Prologue: The Spark That Lit the Fire
Special Production Of Educational Advancements [Royal Service]
Portman Island Test Facility
3433 After the Common Era
It was war, and that made it all right.
In reality the war had not begun yet, but it would. He had foreseen it. He had engineered it. Like the butterfly whose careless flaps stir the air just so, brewing a storm a thousand miles away, Doctor White's own measured motions had already nudged the fragile alliance system of the Middle-Kingdoms down a track from which they could never steer away. It had not taken much, no. They were ever eager for war; they dragged themselves to the edge many times without his machinations. It was enough to merely make the tipping inevitable. All it took was a little push.