The Gemini Divergence (3 page)

The general started to speak with his first
exhale. “I have been waiting for the others to leave so that I may
have a private word with you Major Schwerig… I selected you for my
staff some months past because you came highly recommended… Before
Reinhard Heydrich died, he frequently beamed about your tireless
service to him. I was especially impressed with how you helped him
clean up the Führer’s view from the Berghoff balcony… I hear you
not only liquidated the people but you made their farms disappear
and legally appear as though they were never there, as well as
making any of the records that they ever existed… vanish. I hear
you were even able to change the history of the property ownership
all of the way back to the First Reich, very impressive… I also
know that you bring additional knowledge to the SS from your
beginnings in the Luftwaffe, just as Heydrich brought from his
beginnings in the Kriegsmarine… Your dossier is more than
impressive to me… Sadly for some, in most cases good work never
goes unpunished, and I have selected you for the hardest tasks that
I have meted out tonight, because I know that you will handle them
expeditiously and in total.”

At that the General sat in the chair on the
other side of the end table from Schwerig facing the fire. After he
was comfortable he turned to Schwerig and said.

“Tell me Major, you are Catholic, are you
not?”

There was a brief silence as Schwerig was
wondering were this line of questioning was now headed.

Von Sterbenbach continued. “Have you
contacted Odessa yet?”

At that Schwerig retorted.”Herr General, I
assure you.”

Von Sterbenbach interrupted. “Major! I have
selected you for these tasks because I know that you leave no stone
unturned and have a default plan for every possible outcome.”

He paused and restarted. “Isn’t Germany
losing the war even a slight possibility, and with that, I know
that my best officers have a plan for every contingency… Again,
Major, and I promise not to hold it against you. Have you contacted
Odessa?”

Schwerig sat with his mouth open in awe. He
spoke apologetically and emphatically, “Not yet, but I have
obtained some contact information to get started when and if I
choose to do so. I must assure you that I will carry out these
orders to the end.”

“I am explicitly confident that you will.”
The general replied with poise. “After this mission is completed, I
may have an offer for you that would be much better than what
Odessa could ever offer you… I am also warning you that the Führer
as well as Himmler and Heydrich, all Roman Catholics, have planted
spies loyal to the Reich as well as the Church, into the Vatican
Swiss Guard, and he is getting regular lists of the officers
seeking sanctuary from the Catholic Church… Also, do not seek
transport in the SS’s secret night flights. The Allies have become
wise to them and have diverted some of their night fighters to put
an end to that program.”

Von Sterbenbach took a couple of puffs from
his pipe as he reclined then continued. “I have seen something
recently, in Riese, which changes everything; the world, the war.
The Führer’s future plans revolve around it. I can’t yet tell you
what it is, except that it is a new vehicle or conveyance of sorts,
but you will already be taking care of some of the loose ends
involved with this object in the next few days.”

“What kind of vehicle, Herr General?”

“I truly have no words to explain it without
you thinking that I had lost my mind… Rumor has it that the Reich
secretly recovered something that had crashed into the Black Forest
back in the 30s… No one knows where it came from, but Hitler put
his top engineers into a secret project to figure out how it
worked. I believe some names were Schauburger, Schriewer, Gocke and
an Oberst named Schröder-Stranz… It is the highest of secrets that
the Reich has ever tried to contain, the survival of our race and
our way of life is now forever tied to its total concealment. Even
if you run or perish… you must swear to never divulge any knowledge
of this new technology. No one else in the entire world may ever
know that it exists… or ever existed.”

~~~**^**~~~

The Big War
/ Lights In The Sky

The moon appeared suddenly through a gap in
the clouds, illuminating the tops of a flight of P-61 ‘Black Widow’
night fighters, returning from a night hunting mission in Germany’s
Ruhr region.

The radar equipped night fighter’s current
mission was to seek and destroy German Ju-52 ‘Iron Annie’s’,
evacuating German officers from the soon to be occupied
territory.

The Germans were trying to sneak them out in
the darkness, thinking that the Allies would not become wise to
their vain attempt.

The radar operator in the tail of the lead
plane looked in awe as the planes that were a second ago invisible
in the night, suddenly came to life in a spectacle of dancing moon
beams as the higher altitude clouds parted to reveal the aircraft;
reflections bouncing off of the glossy black paint.

He suddenly felt his stomach drop with the
epiphany that they may now be observed from the ground. He hoped
that the clouds still below them were shielding their location.

Then it dawned on the radar operator that he
could use the sudden illumination to recover the chocolate bar that
he had dropped during the fighting over Germany. He looked beneath
and behind himself to the left and to the right. At last, there, he
saw the bar in the corner of his canopy, in front of his right
foot.

He bent over to pick it up and was instantly
distracted when he heard a short burst of gunfire from a
neighboring plane.

He immediately forgot the candy bar and
popped his head back up to see if the other plane was actually
shooting at something, or just signaling.

Sometimes the flights would use short bursts
of gunfire to get attention during radio silence.

He stared at the plane and after his eyes
acclimated, he could make out the silhouette of the gunner through
the other airmen’s glass canopy, making a large over emphasized
gesture with his arm and hand, pointing over and over to something
low to their 6 o’clock.

After looking only for a moment in the
direction that was gestured to him he was shocked to see a very
bright light. How could he have missed that? It must have just
appeared. It was as bright as a welding torch only it was blue.

The radar operator watched as the object
rapidly approached the flight of planes.

He quickly gazed into the radar screen to see
if he was picking up anything, but saw nothing. Suddenly he felt
foolish because he knew that the radar was only forward looking,
but had acted out of instinct.

He gazed back out into the night and saw the
spectral light gaining on them.

He hastily adjusted his headset and
announced. “Uh, captain, this is the radar operator, something is
happening and I don’t know how to describe it.”

The captain returned, “What is it?”

“A very bright light, like a cutting
torch.”

“Is it on the ground or in the sky?”

The R/O replied ever more anxiously, “It’s in
the air and coming fast from our 6. What do I do, I’ve never seen
anything like this before?”

“I guess we’ll just have to wait and see
what...”

The Captain was abruptly interrupted by
sudden radio chatter. “Great God all mighty! Do you see that?” came
a voice out of the blue and was responded to by another anonymous
voice. “What the hell is that thing?”

The captain picked up the receiver and
scolded, “We are supposed to be observing radio silence, cut the
chatter, or you will alert the Germans.”

The voice on the air returned, “I got news
for you buddy, if that’s theirs, they already know.” Another chimed
in, “I think we already blew our cover when we shot down those
transports.”

Another voice chuckled, “You tell him
cowboy!”

At that the radio was abuzz with pandemonius
chatter, indiscernible to almost anyone’s ears.

The R/O sat staring, overwhelmed by the
chatter on his headphones and mesmerized by the forthcoming light.
He watched as the light approached and zipped off to his left and
flew in front of the flight.

He quickly gazed again into
his radar visor. He thought,
Now that it
is in front, surely I will be able to see it.

Again there was
nothing,
but that is
impossible
, he thought.
This plane is equipped with the newest most
advanced radar to date. Nothing is more advanced
.

Then it re-appeared to his right having flown
full circle around their group.

So bright was the object, that it caught his
peripheral vision while he was looking into his radar visor.

It sped through the sky around the planes
like a dog playing with a boy in a field.

And just as soon as it appeared… it was
gone.

~~~**^**~~~

The Big
War / Lemay Is Enlightened

The dimly lit meeting room was filled with
smoke. There was a low hanging light fixture that brightened the
table but not much else around it.

The surrounding walls had maps of Germany
and France with locations to be bombed and what had been bombed
marked accordingly.

At the end of the table was
a salt and pepper haired general with a cigar in his mouth; the
Commander of the 8
^th
Air Force of the Army Air Corp, General Curtis
Lemay.

He spoke, “Well gentlemen… How did the run
on the Ruhr go last evening?” He looked to his right at a colonel
that was obviously the meeting’s spokesman. Speaking with his
facial expression and body language, it would be assumed that he
expected only the colonel to speak.

“General Sir, all missions
appear to have gone as planned. Both bombing wings in action last
night delivered 80 percent of ordinance on target, and that was
visually confirmed by Lieutenant Colonel Sanderson who flew along
with them last night… Forward observers confirm that night fighters
from the 422
^nd
have put about three Ju-52s out of action. I am
sure that the Germans are rethinking exit strategies as we speak…
Losses, even though none are really acceptable, were within planned
percentages. The return trip saw no Luftwaffe intervention
except…”

The colonel paused as he was staring at his
papers with his right hand in the air gesturing that he was unsure
how to continue.

General Lemay blurted out, “Well, are you
going to mime the rest of your report or get on with it, what the
hell was the, ‘except’?”

“Well… General …it seems that the retuning
flight encountered another one of those flying specters.” The
colonel languished.

“Flying what?” General Lemay snorted.

“Specters, spook lights, I think that the men
have started to refer to them as foo fighters.”

“Sounds Japanese…What the hell are they?”
queried Lemay.

“Well,” started the Colonel, “We are not
really sure. Some suspect they are new aircraft from the Luftwaffe,
but the objects are so bright that nobody has been able to spot any
markings; anyway they always fly rings around our air groups like
they were all just standing still in the air.

General Lemay paused to take it in a second
then asked, “Well have these ‘supposed’ Nazi ghost planes shot at
us yet?”

“Well, no sir,” Responded the colonel.

Lemay took his cigar out of his mouth with
his left hand and slammed the table with his other as he
vociferously roared, “Then, who the hell gives a damn! We’re not
here to sight see; we’re here to fight a damn war… Our boys on the
ground are uncovering secret Nazi projects on a daily bases… Every
damn time I turn around they’ve found something else that they
assume demands my immediate attention… I’m sure that it is just a
matter of time before we overrun wherever the hell they’re
operating these infernal fire flies from and that’ll be the end of
it.”