1) If anyone was going to spot that, I was going to; I'm a TU fan from way back, after all. (I'm the guy who did "This Day in the Trinity Universe" on his LJ, and who roleplays Divis Mal, Slider and Max Mercer at Milliways.) And I figured it was more Hammersmith, given the circumstances.
2) I've never read Luther Arkwright, so we're even. (I should probably remedy that one of these days.) I don't know that Talbot got "Zero-Zero" directly from Laumer, but the fact that both stories involve divergences in British history makes it seem plausible to me. (Also, the Imperium is cited in GURPS Alternate Earths 2 as an influence on Centrum, and the Cocini and Maxoni mentioned in the timeline on p.AET120 are namesakes of Giulio Maxoni and Carlo Cocini, the inventors of the parachronic drive used by the Imperium, so I recommend you at least give it a look-in.)
3) Time enough to develop it. I'm sure Reich-5 isn't the only world where Nazi science sneers at the dimensional barrier, after all. (I actually put that into an IW-style worldbox for Reich-5: "As the politics of the fascist superstates curdle, Nazi science sneers at the dimensional barrier, allowing elements within the SS to expand the Reich into other timelines." In the immortal words of Lucy More Marsden, had to.)
2) I've never read Luther Arkwright, so we're even. (I should probably remedy that one of these days.) I don't know that Talbot got "Zero-Zero" directly from Laumer, but the fact that both stories involve divergences in British history makes it seem plausible to me. (Also, the Imperium is cited in GURPS Alternate Earths 2 as an influence on Centrum, and the Cocini and Maxoni mentioned in the timeline on p.AET120 are namesakes of Giulio Maxoni and Carlo Cocini, the inventors of the parachronic drive used by the Imperium, so I recommend you at least give it a look-in.)
3) Time enough to develop it. I'm sure Reich-5 isn't the only world where Nazi science sneers at the dimensional barrier, after all. (I actually put that into an IW-style worldbox for Reich-5: "As the politics of the fascist superstates curdle, Nazi science sneers at the dimensional barrier, allowing elements within the SS to expand the Reich into other timelines." In the immortal words of Lucy More Marsden, had to.)