GT Universe Only: Alternate Earth: The Earth 10,000 years ago

[Werner]

This is an Alternate Earth this is the Earth 10,000 years ago or 8000 BC approximately. Here is a video describing this world: https://youtu.be/yXUzXbB9yJ0
It is a "blank slate" world, there is not much that is different about this world from our Earth 10,000 years ago, except that it is being visited by a Third Imperium starship with a Wormhole drive, in short it acts just like a standard Jump-1 drive except that instead of jumping 1 parsecs in space it jumps across time to a parallel universe with this parallel Earth. There is one main settlement that the Imperium starship visits, and that is the city of Jericho, the Imperium has established a Type E starport here, which is actually just a marked spot of bedrock for the Starship to land on. Typically it is a Free Trader equipped with a wormhole drive but otherwise standard. The Imperium trades with the natives here, and a team of anthropologists have established a base here upon an agreement with the city government, here is also a school that has been set up to teach the natives Galanglic, and also an opportunity for linguists to study the languages of this region, there is an open and enclosed air/craft kept in a hut to enable travel to different parts of the planet. Other useful skills are also taught such as advanced agricultural methods, metal working, glass blowing etc.

 

[BRover]

What about writing (and associated tech, like paper or clay/wax tablets), alphabets, arithmetic, and even things like basic hygiene and germ theory (say, using a simple microscope or so)?

 

[Werner]

What about writing (and associated tech, like paper or clay/wax tablets), alphabets, arithmetic, and even things like basic hygiene and germ theory (say, using a simple microscope or so)?

Well as you know, the Imperium doesn't have a Prime Directive, and it is aware that these parallel universes aren't actual history, nothing they do there actually changes their own history so they feel free to do whatever they like this Earth pretty much matches the Earth of their own and our own history back in the year 8000 BC, for the Imperium this is even further back in time, also this timeline is also visited by Homeline (which is a parallel Earth to out own timeline set currently in the year 2020 AD and much the same as our own except for the discovery of parachronic travel, not involving space travel they travel directly from one Earth to the next), and by Centrum which has the same technology. Homeline and Centrum don't share their technology with the Third Imperium and likewise the Imperium doesn't give them Jump Drive or wormhole drive technology (though the offer is on the table).

The limiting factor for the Third Imperium is they have only one wormhole leading to this parallel universe, and thus only one Starship can use it in its wormhole drive to travel there an back, wormholes can be passed from Starship to starship, but only one Starship can use it at a time. It's possible for a large starship to carry a small starship in its hold and then pass the wormhole to the small Starship so it can go back, leaving larger Starship stranded in the universe it's in. A wormhole drive can be converted back into a regular jump drive once the wormhole is removed from it, but the process is a bit involved, but there is a bottleneck of only one Starship able to travel between any two given universes, one of those universes is the GURPS Traveller Universe, a slightly different timeline from the OTU.

Homeline and Centrum don't have this limiting factor, instead they have parachronic projectors, which create wormholes, on one end of the wormhole is the parachronic projector, this is a massive device which holds open the wormhole, and through this wormhole passes the parachronic conveyor, the conveyor is powered through the wormhole via a massive power plant at the homebase, this power plant is powered by various means it could be a hydroelectric power plant, a nuclear power plant or whatever, but the projector requires a lot of electricity to keep its wormhole open to the destination world, they can send multiple conveyors to a given world, each one requires it's own parachronic projector and power source. Homeline and Centrum colonize some parallels and trade with others, they keep a low profile because when they change things too much the parallels shift a quantum level making it either easier or harder for them to travel to a given parallel. There is an active cold war going on between Homeline and Centrum because of this shifting of parallels, this phenomena doesn't affect the Imperium's ability to travel to a given parallel, they can only send one ship at a time, but effectively maintain a neutral position in the ongoing conflict between Homeline and Centrum.

As for its activity in the 8000 BC parallel, it has been here only for a short time, it hasn't had much time to affect much change as of yet. The scientists involved in the project are a bit more concerned about cultural contamination than the Imperium is. The base on Luna receives a relatively low level of funding from the Imperium's government, they currently can afford only to send small starships to parallel Universe (800 tons of less) they would like to equip a capital ship with a wormhole drive but just don't have the funding to do such a thing. The Imperium can't figure out a way to colonize a parallel without putting its colonists in danger of being cut off from the Imperium should the one wormhole they have to get there be lost, stolen,more destroyed, they already had one such wormhole with Starship and drive be stolen by Solomani pirates or privateers. (The aren't sure, the Solomani Confederation is denying all responsibility for the theft) The scientists working in the project are concerned about the natives, there is a minor Imperium Noble, a Baroness Cybell Gardner, who is the main advocate for this project at the Imperial Court, she currently resides in Columbia, South Carolina on Terra, her father has some influence at the Capitol, so through him, Cybell has been able to secure a steady stream of funding for the project.

 

[Werner]

What about writing (and associated tech, like paper or clay/wax tablets), alphabets, arithmetic, and even things like basic hygiene and germ theory (say, using a simple microscope or so)?

There are some simple tech the Imperium has passed on, mostly the scientists involved with the project and the Baroness Cybelle Gardner makes these decisions, they have advanced the tech of Jericho to around tech level 2, they have steel armor, crossbows,longbow, catapults windmills, and sailing ships so far the scientists haven't passed on gunpowder or its equivalent yet. (They don't entirely trust the Jericho government, which is a sort of monarchy, so they don't want to give them too much.)