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Khan of the Crimea
Oct 21, 2002
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bgreinhart.wordpress.com
THE HUSSITE LAMENT

PART I: MA VLAST



- - -


IN THE RING with BRUCE HORN
Earth's Premier Debate Show
Episode 842: October 8, 2448

(Televised throughout the solar system via SolaVision Network; text by Typing Solutions broadcast to minicomputers October 9; available for viewing by personal portal - dial 123HORN on your viewing portal transporter; available for spaceship in-flight entertainment by request)​

HORN: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen of the galaxy, and welcome to tonight's exciting edition of "In the Ring". Tonight we have two guests from our lovely home planet of Earth, who are part of the most important scientific project ever devised. What could be more important than space transportation or the no-gravity cupholder, you might wonder? Well ladies and gentlemen Mr. John Milar and Mr. Emerson Dean are here tonight to tell us about their little project - the time machine. Gentlemen, welcome to the studio.

MILAR AND DEAN: Thank you.

HORN: Why don't you introduce yourselves?

MILAR: John Milar, lead developing scientist and designer.

DEAN: Resident philosophical expert and chief of experimental questions. His job is to come up with the thing and my job is to bug him about all the important moral issues it raises.

MILAR: It's just a time machine.

HORN: Questions such as...?

DEAN: How can we prevent people from changing history? And if someone were to change history, how on Earth would that work? In a - I don't know, metaphysical sense or something like that. Suppose that you went back in time and stopped Lincoln getting shot. Would our memories of school history lessons and such be altered instantly so Lincoln was never shot and nobody ever thought so, or do we suddenly discover he was never shot? What about all this time we've been thinking he did? What would happen to it?

MILAR: It's a deep question but we never need to find out, particularly. The government can regulate use or limit it to scientific purposes. I don't think we'll ever even need to use it. Perhaps the most active part that could be taken would be to record the speeches of Lincoln and the epics of Homer and the conducting of Beethoven and the playing of Liszt.

DEAN: I would love to hear Liszt. But suppose he finds us in the back of the auditorium.

HORN: You're not talking about a grocery list here, are you?

MILAR: Oh no. A piano player. Big old instrument that made banging noises. Wonderfully versatile actually, and often very beautiful. Pity we're stuck with these, uh, -

HORN: Have you tested the time machine yet?

MILAR: Well as a matter of fact that's an amusing story. We were almost done, just had a problem and couldn't figure out what was wrong. Then all of a sudden all of us appear in duplicate - well it was us from an hour later to tell us how to fix the problem! (they laugh)

HORN: Neat.

MILAR: Almost didn't happen. An hour later we wouldn't have remembered to go back and tell ourselves if it weren't for Emerson tugging at our trouserlegs.

DEAN: Suppose you hadn't have gone - what would have happened?

MILAR: We would still be stuck.

DEAN: But you had already experienced the perception of not being stuck - you'd already solved the problem - what would have happened if you didn't remember to go?

MILAR: We would never have had that perception.

DEAN: But suppose I go on the record now and say - "Pluto was destroyed for a hyperspace bypass." And tomorrow I go back and stop the construction. What happens to that statement I just made?

MILAR: You wouldn't have said it.

DEAN: I just did!

MILAR: So you won't go back in time tomorrow.

DEAN: You can't be sure.

MILAR: Aw hell.



[OOC: Will post the rest in another post later tonight.]
 
[OOC: It may help to read the last few lines of the previous post before continuing]

DEAN: It is my opinion that when you go back in time it is impossible to change anything. You are stuck in a bubble, watching, a memory.

MILAR: Like a pensieve.

DEAN: Yes.

MILAR: Crazy that the greatest invention in the history of the world was stolen from a kiddy book author.

HORN: Anyways!

MILAR: I think it might be worthwhile to go back in time to see what happens, just for fun. For your sake, Emmy, to see if we can change anything. Something simple. Knock a book off a bookcase. (pause) Do you think it possible that ghosts have merely been people from the future demonstrating their presence?

HORN: Why do they always go to places where people have been murdered, or Martian burial grounds? (laughter)

MILAR: Okay, maybe not.

DEAN: I don't know if we should even go back in time at all. The past has been so generally crummy that I'd rather stay here.

HORN: Not like life here is a bowl of - um - do either of you happen to have ever seen a photo of a peach? I don't think I have ever.

DEAN: They went extinct only two hundred years ago so I'm sure there's a photo of them somewhere. John could get one when he goes back in time.

MILAR: Good idea!

HORN: So guys, what does this machine look like anyways?

MILAR: A regular spaceship. Pretty darn big given its function.

DEAN: Room for an army if you wanted to do something really drastic. Maybe fifty guys.

(there's a loud fanfare)

HORN: Well I'm sorry but that...Horn is our signal that our time is up. I've been lobbying for a longer show but no luck. Thanks, guys, for being here tonight.

DEAN: Very welcome. It's been a pleasure.

HORN: And John, good luck on your little trip!

MILAR: Ha ha... well thank you, sir.

(the guests leave; director cuts the scene; a boy brings on a glass of water)

HORN: Thanks, kid. Wasn't enough shouting was there? I didn't think so either.

(only now does the camera go off and viewing portal close)


-------------
Hello and welcome to my little return to the AAR world, The Hussite Lament. This is going to be completely different from my other AARs in that it is not either copiously absurd or straight-up history; in fact it might be hard to trace elements of a genuine EUII game given the plotting, planned-out storyline (another first for me), and ...well I would say short time period but a thousand years hardly counts. Hope you enjoy!
 
Ahh, I remember peaches!!!. :rolleyes:

Hajii, a very nice (and very funny!) beginning. Hussite Bohemia has been my intro to the EU II world (first game) and I'll be interested to see how you play it!

Looking forward to more!

Rensslaer
 
Hussite Bohemia is always fun to play as :D

Looking forward for more!
 
Much fun :D
 
An interesting beginning, Hajji. Great to see you back in action!
 
"Dad, do you know anything about the Hussite rebellion in the fifteenth century?"

"Now that is a very strange question to ask, my dear," John Milar said, somewhat surprised.

"Well we have to do a report on the Reformation for comparative religion class, and I was assigned the Hussites. I have to make a poster and a dumb music show and - "

"Okay," John said. "Let's look it up. Computer!"

"Responsive," the voice said.

"Tell us something about the Hussite revolution."

Jan Hus was a Czech reformer and thinker who imported the ideas of a Mr. John Wyclif into Bohemia. Mr. Wyclif favored numerous reforms on the Catholic church, which at the time was quite corrupt. Hus popularized these ideas in Bohemia until the year 1410, when the Pope ordered banning and burning of Wyclif's books and ideas. A severe crackdown followed in Prague, but the ideas of Wyclif stayed alive in the masses.

Finally the Pope called an emergency conference in 1414 at Constance. The Holy Roman Emperor, Sigismund, was in attendance, and so was Hus, after Sigismund granted him safe passage. However Hus was rapidly arrested and thrown in jail, given several phony trials, condemned, and executed.

The effect was not exactly what the Church intended: rebellion began in Bohemia. Eventually, in 1419, the town council of Prague was defenestrated - that is to say, chucked out a window - by a band of citizens led by Jan "One-Eyed John" Zizka. Soon the Hussites founded their own city, Tabor, which served as a base for future operations lead by Zizka and others.

In 1420 Zizka and his followers began to defend Prague from an invading force led by King Sigismund. The siege was long and culminated in a powerful assault, which was defeated at Vitkov Hill. Then the Hussites counterattacked, capturing the old castle Vysehrad in November. Jan Zizka was now a great hero of the revolution, and although he had to deal with some internal foes his fame was assured. The next year his second eye was blinded as well, although he continued to fight on.


"That," the computer said without any slowing down, "was the story of the first campaign. Would you like to hear about the others?"

"Maybe later," John's daughter said. Her hand was in agony but she had taken a whole page of notes.


-------------------------
OOC: Sorry bout this post guys. It's like in Star Wars flicks, they have to tell you what's going on at the start. A necessary evil. By the way, we could have been a few posts farther along but my Net connection crapped out a few days ago. Should be fixed...

Thanks for tuning in and all the comments :) jwolf, you're pretty darn right.
 
"Gonna do it today, John?" Lou Perrino, another scientist with the time machine program, smiled from his behind desk.

"Yes I am," Milar said, smiling. "Might as well."

"Gonna take anyone with you?"

"You want to come?"

"No thanks, I get motion sick." Perrino smiled now. "Can't even drive from here to Knoxville. Good luck, kid." Perrino was at least one hundred years old. Retirement age is one hundred ten.

Milar said goodbye and strolled through the complex to the time machine in its hangar. He saw quite a few people he didn't know, who it seems were reporters with passes. He got to the hangar. The ship was a big thing. It looked pretty ordinary, too, except for the hourglass painted on the side like the giant proud cliche it was and the words USA - OPERATION OLD HAT - PROTOTYPE. Under these words was the door. Milar opened it and walked in.

He walked past a small closet and two restrooms, as well as a sleeping cabin in case the trip was a matter of several millenia, before reaching the main room. These being engineers, they had festooned the room with no taste in colors with large dials, switches, and other rather intimidating controls, wheels, and screens. It was a good thing everything was computer controlled. The main computer was one of the most powerful ever devised, capable (said its creators) of handling one exobyte of information, or approximately one-seventh of all words ever spoken by homo sapiens sapiens anywhere in the galaxy. Warping time was peanuts.

Milar strolled over to the input screen, labelled with the typical droll humor of engineers as INPUT SCREEN, and informed it that he would like to visit Tabor in the month of May, year 1420 C.E. The computer informed him that this was possible and that the trip would take exactly three hours 48 minutes. John Milar pressed the START button and found himself surrounded by the loudest fury he had ever heard, although he knew what to expect because he had traveled an hour backwards in time several weeks ago. This was even more jarring. He pulled out a computer chess set and began playing against it. He got drubbed. He tried again and forced it down to a draw.

Unfortunately the other passenger on board had forgotten to bring entertainment, and occupied the closet with utmost boredom.
 
Last edited:
Oh that's a fun last line. I doubt the other passenger's temper is going to be improved at all by all the racket going on.
 
The attention to the future detail is nice. It will be interesting to see how it interacts with the past.
 
Hi Hajji! Welcome back!

A promising start; clueless scientist goes to meddle with things man was not meant to know... haha haha hahahaha!

Sorry, carried away there for a minute!

In the closet, now... would that happen to be a certain child???

*stifles cackle*
 
It is bizarre, as many historians have noted, that two of the most important inventions of all time were conceived within twenty years of each other by fantasy fiction authors around the conclusion of the second century C.E. The first, and more practically useful, was invented by a radio author with a drinking problem who found it amusing to write about such strange things. It is the Babelfish, the little fish which is capable of translating everything a person hears - and, now, everything a person says - into any language in the known galaxy. Although not (as originally foreseen) an actual fish, today's mechanical equivalent is all the more remarkable since it can also make the listener capable of understanding the user, not just the other way around. Unfortunately research another of the author's bolder ideas, a spaceship driven by improbability, was canceled when the scientific team working on it was turned into small sugar cookies.

The second invention was actually thought up by an author of children's books; the pensieve, a storehouse for memories for future reference and legal purposes. John Milar never really had a use for a pensieve, but now he pulled open a draw in the cockpit and took out one of the Babelfish devices and inserted it into his ear. He strolled toward the back, and, realizing he would not see another one for who knows how long, used the restroom before stepping out of the spaceship.

The ship had conveniently hid itself in a wood, but there were signs of civilization not too far off. A small road made its way through the wood, and a peasant with a cart trundled along away from the ship, having not noticed it due to its stealth sound and appearance. John Milar began to make his way toward the road.


------------------
Director - I must admit I have no idea what that meant. :D
Also, just generally to everyone, now that we have departed the future and entered the past expect the comical asides to begin drying up. I'm trying to get myself off of it for once, although I'm glad yall enjoy it :)
 
Excellent to see your return Hajji.

Timetravel, arg, the confusion. What if you went back and killed someone? Why, then he never would have existed for you to go back and kill, but if you hadn't gone back and killed him he would have existed and... and... ouch, need an asprin.
 
The entrance to the village of Tabor was well concealed by necessity, in the thick of the great Bohemian forest. In the evening the shadows of the leaves fell on the broad city of tents, on empty grounds used for training and practice, on a group of middle-aged men, already after these several years grizzled veterans. Slowly they moved towards the front of the camp, talking of the campaign ahead, while around them candles flickered in the tents of the soldiers and their wives.

"Sir," a guard said to the group in general, "I have apprehended an intruder."

"Bring him to us," said the most grizzled veteran of them all, a formidable man who seemed to absorb the shadows from around him and capture them on his body and face. Under the shadow of his hat an eye patch protected an empty socket. "State your name," he said in a dark, shadowy voice.

"Janos Milar," said the intruder.

"Mr. Milar," said the grave man, showing the Babelfish to be working fine, "who are you and who do you work for?"

"I'm sorry - I - I'm just a man," Milar said unconvincingly, although at least the Babelfish was working in both directions.

"Not a mercenary or an agent," the grave man said.

"No, as a matter of fact I was interested in joining the Hussites," Milar said, hoping he looked like it. "I'm from Malsice," Milar said, thanking the stars now beginning to shine that he had consulted an atlas on the way.

"Malsice is very close by. If you are lying it would be very easy to find out."

Milar hesitated. "I know."

The grave man turned. "He is not lying." He turned back. "Welcome to the Hussite camp," he said extending a rather worn hand. Milar shook it. "Janos Milar. We shall find room for you and begin training you, Mr. Milar. My name is Jan Zizka, and we are some of the leaders of the revolution."

"It is an honor to meet you. I have heard so much of your heroism."

"It is nothing. I hope that you are truly the man you say you are." And Jan Zizka and his group took leave of Janos Milar, except a short man who stayed behind. "You may share my tent," he said, "for I have room. I am Vaclav Vorlicek." He offered his hand and Milar accepted it. "Come - let's settle in and rest up."
 
He's in. Let chaos commence, or something to that effect.
 
I'd say they can take all the men they can get, lying or not. ;)