Assassination by Subtraction

Reality Change Kv35C7 (1865e)

I recently blogged about possible cover images for the three science fiction mystery stories in the Sessily Trilogy. In these stories, a copy of Isaac Asimov is alive and writing in the year 2014. As depicted in the image to the right, imagine that Asimov, using the pen name "Saul Greek", wrote a mystery novel called Assassination By Subtraction.

In Assassination By Subtraction, an alien Interventionist must arrange for President Lincoln to die. This is accomplished by using teleporter technology to remove a few guards from Ford's Theatre, allowing John Booth to shoot Lincoln.

The Interventionist agent is a Preland. Why would a Preland want Lincoln to die? In the Ekcolir Reality, Lincoln never had to fight a civil war. Instead, he played a major role in promoting the economic development of the South, greatly stimulating the use of fossil fuels in the United States.

In the Ekcolir Reality

In the Ekcolir Reality, John Booth was a member of John Muir's NO COAL anti-strip mining organization. Lincoln vetoed a bill that would have heavily taxed the coal mining industry and forced strip mines to adhere to strict environmental damage regulations. Booth attempted to assassinate Lincoln, but he was captured by security guards inside Ford's Theatre.

Later in the Ekcolir Reality, when sea level rise began causing damage to coastal cities, Lincoln was reviled by environmentalists. When Asimov learned that Preland colonists had been allowed on Earth, he decided to write a mystery story about the involvement of a Preland agent in the assassination of a prominent politician. At that time, Asimov was collaborating with another famous writer who used the pen name "John Doe".

Preland agent on Earth

John was born in the Ekcolir Reality and he suggested that their collaboratively written story center on President Lincoln, the only U.S. president who was assassinated in both the Ekcolir Reality and the Buld Reality.

In Assassination By Subtraction, Lincoln's assassination is investigated, leading to the careful collection of testimony from the teleported guards. Although they had been drugged, their testimony ultimately leads to discovery of the Preland agent and the people of Earth learn that aliens have long visited Earth and controlled the course of human civilization.

Preland Interventionists

Aliens change history!

Long ago, Prelands were present on Earth as part of the Nereid plan to transfer Preland gene combinations into the primates of Earth. Once humans arose as a new species on Earth, the Nereids adopted the dual strategy of continuing to modify humans towards the hermaphroditic Preland pattern while also conspiring to modify the Preland colonists on Earth towards a more human-like biological form. The Nereids planned that gradually, perhaps a million years in our future, the human and Preland populations of Earth would become inter-fertile.

While writing Assassination By Subtraction, Asimov and "John Doe" had no real information about the reason why Prelands have visited Earth. The idea that a Preland agent would be involved in the assassination of a prominent Earthling was a fictional invention and intended to provide the backstory for a best-selling science fiction mystery story.

100 posts in 2014

100 Blog Posts in 2014
This is my 100th blog post of the year. Previously my most active year of blogging was last year (81 posts). I attribute the accelerating pace of blogging to my collaborators Thomas and Ivory.

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