A Colder War

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A Colder War is an alternate history novelette by Charles Stross. It follows a "What If" scenario where the follow-up expedition in Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness" has occurred, and inexorably fuses the Cold War and Cthulhu Mythos.

The story appears in "Spectrum SF #3" (Summer 2000), Gardner Dozois's "The Year's Best Science Fiction #18" (2001), "Toast: And Other Rusted Futures" (February 2002), and "Toast" (January 2004). The text can be read online in its entirety here.

Contents

[edit] Chapters

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

[edit] Analyst

The central character is Roger Jourgensen, a CIA intelligence analyst. He is intently viewing an intelligence file; in particular a photograph taken by a U-2 spy plane over Ukraine during the autumn of 1961. The photo depicts the site of a frightening hidden superweapon called Project Koschei,[1] intended for use against NATO by the Soviet Union.

[edit] Red Square Redux

A secret video briefing showcasing an alarming discovery made during the Red Square May Day parade of 1962. Along with the usual displays of military power, a startling sight presents itself: Four huge tractors, each hauling something the size of a small house hidden under taurpalins.

They are explained to be classified weapons called servitors, and that this is the first time that any party of the 1931 Dresden Agreement[2] has openly demonstrated ownership of them. No exact figures are given due to the unreliable nature of the Soviet ORBAT.

The briefing cuts to images taken by a KH-11 spy satellite, spaced 89 minutes apart. The first shows the heavily-armed Khyber Pass town of a noted mujahideen leader. The second shows the same town utterly devastated with no visible survivors, with all evidence pointing to servitor usage.

[edit] Puzzle Palace[3]

Roger is trying to summarize a number of highly-classified reports, that if approved, will be presented to the USNSC and the President-elect. Among them is a small 1963 report on Project Koschei, and the revelation that the US counter comes in the form of an XK-PLUTO[4] massed nuclear strike rated at 300 megatons.

Also mentioned is a cover-up of a major Antarctic incident concerning the fate of the 501st Airborne Division, with the official explanation being a secret underground nuclear test. In reality, it was due to a strange Antarctic plateau that appears on no maps and is not acknowledged to exist under the clandestine Dresden Agreement, an agreement which even Adolf Hitler adhered to.

Roger is having extreme difficulty in trying to effectively convey the danger of the Mythos in a mere summary, the same danger that badly disturbed Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, and Lyndon B. Johnson. Eventually he leaves the task for the next day of work and books out.

[edit] Late Night in the White House

Roger's report was so stunning that Oliver North[5] has had him transferred onto a secret Presidentially-authorized team with blank check status, and has the USSR described to him as "Upper Volta with shoggoths".[6] Executive orders additionally give him control over secret weapons such as FEVER DREAM, NIGHTMARE, and PLUTO.

[edit] The moonlit shores of Lake Vostok

Roger is under the Ross Ice Shelf and above Lake Vostok, observing a midget submarine's delivery of Afghanistanian heroin. What makes it special is that they're using a Predecessor gate system[7] that links worlds light-years apart from each other. Unfortunately, a mid-journey solar flare has detrimental effects on the submarine's crew.

[edit] General LeMay would be Proud[8]

Another video briefing showcasing the US counter to Project Koschei, reiterating on the constant state of readiness maintained and providing details on XK-PLUTO. It cuts to the Project itself, showcasing how it was first raised from the ocean by Nazi Germany's Organisation Todt,[9] then taken by the Soviet Union and moved to its current location in Ukraine.

[edit] Technology taster

Professor Stephen Jay Gould[10] is hosting a briefing on strange discoveries, such as live Anomalocaris[11] in Lake Vostok, and the recovery of a specimen with no identifiable cellular structure, DNA, or RNA. The Anomalocaris yields cellular and genetic properties too distinctive from anything else on Earth and is concluded to be extraterrestrial life, which the colonel confirms.

While the briefing continues, Roger mentally recalls reading through Nazi human experimentation records on the human brain's ability to survive in close proximity to Cthulhu, on Josef Mengele's insanity, and the final SS attempt to get rid of survivors and witnesses.[12]

On a final note, it is revealed that Gould has managed to find an Elder Thing, and is frankly wowed by their impressive and long-lasting high tech civilization.

[edit] The Great Satan[13]

Roger is at the King David Hotel meeting with Mehmet, an Iranian revolutionary linked to Hezbollah and possibly Ruhollah Khomeini. Mehmet mentions that the Iraqis are offering nightly sacrifices to Yair-Suthot in Basra, with bloody results in Tehran.[14]

Mehmet also mentions Leng, identifies the Soviet weapons as those in the Kitab al-Azif, and refers to the Mi-go in the Himalayas. He also mentions that the gates are opening everywhere, stating that one of their F-14 Tomcats even flew through one.

The situation has become so dire that he informs them that they are contacting Mossad with the intent to purchase a nuclear weapon from the Negev Nuclear Research Center,[15] and reveals that the Ayatollah has declared in private that any warrior who carries out an atomic suicide attack on the Basra temple will definitely reach Paradise.

[edit] Swimming pool

Roger is being questioned by a panel of congressmen. They eventually come to the topic of shoggoths, with Roger explaining them in terms of molecular nanotechnology. He also mentions that they're programmable using a deduced command language, and that the US has not a single one which places them at a distinct military disadvantage.

The topic goes on to the XK-PLUTO contingency, and how it is believed Soviet control of the shoggoths is rudimentary at best. What does worry them however is the Basra temple, a topic which eventually moves on to Cthulhu, and the narrative mentioning an offworld evacuation site for important government personnel.

One of the congressmen mentions "The Great Filter",[16] and connects it to the usage of Mythos elements as weapons. The chapter ends with a sudden start to an evacuation.

[edit] Bombing in fifteen minutes[17]

A confused Roger is ushered along with a huge number of other people through the evacuation gateway because of an incident. They eventually reach their destination, a developed region on a dead alien world, called XK-Masada.[18]

[edit] We need you back

Roger becomes self-destructive over the next week. The colonel informs him that Earth is in chaos; Yegor Ligachev is screaming at the US, Europe is in a mess and the Middle East region has become completely unsafe. It is also revealed that Saddam Hussein is believed to have finally stabilized a gate to Yog-Sothoth, after years of going after the technology.

Perhaps worst of all is the fact that a now-awoken Cthulhu will not stop moving west towards the Atlantic Ocean, not even after being struck by the PLUTO nuclear weapons. The Americans are desperate for a way to stop him.

[edit] Masada

The ending is ambiguous. Either Roger is imagining things, or he just held a conversation with some creature out of the Mythos.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Koschei, called the Deathless, is the name of an evil immortal in Slavic mythology.
  2. ^ While the Dresden Agreement is never explained, it becomes rather obvious that it was an agreement to cover up the existence of the Mythos from the public at large. Additionally, the year 1931 is of significance; it is the year the original expedition took place.
  3. ^ The title is a reference to the National Security Agency, which has the nickname "The Puzzle Palace".
  4. ^ Project Pluto was never actually completed in real-life.
  5. ^ Oliver North is a real-life person most famous for his part in the Iran-Contra Affair.
  6. ^ During the real Cold War the phrase "Upper Volta with rockets" referred to the Soviet Union possessing both advanced military technology and a moribund economy.
  7. ^ The scientifically-advanced Elder Things are not actually stated in any Mythos stories to have had such technology.
  8. ^ The title references USAF General Curtis LeMay, a pioneer of strategic bombing and leader of the Strategic Air Command during the early Cold War; he was known for his extremely aggressive policies concerning nuclear warfare.
  9. ^ Organization Todt was infamous for using slave labour during WWII.
  10. ^ Professor Gould was a well-known paleontologist and evolutionary biologist in real-life.
  11. ^ Real Anomalocaris went extinct long ago during the Cambrian.
  12. ^ See "The Holocaust".
  13. ^ The title of this chapter is an ironic reference to the fact that Iranian militants refer to the United States of America as "The Great Satan".
  14. ^ See "Iran-Iraq War" for information on the real-life conflict between the two.
  15. ^ The NNRC is of particular interest in Israel's nuclear history. It is commonly believed to be a nuclear weapons factory, a claim neither confirmed nor denied under a policy of deliberate ambiguity.
  16. ^ "The Great Filter" is a theory that attempts to explain the non-observance of extraterrestrial life. Specifically, there may be a figurative "filter" that prevents the needed levels of technology from being reached or sustained.
  17. ^ The title refers to an infamous quip by Ronald Reagan where he had declared, unaware that it would be broadcast, "My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.". Often mistakenly reported as a more lenient fifteen minutes.
  18. ^ The name 'Masada' is a reference to the historical citadel of Masada, where Jewish forces made a last stand against the Roman army; realising they faced an overwhelming power, the defenders ultimately committed mass suicide.
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