The Long Road to Gaia by Timothy Ellis Page B

One was actually interested, and instead of waving away Nineteen,
she waved her to sit. Five sighed. I think we're all spending too much time in
human form, since it seems all of us are picking up their mannerisms. Scary
thought.
    "Who won?" asked Six.
    "Those who weren't involved,"
answered Nineteen with a grin.
    "Ha-ha," said Twelve. "What
actually happened?"
    "The American fleet was reinforced by
the Canadian fleet, adding two more Battleships, three Cruisers, and a handful
of smaller ships to the fleet. The Germans were too slow cleaning the jump
point of the first battle, and the British caught up, adding another five
Battleships and a dozen Cruisers, plus a Carrier and support ships. The
Americans also had enough time for basic repairs. So when the Germans jumped
into Bermuda, they were outgunned."
    Nineteen looked at me.
    "You'd have enjoyed the battle Thirteen.
It was a bigger slugfest than the one you did see."
    No, I think not. Battles were not really my
thing. I know some of my peers considered battles among mundanes to be
entertainment, but I didn’t. I'm not sure why Nineteen counted me in their
number.
    She paused slightly to see my reaction, and
when I didn’t give one, she went on.
    "This time it was the German's who
withdrew. They lost two thirds of their fleet, and the remainder escaped only
because the jump lane was too heavy with debris for the Americans to risk going
after them immediately. All the same, the Allied fleet lost almost half its
number as well."
    There were smiles around the table. Nothing
like big losses in a battle to get your bloodlust up. Except we didn’t have
blood in the conventional sense. I felt sick.
    "At the same time, the French,
Italian, and Spanish fleet received reinforcements from the Russians and
Chinese, and they pushed back the German fleet still in Barnard's Star."
    I sighed. War was war, but I found I really
didn’t want to hear about it. But it seemed I was the odd one out.
    "The Earth-side fleet had a harder
time than the top arm fleet in pushing the Germans back, so they met in
Deutschland at about the same time, in spite of the top arm fleet having
further to go. The final battle there, destroyed the remaining German ships,
and they surrendered. The Nazi government fell, and most of the leaders were
executed by their own people."
    "Nice," said Nine, grinning.
    "What was the fallout?" I asked.
    One nodded as well. Seemed this was her
main interest.
    "The Germans lost their status as a
sector, and became a sub-sector of Earth sector. They were forbidden to build
any ship larger than a Cruiser class, with strict limits on how many could be
built, and the size of guns which could be put on them. No Pocket Battleships
were going to be allowed."
    "So pretty much the same result as the
end of World War 2," interrupted Four.
    "Close. But there was one significant
difference."
    Nineteen paused, inserting an air of
expectation, maybe thinking someone would guess. No-one tried.
    "The Germans recognized themselves
that the Nazi mentality had a significant hold over a proportion of the
population, and this would never change. So they chose the planet with the
highest proportion of Nazi voters on it, declared the system to be the Fourth
Reich, and forcibly exiled all known Nazis on their other worlds there, while
encouraging anyone who supported them to move there as well. Laws were passed
making being a Nazi illegal, punishable by exile. But it's not just Germans.
Now there is a place specifically for those with the Nazi mindset, they are
moving there from all over Human space, or being exiled there. The Earth Torus
for example, is forcefully moving tens of thousands of known Nazis. The Nazis
themselves are starting to freak out about it, since the whole blond blue eyes
thing they pride themselves on is under threat from those who don’t look like
them, only think like them. Some shakeout to come there I think."
    "Probably overdue," said Eight.
    "The French, Italians, and