Previous Section Index Next Section
Dr Arcane offers his services to the US government after the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbour. He performs mainly on the US mainland in an anti-espionage role, except for occasional postings to warzones used mainly for their publicity value (for example he works with Maximan in Europe for a short time in 1943).
A neutrality pact is signed between Japan and the Soviet Union.
The US government interns thousands of Japanese-Americans in concentration camps.
The Overman Greymalkin, one of the two surviving members of the Royal Elite Guard, dies while saving a child from a wrecked building during the blitz. Over the next few decades the site of her death near Kings Cross railway station in London gains a reputation for being haunted.
The first reports of killer bee attacks come from the South American rainforest.
The first bionic limb replacements, developed independently in several countries, become available to crippled soldiers on all sides of the war.
The Overman thief known as the Lynx drops from sight for the second time and is never seen again.
Minerva begins construction of the worlds first magnetic levitation transport system to provide rapid transportation between Minervas cities in evacuated underground tunnels.
Mussolini is removed from power in Italy after the Fascist Grand Council blame him for a series of defeats.
English Rose, who has been working undercover for the British intelligence services since the early years of the century, is captured by the Nazi's and manages to escape only after months of torture with her mind almost entirely shattered by the experience.
Escapees from Chilean prisoner of war camps report that the Chileans are using captured prisoners as unwilling organ donors in the treatment of their own wounded, a situation confirmed by the condition of many of the prisoners. Later in the year similar reports are confirmed from prison camps in Japanese occupied areas.
Dr Arcane retires after he sustains serious injuries saving a child who had wandered into the area of the first anti-matter bomb test.
Mussolini is killed by partisans as, with German aid, he attempts to set up a north-Italian republic.
The DEMON leadership steal over two hundred and fifty million dollars worth of Nazi gold as the Reich crumbles, and in addition steal many mystical artefacts collected by the Nazis over the years.
English Rose, who is entirely mad and living wild in the countryside, is captured by Allied forces. She is returned to Britain where psychologists begin the long process of rebuilding her mind.
Albert Zerstoiten flees Germany for South America, but while sailing across the ship he is on is attacked by Allied aircraft and in an ensuing fire he is severely injured and permanently scarred. Captured by the Allies he is put to work by the Americans in their anti-matter weapons program.
The first section of Minervas magnetic levitation underground system is opened, linking Andorra la Vella and Barcelona.
The United Nations Organisation is established. Shortly afterwards the League of Nations dissolves itself in favour of the UN.
In Nuremberg many war criminals from Germany, Japan and the Chilean Empire are tried for their part in atrocities committed during WWIII. Many of them receive indefinitely long prison sentences for their actions and despite calls to do so, none are executed. Despite additional calls for for justice the judges do not try any of the accused (mainly from the Chilean Empire) for crimes committed before WWIII.
In the confusion after WWIII Chinese Communist and Kuomintang forces rise up and attempt to take control of the country, their combined actions forcing most of the foreign forces present out of China. Both sides call on debts from the allies due to their aid during the war to help them take over China. All these debts really do is keep Allied forces out of China while the Kuomintang and Communists fight for control.
With the end of the war, Minerva restarts its satellite launch programme. Over the war years it has developed and tested the first space shuttle, with which it begins to construct a permanent space station in low Earth orbit.
The US government proposes a plan for international control of antimatter weapons through the United Nations, but the USSR does not agree to the plan, insisting that the US destroys its antimatter weapons arsenal first.
Blackheart begins to work for the Minervan government as a troubleshooter.
El Libertador comes out of hiding and with the aid of his largely intact army ejects the still-unorganised SAU forces from the Chilean Empire, restoring the border between them to its pre-war state, and defending it successfully as SAU forces try to retake the country.
India and Pakistan gain their independence from Britain.
After finally recovering from her experiences in WWIII, English Rose attempts to resign from the British intelligence services. However her attempts are stymied by the services themselves who find her abilities too useful to allow her to be let go.
Minerva offers the first commercial satellite TV, radio and telephone links, and also the first commercial satellite launching facility.
The British government, following on from the creation of Maximan, experiments with the creation of superhumans, aided by expatriate German scientists (conveniently ignoring any war crimes they may have committed). Tissue samples from English Rose, the only survivor of the Royal Elite Guard are used in the experiments which lead to the creation of eight young superhumans with a variety of powers who are originally named Task Force UK by the British government, but who quickly rename themselves Cloud Nine. English Rose assists in their training as agents of the British government. Most of the members of Cloud Nine are descended, at least distantly, from various members of the Royal Elite Guard and the Royal Indian Guard.
Sporadic terrorism occurs across the Chilean Empire as various factions resist El Libertador's return to power. This is especially great soon after he retakes the throne, but quickly dies out as he regains his grip on the country.
As the Chilean Empire is rebuilt many expatriate Nazis, including the infamous Dr Joseph Mengele and many known to have been involved with the Masterman project, go to the Chilean Empire. The Palace at Guaqui and the city itself are rebuilt, bigger and better, a few kilometres from the crater marking the location of the original palace.
Minerva invests heavily in the rebuilding of Europe, gaining greatly on its investment as the loans given to various nations are paid back with interest.
During this period anti-matter bomb tests by various nations shower the Earth with an increasing flux of gamma rays.
The Minervan space station, codenamed Starholme 1, is completed and begins operation in low orbit as a permanently manned orbiting research laboratory.
Minervan unmanned Seeker space probes designed to reach and orbit other worlds are launched from Starholme 1 to all the other planets of the Solar System.
Burma gains its independence from Britain.
A general strike in Japan with the intent to overthrow the government is only stopped when the Allied occupation forces intervene.
Soviet forces blockade West Berlin in an attempt to prevent the formation of West Germany. In response a massive Anglo-US airlift is set in motion to bring supplies into the city.
Occasional reports filter in from around the world of strange explosions and lights in the sky. These are sometimes coupled with reports of things falling from the sky. Some of these objects are picked up by civilian radars, allowing them to be tracked and recovered, but the military takes control of anything found, and the results of their investigations are never released.
After about 1960 reports of this nature tail off, and after 1965 no more are seen.
Late 1940's to the Present Day :
Starholme 1 gradually expands into a huge completely self-sufficient orbital research/industrial complex with a population of over ten thousand, using many lessons learned from Minervas arcologies and offering zero-G laboratory and factory space to anyone who can afford it. Many of Minervas industries are partly moved into orbit in factories built at Starholme 1 from Lunar materials, which also supply the raw materials for many of the factories, and Minervas space launch capability expands into two large facilities near Barcelona and San Sebastian on the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts. In 1960 the first grav-thrust space vehicle is introduced, built at Starholme 1, and much of the station is given artificial gravity. Shortly afterwards grav-thrust is used to slowly move the station into a high Earth orbit. In 1981 Starholme 2 is built. This is a somewhat more planned structure than Starholme 1, which has simply agglomerated over the decades, and helps ease the load on Starholme 1's facilities. By 1990 it has a population of over four thousand.
As cities begin to be rebuilt after the War, in some cases planners use arcologies to replace bombed-out slums. This is the case in London and Birmingham in Britain, Berlin (especially West Berlin after the Berlin Wall goes up) and most other cities in Germany and many cities in the USSR, Eastern Europe and Japan (especially Tokyo). As national populations increase other nations around the world also construct arcologies, so that by 1990 there are arcologies in Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg, in the suburbs of many large European and North and South American cities (especially New York) and in many of the rich Gulf states. In the Far East, Hong Kong and Singapore have many arcologies as their available land area becomes used up.
As fusion power plants are built across the world, facilities for producing their liquid hydrogen fuel spread as well. With the easy availability of liquid hydrogen, and the perfection of systems for its transport and storage, petroleum-based fuels are soon replaced by liquid hydrogen in most types of engine. However, because of its uses in the plastics industry, the search for oil, and its transportation across the world continues on just as large a scale as before.
A by-product of fusion power, helium gas, also becomes widely available as fusion power spreads. This causes a resurgence of interest in lighter-than-air vehicles filled with inert helium rather than explosive hydrogen. Companies in several nations begin the construction of a new generation of airships, the first of which are launched by the mid-1950's. Although they cannot compete with jet aircraft in terms of speed, airships find commercial success in two main areas - the carriage of large cargos by air to even the most remote areas, and in the luxury cruise market, where they compete on roughly equal terms with seagoing ships. Despite a few accidents, by 1990 airships are found operating in all areas of the world.
Another by-product of widespread fusion power is the ending, in most places, of the dumping of wastes on land or in the sea - fusion torches and industrial mass spectrometers allow the rendering down of any waste to its component atoms and the separation of those atoms for re-cycling.
Many countries around the world construct high-speed magnetic levitation transport systems after WWIII, usually underground, replacing or supplementing their normal rail systems. These nations include the USA (separate lines linking Washington DC and Boston, the Great Lakes cities, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio, and San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego as well as an express Metro system linking outlying arcologies with Manhattan in New York), Germany, France, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Switzerland and Austria, (where most express lines are run on magnetic levitation, as well as many underground systems), the USSR (the Moscow to Leningrad line and the Moscow Metro) and Britain (a single line linking the Channel Tunnel to London, Birmingham and Liverpool).
When American oil drilling companies move into Alaska and the north of Canada their operations are often destroyed when they infringe on the rights or lands of the Eskimos. The Eskimos blame it all on the wrath of the goddess Sedna. The attacks continue despite threats and intimidation by unscrupulous oil companies and attempts by the authorities to hunt down the culprit until finally the oil companies are forced to deal fairly with the Eskimos.
The culture and religion of the Eskimos remains strong against all the efforts of Christian missionaries and educationalists to change it. The Eskimos claim this is because the goddess Sedna wishes it so, and their faith in her is strong.
Governments around the world introduce hand-held energy weapons (such as lasers and lightening guns) into their armed forces. The majority of these weapons are based on research into the powers of various superhumans.
Killer bees, inadvertently released in the SAU in 1940, slowly spread north from South America, reaching Panama in 1956, Mexico in 1968 and the southern parts of Texas in 1974.
The American Indian Overman Thunderbird, executed in 1885, becomes a martyr to the growing American Civil Rights movement during this period.
Mahatma Gandhi is shot and killed by a Hindu fanatic.
After the Soviet blockade of West Berlin proves unsuccessful it is lifted, and with this the division of Germany into East and West becomes established.
Britain and the Soviet Union detonate their first anti-matter bombs.
The USA shocks the world by landing the first person on the Moon, claiming it for all mankind in the name of the United Nations.
The United Nations approves the Genocide Convention, making genocide a punishable crime under international law, and publishes the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
After several years of Zionist terrorism Britain announces that it will create a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Most Arab nations oppose this and send forces to crush the Zionists, but they are overwhelmed and driven out by the superior Zionist military.
Minerva celebrates the 50th anniversary of its creation.
Burma gains its independence from Britain.
The Phillipines gain their independence from the USA, but with several large conditions attached by the US government.
The state of Israel is proclaimed and recognised by the USSR and USA. The next day the combined armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq enter the new country, but again the superior Israeli military forces them back. Refugees from the Holocaust immediately start to move into the new country.
Minervan Seeker probes reach Venus, Mercury and Mars.
Albert Zerstoiten escapes from the USA and heads for central America.
After the defeat of the Kuomintang forces of Chiang Kai-shek by the Communists, the Peoples Republic of China is declared. Chiang Kai-shek flees to the island of Formosa and sets up the nation of Taiwan, with what he calls the true Chinese government there.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is formed.
Eleven US Communist leaders are imprisoned.
Minerva introduces a new procedure to aid in the elimination of crime - a truth serum, entirely harmless and without side effects, whose use in mandatory on any accused criminal and, if necessary, on witnesses as well. Although condemned by many governments around the world (and made illegal by them) the use of the serum proves surprisingly effective and soon becomes accepted by the general population..
An uprising begins among Burma's Karen people who wish to become independent of Burmese control.
Indonesia gains its independence from Holland.
The Chilean Empire detonates its first anti-matter bomb on an Antarctic island.
The McCarran Internal Security Act places numerous restrictions on Communists throughout the USA.
Minerva establishes the first Lunar mines, using linear accelerators to launch raw materials to the Starholme 1 factories.
The People's Republic of China invades Tibet, forcing the countries spiritual leader, the Dali Lama, into exile as they suppress protests against their rule.
The wartime American movie star Emma Martins retires into seclusion, aged 42, after questioning by Joseph McCarthy and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee effectively destroys her career.
A Minervan Seeker probe reaches Jupiter.
The Korean war happens much as it did in the real world, after North Korea invades the South. Despite the desires of certain American Generals no nuclear or antimatter weapons are used in the conflict.