The Gemini Divergence (34 page)

The dignitaries looked like they were very
impressed with his presentation as Lemay walked to the front of the
room with Volmer.

Then, he spoke, “Gentlemen, the Germans asked
to speak with me, not because I am any type of special
representative, but because I am the one that last spoke to them
before… I am something of a radio enthusiast in my spare time and I
actually conversed with this, ‘Oberst Schwerig’, from my own home
some weeks ago, even though I was unaware of his name at that time.
I believe that you have all been given a transcript of that
particular conversation when you arrived… Anyway, we thought that
it would be more proper if we had dignitaries witness the next
conversation… Thank you all for coming.”

General Lemay then sat down at the radio
system and started to call for Schwerig at the specified time and
frequency.

*~*

Gus and Jack were manning the array at the
same time that the event was taking place in Washington.

They had both taken their positions at the
pre coordinated time, which was noon in the central Pacific Time
zone where they were.

They had fired up the array and sat at the
controls silently as Gus looked at his watch.

Jack was watching as the sea gulls began to
gather in anticipation that they were going to have food for them
again.

*~*

Lemay had been calling for a few minutes when
suddenly they heard a voice.

“Gutten Tag, Herr General,” greeted Schwerig
in his overly dramatic radio voice.

Schwerig then continued before Lemay could
reply, “Twinkle twinkle little star, how ‘
you
’ wonder where
‘
we
’ are.”

Lemay looked a little disgusted and replied,
“We could do without the opera voice, Oberst. It makes you sound a
little light in the loafers if you ask me.”

Schwerig turned around to one of his aids
with a puzzled look in his eyes because, though he spoke English,
he did not understand the idiom, ‘light in the loafers’.

His aid reluctantly enlightened him, “You
know Herr Oberst, like Ernst Rőhm,” as he gestured with his
wrist.

Schwerig turned back around with fury in his
eyes and in a much more authoritarian voice, he ranted, “How have
you enjoyed our recent demonstrations, Herr General?”

Lemay looked up at the clock, as he was
paying close attention to the time, he then iterated an
antagonizing response, “Oh, they didn’t go unnoticed, twinkle
toes”

Schwerig, starting to get enraged at Lemay’s
over confident chest poking, and bellowed, “We would appreciate it
if you would come to an understanding that we wish to be left
alone.”

Lemay responded, “Well, we’re all still a
little miffed about that mess you guys caused back in the
40’s.”

“That is the past!” snapped Schwerig, “Did
you not understand our show of force?”

“Yeah, but we’re not the ones that have been
hiding our asses in the snow for the last seven years. I hear that
you boys are packing up and running again… Is that true, Oberst?
That doesn’t seem to be the actions of a person that claims to be
holding all of the cards.”

“Perhaps you would like some further
demonstration?” replied Schwerig not seemingly intimidated by
Lemay.

President Truman gestured silently with his
hands to stop antagonizing; he didn’t want to chance further
action.

Lemay looked at the clock again before he
responded; only having a few moments to hold out before the test,
“Well, are you trying to talk about a deal, Mr. Nazi Oberst.”

Schwerig verbally shoved back instantly, “We
are no longer socialists, we are a stratocracy, and we can hardly
be considered nationalists without a nation.”

Lemay snapped back equally fast, “Well if I
were to dig up the equivalent of your voter registration card back
in Germany, what would it say?”

“That’s irrelevant.”

“Not in my book.”

“Can we again, stop with the chest poking and
get back to business?”

Volmer started to point nervously at his
watch for Lemay to see, who then silently responded that he
knew.

Lemay then responded verbally to Schwerig,
“We think that you boys just need to give up and surrender. Maybe
we could make a deal for some of you to assimilate into our defense
projects with the other absorbed German scientists.”

Schwerig response was as if he were growing
more peeved, “Is it just me or do you keep forgetting about the
loss of your bombers and the possible loss of your Capital?”

Volmer started to gesture very emphatically
that it was time. Now!

Lemay conveyed that, again he knew, as he
said, “Actually I was just pulling your chain… wasting time until
you boys coasted into our ambush.”

“Ambush? What on Earth are you talking
about?” curiously inquired Schwerig.

Volmer started to count down the seconds with
his fingers as Lemay spoke the closing comment, “Fröhliche
Weihnacht Mr. Nazi Oberst. Hope you like our Christmas
package.”

*~*

Gus removed his Santa hat as he wiped the
sweat from his brow and looked at his watch.

It was now time, so he pressed the ominous
awaiting button.

The warning lights lit up and started to spin
about the array, but there were no alarms. The equipment started to
hum, but the loudest sound was still the ocean crashing on the sea
wall, as well as the island birds.

As Jack was still watching the gulls and
terns hovering in the air, many of them started to fall out of the
sky once the array was activated.

He excitedly yelled to Gus, “Hey, we need to
leave this thing on next time we try to eat out here.”

*~*

“Take that, Nazi!” came Lemay’s taunting
voice over the radio.

Schwerig quickly looked up at his aid in
nervous anticipation as to what was going to happen next, as the
station orbited silently over the tiny island.

After a tense and silent moment, the radio
began to fizzle and snap with sparks. Then suddenly a loud pop, as
a small mushroom cloud of smoke erupted from the radio box.

Schwerig as usual, repulsed by the electrical
smell, looked around and noticed that all of the lights were still
on and there were no alarms or panic.

It seemed that whatever just happened, it had
only affected the radio.

A technician sprayed the radio with a fire
extinguisher as Schwerig quickly ordered, “Get the general back on
the radio.”

“But sir, it has been destroyed.”

“You’re a technician, fix it, or get somebody
that can, just get me Lemay again. Verstehen Sie?”

“Jawohl, Herr Oberst,” responded the
technician as he quickly went to work.

Schwerig looked out of the window as he
waited and could see the Hawaiian Islands passing below them. As he
gazed at the breath taking and normally soothing aus blick, he
noticed a very peculiar and uncomfortable warm feeling.

He stood wondering what was going on for a
moment when the technician called for him, “Herr Oberst, I have
re-established the link. The General is back on the air.”

Schwerig re-entered the radio room walking
with great authority as the technician handed him the intercom
microphone instead of the normal radio transceiver.

Schwerig looked very curiously at the
technician as the technician explained, “I had to run it through
the intercom to make it work Herr Oberst. Sorry, that was the only
way, until we fix the rest of it.”

Schwerig looked at him with doubt, but still
brought the microphone to his mouth, “General Lemay, are you
there?”

“Sure am… Did the post man come?”

Schwerig responded laughing, “Yes, but the
package was not quite as large as you had alluded too.”

Lemay and Volmer looked at each other with
disappointment as they listened to Schwerig continue, “The radio
that we were using met its demise but everything else seems just
fine… You must tell me, how did you do that anyway?”

Suddenly all the stations alarms and sirens
started to blare. The lights dimmed to red and the brightest light
was the sunlight coming in through the windows.

Schwerig looked up to try to figure out what
was going on as shouts started to come from the halls, “Alarm,
Alarm, the reactor is over heating.”

Volmer silently translated to Lemay what the
men in the background were shouting in German.

Lemay’s face lit up as he heard the sudden
situation change, coming across his radio.

He picked up the microphone and stated
sarcastically, “funny, that doesn’t sound like a ‘just fine’ alarm,
Oberst Schwerig. Maybe your German customs are different than ours,
but in America, that definitely would not be a ‘just fine’
alarm.”

Schwerig did not look happy about Lemay’s
hayseed hazing, as a technician ran into the room and pleaded with
Schwerig, “Herr Oberst, the reactor is overheating and we don’t
know what to do.”

Because of the way the German technician
wired the radio to the intercom, Lemay and Volmer could hear
everything that was going on at the station and their comments were
also being broadcast back the same way. Volmer was also quickly
translating every word he could hear to Lemay.

As Schwerig was walking down the hallway, he
noticed that his steps were getting much larger, because the
station had slowed its rotation and the gravity was
dissipating.

He then heard Lemay over the intercom, “Tell
me, what’s going on up there buddy? Is that reactor over heating a
‘bad thing’, or a ‘just fine’ thing?”

By the time that Schwerig had reached the
reactor room he was already floating.

As he pushed himself across the room towards
the control console, debris was already floating everywhere, as all
of the loose items that had been placed about the room started to
float.

As he approached the console he gave the
order, “Increase the water flow to the reactor.”

The technician floating at the controls
replied, “I can’t, Herr Oberst, the DC power to the water pumps has
been knocked out. It will reach critical heat in minutes.”

After the slightly audible mumblings of
Volmer’s translation, Lemay’s voice bellowed throughout the control
room, “Looks like one of you boys is going to have to piss in the
radiator.”

Schwerig furiously yelled, “Turn that damn
intercom off!”

Another technician replied, “Sorry Herr
Oberst, we can not because General Kreutztrager ordered that the
intercom be imbedded in a way so the men could not turn off the
Führer’s speeches.”

As Schwerig was visibly showing signs of his
temper flaring, Lemay sarcastically returned, “Oh, damn the luck. I
guess you’ll just have to acquiesce to some more of my insightful
invectives.”

He strived to blow off Lemay’s taunts for a
moment, knowing that not all his men spoke English and would not be
able to understand the insults.

Schwerig then ordered, “Actuate the fuel rods
from the reactor.”

“I can’t Herr Oberst; the motors that propel
the rods are driven by the same DC power source that drives the
water pumps.”

“Then drop the fuel rods from the reactor.
Jetzt!”

Again the technician at the control replied,
“We can’t, they are gravity activated, and the loss of power has
also disabled the station rotation and we have lost our gravity,
they will not fall while we are weight less.”

Lemay’s voice echoed, “Don’t worry boys.
You’ll have plenty of gravity once you re-enter the
atmosphere.”

Schwerig commented furiously through his
closed teeth, “I am growing very weary of our overambitious yet
inept atomic scientists.”

Lemay beckoned, “Oh, are those the atomic
scientists who left that 10,000 foot tall steam beacon that let us
find your secret base in Antarctica? What did you guys call that
place again… ‘not smart-ee-a’.”

Schwerig tried with all his will to fight his
temper back and produce a solution against the torrent of Lemay’s
continuous chastising.

Schwerig looked back at Graff who was
floating behind him and ordered, “Bring the construction crew
welders and tell them to bring their cutting torches.”

Lemay looked at his room of dignitaries and
commented to them as well as the entire German station, “Boy they
are a bunch of busy little beavers; this reminds me of how much fun
it was kicking over ant hills when I was a boy.”

Schwerig grabbed a technician that was
floating nearby and pulled him to his face by the collar and loudly
ordered, “Go find a radio Funkmeister anywhere on the station that
knows his ass from a hole in the ground and get that damn menace
off the air!”

Schwerig then shoved the man away. The
subordinate technician answered, “Jawohl, Herr Oberst,” as he spun
away across the control room.

Graff returned with a large crew of men and
equipment. The men were struggling to move all of the equipment in
the zero gravity as things were floating away from the carts that
they had normally been using to move it all with.

Schwerig beckoned Graff to a center table to
show him his plan. He at first tried to draw on paper, but quickly
decided that it was futile in zero gravity. He then, quickly pulled
out a marker from a drawer as pens and drafting supplies floated
away from the open storage, and just started drawing on the
table.

He quickly sketched a diagram of the reactor
room as he explained, “This is the reactor room on the outer rim of
the station; at the end of this spoke. If we severe the rim here
and here, we can then evacuate into the spoke. Then we severe the
spoke and finally blow it as well, to eject the reactor away from
the station.”

Graff asked with concern, “But Herr Oberst,
if we cut all the way through the outer skin we will
depressurize.”

“We are not going to cut all the way through.
The innermost layer is steel, and that is what we are going to cut.
Then we seal the compartments off and blow charges within. That
should, with adequate charges, complete the severance of the outer
layers of foam and composites. The sealed compartments will have to
burst somewhere and the cuts will be the weakest point.”