Corsania
2.10 pm: London
People stared at the huge black hole that had opened up in by the Thames. Was it some kind of elaborate terrorist attack on the Houses of Parliament? Some stone work broke off the wall, but no one heard it hit the ground.
Why?
Because it never hit the ground.
It was the second man made object to ever leave the solar system.
The first was Big Ben.
The first people to come through the hole did so accidently. They strayed too close to the black and found themselves coming out in the base of the world’s most famous clock tower. Soon, people realised what they had found. Another planet…another solar system…another galaxy. When the astronomers studied the night sky, they saw no stars or constellations like any where on earth.
The question was, how did we get there? Who, or what, opened a link to another planet?
The debate over the fate of the newly discovered land was intense. Some naturally feared it was going to be the end of the world, demanding the hole be somehow closed. This was, however, by no means the intention of the British government. They soon planted the British flag on the new found planet and claimed in the name of Britain.
This was to prove unsuccessful. The Outer Space Treaty*, of which Britain was a signatory, did not permit the claiming of outer space by any country, and scientists had established that this was most certainly not on earth. As such, they agreed to set up an separate country, under the protection of British forces, on the new planet. It was named by the first human to ever set foot on the new planet, in honour of the town in which he grew up, Corsania.
* I indulge my obsessive nature here by looking up the treaty. It is specifically Article II: “Outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means.”
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