The Gemini Divergence (73 page)

Sightings flowed into police stations and Air
Force towers as the debris field continued to enter the atmosphere
at locations scattered all over the eastern seaboard. Then, the
defunct reactor finally started its re-entry roar into the
atmosphere; screaming like a freight train as it streaked across
the Ohio sky towards western Pennsylvania.

*~*

Gus and Jack were waiting for the inevitable
re-entry with the Olmstead subordinate crew.

All four of them had grown tired of reading
books and playing cards over the years so they had improvised a way
to pass the time by playing ‘hanger golf’.

They split into pairs and were using the
aisles between the parts bins as fairways.

Gus was getting ready to swing with a
baseball bat that he was using for a makeshift golf club, eyeing up
the wad of duct tape that he was using for a golf ball.

Jack was standing behind a cardboard box that
he had laid on its side to use as a hole while he held a broom with
a ‘remove before flight’ ribbon strung from the top as the pennant
for their makeshift green.

“Your not nearly as good at this as you are
at poker, are you Jack?” gloated the other team.

“This is my first time at this game… Just
wait… I’ll have plenty more hanger time to practice before we meet
again… Come on Gus! Put her right here!”

Before Gus could swing, the phone rang, so he
promptly walked to answer it, “Sergeant Danuser speaking… It did…
Where? …Kecksburg?”

Gus looked up at the other two, to see if one
of them knew where that was. When they silently gestured that they
knew, Gus started to shake his head yes, “Yes Sir, we do know where
that is… How long?”

Gus again looked at the other two as one of
them held up two fingers then rotated his index finger on his watch
to signify hours.

“Within two hours Sir,” then Gus chuckled,
“Yes sir, have Jack trick the governor on the truck and get there
in one hour.”

By that time the other three were already
into the trucks and starting them up.

Gus raised his voice to talk, “The trucks are
already rolling sir, I have to go before they leave without me…
thank you sir.”

Gus hung the phone up and ran to catch the
running board on the semi-flatbed that Jack was already pulling out
of the hanger.

The other crew was driving the deuce and a
half with the Alpha 4 equipment; leading the way as they rolled
into the mildly brisk Pennsylvania night.

*~*

Rural locals, and curious by passers, had
already started gathering along the side of the road adjacent to
the field where the object came down.

Precious few had the courage to wander into
the woods.

Most were spreading wild stories about aliens
and death rays as they looked up at the jagged contrails from the
object that had now been distorted by time and wind, prompting many
to believe that the object had changed course several times.

As they pulled up and Jack started to slow
the truck, they could see the crowd that had already gathered.

“Oh…shit!” wined Gus, “I’ve never cleaned up
a sight with this many people already here… have you?”

“Can’t say that I have.”

When they departed Olmstead AFB, they picked
up a third vehicle with a small SAT detachment of security police
on the way out of the gate.

Gus watched as the sergeant in charge of the
security team jumped out of his truck and walked to his subordinate
team’s truck, where he saw the driver point back at him and
Jack.

At that, the sergeant then walked up to Gus
and Jack’s truck and pulled himself up onto the running board,
“Which one of you is Sergeant Danuser?”

“That would be me.”

“Are you sure that you know what you’re
doing?”

Jack sassed, “Who the hell do you think
cleaned up Roswell, pal?”

The security sergeant looked surprised, “Is
that true?”

Gus smiled, “Sure is… and Spitsbergen, and
Fort Riley, Aztec, Tustin….”

“I get the picture!” the security sergeant
capitulated, “What do you want us to do with these people?”

“Just keep them out of the way and blow smoke
up their ass until Jack can back this flatbed down into that
ravine.”

“What smoke do you want me to blow?”

“Tell them that it’s an Air Force matter and
they should just go home and let us handle it. Don’t tell them
directly but elude indirectly that it is a satellite. If you tell
them directly, they’ll know you’re lying. If you let them assume
something, they will believe that they are smarter than you and
that they have figured out that it was a satellite, then they will
be one hundred percent sure that it was a satellite.”

“OK… I Get it.”

They watched as the sergeant whistled for his
men to start moving the crowd to the other side of the road.

Gus started to walk down the hill with the
other crew, pulling out their flashlights as he could hear Jack
starting to back the all wheel drive flatbed down the hill.

When they got to the bottom of the hill,
where Gus could see steam or smoke coming from the trees, he
motioned for the other two to proceed and take readings, since they
both had already donned their bunny suits and respirators.

They turned on their Geiger-Mueller meters
and slipped into the trees.

Gus whistled for Jack to stop the truck and
Jack promptly got out and began unpacking the winch and chains.

After a few minutes the other two emerged
from the woods and reported, “It’s not hot. It’s clean. If it’s a
reactor, then it’s still contained.”

“What does it look like?”

“A giant metal acorn.”

“Does it have any pipes or wires hanging from
it?”

“If it did, they’re burned off now. It has a
surface appearance like the bottom of a Gemini heat shield after
re-entry.”

Jack had walked up behind Gus, “Let’s take a
look. If it’s not hot, what do we have to worry about?”

Once they were both shining their flashlights
on the object, Jack commented, “Hey, look at these,” while
motioning towards some type of writing on the end of it. “What do
you think that is?”

Gus looked for a moment, “They’re Nordic
runes. The Nazis were big into them… something about divine
providence or ancient mysticism.”

“What does it say?”

Gus looked at Jack like he was stupid, “I
don’t happen to speak either German or Old Norse… Do you?

They managed to get it winched onto the flat
bed and covered up.

As they pulled out of the valley onto the
road, they were amazed to see that the Security team had managed to
greatly disperse the crowd, and there were only a few deviant
stragglers left watching.

Gus yelled to the security sergeant from the
passenger seat of the truck, “We’re going to be on our way. Try to
keep anybody from following us until we get onto the highway for a
few minutes… Can you guys find your way back ok?”

The security sergeant signaled yes by over
dramatically saluting Gus away before he turned and barked some
orders at his men.

They then drove the truck in the opposite way
down Interstate 70 than they had come, in order to take the object
to Wright-Patterson, where he would place it in lock down and let
Volmer decide what it could be and what to do with it.

~~~**^**~~~

~~~**^**~~~

From Gemini to
Apollo / Spirited Away

12 December 1965

NASA tried to launch Gemini 6 which had been
planned to rendezvous with Gemini 7 in space, but it failed upon
launch.

15 December 1965

Gemini 6 was successfully launched and was
able to rendezvous with Gemini 7.

Both capsules reported extensive debris in
orbit with them.

NASA just told them that it was a combination
of debris from both of their launches since they were on similar
orbit trajectories.

*~*

Feeling the heat from Von Sterbenbach’s
mandate to keep the pressure on whilst the Raumsfahrtwaffe
retreated and regrouped; Schwerig devised a plan to take out the
leaders of both the American and Soviet space programs.

14 January 1966

Sergei Korolyov, the leader of the Soviet
space program and Russia’s equivalent to Werner Von Braun, died
under extremely suspicious circumstances.

For years the Soviets had kept his identity a
total state secret out of fear that the he would be targeted for
assassination by America.

The Russian public immediately blamed America
for his sudden and unexpected death, but behind the scenes, Gennedy
Kasparov was well aware that it was most certainly Schwerig that
was responsible.

*~*

The powers that be within the Pentagon moved
quickly in anticipation of the possibility that the
Raumsfahrtwaffe, as well as factions within the Soviet government
that were oblivious of the existence of the Raumsfahrtwaffe, would
most certainly be coming to assassinate Von Braun.

Volmer was immediately dispatched to
sequester Von Braun until this event blew over.

“Are you certain that there is no other way?”
queried Von Braun after he had listened to Volmer’s long and drawn
out explanation as to why Von Braun had to disappear for a
while.

“Quite certain; even if I weren’t, this comes
from far over both of our heads and there is not much I can do
about it except be empathetic… Is there anywhere away from the
crowds that you have always wanted to see?”

Von Braun reclined back into his chair and
thought for a moment, “You know… I realize that most Americans
dread assignments to the place that I am pondering, but I have
always been most curious to visit where I am thinking of.”

“Where would that be, Herr Von Braun?”

“Antarctica.”

“Antarctica,” laughed Volmer, “My, but that
is very much ‘off the beaten path’, but I am sure that it can be
arranged… What would you like to do while you are there?”

“I could easily keep myself busy if I were to
be supplied with a small staff to carry out some small experiments
that I have been thinking about, but tell me… Is it still
there?”

“What?”

“It… is ‘it’ still there, hidden in the ice
by the sea?”

“New Swabia?”

“Yes, would it be possible for me to see
it?”

“I would have to check… let me make some
calls.”

Soon after their conversation, Von Braun was
asked to crawl into a large waste basket that was then rolled out
of the service dock of his office building and onto a waiting box
truck.

The truck was then driven directly to the
flight line at Redstone Army Air Field, less than a mile away,
where there was a waiting AFOAT WC-130 with it’s motors running and
it’s tail gate down.

The box truck rolled onto the flight line
where ground crews waived the truck to drive right into the back of
the aircraft.

Once the truck rolled up the ramp, the
aircraft started to taxi as the tail gate began to lift and the
lumbering beast crawled away towards the runway and departed
Alabama.

*~*

When the WC-130 landed at McMurdo NAS in
Antarctica, a familiar face came out to great the distinguished
visitor to the Antarctic.

It was, now full bird Colonel, Chet
Hanson.

Even though he was still an Army Colonel, he
was still assigned to do work for AFOAT at remote attachments
around the world, and had spent the last few years doing
atmospheric research in Antarctica.

“Good morning Doctor Von Braun. Have you had
breakfast yet?”

“No, I have not, and I am starving, I have
been on that God forsaken military transport since yesterday and
have only been given whatever snacks they brought along for
themselves and were kind enough to share with me.”