Post by redsycorax on Jun 9, 2019 23:17:29 GMT
Earth-805 is a world whose lingua franca is literally French. On this world, history diverged from the datum in 1805, when the victorious French Imperial Navy of Napoleon Bonaparte routed the English and their allies at the Battle of Trafalgar, moved to invade and occupy England and place the doddering Cardinal Henry of York on the throne as the short-lived Henry IX before his death five years later in 1810. Thereafter, Bonaparte's descendants ruled. In 1812, they invaded and subjugated the Tsarist Russian Empire. In 1815, a vast armada sailed across the Atlantic and reclaimed Quebec and Louisiana, while conquering the weak British settlements in Canada and the fledgeling eastern coastal United States. Over time, Napoleon's successors became more prudent and humane and human rights, civil liberties and democratic institutions returned to the French Empire. In 1938, Krypton-805 disintegrated into radioactive debris, and Kal-El of Krypton (and later, Kara Zor-El of Argo City, on a surviving fragment) were sent to that iteration of Earth. In a familiar twist, Kal-El's starship landed in rural France, where he was raised by the Lebruns, a kindly French professional couple, and became his world's greatest champion, Suprehomme. Two decades later, Kara Zor-El arrived and became Suprefille. Because Bruce Wayne's ancestors died defending the fledgeling United States from Napoleonic invasion, there was no Wayne family or Batman on this world and the same was true when it came to Lex Luthor. When Princess Diana left Themiscyra, she adopted the soubriquet Marianne, in honour of her adopted country. Bartolemeu Alain became Velocitie after a certain chemical accident gifted him with superspeed. Henri Jourdain, an Imperial Air Force figher pilot, became Green Lantern. In view of concerns about the rapid technological development of Earth-805, neither Rann-805 nor Thanagar-805 made their existence known and prepared defences before the day that first contacts became inevitable.
Suprehomme soared above the streets of sprawling Paris, megalopolis that it was, and reflected on his recent experiences. It had been instructive to establish the alternate universe colony on Earth 964, he acknowledged, and to glimpse what the world would have been like without the advent of Napoleon's global empire, and the survival of the arrogant, insular British ascendancy. Granted, the Empire did have its problems and he had been present to deal with many of them. He refused to aid the government in its 'pacification' exercises in Algeria and Vietnam, although he was forbidden from direct intervention on behalf of those tortured and slaughtered by their security forces. That was left to his friend Hibou Sentinelle, who was an independent operator who worked against the less accountable agencies of the Empire. And neither Suprehomme. Suprefille, Lanterne Verte or Marianne had particularly liked either Napoleon V and his Prime Minister Charles de Gaulle. There were instances that he had been proud to intervene against, particularly those against anti-Semitic pogroms within the German territories within the Empire, which that scion of the dynasty had ignored and condoned through his shameful silence in the forties. Thankfully, his daughter, Empress Pauline Napoleon VI had been a vocal critic of her father and when she succeeded him, she made sure the Empire presided over liberal reforms and technological development. Independent labour unions, decriminalisation of abortion and prostitution, abolition of corporal punishment all followed, as did legislative safeguards for Jews, Romani and Sinti, African and Asian immigrants, homosexuals and lesbians and many other formerly embattled minorities, as well as womens rights. Disease was conquered, poverty was abolished, and education and healthcare were free and universal. It shocked him that HIV/AIDS had not been treated as a government priority and a vaccine promptly developed, for instance.
To be sure, he had had a more rugged time of it in the fifties due to the restlessness in the Imperial province of Prussia, with villains such as ganglord Mackie Messner ("Mack Le Couteau"), the serial killer M who had preyed on small children, and worst of all, the corrupted scientific genius Dr Mabuse, as well as the mesmerist Dr Caligari and his pawn Cesare. But that was all in the past. As time had gone on, his villains grew more challenging and technologically sophisticated, and the minor note ones, such as L'Homme Jouet and Le Farceur had retired, died in prison, reformed or simply faded from his life. And then came the sixties, and the era of long-delayed reforms, and new challenges from the likes of the sinister AI Alpha 60 and his captives in the secluded city of Alphaville, or the other renegade AI of the same era, Colossus, in the United North American Provinces of the Empire. Dr Etrangeramor presided over a redoubt in the Mounts de Cheyenne, and launched a fusillade of nuclear weapons at Paris, Londres, Roma and the other major European Imperial cities. Together, Suprehomme and Suprefille had intercepted the abortive missiles and insured their detonation in the soundless void of space. But then the era of turmoil passed, as the Empire colonised the Moon, then Mars, then Jupiter's Galilean satellites, then those around Saturn. On Europa and Enceladus, primitive unicellular life was found, but that was the only visible sign of alternative life in the solar system. In 2011, the Dawnbreaker satellite was sent out to Alpha Centauri's solar system. By 2019, it was sending back images of the worlds of Alpha Centauri A and B's ecosphere- Sfar, Hebos and Rann. Which ended all doubt- humanity was not alone in the cosmos, apart from the vanished Kryptonian civilisation that had sent Suprehomme and Suprefille to Earth.
And then, in the eighties, tragedy had struck as Suprefille's former lover Ricard Melverne had perished from cancer despite all her efforts to save him. Marianne went through a period of similar self-doubt as her own love, Marechal Stefan Trevoire was gunned down by Groud, a rebel simian from La Citie des Gorilles, a stronghold of metasapient apes that Velocitie had discovered and kept from the French Empire's scrutiny. When its existence was discovered, Velocitie fled offworld, into Earth's future, where his wife Irae was already waiting in the thirtieth century. Lanterne Verte was increasingly offworld as the Guardians hold on their interstellar police force began to corrode and Thanagar became an ascendant interstellar power. After that, the Rann-Thanagar War began and Earth declared a nervous neutrality as its vessels travelled further into the darkness of interstellar space- Sirius, Barnard's Star, Epsilon Indi, Epsilon Eridani. At the same time, scientific discoveries began to increase human longevity and eradicate even the most intractable infectious and non-communicable diseases. With natural disasters eliminated through geoengineering, Earth became a verdant, utopian paradise. And one day, Suprefemme (as she now was) talked to her cousin Claude and asked him where metahumaines had any place within an advanced civilisation such as this any longer. Marianne had long since concluded that they did not, and that given universal gender equality, her mission in Le Monde de Patriarches was drawing to a close, leading her to return to Themiscyrie.
One day, Suprefille met Suprehomme and told him that she intended to emigrate to the Kryptonian colony world of Rocine and that Earth had outgrown its Kryptonian metahumans. As he watched her go, Suprehomme pondered whether he also had any future on Earth-805. Its advanced technologies made his rescue activities superfluous. He visited his long-time lover Laurel Laine at Paris' Liberation newspaper and they spent the night talking about the future. Laurel offered to accompany him, even if he left Earth forever. Her parents and sister had long since passed away. And thus it was, that, given farewell by the inhabitants of his former adopted world, Suprehomme and Laurel Laine began their journey away into interstellar space, where they sought out worlds that still required an altruistic metahuman. Over the centuries and millenia to come, Earth's interstellar explorers found ample evidence of his benign intervention and deep humanity and compassion for the victims of tragedy and oppression, as well as those of his descendants, for time immemorial.
THE END
Suprehomme soared above the streets of sprawling Paris, megalopolis that it was, and reflected on his recent experiences. It had been instructive to establish the alternate universe colony on Earth 964, he acknowledged, and to glimpse what the world would have been like without the advent of Napoleon's global empire, and the survival of the arrogant, insular British ascendancy. Granted, the Empire did have its problems and he had been present to deal with many of them. He refused to aid the government in its 'pacification' exercises in Algeria and Vietnam, although he was forbidden from direct intervention on behalf of those tortured and slaughtered by their security forces. That was left to his friend Hibou Sentinelle, who was an independent operator who worked against the less accountable agencies of the Empire. And neither Suprehomme. Suprefille, Lanterne Verte or Marianne had particularly liked either Napoleon V and his Prime Minister Charles de Gaulle. There were instances that he had been proud to intervene against, particularly those against anti-Semitic pogroms within the German territories within the Empire, which that scion of the dynasty had ignored and condoned through his shameful silence in the forties. Thankfully, his daughter, Empress Pauline Napoleon VI had been a vocal critic of her father and when she succeeded him, she made sure the Empire presided over liberal reforms and technological development. Independent labour unions, decriminalisation of abortion and prostitution, abolition of corporal punishment all followed, as did legislative safeguards for Jews, Romani and Sinti, African and Asian immigrants, homosexuals and lesbians and many other formerly embattled minorities, as well as womens rights. Disease was conquered, poverty was abolished, and education and healthcare were free and universal. It shocked him that HIV/AIDS had not been treated as a government priority and a vaccine promptly developed, for instance.
To be sure, he had had a more rugged time of it in the fifties due to the restlessness in the Imperial province of Prussia, with villains such as ganglord Mackie Messner ("Mack Le Couteau"), the serial killer M who had preyed on small children, and worst of all, the corrupted scientific genius Dr Mabuse, as well as the mesmerist Dr Caligari and his pawn Cesare. But that was all in the past. As time had gone on, his villains grew more challenging and technologically sophisticated, and the minor note ones, such as L'Homme Jouet and Le Farceur had retired, died in prison, reformed or simply faded from his life. And then came the sixties, and the era of long-delayed reforms, and new challenges from the likes of the sinister AI Alpha 60 and his captives in the secluded city of Alphaville, or the other renegade AI of the same era, Colossus, in the United North American Provinces of the Empire. Dr Etrangeramor presided over a redoubt in the Mounts de Cheyenne, and launched a fusillade of nuclear weapons at Paris, Londres, Roma and the other major European Imperial cities. Together, Suprehomme and Suprefille had intercepted the abortive missiles and insured their detonation in the soundless void of space. But then the era of turmoil passed, as the Empire colonised the Moon, then Mars, then Jupiter's Galilean satellites, then those around Saturn. On Europa and Enceladus, primitive unicellular life was found, but that was the only visible sign of alternative life in the solar system. In 2011, the Dawnbreaker satellite was sent out to Alpha Centauri's solar system. By 2019, it was sending back images of the worlds of Alpha Centauri A and B's ecosphere- Sfar, Hebos and Rann. Which ended all doubt- humanity was not alone in the cosmos, apart from the vanished Kryptonian civilisation that had sent Suprehomme and Suprefille to Earth.
And then, in the eighties, tragedy had struck as Suprefille's former lover Ricard Melverne had perished from cancer despite all her efforts to save him. Marianne went through a period of similar self-doubt as her own love, Marechal Stefan Trevoire was gunned down by Groud, a rebel simian from La Citie des Gorilles, a stronghold of metasapient apes that Velocitie had discovered and kept from the French Empire's scrutiny. When its existence was discovered, Velocitie fled offworld, into Earth's future, where his wife Irae was already waiting in the thirtieth century. Lanterne Verte was increasingly offworld as the Guardians hold on their interstellar police force began to corrode and Thanagar became an ascendant interstellar power. After that, the Rann-Thanagar War began and Earth declared a nervous neutrality as its vessels travelled further into the darkness of interstellar space- Sirius, Barnard's Star, Epsilon Indi, Epsilon Eridani. At the same time, scientific discoveries began to increase human longevity and eradicate even the most intractable infectious and non-communicable diseases. With natural disasters eliminated through geoengineering, Earth became a verdant, utopian paradise. And one day, Suprefemme (as she now was) talked to her cousin Claude and asked him where metahumaines had any place within an advanced civilisation such as this any longer. Marianne had long since concluded that they did not, and that given universal gender equality, her mission in Le Monde de Patriarches was drawing to a close, leading her to return to Themiscyrie.
One day, Suprefille met Suprehomme and told him that she intended to emigrate to the Kryptonian colony world of Rocine and that Earth had outgrown its Kryptonian metahumans. As he watched her go, Suprehomme pondered whether he also had any future on Earth-805. Its advanced technologies made his rescue activities superfluous. He visited his long-time lover Laurel Laine at Paris' Liberation newspaper and they spent the night talking about the future. Laurel offered to accompany him, even if he left Earth forever. Her parents and sister had long since passed away. And thus it was, that, given farewell by the inhabitants of his former adopted world, Suprehomme and Laurel Laine began their journey away into interstellar space, where they sought out worlds that still required an altruistic metahuman. Over the centuries and millenia to come, Earth's interstellar explorers found ample evidence of his benign intervention and deep humanity and compassion for the victims of tragedy and oppression, as well as those of his descendants, for time immemorial.
THE END