that post-apocalyptic world – there were few functioning governments left to object to their presence, a matter of good timing.
But the actions of the Zim suggested anything other than aggression on their part. They could have just landed, and they could have ignored those humans left alive – mostly militias and ranchers. But no, they learnt our language and adopted our appearance. It was hard to know how they might have integrated on that world, and how things may have turned out, but judging by their initial approach I figured that things might have gone well there.
The Zim made friends with the USAF portal team, not having portal technology of their own, and enquired about the other world, where it was now 1987. They sat about the camp fire of an evening and chatted politely, apparently, and in good English. A report was sent back, detailing the aliens, their technology – and how friendly they were.
The American scientific team, consisting mainly of USAF officers, asked about swapping advanced alien technology for American material support, and several members of the Zim travelled back to 1987 and met President Clayton. When orbital technology and stealth technology were offered – in return for a material assistance – the Joint Chiefs were delighted, a deal struck.
At this point in the story I was cursing the universe in general, and President Clayton in particular. I read a side note that suggested that the idea of informing NATO countries was blocked by President Clayton himself. Not even Britain knew about the Zim, but Britain had an idea about American portal technology – their scientists had worked on it in the 1960s. But those scientists in particular, and the British government in general, were under the impression that the technology didn’t work, and that it would never work.
Larger portals were soon being constructed, and the small Zim craft flew through to Clayton’s world, ninety-seven of them, the larger Zim craft remaining in orbit over on the other world, a few having landed. It was not clear to the resistance movement where the Zim had come from originally, why they had travelled, or what their intentions were. All that was known was that they had journeyed across space and discovered a post-apocalyptic world - deciding to make a happy home there, and had opted to deal with the indigenous humans, not to bomb the crap out of them or enslave them.
The first idea that Clayton’s world had that something was up was a senior Israeli official releasing the details, details that were discounted as UFO madness. The British military started to hear rumours.
Clayton kept the presence of the Zim quiet, and utilised their stealth craft in a programme to spy on the Russians and the Chinese, EMP weapons tested on a handful of Russian installations, as well as artificial lightning strikes. The Russians lost a few missile silos, and Clayton hatched a plot.
Given the particular recent history of that world I could not entirely blame the guy; the US economy was on a knife edge and about to fall, as well as at the height of the Cold War. Clayton’s toughest decision, and one which would cause many problems later on, was whether or not to inform NATO countries. If he had, I am sure that those partner nations would have objected to the Zim, and that the detail would have leaked. Clayton and I were in agreement on the facts, but not the motives.
Six months after the arrival of the Zim on Clayton’s world, and with questions being asked after a few leaks, the Zim stealth craft struck at dawn one day, destroying key Russian communications centres. The Russians scratched their heads, considered it an attack, but discounted the Americans. NATO generals also scratched their heads at the strange news coming from Russia, and were desperately afraid of anything that might spark a
nuclear war.
But as the vast Russian military machine was systematically taken apart, silos hit with EMPs or electric shocks, the Russians went on alert and made ready to strike back at America. The unusual method of attack had them stumped for a few hours, but when the Kremlin was informed that the Russian Navy had lost all contact with its submarine fleet the Russian leader decided to act – before he had nothing left to act with. He gave the order to fire on America.
Forty Zim craft hung over the Arctic Circle, and every out-going Russian missile was shot down, every Russian bomber aircraft destroyed as it gained altitude over the Arctic.
NATO had seen the missile launches, and had gone to Def Con 1, but American generals prevented them from firing back, a very odd communiqué being sent that suggested new satellite based anti-ballistic missile technology was being employed – and to relax. The European leaders were anything other than relaxed, and were annoyed as hell that America possessed this technology without sharing it, or had even admitted to its existence. It was a tense few hours, missile launches reported, but no ground strikes indicated.
Conventional NATO forces went on alert, the TV news showing the official government broadcasts that no citizen ever wanted to see – duck and cover, and jet fighters scrambled. Many calls were made to President Clayton by the British, French and Germans, who were all told to relax, and that no missile would get through – and that there was no need to retaliate. A few loud voices and rude words had been used down the secure phone line as the world’s stock markets reduced to zero.
Within a few hours, the Russians were firing their portable missiles, all being intercepted, Russia’s submarine fleet all now sunk by the Zim. The Russians turned to nuclear cruise missiles onboard naval vessels, those missiles also shot down. Russia mobilised its armour and infantry, for all the good that would do, but within three days they had no aircraft left flying, their battleships dead in the water and drifting.
