The Gemini Divergence (84 page)

Graf and one of Schwerig’s protectorate
guards were the only remaining people on the saucer with Schwerig
and the Praetorian pilot.

Graf screamed at Schwerig’s guard, “Shoot the
damn pilot.”

The guard looked back at Graf in disbelief,
asking, “The pilot? Who’s going to…”

“Jeztz!” screamed Graf

The guard could also hear Schwerig from over
the side yelling at him, “Do it now fool.”

In the time that the guard wasted thinking,
the pilot was able to turn around and fire a round at Graf, hitting
him in the leg.

As Graf screamed in agony, Schwerig’s guard
quickly pointed his new schmelzengewehr at the pilot’s back and
pulled the trigger.

There was a flash of sparks and light as the
pilot slumped over onto his controls. As soon as the dead pilot let
loose of the horizontal plane controls, the saucer began to wobble
like a slowing toy gyroscope.

The crowd gasped again as the out of control
saucer started drifting towards one of the main chasm arch
supports.

“Take the controls!” shouted Schwerig as he
struggled in vain to clamber back upon the wildly wobbling
saucer.

Graf struggled to pull the dead pilot from
his seat, as the schmelzengewehr had inflicted more damage than he
could have possibly imagined, added to the fact that it was
extremely difficult and painful for Graf to stand on his wounded
leg.

The saucer scraped into the pillar, just
missing smashing Schwerig who quickly yelled, “If I get up there
before you take control of this thing, I’m going to stick my boot
so far up your ass!”

As the saucer continued scraping against the
arch, the crowd was horrified to hear the chasm roof squeaking and
snapping, but luckily without falling.

Kreutztrager asked Von Sterbenbach, “How will
we explain this to the people?”

Von Sterbenbach answered, “We will just tell
them that Goerschelein conspired along with the two dead guards to
kill Schwerig against my will.”

Kreutztrager grinned and shook his head in
approval as the two Praetorian guards behind Von Sterbenbach made
eye contact; communicating silently to each other their disapproval
of Von Sterbenbach, betrayedly condemning their dead companions,
after their ultimately sacrificial loyal service to him.

“We must appear to go to his aid in front of
the crowd,” Von Sterbenbach shouted to his pilot, “Quickly, fly
over to Schwerig’s craft.”

Von Sterbenbach’s craft came along side of
Schwerig’s, just as Graf had regained control of it, and Schwerig
had been helped back aboard by his Arean guard.

Von Sterbenbach greeted them, “So glad to see
that you are alright Feldmarschall Schwerig, it looks as though you
may have been the victim of a scandalous covert plot by
Goerschelein.”

Schwerig angrily twisted off a piece of the
semi severed rail on his craft and grasped it in his left hand as
he still held his sword in his right and with surprising agility,
leaped into Von Sterbenbach’s craft and held his sword against Von
Sterbenbach’s neck.

Von Sterbenbach winced at how suddenly close
to death he had become as he cried, “Guards?”

The two remaining Praetorian guards, that had
witnessed the belittling betrayal of their counterparts in
Goerschelein’s craft, lowered their weapons and sarcastically
answered, “Oh sorry… but we’re not part of Goerschelein’s secret
plot against Feldmarschall Schwerig.”

“Yeah,” reaffirmed the second guard, “That
would be a bad thing… right?” as he reassuredly gave Schwerig a
firm pat on the back.

Schwerig smiled sardonically as he scowled,
“Well Günter… it looks as though it’s just you… and I.”

Suddenly, Kreutztrager began drawing his
sword behind Schwerig, causing all three guards to quickly raise
their weapons to stop him before he had completely removed it.

The closest guard stating, “Whoa… just a
minute their, sir… That just wouldn’t be fair.”

Schwerig turned his gaze without moving his
sword from Von Sterbenbach’s neck and motioned with his face to the
Praetorian guard that just spoke, “Just a minute… take his sword
and hold on to it for a moment,” he then turned further to the
pilot and ordered, “set this thing on the ground, please.”

Soon both saucers were on the ground, as the
crowd came running.

Schwerig, un-ceremonially, shoved Von
Sterbenbach over the side, into the rosé regolith. Then, stowing
the piece of pipe under his right armpit to hold it for a moment,
he held his left hand out to the Praetorian guard that was holding
Kreutztrager’s sword.

The guard quickly tossed the sword to
Schwerig, who then tossed it to Von Sterbenbach, who laughed in a
slightly relieved but still sinister smirk as he whipped the sword
back and forth to acclimate himself to its feel as he scoffed, “I
hope that you remember how Bormann made short work out of Himmler,
thanks to his lessons from Skorzeny… because ‘I’ have taken lessons
from Skorzeny as well.”

Schwerig, standing erect and firmly on the
brim of his saucer, quickly quipped, “I know… I took lessons from
Skorzeny back at Fuerte Esperanza as well, only I showed up for
every one of my scheduled lessons. It also seems that I received
extra lessons every time that you were a no show for yours…
Skorzeny would always call me to fill your spot… I was his star
pupil.”

Von Sterbenbach growled with disgust as he
swung his sword at Schwerig’s legs, but Schwerig quickly leaped
from the saucer, over Von Sterbenbach’s head, landing behind
him.

Von Sterbenbach turned again, swinging at
Schwerig, who quickly blocked the blow with the pipe in his left
hand; the crowd gasping at the spectacle of betrayal that they were
witnessing.

Von Sterbenbach taunted as he foined his
sword at Schwerig, “I’m sorry that I am not as feeble as the female
that you last fenced publicly with.”

As Schwerig agilely blocked another blow and
gracefully reached Von Sterbenbach’s face with the tip of his sword
and slashed his cheek, Schwerig facetiously retorted, “Pity… you’re
not nearly as attractive as she was either… and not nearly as
prowessing in bed… or at least that’s what you’re your
Lebensgefährten Kreutztrager told me.“

Once again, Schwerig’s fencing strategy was
to overexert his opponent, mentally as well as physically, before
switching to the offensive. He also knew that it had been years
since Von Sterbenbach has had to feel the humiliation of a good
taunting, and was prone to rage when displeasured.

His intuition was verified as Von Sterbenbach
exploded with rage and began flailing his sword wildly at Schwerig,
who merely deflected the blows away with his sword and pipe.

The word of what is actually happening
travels first throughout the chasm on the military headsets. The
guards, then quickly disseminated the peculiar goings on to the
civilian spectators.

The crowd’s disgust at Von Sterbenbach’s
betrayal of his Praetorian guards as well as their disdain for his
plot against Schwerig, whom they adored, caused the entire mass to
start cheering for Schwerig.

Von Sterbenbach began to grow even more
disgusted when he noticed that the crowd gasped every time that he
would swing at Schwerig, then cheered at Schwerig’s every
successful returning foin.

Von Sterbenbach derided, “After I dispense
with you, heads will roll for this crowd’s irreverent
acclamations.”

Schwerig laughed, “You’ll be busy Günter!
They ‘all' hate you!”

“Why, pray tell, do they love ‘you’ so?”
pondered Von Sterbenbach as he continually swung offensively at
Schwerig.

“Because I am their savior… When they are in
hard, hopeless and desperate times… you have been there. When they
are in positive growth and feelings of confidence and self worth… I
have been there, and I have always been the purveyor of selfless
confrontation and solutions towards their threats and dangers.”

The crowd parted before the men as they
fracased about the chasm floor and slowly fought away from the
saucers toward the ebbing Arean stream.

“Look at your guards helping mine to allow
this fight,” Schwerig razzed, “They will surely kill you if you
win.”

Von Sterbenbach beamed with oblivious and
futile self imposed confidence as he responded, “Oh, I doubt it…
but if they did, I shall have enjoyed the thrill of doing you in
before ‘my’ demise.”

The Führer advanced even more aggressively
towards Schwerig, swinging wildly as Schwerig showed slight concern
at the unexpected change of pace, as Von Sterbenbach vaunted, “A
change of thought? I can see it in your face, fool… Does my
confidence trouble the undauntable Schwerig?”

“Noo!” Schwerig boldly reported, “Because,
that would mean that I gave a shit what you thought.”

Von Sterbenbach ground his teeth with anger
as he threw more force into his blows. But, Schwerig just resumed
casually diverting them away as he further bedeviled his struggling
Führer, “Günter, your thrusts are diminishing in stamina as fast as
your formerly untarnishable renown… End this charade now, and I’ll
permit you to take exile as a farmer in the Palatinate.”

Von Sterbenbach bitterly scoffed, “I’d sooner
burn in Hell than be delegated a paupers job from an ungrateful-up
start-subordinate.”

Schwerig felt the sudden sensation of cold
water as he realized that he had been routed into the stream. He
openly showed the displeasure in his face as he scorned, “I should
have killed you in Riese.”

Von Sterbenbach gloated as he grinned, “My
dear Schwerig, you did think that you killed me at Riese…
Remember!”

“This time I will remember to take your pulse
before I leave your wretched supine corpse.

The crowd stood along the shore line, but
none of the spectators entered the water.

People were shouting from the balconies
protruding from the crimson cliffs on the far side of the stream as
they clashed.

They passed beneath a torrent of water
falling from the flume of a water wheel trestle as they parried
under and along the stream; all the while, the crowd following
along the banks.

Von Sterbenbach was suddenly distracted by a
bystander yelling, “Schwerig, take his steel!” Which was an ancient
fencing idiom for control your opponents weapon.

At the moment of Von Sterbenbach’s errant
diversion, Schwerig seized the moment and gliséd the Führer’s blade
away to the side and followed through with a blow to his stomach
with the pipe.

Von Sterbenbach stumbled backwards through
the water, trying to regain his balance as Schwerig dashed quickly
through the water in pursuit.

Von Sterbenbach had grown extremely weakened
by the overexertion and the rage. The traipsing through the water
was too much for him to endure any longer. He knew that he needed
to think of something quick.

He also knew that Schwerig would not stab him
in the back in front of the crowd, so he deliberately pretended to
turn and fall onto his chest and stomach into the water, but in
actuality he had regained a firm footing.

He then waited for Schwerig’s approach and
would surprise him with a surprise from his right.

In Von Sterbenbach’s mind, this would catch
Schwerig unable to block a blow coming from his right instead of
his left, but he had not remembered the pipe within Schwerig’s left
hand which he easily used to divert the blow and sent the sword
flying.

With elegant bravura, Schwerig, in what
appeared to be a perfectly choreographed faena, spun around in the
bristling water while inverting the sword within his hand; catching
Von Sterbenbach broadside with the full thrust of his sword,
driving it deep into the Führer.

Turning then completely, as the crowd gasped
and cheered, Schwerig looked Von Sterbenbach directly in the face
as his Führer’s last words were, “My reign is by divine ordainment.
My life has never been yours to take.”

Schwerig inserted his pipe through the hilt
of the sword that was impaling Von Sterbenbach as he said, “Why
don’t you take that up with the Gods that ordained you when you
meet them… Allow me introduce you.”

Schwerig then firmly used the pipe to twist
the sword within Von Sterbenbach, instantly causing excruciating
pain.

Von Sterbenbach’s eyes rolled into his head
and he fell backwards dead into the water.

Schwerig placed his foot on Von Sterbenbach’s
side and unceremoniously removed his sword, letting the Führer’s
lifeless body float down the stream as he closed with, “They were
kind enough to grant me the utter satisfaction of being able to
kill you twice.”

The crowd tried to greet him with open arms
as he waded towards the shore, but Schwerig shouted, “Make a hole…
I have unfinished business!” The crowd grew silent, and then
quickly parted, as he made a brisk bee line to directly confront
Kreutztrager.

As he walked with extreme intention and
authority towards him, Kreutztrager moaned, “You’re not just going
to let the Führer float away like that are you?”

Without pause in step, Schwerig replied, “His
end befits his surname,” as he extended his sword towards
Kreutztrager, who began retreating while walking backwards until
Schwerig had fenced him against a wall.

He started to collapse down the wall as
Schwerig placed his sword into the crux of Kreutztrager’s neck and
demanded, “So, what about you, you little weasel? What are your
plans for me… Herr appointed heir?”

Kreutztrager appeared horrified and
bewildered as he sat silently for a moment contemplating his next
words as the crowd quickly gathered round.

Then, raising his right arm out in a long arm
salute as his crackling voice bellowed, “Heil, Führer
Schwerig!”

The crowd was stunned into silence as
Kreutztrager quivered and stated even more loudly and surely, “Heil
Schwerig! …Heil Schwerig!”