The Gemini Divergence (24 page)

Kreutztrager smiled, and facetiously said,
“You were saying, Oberstleutnant Schwerig?”

Schwerig picked up his phone and asked the
operator, “What is the alarm?”

After he heard the reason, he hung up the
phone and told Kreutztrager, “We have indeed detected a plane
approaching from the northwest, from the west coast of Chile headed
directly for us. It should overtake us at any moment.”

“I hope that we got the lights out fast
enough,” Kreutztrager chimed in.

They rose to their feet, grabbed some coats
and exited the office into the hall, then proceeded to an exit that
had already been propped open by people exiting the complex. The
hall was already cold from the Antarctic air coming through the
open door.

Once outside they could see many other people
standing around staring at the night sky in the surprisingly mild
and tolerable cold.

It was a full moon, so they could see the
entire valley and the unusually sparse clouds overhead.

Schwerig grimaced as he saw something that
was very unpleasant to him. He patted General Kreutztrager on the
back to get him to turn and look.

As the General turned, Schwerig pointed to
the column of steam that was emanating from their new atomic
reactor, and was well illuminated by the moonlight.

“Damn,” exclaimed Kreutztrager, “I warned
them that blessed thing would be our undoing. But they said, nooo,
the odds of anyone approaching on a clear day are a hundred to
one.”

“There it is!” came a voice from the
crowd.

They both turned to see many in the crowd
pointing toward something in the sky.

Then Schwerig could see it. The moonlight was
lighting up the contrail of the approaching plane. They probably
would not have been able to see the aircraft if it would not have
been for the rare combination of weather and moonlight illuminating
the vapor trail of the approaching bomber.

*~*

Gus was immensely relieved to finally hear
the pilot announce that they were approaching the target. He moved
up to the front of the plane to look out of the bombardier’s nose
window.

The moonlight was beautifully lighting up the
clouds and the ocean. The coast of Antarctica was plainly visible
in the eerie light.

Jack came up behind Gus and looked out of the
window in awe as he said, “Whoa, this is awesome, have you ever
seen anything like this?”

Then Gus yelled excitedly into his headset,
“Look over there! There is a column of smoke or steam. Do you see
it?”

“Yes, I can see it.” answered Jack.

Gus turned around, obviously peeved and
putting his hand over his headset microphone, “Not you, you dolt,
the captain,” as he shoved Jack in a playful way.

Jack then shoved back lightly and Gus fell
against the side of the aircraft, but not off his feet.

The captain then responded, “Affirmative, we
are at too high of an altitude to make a sample pass of that
column. I will have to circle back and make a pass at a lower
altitude.”

“Copy that,” responded Gus.

Then he put his hand back over the microphone
and whisper yelled, “Cut it out Jack.”

Jack responded sarcastically, “You, cut it
out, ‘Sarge’.”

*~*

Everyone on the ground at New Swabia watched
silently and patiently as the plane flew over noiselessly at high
altitude.

Once it came close to flying directly over
their heads, they could finally hear the sound of the plane’s
motors.

“Maybe they will just pass and see nothing,”
sounded another voice from the crowd.

But their hopes were dashed when a few
minutes later the plane reappeared, coming from the south at a much
lower altitude and flew right through the vapor column.

Then the plane started to climb again and
circle back onto the same course that it was following before.

Schwerig watched through his binoculars with
a combination of disdain and admiration.

Yes, he knew that the Germans had developed
the saucers, but they were never able to build such lumbering giant
aircraft.

How did the Americans do it? No other country
was able to manufacture these flying giants.

The crowd started mumbling in a disappointed
tone, as the inhabitants all realized that the plane flying through
the column was a significant indicator that they had finally been
discovered.

They were slightly relieved that it was the
Americans and not the Russians, but dismal just the same. Many
wondered what now?

“You know, this steam column is the last
straw.” Kreutztrager expounded to Schwerig, “I am tired of the
engineering shortfalls, and now our need to move to space is more
pressing than ever.

“I am going to fire my Secretary of
Engineering and put you into that position Schwerig.

“I want you in charge of our move to
space.”

Schwerig put down his binoculars and turned
in shock, “But Herr General, that is a position for an Oberst, I am
but an Oberstleutnant.”

“Not anymore… Oberst Schwerig.”

*~*

Comrade Khrushchev was walking down a Kremlin
hall flanked by Stalin’s new patronizing yes man that had stepped
into Yost’s shoes, Yuri Kozlov, along with two armed guards.

As he arrived at Comrade Kasparov’s office he
just opened the door and walked in to discover a very surprised and
horrified Gennedy look up from his desk.

“Comrade Kasparov,” boasted Khrushchev, “why
didn’t you bring up the subject of our friend Hitler at your last
briefing to Comrade Stalin? Comrade Kozlov suggests that you may be
trying to deceive us all and lead the Premier astray? Would you
like the same view of the Kremlin court yard bricks that was
granted to Comrade Yost?”

Gennedy already loathed Kozlov, and greatly
feared Khrushchev, but stood and thought very quickly. He had
already made preparations for this event if it were to unfold.

“Why, Comrade Khrushchev, I was not trying to
mislead anybody, especially Comrade Stalin… I merely did not want
to bother him with redundant details. That would make me look like
an incompetent buffoon.”

Khrushchev’s facial expression changed from
angry to baffled, as he listened further.

“I assumed that since he had mentioned Hitler
at every meeting since the end of the ‘Great Patriotic War’, that
the subject was ‘a given’,” explained Gennedy, “I took the liberty
of emanating his usual order to check on Project Myth and Hitler’s…
extended autopsy.”

Gennedy opened a file of the minutes of that
briefing in the garden and said, “Here Comrade Khrushchev, see for
yourself, these are the notes that I took that day in the
Garden.”

As Gennedy was distracted by showing his file
to Khrushchev, Koslov began pilfering through documents on
Gennedy’s desk without Gennedy’s knowledge.

He was stunned to find Gennedy’s combination
to his safe written on a small note under his inbox.

Koslov memorized it then shoved it back,
after which, he returned to Khrushchev’s side.

Khrushchev read the briefing notes, then
closed the file and handed it back to Gennedy as he shot a very
displeased sneer towards Koslov, “Very well, I am sorry that I have
misjudged you Comrade Kasparov. I should have relied on your
loyalty and flawless service.”

Khrushchev turned and with a slightly
effeminate action, flapped both hands face down to motion the
guards out as he walked out and shut the door.

Gennedy then fell back into his chair in
relief as he then made his obligatory sign of the cross.

*~*

After landing on ‘Diego Garcia’, Gus was the
first to disembark the plane.

He ran to the front wheel of the bomber, as
if something were wrong, with Jack close behind.

Suddenly, upon inspection of the forward
landing wheel, Gus started jumping for joy and laughing at
Jack.

Jack was suddenly overtaken with a very
sullen and disappointed expression, as the captain and the rest of
the crew walked up behind, putting his hand on Jack’s shoulder and
gazing at the wheel.

In Air Force ‘Air Crew’ tradition, the wheel
had been divided into pie slices with a piece of chalk. Each member
of the crew’s name was written into an individual slice. The
member’s name that ended up on the very bottom, when the plane was
finally parked, had to buy a round of beer for the entire crew.

The captain, with his hand already over
Jack’s shoulder, pulled him snug, in a jeering gesture, and said,
“Well Jack, a tradition is a tradition. It would be bad luck to
buck it.”

“I know,” responded Jack, as Gus started
laughing again, “Gus should pay though, he’s the one that just got
a pay raise.”

The captain continued, “Well he gets a whole
different hazing for that, and you both get an additional hazing
because it is the first time for both of you to cross the
equator.”

Gus, still smiling, interjected a serious
point, “Captain Sir, Jack and I still have to down load these
samples and send them to the lab before we can go anywhere.”

“I know,” answered the captain, “The rest of
the front-enders and I, still have to go to our flight debriefing.
We can meet up after that.”

The captain turned to an RAF ground crewman
and asked, “Excuse me, but where is the local watering hole for the
air crews?”

In an extremely cockney accent the ground
crewman responded, “Which one are you trying to find?”

“Which one,” responded the captain in
surprise, “the whole damn island is only a street block on either
side of the runway, how many can there be?”

The crewman answered, “Oh, well there are
three, actually.”

“Three?” responded the captain, laughing, as
the rest of the crew chuckled as well, “Why on earth do you need
three?”

The crewman chuckled back with his response,
“Because there is nothing else to do on this God forsaken rock
after work, except sleep and drink.”

“Can’t you do that with one bar?” asked the
captain, “how many people can there be here?”

Then the RAF member answered as if delivering
a punch line, “Well after you work for twelve hours with someone
that you can’t stand, it would be inhumane to make you drink with
him as well. Wouldn’t it?”

The whole crew suddenly burst into a roar of
laughter

*~*

In one of the only places on the planet that
General Lemay would ever be seen without his cigar, was sitting at
a briefing table with the President and the Secretary of the Air
Force, as well as the rest of the new Joint Chiefs of Staff.

He played with his hands, not knowing what to
do without his ever present prop.

“General Lemay,” asked President Truman,
“What did your new unit find in Antarctica?”

“Mr. President, I have a full report here for
your staff to go over that I can’t explain in a short answer. So I
will paraphrase it and turn this over to your staff for further
inspection… In a nutshell, we found them. We found them, and then
we found, to our shock, that they have a functioning nuclear
reactor, providing power to their secret facility.”

“What?” gasped the President, as the rest of
the meeting showed similar signs of horror and shock, “How much
longer before our first atomic reactor goes online?”

Lemay responded, “Well, the scientists that I
talked to today, informed me that we were on schedule to fire up
our first nuclear power plant in about three years. But the samples
and photos from Antarctica that we provided them, have somehow
given them information that we can use to speed up our program.
Now, that ETA has been moved up substantially. I am told that we
will probably be able to have a functioning nuclear plant before
the end of 1951.”

Secretary of the Air Force Symington chimed
in and said, “I am glad that I have been an advocate to fund this
program as you have been, General Lemay, this is pretty scary
stuff, could you tell if they are working on an atomic bomb as
well?”

Lemay responded, “The samples say no. I don’t
want to get too scientific, but the isotope of Krypton gas that we
needed to see to confirm a bomb program was not present.

“Or so I am told. I am also being told by the
British Ministry of Intelligence that there are crucial supplies
for bomb research that it would be impossible for the Germans to
have manufactured at there present facility, and that the British
would have been able to detect if those items had been purchased
and shipped… So far they have not.”

Truman looked away from Lemay and addressed
the entire table, “What do we do now, Gentlemen?”

The Navy Chief of Staff slammed his fist down
and strongly suggested, “I say we shell them from the sea at
once.”

The Army Chief responded, “But that will get
the Russians and the rest of the world involved. Can we allow the
rest of the world to know that WWII is not over yet?

Lemay suggested, “I say we nuke the bastards
and tell the rest of the world that it was just a test we conducted
in a very rural and useless section of the world.”

The rest of the Staff erupted in support for
Lemay’s idea.

The President then spoke over the
pandemonium, “Excuse me Gentlemen, but there has been quite enough
‘nuking’ already… I loose enough sleep over my former atomic
decisions as it is, I am not in a hurry for any more lost sleep and
soul searching.”

There was a quiet pause as Truman looked
down, obviously thinking, he then looked up at Lemay and said,
“General Lemay, you have done an outstanding job creating the
apparatus that brought us this valuable information.

“But, I am afraid that it is just not enough
to make a decision like this.

“I know that we can’t tell the world about
it. They would just loose it if they found out a bastion of Nazis
this strong was still around.

“Hell, the Russians already believe we helped
out Skorzeny and Goering, how would they react if they found a
whole base? They would surely blame us… That alone could cause a
war with Russia.”