They could spend a lifetime comparing every little difference between the
Third Rail, and the main sequence. The Beatles don’t exist, just like a
certain movie, except no cognizant singer is going to revive the catalog.
Geography is shockingly similar after considering how deep in the past the
point of divergence must have taken place. They have evidence of this from
the completely foreign botanical world. The trees and plants may look like
the kinds they could find back home, but upon closer inspection, they’ve
clearly evolved and been bred differently. Even the buildings have a
slightly discrepant architecture. It took them a little time to recognize
this, because they’ve seen variations before. Every world they go to—be it a
planet, a virtual construct, a parallel reality, or even another
universe—has had unique design schemes, and this one is no different in that
it’s also unique. Now that the team has been here for a few days, they see
that technology isn’t as stilted as they once thought. The people here seem
to have advanced in some ways faster than others. You couldn’t call it
steampunk, but it’s in that same vein.
As far as energy goes, the culture managed to pretty much skip over fossil
fuels, and focus on renewable sources. Different regions have different
strengths, but wind power is pretty popular. They also have no apparent
problem with nuclear power. You’re never more than fifty miles from the
nearest nuclear power plant. Despite these developments, space travel is
practically non-existence. There are tons of satellites in orbit around
Earth, but they haven’t even put a rover on Mars. From what little Angela
was able to gather in her capacity as self-appointed team historian, war has
been the number one issue globally. Civilization just survived World War VI
not thirty years ago. Why haven’t they destroyed themselves in a nuclear
holocaust? Religion. Yes, it’s religion that saved them, if you can believe
it. All ancient religious texts speak of some kind of sun that’s compressed
and trapped in a box, and the venerated few charged with containing and
protecting it from evil. While atheism and agnosticism are recently on the
rise, superstition regarding these sunboxes only increased once scientists
realized that real sunboxes were within their grasp. Never before had a
faith been so spot on in regard to something that might happen in the
future, with certain sects being eerily detailed with their descriptions of
how a sunbox might work.
Unfortunately, there was a major downside to this. Even though multiple
religions provided people with the same prophetic warning about nuclear
bombs, they failed to generate any other reason for unity. Different
kingdoms, nations, and races glommed onto different denominations, and dig
their heels in deeper when they perceive a threat from some other. That’s
why they keep fighting, and why racism may be worse today than it was in the
main sequence circa early 21st century. Angela and Mateo are even more
convinced now that they are not the only time travelers here. At least one
of them either created the reality itself, or capitalized on an opportunity
to mould it to their liking. They may have always wanted society to be like
this, or things just got out of hand. Regardless, the team feels compelled
to fix it. It’s going to take them longer than any mission has, so they
better prepare themselves, do their research, and take their time.
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