[GZG] {GZG Fiction] On This Day

On This Day...

I've always enjoyed the "This Day In History" columns. It was always the best
part of each morning with my Granddad. He'd download the dailies, and then
with tea in hand he'd go through the headlines, Dad would grab the financial
section and I'd head straight for "This Day In History". Maybe that's why I
chose to do a BA in history. Not that I graduated. Xenowar saw to that. I
joined up, along with most of my class, back in '86 after we saw what was left
of the miners caught up in the Lagos IV raid.

Now looking at my "This Day In History" file has become the morning ritual I
peg my sanity on. It is so easy for one day to flow into the next, for time to
blend and dissolve without markers to hold your reference firm.

Each morning we are shaken awake by the man returning from the dawn watch. We
drag ourselves from the cots in our silver lined tents and wander to the fire
to look for coffee. We shave in shared metal balls or chipped mugs using
slivers of polished metal or the odd precious mirror. The luckiest even have
ones that are unbroken. After that there is a breakfast of sorts, typically
some form of cereal, usually dry or with white water that the ration board
think passes for milk. Then last thing before the day's work begins we
disperse to carry out our morning rituals. Some bring out prayer mats and bow
to their Lords; some record journal entries, either to ease their consciences
or so no detail is missed when they publish their memoirs; others add yet
another post script to the message they are sending home; and I pick up the
tea that has been carefully steeping, take the first sweet sip and then pull
out my trusty field sheet and call up "This Day In History". It is like a
moment of sweet delight, like good, cleansing meditation.

Today is December 17.

First I test myself. Sitting very still I close my eyes and ears to the
torrent of activity around me. I try to remember for myself what things of
importance happened this day. I have a shocking memory however and inevitably
I get only a handful of the most memorable.

So let's see what today's greatest hits were...

0283 - St Gaius begins his reign as Catholic Pope
1187 - Gregory VIII the Italian Pope dies

Seems you only got remembered in the far past if you were a Pope. Well you
have to admit they had connections in high places.

1526 - Pope Clemens VII publishes degree Cum ad zero and forms the
Inquisition

Nice. Now that was a party to be remembered. I've got a shiver down my spine
just thinking about it.

1538 - Pope Paul III excommunicated England's King Henry VIII

If sex and religion are two tinderboxes of human society, then when they're
combined you can only get a blazing inferno right?

1572  - Spanish army begins fires in Haarlem Netherlands
1718 - England declares war on Spain

And now we hit humanities big sticker item number three. War.

1770 - Johann Friedrich Schubert composer

Finally a hint of class.

1777 - France recognizes independence of English colonies in America

Anglo-French relations, boy have they bounced around over the centuries.
Talk about a love-hate relationship.

1832 - HMS Beagle with Charles Darwin aboard sails through Strait Le
Maire

Now there was a man of the moment. I wonder if he would have been astounded to
know his ideas were a topic of hot debate for over two hundred years. Talk
about dominate a conversation.

1843 - Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" was first published.

And all those how weren't caught up arguing evolution seemed to have been
making their own interpretations of this little gem. What was the last one I
saw? Oh that's right that horrendous attempt by the Respect Alien Intelligence
to redo it based around human treatment of extraterrestrials. Wonder how many
of those stupid buggers are still alive.

1874 - Lord William Lyon Mackenzie King, 10th Canadian PM, was born

Little national governments. Now that is a blast from the past. I can
still remember the beautiful honey blonde who tutored En-Solar political
history. God was she good looking. I would have happily flunked that class
just to get more time with her. Speaking of which, record personal note: "Post
a reply to LatRS195 on the democracy debate. His arguments about it being a
marvel we survived the nationalistic phase are bogus. We're still in it. The
sizes have just expanded as technology has increased societies' critical
length scale." Record over.

1881 - Aubrey Faulkner, great South Africa all-round cricketer of the
early 20th century, was born.

In fact this scroll bar shows quite a few famous cricketers were born December
17th. Mmm, cricket. Now that is a sport I sadly miss! Boy I wish I had signed
up with a UK dominated unit, these American continentals have no taste. Tea is
fine now and the bean burritos are great, but no sense of the love of cricket!
I can't wait until this is all over and I can take a good book to another
test.

1900 - A prize of 100,000 francs is offered for communications with
extraterrestrials; with the exception of Martians because they were considered
too easy

That is so funny! Too easy alright. Barring their accents and pidgins they are
human after all, well all jokes to the contrary aside. Pity these Krav
lunatics have shut down the comms, we're hard pressed to even win the prize
now! Its such crap for heavens sake. Can fly to the end of the galaxy and back
but can't get a message to the planet next door.

1903 - Orville Wright flies a motorized aircraft.

We've come a wee bit of a way since then me thinks. I wonder if his heart
pounded the same way mine does when I go up. Not that I've had a chance in a
while. Something else to do once this is all over.

1908 - Willard Frank Libby, inventor of the carbon-14 "atomic clock",
was born. He went on to win a Nobel Prize in 1960.

Well that's one smart cookie then.

1962 - Beatles 1st British TV appearance

Grandmother's favourite musicians. I still prefer early 22nd century classical
revivalists, but after hearing so many Beatles songs over the years I still
can't help thinking Yellow every time someone says submarine. So much for
growing out of it Mr Old Man Thirty.

1963 - Clean Air Act passes US Congress

Pity the Krav don't have one. This smoke and dust is getting old fast.
Freezing the planet to then point it could freeze balls off a brass monkey,
poor monkey, and makes the blasted Krav bloody hard to see. They're sneaky
enough as it is without this wonderful cover to screw us up even further.

1969 - USAF closes Project Blue Book, concluding no evidence of
extraterrestrial spaceships behind thousands of UFO sightings

Busy decade. Pity this latest round of ETs also didn't turn out to be one
giant illusion. I think even the great granddaddy of all hangovers would be
better than all this.

2053 - The first bacteria gardens are created on the surface of Mars....

Well at least food sources have got beaten than that! Though based on last
night's efforts only marginally.

... and after months of clashes over access to ore seams the Tunnel Wars break
out.

And where would be without tunnels?! A millennia from now they'll be telling
stories of how men spent so long underground in this war with Krav bastards
that they got mole genes grafted in on principle.

2105 - First meeting of the Palamas Philosophers Tea Club in the Hakan
Café.

Now they were a group of people I can look up to! Intelligent, well read,
revolutionary and with great taste in tea. Record personal note: "Check that
the manuscripts from the Ariza treasury reached Uncle Brent." Record over. I
can't believe we nearly lost the original draft of the Stapledon Manifesto.

2144 - Theoretical physicist Yachne Kriwaczek dies aged 124

Boy was that lady smart! Without her take on FTL physics we'd still be in the
STL Dark Age, stuck in this one solar system. No access to the seven wonders
of the galactic age; the falls of Fortezza Gap; the span of the bridge over
the Tiksi River on Zeta Doradus. I am so exceptionally unbelievably glad that
lady's parents got together.

"Excuse me Sir?"

"Yes McKenzie?"

"New orders Sir from Divison"

"Thank you McKenzie"

"New orders boys we're packing up and moving out. Be ready in 15. Necessities
only."

Record personal note: "2196, The United human forces began their assault on
Orduna. It was the beginning of the end for the Kra'Vak on Mars and from there
throughout the human sphere of influence." Record over.

"From your lips to God's ears Sir"

"Yes McKenzie. Now let's pack up and get rolling."