Updated Saturday 10 May, 2008 12:19 PM | Headlines | Discussion Forum | International Edition

Home Page

Announcements 

Alternate Histories

International Edition

List of Updates

Want to join?

Join Writer Development Section

Writer Development Member Section

Join Club ChangerS

Discussion Forum

Editorial

Chris Comments

Book Reviews

Blog

Letters To The Editor

FAQ

Links Page

Terms and Conditions

Resources

Donations

Alternate Histories

International Edition

Poster Page

Multiverse War

Second Chance

Outside Context Problem

Disunited States

Alison Brooks

Fiction

Essays

Other Stuff

Authors

Thanks

To Our

Friends

@

Alternate

History

dot Com

Chapter 6

“The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.” –Albert Einstein

**

Lucien and Weinberg continued to walk through several corridors.

“I’m impressed with this place, general. I wasn’t aware we had this set up.”

“It’s part of our Government Operations Centre. This place isn’t a secret officially but, on the other hand, we didn’t exactly shout from the mountaintops about it either. It was originally designed to help facilitate the Ottawa centre in coordinating responses against stuff like natural disasters, avian flu pandemics and so forth. Of course, it was never designed to handle anything like what’s happened now so we’re a bit overwhelmed right now.”

“You seem to be adapting very well.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“You know,” said Lucien, “I wasn’t even aware that I was in the line of succession”

Weinberg shot a sidelong glance at Lucien as they walked “Actually—technically speaking—your position as Acting PM is in a bit of a grey zone.”

Lucien raised an eyebrow in confusion. Weinberg sighed “In the event of the sudden resignation or death of a prime minister, constitutional convention requires the Governor General to consult the governing party and call on a member to form a government. However, the Governor General—along with a large percentage of the MPs –were in Ottawa during the…ummmm…incident.”

“However”, continued the general. “Many PMs have been aware of that particular constitutional shortcoming, so it’s been a routine procedure for most PMs to make an order in council outlining what the line of succession would be. The previous Harper government came up with an extremely elaborate and detailed one, covering pretty much every conceivable scenario. The new Dion government basically just took the old order in council and just replaced the names.”

“Interesting. And where was I in this list?”

Weinberg glanced at Lucien and then resumed looking forward “Fifteenth place”.

“Ah. General—are we in contact with our allies? Perhaps we will be able to—“

“No Sir—we are not.”

“Huh?”

Weinberg let out another sigh “As of 1900 hours—the approximate time of the incident—we have lost contact with virtually every country on the planet. Our communications systems are in total disarray at the moment. We were able to re-establish contact with the rest of the provinces and territories only half an hour ago, in fact. Even so, there are many regions of the country that are still dark. There have been a few ham radio and commercial radio broadcasts picked up from a lot of places but contact hasn't been established as of yet. In essence, Sir, we are completely on our own for the time being.”

Lucien stood there, in shock, as the blood drained from his face.

“Please sir—right this way. You will be fully debriefed on the rest of it in just a few moments.”

The rest of it?!? thought Lucien.

Lucien sat at a conference table. Flanking him on both sides were numerous stern faced and obviously very concerned officers.

Weinberg glanced down at a piece of paper in front of him and then looked back up.

“Mr. Prime Minister—Mr. Sebastiano Lomagno will be giving the debriefing’”

As one, all of the officers brought their laser-like gazes forward to a figure in front of them.

The figure—obviously painfully aware of now being the centre of attention—tried to smile but ended up just looking vaguely ill instead.

He was a short, scrawny, and swarthy individual with a scraggly goatee, a headful of wild, unkempt, curly black hair and thick coke-bottle like glasses. He was wearing a mud-stained pair of jeans and an equally mud-stained t-shirt.

Lucien noticed that Sebastiano was sweating profusely.

Oh thank God thought Lucien. Finally someone who’s more scared and nervous than I am…

Sebastiano coughed nervously. He tapped a few buttons on a laptop and a wall-sized detailed map of Ottawa appeared on a projection screen behind him.

“Information is still coming in but this is what we know so far. At 7 pm—er—1900 hours-- Eastern Standard Time—just over two hours ago-- an…incident…occurred. The city of Ottawa has…had…been affected by an…anomaly…”

“Anomaly?” croaked Lucien.

“Yes Sir”

“Yes—“ continued Sebastiano, still sweating, “—one of three—appears to be have a radius of approximately 5 kilometres and is centred in the neighbourhood of Rockcliffe Park.-“.

A red dot appeared on the map in the centre of the area, located about 4 kilometres northeast of downtown Ottawa and site of the richest neighbourhood in Ottawa—and if Lucien remembered correctly—in the top ten for all of Canada. Every ambassador to Canada routinely pulled as many strings as they could to get a residence there. You could practically smell the money in that neighbourhood.

The Prime Minister’s Residence was just to the southwest of that area…

Sebastiano was still talking, “-it got as far as La Verendyre Boulevard—“. A red line appeared to the north of the city. “—sweeping to the west, it sliced through the L’Outaouais Autoroute than the Gatineau Autoroute –“. The red line slowly started forming a semi-circle. “—than sweeping southwards –“. The red line continued to move. “-it lopped off a chunk off the extreme southern end of Gatineau Park –“

Gatineau Park was a massive nature reserve that was located ‘just 15 minute drive from Parliament Hill’ as the tourist brochures used to say. The place would have been crawling with tourists, hikers and campers in the middle of summer thought Lucien.

“—effectively taking out most of the city of Gatineau in the process—“, continued Sebastiano. “Continuing southwards, it sliced through the eastern end of the Tunney’s Pasture Complex –“

Tunney’s Pasture was one of two massive ‘centralized government departmental complexes’ that the government had—the other was located in…Gatineau. thought Lucien.

“—and continued southwards—“ Again the red line on the map moved. “—slicing through Highway 417. Then it turned eastwards, just missing the Civic Hospital—we caught a lucky break there, Mr Prime Minister – and continued onwards—“. Again with the red line. “-and took out Dow’s Lake and the northern section of Carleton University. Sweeping eastwards, it cut through the Canal and got as far as the midway point between Smyth Road and Heron Road –taking out all of Ottawa General Hospital in the process. Sweeping northwards, it cut through the 417 north entering Ottawa and highway 17 east and nearly the entire neighbourhood of Ski Hill Park. It continued to move northwards and sliced through the Ottawa River and continuing onwards until back to La Verendyre Boulevard.”

Lucien looked at the map in disbelief. The circle covered the entire eastern half of the Ottawa –Gatineau area.

“—This circular area—an area of approximately 80 square kilometres, sir—has been….ummmmm…replaced.”

It took a few seconds for Lucien to be able to speak and when he did it came out as a croak.

“Re…Replaced?”

Sebastiano licked his lips, his face practically a sheen of sweat.

“Yes sir. Replaced with a…forest.”

“A …forest?”

“Yes sir.”

“The buildings have been… replaced…with a forest?”

“Ummm…not just the buildings, sir. If it was just the buildings, then all the electrical cables and water pipes and stuff underneath the streets would still be there. They’re not. So whatever happened extended to a depth of at least 10 meters. Possibly more.”

Lucien shook his head.

“What happened to the people?”

Sebastiano nervously licked his lips again.

“We don’t know. But everything and everyone in the area is…gone.”

“How….how many people?” he asked. His voice was barely above a whisper.

“Sir?”

“How many people have…disappeared?” Lucien was mildly impressed with himself—it almost sounded like a normal speaking voice.

“Ummm…difficult to say, sir. It’s the middle of summer so a lot of people are on vacation and it occurred after normal working hours so most of the office buildings were empty but on the other hand, the downtown areas of both cities have been affected and it was right during dinner and a lot of the restaurants and bars would have been filling up and…”

“HOW MANY?” roared Lucien.

Sebastiano shut his eyes for a few seconds. Then he opened them again and spoke, in a low voice.

“Best guess. About five hundred thousand, sir.”

“Ummm…sir---as I stated—there were, in fact, three anomalies that affected the Ottawa area. The second one—this one with a radius of about two kilometres instead—“ Again with the red circle on the map “-was centred just east of the Hylands Golf Club. It took out most of the terminals of Ottawa Airport but many of the runways were just outside the radius of effect so they’re still intact. The third anomaly-“ Another circle. “- has only about a one kilometre radius. It’s centred about 6 kilometres to the west of the airport and occupies a circle that is between Highway 416 to Woodroofe Avenue and Hunt Club Road to Fallowfield Road.”

Lucien blinked.

There was nothing of any strategic significance whatsoever in that area. In fact, there was nothing there. Absolutely nothing. The anomaly even missed what few golf courses were located in that general vicinity.

Nothing except a large chunk of undeveloped land and a smattering of homes was all that existed…had… existed there.

Sebastiano was still talking.

“Analysis of the three areas indicates that the flora and …ummmm…fauna…in those places are nearly identical.”

“What kind of animals are we talking about, Mr. Lomagno?”

Lucien noticed that Sebastiano –face already practically a river of sweat—seemed to actually wince at that question and, if anything, started sweating even more. Lucien noticed Sebastiano glance quickly at the assorted other military people—who, in turn, nodded their heads.

Sebastiano took a deep breath.

“Ummmm---preliminary analysis indicates that the bulk of the fauna apparently is identical to that from the Cretaceous period—most probably from the Late Cretaceous period although that may be somewhat premature to confirm at this time.”

“Uh—when exactly was the Cretaceous period?”

Sebastiano closed his eyes, obviously not wanting to answer this question.

“Ummmm…the Cretaceous period was from 65 to 140 million years ago, sir.”

There was a very long period of silence.

“DINOSAURS?! FUCKING DINOSAURS?!?” screamed Lucien, causing Sebastiano to almost jump through the wall behind him.

He glanced at the assembled officers.

“Is this a fucking joke?!”

General Weinberg was the first to speak.

“No, sir, it is not. As near as we can ascertain, the city of Ottawa has been replaced by its equivalent area from the time of the dinosaurs.”

“This has to be a joke! Who here has seen these dinosaurs?”

Lucien noticed several of the officers raise their hands.

So did Sebastiano.

“Uhhh—I was working at Tunney’s Pasture at the time of the incident, sir” said Sebastiano quietly. “I was trapped in the city for about an hour before I was rescued,” he continued, shuddering involuntarily. “If I may continue, sir? There’s more…”

Lucien stared at Sebastiano in shock.

“More? How much worse can this get…?”

“It’s much, much worse than we initially suspected, sir.”

Sebastiano tapped a few more buttons on his laptop. The map of Ottawa with all of its red circles was—mercifully—replaced by a weather satellite map.

It was a map that Lucien has seen countless times. A satellite picture centred on the Great Lakes. Most of Quebec and Ontario could be seen—along with about two dozen or so U.S. states along the Eastern Seaboard or around the Great Lakes.

“This was taken at precisely 6:59:45 pm eastern standard time. I’m going to jump ahead by five second increments.” – click – “50 seconds” -click- “55 seconds” –click- “7 pm exactly”

Lucien gasped. He was vaguely aware that two or three of the officers gasped as well. Clearly he wasn’t the only one who was seeing this for the first time.

Across all of Ontario and Quebec –no, not just Canada, the U.S. states as well– were…flashes of lights.

It’s…it’s …like watching the stadium seats on TV right after the winning hockey goal and every idiot with a camera pulls it out and snaps a picture…a whole sea of flashes…there must be dozens…no, hundreds of flashes….

Sebastiano paused the image.

“This dot—“ he said, pointing at one flash, “-is at the precise location of Ottawa. General Weinberg and his people managed to confirm that several other locations here—“ Sebastiano pointed at a series of other dots along the Montreal to Toronto corridor – “-have also been…ummm…replaced.”

“How many areas have been…affected?”

Sebastiano licked his lips again. “Please bear in mind, sir, that the dots that are shown on this map are only those that were big enough to show up on a low res satellite map. We know for a fact that Ottawa had three areas hit just within its city limits but this map only shows the biggest one. As a result we have no idea just how many small areas have been hit—“

“How…many?”

Sebastiano swallowed a lump in his throat.

“There are at least 67 city size areas just in the province of Ontario. There are another 47 such areas in Quebec. As for the U.S. states…ummmm…difficult to say at this point but each state seems to have somewhere between 3 to 10 of these city size flashes. Bear in mind of course that the small …ummmm…replacement areas aren’t showing up on the map. Best guess at this point—and it’s just a pure guess at this point, sir—would be that there are ten times the number of smaller areas as they are city size areas.”

Lucien was shaking his head in shock.

“And considering the fact that communications have been severed not just with the U.S. but with every other country as well, we can only assume that the effects have been global in scale.”

“Furthermore…” continued Sebastiano, “—it seems that the replacement areas were not solely confined to the surface of the planet.”

Lucien and more than one officer looked at Sebastiano in total bafflement.

“A lot of the satellites in orbit seem to be missing as well.” explained Sebastiano. “The effects of the anomalies seem to be not only global in scale but extraterrestrial in scale as well. It’s as if the entire Earth-Moon system was hit by some kind of cosmic shotgun…”

Sebastiano stood there, sweating nervously.

Lucien needed a full 30 seconds before he could speak.

“Are you telling me that the entire planet may very well be overrun by dinosaurs?”

“Yes sir—I am…”

~~

On to Chapter 7

Please Comment In The Discussion Forum