The Probability Broach
Cover of the first edition
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| Author | L. Neil Smith |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | North American Confederacy |
| Genre | Alternate history |
| Published | 1979 |
| Media type | Print (paperback) |
| Followed by | The Venus Belt (by publication), The Nagasaki Vector (by chronology) |
The Probability Broach is the 1979 first novel by American science fiction writer L. Neil Smith. It is set in an alternate history, the so-called Gallatin Universe, where a libertarian society has formed on the North American continent, styled the North American Confederacy (NAC). This history was created when the Declaration of Independence has the word unanimous added to the preamble, to read that governments "derive their just power from the unanimous consent of the governed".
Edward William "Win" Bear is a Ute Indian who works for the Denver Police Department in a version of the United States in an alternate history of 1987 to be controlled by an anti-business, ecofascist faction complete with a new police force created in 1984 called the Federal Security Police (FSP, or "SecPol" as it is more commonly known) reminiscent of the Gestapo. Henry M. Jackson is president, citizens' freedoms are very limited, and many laws and regulations have been passed. Examples include hoarding precious metals, such as silver and gold, is illegal and due to strict gun control policies, only the police and citizens with federal permits are allowed to carry guns.
Bear is called to investigate the unusual murder of physicist Vaughn Meiss; he eventually finds himself projected into the North American Confederacy by means of the "Probability Broach", an inter-dimensional conduit originally developed as a means for interstellar travel in the North American Confederacy by a bottlenose dolphin physicist, named Ooloorie Eckickeck P'Wheet, and her human compatriot, Dr. Dora Jayne Thorens.
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