* * * * *
Dana was momentarily speechless with open-mouthed shock.
"I knew anti-matter was powerful stuff. But, to disintegrate a whole world...?!"
The Moderator shook his head: "Only the lightship, the two GTS-goddesses, and Vancouver Island were disintegrated. The rest of that parallel-Earth was ravaged by super-quakes and tsunamis caused by the simultaneous eruption of every volcano in the Pacific Ring of Fire! There were very few survivors in the aftermath. Among them were two other GTS-goddesses."
On Earth-07052009-A, the Russo-Japanese War had dragged on an extra five years. Partly, because GTS-goddess Gabrielle had ordered the Confederate States of America to remain neutral. And, partly because Russia and Japan were protected by GTS-goddesses of their own!
"Valentina of Russia got tired of seeing so many of her countrymen dying. So, she requested that the Czar allow her to battle her Japanese counterpart; Tanaka Mai. Winner take all! The Emperor of Japan agreed. And, on the same day that Tesla fired his super-weapon, Mai and Valentina were fighting each other in the Tunguska region of Siberia. Somehow, a crosstime warp was opened. Perhaps through a combination of geothermal energy, released by all the seismic upheaval, and fall-out from the explosion. In any event, they wound up on yet another parallel-Earth. The one inhabited by the people that your people call...the Norms!"
Dana could not help gasping, incredulously. Yet, the Moderator assured her he was telling the truth.
"Valentina and Mai continued their fighting, there. Completely oblivious to any differences they might otherwise have noticed sooner between the two Earths. Such as a complete lack of any other regional GTS-goddesses! By the time they did realize it, and depart (via the local version of the Bermuda Triangle), it was too late. The damage had been done. The people of Earth-03312008 now hated all extra-dimensional races not their own. And, they demonstrated that hatred by invading both the Gromanian Empire...and the Sizeloan Commonwealth."
tbc