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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/18632-8.txt b/18632-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..506e3ad --- /dev/null +++ b/18632-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,933 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Crossroads of Destiny, by Henry Beam Piper + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Crossroads of Destiny + +Author: Henry Beam Piper + +Release Date: June 20, 2006 [EBook #18632] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CROSSROADS OF DESTINY *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Geetu Melwani and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +Transcriber note: This etext was produced from Fantastic Universe +Science Fiction July 1959. Extensive research did not uncover any +evidence that the copyright on this publication was renewed. + + + + + Crossroads + of + Destiny + + by + + H. Beam Piper + + + No wonder he'd been so interested in the talk of whether our + people accepted these theories! + + + * * * * * + +Readers who remember the Hon. Stephen Silk, diplomat extraordinary, in +LONE STAR PLANET (FU, March 1957), later published as A PLANET FOR +TEXANS (Ace Books), will find the present story a challenging +departure--this possibility that the history we know may not be +absolute.... + + * * * * * + + + + +CROSSROADS OF DESTINY + + +I still have the dollar bill. It's in my box at the bank, and I think +that's where it will stay. I simply won't destroy it, but I can think of +nobody to whom I'd be willing to show it--certainly nobody at the +college, my History Department colleagues least of all. Merely to tell +the story would brand me irredeemably as a crackpot, but crackpots are +tolerated, even on college faculties. It's only when they begin +producing physical evidence that they get themselves actively resented. + + * * * * * + +When I went into the club-car for a nightcap before going back to my +compartment to turn in, there were five men there, sitting together. + +One was an Army officer, with the insignia and badges of a Staff +Intelligence colonel. Next to him was a man of about my own age, with +sandy hair and a bony, Scottish looking face, who sat staring silently +into a highball which he held in both hands. Across the aisle, an +elderly man, who could have been a lawyer or a banker, was smoking a +cigar over a glass of port, and beside him sat a plump and slightly too +well groomed individual who had a tall colorless drink, probably +gin-and-tonic. The fifth man, separated from him by a vacant chair, +seemed to be dividing his attention between a book on his lap and the +conversation, in which he was taking no part. I sat down beside the +sandy-haired man; as I did so and rang for the waiter, the colonel was +saying: + +"No, that wouldn't. I can think of a better one. Suppose you have +Columbus get his ships from Henry the Seventh of England and sail under +the English instead of the Spanish flag. You know, he did try to get +English backing, before he went to Spain, but King Henry turned him +down. That could be changed." + +I pricked up my ears. The period from 1492 to the Revolution is my +special field of American history, and I knew, at once, the enormous +difference that would have made. It was a moment later that I realized +how oddly the colonel had expressed the idea, and by that time the plump +man was speaking. + +"Yes, that would work," he agreed. "Those kings made decisions, most of +the time, on whether or not they had a hangover, or what some court +favorite thought." He got out a notebook and pen and scribbled briefly. +"I'll hand that to the planning staff when I get to New York. That's +Henry the Seventh, not Henry the Eighth? Right. We'll fix it so that +Columbus will catch him when he's in a good humor." + +That was too much. I turned to the man beside me. + +"What goes on?" I asked. "Has somebody invented a time machine?" + +He looked up from the drink he was contemplating and gave me a grin. + +"Sounds like it, doesn't it? Why, no; our friend here is getting up a +television program. Tell the gentleman about it," he urged the plump man +across the aisle. + +The waiter arrived at that moment. The plump man, who seemed to need +little urging, waited until I had ordered a drink and then began telling +me what a positively sensational idea it was. + +"We're calling it _Crossroads of Destiny_," he said. "It'll be a series, +one half-hour show a week; in each episode, we'll take some historic +event and show how history could have been changed if something had +happened differently. We dramatize the event up to that point just as it +really happened, and then a commentary-voice comes on and announces that +this is the Crossroads of Destiny; this is where history could have been +completely changed. Then he gives a resumé of what really did happen, +and then he says, '_But_--suppose so and so had done this and that, +instead of such and such.' Then we pick up the dramatization at that +point, only we show it the way it might have happened. Like this thing +about Columbus; we'll show how it could have happened, and end with +Columbus wading ashore with his sword in one hand and a flag in the +other, just like the painting, only it'll be the English flag, and +Columbus will shout: 'I take possession of this new land in the name of +His Majesty, Henry the Seventh of England!'" He brandished +his drink, to the visible consternation of the elderly man beside him. +"And then, the sailors all sing _God Save the King_." + +"Which wasn't written till about 1745," I couldn't help mentioning. + +"Huh?" The plump man looked startled. "Are you sure?" Then he decided +that I was, and shrugged. "Well, they can all shout, 'God Save King +Henry!' or 'St. George for England!' or something. Then, at the end, we +introduce the program guest, some history expert, a real name, and he +tells how he thinks history would have been changed if it had happened +this way." + +The conservatively dressed gentleman beside him wanted to know how long +he expected to keep the show running. + +"The crossroads will give out before long," he added. + +"The sponsor'll give out first," I said. "History is just one damn +crossroads after another." I mentioned, in passing, that I taught the +subject. "Why, since the beginning of this century, we've had enough of +them to keep the show running for a year." + +"We have about twenty already written and ready to produce," the plump +man said comfortably, "and ideas for twice as many that the planning +staff is working on now." + +The elderly man accepted that and took another cautious sip of wine. + +"What I wonder, though, is whether you can really say that history can +be changed." + +"Well, of course--" The television man was taken aback; one always seems +to be when a basic assumption is questioned. "Of course, we only know +what really did happen, but it stands to reason if something had +happened differently, the results would have been different, doesn't +it?" + +"But it seems to me that everything would work out the same in the long +run. There'd be some differences at the time, but over the years +wouldn't they all cancel out?" + +"_Non, non, Monsieur!_" the man with the book, who had been outside the +conversation until now, told him earnestly. "Make no mistake; 'istoree +can be shange'!" + +I looked at him curiously. The accent sounded French, but it wasn't +quite right. He was some kind of a foreigner, though; I'd swear that he +never bought the clothes he was wearing in this country. The way the +suit fitted, and the cut of it, and the shirt-collar, and the necktie. +The book he was reading was Langmuir's _Social History of the American +People_--not one of my favorites, a bit too much on the doctrinaire +side, but what a bookshop clerk would give a foreigner looking for +something to explain America. + +"What do you think, Professor?" the plump man was asking me. + +"It would work out the other way. The differences wouldn't cancel out; +they'd accumulate. Say something happened a century ago, to throw a +presidential election the other way. You'd get different people at the +head of the government, opposite lines of policy taken, and eventually +we'd be getting into different wars with different enemies at different +times, and different batches of young men killed before they could marry +and have families--different people being born or not being born. That +would mean different ideas, good or bad, being advanced; different books +written; different inventions, and different social and economic +problems as a consequence." + +"Look, he's only giving himself a century," the colonel added. "Think of +the changes if this thing we were discussing, Columbus sailing under the +English flag, had happened. Or suppose Leif Ericson had been able to +plant a permanent colony in America in the Eleventh Century, or if the +Saracens had won the Battle of Tours. Try to imagine the world today if +any of those things had happened. One thing you can be sure of--any +errors you make in trying to imagine such a world will be on the side of +over-conservatism." + +The sandy-haired man beside me, who had been using his highball for a +crystal ball, must have glimpsed in it what he was looking for. He +finished the drink, set the empty glass on the stand-tray beside him, +and reached back to push the button. + +"I don't think you realize just how good an idea you have, here," he +told the plump man abruptly. "If you did, you wouldn't ruin it with such +timid and unimaginative treatment." + +I thought he'd been staying out of the conversation because it was over +his head. Instead, he had been taking the plump man's idea apart, +examining all the pieces, and considering what was wrong with it and how +it could be improved. The plump man looked startled, and then +angry--timid and unimaginative were the last things he'd expected his +idea to be called. Then he became uneasy. Maybe this fellow was a +typical representative of his lord and master, the faceless abstraction +called the Public. + +"What do you mean?" he asked. + +"Misplaced emphasis. You shouldn't emphasize the event that could have +changed history; you should emphasize the changes that could have been +made. You're going to end this show you were talking about with a shot +of Columbus wading up to the beach with an English flag, aren't you?" + +"Well, that's the logical ending." + +"That's the logical beginning," the sandy-haired man contradicted. "And +after that, your guest historian comes on; how much time will he be +allowed?" + +"Well, maybe three or four minutes. We can't cut the dramatization too +short--" + +"And he'll have to explain, a couple of times, and in words of one +syllable, that what we have seen didn't really happen, because if he +doesn't, the next morning half the twelve-year-old kids in the country +will be rushing wild-eyed into school to slip the teacher the real +inside about the discovery of America. By the time he gets that done, +he'll be able to mumble a couple of generalities about vast and +incalculable effects, and then it'll be time to tell the public about +Widgets, the really safe cigarettes, all filter and absolutely free from +tobacco." + +The waiter arrived at this point, and the sandy-haired man ordered +another rye highball. I decided to have another bourbon on the rocks, +and the TV impresario said, "Gin-and-tonic," absently, and went into a +reverie which lasted until the drinks arrived. Then he came awake again. + +"I see what you mean," he said. "Most of the audience would wonder what +difference it would have made where Columbus would have gotten his +ships, as long as he got them and America got discovered. I can see it +would have made a hell of a big difference. But how could it be handled +any other way? How could you figure out just what the difference would +have been?" + +"Well, you need a man who'd know the historical background, and you'd +need a man with a powerful creative imagination, who is used to using it +inside rigorously defined limits. Don't try to get them both in one; a +collaboration would really be better. Then you work from the known +situation in Europe and in America in 1492, and decide on the immediate +effects. And from that, you have to carry it along, step by step, down +to the present. It would be a lot of hard and very exacting work, but +the result would be worth it." He took a sip from his glass and added: +"Remember, you don't have to prove that the world today would be the way +you set it up. All you have to do is make sure that nobody else would be +able to prove that it wouldn't." + +"Well, how could you present that?" + +"As a play, with fictional characters and a plot; time, the present, +under the changed conditions. The plot--the reason the coward conquers +his fear and becomes a hero, the obstacle to the boy marrying the girl, +the reason the innocent man is being persecuted--will have to grow out +of this imaginary world you've constructed, and be impossible in our +real world. As long as you stick to that, you're all right." + +"Sure. I get that." The plump man was excited again; he was about half +sold on the idea. "But how will we get the audience to accept it? We're +asking them to start with an assumption they know isn't true." + +"Maybe it is, in another time-dimension," the colonel suggested. "You +can't prove it isn't. For that matter, you can't prove there aren't +other time-dimensions." + +"Hah, that's it!" the sandy-haired man exclaimed. "World of alternate +probability. That takes care of that." + +He drank about a third of his highball and sat gazing into the rest of +it, in an almost yogic trance. The plump man looked at the colonel in +bafflement. + +"Maybe this alternate-probability time-dimension stuff means something +to you," he said. "Be damned if it does to me." + +"Well, as far as we know, we live in a four-dimensional universe," the +colonel started. + +The elderly man across from him groaned. "Fourth dimension! Good God, +are we going to talk about that?" + +"It isn't anything to be scared of. You carry an instrument for +measuring in the fourth dimension all the time. A watch." + +"You mean it's just time? But that isn't--" + +"We know of three dimensions of space," the colonel told him, gesturing +to indicate them. "We can use them for coordinates to locate things, but +we also locate things in time. I wouldn't like to ride on a train or a +plane if we didn't. Well, let's call the time we know, the time your +watch registers, Time-A. Now, suppose the entire, infinite extent of +Time-A is only an instant in another dimension of time, which we'll call +Time-B. The next instant of Time-B is also the entire extent of Time-A, +and the next and the next. As in Time-A, different things are happening +at different instants. In one of these instants of Time-B, one of the +things that's happening is that King Henry the Seventh of England is +furnishing ships to Christopher Columbus." + +The man with the odd clothes was getting excited again. + +"Zees--'ow you say--zees alternate probabeelitay; eet ees a theory +zhenerally accept' een zees countree?" + +"Got it!" the sandy-haired man said, before anybody could answer. He set +his drink on the stand-tray and took a big jackknife out of his pocket, +holding it unopened in his hand. "How's this sound?" he asked, and hit +the edge of the tray with the back of the knife, _Bong_! + +"Crossroads--of--_Destiny_!" he intoned, and hit the edge of the tray +again, _Bong_! "This is the year 1959--but not the 1959 of our world, +for we are in a world of alternate probability, in another dimension of +time; a world parallel to and coexistent with but separate from our own, +in which history has been completely altered by a single momentous +event." He shifted back to his normal voice. + +"Not bad; only twenty-five seconds," the plump man said, looking up from +his wrist watch. "And a trained announcer could maybe shave five seconds +off that. Yes, something like that, and at the end we'll have another +thirty seconds, and we can do without the guest." + +"But zees alternate probibeelitay, in anozzer dimension," the stranger +was insisting. "Ees zees a concept original weet you?" he asked the +colonel. + +"Oh, no; that idea's been around for a long time." + +"I never heard of it before now," the elderly man said, as though that +completely demolished it. + +"Zen eet ees zhenerally accept' by zee scienteest'?" + +"Umm, no," the sandy-haired man relieved the colonel. "There's +absolutely no evidence to support it, and scientists don't accept +unsupported assumptions unless they need them to explain something, and +they don't need this assumption for anything. Well, it would come in +handy to make some of these reports of freak phenomena, like mysterious +appearances and disappearances, or flying-object sightings, or reported +falls of non-meteoric matter, theoretically respectable. Reports like +that usually get the ignore-and-forget treatment, now." + +"Zen you believe zat zeese ozzer world of zee alternate probabeelitay, +zey exist?" + +"No. I don't disbelieve it, either. I've no reason to, one way or +another." He studied his drink for a moment, and lowered the level in +the glass slightly. "I've said that once in a while things get reported +that look as though such other worlds, in another time-dimension, may +exist. There have been whole books published by people who collect +stories like that. I must say that academic science isn't very +hospitable to them." + +"You mean, zings sometimes, 'ow-you-say, leak in from one of zees ozzer +worlds? Zat has been known to 'appen?" + +"Things have been said to have happened that might, if true, be cases of +things leaking through from another time world," the sandy-haired man +corrected. "Or leaking away to another time world." He mentioned a few +of the more famous cases of unexplained mysteries--the English diplomat +in Prussia who vanished in plain sight of a number of people, the ship +found completely deserted by her crew, the lifeboats all in place; +stories like that. "And there's this rash of alleged sightings of +unidentified flying objects. I'd sooner believe that they came from +another dimension than from another planet. But, as far as I know, +nobody's seriously advanced this other-time-dimension theory to explain +them." + +"I think the idea's familiar enough, though, that we can use it as an +explanation, or pseudo-explanation, for the program," the television man +said. "Fact is, we aren't married to this Crossroads title, yet; we +could just as easily all it _Fifth Dimension_. That would lead the +public, to expect something out of the normal before the show started." + + * * * * * + +That got the conversation back onto the show, and we talked for some +time about it, each of us suggesting possibilities. The stranger even +suggested one--that the Civil War had started during the Jackson +Administration. Fortunately, nobody else noticed that. Finally, a porter +came through and inquired if any of us were getting off at Harrisburg, +saying that we would be getting in in five minutes. + +The stranger finished his drink hastily and got up, saying that he would +have to get his luggage. He told us how much he had enjoyed the +conversation, and then followed the porter toward the rear of the train. +After he had gone out, the TV man chuckled. + +"Was that one an oddball!" he exclaimed. "Where the hell do you suppose +he got that suit?" + +"It was a tailored suit," the colonel said. "A very good one. And I +can't think of any country in the world in which they cut suits just +like that. And did you catch his accent?" + +"Phony," the television man pronounced. "The French accent of a Greek +waiter in a fake French restaurant. In the Bronx." + +"Not quite. The pronunciation was all right for French accent, but the +cadence, the way the word-sounds were strung together, was German." + +The elderly man looked at the colonel keenly. "I see you're +Intelligence," he mentioned. "Think he might be somebody up your alley, +Colonel?" + +The colonel shook his head. "I doubt it. There are agents of unfriendly +powers in this country--a lot of them, I'm sorry to have to say. But +they don't speak accented English, and they don't dress eccentrically. +You know there's an enemy agent in a crowd, pick out the most normally +American type in sight and you usually won't have to look further." + +The train ground to a stop. A young couple with hand-luggage came in and +sat at one end of the car, waiting until other accommodations could be +found for them. After a while, it started again. I dallied over my +drink, and then got up and excused myself, saying that I wanted to turn +in early. + +In the next car behind, I met the porter who had come in just before the +stop. He looked worried, and after a moment's hesitation, he spoke to +me. + +"Pardon, sir. The man in the club-car who got off at Harrisburg; did you +know him?" + +"Never saw him before. Why?" + +"He tipped me with a dollar bill when he got off. Later, I looked +closely at it. I do not like it." + +He showed it to me, and I didn't blame him. It was marked _One Dollar_, +and _United States of America_, but outside that there wasn't a thing +right about it. One side was gray, all right, but the other side was +green. The picture wasn't the right one. And there were a lot of other +things about it, some of them absolutely ludicrous. It wasn't +counterfeit--it wasn't even an imitation of a United States bill. + +And then it hit me, like a bullet in the chest. Not a bill of _our_ +United States. No wonder he had been so interested in whether our +scientists accepted the theory of other time dimensions and other worlds +of alternate probability! + +On an impulse, I got out two ones and gave them to the porter--perfectly +good United States Bank gold-certificates. + +"You'd better let me keep this," I said, trying to make it sound the way +he'd think a Federal Agent would say it. He took the bills, smiling, and +I folded his bill and put it into my vest pocket. + +"Thank you, sir," he said. "I have no wish to keep it." + +Some part of my mind below the level of consciousness must have taken +over and guided me back to the right car and compartment; I didn't +realize where I was going till I put on the light and recognized my own +luggage. Then I sat down, as dizzy as though the two drinks I had had, +had been a dozen. For a moment, I was tempted to rush back to the +club-car and show the thing to the colonel and the sandy-haired man. On +second thought, I decided against that. + +The next thing I banished from my mind was the adjective "incredible." I +had to credit it; I had the proof in my vest pocket. The coincidence +arising from our topic of conversation didn't bother me too much, +either. It was the topic which had drawn him into it. And, as the +sandy-haired man had pointed out, we know nothing, one way or another, +about these other worlds; we certainly don't know what barriers separate +them from our own, or how often those barriers may fail. I might have +thought more about that if I'd been in physical science. I wasn't; I was +in American history. So what I thought about was what sort of country +that other United States must be, and what its history must have been. + +The man's costume was basically the same as ours--same general style, +but many little differences of fashion. I had the impression that it was +the costume of a less formal and conservative society than ours and a +more casual way of life. It could be the sort of costume into which ours +would evolve in another thirty or so years. There was another odd thing. +I'd noticed him looking curiously at both the waiter and the porter, as +though something about them surprised him. The only thing they had in +common was their race, the same as every other passenger-car attendant. +But he wasn't used to seeing Chinese working in railway cars. + +And there had been that remark about the Civil War and the Jackson +Administration. I wondered what Jackson he had been talking about; not +Andrew Jackson, the Tennessee militia general who got us into war with +Spain in 1810, I hoped. And the Civil War; that had baffled me +completely. I wondered if it had been a class-war, or a sectional +conflict. We'd had plenty of the latter, during our first century, but +all of them had been settled peacefully and Constitutionally. Well, some +of the things he'd read in Lingmuir's _Social History_ would be +surprises for him, too. + +And then I took the bill out for another examination. It must have +gotten mixed with his spendable money--it was about the size of +ours--and I wondered how he had acquired enough of our money to pay his +train fare. Maybe he'd had a diamond and sold it, or maybe he'd had a +gun and held somebody up. If he had, I didn't know that I blamed him, +under the circumstances. I had an idea that he had some realization of +what had happened to him--the book, and the fake accent, to cover any +mistakes he might make. Well, I wished him luck, and then I unfolded the +dollar bill and looked at it again. + +In the first place, it had been issued by the United States Department +of Treasury itself, not the United States Bank or one of the State +Banks. I'd have to think over the implications of that carefully. In the +second place, it was a silver certificate; why, in this other United +States, silver must be an acceptable monetary metal; maybe equally so +with gold, though I could hardly believe that. Then I looked at the +picture on the gray obverse side, and had to strain my eyes on the fine +print under it to identify it. It was Washington, all right, but a much +older Washington than any of the pictures of him I had ever seen. Then I +realized that I knew just where the Crossroads of Destiny for his world +and mine had been. + +As every schoolchild among us knows, General George Washington was shot +dead at the Battle of Germantown, in 1777, by an English, or, rather, +Scottish, officer, Patrick Ferguson--the same Patrick Ferguson who +invented the breech-loading rifle that smashed Napoleon's armies. +Washington, today, is one of our lesser national heroes, because he was +our first military commander-in-chief. But in this other world, he must +have survived to lead our armies to victory and become our first +President, as was the case with the man who took his place when he was +killed. + +I folded the bill and put it away carefully among my identification +cards, where it wouldn't a second time get mixed with the money I spent, +and as I did, I wondered what sort of a President George Washington had +made, and what part, in the history of that other United States, had +been played by the man whose picture appears on our dollar +bills--General and President Benedict Arnold. + + +THE END. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Crossroads of Destiny, by Henry Beam Piper + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CROSSROADS OF DESTINY *** + +***** This file should be named 18632-8.txt or 18632-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/6/3/18632/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Geetu Melwani and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Beam Piper + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: .75em;} + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5 {text-align: center; clear: both;} + hr { width: 33%;margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; clear: both;} + body{margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .tr { text-align:left; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; + margin-top: 5%; margin-bottom: 5%; padding: 2em; + background-color: #f6f2f2; color: black; border: solid black 1px;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Crossroads of Destiny, by Henry Beam Piper + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Crossroads of Destiny + +Author: Henry Beam Piper + +Release Date: June 20, 2006 [EBook #18632] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CROSSROADS OF DESTINY *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Geetu Melwani and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + + +<p class="tr"> <b>Transcriber's note.</b> +<br />This etext was produced from Fantastic Universe +Science Fiction July 1959. Extensive research did not uncover any +evidence that the copyright on this publication was renewed.</p> + + + +<h1>Crossroads of Destiny</h1> + +<h4>by</h4> + +<h2>H. Beam Piper</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>No wonder he'd been so interested in the talk of whether our +people accepted these theories!</p></div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><i>Readers who remember the Hon. Stephen Silk, diplomat extraordinary, in</i> +<span class="smcap">Lone Star Planet</span> (FU, <i>March 1957</i>), <i>later published as</i> <span class="smcap">A Planet For +Texans</span> <i>(Ace Books), will find the present story a challenging +departure—this possibility that the history we know may not be +absolute....</i></p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> + + + +<h2>CROSSROADS OF DESTINY</h2> + + +<p>I still have the dollar bill. It's in my box at the bank, and I think +that's where it will stay. I simply won't destroy it, but I can think of +nobody to whom I'd be willing to show it—certainly nobody at the +college, my History Department colleagues least of all. Merely to tell +the story would brand me irredeemably as a crackpot, but crackpots are +tolerated, even on college faculties. It's only when they begin +producing physical evidence that they get themselves actively resented.</p> + +<hr style='width: 25%;' /> + +<p>When I went into the club-car for a nightcap before going back to my +compartment to turn in, there were five men there, sitting together.</p> + +<p>One was an Army officer, with the insignia and badges of a Staff +Intelligence colonel. Next to him was a man of about my own age, with +sandy hair and a bony, Scottish looking face, who sat staring silently +into a highball which he held in both hands. Across the aisle, an +elderly man, who could have been a lawyer or a banker, was smoking a +cigar over a glass of port, and beside him sat a plump and slightly too +well groomed individual who had a tall colorless drink, probably +gin-and-tonic. The fifth man, separated from him by a vacant chair, +seemed to be dividing his attention between a book on his lap and the +conversation, in which he was taking no part. I sat down beside the +sandy-haired man; as I did so and rang for the waiter, the colonel was +saying:</p> + +<p>"No, that wouldn't. I can think of a better one. Suppose you have +Columbus get his ships from Henry the Seventh of England and sail under +the English instead of the Spanish flag. You know, he did try to get +English backing, before he went to Spain, but King Henry turned him +down. That could be changed."</p> + +<p>I pricked up my ears. The period from 1492 to the Revolution is my +special field of American history, and I knew, at once, the enormous +difference that would have made. It was a moment later that I realized +how oddly the colonel had expressed the idea, and by that time the plump +man was speaking.</p> + +<p>"Yes, that would work," he agreed. "Those kings made decisions, most of +the time, on whether or not they had a hangover, or what some court +favorite thought." He got out a notebook and pen and scribbled briefly. +"I'll hand that to the planning staff when I get to New York. That's +Henry the Seventh, not Henry the Eighth? Right. We'll fix it so that +Columbus will catch him when he's in a good humor."</p> + +<p>That was too much. I turned to the man beside me.</p> + +<p>"What goes on?" I asked. "Has somebody invented a time machine?"</p> + +<p>He looked up from the drink he was contemplating and gave me a grin.</p> + +<p>"Sounds like it, doesn't it? Why, no; our friend here is getting up a +television program. Tell the gentleman about it," he urged the plump man +across the aisle.</p> + +<p>The waiter arrived at that moment. The plump man, who seemed to need +little urging, waited until I had ordered a drink and then began telling +me what a positively sensational idea it was.</p> + +<p>"We're calling it <i>Crossroads of Destiny</i>," he said. "It'll be a series, +one half-hour show a week; in each episode, we'll take some historic +event and show how history could have been changed if something had +happened differently. We dramatize the event up to that point just as it +really happened, and then a commentary-voice comes on and announces that +this is the Crossroads of Destiny; this is where history could have been +completely changed. Then he gives a resumé of what really did happen, +and then he says, '<i>But</i>—suppose so and so had done this and that, +instead of such and such.' Then we pick up the dramatization at that +point, only we show it the way it might have happened. Like this thing +about Columbus; we'll show how it could have happened, and end with +Columbus wading ashore with his sword in one hand and a flag in the +other, just like the painting, only it'll be the English flag, and +Columbus will shout: 'I take possession of this new land in the name of +His Majesty, Henry the Seventh of England!'" He brandished +his drink, to the visible consternation of the elderly man beside him. +"And then, the sailors all sing <i>God Save the King</i>."</p> + +<p>"Which wasn't written till about 1745," I couldn't help mentioning.</p> + +<p>"Huh?" The plump man looked startled. "Are you sure?" Then he decided +that I was, and shrugged. "Well, they can all shout, 'God Save King +Henry!' or 'St. George for England!' or something. Then, at the end, we +introduce the program guest, some history expert, a real name, and he +tells how he thinks history would have been changed if it had happened +this way."</p> + +<p>The conservatively dressed gentleman beside him wanted to know how long +he expected to keep the show running.</p> + +<p>"The crossroads will give out before long," he added.</p> + +<p>"The sponsor'll give out first," I said. "History is just one damn +crossroads after another." I mentioned, in passing, that I taught the +subject. "Why, since the beginning of this century, we've had enough of +them to keep the show running for a year."</p> + +<p>"We have about twenty already written and ready to produce," the plump +man said comfortably, "and ideas for twice as many that the planning +staff is working on now."</p> + +<p>The elderly man accepted that and took another cautious sip of wine.</p> + +<p>"What I wonder, though, is whether you can really say that history can +be changed."</p> + +<p>"Well, of course—" The television man was taken aback; one always seems +to be when a basic assumption is questioned. "Of course, we only know +what really did happen, but it stands to reason if something had +happened differently, the results would have been different, doesn't +it?"</p> + +<p>"But it seems to me that everything would work out the same in the long +run. There'd be some differences at the time, but over the years +wouldn't they all cancel out?"</p> + +<p>"<i>Non, non, Monsieur!</i>" the man with the book, who had been outside the +conversation until now, told him earnestly. "Make no mistake; 'istoree +can be shange'!"</p> + +<p>I looked at him curiously. The accent sounded French, but it wasn't +quite right. He was some kind of a foreigner, though; I'd swear that he +never bought the clothes he was wearing in this country. The way the +suit fitted, and the cut of it, and the shirt-collar, and the necktie. +The book he was reading was Langmuir's <i>Social History of the American +People</i>—not one of my favorites, a bit too much on the doctrinaire +side, but what a bookshop clerk would give a foreigner looking for +something to explain America.</p> + +<p>"What do you think, Professor?" the plump man was asking me.</p> + +<p>"It would work out the other way. The differences wouldn't cancel out; +they'd accumulate. Say something happened a century ago, to throw a +presidential election the other way. You'd get different people at the +head of the government, opposite lines of policy taken, and eventually +we'd be getting into different wars with different enemies at different +times, and different batches of young men killed before they could marry +and have families—different people being born or not being born. That +would mean different ideas, good or bad, being advanced; different books +written; different inventions, and different social and economic +problems as a consequence."</p> + +<p>"Look, he's only giving himself a century," the colonel added. "Think of +the changes if this thing we were discussing, Columbus sailing under the +English flag, had happened. Or suppose Leif Ericson had been able to +plant a permanent colony in America in the Eleventh Century, or if the +Saracens had won the Battle of Tours. Try to imagine the world today if +any of those things had happened. One thing you can be sure of—any +errors you make in trying to imagine such a world will be on the side of +over-conservatism."</p> + +<p>The sandy-haired man beside me, who had been using his highball for a +crystal ball, must have glimpsed in it what he was looking for. He +finished the drink, set the empty glass on the stand-tray beside him, +and reached back to push the button.</p> + +<p>"I don't think you realize just how good an idea you have, here," he +told the plump man abruptly. "If you did, you wouldn't ruin it with such +timid and unimaginative treatment."</p> + +<p>I thought he'd been staying out of the conversation because it was over +his head. Instead, he had been taking the plump man's idea apart, +examining all the pieces, and considering what was wrong with it and how +it could be improved. The plump man looked startled, and then +angry—timid and unimaginative were the last things he'd expected his +idea to be called. Then he became uneasy. Maybe this fellow was a +typical representative of his lord and master, the faceless abstraction +called the Public.</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Misplaced emphasis. You shouldn't emphasize the event that could have +changed history; you should emphasize the changes that could have been +made. You're going to end this show you were talking about with a shot +of Columbus wading up to the beach with an English flag, aren't you?"</p> + +<p>"Well, that's the logical ending."</p> + +<p>"That's the logical beginning," the sandy-haired man contradicted. "And +after that, your guest historian comes on; how much time will he be +allowed?"</p> + +<p>"Well, maybe three or four minutes. We can't cut the dramatization too +short—"</p> + +<p>"And he'll have to explain, a couple of times, and in words of one +syllable, that what we have seen didn't really happen, because if he +doesn't, the next morning half the twelve-year-old kids in the country +will be rushing wild-eyed into school to slip the teacher the real +inside about the discovery of America. By the time he gets that done, +he'll be able to mumble a couple of generalities about vast and +incalculable effects, and then it'll be time to tell the public about +Widgets, the really safe cigarettes, all filter and absolutely free from +tobacco."</p> + +<p>The waiter arrived at this point, and the sandy-haired man ordered +another rye highball. I decided to have another bourbon on the rocks, +and the TV impresario said, "Gin-and-tonic," absently, and went into a +reverie which lasted until the drinks arrived. Then he came awake again.</p> + +<p>"I see what you mean," he said. "Most of the audience would wonder what +difference it would have made where Columbus would have gotten his +ships, as long as he got them and America got discovered. I can see it +would have made a hell of a big difference. But how could it be handled +any other way? How could you figure out just what the difference would +have been?"</p> + +<p>"Well, you need a man who'd know the historical background, and you'd +need a man with a powerful creative imagination, who is used to using it +inside rigorously defined limits. Don't try to get them both in one; a +collaboration would really be better. Then you work from the known +situation in Europe and in America in 1492, and decide on the immediate +effects. And from that, you have to carry it along, step by step, down +to the present. It would be a lot of hard and very exacting work, but +the result would be worth it." He took a sip from his glass and added: +"Remember, you don't have to prove that the world today would be the way +you set it up. All you have to do is make sure that nobody else would be +able to prove that it wouldn't."</p> + +<p>"Well, how could you present that?"</p> + +<p>"As a play, with fictional characters and a plot; time, the present, +under the changed conditions. The plot—the reason the coward conquers +his fear and becomes a hero, the obstacle to the boy marrying the girl, +the reason the innocent man is being persecuted—will have to grow out +of this imaginary world you've constructed, and be impossible in our +real world. As long as you stick to that, you're all right."</p> + +<p>"Sure. I get that." The plump man was excited again; he was about half +sold on the idea. "But how will we get the audience to accept it? We're +asking them to start with an assumption they know isn't true."</p> + +<p>"Maybe it is, in another time-dimension," the colonel suggested. "You +can't prove it isn't. For that matter, you can't prove there aren't +other time-dimensions."</p> + +<p>"Hah, that's it!" the sandy-haired man exclaimed. "World of alternate +probability. That takes care of that."</p> + +<p>He drank about a third of his highball and sat gazing into the rest of +it, in an almost yogic trance. The plump man looked at the colonel in +bafflement.</p> + +<p>"Maybe this alternate-probability time-dimension stuff means something +to you," he said. "Be damned if it does to me."</p> + +<p>"Well, as far as we know, we live in a four-dimensional universe," the +colonel started.</p> + +<p>The elderly man across from him groaned. "Fourth dimension! Good God, +are we going to talk about that?"</p> + +<p>"It isn't anything to be scared of. You carry an instrument for +measuring in the fourth dimension all the time. A watch."</p> + +<p>"You mean it's just time? But that isn't—"</p> + +<p>"We know of three dimensions of space," the colonel told him, gesturing +to indicate them. "We can use them for coordinates to locate things, but +we also locate things in time. I wouldn't like to ride on a train or a +plane if we didn't. Well, let's call the time we know, the time your +watch registers, Time-A. Now, suppose the entire, infinite extent of +Time-A is only an instant in another dimension of time, which we'll call +Time-B. The next instant of Time-B is also the entire extent of Time-A, +and the next and the next. As in Time-A, different things are happening +at different instants. In one of these instants of Time-B, one of the +things that's happening is that King Henry the Seventh of England is +furnishing ships to Christopher Columbus."</p> + +<p>The man with the odd clothes was getting excited again.</p> + +<p>"Zees—'ow you say—zees alternate probabeelitay; eet ees a theory +zhenerally accept' een zees countree?"</p> + +<p>"Got it!" the sandy-haired man said, before anybody could answer. He set +his drink on the stand-tray and took a big jackknife out of his pocket, +holding it unopened in his hand. "How's this sound?" he asked, and hit +the edge of the tray with the back of the knife, <i>Bong</i>!</p> + +<p>"Crossroads—of—<i>Destiny</i>!" he intoned, and hit the edge of the tray +again, <i>Bong</i>! "This is the year 1959—but not the 1959 of our world, +for we are in a world of alternate probability, in another dimension of +time; a world parallel to and coexistent with but separate from our own, +in which history has been completely altered by a single momentous +event." He shifted back to his normal voice.</p> + +<p>"Not bad; only twenty-five seconds," the plump man said, looking up from +his wrist watch. "And a trained announcer could maybe shave five seconds +off that. Yes, something like that, and at the end we'll have another +thirty seconds, and we can do without the guest."</p> + +<p>"But zees alternate probibeelitay, in anozzer dimension," the stranger +was insisting. "Ees zees a concept original weet you?" he asked the +colonel.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no; that idea's been around for a long time."</p> + +<p>"I never heard of it before now," the elderly man said, as though that +completely demolished it.</p> + +<p>"Zen eet ees zhenerally accept' by zee scienteest'?"</p> + +<p>"Umm, no," the sandy-haired man relieved the colonel. "There's +absolutely no evidence to support it, and scientists don't accept +unsupported assumptions unless they need them to explain something, and +they don't need this assumption for anything. Well, it would come in +handy to make some of these reports of freak phenomena, like mysterious +appearances and disappearances, or flying-object sightings, or reported +falls of non-meteoric matter, theoretically respectable. Reports like +that usually get the ignore-and-forget treatment, now."</p> + +<p>"Zen you believe zat zeese ozzer world of zee alternate probabeelitay, +zey exist?"</p> + +<p>"No. I don't disbelieve it, either. I've no reason to, one way or +another." He studied his drink for a moment, and lowered the level in +the glass slightly. "I've said that once in a while things get reported +that look as though such other worlds, in another time-dimension, may +exist. There have been whole books published by people who collect +stories like that. I must say that academic science isn't very +hospitable to them."</p> + +<p>"You mean, zings sometimes, 'ow-you-say, leak in from one of zees ozzer +worlds? Zat has been known to 'appen?"</p> + +<p>"Things have been said to have happened that might, if true, be cases of +things leaking through from another time world," the sandy-haired man +corrected. "Or leaking away to another time world." He mentioned a few +of the more famous cases of unexplained mysteries—the English diplomat +in Prussia who vanished in plain sight of a number of people, the ship +found completely deserted by her crew, the lifeboats all in place; +stories like that. "And there's this rash of alleged sightings of +unidentified flying objects. I'd sooner believe that they came from +another dimension than from another planet. But, as far as I know, +nobody's seriously advanced this other-time-dimension theory to explain +them."</p> + +<p>"I think the idea's familiar enough, though, that we can use it as an +explanation, or pseudo-explanation, for the program," the television man +said. "Fact is, we aren't married to this Crossroads title, yet; we +could just as easily all it <i>Fifth Dimension</i>. That would lead the +public, to expect something out of the normal before the show started."</p> + +<hr style='width: 25%;' /> + +<p>That got the conversation back onto the show, and we talked for some +time about it, each of us suggesting possibilities. The stranger even +suggested one—that the Civil War had started during the Jackson +Administration. Fortunately, nobody else noticed that. Finally, a porter +came through and inquired if any of us were getting off at Harrisburg, +saying that we would be getting in in five minutes.</p> + +<p>The stranger finished his drink hastily and got up, saying that he would +have to get his luggage. He told us how much he had enjoyed the +conversation, and then followed the porter toward the rear of the train. +After he had gone out, the TV man chuckled.</p> + +<p>"Was that one an oddball!" he exclaimed. "Where the hell do you suppose +he got that suit?"</p> + +<p>"It was a tailored suit," the colonel said. "A very good one. And I +can't think of any country in the world in which they cut suits just +like that. And did you catch his accent?"</p> + +<p>"Phony," the television man pronounced. "The French accent of a Greek +waiter in a fake French restaurant. In the Bronx."</p> + +<p>"Not quite. The pronunciation was all right for French accent, but the +cadence, the way the word-sounds were strung together, was German."</p> + +<p>The elderly man looked at the colonel keenly. "I see you're +Intelligence," he mentioned. "Think he might be somebody up your alley, +Colonel?"</p> + +<p>The colonel shook his head. "I doubt it. There are agents of unfriendly +powers in this country—a lot of them, I'm sorry to have to say. But +they don't speak accented English, and they don't dress eccentrically. +You know there's an enemy agent in a crowd, pick out the most normally +American type in sight and you usually won't have to look further."</p> + +<p>The train ground to a stop. A young couple with hand-luggage came in and +sat at one end of the car, waiting until other accommodations could be +found for them. After a while, it started again. I dallied over my +drink, and then got up and excused myself, saying that I wanted to turn +in early.</p> + +<p>In the next car behind, I met the porter who had come in just before the +stop. He looked worried, and after a moment's hesitation, he spoke to +me.</p> + +<p>"Pardon, sir. The man in the club-car who got off at Harrisburg; did you +know him?"</p> + +<p>"Never saw him before. Why?"</p> + +<p>"He tipped me with a dollar bill when he got off. Later, I looked +closely at it. I do not like it."</p> + +<p>He showed it to me, and I didn't blame him. It was marked <i>One Dollar</i>, +and <i>United States of America</i>, but outside that there wasn't a thing +right about it. One side was gray, all right, but the other side was +green. The picture wasn't the right one. And there were a lot of other +things about it, some of them absolutely ludicrous. It wasn't +counterfeit—it wasn't even an imitation of a United States bill.</p> + +<p>And then it hit me, like a bullet in the chest. Not a bill of <i>our</i> +United States. No wonder he had been so interested in whether our +scientists accepted the theory of other time dimensions and other worlds +of alternate probability!</p> + +<p>On an impulse, I got out two ones and gave them to the porter—perfectly +good United States Bank gold-certificates.</p> + +<p>"You'd better let me keep this," I said, trying to make it sound the way +he'd think a Federal Agent would say it. He took the bills, smiling, and +I folded his bill and put it into my vest pocket.</p> + +<p>"Thank you, sir," he said. "I have no wish to keep it."</p> + +<p>Some part of my mind below the level of consciousness must have taken +over and guided me back to the right car and compartment; I didn't +realize where I was going till I put on the light and recognized my own +luggage. Then I sat down, as dizzy as though the two drinks I had had, +had been a dozen. For a moment, I was tempted to rush back to the +club-car and show the thing to the colonel and the sandy-haired man. On +second thought, I decided against that.</p> + +<p>The next thing I banished from my mind was the adjective "incredible." I +had to credit it; I had the proof in my vest pocket. The coincidence +arising from our topic of conversation didn't bother me too much, +either. It was the topic which had drawn him into it. And, as the +sandy-haired man had pointed out, we know nothing, one way or another, +about these other worlds; we certainly don't know what barriers separate +them from our own, or how often those barriers may fail. I might have +thought more about that if I'd been in physical science. I wasn't; I was +in American history. So what I thought about was what sort of country +that other United States must be, and what its history must have been.</p> + +<p>The man's costume was basically the same as ours—same general style, +but many little differences of fashion. I had the impression that it was +the costume of a less formal and conservative society than ours and a +more casual way of life. It could be the sort of costume into which ours +would evolve in another thirty or so years. There was another odd thing. +I'd noticed him looking curiously at both the waiter and the porter, as +though something about them surprised him. The only thing they had in +common was their race, the same as every other passenger-car attendant. +But he wasn't used to seeing Chinese working in railway cars.</p> + +<p>And there had been that remark about the Civil War and the Jackson +Administration. I wondered what Jackson he had been talking about; not +Andrew Jackson, the Tennessee militia general who got us into war with +Spain in 1810, I hoped. And the Civil War; that had baffled me +completely. I wondered if it had been a class-war, or a sectional +conflict. We'd had plenty of the latter, during our first century, but +all of them had been settled peacefully and Constitutionally. Well, some +of the things he'd read in Lingmuir's <i>Social History</i> would be +surprises for him, too.</p> + +<p>And then I took the bill out for another examination. It must have +gotten mixed with his spendable money—it was about the size of +ours—and I wondered how he had acquired enough of our money to pay his +train fare. Maybe he'd had a diamond and sold it, or maybe he'd had a +gun and held somebody up. If he had, I didn't know that I blamed him, +under the circumstances. I had an idea that he had some realization of +what had happened to him—the book, and the fake accent, to cover any +mistakes he might make. Well, I wished him luck, and then I unfolded the +dollar bill and looked at it again.</p> + +<p>In the first place, it had been issued by the United States Department +of Treasury itself, not the United States Bank or one of the State +Banks. I'd have to think over the implications of that carefully. In the +second place, it was a silver certificate; why, in this other United +States, silver must be an acceptable monetary metal; maybe equally so +with gold, though I could hardly believe that. Then I looked at the +picture on the gray obverse side, and had to strain my eyes on the fine +print under it to identify it. It was Washington, all right, but a much +older Washington than any of the pictures of him I had ever seen. Then I +realized that I knew just where the Crossroads of Destiny for his world +and mine had been.</p> + +<p>As every schoolchild among us knows, General George Washington was shot +dead at the Battle of Germantown, in 1777, by an English, or, rather, +Scottish, officer, Patrick Ferguson—the same Patrick Ferguson who +invented the breech-loading rifle that smashed Napoleon's armies. +Washington, today, is one of our lesser national heroes, because he was +our first military commander-in-chief. But in this other world, he must +have survived to lead our armies to victory and become our first +President, as was the case with the man who took his place when he was +killed.</p> + +<p>I folded the bill and put it away carefully among my identification +cards, where it wouldn't a second time get mixed with the money I spent, +and as I did, I wondered what sort of a President George Washington had +made, and what part, in the history of that other United States, had +been played by the man whose picture appears on our dollar +bills—General and President Benedict Arnold.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h2>THE END.</h2> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Crossroads of Destiny, by Henry Beam Piper + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CROSSROADS OF DESTINY *** + +***** This file should be named 18632-h.htm or 18632-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/6/3/18632/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Geetu Melwani and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Crossroads of Destiny + +Author: Henry Beam Piper + +Release Date: June 20, 2006 [EBook #18632] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CROSSROADS OF DESTINY *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Geetu Melwani and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +Transcriber note: This etext was produced from Fantastic Universe +Science Fiction July 1959. Extensive research did not uncover any +evidence that the copyright on this publication was renewed. + + + + + Crossroads + of + Destiny + + by + + H. Beam Piper + + + No wonder he'd been so interested in the talk of whether our + people accepted these theories! + + + * * * * * + +Readers who remember the Hon. Stephen Silk, diplomat extraordinary, in +LONE STAR PLANET (FU, March 1957), later published as A PLANET FOR +TEXANS (Ace Books), will find the present story a challenging +departure--this possibility that the history we know may not be +absolute.... + + * * * * * + + + + +CROSSROADS OF DESTINY + + +I still have the dollar bill. It's in my box at the bank, and I think +that's where it will stay. I simply won't destroy it, but I can think of +nobody to whom I'd be willing to show it--certainly nobody at the +college, my History Department colleagues least of all. Merely to tell +the story would brand me irredeemably as a crackpot, but crackpots are +tolerated, even on college faculties. It's only when they begin +producing physical evidence that they get themselves actively resented. + + * * * * * + +When I went into the club-car for a nightcap before going back to my +compartment to turn in, there were five men there, sitting together. + +One was an Army officer, with the insignia and badges of a Staff +Intelligence colonel. Next to him was a man of about my own age, with +sandy hair and a bony, Scottish looking face, who sat staring silently +into a highball which he held in both hands. Across the aisle, an +elderly man, who could have been a lawyer or a banker, was smoking a +cigar over a glass of port, and beside him sat a plump and slightly too +well groomed individual who had a tall colorless drink, probably +gin-and-tonic. The fifth man, separated from him by a vacant chair, +seemed to be dividing his attention between a book on his lap and the +conversation, in which he was taking no part. I sat down beside the +sandy-haired man; as I did so and rang for the waiter, the colonel was +saying: + +"No, that wouldn't. I can think of a better one. Suppose you have +Columbus get his ships from Henry the Seventh of England and sail under +the English instead of the Spanish flag. You know, he did try to get +English backing, before he went to Spain, but King Henry turned him +down. That could be changed." + +I pricked up my ears. The period from 1492 to the Revolution is my +special field of American history, and I knew, at once, the enormous +difference that would have made. It was a moment later that I realized +how oddly the colonel had expressed the idea, and by that time the plump +man was speaking. + +"Yes, that would work," he agreed. "Those kings made decisions, most of +the time, on whether or not they had a hangover, or what some court +favorite thought." He got out a notebook and pen and scribbled briefly. +"I'll hand that to the planning staff when I get to New York. That's +Henry the Seventh, not Henry the Eighth? Right. We'll fix it so that +Columbus will catch him when he's in a good humor." + +That was too much. I turned to the man beside me. + +"What goes on?" I asked. "Has somebody invented a time machine?" + +He looked up from the drink he was contemplating and gave me a grin. + +"Sounds like it, doesn't it? Why, no; our friend here is getting up a +television program. Tell the gentleman about it," he urged the plump man +across the aisle. + +The waiter arrived at that moment. The plump man, who seemed to need +little urging, waited until I had ordered a drink and then began telling +me what a positively sensational idea it was. + +"We're calling it _Crossroads of Destiny_," he said. "It'll be a series, +one half-hour show a week; in each episode, we'll take some historic +event and show how history could have been changed if something had +happened differently. We dramatize the event up to that point just as it +really happened, and then a commentary-voice comes on and announces that +this is the Crossroads of Destiny; this is where history could have been +completely changed. Then he gives a resume of what really did happen, +and then he says, '_But_--suppose so and so had done this and that, +instead of such and such.' Then we pick up the dramatization at that +point, only we show it the way it might have happened. Like this thing +about Columbus; we'll show how it could have happened, and end with +Columbus wading ashore with his sword in one hand and a flag in the +other, just like the painting, only it'll be the English flag, and +Columbus will shout: 'I take possession of this new land in the name of +His Majesty, Henry the Seventh of England!'" He brandished +his drink, to the visible consternation of the elderly man beside him. +"And then, the sailors all sing _God Save the King_." + +"Which wasn't written till about 1745," I couldn't help mentioning. + +"Huh?" The plump man looked startled. "Are you sure?" Then he decided +that I was, and shrugged. "Well, they can all shout, 'God Save King +Henry!' or 'St. George for England!' or something. Then, at the end, we +introduce the program guest, some history expert, a real name, and he +tells how he thinks history would have been changed if it had happened +this way." + +The conservatively dressed gentleman beside him wanted to know how long +he expected to keep the show running. + +"The crossroads will give out before long," he added. + +"The sponsor'll give out first," I said. "History is just one damn +crossroads after another." I mentioned, in passing, that I taught the +subject. "Why, since the beginning of this century, we've had enough of +them to keep the show running for a year." + +"We have about twenty already written and ready to produce," the plump +man said comfortably, "and ideas for twice as many that the planning +staff is working on now." + +The elderly man accepted that and took another cautious sip of wine. + +"What I wonder, though, is whether you can really say that history can +be changed." + +"Well, of course--" The television man was taken aback; one always seems +to be when a basic assumption is questioned. "Of course, we only know +what really did happen, but it stands to reason if something had +happened differently, the results would have been different, doesn't +it?" + +"But it seems to me that everything would work out the same in the long +run. There'd be some differences at the time, but over the years +wouldn't they all cancel out?" + +"_Non, non, Monsieur!_" the man with the book, who had been outside the +conversation until now, told him earnestly. "Make no mistake; 'istoree +can be shange'!" + +I looked at him curiously. The accent sounded French, but it wasn't +quite right. He was some kind of a foreigner, though; I'd swear that he +never bought the clothes he was wearing in this country. The way the +suit fitted, and the cut of it, and the shirt-collar, and the necktie. +The book he was reading was Langmuir's _Social History of the American +People_--not one of my favorites, a bit too much on the doctrinaire +side, but what a bookshop clerk would give a foreigner looking for +something to explain America. + +"What do you think, Professor?" the plump man was asking me. + +"It would work out the other way. The differences wouldn't cancel out; +they'd accumulate. Say something happened a century ago, to throw a +presidential election the other way. You'd get different people at the +head of the government, opposite lines of policy taken, and eventually +we'd be getting into different wars with different enemies at different +times, and different batches of young men killed before they could marry +and have families--different people being born or not being born. That +would mean different ideas, good or bad, being advanced; different books +written; different inventions, and different social and economic +problems as a consequence." + +"Look, he's only giving himself a century," the colonel added. "Think of +the changes if this thing we were discussing, Columbus sailing under the +English flag, had happened. Or suppose Leif Ericson had been able to +plant a permanent colony in America in the Eleventh Century, or if the +Saracens had won the Battle of Tours. Try to imagine the world today if +any of those things had happened. One thing you can be sure of--any +errors you make in trying to imagine such a world will be on the side of +over-conservatism." + +The sandy-haired man beside me, who had been using his highball for a +crystal ball, must have glimpsed in it what he was looking for. He +finished the drink, set the empty glass on the stand-tray beside him, +and reached back to push the button. + +"I don't think you realize just how good an idea you have, here," he +told the plump man abruptly. "If you did, you wouldn't ruin it with such +timid and unimaginative treatment." + +I thought he'd been staying out of the conversation because it was over +his head. Instead, he had been taking the plump man's idea apart, +examining all the pieces, and considering what was wrong with it and how +it could be improved. The plump man looked startled, and then +angry--timid and unimaginative were the last things he'd expected his +idea to be called. Then he became uneasy. Maybe this fellow was a +typical representative of his lord and master, the faceless abstraction +called the Public. + +"What do you mean?" he asked. + +"Misplaced emphasis. You shouldn't emphasize the event that could have +changed history; you should emphasize the changes that could have been +made. You're going to end this show you were talking about with a shot +of Columbus wading up to the beach with an English flag, aren't you?" + +"Well, that's the logical ending." + +"That's the logical beginning," the sandy-haired man contradicted. "And +after that, your guest historian comes on; how much time will he be +allowed?" + +"Well, maybe three or four minutes. We can't cut the dramatization too +short--" + +"And he'll have to explain, a couple of times, and in words of one +syllable, that what we have seen didn't really happen, because if he +doesn't, the next morning half the twelve-year-old kids in the country +will be rushing wild-eyed into school to slip the teacher the real +inside about the discovery of America. By the time he gets that done, +he'll be able to mumble a couple of generalities about vast and +incalculable effects, and then it'll be time to tell the public about +Widgets, the really safe cigarettes, all filter and absolutely free from +tobacco." + +The waiter arrived at this point, and the sandy-haired man ordered +another rye highball. I decided to have another bourbon on the rocks, +and the TV impresario said, "Gin-and-tonic," absently, and went into a +reverie which lasted until the drinks arrived. Then he came awake again. + +"I see what you mean," he said. "Most of the audience would wonder what +difference it would have made where Columbus would have gotten his +ships, as long as he got them and America got discovered. I can see it +would have made a hell of a big difference. But how could it be handled +any other way? How could you figure out just what the difference would +have been?" + +"Well, you need a man who'd know the historical background, and you'd +need a man with a powerful creative imagination, who is used to using it +inside rigorously defined limits. Don't try to get them both in one; a +collaboration would really be better. Then you work from the known +situation in Europe and in America in 1492, and decide on the immediate +effects. And from that, you have to carry it along, step by step, down +to the present. It would be a lot of hard and very exacting work, but +the result would be worth it." He took a sip from his glass and added: +"Remember, you don't have to prove that the world today would be the way +you set it up. All you have to do is make sure that nobody else would be +able to prove that it wouldn't." + +"Well, how could you present that?" + +"As a play, with fictional characters and a plot; time, the present, +under the changed conditions. The plot--the reason the coward conquers +his fear and becomes a hero, the obstacle to the boy marrying the girl, +the reason the innocent man is being persecuted--will have to grow out +of this imaginary world you've constructed, and be impossible in our +real world. As long as you stick to that, you're all right." + +"Sure. I get that." The plump man was excited again; he was about half +sold on the idea. "But how will we get the audience to accept it? We're +asking them to start with an assumption they know isn't true." + +"Maybe it is, in another time-dimension," the colonel suggested. "You +can't prove it isn't. For that matter, you can't prove there aren't +other time-dimensions." + +"Hah, that's it!" the sandy-haired man exclaimed. "World of alternate +probability. That takes care of that." + +He drank about a third of his highball and sat gazing into the rest of +it, in an almost yogic trance. The plump man looked at the colonel in +bafflement. + +"Maybe this alternate-probability time-dimension stuff means something +to you," he said. "Be damned if it does to me." + +"Well, as far as we know, we live in a four-dimensional universe," the +colonel started. + +The elderly man across from him groaned. "Fourth dimension! Good God, +are we going to talk about that?" + +"It isn't anything to be scared of. You carry an instrument for +measuring in the fourth dimension all the time. A watch." + +"You mean it's just time? But that isn't--" + +"We know of three dimensions of space," the colonel told him, gesturing +to indicate them. "We can use them for coordinates to locate things, but +we also locate things in time. I wouldn't like to ride on a train or a +plane if we didn't. Well, let's call the time we know, the time your +watch registers, Time-A. Now, suppose the entire, infinite extent of +Time-A is only an instant in another dimension of time, which we'll call +Time-B. The next instant of Time-B is also the entire extent of Time-A, +and the next and the next. As in Time-A, different things are happening +at different instants. In one of these instants of Time-B, one of the +things that's happening is that King Henry the Seventh of England is +furnishing ships to Christopher Columbus." + +The man with the odd clothes was getting excited again. + +"Zees--'ow you say--zees alternate probabeelitay; eet ees a theory +zhenerally accept' een zees countree?" + +"Got it!" the sandy-haired man said, before anybody could answer. He set +his drink on the stand-tray and took a big jackknife out of his pocket, +holding it unopened in his hand. "How's this sound?" he asked, and hit +the edge of the tray with the back of the knife, _Bong_! + +"Crossroads--of--_Destiny_!" he intoned, and hit the edge of the tray +again, _Bong_! "This is the year 1959--but not the 1959 of our world, +for we are in a world of alternate probability, in another dimension of +time; a world parallel to and coexistent with but separate from our own, +in which history has been completely altered by a single momentous +event." He shifted back to his normal voice. + +"Not bad; only twenty-five seconds," the plump man said, looking up from +his wrist watch. "And a trained announcer could maybe shave five seconds +off that. Yes, something like that, and at the end we'll have another +thirty seconds, and we can do without the guest." + +"But zees alternate probibeelitay, in anozzer dimension," the stranger +was insisting. "Ees zees a concept original weet you?" he asked the +colonel. + +"Oh, no; that idea's been around for a long time." + +"I never heard of it before now," the elderly man said, as though that +completely demolished it. + +"Zen eet ees zhenerally accept' by zee scienteest'?" + +"Umm, no," the sandy-haired man relieved the colonel. "There's +absolutely no evidence to support it, and scientists don't accept +unsupported assumptions unless they need them to explain something, and +they don't need this assumption for anything. Well, it would come in +handy to make some of these reports of freak phenomena, like mysterious +appearances and disappearances, or flying-object sightings, or reported +falls of non-meteoric matter, theoretically respectable. Reports like +that usually get the ignore-and-forget treatment, now." + +"Zen you believe zat zeese ozzer world of zee alternate probabeelitay, +zey exist?" + +"No. I don't disbelieve it, either. I've no reason to, one way or +another." He studied his drink for a moment, and lowered the level in +the glass slightly. "I've said that once in a while things get reported +that look as though such other worlds, in another time-dimension, may +exist. There have been whole books published by people who collect +stories like that. I must say that academic science isn't very +hospitable to them." + +"You mean, zings sometimes, 'ow-you-say, leak in from one of zees ozzer +worlds? Zat has been known to 'appen?" + +"Things have been said to have happened that might, if true, be cases of +things leaking through from another time world," the sandy-haired man +corrected. "Or leaking away to another time world." He mentioned a few +of the more famous cases of unexplained mysteries--the English diplomat +in Prussia who vanished in plain sight of a number of people, the ship +found completely deserted by her crew, the lifeboats all in place; +stories like that. "And there's this rash of alleged sightings of +unidentified flying objects. I'd sooner believe that they came from +another dimension than from another planet. But, as far as I know, +nobody's seriously advanced this other-time-dimension theory to explain +them." + +"I think the idea's familiar enough, though, that we can use it as an +explanation, or pseudo-explanation, for the program," the television man +said. "Fact is, we aren't married to this Crossroads title, yet; we +could just as easily all it _Fifth Dimension_. That would lead the +public, to expect something out of the normal before the show started." + + * * * * * + +That got the conversation back onto the show, and we talked for some +time about it, each of us suggesting possibilities. The stranger even +suggested one--that the Civil War had started during the Jackson +Administration. Fortunately, nobody else noticed that. Finally, a porter +came through and inquired if any of us were getting off at Harrisburg, +saying that we would be getting in in five minutes. + +The stranger finished his drink hastily and got up, saying that he would +have to get his luggage. He told us how much he had enjoyed the +conversation, and then followed the porter toward the rear of the train. +After he had gone out, the TV man chuckled. + +"Was that one an oddball!" he exclaimed. "Where the hell do you suppose +he got that suit?" + +"It was a tailored suit," the colonel said. "A very good one. And I +can't think of any country in the world in which they cut suits just +like that. And did you catch his accent?" + +"Phony," the television man pronounced. "The French accent of a Greek +waiter in a fake French restaurant. In the Bronx." + +"Not quite. The pronunciation was all right for French accent, but the +cadence, the way the word-sounds were strung together, was German." + +The elderly man looked at the colonel keenly. "I see you're +Intelligence," he mentioned. "Think he might be somebody up your alley, +Colonel?" + +The colonel shook his head. "I doubt it. There are agents of unfriendly +powers in this country--a lot of them, I'm sorry to have to say. But +they don't speak accented English, and they don't dress eccentrically. +You know there's an enemy agent in a crowd, pick out the most normally +American type in sight and you usually won't have to look further." + +The train ground to a stop. A young couple with hand-luggage came in and +sat at one end of the car, waiting until other accommodations could be +found for them. After a while, it started again. I dallied over my +drink, and then got up and excused myself, saying that I wanted to turn +in early. + +In the next car behind, I met the porter who had come in just before the +stop. He looked worried, and after a moment's hesitation, he spoke to +me. + +"Pardon, sir. The man in the club-car who got off at Harrisburg; did you +know him?" + +"Never saw him before. Why?" + +"He tipped me with a dollar bill when he got off. Later, I looked +closely at it. I do not like it." + +He showed it to me, and I didn't blame him. It was marked _One Dollar_, +and _United States of America_, but outside that there wasn't a thing +right about it. One side was gray, all right, but the other side was +green. The picture wasn't the right one. And there were a lot of other +things about it, some of them absolutely ludicrous. It wasn't +counterfeit--it wasn't even an imitation of a United States bill. + +And then it hit me, like a bullet in the chest. Not a bill of _our_ +United States. No wonder he had been so interested in whether our +scientists accepted the theory of other time dimensions and other worlds +of alternate probability! + +On an impulse, I got out two ones and gave them to the porter--perfectly +good United States Bank gold-certificates. + +"You'd better let me keep this," I said, trying to make it sound the way +he'd think a Federal Agent would say it. He took the bills, smiling, and +I folded his bill and put it into my vest pocket. + +"Thank you, sir," he said. "I have no wish to keep it." + +Some part of my mind below the level of consciousness must have taken +over and guided me back to the right car and compartment; I didn't +realize where I was going till I put on the light and recognized my own +luggage. Then I sat down, as dizzy as though the two drinks I had had, +had been a dozen. For a moment, I was tempted to rush back to the +club-car and show the thing to the colonel and the sandy-haired man. On +second thought, I decided against that. + +The next thing I banished from my mind was the adjective "incredible." I +had to credit it; I had the proof in my vest pocket. The coincidence +arising from our topic of conversation didn't bother me too much, +either. It was the topic which had drawn him into it. And, as the +sandy-haired man had pointed out, we know nothing, one way or another, +about these other worlds; we certainly don't know what barriers separate +them from our own, or how often those barriers may fail. I might have +thought more about that if I'd been in physical science. I wasn't; I was +in American history. So what I thought about was what sort of country +that other United States must be, and what its history must have been. + +The man's costume was basically the same as ours--same general style, +but many little differences of fashion. I had the impression that it was +the costume of a less formal and conservative society than ours and a +more casual way of life. It could be the sort of costume into which ours +would evolve in another thirty or so years. There was another odd thing. +I'd noticed him looking curiously at both the waiter and the porter, as +though something about them surprised him. The only thing they had in +common was their race, the same as every other passenger-car attendant. +But he wasn't used to seeing Chinese working in railway cars. + +And there had been that remark about the Civil War and the Jackson +Administration. I wondered what Jackson he had been talking about; not +Andrew Jackson, the Tennessee militia general who got us into war with +Spain in 1810, I hoped. And the Civil War; that had baffled me +completely. I wondered if it had been a class-war, or a sectional +conflict. We'd had plenty of the latter, during our first century, but +all of them had been settled peacefully and Constitutionally. Well, some +of the things he'd read in Lingmuir's _Social History_ would be +surprises for him, too. + +And then I took the bill out for another examination. It must have +gotten mixed with his spendable money--it was about the size of +ours--and I wondered how he had acquired enough of our money to pay his +train fare. Maybe he'd had a diamond and sold it, or maybe he'd had a +gun and held somebody up. If he had, I didn't know that I blamed him, +under the circumstances. I had an idea that he had some realization of +what had happened to him--the book, and the fake accent, to cover any +mistakes he might make. Well, I wished him luck, and then I unfolded the +dollar bill and looked at it again. + +In the first place, it had been issued by the United States Department +of Treasury itself, not the United States Bank or one of the State +Banks. I'd have to think over the implications of that carefully. In the +second place, it was a silver certificate; why, in this other United +States, silver must be an acceptable monetary metal; maybe equally so +with gold, though I could hardly believe that. Then I looked at the +picture on the gray obverse side, and had to strain my eyes on the fine +print under it to identify it. It was Washington, all right, but a much +older Washington than any of the pictures of him I had ever seen. Then I +realized that I knew just where the Crossroads of Destiny for his world +and mine had been. + +As every schoolchild among us knows, General George Washington was shot +dead at the Battle of Germantown, in 1777, by an English, or, rather, +Scottish, officer, Patrick Ferguson--the same Patrick Ferguson who +invented the breech-loading rifle that smashed Napoleon's armies. +Washington, today, is one of our lesser national heroes, because he was +our first military commander-in-chief. But in this other world, he must +have survived to lead our armies to victory and become our first +President, as was the case with the man who took his place when he was +killed. + +I folded the bill and put it away carefully among my identification +cards, where it wouldn't a second time get mixed with the money I spent, +and as I did, I wondered what sort of a President George Washington had +made, and what part, in the history of that other United States, had +been played by the man whose picture appears on our dollar +bills--General and President Benedict Arnold. + + +THE END. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Crossroads of Destiny, by Henry Beam Piper + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CROSSROADS OF DESTINY *** + +***** This file should be named 18632.txt or 18632.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/6/3/18632/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Geetu Melwani and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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