Alexandria
"I've seen things you wouldn't believe.... Alexandrian paddle-wheels on fire in the Aegean. I watched steam cannons hurl Greek fire near the gates of Byzantium. All these memories will be gone, like tears...."
"Keep your memories, just wipe the phone. You know the rules."
Summary
On Baseline, the aeolipile was a simple distraction. On Alexandria, however, a student of Hero at Alexandria, there to learn more about mining, considered that it might be a tool for improving the use of water screws. He spent several years working on this prospect, which involved several advances in gearing and power transmission, until he finally learned of steam compression. His mine pumps were the first use of his engine, but were slow to spread out of the local area. It was Alexandria that benefitted the most, drawing to it the greatest engineers and scientists, with their skill and ingenuity triggering incredible innovations, creating what visitors would describe as a city of magic.This paid off in 215 AD, when Caracella launched his attack. Steam-powered repeating ballistae, pneumatic tubs shooting casks of Greek fire, and similar weapons were turned on the Roman troops. Over the next few decades, war between North African and Mediterranean Rome flared. When Greece, culturally bound to Alexandrian Egypt, turned on Rome, the end was assured.
Present It is 315 AD locally, and it is the Alexandrian Empire that rules the Mediterranean, North Africa, and most of the Southern Europe. Greek culture is dominant in the Empire; Even in Egypt itself, Egyptians remain second-class citizens, as do Jews and other ethnicities. What's left of Rome, politically, is in northern Europe, with an 'Emperor' ruling from Londinium, ever watchful for Alexandrian steamships coming up the coast.
Christianity is still considered a Jewish sect, though it continues to spread, especially in the poorer and politically disenfranchised parts of this new Empire. Several versions of the Gospels, many different from those found on Baseline, have been recovered by BREACH.
The breach point is, to the annoyance of many, deep in Germania (thus, far from Alexandria and its libraries it was quite a shock to the first-in team when, after several weeks in what seemed to be a typical late-Roman alternate, they reached Geneva and found it was the terminus of a steam-powered riverboat line, and a garrison of the Alexandrian Empire against barbarians and pretenders to Rome.
Greece, being a NATO member and a major contributor to BREACH funding, wants approval to station long-term agents and run their own operations, without BREACH facilities (or personnel) being involved. This is, of course, purely for 'historical research', but it is hardly a secret they'd like to assure their influence on this world. The potential for trade in tourism and artifacts is immense, and they also wish to protect a Greek-centric Empire from being undermined by "others", by which they mean "Turkey". There are also missionary groups who are covertly trying to improve Christianity's political position in this world, which can be quite risky; while the Alexandrian Empire does not ban other religions, it also insists on all officials, nobles, and so on, being ardent and public practitioners of traditional Greek Hellenistic faith.
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