perfidy

Johno insisted that this be done by today, so here it is:

The governments of the United States and Britain have discovered that the Earth is in peril. A team of British SAS captured a mysterious man in the mountains of Afghanistan, a man who spoke no known languages. After bringing in some linguists and therapeutic semanticians, the Brits discovered that the man believed he came from another dimension, a parallel earth whose history had diverged far in the past. While his story was remarkably detailed and consistent, it was too farfetched for anyone to believe.

Later, an American army unit based in Kazakhstan was engaged in training maneuvers when they discovered a mystery man of their own. After a similar period of confusion and language difficulties, they extracted from their captive a story remarkably similar to the one told to the Brits.

The stories were ominous. The two men were representatives, or scouts for a cross dimensional empire that was planning on invading our Earth. It appeared that this empire was ruled by a descendent of the Great Khan, Ghengis, and that the Mongol propensity for pyramids of human skulls had not atrophied over the centuries. These 21st Century Mongols had already conquered their own and a dozen other worlds. Their technology is unknown, but feared to be equal or greater to our own. And of course, they have some means of traveling between the parallel worlds.

Obviously, no word of this threat could be released, at least not until more knowledge was acquired. Shifting around the kind of prominent people that would of necessity make up recon team for a mission of this importance would clue people in to the fact that something was going on. Happily, both the British and American governments (in the interests of posterity) had been freezing the heads of accomplished citizens since the the development of refrigeration technology in the mid nineteenth century.

In the last several months, an American research team had successfully revived the first of the frozen heads, that of Sid Vicious. Despite the advanced genetic technology that put the mind of the deceased into a brand new youthful body, the revived Mr. Vicious immediately committed suicide. Faced with the greatest threat ever, the decision was made to assemble a team from the deceased, so that the mission could have the greatest chance of success while still remaining utterly secret.
The Team:

Sir William Samuel Stephenson: “The man called Intrepid” Canadian born inventor, ace fighter pilot, businessman, and finally spymaster for the British in WWII. Team Leader

Dr. Richard P. Feynman:Brilliant Physicist, head of theoretical division in the Manhattan Project, with a brain “second only to Einstein” – but more in touch with reality. Science Officer

Nicola Tesla: Serbian-American inventor, arguably the most creative and capable technologist in human history. Technologist

Bruce Lee: The most skilled and fearsome martial artist in human history. Human Weapon

Sir Richard Francis Burton: Spy, soldier, linguist (25 languages!), writer, anthropologist, swordsman, explorer. Intelligence Officer

Amy Elizabeth Thorpe: Spy, babe. Femme Fatale

Thomas Edward Lawrence: “Lawrence of Arabia” scholar, soldier, gifted strategist, writer. Military Advisor

Isaac Asimov: Fantastically prolific and inventive writer of science fiction and just about everything else. Walking Encyclopedia

The team's mission is to enter the alternate worlds controlled by the Mongol Hordes, assess their strength's and capabilities, and above all steal or figure out the technology behind their crosstime gates. The scientific and technological emphasis influenced the choice of Feynman and Tesla, as well as Stephenson. Burton and Lawrence's experience in the middle and far east were thought to increase their chances, especially Burton's linguistic skills. All of the team speaks at least two languages. Thorpe was the most accomplished of the women spies who survived the war (the goverment couldn't freeze the brains when they were in the hands of the Nazis.) Bruce Lee was added to the team because, well, he's frickin' Bruce Lee. 'Nuff said.

The team is supported by two groups: 1) a team of extraordinarily geeky MIT grad students from a variety of disciplines. Their job is to bring the team up to snuff on modern technology and science. Of course, Tesla and Feynman will likely be teaching them within minutes. They will also equip the team with a variety of high tech gizmos that will undoubtedly come in handy. And 2) a team of highly trained SAS and Delta Force commandos who will refresh the weapons training of the team, and train them in the use of an array of lethal devices. (In addition, Stephenson's flight training will be brought up to date, and he will qualify on several types of modern aircraft.)

The team will spend some time getting familiar with each other, and bringing the older members up to date on current events. Burton and Lawrence will be the most out of date, but most of the others died no earlier than the sixties. Then, they will wait for a new gate to open - somewhere in central asia if the intelligence community's guesses are correct - and go through. The special forces group will provide covering fire, if necessary, on the way in but will not accompany the team into the parallel worlds.

[side note] I thought for a bit about superheroes and fictional characters, but superheroes don't interest me as much as they once did. So I decided to go with actual humans. Limiting the time frame and nationality made filling out the last couple slots rather difficult.

If I were going with fictional characters facing a random all-encompassing evil threat, I might choose:

• Aragorn
• Batman
• Jacob Demwa from Brin's Sundiver
• The Gunslinger
• Friday from Heinlein's book
• Kimball Kinnison from the Lensman series
• Obiwan Kenobi - and,
• A motie engineer (with birth control!!)

Thanks for blowing a day for me, Johno!