Earth Beta - 2021
THE MANHATTAN JOURNAL
Taverner takes hard-line with United Nations
Aviator Coffees & Teas – Puget Sound, Greater Seattle.
It was a clear crisp spring day, a strong breeze whipped across Puget Sound, small sail boats bobbed on the choppy waters whilst gulls circled above.
Sat in his favourite seat overlooking the sound Officer Hanson Alwitcher closed his eyes, drew cold air into this lungs and breathed out slowly allowing a moment of peace to settle over him.
He looked down to his Digi-comm, switched to solo view it projected the Manhattan Journal onto the lens of his smart-glasses, Earth Beta was termed a client world.
One of the first Quantum 6 alternate earths found by the father of Parachronic travel Paul Van Zeldt it had for many years been a discreet destination of low level interest for Homeline and Infinity Incorporated.
A near parallel late 20th Century world it was an interesting political and social study, however historically it was virtually the same as Homeline until the latter’s divergence with Transworld discovery in the later 1990s, it had some different political and celebrity famous faces but little else noteworthy.
In its local year of 2009 Infinity established surveillance operations on Earth Beta in response to an escalation in Transworld organised crime and fears of Centrum co-opting the worldline.
Things had taken a undesirable turn in Betas local year of 2010 when an Homeliner became caught in international incident in Beta Iran, the situation spiralled as Homeline’s paranoia prompted it to see how much Earth Beta agencies knew, of course this resulted in exactly the thing they feared as said agencies discovered the very thing they feared.
The price of paranoia, as the situation threatened to escalate the United Nations Interworld Council (UNIC) intervened, the cat already out of the bag Earth Beta was designated a Client Worldine to Homeline. A decade later Beta was benefitting from technological uplift by Homeline in return for establishing Infinity bases and researching its very odd dimensional nature.
However as with everything in the modern age politics played a part, Beta’s national governments had railed against being beholden to Homeline and Infinity, demanding their own technologies.
Homeline and Beta’s UN argued that Beta was benefiting immeasurably with very little work or investment on their part yet still wanted more and so the wrangling had gone on for years in political circles.
The latest was the controversial right wing Beta US President Taverner now threatening to withdraw its membership from various UN councils, Homelines US President Walcott had tried to calm nerves to no avail, UNIC had taken a tough stance saying it would replace any budgetary cuts from Beta UN from US withdrawal and that the US needed to be reasonable.
Alwitcher sighed social media was a storm of partisan outrage, Taverner was on the campaign trail threatening to kick Infinity out of Beta US, Infinity had been largely quiet its legal and public relations teams quietly commenting that it cautioned the White House to think of the impact this would have on Beta US jobs, tens of thousands of which were employed by Infinity Inc.
Han quietly smiled, Centrum must be rubbing their hands together he thought, intelligence had indicated they were active in rogue states as well as trying to destabilise global powers, the only reason it was thought they hadn’t staged a strategic strike on Beta was how strong its infrastructure now was and the retaliatory strike that could come from a Q6 worldline.
Basically Centrum had found Beta too late, he had no doubt Infinity intelligence were scrutinizing who Taverners associates were, where his funding came from and so on.
His lunch companion arrived and took his seat, “You’re looking at that Shit!” Charles Angel chided
Han rolled his eyes “The greatest universal terror is politics” he replied mirthfully
“Trouble is I can see some of their point!” replied Angel “I know, I know” he raised his hands in pre-emptive surrender, Han smiled but remained quiet.
“Look it know that Homeline has given some Countries huge boosts in the past decade. Healthcare, investment in deprived areas, humanitarian aid, technology, but it’s made a lot of money, Beta is a big market, and we get hit first if the big bad guys attack”
Han nodded, Angel was a clever guy, a humanitarian who now co-ran a sanctuary in South Seattle, a place for the desperate, those needing help, he also helped people in trouble who had fallen through the cracks of the system, he and Han had worked together in this capacity for a few years and become good friends.
“All I’m saying is there are those that feel its got strings attached” said Angel turning to the waitress
“Granted, but the alternative is Homeline and Infinity shuts up shop and pulls out, leaving Beta to chart its own course!” he commented
Angel laughed having got a response from the I-cop “There are those that campaign for that, to free us from Homelines modern day colonial imperialism, and we both know they’ll never concede this Earth to the other side” he winked
Han shrugged in response
“Anyway replied Angel, how’s you?”
“Yeah, I finally gave in and had the gene therapy”
Angel’s eyes widened “Really, how come you were dead against it, said you didn’t trust it”
“Yeah, but my back was just getting worse, bits wearing out and I wanted to go back into active”.
Again, Angel’s facial expressions denoted surprise his eyebrow raised “Why would you want to go back into the field”
“I’m bored Charlie, I’ve been teaching in the academy for 7 years, its good, I love the cadets but its routine, Gracey’s finished college, there’s no one home” replied Han
“So itchy feet, wanderlust” replied Angel digging into his salad
“Yeah, I need to do something different”
“So any ideas where you’ll be assigned” replied Angel between mouthfuls
“No, Beta would be nice, this is my second home after all, but could literally be anywhere”
“Or anywhen” chuckled Angel
