THE GATHERING STORM
Tom Mazanec
 
Prologue

 In 1962 they came to Earth from the year 3006, on a 
missionary expedition to save the past from itself and bring 
the light of their civilization to their ancestors. They 
were idealistic, and intended no harm, but only good. Yet, 
the misapplication of an obscure law very nearly brought the 
United States and the time travelers to blows, in a war that 
would have been the end of America. Narrowly averted as this 
cataclysm was, it radicalized some aboard the giant timeship 
and energized what had been a minor party of hardliners into 
a significant force. As the years went by, resentment among 
the conservative religions and ideologies of Earth to the 
uptimers stoked the fires of that movement, until in 1968, 
it wins a narrow victory in the timeship's election. And 
now, war draws near once more, this time, with many of the 
nations of the planet...

 Note: This is a sequel to my story "Temporal Aid Mission"
  
__________________
  
From the Huntley-Brinkley Report Monday April 29, 1968

 "Welcome to NBC News. This is Chet Huntley in New York, 
with Meeptik-807-Mustela. David Brinkley is ill with the 
flu. Meeptik, I hope you will have some positive view on 
yesterday's election result on the Second Chance."

 "I am afraid that I will have little positive to say, Mr. 
Huntley For half a decade I have been trying to warn your 
world of what it was doing by expressing speciesist 
sentiments in public, especially America and the Muslim 
nations. In the original timeline, a radicalization began in 
Iran in 1979 and spread to the other Muslim nations by 2013. 
It was a significant step in the road to the OTL's World War 
Three that began that year, along with the Chinese attempt 
to take Taiwan. And that war, of course, lead to our 
creation. In the New Timeline, you had the Wahhabi 
Revolution in Saudi Arabia in 1964, when the religious 
leaders of Saudi Arabia marginalized the Monarchy and 
declared a jihad against mammaloids. In the OTL America put 
the Theocracy in power with the 31st Amendment in 2096 and 
with the election of President Gordon, starting the 
Kosmarego. In the NTL you have the Image of God Church 
practically trying to duplicate the Theocracy. This has led 
to yesterday's election of the Justice Party on the Second 
Chance. And when they assume control in 29 days, you will be 
living in a very different world."

 "What difference will we really have? You did quite a bit 
of change to this country, this world, when you burned the 
Hole in the Moon. Riots broke out in a number of cities, 
when amateur astronomers noted the existence of the Second 
Chance and coupled that with the Hole. 42 people in this 
nation alone died. Many hundreds, probably thousands, of 
millions of dollars damage. The stock market lost half its 
value in a week. It took us three years to crawl out of the 
recession. And all because one government employee killed 
one mongoose."

 "Mr. Huntley, how would your nation respond if it sent an 
ambassador to West Germany and he was put to death by the 
government, because he was a Jew?"

 "Isn't that a little extreme, Meeptik? The Nazi regime 
still sends shivers down the spines of millions."

 "I am 689 years old. I had grandparents who were survivors 
in the Martian Civil War theater of the Protocol War. That 
war was fought and won by mammaloids who wanted to prevent 
the extermination of Homo sapiens. Killing T'charik sent 
shivers down our spines."

 "Very well. But how would your ship have handled the 
situation if the Justice Party had been in control?"

 "There would have been 180 million dead Americans."

 "180...you're exaggerating."

 "I have been sugarcoating it until now, afraid to stir up 
more anti-mammaloid agitation on this planet. We watch this 
planet, and what happens here affects politics on the Second 
Chance. But now I have to make you understand what is at 
stake."

 "If you had killed every American, every other nation on 
this planet would have risen up against you!"

 "Then there would be 3 billion dead humans."

 "You would commit genocide on this scale? What kind of 
people are you?"

 "Mr. Huntley, when your government employee killed 
T'charik, we threatened to neutralize your military and turn 
our assistance to your planet over to the Soviet Union. In 
essence, for what would have been an abomination by our 
lights if your government had purposefully done it, as well 
as a declaration of war, you would merely have lost the Cold
War. The Justice Party, in the election before our arrival,
gained less than 2% of the vote. In the election six years 
later, they won 36.7%. In the runoff, they polled 51.2%. Why
did your country allow the Image of God Church to 
propagandize its views?"

 "We have freedom of religion and freedom of speech, that's 
why!"

 "Such freedoms have consequences. We do not allow religions 
to preach speciesism against either humans or mammaloids. If 
they do, they are imprisoned until they cease. We do not 
tolerate killing a person because of their species, or 
advocating the same."

 "But you threaten to kill us because of our species!"

 "No. Because of your behavior. I opposed the Justice Party. 
But they, like the other parties, agree in not tolerating 
genocide. It is merely the method of opposition we are in 
disagreement of."

 "Don't you think it is hypocritical for you to oppose 
genocide by threatening to kill millions?"

 "Is it hypocritical to execute a murderer?"
 
"So what do you think will happen now?"

 "The Justice Party takes power 30 days after the election. 
will take all the planet under their policy. First, the 
leaders of Saudi Arabia will have to rescind the 
jihad...this will not be tolerated."

 "And if they don't?"

 "Allah help them."

 __________________
  
Chontor-1352-Herpestes and his son Layson-631 entered the 
house as the owner opened the door. "Come in" said Peter 
Gordon.

 Layson ran over to the bookshelf by the wall. "Great! paper 
books! Do you have the Serpent Slayer series in paper?"

 "No, but I read it at the library. Is it historically 
accurate?"

 "Sure! If we had come back to three centuries later we 
could have met Hisban!"

 "Layson, Hisban is a fictional character."

 "Oh yeah...I forgot."

 "Actually, the details are quite historically accurate 
until the end. Tseetur-87-Herpestes was a veteran of the
war, as well as being the same species as us. He did have 
Hisban be present at every major event in a war that spanned 
a planet and twelve years, which is rather implausible. Then
he had Hisban win a Martyr's Star at the end of the last 
book. There were only 14 Martyr's Stars won in a war that 
killed 90% of the planet's population...5 by Exterminators 
and 9 by the Quilt of Life. That is what made the series so 
controversial...the Martyr's Star is sacred. If enough of 
the body remains to be buried, the fallen hero is it be 
buried only with the Martyr's Star...no other medal is 
worthy to be along with it. If Tseetur had been descended 
from a social species of mongoose like Suricata or Helogale 
he never would have made that mistake. He even joked about 
having Hisban earn a second Martyr's Star!"

 "Was he joking? Hisban could have won a second Martyr's 
Star." asked Layson.

 "Son, to win a Martyr's Star you have to die in battle, in 
a manner which drastically impacts the enemy. You can't win 
another medal after you are dead."

 "Oh. Still, I bet Hisban could have done it. Hisban can do 
anything!" Layson siad, and turned back to the bookshelf.

 Chontor sighed. "I feel pathetic...jealous of a fictional 
character."

 "He'll get over it when he grows up a little more. I was 
quite fascinated by the background of the series...I myself 
was in the Army in Korea-"

 "Hisban was a marine!"

 "Son, do not say or refer to Hisban again as long as we are 
here."

 "Ahhh...anyway, what are more important, army or marines?"

 "What is more important to you, your tail or your penis?" 
asked Peter.

 "Stop! I do not want to hear the answer to that...one way 
or another!" said Chontor.

 "Do you think that there is going to be a war?"

 "In three weeks Jastur-6871-Mellivora will be the President 
of the Second Chance. I do not know the English of his 
species, but his ur-species is very aggressive. We purposely 
chose humans for our President and Vice-president when we 
arrived here, but everything which has happened has made a 
mammaloid president possible...and now an actuality."

 "You mongooses are pretty aggressive yourself...using 
cobras for dental floss. I know you are different from 
T'charik...bipedal and much bigger. But you are descended 
from the same species."

 "Not quite. T'charik was descended from H. edwardsi and I 
am descended from H. javanicus auropunctatus, besides me 
being intended as a tool-user and T'charik's ancestors being 
intended to survive on Earth hidden among the wildlife."

 "It was the fault of the Image of God Church that the 
Justice Party came to power. I wouldn't blame you for 
joining the Justice Party, after the Imagists killed your 
wife and baby daughter."

 "The Justice Party are extremists and are willing to kill 
millions to 'civilise' your people. I am a doctor, sworn to 
preserve life. I could never join them. Also, it was as much
the Wahabi Revolution as the Image of God that radicalized 
our population. "

 "And they are only minorities of our religious people!"

 "And then President Sigmundson put all mammaloids on earth 
under threat of execution for diplomatic malfeasance for 
breaking any law. He was trying to prevent another 
diplomatic incident, but when that Vulpes...fox, I believe, 
was fined for just trying a marihuana 
cigarette...tetrahydrocannibol is a nasal spray on the 
Second Chance...and then recalled and executed by Potassium
-40 trigger, that made a bad situation worse."

 "Potassium-40 trigger?"

 "It is a...projection...which causes all the potassium-40 
nuclei in the body to decay at once. The body explodes like 
a sack of TNT. It is how we burned the Hole in the Moon...we 
used a Uranium-238 trigger on a uranium deposit."

 "Anyway, how is your work coming along?"

 "Quite well. Most of the population of America, and much of 
the population of Japan and Europe, have access to our 
medical services. Someday your whole world will have such 
medicine, and then humans will be able to come to the Second 
Chance and back to the Earth."

 "Do we really have to wait till then?"

 "The pathogens used in the Mammaloid War, the Second 
Genocide War, were designed to be slatewipers...to 
annihilate Homo sapiens. If there is even a chance in a 
million of taking those microscopic monsters to Earth before 
we can cure you all, we cannot risk it."

 "Well, I'm glad I could host you and your son to dinner 
tonight. You have done much to help relations between our 
species."

 "So have you. I only wish it were enough to stop the 
Justice Party from coming to power."

 __________________
   
Meeptik-807-Mustela walked and Heepar-844-Crocuta limped 
across the stage and sat down next to Johnny Carson. Carson 
introduced them and "your outfits".

 Meeptik said "We always thought your clothes were 
peculiar...flat and bland. Of course, you do not have the 
technology to design clothes like our kaleidoscope fashion."

 "How do you like our world?"

 "It is beautiful. I was just to your Yellowstone National 
Park last week. It is a crime that my ancestor 'Mad Meega' 
fired a gigaton penetrator antimatter device into it to 
trigger a supereruption during the Mammaloid War." said 
Heepar.

 "Of course, a member of your species would commit such a
 crime." added Meeptik.

 "Don't forget, the Beheader was a ferret like you, 
Meeptik." replied Heepar.

 "The Beheader?" asked Carson.

 "A serial killer from Mars. He kidnapped, tortured and 
killed his victims, then cut off their heads with a 
vibroblade and deposited the body out in the desert, keeping 
the head. He finally kidnapped a Didelphis...an opossum...a 
16 year old who feigned dying of fear and, when the Beheader 
came at him with the vibroblade, grabbed the vibroblade and 
decapitated the Beheader. But Jack the Ripper was 
human...and so was Hitler" added Meeptik, turning to Heepar.

 "Your medical technology is so fantastic. Why are you 
limping, Heepar?" asked Carson.

 "My cylinder is one species, spotted hyena. When the 
colonizing population left the Moon, there was 
an...unfortunate cultural...event. When it was over, the 
females ruled in a dictatorial matriarchy. Females were 
people, males were property. My mother had certain genetic 
engineering done on me to improve my memory. This would be 
illegal for a daughter, but perfectly fine for a son. It 
worked so well that I cannot forget anything. Also, if I 
hear...incorrect information, it grates. When I was a child,
I did not know to refrain from correcting females. I 
corrected one once and she threw me down a stairwell, 
breaking my leg. She would have been imprisoned for assault 
if I were female, but all she had to do was pay my mother a 
small fine for vandalism."

 "But hasn't it healed yet?" asked Carson.

 "It healed many years ago. But what I remember is real to 
me. I can constrict my pupils in the dark by remembering 
bright light. I remember the pain of the break, and I feel 
it as real."

 "Can't you just ignore it?"

 "Sit in a room for five minutes and do NOT think of a brown 
elephant. It was to escape that society that I convinced my 
mother to sell me to the Second Chance, and fortunately they 
purchased me."

 "You talk like you were a slave."

 "Yes, that is what males were. Their owners can kill them 
with impunity."

 "How did you come to be aboard the Second Chance, Meeptik?" 
asked Carson.

 "I was 16 and in a boarding school on Mars. The headmaster 
was a martinet, and I decided to play a prank on him. I 
brewed up some explosive in the chemistry lab to hide in the 
plumbing under his room's toilet, so it would go off when he 
flushed it. I made too much, and also accidentally dropped 
it, and it went off. I was badly injured...had to go into a 
crysalis machine. I was expelled, of course...my father paid 
off the damages and also, frankly, some bribes to keep me 
from prosecution. But things were never the same. He never 
forgave me, spoke to me only to give curt orders. Disowned 
me when I made my majority at 35. On my hundredth birthday I 
called and asked him if he would ever forgive me. He said 
'No'. So I knew what it is like to need a second chance, and 
that is why I signed up."

 "What are your goals here...you personally?" asked Carson.

 "We are aiding your country in manufacturing the technology 
developed in the original timeline by Quantergy in the 
2020s...perfect solar panels and compressed electron 
batteries. This was the technology that broke your addiction 
to petroleum, which was depleted and nearly exhausted by 
that time. CEBs will make electric vehicles feasible...and 
laser pistols, too. Of course, like all on the Second 
Chance, we are also trying to have an Earth that is not a 
pitted, poisoned cinder over a war between species...which 
is why we speak in public like this. But we are very worried 
about Jastur-6871-Mellivora. When he takes power next week, 
he will change our methodology toward Earth and Humanity. 
Now, if I commit the most trivial crime here, I am subject 
to the death penalty back aboard the ship for endangering 
relations. Next week, this will cease. Now, we simply stay 
out of Muslim nations except Turkey, the only one to 
renounce the declared Jihad. Next week, Jastur will demand 
an immediate termination of the Jihad. If this is not done, 
he will take drastic action, even war." said Meeptik.

 "And he can get away with this? You have a council and a 
court on the Second Chance, can't they keep this Jastur in 
line?"

 "Your America is very much like my Mars, with a right to 
privacy and a division of government into balancing 
branches. The Second Chance, although the size of a city, is 
actually a ship, with a president who is actually a captain 
and who has much more power than your president, and 
Orwellian surveillance of its population. Mars values its 
culture...this is how the Beheader managed to escape capture 
for so long. But 99.9999% of the population of the uptime 
solar system was composed of mammaloids who lived in the 
hundreds of thousands of millions of city-sized cylinders 
made of dismantled Venus, cooled by neutrino emission. They 
live without the liberty which you Americans and we Martians 
sometimes take for granted." said Meeptik.

 "Would Jastur really kill millions of humans? Your people 
seem so civilized." said Carson.

 "Jastur is a ratel mammaloid. We consider xenophobia and 
speciesism the Ultimate Evil, yet we have to acknowledge 
that each of our personalities are colored by our nature. I 
have to watch my temper, a Lutra...an otter...has a harder 
time doing something which is not fun, and so forth. Jastur 
is more volatile and assertive than most mammaloids. Also, 
he is not human. We purposely picked a president and vice-
president who were human when we came here, so we could 
better interact with you. But Jastur is not human. Although 
we look on all of us as people, it will still be a little 
easier for Jastur to kill millions of humans than millions 
of honey badger mammaloids." said Heepar.

 "Well, we will just have to see, I guess." said Carson, as 
he shook his head.

 __________________
   
Jastur had assumed office twenty-four hours ago, and had 
delivered a message to every loudspeaker in Saudi Arabia, 
giving that nation one day to retract the Jihad against the 
uptimers, or "appropriate measures" would be taken. Since 
then, nothing but diatribes from the sandy kingdom against 
the Second Chance and all her passengers had been heard. 

"What do you think of that phrase, Chontor?" asked Walter 
Cronkite, as he watched the final seconds tick down to zero 
on the clock at the bottom of the screen.

 "'Appropriate measures' is a code phrase for some very 
dramatic but non-lethal action taken against a nation. 
Perhaps the placing of a layer of mesobots in the 
stratosphere above the Kingdom to obscure the sun, or such.
 It can mean almost anything, limited only by not being 
direct cause of death. Our technology and imagination on 
such measures is almost unlimited."

 "Direct cause of death? So no one is going to die, as we 
feared?"

 "Someone may die indirectly, such as in an automobile 
accident if they blot out the sun, for example. And if the 
Jihad is not called off after this demonstration, Jastur 
will surely do something a lot more damaging. He is showing 
more restraint than I expected, to tell you the truth."

 "What about the other Muslim nations?" asked Cronkite.

 "They have not expliciely declared a Jihad themselves, but 
many have assisted in the terrorist acts the Saudi Kingdom 
has waged against uptimer clinics and other facilities 
worldwide. Fortunately, your nation, and the others with 
such facilities, have acted to arrest and prosecute the 
agents of such terrorism, as well as those of the Image of 
God Church that I am all too familiar with." replied 
Chontor.

 "Yes, President Kennedy has made it clear that terrorism 
will not be tolerated in this country."

 "In the original timeline, America had a massive terrorist 
attack in 2001, as you know. It killed some three thousand 
people. None of the attacks in this timeline have been so 
major yet, but the Muslims in our timeline did not get along 
well with modernity. They will like futurity in this 
timeline even less, I expect."

 "How do you think-" began Cronkite when "We interrupt this 
broadcast to bring you a special bulletin. The broadcast of 
the speech at the Kaaba by Grand Mufti Ali al-Atani against 
the visitors from the future has been cut off. We now show 
you the clip of that speech."

 The Arab religious leader was shown, speaking and 
gesticulating, with the Kaaba in the background. Suddenly, a 
shaft of glowing, glittering light began shining down upon 
the cubical building. The top began to sparkle and glow, and 
then a haze of smoke began to form over it. al-Atani 
continued his harangue for a moment, then the screen seemed 
to sway and he stopped, looking behind him. The Kaaba seemed 
to be in flames, the crowd around it in a state of confusion 
and panic. Then the scene went out and the screen was blank 
for an instant, to return to Chontor and Cronkite.

 "What on Earth is happening?" asked Cronkite.

 "That looks like a terawatt laser. In a brief time it will 
reduce the Kaaba to slag. If the crowds move away in order 
they should not be hurt."

 "They are destroying the Kaaba!? The whole Muslim world 
will be up in arms! You have just escalated the war!"

 "That makes no sense. This is obviously intended to 
convince the Saudis that war is futile, without 
unnecessarily taking any human life."

 "The Kaaba is sacred! The millions of Muslims will be 
enraged. You've triggered an explosion of hatred. Don't you 
realize what a Holy Site like the Kaaba means?"

 "I am an agnostic, though I have known Beneists, Christian 
and other religionists. I have never known any Muslims. But 
surely even a Holy site is not as precious as a person's 
life, a human or mammaloid."

 "They will not think so! And what of the crowds? Thousands 
could be trampled, if you are so concerned about human 
life."

 "That may be so. It is unfortunate if it occurs. But there 
are five million people in Saudi Arabia. Jastur could easily 
kill all of them by any of a dozen methods. I half expected 
him to do so...war is considered total in our civilization,
so it is too terrible to contemplate. We have not had a war 
for seven centuries, thanks to this Balance of Terror."
 
"Walter, we are getting more transmission over our Arabian 
feed. Apparently every frequency in the peninsula is showing
the same thing." said a voice.

 The screen changed to a blunt, black face with a white 
top...the face of Jastur. "The Kaaba has been destroyed. The 
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has an additional twenty-four hours 
to revoke its Jihad against us of the Second Chance. If this 
is not done, extreme measures will be taken. All who are not 
in accord with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's Jihad are urged 
to leave the country before the expiration of this deadline, 
if the Jihad is not to be revoked."

 The message began repeating in a loop. After the third 
repitition began, the view cut back to Cronkite and Chontor. 
"'Extreme measures'...what does that mean?" asked Cronkite.

 "It will mean over 5 million dead humans." replied Chontar.

 __________________
  
John F. Kennedy sat behind his desk in the Oval Office 
watching the screen of the broadcast from Riyadh with Dean 
Rusk, Meeptik and an Arabic interpreter. "The announcer is 
still declaring the mammaloids from the Second Chance to be 
demons. He is still calling on all the Faithful to slay the 
demonic mammaloids for the destruction of the Kaaba." 

"How long do we have now?" asked Kennedy.

 "Only three minutes, Mr. President." answered Meeptik.

 "Is it realistic that the Second Chance would kill 5 
million people because of the policies of their government? 
They caused suffering in this country after the unfortunate 
killing of your first ambassador, but they have been very 
respectful of actual human life for the last six years." 
Dean said to Meeptik.

 "As of yesterday, 123 mammaloids had been killed by Muslim 
assassins, and 17 by members of the Image of God Church. 
Your country has placed the Imagist killers behind bars, but 
Saudi Arabia has praised the Muslim killers, and the other 
Muslim counties aside from Turkey say nothing. The people of 
Saudi Arabia have allowed their government to do this, and 
will have to pay the price for this."

 "But the Arabs are not free, as we are. They would risk 
their lives to oppose the theocracy in that country."

 "The world will have to learn that my people will no longer
tolerate the killing. The mammaloids were almost annihilated 
in the Koshmarego, and six million of them died. A lifetime 
later twelve thousand million humans, over half the human 
population, died in their own Koshmarego. If five million 
humans die to teach you that tolerating genocide means 
death, then the Justice Party considers that a small price."

 Just then the screen went blank. "What happend, Meeptik?" 
asked the President.

 "I suspect that a trigger field for Potassium-40 decay was 
used. From what I know of Jastur, he would prefer a more 
dramatic method of military intervention. That is why he 
used a terawatt laser instead of disassembler nanobots to 
destroy the Kaaba. Essentially, every rock, plant and animal 
containing potassium has exploded. It is used as a means of 
execution in our society...it is both humane....the victim 
does not have time to suffer...and dramatic as a deterrent."

 "Could he have used nuclear weapons?" asked Rusk.

 "Of course he could have, but he would not have. As 
militant as Jastur is, he does not want to involve non-
hostile countries. Fallout from nukes would contaminate the 
world."

 "I must point out that riots are breaking out across the 
Muslim world over the Kaaba's destruction. It is quite 
possible that the entire Muslim world will be overtly at war 
with your ship soon." said Rusk.

 "Then the entire Muslim world will die. Jastur and the 
Justice Party will be quite capable and willing to kill 
hundreds of million of people to civilize this planet."

 "Isn't that rather ironic a statement?" pointed out 
Kennedy.

 "It is also ironic to execute a murderer, but your nation 
did this until 1965, and in the original timeline did so 
throughout its history. In fact, it is lucky, perhaps, that 
you have abolished capital punishment, since the first 
Imagist killers were not sentenced to death. Jastur could 
consider that discrimination against mammaloids and have 
forced you to execute them, too."

 "You cannot force this country to execute someone."

 "I frankly don't know what Jastur is going to do, but he 
would consider himself justified to force you to execute 
mammaloid killers if you did execute human killers. Things 
are going to be different between America and the Second 
Chance...between every nation and the Second Chance. You 
will probably have to take more measures to stop the meme of 
speciesism from being propagated by such organizations as 
the Image of God Church, for example."

 "We have freedom of speech and religion in this country, 
Meeptik." said Kennedy.

 "I hope you will be able to keep that, it is different from 
the Second Chance and almost all of the cylinders of the 
Solar System in the original timeline, though my native Mars
also had freedom of speech and religion. I will soon return 
to the Second Chance and try to moderate the policy of its
new government, but there is little I can do until the next 
election in 1974. Until then you will be living in a very 
different world, and you will have to live with a Second 
Chance that is not going to continue to bend over to 
accomadate your culture while gradually trying to evolve it. 
We expected that giving you the advantages of our technology 
would enable you to overcome your xenophobia peacefully. Now 
we will try it by force."

 "I am glad I cannot run for reelection in November." said 
the president, shaking his head.

 **************************************************

 Three days later, the government of Iran fell in 
revolution. The Revolutionary government promptly declared 
war on the Second Chance. Jastur replied by giving Iran 
twenty-four hours to repeal the declaration of war. 
Thousands fled, crossing the border, but the Revolutionary 
Government refused to back down. At the expiration of the 
deadline, 26 million people died when every potassim-40 
nucleus in their body decayed. The other Muslim governents 
employed draconian methods to supress the riots, massacring 
scores of thousands. Slowly, over the following days, the 
riots were smothered. But the world would never be the same.

 __________________
 

DRIZZLE DRAZZLE DRUZZLE DROME
TIME FOR THIS ONE TO COME HOME