The Gemini Divergence (61 page)

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The
Gemini War / Lemay Turns Up The Heat

5 January 1965

A slight glint of a reflection, mildly
discernable, off to their side opposite of the sun setting on the
horizon; that’s what caught the eye of a pair of Raumsfahrtwaffe
pilots on patrol.

They changed course to investigate and pursue
whatever had reflected the sun.

When they maneuvered close enough to see,
they discovered that it was an American Gemini capsule connected to
some type of extended module.

Further observance revealed that the capsule
had a different paint scheme, with blue trim and Air Force markings
as opposed to NASA markings.

The Raumsfahrtwaffe Flight Commander ordered
his wingman to stay out of firing range; naively using
Raumsfahrtwaffe weapons systems as a reference to gauge range.

When suddenly, a silent but blinding flash of
light erupted from the American spacecraft and the wingman felt the
blow.

His control panel lit up with a bevy of
alarms and flashing lights, most notably that he was losing
pressure.

He reported his condition to the flight
leader as he struggled to gain control, but the flight leader was
oblivious to his imperiled comrade, as he had already realized his
mistake and was trying to close the gap so that he himself could
return fire.

The American Astronaut, shaken to the point
of panic as he tried to aim at the rapidly charging saucer; fired a
poorly aimed round that grazed the side of the flight commander,
sending the Overseer into an uncontrolled spin as his spacecraft
zipped by the Gemini craft.

The flight leader regained control of his
craft and assessed that he had enough control to return home, but
not enough to continue the attack.

He then tried to contact his wingman to see
how he had faired and found that the wingman was not having any
luck gaining control and was probably going to burn up into the
atmosphere because he could not slow the craft either.

The flight leader then watched helplessly as
his wingman, briefly screaming for mercy, blazed into the
ionosphere over America’s eastern seaboard.

5 January 1965

Witnesses around the DC area, as well as a
group of engineers at the Wallops Flight Facility, reported seeing
the streaking light scream from the horizon to directly overhead
where it burned out and then fell silent.

*~*

Gennedy Kasparov, remaining at his job after
the introduction of the third Premier since he had been working for
the Soviet Government, briefed Leonid Brezhnev about the unfolding
conflict in space.

The Soviets were commencing the deployment of
the new Soviet Space Armada of Almaz mini space stations which were
their equivalent of the American’s MOLs.

Years of planning, preparation and stalling
their common enemy, by both the U.S. and the Soviets had finally
culminated into action.

11 January 1965

Citizens of Washington DC as well as multiple
Army technicians from the Signal Corps reported numerous saucers
over the Capital.

They watched as Air Force fighters engaged
the objects, chasing the majority of them away and supposedly
shooting one of them down into Chesapeake Bay near Herring Bay,
Maryland.

11 January 1965

Citizens of Seaside W, Oregon, watched as a
triangular object, spewing flames, traveled to their north west,
finally plunging into the sea off Tillamook Head.

*~*

“Mr. Hughes, I presume?” asked Volmer as he
held out his hand.

The man he was speaking to looked up over the
mechanical experiment that he had been working on to see a man with
coke bottle glasses and a huge smile, holding out his hand.

He stood and started to wipe off his hands
with a rag that was sitting on top of his project.

“You must be Doctor Volmer,” he assumed as he
then held out his own hand, “I’m Howard Hughes… I have heard so
much about your work. I’ve wanted to meet you for some time.”

“I am honored as well, Mr. Hughes… General
Lemay has sent me here to see how you are doing.”

“Why does General Lemay need to send somebody
to check on me?”

“Oh, I’m sure that it is not a problem. I
have done so many projects for the General that he has come to
supremely trust my opinions… So now he sends me to take a look at
projects whenever he wants to know how they are going... Is this
one of the captured kinetic devices?”

“Yes it is,” smiled Hughes, “I can get it to
show changes of weight on a scale, but have yet to get it to move
anything without an assisting substrate.”

“What do you mean by assisting
substrate?”

“Well, if I stick it in a small boat, it can
slowly move across the water. If I hang it on a tether, I can get
it to swing itself back and forth, or in a circle like a toy
airplane, but when it sits static, the only thing that I can get it
to do is make itself weigh less.”

Volmer looked disappointed, “Is this another
problem that we will have difficulty overcoming without their
vril?”

“I’m afraid so, we just can’t muster the
horsepower to make any use out of this. The kinetic force is there…
We just need more oomph to be able to make use of it… Are you sure
that it wouldn’t be wise to use some of that captured vril from the
last wreck?”

“Oh no, I mean, Yes I am sure.” quickly
insisted Volmer, “It is much more important to use every ounce of
what was left in the Fort Riley craft’s tanks to figure out a way
to duplicate it before we start consuming any of it… I am very
sorry, but that is just common sense science.”

Hughes shook his head as he reluctantly
agreed.

“Have you made any discoveries from the rest
of the wreckage?”

“I have found something that ‘I’ thought was
very interesting,” Hughes walked over to a bench across the room
and picked up a panel from the crashed space ship and handed it to
Volmer, “It’s a composite construction, but it’s not extruded
glass. It is extruded basalt.”

“Volcanic rock? It looks like metal.”

“Yes, probably from the moon. After they
extruded it into fibers and wove it into a fabric, they impregnated
or fluxed it with an aluminum matrix… I am amazed at how they were
able to wick that aluminum into that basalt reinforcement weave…
Any ambient air would solidify aluminum in that small of a quantity
before it could travel any distance. They must be introducing the
matrix into the reinforcement within a vacuum, but they would have
to keep it hot enough to melt the aluminum without re-melting the
basalt fibers… quite a quandary.”

“They must have a weightless capable foundry
at one of their space stations.”

“That would be my guess… This is scary stuff.
Technology like that is decades ahead of what we can do now.”

“Well we have to find a way… We must. Do you
think that it would be better to move to a more advanced facility
like Groom Lake or one of the National Laboratories like, Sandia,
or Lawrence Livermore?”

Hughes shook his head no, “I’d really prefer
to stay here at Saddleback Mountain. The Marines are great
protection and they don’t interrupt my work, besides, I’m only ten
miles from my Long Beach facilities. I can get more work done in a
day’s time.”

“Very well,” capitulated Volmer, “Actually
Mr. Hughes, I am very impressed. You seem to have everything under
control. I will give you the General’s phone number so that you can
keep him updated in the future yourself… And I would keep a look
out at the skies; I expect the Overseers to come looking for their
devices and their vril.”

“I have the Marines for that,” laughed
Hughes.

Volmer spoke very seriously, “Mr. Hughes,
please don’t underestimate Feldmarschall Schwerig’s resolve. I
don’t think that he will stop looking for this wreckage, even if he
comes across a much bigger problem. I have seen him juggle many
objectives at once.”

*~*

Schwerig was livid that one of his pilots had
errantly allowed one of their newest space craft to fall into the
hands of the Americans.

For over twenty years the Raumsfahrtwaffe had
managed to keep the vril and the engines that they had been using
up till now, out of the hands of the earth dwellers.

But now, shortly after their newest
technology was put into the field; one, idiot pilot, had put the
entire Raumsfahrtwaffe in jeopardy.

Schwerig lured him back into space and
questioned him.

He wanted to know if he had overheard the
Americans say anything about what they were going to do with the
wreckage.

The pilot reported that he did hear one of
the guards say something about Howard Hughes taking a look at the
wreckage.

Schwerig sat back and thought.

Hughes’s main facility is in Long Beach, but
surely he wouldn’t be stupid enough to bring the wreckage
there.

Would he?

12 January 1965

Witnesses in Riverside California, as well as
many other Southern California cities started reporting the sudden
presence of UFOs in the skies.

Many were sighted in broad daylight.

12 January 1965

An air base security sergeant at Blaine AFB,
Washington was driving along a perimeter patrol road when he saw
what appeared to be another vehicle coming towards him in the
opposite direction down the road ahead of him.

He couldn’t figure out who else would be out
on that road besides him, and its lights were annoyingly
blinding.

The sergeant blinked his lights to signal the
other vehicle to turn it’s brights off and slow down, but when he
did, the object lifted off the ground and floated directly over his
jeep; so close that he felt the need to duck.

When he looked up, he could see the metallic
looking bottom of the spacecraft.

He reached for his radio, but then realized
that the jeep had stalled and the radio was not functioning.

Suddenly, lightning flashed.

The next thing that he remembered, he was
sitting in the snow without his jeep.

The landscape around him was completely
different.

It looked as if he was no longer on the base
but was on a farm.

As he stood and brushed the snow from his
bottom and legs, he noticed that he was standing in the middle of a
circular pattern of compressed or melted snow.

There were no footprints or tire tracks
coming or going from the spot, it was as if whatever made the
impression was just set down onto the snow from the sky.

Something with the diameter of about 30 feet
had come and gone, leaving him unconscious and alone in the
snow.

13 January 1965

Even though NICAP was a private organization,
The Air Force’s, Project Blue Book, and the CIA approached NICAP’s
DC offices, and asked to see the files that they had collected in
the past months as well as requesting permission to view the files
to be collected in the coming months, because the reports were
coming in faster than the CIA and Blue Book had the capacity to
investigate them.

The New Year had exploded into a wave of
saucer sightings as well as reports of abnormally large and
frequent falling stars.

This time the majority of the sightings were
from the west coast, the south west, and the Virginia, Maryland
area that surrounded Washington, DC.

Most of the agents on the street didn’t know
the real cause of the sudden uptick in sightings, or what the
objects really were in the first place, but the Washington
officials in the highest places were petrified that somebody was
going to see the Raumsfahrtwaffe markings or witness a crash
survivor and put two and two together.

14 January 1965

Witnesses in Wilmot, NH reported that saucers
hovered above power lines in several locations making a loud
humming sound and knocking out the power. Then they flew away.

In reality Schwerig was trying out one of his
newest EMP weapons; trying to gauge what it would take to knock out
a large part of America’s power grid.

*~*

Lemay, once again approached McNamara and
General Taylor about the Raumsfahrtwaffe threat, and was shocked
that they didn’t believe that the Overseers were any more of a
threat to the United States than street gangs or auto
accidents.

The new administration was only concerned
about Vietnam, Civil Rights and the Space Program, and felt that
the Raumsfahrtwaffe issue was something that should be delegated to
a lower span of control.

Behind Lemay’s back, they had both been
conspiring to replace him with a yes man that would be more
concerned with serving the present administration than with what
they viewed as Lemay’s ‘cowboy idealism’.