The Gemini Divergence (11 page)

The
Cold War / The
Raumsfahrtwaffe Is Born

Schwerig was walking in his usual brisk get
to business style, but he was now wearing a new uniform.

It was now the grey and silver lined uniform
of the newly created Raumsfahrtwaffe, and he had been promoted from
Major to Oberstleutnant.

As he walked, he marveled to himself what a
rare occasion it has been that he had been allowed to now serve in
his third branch of military service.

When he was transferred from the Luftwaffe to
the SS under Heydrich it was considered extremely rare, even taboo.
Most people in any country’s military usually spent their entire
career in one branch.

He assured himself that it was just rare
circumstance and for the need of the New Swabian people. Now that
his old country no longer existed as it was, he had been handed
this ever expanding role to play.

He was also overjoyed that his new role
would once again allow him to practice his first love of flying. He
thought back to his days flying gliders over the beautiful alpine
valleys during his flight training as a member of the, at that
time, secret Luftwaffe; secret, because it was a violation of the
Treaty of Versailles for Germany to have an air force.

As he turned the corner of the hall he had
been walking down, he entered into an aircraft hanger with many
officers and enlisted men of the new Raumsfahrtwaffe gathered
around a few of the new but already well used saucers.

They were standing or sitting wherever they
could find space near the podium.

Schwerig took a seat of importance at a long
desk in front of the room facing the crowd.

He opened his attaché and pulled out some
papers, arranging them in his usual meticulous manor.

The crowd was not as orderly as he would
prefer, but they were still keeping their conversations to a soft
dull tone and volume.

After he had his papers set out in an
orderly fashion, he stood and spoke in a loud and attention getting
tone. “Gentlemen, let us now bring this meeting to order… I know
that we have all been working long and hard hours, but there is
still much to do. We have been making good progress, but the
demands of the people of New Swabia require that we finish this
testing and engineering phase and produce a transportation and
habitation system to facilitate our migration into space. We owe
our lives to the brave space men that have already given their
lives to carry out this extremely expedited program. Because of
their sacrifices, we have been able to enter outer space. We have
also learned much about how to survive in space. At first orbiting
was just a theory and we traveled through space bouncing over the
top of the atmosphere like a stone on water. Beginning with the
technology developed from our Antipodal, or Amerika Bomber project.
Until, we learned how to increase the speed and the vacuum that our
craft created by using new variable geometry turbine rotors,
developed by Victor Schauburger, to actually change the pitch and
surface area of the turbines during rotation; creating more of a
vacuum than that of space itself. Thus, enabling us to use the
plasma of space as a means of propulsion by then allowing the
vacuumed plasma to be returned to its natural state, simulating the
compression and thrust of a turbine jet engine within the
atmosphere. therefore, allowing us to remain suspended in space,
actually achieving orbit. Now our goal is to push on and learn how
to build in space… We must figure out how to build a permanently
inhabitable station in space, and we must do it quickly. There is
no guarantee how long we may live unchallenged in our present home.
We are sure, however, that it will be many years before the
Americans and Russians figure out that we have misled them. We do
have a window of opportunity to gain space supremacy even before
the rest of the world will be able to travel into space.”

Schwerig gestured to an officer on his left,
“Hauptman Steiner has made great advances in power generation in
space using sunlight to boil water in radiators and produce steam
which can then run steam turbines.

This has proven much more efficient,
logistics wise, than the radio thermal generators that we have been
using, as the radio isotopes that they use are expensive and in too
short of supply for our needs.”

He continued by gesturing to yet another
officer at the front table,” Lt. Bochman has improved an artificial
gravity model that was first proposed by Von Braun, from drawings
that I captured and was able to bring here for our purposes. With
his work we will be able to function in space as though we were
here on earth, and supposedly, not suffer the ill health effects
that we have discovered happens to humans in weightlessness. These
men are shining examples of what we still need much more of, in
order to ensure our survival. So I ask of you now to use your heads
and help us solve some more of these urgent problems.”

Schwerig then read aloud from a piece of
paper that he held, “We are trying to maintain stable temperature
between the extreme hot and cold of space. We would like to be able
to defend ourselves from cosmic radiation. It would be nice if we
could find a way to fight the annoying condensation that occurs in
the craft on the windows. We need ways to achieve yet higher
orbits; enabling us to suspend much larger weights in space is
desperately needed, as well as a way to weld in space, cure resin
in space, and finally for now; we need a way to elude detection or
camouflage ourselves in space.”

“We are also working on a
viable weapons system,” continued Schwerig. “At first we were not
able to mount a weapon externally on the craft because the
exocoronas needed to expel the excess energy of the vril covered
most of the outside surface. That, along with our expedited exodus,
kept us from actually trying the new saucers out in a combat
situation… We also did not fight because that would have given away
our secret. As long as we did not engage the Allies, they still
always questioned what the bright light caused by the exocoronas
could have been, but luckily
Oberst Schröder-Stranz has
developed an amazing new weapon called a Strahlenkanone that will
eventually be mounted to our saucers…
”

Schwerig thumbed through the pages, as though
to make sure he was getting to everything when he came across
something he must have missed, he went on, ”Also, because of our
losses during this experimental stage we need to find a way to
replenish our ranks. Our superiors have decided to set up colonies
in South American countries that have accepted Nazis fleeing post
war Germany. They will work diligently trying to recruit expatriate
Nazis to join us again on our newest endeavor.”

~~~**^**~~~

The Cold
War / Voices / An Epiphany

After World War II radio enthusiasts from
around the world started to notice German language radio
transmissions from the oddest places around the globe and nobody
could figure out where they were coming from.

Many radio frequency experts started theories
that they were actually originating in Germany, but that they were
bouncing back from the ionosphere and circumnavigating the
globe.

Most of the population of the world was
completely unaware at this time what orbiting the earth even was.
So they couldn’t even perceive that the German voices were actually
coming from space.

General Lemay, an avid radio enthusiast, had
heard these voices himself and tasked his best research people,
including Von Braun, to come up with answers as to where these
voices were coming from. He also wanted translations of what the
voices were saying presented to him as soon as possible.

*~*

Volmer had settled into his new job in
America and was having coffee with Von Braun to discuss technical
development of the V2 program.

“That is very interesting Herr Volmer,”
commented Von Braun. “Do you also think that your system, which
successfully sent the scientific cosmic radiation data back to us
at our control center, can also send it back to us from a capsule
that would be orbiting the earth?”

“Oh yes, Herr Von Braun,” asserted Volmer.
“Ideally it would be best to have a series of communications
satellites in space, but that is years in the future. Actually I
think it is most feasible to have a series of ground tracking
stations around the globe that could stay in constant line of sight
radio contact with any object that we would place into space.”

Von Braun leaned forward and spun the globe
that was sitting on his desk. As he was looking at it he said,
“Herr Volmer, I have another item that I could use your advice
on.”

“Certainly, Doctor Von Braun,” answered
Volmer.

Von Braun explained, “I received a phone call
this morning from General Lemay of the Air Force. He is very
concerned about some out of the ordinary radio transmissions that
the American forces have been intercepting around the globe, even
in very remote and unpopulated areas.”

“What is so odd about them?” queried
Volmer.

Von Braun paused than stopped the globe and
answered, “They are all in German.”

Volmer chuckled, “Well what is so odd about
that Herr Von Braun?”

An extremely serious expression came over Von
Braun’s face as he said, “It is odd when the German voices are
discussing trajectory, cabin pressure, and reentry, where there
should be no Germans present, where no conventional radio waves
could possibly travel to, and no aircraft to be found on
radar.”

“The largest traffic area of these signals
seems to be around Antarctica and South America.” added Von Braun.
“And our best naval triangulation experts are having great
difficulty closing on the transmission epicenters.”

Volmer responded, “That is odd, perhaps it is
just bouncing off the ionosphere.”

“Could be,” suggested Von Braun, “But these
are well trained and experienced military radio operators, and they
all claim the signals are of line of sight intensity. They all
swear that it is as if they were coming from an aircraft, but none
are ever sighted and none have ever appeared on radar.”

“Very curious Herr Von Braun,” Volmer agreed.
“I will ponder this some more. If I come up with another theory I
shall surely let you know.”

“Well that is all that I can ask for,” said
Von Braun in a thankful way. “Thank you for sharing your thoughts
with me today Herr Volmer.”

Volmer went back to his desk and poured
himself back into his work. He opened a file and began to do some
calculations on a piece of scrap paper, scratched his head then
erased what he wrote and started writing again as he was approached
by another Paper Clip scientist.

“How are you today Herr Volmer?” asked Otto
Hein.

Otmar was only familiar with Otto, he didn’t
really know him. He more or less knew of him, and that he was also
whisked away from Germany in Operation Paper Clip just as Otmar
was.

“Oh I am fine Herr Hein, is there something I
can do for you today?”

“No, Otmar, I am afraid that I bring you some
news that you may not want to hear.”

“Oh really, what news do you have,” asked
Otmar. Now he was very curious.

“I have been corresponding with my relatives
back home. One of them lives near the Schriewer Project buildings
where you used to work… I am afraid that you may have gotten out of
there just in time Herr Volmer, did you hear what has become of all
of your old co-workers?”

“No, I have not heard, what has happened?”
inquired Volmer.

“Well I never would have spoken about this in
the old country, but now that we live in America, I do not fear
imprisonment for my words.” Otto went further to explain, “I am
afraid that they are all gone… visited by the Holy Ghost.”

“All of them?” asked Volmer in disbelief.

“Yes all of them,” answered Otto. “Supposedly
it was staged to look as if they were victims of Allied bombs, but
they were in fact all executed by the SS, and all of the records of
the project, all of the plans and prototypes carted off or
destroyed.”

“But why?” Volmer asked desolately.

“I think it is because they didn’t want the
allies to know about all of their wonder weapons, so they destroyed
everything. Now there is nothing left to prove that any of it ever
happened.”

“Oh that is terrible,” responded Otmar in
distress. “But wait, it is not a total loss; I was able to bring
many of the drawings with me from Germany.”

Hein looked very surprised and suddenly very
curious and asked, “You do, that is wonderful. Where are they
now?”

“Well I have presented them all to Herr Von
Braun,” answered Volmer. “He said that he could keep them in safe
storage for the time being, for possible further use but I have no
idea where that actually is.”