Headlines from California
Abolitionist Protests Intensify in Philadelphia, Boston, and Baltimore Following Camp Springs Incident – BBC California
Fast-Moving Brush Fire in Glendora Prompts Evacuation of Citrus College & Azusa Pacific University, Temporarily Halts Construction of Morris/San Gabriel Pumped Storage Facility – LA Times
Fully Electric Tacoma to Start Production By Early 1854, Toyota Announces – Jalopnik
CalTrain Begins Operation of the Fully Electrified Service Along the Peninsula Corridor – SFGate.com
California and Mexico Agree to Extend Rail Service from Winterhaven to Mexico City – Streetsblog California
Chevron's Rig Count Drops Again, Creating Uncertainty About The Future of California's Last Oil Company – FastCompany
California Army Reopens Future Vertical Lift Program to Replace Aging Helicopter Fleet, Lockheed, Boeing, and Robinson Expected to Submit Bids – DefenseWire
Lockheed Martin Space Systems Awarded $300 Million Contract by California Air Force to Build Next Block of GPS Satellites – GNSS Today
NBC & Hulu's "Bleeding Kansas" Sweeps Emmys. Winning 9 Awards, including Best Dramatic Series – LA Times
Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg win the Oscar for Best Documentary "The Shape of Things to Come" - Variety
GrizzlyComm Announces Plans for the 12 Satellite Ursa Communication Network. – SFGate.com
Central Subway Finishes Construction, Expected to Open in June 1854 – Streetsblog SF
Santa Ana Zoo to Open the First Exhibit Of Animals That Went Extinct In Lost History – OC Register
Excerpts from Downtime Newspapers
California Withdraws Congressional Delegation From Congress – New York Daily Times – March 5th, 1853
Hostilities between Abolitionists and Slaveowners Increase as Gunfights Occur in the Border States – The Philadelphia Inquirer – May 4th, 1853
His Royal Highness, Emperor Lewis Cass The First Orders Californian Subjects to Rejoin Congress – The Liberator – April 4th, 1853
Degenerate Californians Refuse to Recognize the True Government of Lewis Cass – The Daily Intelligencer – April 5th, 1853
British Shipping and Rail Magnates Consider the Benefits of Containerization – The Times – April 13th, 1853
Cass Administration Plans False Flag Operation to Start War With Mexico – Washington Globe – May 25th, 1853
Army Encircles the Californian Embassy in D.C. – Punch Magazine – June 16th, 1853
California Allies With the Indians to Suffocate the True Heirs of the Americas – Savannah Morning News – June 12th, 1853
First Downtime Owned Car Makes Its Appearance in New York City – New York Daily Times – June 8th, 1853
Presidential Office, White House — Washington, DC - May 14th, 1853
Lewis Cass was tired of hearing about California. From the moment he took the oath of office on the Capitol steps, that troublesome state had been all anybody could talk about, and frankly he was sick of it. This latest
insult by the collection of rabble they called a congressional delegation was a spit in the face to everything this country stood for.
"Mr. President?" Asked John B. Floyd, Secretary of the Navy.
"How soon can you order a blockade of California?" Cass asked.
"To be honest, I'm not sure if we can properly enforce one," Floyd replied. "I am confident that we can keep ships belonging to other nations like the British or Hawaiians away."
"But not Californian ships." Cass finished.
"They don't need ships, they can just fly over the blockade with their airplanes." Said Floyd.
"Not to mention California would take retaliatory action against any blockade." Said Secretary of State John Breckinridge.
"If they can arm their airplanes, we would have next to no defence." Said Floyd. "All the weapons our Navy has is for fighting targets that are in a roughly level playing field. Our ships are not designed to fight an enemy in the air."
"Maybe we can't stop ships from reaching California." Said Cass. "But we can still send a message to the fire eaters in South Carolina who are itching for an excuse to secede."
"What about Mexico?" asked Breckinridge. "Even if we could close California's ports, they could still unload in Ensenada and bring them north over land."
"John." Said Cass. "It about sending a message to the rest of the world. That California is still a part of these United States, and that the western hemisphere is our exclusive domain. I will not be undercut by some far-flung state trying to play at being a second rate power in our hemisphere!" He said, shouting.
"Yes sir, Mr. President." Said Floyd.
"What should we tell Britain and Mexico though?" Asked Breckinridge. "They're not going to be happy about the port closures."
"California is not an independent Republic." Said Cass. "It is still a part of these United States. The trouble with California is an internal affair and the United States will not have other nations interfering in America's internal affairs."
"Closing the ports won't stop Mexico from trade with California." Said Breckinridge. "California does share a border with Mexico."
"Then we should consider an ultimatum with Mexico." Said Cass, grabbing the lost history book from his shelf. "Baja California, Sonora, and Chihuahua."
Breckinridge winced. "That's a hell of a demand." He said. "I mean, they're still reeling from the last war, so I reckon they'd accede than risk another war though there is a chance California could keep any deal from going through. We may have to have another war."
It was then that Secretary of War John A. Quitman spoke up. "We'd have a hell of a time raising an army for that kind of campaign. And convincing Congress would be a hard sell. Any states made from territory we acquire would no doubt allow slavery and the abolotionists of the North would oppose it. In order to get as much support for the war as possible, there needs to be an incident."
Floyd offered a suggestion. "I think that one of our ships is going to be ruthlessly attacked while visiting port in Mexico. Such a tragedy."
Unnoticed by any of the men in the room was a red point of light on one of the curtains in the room.
Home of Francis Preston Blair - Washington DC
In a small guest room facing the White House, Noah Feldman sat in front of a stack of recording equipment and cameras that had seemed utterly alien to the residents of this home. Along with an infrared camera that had the seeming ability to see through walls, Noah was carefully operating a laser microphone focused on the White House's meeting room.
For Blair, an ex-Democrat, slaveowner-turned-abolitionist, and the editor of the Washington Globe, it was a dream come true. He had called in one of his best reporters and he had been seated next to Mr. Feldman with a pair of headphones, and was dutifully taking notes on the White House conversation.
"I don't care if you have to sink the whole damn Navy to do it, just get it done." Said the crackling voice of Lewis Cass over the headphones.
"What do we do about Camp Springs? And that 'Embassy' of theirs?" Asked the voice of Attorney General Jeremiah S. Black. "Governor Lowe has grown tired of that pustule on his fine state."
"Lowe can deal with Camp Springs as he sees fit." Said Cass. "But that Embassy is an insult, and I want it gone."
The reporter, still wearing the headphones, continued to dutifully take down notes. This was the scoop of the century.
Presidential Palace – Mexico City - May 20th, 1853
If anybody was thankful for the volumes of Lost History foreknowledge that California's arrival had brought with it, it was Mexican President Mariano Arista.
The foreknowledge that Antonio López de Santa Anna would have sold off the Mesilla Valley to the Americans less than a decade after granting them Alta California and Nuevo Mexico, and would have welcomed the armies of—to use that colorful phrase of the Californians—France's Favorite Failson with open arms had severely damaged the standing of Mexico's conservatives in the eyes of the people, and the Liberal Party had been able to capitalize on it.
The time to strike while the iron was hot was here. Many of the conservatives had been arrested for trying to bring in Santa Anna for the same coup that they had tried in the Lost History timeline. Now was the time to get the people on his side.
The land holdings of the Catholic Church had been what an uptimer would call a radioactive issue. Simply put, the church had enormous amounts of land, and used it to make the church itself extremely wealthy, while also charging ordinary parishioners exorbitant sums for services. As a result, the Catholic Church wasn't the most popular institution in Mexico outside of the very rich and very religious.
The original idea was to confiscate the lands held by the church and by indigenous communities and convert them to privately help individual plots, creating a nation of yeoman farmers, but the record of Lost History showed the problem of that, so a new solution would be found. Church lands would still be broken up, but a representative from California had suggested something called a "community land trust" to handle it instead. There would be no large landowners buying up the land plots and replicating the same system this time.
Hand in hand was the abolition of debt peonage for farming, it was one step removed from slavery, and had too many bitter memories for a people who had long memories of the mission system.
To Arista and his new Vice President Benito Juarez, as long as the church had its stranglehold on Mexico, the Mexican people could never truly be free. Only through the separation of church and state could they keep the country together.
In front of him was a rather disturbing report that had been given to him from California's ambassador. It had seemed that the United States was not content with Alta California, Nuevo Mexico and Tejas, but was in fact preparing to demand further land concessions from them. In Lost History, the United States would merely request the Mesilla Valley and offer money in return. In contrast, the Cass administration was preparing to demand far more land concessions from Mexico, and to seize them by force if he refused to hand over even more territory.
This aggression would not stand. The burgeoning American Empire would be halted in its tracks.
Corner of Florence & Normandie — South Los Angeles
Lewis Barker was a man having a bad day. He had been hired by a plantation owner in Georgia to retrieve his "wayward property." He had tracked his target north to Camp Springs, but the trail went cold at the Green Zone, meaning that this runaway had likely escaped to California. Which is what had brought him to this den of sin.
Now he was in the belly of the beast and surrounded by nig—"African-Americans." A group of right-thinking men in Huntington Beach called the "Rise Above Movement" had tipped him off to a group of runaways posing as Californians in Los Angeles, which had led him here.
Almost right away, it had been a challenge. People in his line of work had been branded as "207s,[1]" and almost everyone in California went out of their way to make things as difficult as possible for them, if not worse. Now though, he had found his target and he could be out of here soon. There, walking out of the church was Johnathan Reed, the runaway on his handbill.
"Well well well," Barker said. "Looks like the good Lord ain't here to protect you." Reed stopped suddenly in shock. "I bet all these people here were taken in by your sob story and gave you a new name so you could try and hide."
As a crowd started forming around them, Barker didn't notice the red dot suddenly appearing on the back of his greatcoat.
"You trying to fuck with us 207?" Said somebody from the crowd.
Jonathan turned around and stared him dead in the eye, and then spat in his face. "Who the fuck are you?" He challenged.
Lewis snarled and reached for the Colt Navy revolver he had hidden in his greatcoat, not noticing the second red point of light appearing on his chest.
"Down on the ground and place your hands on your head, now!" Shouted a voice from behind him, causing his to freeze right as he was about to give his Colt Navy. Turning around Lewis saw two men in identical black uniforms walking towards him with bright yellow pistols drawn,
law enforcement.
"I said get on the ground!" Said one of the officers, a black man with the nametag 'Johnson' pinned to his chest.
"Preposterous!" Shouted Barker. "It's this rabble here you should be worried about."
The crowd around him started to get angier at his words, another red dot appeared on his chest.
"On the ground 207!" Said the other officer.
"I refuse!" Said Barker. "The day that I–" his speech was cut off as the yellow pistol one of the cops was carrying suddenly shot out two metal darts with wires attached to them. In an instant, Lewis Barker was on the ground in pain as all of muscles started spasming uncontrollably.
"Ah shit!" Said one of the cops. "My body camera stopped working."
"Fuck!" Said the other cop. "Mine also stopped working."
Seeming to take the hint, a good chunk of the crowd had quietly shuffled over to stand between the patrol car and Barker.
"It seems that due to the crowd of bystanders, the car's dashcam was blocked." Said Johnson.
"Oh no, who knows what could happen now?" Said the other cop.
As Lewis looked up at the crowd, now that the electric shock had stopped, he heard one last thing.
"We know the drill, nothing that'll leave a mark." Came the voice of Reed.
Fort Irwin National Training Center — Mojave Desert — 0100 Hours June 6th, 1853
The Candyland plantation's manor house loomed over the fields, the house had been built taller than any other building so that the slaves in the fields would always know 'their place.' For John Brown, these types of places were abominations unto God, and he could not wait for the day that these temples of exploitation were relegated to the dustbin of history.
With the moonless night covering their operation, Schultz team approached the plantation's slave quarters, John pulled off his Night Vision Goggles and peered through his Thermal Scope at the overseer's quarters.
Two people inside.
Shit.
Their intel source had said that the overseer was alone. Which meant that he had taken one of the slaves to his quarters.
Now he had to make a decision. If he blew up the overseer's quarters now, it'd mean killing one of the people he was here to try and rescue, that could make it harder for the rest of them to trust him.
He looked at the building again, prayed to God for forgiveness, and started placing the mock C4 along all of the load-bearing columns.
Falling back to a safe zone with the rest of his group, he gave them the hand signal that the overseer's building was set.
They quickly and silently moved back from the fields into the corn stalks to avoid being seen, but to where they could still see and shoot out if needed.
Only a scant few minutes later, a thundering explosion came out of a bunch of hidden loudspeakers, and bright spotlights flared brightly all around, simulating the explosion of the mansion and several outbuildings.
With the loud sound shaking everybody awake, dozens of people poured out of the slave cabins, all of them members of the 11th Armored Cavalry's Blue Team dresses as slaves.
"Any of y'all still wanna be slaves?" Asked Brown to the crowd as several black painted Chinook helicopters touched down along the plantation grounds.
"Y'all got 3 choices." Said Brown. "You can start walking back into town and hope they don't arrest you as a runaway, maybe put y'all back on the auction block. You can get in those helicopters there, they'll take you to Camp Springs, and y'all will be in California by the end of the week, or y'all can join up with us, and give everyone else in the south this same opportunity.
Fort Irwin Operations Center
"Operation Django?" Asked Director of Intelligence Michael Reynolds. "Subtlety is a lost artform."
"You want to stop people going in to filibuster the south, this is how you do it." Replied former FBI field director Kristoph Nedermeyer. "Police departments have been calling me because they keep finding amatuer militias springing up to try and 'liberate' the south. They've been letting them off the hook so far because nobody wants that blowback, but..."
"But you don't want them all going off half-cocked and turning the south into something resembling uptime Mogadishu." Said Reynolds, finishing his thought.
"Precisely!" Replied Kristoph. "I want the south liberated as much as the next man, but I have to admit that America's track record of 'liberation' isn't exactly something to inspire confidence."
"Is that why you're teaching them Marx and Mao then?" Asked Reynolds. "Because I had so many of the old Cold Warriors who nearly lost their minds at that."
"I have to admit I'm not terribly surprised to hear that, but that's why." Replied Kristoph. "I dealt with more than a couple of graduates from the School of the Americas back before the event, they have precisely one modus operandi, rule by terror. Unfortunately, that's already the rule in the south, so that form of 'liberation' would merely be exchanging one master for another, not something that we could sustain long term."
"So then you want to do what?" Asked Michael. "Have them reenact the February Revolution and then have California embrace them with open arms?"
"Oh heaven forbid no, not the February Revolution, not at all." Said Nedermeyer. "More along the lines of a synthesis of Haiti and uptime China's revolutions."
Michael Reynolds looked back across the training area. He knew that this was the only way to keep Californians from going off half-cocked into the south to liberate it, but why did he feel like he was trading one problem for another.
He sighed, "You know this is going to blow up in our faces either way, and the best solution is too expensive and too slow. We let the militias go filibustering it won't just stop in the South, but go global destroying the old world order and replacing it with anarchy, with Californian technology just replacing European technology it creates new warlords in these regions"
Nedermeyer grunted "Some would say that. The other option?"
Reynolds laughed, "I advocate to the governor the idea of California Unilateralism, and that we are totally in the right in invading and overthrowing government for humanitarian, political or national security reasons."
Nedermeyer laughed at that, "So your options are copying and word replacing John Bolton's policy papers from the Bush era, or let a bunch of well meaning, ill-informed, ill-prepared people with high tech weapons run roughshod over the world with nary a directive from Sacramento?" sipping his coffee, "So what's the correct, politically inconvenient, and expensive option?"
Reynolds got out his notebook and shoved it across the table to Nedermeyer, who picked it up to read it.
"This…" he said tapping the side of the notebook, "could work."
Reynolds nodded sagely, "You can see why it's politically inconvenient though, and expensive."
Nedermeyer handed back the notebook "You'd piss off all five military branches, the PeaceCorps, Treasury and Justice. If the UN was around you'd be pissing them off too. Also you'd piss off the fiscal hawks, war hawks and peaceniks in Sacramento. You always find a way to do that. Any chance of it happening?"
"Not unless someone somewhere does something stupid at a politically opportune moment for me. Besides I'd need one of the politicians in Sacramento to back this, no way I can go to my contacts in the governor's office on this."
"At least it's better than that asinine Space Force pre-event." He began to put away his notebook which was scrawled with the name "California International Intervention and Development Corps - PLANNING NOTEBOOK" back in his briefcase.
Pearl Harbor - Hawaii - June 8, 1853
Looking across the harbor, one could see several things happening.
In the docks, the wooden sail and steamships were dwarfed by the gigantic steel ships from California. On those ships were colorful stacks of metal boxes, and a pair of equally large cranes to handle them.
Near the large ships was a fleet of similarly sized ships, carrying bulk cargo instead of boxes. On land, construction vehicles scuttled around the harbor, while a crane handled large pieces of what seemed to be another crane. Scattered around the construction site were more colorful boxes of varying sizes, some converted for other uses.
"You know, for all the borderline miraculous things to expect from California, I've got to say that their solutions for logistics is ingenious." said Thomas Wilson, a major British shipping magnet.
"Really?" Asked his uptime partner, Jack.
"I'm serious. Stacking metal containers is probably the most ingenious thing the Uptimers could come up with." Wilson replied.
"Wouldn't it cost a fortune to retrofit ports for shipping containers?" Jack asked. "You'd need to get cranes, ships, and flatbeds designed for handling the stuff, and I doubt a 20 foot long container can be carried on a horse."
"It's a small price to pay for larger savings in the long run." Wilson replied. "Speaking of, I probably might want to commission container ships for my own fleet."
"A container steamer?" Jack asked.
"Well, if I can't get a smaller version of one of those behemoths," Wilson said, pointing at the cargo ship with the containers. "I might as well go for a steamer."
"Then it better be a powerful steamer." Jack replied.
"Hopefully, it will." Wilson replied, before the pair went to get plastered at a nearby bar.
Toyota Hanford Assembly - 2:45 PM - June 8, 1853
In the years after the Event, many car companies, with the exception of Tesla and Toyota, had been forced to consolidate due to the instant lack of a supply chain. Even then, a lot of tooling and equipment had to be made from scratch to be able to get back on track.
Unlike Tesla, however, Toyota didn't have a complete assembly line. They had a plant for making parts, but that was busy with making spares for every car in California that wasn't a Tesla.
As a result, until new engine toolings can be made, any new car has to be electric, since that was what most of the auto industry in Pre-Event California was tailored towards.
"So what's the state of the factory?" asked David Tracy, on behalf of Jalopnik. "When will production start?"
"Well, the new toolings for the Tacoma and Corolla assembly lines are finished, but the machinery needed is still either being transported or made as we speak." Michelle Bryant, Toyota's sales director, answered.
"And what about the batteries?" Tracy asked.
"For now, we're sourcing the batteries from Tesla's Victorville Gigafactory. In the future, we hope to source our own battery designs, and possibly new engines as well." Bryant said.
"What about lithium, cobalt, and all the other rare earths?" Asked Tracy. He had some idea but it was a constant topic of concern for his readers.
"Well right now there's a geothermal power plant by the salton sea that also is producing Lithium out of a geothermal plant's brine." She explained. "That's the biggest supplier of lithium in California right now. As for Cobalt, it's a side product of copper mining so we contract with a few companies that have been re-mining the tailings of historic copper mines in the state, as well as doing environmental remediation on the sites. As for rare earths, there's a mine not that far from the 15, just past the Ivanpah Solar Plant, it had actually existed before the Event and had actually been in the process of reopening before the event due to the trade war."
Pointing to the large line behind her, Bryant started talking about future plans.
"As soon as the machinery gets moved in, and the lines fully retrofitted with the new toolings, we'll be able to start a pre production run by mid-late October, and full production by 1854." she said.
"And what's the estimated cost of the new cars?" Tracey asked.
"Hopefully, they'll cost about as much as their pre-Event counterparts, if not cheaper." Bryant said.
"Speaking of, may I test drive the Tacoma test mule?" Tracey asked.
"It was planned for your visit. The mule is on the proving ground. It's ready when you are." Bryant replied.
"Can't wait to try it out." Tracy said.
Alcatraz Island — June 11th, 1853
Painted along the walls by the dock, were the words "Indians Welcome" and "This is Indian Land," a remnant of the American Indian Movement's two year occupation of the island to protest the federal government's policy of Indian Termination, which had been a policy of forced assimilation in order to force Native Americans off of their lands.
Since then, Alcatraz Island, along with the occupation of Wounded Knee afterwards, had remained a powerful symbol to uptime Native Americans of solidarity. It was with that symbolism in mind that Newsom had chosen the island to host the signing ceremony for the Treaty of Alcatraz.
With the relationship between California and the United States deteriorating fast, the suggestion for a buffer state between them and California had been thrown around a lot, not to mention the pressing need for a centralized framework to handle the various ad hoc projects being constructed out in the Great Basin area, such as the reconstruction of I-80, I-10, & I-15, Wikawhata Dam, and others.
So when somebody suggested "Hey why don't just do something like NATO for the Indians to the east?" It had been like a lightning bolt in the room, the most obvious solution staring them in the face, bringing representatives from all of the Native American groups in the Great Basin together, and hammer out a NATO for the West.
It was all well and good, except for the fact staring everyone in the face, that the downtime Native Americans would likely see them as interchangeable with the downtime Americans. Which had led California's fledgeling State Department to seek out input from uptime Native Americans, leading them to LaNada War Jack, one of the original members of the Alcatraz Occupation.
If any one person could be credited with crafting the Treaty of Alcatraz, it was LaNada War Jack. When she was first approached with the idea for a "Great Basin NATO," she had politely laughed in their faces and said that it wouldn't work because it would devolve into being "California and assorted satellite states."
But to her credit, she didn't just shoot down the idea and move on, but rather, LaNada had spent the next week researching what the situation was like for the downtime Native Americans and how to make it work.
So it was a surprise to the State Department to get a call from her a week later saying "I know how to make this treaty work."
The final treaty was an amalgamation of the North Atlantic Treaty, UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and the Treaty of Rome.
Which is what her back to Alcatraz, the Island that she had occupied so many years ago, for the final signing ceremony.
The past few years had been hectic for her, visiting various tribes in the Great Basin and resolving disagreements with everyone, but her work had paid off with the Treaty of Alcatraz, and the imminent creation of WATO.
"Good morning everyone." Said Gavin Newsom. "Today marks a new beginning for California and for the nations of the Great Basin. The Western America Treaty Organization should not be viewed by some as a threat, but instead as a way of bridging the divide between our nations. California has the potential to become a great power, but we cannot achieve that by walling ourselves off in fortress California, a rising tide lifts all boats."
"Which is why we have allocated funding grants for infrastructure, healthcare and education in the Great Basin." Said Newsom. "In the year 1948 of our lost history, a gentleman named George Marshall, the Secretary of State at the time, gave away billions of dollars to European nations that were still recovering from a devastating war, much of it without any expectation of repayment. It was because of that generosity that Europe was able to recover from the devastation of that war in record time and raised the standard of living dramatically in those years. That is why we as Californians can afford to be this generous, because that rising tide will benefit everyone."
Gavin pulled out the pen he had been gifted for this particular signing ceremony. "That's why it is without further ado that I sign this treaty in a spirit of peace and friendship." Signing his name on the treaty, he passed it down the table.
As each leader signed the treaty, Bannock, Shoshone, Navajo, Pueblo, Hopi, Paiute, Goshute, Yavapai, Hualapai, Apache, Chemehueve, Havasupai, Diné, Quechan, and Ute, each one giving a statement about the need for mutual defense and how an attack on one was an attack on all.
Californian Embassy - Washington DC - 9:15 AM - June 15th, 1853
California's unofficial Embassy to the downtime United States had started life as a pair of townhouses, originally bought to house the offices of the California congressional staff that would've been seated in Congress had the Devil's Bargain not occurred. However, once it became clear that the downtime Congress had no intention of treating California fairly, the townhouses had been repurposed and refurbished to serve as what would hopefully become the new Californian Embassy. A truckload of K-rails with chain link fences had been brought over from Camp Springs to serve as a temporary barrier around the property while the proper fence was in the process of being built.
The interiors of the complex's buildings had been gutted and rebuilt, with solar panels being installed on the roof and enough battery packs installed in the basement to serve the Embassy for a week without power. The building had also been furnished with an encrypted high bandwidth satellite uplink that could allow for real time communication with California directly, as well as an encrypted microwave dish that would connect it to Camp Springs.
The lower floors were then turned into the kinds of public-facing services that a Caifornian abroad might need from from an embassy, while the upper floors contained offices, conference rooms and bedrooms for the ambassadors and embassy staff.
A family of runaway slaves had approached the gate of the property that served as the Californian embassy, as the carriage used to get them there waited for signs of struggle before leaving. Both parents carried pamphlets for a Frederick Douglass lecture, along with whatever belongings they had. The daughters weren't far behind, carrying the supplies they were using for the trip.
As they stood at the gate, one of the guards, who happened to also be African-American, turned to face the family. A security camera loomed over them, monitoring the situation closely.
"State your identities and intentions." The guard said.
The father of the family spoke up, speaking clearly and concisely.
"Hello. My name is Dred Scott, and this is my family." he said. "We are requesting asylum in the Republic of California, and are fugitives as defined by the Fugitive Slave Act.
The other guard contacted the head of security and Ambassador Jones over his radio, summarizing what had just happened.
As the gates opened to let the family in, a marshal watched the events unfolding.
"Looks like we have to act ahead of schedule." he mused, before he slank away.
White House - 11:30 AM
President Lewis Cass smiled sitting looking out at National Mall as sheep grazed on the White House lawn on the Washington Monument still under construction, and made a mental note to see about getting construction restarted, somehow the Know-Nothings had gotten control of it. He was reading over some Congressional papers when he saw a U.S. Marshal walk in from the House with Attorney General Jeremiah Black shaking his head, and a man he had never met.. This was not going to be good news. Sighing he nodded at them "Jeremiah, what brings you here today. I wasn't expecting to see you until Thursday cabinet meeting."
"Seems California has stepped up their flouting of Federal Law. Mr. Winthrop if you would be so kind as to elucidate the crisis to the President?" he said sitting down at the table with the President. The Marshal nodded, "Yes sir. Mr. President, I was assisting Mr. Gibson here in tracking down some runaways. Prominent runaways."
Black nodded, "Dred Scott is one of them. You remember that situation?"
The President massaged his brow, "Let's hear it. Camp Springs? Once a slavecatcher leaves for California they don't return well."
The marshal shook his head, "No sir, We were able to stop them from getting to Camp Springs, but they got to the embassy, and they've requested asylum."
"Must that damnable state continue to vex my presidency?!" Throwing his papers off the table, "Jeremiah, you still have that amicus brief asserting that secession is illegal? Get the marshals to-"
His attorney general held up his hand, "We can't Mr. President. If they were a sovereign state, they could assert diplomatic privileges, if they were congressional offices, they would assert separation of powers. The U.S. Marshals cannot and will not."
Cass glared at Jeremiah, "Do you mean to tell me that only Congress can storm that damnable building? What, do we need to censure California's senators and Representatives too or is Congress still at loggerjam?" The President stood up and gripped the railing looking out at the National Mall for a moment before turning back to his guests. "Mr. Winthrop, return to your assignment, thank you for your report. Jeremiah please ask Mr. Stephens in the house to get whatever committee approval is needed to get the Sergeant of Arms to arrest the California Congressional delegation for contempt and removal. THEN, we can have the Marshals storm the compound, is that acceptable Mr. Black, or do I need a co-signature from the Queen of England as well?" He thundered. "They have forced our hand. One way or another California will respect federal law."
Californian Embassy - 9:30 PM
As former representative Ro Khanna was hard at work at his office in the upper floor of the House-turned-Embassy, he was bantering with fellow former rep Salud Carbajal about the gradual train wreck that is the political climate of the Downtime US.
"You know, I pity the person who'll be sent in as ambassador to this swamp." Karbajal said.
"I'd honestly pity whomever Cass sends to us." Khanna replied. "They'll be hated no matter what, unless it's someone like Lincoln."
At that moment, one of the aides entered into the room alongside two marines who quickly closed the windows and shutters.
"What's going on?" Khanna asked.
"There's a group of soldiers outside the embassy sirs." Said the aide. "Security is asking you to stay in place while the Marines handle the situation."
"This could get bad." Karbajal said. "What's the exit plan?"
Just then, a loud klaxon started ringing out in the building. "Lockdown. Lockdown. Lockdown." Came an automated voice over the PA system.
"Attention embassy staff." Came the voice of Ambassador Jones over the PA. "We are entering lockdown within the embassy, please secure your desks and proceed calmly to your muster stations."
Outside the Embassy
Under the darkness of the night, broken only by the gas lamps on the street corners, the US Army assembled outside of the fortified townhouses. They had assembled under direct orders from The Sergeant at Arms of Congress Nathan Sargent and backed up by President Cass himself.
The mission: arrest the delegates and bring them back to Congress.
Cannons were wheeled into position, both to break down the gates and to try and ward off any flying machine sent in.
"Cannons ready," shouted Colonel Anderson.
"Aim" the cannons all aimed at the gate.
On the other side of the barriers, a pair of armed Humvees and an M1 stood guard, with their weapons trained back at the soldiers
"Well shit, there goes most of this month." said one of the gunners, as he and several others realized that this standoff would last for a while.
Back in the Embassy
The delegation had made their way to their muster stations, where they would wait until they can be extracted. The usual sounds of a 19th century city seemed deathly silent, as uptime marines stared down the downtime soldiers. And even though the Marines had the technological advantage, there was a lot of soldiers surrounding the gates, which would result in brutal fighting.
"How long will it take for the chopper to arrive?" Karbajal asked. "Or are we holding out here?"
"We're getting out. It's just gonna take time for the chopper to arrive." Said Khanna
At that moment, the voice of Ambassador Jones came over the speakers.
"Attention Embassy staff." Said Jones. "We're going to be extracting non-essential personnel shortly. Please make your way to the helipad."
"Finally. It's been an hour." Khanna said.
Back outside the Embassy
The standoff had intensified as the US Army surrounded the embassy with cannons and soldiers, while the Marines in the Humvees and IFVs had their weapons trained back at the rows of soldiers. Both the uptime marines or the downtime soldiers were just staring at each other waiting for each other to make the next move.
From above, a pair of V-22s flew over the townhouses, landing in the helipad on the lawn.
"What's the status of the cannons?" asked the commanding officer, Henry Halleck, to the chief gunner.
"They're ready to go." the gunner said.
"Remember our orders, don't fire unless fired upon." Halleck said, as he and his men faced down the Californian troops.
With that, the US Army settled in around the embassy for the long haul, leaving a potential warzone and a political clusterfuck for the next days newspapers to pounce on.
—
1: Section 207 of the California Penal Code: Kidnapping
