Through the Looking Glass Ch. 06

"Oh, shit," Lisa huffed quietly as she stood next to Mitch, gazing at the vexillum, a flag-like banner, hanging on the wall in front of them and boldly displaying the emblem of the Roman Empire.

Mitch, still leaning close to her, whispered, "Told you it was going to be interesting." He then nodded at the guard behind the desk before them, acknowledging his salute.

"Good morning, Dr. Parus," he greeted in crisp Latin, then turned to Lisa, "Lady Parus, good day to you."

They weren't really that surprised to hear the Roman language coming from the guard; they almost expected it. What surprised them was that they actually understood what he said.

Mitch, taking a chance, cleared his throat and said, "Good morning," in Standard English. The guard bowed slightly and returned to his seat, obviously hearing Latin coming from him. Lisa simply nodded a greeting, not saying a word, and the two of them walked away and headed for the laboratory.

"He spoke pure Latin," whispered Lisa as they neared the lab doors, "He understood you?"

"Apparently, he heard Latin and not English," Mitch hissed back, "Maybe that's been arranged for us by this dimension, too."

The scientists entered the lab and took in their new surroundings.

All around the room, from the walls to the equipment, Mitch and Lisa saw what looked like a scene from a movie. The inner structure had the look of old architecture with its polished brass fixtures and marbled tiles and columns but, given the sights of modern computers and shiny floors and work tables, it was plainly new. It looked almost like a greeting room for Roman senators and statesmen to meet and discuss important matters of state. Off to the side, the test reactor sat waiting for more run-throughs, the controls and system fixtures gleaming in gold and bronze with the reactor sphere giving off a aura of shiny silver.

"Ah, Mitchum," came a voice from behind them; it was Darrin in almost the same outfit as Mitch was wearing, his shirt being off-white and more formal looking with the 'toga' fringed in red, "Lyssa; everything in order, I trust?" He, too, spoke in Latin.

"Uh, yes; as far as I know, everything's fine," Mitch answered carefully.

Another lab tech walked up to the trio and said, "Excuse me, Darius. We just got word that Senator Collico will be here around 3:00 this afternoon."

"Good; thank you, Makala," Darius turned back to Mitch, "Well, we can relax for a bit, three or so hours at least. In fact," he glanced at his watch, "it's about time for the meal break, anyway; we might as well go now." He turned to the rest of the science team, "Okay, everyone; that's meal break. Get something to eat and relax; we'll start up the reactor in about two hours."

The team members, dressed more or less the same as Mitch and Lisa, filed out of the lab chatting about this and that, with Darius throwing back, "You two coming?"

Mitch broke out of his stunned silence and answered, "Uh, no; we're fine. Just going to do some fine tuning for awhile."

Darius nodded and left the lab, leaving the two scientists alone and surrounded by what they could only describe as a dream.

Mitch looked at Lisa with a cocked eyebrow and said, "This is all screwed up."

"Not in this dimension, it isn't," she replied, taking in the lavish fixtures of their laboratory. After taking it all in, they both looked at each other and said at the same time, "Computer," and marched towards their work desk.

Mitch stood behind the chair as Lisa seated herself in front of the computer and typed in commands that would bring up their day's roster. Like the language they heard and apparently spoke, the text was written in Latin but Lisa and Mitch could read every word as easily as if it was in English.

"How is it we can understand this?" she asked, waving her hand at the screen, "I only know a few words in Latin."

Mitch rubbed his chin, "Well, the dimensions incorporate us into their worlds; maybe they adjust our hearing and speech, as well as our brains' language centers."

"That's convenient," she quipped, bringing up the proper computer data and idly noticing the keys of the keyboard were marked with Latin symbols here and there along with Roman numerals. "Okay, according to this we've successfully completed all of the major testing for the reactor. This last run is just for show, apparently; a senator is coming to see the results. He must be the one Darrin... Darius was talking about."

"Well, it's nice to know it actually works this time," Mitch remarked, glancing at the reactor with a smile, "Yeah, Michael said he'd be here in three hours... Damn, I mean Makala." He rubbed his forehead, "We're going to have major headaches before the day's out."

"Tell me about it." Lisa shrank the data down to the 'Tool Bar', then typed in a web browser. Once up, she looked up a general information site and typed in the 'Search' square, 'Earth History'.

"Okay," said Lisa, getting comfortable as the data she requested flashed on the screen, "from what I remember of our history, the Roman Empire was starting to decline between 400 and 500 A.D."

Mitch nodded, "Right, and it finally ended in the mid 1400's when the Turks defeated the last legions of the Empire and took over their territory."

Lisa scrolled passed the paragraphs of ancient history involving prehistoric times and the times of the Egyptians and early civilizations, until she finally found what she was looking for, "Here we go: 'The Rise of the Roman Empire'."

The narrative started out basically matching the history of their own universe, with legions of soldiers and bastions of colonizers expanding the Empire's territorial boundaries and statesmen setting up seats of power. Lisa's eyes narrowed in on the era she mentioned a moment ago and shook her head, puzzled.

"Wait a minute; this isn't right." She perused the paragraphs with confusion... 'The year 476 is generally accepted as the formal beginning of the Empire's vast movements to dominate the entire European Continent. That year, Orestes (Honorius' grandson) refused the request of Germanic mercenaries in his service for lands in Italy. The dissatisfied mercenaries, led by Odoacer, revolted and were defeated by the western legions sent by emperor Romulus Augustus, who replaced Orestes upon his death. Defeating the armies of Germanic, the Empire expanded their borders to encompass almost all of Europe, and this event has traditionally been considered the beginning of the Roman Empire's 'Great Expansion'.'

"That's not right," said Lisa, still confused, "The Empire was divided between the east and west. The Germanic armies deposed Orestes and captured half of their territories, including Italy. There was no 'great expansion'; that was the start of the fall of the Empire."

"Apparently not here," Mitch commented, reading further down the historical text and his eyes widened, "My God, they didn't waste any time with the Turks." He continued with the paragraphs describing the engagement of the eastern and southern cultures...

'During the Muslim Conquests in the 7th century, the Empire gained its possessions in Africa and added vast tracts of lands to their territories, including the Arab-Islamic Middle East. The destruction of cities and ports of foreign powers and most of their ancient treasures, total discontinuity of leadership, and the division of the lands of rival states was a blow from which the great nations near the Empire never fully recovered.'

'In 1061, the Ottoman Turks banded the remaining forces of their neighboring nations' armies together in, what many consider, a last ditch effort to topple the Empire. That year the eastern part of the Roman Empire was under constant attacks from the Turks, led by Mehmed I, and futile skirmishes continued for the next five. Even though Mehmed I kept trying to conquer Constantinople and would attempt to declare himself the Emperor, Roman forces continued to turn him and his armies back. In 1067, he was finally captured and summarily executed and, even though this capture was in some ways far less catastrophic to the remaining forces than the sack of their main stronghold, the Ottoman Turks are usually considered the last main enemies of the Roman Empire until the end of the fourteenth century. After defeating the forces of the Asian territories, the 'expansion' continued unchallenged, and the glory of its success survives to this day.'

"Constantinople never fell in this universe," Mitch muttered, staring at the screen, dumbfounded, "The Turks were defeated, and the conflict happened four hundred years earlier than in our universe; they never had the chance to take over."

Lisa nodded, "And the Empire continued to expand across the globe and absorbed all other cultures into theirs." She skimmed through the later years of the great society, seeing names and dates corresponding with events that didn't happen in their dimension, "It took over three centuries to conquer Asia and the Far East, China being the most difficult."

"What about us?"

Lisa, knowing what Mitch meant, scrolled down to the period of expansion involving North America. She raised an eyebrow at what she read, and wasn't sure whether to be surprised or not, saying, "You're not going to believe this," and pointed at the monitor...

'In 1492, Emperor Columbus dispatched five ships of the Empirical Navy, along with a dozen supply ships, from the province of Spania in an attempt to establish new trade routes to South East Asia, specifically the former countries of China and India. Their journey was interrupted upon arriving at a new continent (specifically a major island group along the southern tip of the mainland), one that was unknown to exist at the time and populated with nomadic tribes that the leader of the expedition dubbed 'red barbarians'. Attempts to engage in trade negotiations ended in failure as the tribes considered the Romans 'invaders', thinking them slave traders, and immediately set upon them in force.'

'Sending a ship back to Spania to inform the provincial government of their discovery and the resistance they had encountered, the legions of the expedition held their own for the time being without too much effort. Approximately two months later, a fleet of warships and dozens of colonizing vessels arrived only to find that the original Roman soldiers had already defeated the combined forces of native tribes and claim their lands as their own. The next year, Roman forces sailed to the mainlands of the northern and southern continents to establish ports of interest, and by the end of the first decade of the 16th century had taken control of all of the southern continent and major portions of the eastern and lower coasts of the north.'

"My God," Mitch uttered, "The early explorations of Spain and Portugal, the Conquistadors, the early settlers and colonists from Great Britain... none of it happened here. It was all under Roman control."

Lisa perused the paragraphs that followed, and said, "The British never colonized the United States; there was no 'American Revolution', no Louisiana Purchase from France, no territorial disputes with Mexico. And every single Native American tribe... was wiped out," her voice lowered in a shocked whisper, "The American Indian is now an extinct species."

Mitch slowly nodded, seeing other remarks about other cultures, "So are the tribes and groups from Southeast Asia and Australia; there all gone. The native Negro population of Africa was reduced to..." he blinked, making sure he was reading it right, "...less than fifteen percent; about the same for the Asian populace. The Arabic population is practically non-existent."

"What kind of people would do this?" asked Lisa, still shocked by the numbers.

Mitch laid a hand on her shoulder and answered, "The same kind of people that colonized the 'New World' in our dimension, only the Romans in this one took it a few steps further."

"'A few'?" Lisa gasped, "This... 'Empire', wiped out entire civilizations all in the name of their 'expansion', and didn't even blink!"

"Nations have been doing that since the beginning of recorded history, Lisa. At one time, Egypt controlled half of Africa and most of the Middle East. Our Roman Empire controlled the entire span of the Mediterranean and over half of Europe for centuries before being toppled. England, France, Spain, Portugal, dozens of other nations had their aggressive colonizing periods; they all seized lands and resources for themselves and pushed aside the native populations. The American Revolution was one of the first to break that kind of iron grip, and even after that they went on to dominate North America and take control," he glanced at the screen with sadness, "But here, the 'Revolution' never happened; there were no British Colonies to revolt against their mother country. Every colonization was under Roman rule, and they captured the world."

Lisa tapped in another command to the computer, and a political map of North America sprang up, with the United States dominating the center, but what she and Mitch saw wasn't what they expected.

"'The Empirical States of America'?" Mitch gazed at the map with disbelief, with Lisa equally puzzled by the radical changes to what used to be their home.

One third of the 'states' were gone, insofar as the states they were use to seeing merged in some places and were no longer represented on the map. There was no 'North' and 'South' Dakota nor were there two Carolinas; just Dakoa and Carlinus, with Virginia and its 'West' sister state simply called Ginia. The province/state of Texia encompassed New Mexico, Oklahoma, and half of Arizona along with a good portion of Mexicilia just passed the Rio Grande. The province of Califia took the other half of Arizona, along with Nevada and the lower half of Oregon. There were no New England states; the entire area from the upper tip of Maine to the opposite corner of Connecticut was now Manus. New York, as well as the four states below it, was now called Yoric and seated where Maryland should have been was the capital city of the E.S.A. called Roma Ayin, officially established in 1790.

Lisa looked that up and found that Ayin is the sixteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, telling her and Mitch that this capital was the sixteenth seat of power created by the Empire to rule over the northern continent. All of the world nations' presiding 'Caesars' ruled over the provinces of their territories and the provincial governors who were in charge of them, but answered directly to the Grand Empirical Senate and Emperor of Roma Prime, simply and still called Rome, still located in Italy where it had been for centuries.

"Interesting changes," Lisa muttered while she typed in a command that would bring up the current laws of the land. An official site popped up with the vexillum displayed at the top of the page, and she glanced through the statutes basically hitting the highlights.

"As far as I can see, nothing is that different than the laws we're use to. Punishments for breaking them, however, are a little more severe. They seem to be pretty lenient when it comes to the minor stuff, but the more serious crimes..." she looked through the list of punishments and shuddered, "everything from public flogging and pillorying to impalement and burning at the stake."

"Whoa," said Mitch, seeing public hangings and crucifixions were also on the list, then raised an eyebrow, "You've got to admit: those are some pretty good deterrents."

"It's beastly," she scowled, but then checked another set of statistics, "but they are effective; crimes rates here are less than half of what they were in our universe." She scanned the entries further and inhaled sharply when she reached a certain level, "My God, Mitch; look."

Mitch hunched over her shoulder and read the paragraphs, unable to believe it himself...

'Though many attempts over the centuries were made by humanitarian groups to banish the practice, slavery is still considered a viable trade and commodity among most major metropolitan areas of the world.'

'However, certain legislation and amendments to the Empirical Laws and Mandates Scriptures have been introduced over the course of the last century to ease the repressive nature of slavery, thus making it more 'humane'.'

'By the mid 1970s, slaves were permitted to vote in accordance with voting and registration laws in their respective provinces. Many benefits and entitlements were given to slaves and their purchasers, such as medicines and surgical benefits and monthly stipends once they reached a certain age, as well as tax easements for their owners in order for them to offer said benefits. The ruling Caesars, in agreement with the Grand Empirical Senate, established a government funded program guaranteeing monthly payments and medical benefits for slaves who have ended their service due to age and/or infirmity.'

'Recently, some representatives of the Grand Senate have drafted a proposal that would lead to the final abolition of slavery, as many supporters in their respective provinces see it as 'unnecessary in this day and age'. Though the proposal has been introduced on the Senate floor, a committee has yet to be formed to study it and its long term effects on the general populace and economic futures.'

"I don't believe it," Lisa uttered, astonished, "They've turned slavery into a corporation, dressing it up as a 'business'."

"Well, slavery was a major business at one time, and very profitable too."

She looked at Mitch with a contemptible glare, "I can't believe you actually approve of this!"

"Now hold on; I never said that," he fired back, trying to calm her down, "What I meant was the slave trade here has taken its natural course. Slavery started out as brutal and sometimes sadistic, treating slaves like animals. But in this twenty-first century it's evolved, becoming progressively more advanced and humane, and less evil if that's possible."

"How the Hell is owning another human being 'less evil'?"

"Well, look what they've done," Mitch waved a hand at the screen, "They've given them basic human rights, including the right to vote and proper citizenship, not to mention fair wages and medical benefits, even social security after they retire. That's a Hell of a lot more than what slaves in our universe ever got."

"Well, yeah; but it still doesn't make it right. You said it yourself: 'a gilded cage is still a cage'.

"And I agree with you; it isn't right. But it's not our right to try and change it; that has to come from the people in this dimension, not us."

Lisa stood up and embraced Mitch, shivering slightly.

"Honey, what is it?"

She looked into his eyes and answered, "I don't know. I've got the strangest feeling that something isn't right about all of this, and it scares me because I don't know what it is."

Mitch held her close and rubbed her back, "Lisa, it'll be okay. It's just for a day, and we've had it tougher than this. We'll be all right. In the meantime..." He reached around for the pack under his tunic and pulled out the recorder, with Lisa fishing for her camera. As she took pictures, Mitch entered the next log entry...

'April 7- We've arrived in the next dimension about an hour or so ago, and it is radically different from what would be considered the 'norm', meaning the universe we're use to.'

'In this dimension, their Roman Empire never fell and is now the major ruling government body of the world. Every continent is under Roman control and has been for nearly three centuries, but despite the differences in attitude and structure it isn't altered that drastically on a basic level. Laws don't differ that much from what we're use to, but some of their punishments are more on the brutal side meant to deter further crime.'