Before pummeling you with the last installment of my alternate
history for Traveller, I'd better give fair warning that some
of this isn't too easy to follow without a map. Thus, here
is where you can get a few maps along with the LaTeXed/PS
version of Traveller Tales.
The Place: watnxt2.ucr.edu (192.31.146.189)
or: watnxt1.ucr.edu (192.31.146.188)
or: watnxt3.ucr.edu (192.31.146.125)
The directory: pub/ucrgg
The files you may or may not be interested in nabbing:
- - -rw-r--r-- 1 ftp sys 84103 Jul 19 21:54 thist.ps.Z
- - -rw-r--r-- 1 ftp sys 32283 Jul 19 21:54 thist.tex.Z
- - -rw-r--r-- 1 ftp sys 11133 Jul 19 21:48 tmap1.ps.Z
- - -rw-r--r-- 1 ftp sys 9454 Jul 19 21:48 tmap2.ps.Z
- - -rw-r--r-- 1 ftp sys 23612 Jul 19 21:49 tyber.xwd.Z
tyber.xwd was put together via Mark Cook's Subsector Viewer for
X Windows. The two tmap files were put together via idraw and
may be finicky with some printers. I got them to churn out on a
NeXT, but that's proly not saying a great deal.
As a few of you might have guessed, the history and maps fall
right in with the Harrison Chapters which are being net-published
in Quanta and The Guildsman. If any of you get the compunction to
write stories within this setting, feel absolutely free. That's
what the net is all about. Now on with the show.
Traveller Tales
being an encapsulated history of future time
Copyright 1991 Jim Vassilakos
(for whatever it's worth)
S.I. 0-656 * The Second Imperium
0-359 Challenges to the Young
359-491 Good King Richard
492-499 The Civil War
500-656 The Modern Era
0-359 Challenges to the Young
Although the marriage of the Solian and Omicronian heirs brought
about the existence of the 2nd Imperium, the splendid coronation
of year zero lacked one vital ingredient of Empireship, that
being a central ruler. The prenuptial agreement between Anastasia
and Frederick, which served effectively as articles of interim
confederation, left the actual reigns of authority to their
grandparents until a child should be born, later centralizing
authority and stabilizing the Empire. This, however, was
unlikely, for although the young couple met under fair
circumstances, family differences quickly tore them apart.
Remaining married for political purposes, Frederick returned
to Omicron shortly after the "ordeal" in order to oversee
industrial growth and reaffirm his family's power in the region.
Mangled during the Dim Time, Omicron's primary agenda focused on
centrality of control with limited growth. Sol, on the other
hand, pursued a policy of exploration and conquest, spreading its
dominion across the stars and claiming more territory than it
could effectively administrate. Therefore, Omicron maximized a
policy of focused industrialization, while Sol spent its
resources on traditional priorities such as colonization and
expansion; and while a compact Omicron was easily controllable,
Sol's colonies, primarily in the Perseus Arm, became increasingly
rebellious.
Anastasia set up two strong rival governorships in order to
handle the situation locally in the interests of Capitol. Her
idea was that neither would rebel because of the other's
existence, yet both would be very capable of quenching internal
rebellion because they would both be close to their problems. The
outcome proved disastrous for the untested Empire. Neither of the
two governorships recognized any rivalry. They held the mutual
interest of independence against a common enemy, and through
intensive cooperation they realized their interests with the 341
Declaration of Independence of Persei and Cassiopeiae, beginning
fleet maneuvers to prove the sincerity of their intentions.
Angered that her hand-picked governors had turned traitorous,
Anastasia began recalling naval forces from the far reaches of
the Empire back to Sol to be overhauled, refitted for battle, and
sent off to punish the traitors and reincorporate the
governorships. However, the entire process of preparing for a
major war took far too long to implement, and as soon as the
local guard was pulled off other worlds, they too began to talk
of independence. A new Draconian Front slowly emerged, calling
for the cessation of Imperial domination of outworld states.
Although the name was no longer suppressed, it did serve as a
reminder of the Reign of Blood, eliciting support from otherwise
neutral parties.
Anastasia was forced to withdrawal her plans of attack and
shift the focus of the war campaign toward the solidification of
her rule. The Draconian Front was eventually stamped out, but
only with the realization that the Solian half of the Empire had
drastically over-extended itself. The Omicron half of the Empire,
on the other hand, was compact and stable, and in the interest of
preserving failing relations, Frederick ventured to Sol to make a
rare visit with his wife in 354. The visit, scheduled to last one
quarter of a standard year, ended up lasting three, and a prince
was born by the name of Richard. Frederick left to settle affairs
back at Omicron, but two years later he returned to stay. With
this decision, the seat of Omicron's government had been moved to
Sol, and with this act the two kingdoms became fused into one
Empire more-so than ever before.
359-491 Good King Richard
Throughout the remaining years of their reign, the happy couple
did very little in the area of their administrative
responsibilities. Leaving the reigns of government to Richard,
their son, they spent the following years taking adventurous
incursions into the outer sectors. In 383, their convoy was
raided by pirates, and both were killed in the resulting battle.
Richard assumed the throne as soon as word reached Capitol,
and continued the work he had already made himself accustomed to.
His reign can be characterized by the overall leniency with which
he ruled and by his great charisma which won victories in a more
peaceful fashion than those of his predecessors. He was probably
the most well-loved Emperor ever; certainly, he has been the most
missed.
Richard turned over even greater Imperial power to the
Archdukes, further decentralizing the Empire and making its
administration more practical and convenient. He formed a Senate
of advisors which took actual power in the detailed planning of
central goals, and he refocused the energies of government to
rebuild the agricultural worlds' production capacities especially
along the Betelgeuse and Spica fringe which had still not
completely recovered since the Dim Time. He reformed the
relationship between big business and the state, allowing greater
corporate independence from Imperial strictures on noble
ownership and anti-monopolization, but less freedom on
stakeholder reparation issues and matters concerning
technological development.
Richard conducted the first complete census of the 2nd Imperium
and published the data in the Encyclopedia Galactica which he
created as a permanent storehouse for all knowledge. He opened
diplomatic relations with Persei and Cassiopeiae which flourished
into a trade partnership and later a cooperative alliance.
Perhaps most importantly, he allowed more states on the Imperial
periphery to attain practical independence, and he granted
independence to the Archduchies of Caprissa, Tigris, and Epsilon
Aurigae, emphasizing the need for peaceful cooperation between
states, rather than warlike competition.
Richard was also somewhat of a scholar and philosopher of the
other social and political systems which had suffered to exist
along the Imperial periphery during his reign, and in 490, he
became so enthralled with democracy that he outlined a plan which
would have over the course of the next two-dozen standard years
gradually formed the Empire into a democratic republic while
simultaneously granting independence to the Archduchies of
Scorpio, Herculese, Athens, and Nu Cephei. His "Grand Plan"
outlined seven free Duchies and seven Democracies of the new
Imperial Republic (Sol, Omicron, Betelgeuse, Spica, Rigel, Deneb,
and York). In effect, he was offering to step down from the
throne for what he believed would be the long-term good of his
people. However, his plan was never put into effect, as he died
the following year in a starlanes accident leaving the Empire to
his oldest son, Stephan.
492-499 The Civil War
Stephan, saw things very differently from his father and often
argued openly with Richard on matters of state and the
suppression of inevitable rebellions. He vowed that if he should
come to power he would militarily strengthen the Empire rather
than weakly submitting to colonial demands. When he finally
became Emperor, he attempted to do just that; however, the moment
was already lost and the power of his office, greatly diminished
during Richard's reign, proved too weak to take control of big
industry and wrestle back the periphery for direct Imperial rule.
During his first year, Stephan was always at odds with the now
powerful Senate. He dared not dissolve the body, or he would risk
rebellion from every front, but he did take the privilege of
retiring senators and replacing them with his own friends, a
practice very much set against the tradition instated by Richard.
By the middle of 492, the seven "Free Duchies" sent identical
statements to Stephan, demanding a continuation of Richard's
Grand Plan. Stephan flatly denounced the plan as an old man's
folly and began preparing his military to reincorporate the lost
territories including Cassiopeiae and Persei. Nu Cephei invaded
Deneb and Epsilon Aurigae invaded Spica later that year.
Caprissa, Tigris, and Scorpio quickly organized their defenses as
Athens invaded York with all her forces during the early quarter
of 493.
Sol organized a defensive front along the Scorpio border where
her forces stood for the remainder of the war facing the enemy
but not attacking while Stephan called for Omicron to send
reinforcements to help defeat the rebels. While not participating
herself, Omicron allowed Betelgeuse to send minor reinforcements
to aid the effort in Spica; but the assistance was far too little
to be of substantial benefit to the Imperial cause, and Spica
eventually fell into rebel hands.
Rigel invaded rebel Caprissa in the late of 493 as Deneb
halted the Nu Cephei invasion, and by the end of 494 Deneb was
chasing the remaining Nu Cepheian rebel forces all the way back
to Tigris. In 495, Herculese having just finished quenching
internal uprisings, entered the war on the side of the Empire and
invaded Athens from her back door. The Athenian forces were
immediately recalled to a defensive front as York and Herculese
pounded them from both sides.
In 496, reinforcements from York relieved the Deneb forces and
carried on the war in Nu Cephei and Tigris. Deneb moved its
attention to the defeated Archduchy of Spica, still in rebel
hands. Another year of fighting only produced a stalemate; but in
497, Deneb's remaining border forces attacked Epsilon Aurigae
directly. The shock produced a rebel withdrawal from
three-quarters of Spica.
By the middle of 498, Athens had fallen, but Persei,
Cassiopeiae, and the Outworld Coalition (at Herculese) were
preparing to enter on the side of the rebels. Both sides were
weary of war, and Omicron still hung on the sidelines like a
vulture waiting for the best moment to enter and snatch its prey.
Afraid of losing the upper hand, Stephan called for a peace
conference to get out while he was ahead.
In 499 the conference met and signed a peace resolution.
Scorpio, Epsilon Aurgigae, Caprissa, Tigris, and Nu Cephei
suffered a rearrangement in their borders which was to an
Imperial advantage in return for Stephan's recognition. The
empire suffered the severance of large regions of space from the
Archduchies of Spica, Rigel, and Athens for the purpose of
creating independent states and buffer zones in return for the
rebel states' denunciation of Richard's plan toward
democratization. Despite the fact that war could have been waged
by both sides for several more years, the conference settled on
this compromise, as victory for either side seemed too uncertain.
500-656 The Modern Era
After 500, Stephan began an industrial reconstruction,
particularly in Rigel, Deneb, and York which were all hard-hit by
the war. Appointing his son-in-law as the new Archduke of Athens,
he executed the old family in 504 and paid a special visit to the
Archduke Constantine of Herculese a year later, personally
thanking him for not turning traitor as did the other six of the
"seven free Archdukes" and for playing so critical a role in the
defeat of Athens. He then visited Omicron in 509, supposedly to
admonish the Archduke there for restraining the requested aid. To
the surprise of the citizenry, he had the Archduke executed but
allowed the family to live with its eldest son instated as the
new ruler.
The trade agreement with Cassiopeiae and Persei, which was
discontinued at the start of the war, was reordered and extended
to the border states. In 510 he had Omicron funnel aid to help in
military reconstruction as he began reinforcing the borders along
Sol, Deneb, Rigel, and York to protect the coreworlds from rebel
invasion.
In recent years, Stephan has gained a strong hold over the
Imperial Senate's sub-bodies and has moved toward a large
military build-up in the Imperial Core primarily around Sol,
Rigel, Deneb and York heavily taxing or seizing control of the
megacorporations in order to finance his projects. Anti-Imperial
sentiments have risen especially high along the Imperial
periphery as both sides prepare for resumed armed conflict.
_ /|
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