Tomorrow: Yesterday

Behind the buzz created by SETI's receipt of their response [actually little more than a duplicate of the original signal with some changes, albeit changes recognizable as intentional modifications], a single scientist, formerly of the UN, worked on his own project. His name was Derek Ramirez, a Mexican American scientist. He had been one of the leading researchers into the paraphysical technology behind the Berlin Project, and his breakthroughs in the science had led to the ultimate creation of the jump drive. However, credit for this was taken by fellow scientist Jacques Letoure, of France, who stole the research and prettied it up as his own. When Ramirez protested, his colleagues accused him of trying to stir up trouble. But he refused to be silenced, and this obstinacy eventually led to his expulsion from the project.

Bitter towards the United Nations for allowing this to happen, Ramirez made use of his considerable talent with computers to siphon a couple hundred million dollars from the budget of this program. Working laboriously day and night for over four years, he finally completed his project in 2114. He had built a time machine.

Ramirez knew that this invention would almost certainly place his name in history books the world over. This goal in mind, he set off back to the year 1936, intending to acquire some artifact from the Third Reich [of which he was an ardent admirer]. However, his utter lack of foresight [hindsight?] resulted in his capture by the SS and subsequently his being worked to death in labor camps the following year.

Of course, this may seem insignificant, but the butterfly effect will now come into play. The startling discovery of a strange flying object [the time machine] in his airspace had decidedly startled Hitler, forcing him to take a more cautious approach to foreign policy. This resulted in the absence of the joint Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland two years later.

Meanwhile, without any bothersome treaties for him to worry about, Stalin began to focus the considerable power of Soviet heavy industry to aid the Communists in China. Over the course of the next couple of years, extending into mid-WWII in our time, the Chinese Nationalists were caught off-guard by Soviet armies pouring over China's border [taking Mongolia in the process] and smashing into them from their rear. At the same time, Mao's Communists launched a vicious assault from the front, catching the Nationalists completely off-guard. Within a few weeks China had gone Communist, Chiang Kai-shek being executed as an "enemy of the state."

These events made nearby Imperial Japan highly suspicious, albeit it did stall their invasion of China, which did not occur in 1937.

In the meantime, Britain went about its business granting India independence, and France badly mismanaged Indochina. Hitler decided to listen to his generals, and switched to wholesale manufacture of Panzer IIIs and IVs instead of the obsolete Is and IIs. Britain also granted Palestine independence, and Jews quickly gained control of the country and renamed it Israel. Britain also granted many of the other states in the area independence, with Syria and Lebanon being forced into conflict with France in order to win self-government. Muslim majorities quickly gained power there and began warring with Israel. However, British vehicles and aircraft enabled the Israelis to utterly demolish the Arabs, resulting in the destruction of much of Egypt and Jordan by Israeli bombers.

Most of the other major powers had information on this, noting the failing points and strengths of the British designs and filing the information away. The year was now 1946, ATL [Alternate timeline]. Four major blocs had been formed, the Western Allies still recognizable, the Axis powers intact and including Franco's Spain, Communists in Russia and China, and the Arabs in the Middle East, smarting badly from their defeat at the hands of Israel and trying hard to refloat themselves.