Bright Red Line (Backyard Starship #22)

by J.N. Chaney

“Chernobyl?” B nodded. “That’s it. A handful of workers pushed the wrong buttons at the wrong times, and it’s the beginning of the end of that Soviet Union thing. Anyway, my point is that you can’t introduce a novel, star-spanning entity like your new Guild to known space without it potentially causing chaos and upheaval.” “Unintended consequences and all that,” Tor said. “So, yeah, I guess that’s turned me into a bit of a prepper.” “Especially since we’ll have grandchildren to look after,” Kay added. I just nodded. I spent the rest of the short drive to the house brooding over it, though. I hadn’t thought of what we were planning in those worrisome terms. But it was a good point. If we did bring down the old Guild and erect a new one in its place, well, that seemed like a good and worthy goal. But what sort of unintended consequences could come whirling out of it? Chernobyl pushes the teetering Soviet Union over the brink. A German chemist figures out how to make ammonia from nitrogen at an industrial scale, revolutionizing food production through readily available fertilizer—and laying the foundation for the large-scale production of chemical weapons. A driver makes a wrong turn in Sarajevo, giving a Serbian activist a chance to kill an Austrian Archduke, plunging the world into a brutal, bloody war. Unintended consequences. Yeah, as if I didn’t have enough reason to second-guess myself.

Okay, wait.. We talking "Earth Guild Nexus"? https://youtu.be/zhMr4hBwWGw?si=yqCOy2LJLfHfJHKw