Counting Up, Counting Down

Counting Up, Counting Down is a collection of short stories by Harry Turtledove. It is named after two of the stories appearing in the book, one called Forty, Counting Down and the other named Twenty-One, Counting Up. The book was originally published by Del Rey as a trade paperback in January 2002. In the same month, it was brought out as a leatherbound limited edition by Easton Press.

Short Stories

Forty, Counting Down

A 40 year old computer genius named Justin Kloster invents a time machine based on string theory and Virtual reality. Using this device, he travels back in time to visit himself when he was 21. It was that at this age that he began dating his future wife who would later divorce him. As Justin never recuperated from his loss, he decides that this time machine is his chance to redo his relationship with her with more success. As such, he convinces his younger self to lay low while his older self courts his girlfriend. Unfortunately for Justin's plan, he finds that his older self is even less successful than his younger counterpart, and his girlfriend leaves him, much sooner than she did in the original timeline. The older Justin decides to head back to his own time in the future, leaving a large sum of money behind. When he awakes in his original time, he discovers that he has successfully founded his own string-theory company, and is happily married to another woman and has several children. He attributes this to his original relationship not becoming as serious, as well as inspiring his younger self and providing him with seed-money to start his own business.

Must and Shall

On July 12, 1864, US President Abraham Lincoln is killed by a sniper at Fort Stevens while inspecting the ramparts. His Vice President Hannibal Hamlin becomes the new president and at his inaugural speech on July 21, he promises retribution.

The following year in 1865, the Civil War (known as the Great Rebellion) ends with a Union victory and the south is put under heavy military occupation. Many Confederate leaders such as Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and Joseph E. Johnston are executed by hanging.

Ready for the Fatherland

On February 19, 1943, Erich von Manstein assassinates Adolf Hitler in response to an insult. In short order, Hitler's successors make a separate peace with the Soviet Union, and are able to keep the Western Allies from gaining a toe-hold on Italy and France. With that, World War II ends in a stalemate. The Cold War becomes a three-way conflict, with the United States and the United Kingdom jostling against Germany and the Soviet Union.

In 1979, two British agents named George Smith and Peter Drinkwater travel to Fascist-ruled Croatia to meet with a Serbian partisan, seeking British arms. In truth, the Brits are there to set the Serbian up, and arrange for his capture and arrest by Croatian authorities, in exchange for their nation having access to oil in the North Sea without German interference.

Twenty-One, Counting Up