TWISTS OF CHANCE

Twists of Chance

Histories rewritten by a hair of chance: the storm that misses, the message that arrives, the petri dish washed clean. Small accidents, worlds of difference.

15 charted timelines in this galaxy

Twists of Chance

Chance falls a hair differently.

A theatre box draped with flags holds two couples in lamplight as a soldier stands post at the door, 1865

TWISTS OF CHANCE · 14 APR 1865 · WASHINGTON

Lincoln lives

Washington, 14 April 1865. The Grants have declined the President's theatre invitation, and the box will be guarded by one unreliable policeman. This is the timeline where the general changes his mind.

A vast silver airship descends toward a mooring mast in late sunlight as ground crew reach for its lines, 1937

TWISTS OF CHANCE · 6 MAY 1937 · LAKEHURST

The Hindenburg lands quietly

Lakehurst, New Jersey, 6 May 1937. The largest flying object ever built is waiting out a thunderstorm before landing. This is the timeline where the front passes an hour sooner, and the ship comes down in sunlight.

A sleek longship with lanterns waits at a torchlit Norman quay as young nobles board, 1120

TWISTS OF CHANCE · 25 NOV 1120 · BARFLEUR

The white ship comes home

Barfleur, the night of 25 November 1120. The heir to England is sailing on the newest ship in the harbor, and the crew is drinking the wine he brought aboard. This is the timeline where the wine stays on the quay.

A riderless horse stands over a fallen figure on the winter steppe as riders race in from the horizon, 1226

TWISTS OF CHANCE · WINTER 1226 · THE ORDOS

The khan falls at Yinchuan

The Ordos steppe, winter 1226. The conqueror of half the world is hunting wild horses when his mount rears and throws him. This is the timeline where the old man does not get up.

A lantern glows among stacked barrels and firewood in a dark undercroft, 1605

TWISTS OF CHANCE · 5 NOV 1605 · WESTMINSTER

The gunpowder under Parliament

London, 26 October 1605. A lord at supper is handed an anonymous letter warning him away from the opening of Parliament. This is the timeline where he reads it once, and burns it.

A Japanese floatplane fires off a cruiser catapult into a grey Pacific dawn, 1942

TWISTS OF CHANCE · 4 JUN 1942 · THE PACIFIC

The scouts of Midway

The Pacific, dawn, 4 June 1942. On the cruiser Tone, a catapult refuses to fire, and the search plane that matters most sits on its rail while the minutes drain. This is the timeline where it launches on time.

A gaunt banker in a dark suit stands at a tall window above Wall Street, ticker tape machine beside him, 1929

TWISTS OF CHANCE · OCT 1928 · NEW YORK

The long boom

New York, October 1928. The one central banker who knows what a panic needs is dying of tuberculosis at fifty-five. This is the timeline where Benjamin Strong lives to meet the crash.

An open presidential limousine speeds through Dallas as the last rifle shot misses, 1963

TWISTS OF CHANCE · 22 NOV 1963 · DALLAS

A clear noon in Dallas

Dallas, half past noon on 22 November 1963. The sky has cleared, the top is off the open car, and a rifle in a sixth-floor window has already fired twice. This is the timeline where the third shot goes wide.

Space Shuttle Challenger on the pad before dawn under a clear cold sky, no frost on the tower

TWISTS OF CHANCE · 28 JAN 1986 · CAPE CANAVERAL

Seventy-three seconds, and climbing

The coldest launch morning the program had ever known, 28 January 1986: ice on the gantry, and an overruled warning that the booster seals could fail in the cold. In our timeline the seal failed seventy-three seconds after liftoff. This is the timeline where the cold front stalls to the north, the rings stay soft, and Challenger climbs on.

Union soldiers resting in a sunlit clover meadow, one corporal’s open hand in the empty grass

TWISTS OF CHANCE · 13 SEP 1862 · FREDERICK, MARYLAND

The lost order stays lost

On 13 September 1862 two Union soldiers resting in a Maryland meadow found Robert E. Lee’s entire campaign plan wrapped around three cigars, and the road to Antietam and emancipation ran through that clover. This is the timeline where the courier drops nothing.

A tired official at a press conference table peering at a note through his glasses

TWISTS OF CHANCE · 9 NOV 1989 · EAST BERLIN

The wall stays up

On the evening of 9 November 1989, a tired East German spokesman was handed a note about new travel rules he had not read, and answered a question wrong. The Berlin Wall opened that night by mistake. This is the timeline where he says he will have to check.

A 1986 Soviet control room in daylight shift, operators calm at analog panels

TWISTS OF CHANCE · 25 APR 1986 · PRIPYAT, SOVIET UKRAINE

The reactor that never burned

Friday, 25 April 1986. Reactor four at Chernobyl is scheduled to run a routine safety test that afternoon, with the day shift that rehearsed it. In our timeline a grid controller in Kyiv phoned to say hold the test nine hours, and it ran after midnight instead, on a poisoned reactor, with a crew that had never seen it. This is the timeline where the phone stays quiet.

The Great Khan setting down a silver cup in a firelit ger, courtiers frozen

TWISTS OF CHANCE · DEC 1241 · THE FROZEN DANUBE

The khan lives one more winter

December 1241. The Mongol war machine has annihilated the armies of Poland and Hungary in a single week and stands on the frozen Danube, aimed at Vienna. Four thousand miles east, the Great Khan Ögedei drinks himself to death in a single night, and the horde turns home to choose his successor. This is the timeline where the cup is set down.

Two lookouts in the crow’s nest of an ocean liner on a moonless night, breath steaming

TWISTS OF CHANCE · 14 APR 1912 · THE NORTH ATLANTIC

Thirty seconds on the crow's nest

A flat calm, moonless night in the North Atlantic, 14 April 1912. Two lookouts with no binoculars are watching for ice from the crow’s nest of the largest ship ever built. In our timeline the iceberg came out of the haze with thirty-seven seconds to spare. This is the timeline where the haze thinned half a minute earlier.

A man in a bow tie washes Petri dishes at a lab sink, the bench behind him wiped clean

TWISTS OF CHANCE · 3 SEP 1928 · ST MARY'S, LONDON

The mold that was wiped away

3 September 1928. Alexander Fleming comes back from holiday to a cluttered London lab, and in our timeline one contaminated dish on that bench becomes penicillin. This is the timeline where he tidied up before he left.