The Gemini Divergence (31 page)

His superiors at White Sands thought that he
did such a marvelous job at Los Alamos, and then supervising the
paperclip scientists on the V-2 project; they decided to use him on
another ongoing paperclip project.

Now he was working on the brainchild of a Dr.
Rolf Wundt

At first Dr. Wundt’s projects were very low
on the pecking order of paperclip projects, until they figured out
that his oversized antenna arrays could be used to track objects
that radar could not, and now more recently discovered that they
may even be used as weapons.

Without any inkling about what the Air Force
intended to use his research for, Wundt’s project was whisked away
to a secret detachment in rural Alaska where Major Hanson had been
placed in charge of a crew of scientists and technicians, not
unlike his old White Sands project.

Progress on the project was going well
despite the horribly inhospitable Alaskan weather.

Hanson was happy that the seemingly unending
Yukon winter had ended, but had no idea how bad the insects and
humidity could get during the brief sub Arctic summers.

As he was swatting mosquitoes the size of
small birds, his phone rang.

“Major Hanson, Det. A3X.”

“Hanson?” questioned a gruff but somewhat
familiar voice from the other end, “Hanson from White Sands?”

“Yes sir, with whom am I speaking,
please?”

“Well, how the hell are you doing? This is
General Lemay.”

Major Hanson’s eyes rolled into his head as
he put his hand on his forehead because he felt a sudden headache
coming on, “Oh, General Lemay sir, how good to hear from you.”

Lemay chuckled slightly in disbelief and with
a bit of polite sarcasm said, “Oh, I’ll bet, and how is
Alaska?”

“To be honest sir, I wish I was back in New
Mexico. I didn’t think that it could get worse than the desert… I
was wrong.”

Lemay laughed and replied, “Well, if you do
as good of a job with this as you did in White Sands, I’ll see if I
can get you onto some tropical island paradise for your next
stint.”

Hanson’s eyes lit up, “Are you serious sir?
That would be wonderful.”

“We’ll see, but now to business, how are the
tests going?”

Hanson looked apathetic and gave a casual
report, “Fine, I guess sir, I mean, I don’t know what this is going
to be used for, but it is doing a fine job of burning very large
holes in the clouds.,, It kind of cheers you up to see the blue sky
once a month or so.”

“Excellent, that sounds very good,” responded
Lemay, who then changed to, “Listen, do you remember Volmer from
White Sands?”

“Yes sir, I do.”

“Well, he and his crew are set to arrive
there any time.”

“What for sir?”

“They are going to replicate a portable
version of your A3X device.”

“Portable?” exclaimed Hanson with serious
doubt, “sir, this device takes up an entire city block.”

“Major Hanson, have you ever heard the old
Army saying, ‘If you can bolt a handle to it, it’s portable,”

Hanson replied, “Yes sir, I have, but.”

Lemay began to rant, “Nay Sayers told the
army that there was no way to make an effective portable hospital,
yet they developed the mash units. They told the Germans in World
War I that there was no way to make a mobile based tactical fighter
squadron, yet they developed the flying circus.”

Lemay continued, “Now I don’t want to hear
any of this ‘can’t do’ crap. I don’t have to listen to it from you
anyway, because I know Volmer’s crew will do it anyway. All you
have to do is give them access to the facilities and any technical
information that they might need. Do you think that you can handle
that? …If you do this, I’ll get you that tropical island gig. If
you don’t I’m going to need a commander for an upcoming expedition
to Antarctica, and you obviously have already been issued the
Arctic gear. Got it?”

Hanson back peddled, groaning to himself as
he remembered what it was like to have to deal with Lemay, “Yes
sir, I didn’t mean to sound like I didn’t want to help. I’ll give
them anything that they need, if it is within my power, sir.

Lemay suddenly got sarcastically polite,
“Well, thank you Major Hanson, I knew that I could count on you.
Good to hear from you again.”

Click.

As soon as Lemay hung up the phone his
secretary beckoned to him through his open office door, “General
Lemay Sir, Mr. Volmer is holding on the other line. Should I patch
him through?”

Lemay responded, “Yes, please do, and thank
you.”

The secretary then continued, “And sir? There
is a reporter outside in the hall from Stars and Stripes waiting to
talk to you.”

The hallway door was also open, so the
reporter heard the secretary. His eyes opened as he listened more
intently.

Lemay bellowed, “I don’t have time for that
stupid crap! Isn’t Ramey in his office? He could sniff a camera out
of a pile of poop on a pig farm!”

The reporter winced at Lemay’s response.

“And close the door please,” Lemay politely
ordered, “I’m talking classified stuff here.”

The Secretary got up from her desk and closed
the door to Lemay’s office then walked to the hallway door and
silently waved goodbye to the reporter as she closed the office
door.

Lemay then picked up the phone and inquired,
“Mr. Volmer?”

“Yes, Herr General, I am here.”

“Mr. Volmer, I was just making arrangements
for you at A3X, in Alaska, and guess what? Our old buddy Hanson
from White Sands is there.”

Volmer looked up at the sky as he tried to
recall who Hanson was, then answered, “Oh, wonderful sir, Gus and
Jack have already left for there; I have only stayed behind to
finish up these calculations.”

“Have you finished them?” excitedly inquired
Lemay.

“Yes sir,” answered Volmer, “Herr Von Braun
was courteous enough to assign a few of his trajectory calculators
to stay over time and work with me into the night.”

Lemay then asked, “Now, I don’t completely
understand what this is that you figured out last night, but
correct me if I am wrong. You figured out the path that this thing
takes at any given time… so that when I give you a specific time in
the future, you can tell me exactly where that diamond in the sky
is going to be at that exact time.”

“Exactly, Herr General, it sounds as if you
understand completely.”

Lemay politely responded, “Thank you again,
Mr. Volmer. Please call me again in a few days and let me know how
things are going in Alaska.”

Lemay hung up the phone and turned his chair
to look out of his office window at the air field, as he thought
out loud, “I wish I could be there to see that damn space Nazis
face when I give him the ass full of rock salt that I’m about
to.”

~~~**^**~~~

The Cold War / Decimation Of The Bomber Fleet At Carswell

Schwerig was piloting his personal saucer
from space down into the very rural and secluded ‘El Impenetrable’
dry forest, that surrounded Fuerte Esperanza in North Central
Argentina.

The New Swabian Germans had built a new base
of operations that was only accessible from the air, to prevent
anybody from even accidentally coming across them.

Fuerte Esperanza was in the center of the ‘El
Impenetrable’ dry forest, which surrounded the fort for about 200
miles in every direction.

The only road into the entire region made a
bee line from the south west, directly to the Argentinean military
outpost of Fuerte Esperanza.

People seldom ventured into the woods that
blanket the region.

The desert jungle was the way that locals
described the thick jungle like growth of desert scrub and dry
trees.

With1952 reconnaissance technology, it was
almost completely undetectable. There were no air traffic lanes
over the desolate region. There were no roads, and almost no raw
materials or resources that would draw a prospector or hunter into
the region.

Skorzeny had worked out another deal with the
Peron’s that the New Swabians would relinquish ownership of their
new installation to the Argentineans when they had completed their
migration to their new secret home.

Only, they omitted to tell them that the
Germans were moving into space.

Schwerig had just been to New Swabia the day
before, where he sadly witnessed the methodical abandonment of what
had been his home for the last 7 years. They were even scuttling
most of their U-boat fleet, as they would no longer need them in
space or at El Impenetrable.

They also could never leave them behind for
the inevitable raid on New Swabia.

While circling the new base before landing,
He was astonished at the varied array and quantity of saucers that
they had been able to accumulate by this time, and were now
sprawled out over the tarmac of their new base.

He had never been able to see them all at
once in the hangers of New Swabia, so he now reveled in the thought
that they could certainly be considered a formidable world class
force.

As Schwerig landed, the obligatory ground
crew ran out to start routine maintenance work on his saucer.

As they pushed up the stairs to the craft,
Schwerig pulled off his helmet to look around at the arid
wilderness.

Minutes later, he was in Kreutztrager’s new
office at El Impenetrable, talking to him about the Washington
flap.

“I still can’t believe how the Americans are
still just explaining it away on every level,” complained
Kreutztrager, “It seems like every bureau and sub organization that
they have is lying and making excuses to every other one of their
organizations.”

“Yes, I know,” agreed Schwerig.

Kreutztrager continued, “It is like the left
hand is lying to the right hand, and they are both lying to the
head. I have never seen anything like it… It makes it impossible to
know who is in control, and how much they know.”

“It may be deliberate, Herr General,”
responded Schwerig, “We must err on the side of caution. We have to
assume that somebody high up does know, because I have talked to
them myself, and they have contacted us. They have been monitoring
us and they found New Swabia.”

“Yes, you are correct, of course,” answered
the General, “but what do we do next? It’s like we are negotiating
with a ghost… Are they there, or are they not?”

Schwerig suggested, “Herr General, I believe
that we must escalate the taunting. We need to cause some
irrefutable damage… I know that you don’t want to harm anybody, but
perhaps we could damage something to the point that even though
they could still deny it to their public, they would be unable to
mask it internally to their higher government organizations.”

The General, leaning back in his chair,
looked up at Schwerig, who was standing in front of his desk, “Do
you have a plan, Oberst Schwerig?”

“Yes, Herr General, I do.”

*~*

Scientists and technicians at the A3X site
were routinely laughing at Gus and Jack about the materials that
they insisted on using for their portable version.

Every time one of the technicians that had
been working at A3X suggested some expensive government spec
material, Gus kept opting for materials that he could find in the
hardware and lumber stores.

Gus had brought with him, lessons that he
learned in his youth, working on his relative’s farms.

Exotic and specific, high tolerance parts
were difficult if not impossible to replace in the field. One will
always go further with something that you can tool on, or modify in
the field with common tools and materials.

He was much more comfortable using something
at hand or in sight, rather than something that could be obtained
with some effort or money.

This shade tree mechanical philosophy of
Gus’s, was odd to Volmer as well; at first, but he had seen the
benefits of it in the field at extremely rural and isolated
spots.

Where experienced government technicians
would come against walls and work stoppage, Gus would always pull
fixes that would save the day seemingly out of mid air; more often
than not, out of the nearest junk pile, or from forgotten materials
under years of dust in government warehouses.

To Volmer, Gus’s talent to fix anything and
solve literally any problem was irreplaceable, and the perfect
compliment for his theories.

Von Braun had an army of scientists and
technicians, as well as a river of money to do the things that
Volmer’s team could do out in the field, any where on Earth.

Lemay had preached to Volmer about how he
believed that the pairing of open minded and brilliant but humble
scientists with common sense mechanics was the key to technological
power.

His theory had seemed to be paying off.