The Athenian Syndrome

Aliens from the twenty-first century have firmly seized the Black Sea straits and captured Istanbul, renaming it Constantinople. The five-hundred-year occupation of the ancient Christian stronghold has been ended by the force of Russian arms. The “Sick Man of Europe” is more dead than alive, and soon the world will learn that in place of the Ottoman Porte, Yugorussia has appeared—a new, extraordinarily powerful state with currently undefined borders, instantly shuffling the cards for all European players. Some countries are bewildered by these events, others are terrified, while the British Empire, in general, has fallen into uncontrolled fury. But how will things unfold next—and what will the outcome be of the attempt by far-off North American states to catch a bit of fish for themselves in someone else’s murky water? After all, the aliens from the future came to this world forever: they forgot nothing and forgave no one, and to secure the future of their children they are ready to take the most decisive actions anywhere on the globe where it becomes necessary.