"Stories of Science, History & Mystery"
Chapter V: History in the making
«Dieu condamne une nation par la méchanceté de ses princes»
«When God wants to judge a nation, He gives them wicked rulers»
John Calvin
The friends had attentively listened to Valérie's telling of the story.
1.
Liz broke the silence «So what happened after the second message was received?»
Valérie explained «The income from the mine made the Villons one of the wealthiest families of Savoy. The inflow of money and public works generated a veritable boom for Pouilly. They even built a hospital.»
«However, it all came to a tragic end in 1572. Their rapid ascent had caused much envy. The Benedectine order had not taken kindly to Hubert's power base with the poor. The Duke of Savoy also felt tricked on account of the mining right. Vicious rumors began to circulate that the Villons had made a pact with the devil. Those enemies were ready to strike in the anti-Huguenot St Bartholomew massacre.»
«With the family wiped out, how did you come into this whole story then?» Daniele asked.
«A third message was sent; but it had some inconsistencies.» Valérie began.
«Inconsistencies? Like what?» Liz asked.
«In fact, you were not involved» Valérie said. Before Liz could ask a follow-up question, she added «Your friends betrayed you.»
«Betrayed? That's quite an accusation!» Chris protested.
Turning to Liz, Valérie said «I'm telling you the whole story, at least as far as I can still reconstruct it. Your friends wanted to warn my ancestors about the massacre, while you did not. Chris did not know that the message would be inverted in the laser etching experiment. Thus, a mirror image of the message was transmitted. That made us suspicious.»
Chris was outraged. Not only had he supposedly betrayed Liz; now he was accused of being incompetent, thereby bumbling the whole operation. Why did he have to apologize for actions that he had allegedly committed in an alternate universe, and of which he had naturally no recollection?
«And what if this whole thing was just made up? Maybe she is a bigger con artist than I ever was?» he said.
Liz worried that Valérie was trying to drive a wedge between them.
«Let bygones be bygones. Just tell us the rest of the story Valérie» she said.
Valérie continued «A part of the family went into hiding and changed their name to Filon. They were able to move a substantial part of their fortune to a safe location. The brothers were too famous to simply disappear, and thus could not be saved from the massacre. Hubert was also a vain man who thought that God would never abandon him.»
«Their sacrifice turned out to be a blessing in disguise. But it took the family a long time to figure this out. In fact, the Filon family had many more sons that were priests in Pouilly. Yet no more messages were received. Had God abandoned His chosen family?»
Valérie waited for the words to sink in, then carried on «Only with the groundbreaking revolutions in physics in the 20th century, did it dawn on us that humans in the future had communicated with us. That also explained the mistaken mirror image of the message.»
«The question was who and when. If we could figure this out, we could finally go on from being mere puppets to puppet masters. The advantage for us was that we knew where to look - the church. We just had to wait. We had already been patient for several centuries, so what was another century?»
«So we were ultimately the captives of history?» Daniele said.
«We were sitting ducks.» Chris said, still angry from the previous exchange.
Valérie went on «From there on, it was actually quite simple. We incrementally changed history, by feeding information of important historical dates.»
« Those dates in fact served multiple purposes. It gave the family key intelligence that could be exploited, but it also served as a reference for how much our interference influenced world events. This is why we still have a record of the alternate reality, even if it is faded now.»
Valérie's disarming honesty appealed to Liz.
«So what is your assessment then? Is the alternate reality so much worse than what you created?» Liz asked.
«You have seen the paintings.» Valérie replied.
«I note that your trust fund did pretty well too. Serendipity, my arse!» Chris barked.
«We got greedy, I will admit that. But on balance we did a lot of good. We saved 100 million lives by avoiding the world wars alone.» Valérie said.
«Oh really? We might all be blown to pieces pretty soon in a nuclear war. How many people might die then? A few billion? What did that gamble of yours really gain us?» Chris thundered.
«Every decision has consequences, ups and downs, pluses and minuses. You historians are the worst lot; always eager to judge the past, but completely unable to predict the future. You are like the art critic who was not good enough to be an artist themselves. I dare say, you are mere cowards!» Valérie shot back. She had worked herself up in a real anger. It was the first time she had lost her cool. The mask had finally slipped.
Chris had not expected this barrage of hostile fire. Valérie had soundly beaten him. He had always resisted any form of responsibility. He was the proverbial armchair cynic. She was the first one to call him out on it.
Valérie regained her composure, and some of her charm too.
«I must apologize, where were my manners? I did not call you here to launch a diatribe of personal insults.»
After a short pause, she added «I called you here because I would like you to take over.»
The friends were taken aback.
«Take over? You mean you are handing us the keys to the kingdom? Why?» Liz asked.
«It might seem strange. With all the meddling that I have done in world history, I actually believe in destiny.» Valérie said «This is also why I tried to keep your destinies locked together. You were the ones to start this, you should finish it.»
«Really, that is the reason?» Daniele asked.
«Well no. I am also weary of humanity's incessant demands. And I am tired of the constant bickering of the likes of you. If you think you can do so much better, why don't you have a go at it?» Valérie said venomously.
«What are we supposed to do exactly?» Liz asked.
«There is a beam campaign at CERN in a week. It may be the last opportunity to communicate with the past.»
«I have left you the names and dates of my ancestors that can be reached in Pouilly. The instructions on how to operate the equipment are detailed in this manual. Given your background knowledge, I foresee no problems in you getting this to work. Your alternate universe selfs managed it fine.»
«What would you do?» Daniele asked timidly.
«What I would do, has nothing to do with it. I quit. You are in charge now. It is your decision. You may choose to save the world from nuclear Armageddon, as your friend Chris seems to suggest. You may do nothing. I care not. But you will have to live with the consequences.»
Valérie then proceeded to leave the room. She turned around one last time and bid them farewell:
«I forgot to say, good luck.»
The friends were dumbfounded. They had just processed hundreds of years of history in a few hours of conversation.
2.
«You told some tall tales at University, but that takes the biscuit.» Liz said.
«All this talk of alternate realities makes you wonder what is real, and what is an illusion.» Chris philosophized.
«Without Valérie, we would not even know each other. It is comforting that for all her attempts to change history, she wanted to keep our friendship intact.» Liz said.
«It's true. It's like she always wanted to keep us involved.» Daniele said. «We have a responsibility now to do the right thing.»
«Valérie left us a folder with information on a terrorist called Gavrilo Vukovic. He is the presumed mastermind behind the briefcase-sized nuclear bombs.» Liz said.
«If we could take him out before he developed those devices, we could avert a nuclear war.» Daniele suggested.
Chris was dismissive. «That is exactly what Valérie would expect us to do. Taking him out does not eliminate the problem. You cannot uninvent something forever. You will only delay the day of reckoning.»
«You are right Chris. There will be another Gavrilo Vukovic. We should try to eliminate the actual problem.» Liz said.
«How are we supposed to do that? After the Ottoman departure from the Balkans, Austria-Hungary has seen this area as its natural domain for expansion.» Chris said.
«You Europeans and your empires.» Liz scoffed.
«I don't think you Americans are any better. Look at the size of your country.» Chris shot back.
«We Italians are a French protectorate, but it's not so bad.» Daniele said. «There's an irony that the Romans conquered Gaul, and now the Franks conquered us. You have to accept that some civilizations are at times ahead, and it's better to join them.»
«So your solution to historical grievances is that the conquered people get a fair deal? Then they can readily submit?» Liz asked.
«Something like that.» Daniele said. He knew full well that she was alluding to the sensitive topic of racism and slavery.
Chris still felt slighted by Valérie's all too valid criticisms. He had to come up with a proposal of his own, rather than just shred his friends' ideas.
«I like the idea of a war so destructive that it will forever change people's perception of war; that they will never want to start another war.» he said.
«A war to end all wars.» Daniele repeated.
«That could quickly get out of hand. What if the bad guys win?» Liz cautioned.
«The good guys and the bad guys? That's such a naïve American perspective. We all get our hands dirty sometimes.» Chris said.
«You mean like we did Chris? If Valérie's account is correct, then we betrayed Liz. Only our intervention made Valérie's machinations possible. Do you want to take responsibility for a world war that kills millions of people with a very uncertain outcome?» Daniele asked.
That broadside had landed. Liz waited for tempers to calm before giving her assessment.
«Let me try to summarize. There is no reason to eliminate Vukovic, because there would just be another one. It would be dangerous to engineer a world war, notwithstanding the toll in human life. We could encourage empires to be more caring for their underclass citizens, but it is just a recommendation I suppose. In short, there is nothing we can do.»
«Well, there is one thing.» Chris said pensively. «We could destroy the time portal.»
«You mean the equipment at CERN?» Daniele asked «How would that save us from nuclear war?»
«I think Chris means the church.» Liz said.
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© Credit for the art work goes to my children Emile and Winnie. All rights of this work are protected.