It was a beautiful July 4 and Newgate was all prepared to celebrate another Battleday as it had for over two centuries.  For one of the first times ever, bands from outside Newgate were invited to participate in the parade down Newgrun Avenue from where the Newgate Diner is located all the way to Lake Praven.  With free breakfast being offered at the diner, it was a logical place to start the parade after a big breakfast.  The buses had to be parked along the road and in the parking lot of the Newgate Country Club down the road a mile.  Tables were lined up in the parking lot of the diner so hundreds of marchers could be fed before marching.  And with synthetics serving the diners and all four eight-armed cooks preparing the food since 4:00 AM, there was plenty of food for everyone.  The molecular material for the food and beverage synthesizers came from another dimension that didn’t miss it. 

There were floats in the parade like the one sponsored by the Newgate Baptist Temple which commemorated the debate the pastor in 1914 had with Satan a week before WW I began.  The pastor and Satan are in front of a small congregation debating the Bible and other Christian and Satanic subjects. 

The diner sponsored another float which commemorated Thanksgiving Day 1941 when Nazi Colonel Max Shenckel stopped off at the diner with his men before they attempted to drive to Niagara Falls to destroy the power plant there to involve this nation in WW II.   Demon wolves are shown with Nazi soldiers at their mercy and the colonel with his Luger pressed under his chin ready to be fired.

City Hall hada float commemorating the founding of Newgate by Strom Newgrun, Dervis Mangen, Febris Nackles, Bevern Forbren, Tunk Haarn, and his wife Leena.  They are shown on one end of the float with a transporter portal between them and a descendant of the Oneida chief that made a treaty with the founders in 1674 along with other descendants of Oneidas that were there. 

A fourth float sponsored by the Newgate Public Library commemorated the appearance by HG Wells and Jules Verne in Newgate with the librarian in 1901.   Projections of things from the books of both men are displayed on the float and also in the air like the projectile from Verne’s book “A Trip To the Moon and Back” and one of the three-legged walkers the Martians attacked earth in. 

A fifth float sponsored by the Newgate Community Hospital shows an old man who looked like Nikola Tesla on January 1, 1943 enter the full body manipulation chamber nicknamed the Coffin and emerge as the rejuvenated Nikola Tesla.  Little did most people know but the man that left the chamber actually was Tesla.  He was a good sport and got the chance at the end of the day to talk about what he had done from ACE in the underground auditorium where the Newgate war trial in 1946 was held.  

The Grand Marshall was the man who started ACE; former-President William McKinley.  He looked a bit different than the pictures taken of him when he was in the White House over a century before.   He let his hair grow a little longer and was wearing a synthetic suit with no tie from one of the dimensions he worked in.  Only outsiders thought it was just a man portraying the President and not authentically.  Most people in Newgate knew it was the real deal. 

The way the parade was arranged was that two bands would march, then a float would follow, and the pattern would be repeated until the Grand Marshall’s vehicle which was a speeder from another dimension that used a double-field motive system  to levitate a few centimeters above the avenue came at the tail end. 

In the park at Lake Praven, men dressed in Revolutionary War uniforms demonstrated the weapons that won the battle in 1777 which Newgate commemorated each year.  They were sponsored by the Newgate History Museum where the weapons used in the battle were shown on display.  They were rugged enough to be used more than two centuries later. 

A soldier with arifle that was used against General Handly and his men was surrounded by about 20 children and adults.

“This looks similar to the Brown Bess that the general and his men used in the battle of Newgate.  But there are some obvious differences.”

The man lifted the weapon above his head to give everyone a good look at it. 

“What don’t you see?  Anyone?”

A man said, ”There’s no flintlock mechanism or pan.”

“That’s right.  And do you know why?”

A child spoke up and said, “It is an electromagnetic discharge weapon.”

“Exactly.  Instead of using a flint to strike a plate to produce a spark that ignites powder in a pan which ignites a load of powder in the breech, the hammer strikes a contact pin which is pushed down to complete the circuit which allows capacitors to magnetize the steel projectile in the breech at the same time most of the capacitors are discharged to repel the projectile out of the breech and down the magnetized barrel that produces a linear induction effect to accelerate the projectile to upwards to two miles a second.”

The man brought the rifle down to his chest and cocked the hammer back which was where hammers are located on contemporary rifles. 

“Now this is going to be loud.  So cover your ears.”

After slipping on ear protection, the man raised the rifle and pulled the trigger.  A loud crack was heard as the capacitors discharged their energy. 

“I think I forgot something.  What did I forget to do?  Hm…..”

The children said nearly in unison, “The projectiles.  You forgot the projectiles.”

“Oh, that’s right.  I guess I can’t kill any British soldiers with just a burst of energy.”

“Unless you used a power ray,” said a smart alack boy toward the front.

“Oh, a wise guy.  Yes, they did have them back then.  But weapons like this were all that were needed by the defenders of Newgate that day.  The Brown Bess musket that the British used had a muzzle velocity of a little more than half a mile a second while the rifle that the Newgaters used had a muzzle velocity nearly four times faster.  Weapons like this were used in the forest between the foot of the mountain on the other end of town and the town itself.  In fact, the Newgate diner is located where the general surrendered.”

The soldier pulled a tube with steel projectiles out of his ammunition pouch after he set the butt of his rifle on the ground.  He let a projectile that looked like a 50 calibre bullet slide out of the tube and into his hand. 

“This is a 50 calibre projectile.  It is solid steel and weighs less than half a pound.”

He held the projectile in the air so everyone could see it and then placed it back in the tube. 

“Each tube holds eight projectiles that are loaded into the rifle like this.”

The man twisted the end of the loading tube and removed the spring which was as long as the tube.  He dumped the projectiles into the tube and inserted the spring which was a bit difficult to twist in place.   He placed the ear protection over his ears and raised the rifle into firing position as he aimed at a target about a quarter mile away. 

“Stand clear of the range,” he shouted to the people between him and the target which was a replica of a British soldier standing at attention in front of cement blocks.  With the yellow tape and sticks bordering the range, not many people were dumb enough to stand in the way of the weapon. 

“When I dumped the projectiles into the tube, the first one slid into the breach of the weapon.  When I pull the hammer back like this, the breach door is closed under the projectile in the breach which we sometimes call the discharge chamber.  A magnet in the breach holds the projectile in place against the magnetic induction contacts and the discharge plug behind it.  When I pull the trigger, a burst of magnetic energy magnetizes the projectile for a split second and the discharge plug discharges most of the capacitors which produce enough repulsive energy to repel the projectile down the magnetized barrel at two miles per second.  What looked like rifling on the projectiles are magnetic strips that repel against the inside of the barrel so that the steel projectile doesn’t stick to the barrel.  The strips also keep the projectile magnetized too.”

He pulled the trigger and the steel projectile jumped out of the barrel, flew toward the soldier, slammed into his head that exploded, and penetrated three of the five layers of cement blocks.  He cocked the hammer seven more times and pulled the trigger each time to fire eight projectiles in less than eight seconds.  The last three projectiles flew a little ways past the last layer of cement blocks.  Thank goodness no one was behind the target. 

“If I need to reload the energy supply which happens after about 10,000 projectiles are fired, all I need to do is this.”

The man twisted the stock of the rifle three times and a panel opened which revealed the bank of capacitors and a small injection reactor the size of a cell phone in the stock. 

“All I need to do is remove the reactor and insert another into place.  Since it takes so long to do which could be costly during a battle, the reactor is replaced back at camp.  Or as in the case of the Revolutionary War, never.  During the battle, 45 of these rifles were used and only a few projectiles were ever fired at the enemy from any of them.  This weapon was used as a hunting rifle for half a century before it was turned over to the Newgate History Museum.  It has been fired maybe 1000 times since then and the reactor may still not need to be changed until sometime during the 22nd century.  We switch between this rifle and four others each year.”

He handed the rifle to an assistant wearing a uniform from the period who handed him a pistol with the same type of firing mechanism. 

“This pistol was also used during the battle.  The reactor is half the size of the one in the rifle and the capacitors that discharge the projectiles are in the wooden stock below the barrel and loading tube.  It also uses the same calibre of projectiles as the rifle so that the soldier won’t need to carry two sizes of ammunition.  The spring is a bit different in the loading tube though.”

The man twisted open the tube and pulled out the spring which was actually a series of spring levers that pushed the projectiles toward the breach.  The projectiles were poured into the loading tube and the springs were inserted and twisted into place.  The man fired at the cement blocks eight more times.  The projectiles didn’t quite penetrate three layers of blocks. 

“The power of the pistol is about half that of the rifle.  That means the muzzle velocity is a mile per second.  That is still faster than any projectile was fired from any gun until WW I when Germany lobbed shells into Paris from their infamous Paris gun.  It had a barrel that was over 90 feet long that fired a shell that was around nine inches in diameter.”

About half a mile away near the lake was a cannon that had a barrel that was over three meters long which could fire shells that were four inches in diameter.  There was a telescoping piston that pushed the barrel up from zero degrees to 60 degrees that used hydrolic pressure activated by a foot pedal on the right for more elevation and on the left for less elevation.   The gunner sat in a seat and turned a crank if he needed to aim the gun to the right or left.  The gunner used a sight that determined the approximate range of the gun.

A breach block operator opened the breach on the left side of the gun and a loader to the right of the operator loaded a projectile into the breach.  The breach was closed and locked.  When the gun was at the right elevation and aimed, the gunner squeezed a handle which fired a projectile across the lake and into a target that was about five meters above the ground.   The sound was more like a crack from a giant spark plug. 

Behind the weapon and the platform it was on was a capacitor bank the size of a refrigerator and an injection reactor the size of a gallon jug.   The projectiles were on a cart that had a rack that allowed three layers of shells to drop each projectile down toward the dispenser at the bottom.  A foot pedal tilted each dropped projectile up so that the loader wouldn’t have to fight with the next shell waiting to fall into place. 

The first shell traveled at three miles per second at a trajectory of 30 degrees and hit the first target that was five miles away.  The second shell traveled at the same velocity at a trajectory of 45 degrees and hit a target that was in a tree eight miles away.  The third shell traveled at the same velocity at a trajectory of 60 degrees and hit a target that was on a hydrogen balloon that was tethered to a couple trees 12 miles away.  The explosion was visible a county away. 

It only took about a minute to fire all three rounds which hit their targets.   The sound of each shell hitting a target was heard after the next shell was fired toward the next target.  That was how fast each shell was and the range the weapon had.  The last shell landed around 60 miles away in a field and gouged out a crater that was deep enough to bury a tractor. 

The weapons demonstration took place three times in the morning and three times in the afternoon.  If people didn’t want to watch guns being fired, they could visit the museums for free and eat for free at the restaurants.  The radio and TV stations of WNGT picked up the tab.  When little boys saw the dried blood on the claws of the stainless steel demon wolves in the moving statues gallery, they imagined the metal beasts ripping apart the thieves that tried to steal the clothes that had the diamonds on them from the Wearable Art Gallery. 

A recruiter for ACE was at the university near the science building where ACE contracted scientists and engineers to build equipment for the organization.  About fifty people showed interest in ACE.  But only 20 signed up to join the organization with ACE accepting just eight of the people.  The other dozen people had their applications kept on file for future reference. 

The Pleasantview Baptist Church had a booth in Corell Park which was named after the French colonel who was killed there in 1761 by members of the phantom army as the projections were known as.  Fifteen flavors of carbonated beverages were bottled by the Christian school run by the church and sold to the public to raise money for the school.  The flavors were cola, orange, grape, lemon-lime, pineapple, peach, cherry, raspberry, guava, mango, strawberry, lemon, watermelon, blueberry, and quath with quath being the big seller since it was so exotic and delivered quite a kick at times. 

The New Jerusalem Messianic Jewish Congregation had a booth next to the Baptist booth which sold EPU programs of historical events in the Bible from the creation of the universe to the Revelation of Saint John on the Isle of Patmos.  Some of the programs were actual footage of events like the flood, the crossing of the Red Sea (not the Reed Sea) by Moses and the Children of Israel, raining fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah, David killing Goliath, and the most popular series of events which took place between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday. 

A re-enactment of the intrusion by Colonel Morgan into the Saint James Anglican Church, which has since been renamed Saint James Episcopal Church, to try and seize Oneidas that took refuge there in 1779 was performed by some of the descendants of the people who were in the church that day including a descendant of the minister and the Oneida chief who played those parts.  The re-enactment was done every half hour. 

That afternoon in the Forbren Auditorium was a performance of Sangis Kernden’s oratorio ”Israel Victorious” which was composed to commemorate the victory of the phantom army over the French and Indians that wanted to invade Newgate.  That night was a performance of his opera “The Faithful Wife and Mother” in the same auditorium which was where Bach and Handel enjoyed the first performance in 1724. 

The cantatas the two great Baroque composers enjoyed at Saint James were performed again in the same venue in the afternoon and in the evening.   The last re-enactment of Morgan’s intrusion was performed between both cantatas that night. 

Everything was televised and recorded by WNGT that went on in Newgate that day.  There was even an interview with former-President Truman who was taking a stroll through town after the parade.  He told the reporter why he did what he did as President and what he had been doing for ACE since he was rejuvenated.  Even former-President McKinley was interviewed along with Nikola Tesla.  These three outsiders were probably the most honored outsiders to ever come to Newgate.  Their projections can be seen in the Newgate History Museum and people can stop to talk with them.  (Just don’t embarrass yourself by asking them stupid question like if they were a cat, would they fight dogs or run from them?)

Since Battleday is also the Fourth of July, an orchestra concert of American music ranging from Kernden to John Williams is always played, weather permitting, on a huge floating platform on Lake Praven.  So far, none of the lake monsters have showed up to interfere with the celebration.  Then again, a net that can deliver 10 million volts of energy on contact behind the platform about 100 yards is there just in case. 

As every year, weather permitting, a huge fireworks display takes place that is larger than anything in the world.  With access to the most explosive and spectacular fireworks and projections from twenty different dimensions and material synthesizers able to form tons of explosives, the fireworks display over Lake Praven at the end of both “The 1812 Overture” and “Stars and Stripes Forever” and then for another half hour at the very end is unmatched and has been looked forward to by Newgaters for over a century. 

Like people on the outside, Newgaters love parades, celebrations, and firework displays.  The people also love their city and the people in it; even the synthetics that make up most of the general population.  It is like New York City in that people from a host of dimensions visit and work in Newgate just like people from a host of nations visit and work in New York City. 

It is like a typical New England town in its general appearance, its belief in democracy for every citizen, and old-fashioned values like the belief in hard work and a reverence for God that is lacking in too many places. It also enjoys the seasons like many New Englanders do.

It is like Area 51 and other secret government installations due to the university’s involvement in the science department with ACE.  Some developments and technologies may never be known by the general public, even in Newgate, until after the existence of the Alien Cooperation Enterprise is made known to the public.  WNGT was only able to show to viewers what ACE allowed it to show.  Everything else is so classified that in comparison, the Roswell Incident in 1947 seems more like headline news compared to the secrecy associated with ACE. 

Newgate is a cultural center, a historical place despite the secrecy, a place of learning, a spiritual oasis in an increasingly barren region for God and his work, and a wonderful place to live.  If I could live anywhere in the world, Newgate, New York would be my choice I would want to call home.  Once you’re accepted by the people, they can make you feel like you have always belonged.   Being able to shift to different dimensions is just a big plus for people who are tired of going to the same old places all the time. 

Being in love with science fiction and God makes Newgate the perfect place for someone like me.  And with two fine Baptist churches to choose from, I would easily have a church home in Newgate.  And those who attend church services go because they really believe in the Bible and what God says.  And as the old Newgate statement goes, no one who shifts between dimensions is an atheist because they all know where Heaven and Hell are located.  For me, Newgate, New York sounds like a little bit of Heaven on Earth.