The Gemini Divergence (41 page)

Air Force generals strongly persuaded Von
Braun to give a more conservative projection so that they would not
look quite as foolish in front of the President, so Von Braun
modified his estimate to one month.

Again the President posed many questions,
causing the generals to do a fancy dance of excuses, oblating
explanations that Von Braun was childishly optimistic, as they
further urged Von Braun to play along and make another adjustment
to his proposition.

Von Braun relented and changed the
calculation to three months.

Three months later, not only to the day but
to the hour, America launched its first satellite.

1 August 1958

The U.S. started testing nuclear weapons in
space. The First test was ‘Teak’, launched from Johnston Atoll in
the South Pacific. It caused visible light and auroras, and could
be seen from Hawaii to New Zealand. It also caused massive radio
interference across the entire Pacific.

Teak was followed by an additional space
burst named ‘Orange’, another of the many tests conducted during
the ‘Operation Hardtack’ phase of American nuclear testing.

The tests did not go unnoticed by the
Raumsfahrtwaffe. They took keen interest in the bombs ability to
knock out power and radio transmissions over large geographical
areas.

The Overseers were still prohibited from
there own nuclear program because of the extremely close eye the
Americans and British were keeping on key ingredients and items
needed for any nuclear bomb research. The Germans would have to
devise some type of plan to attain these items without the
knowledge of the before mentioned powers.

Meanwhile, they started testing other ways of
achieving the same EMP effects to the atmosphere without a nuclear
explosion.

*~*

Also in 1958 Eisenhower signed the bill that
created NASA. The creation of a space administration was not only
pressured by the need for a government agency to take on America’s
role in the space race, but also driven by the concern that Von
Braun and the other civilian and paper clip scientists were gaining
too much influence over our military and needed to be extricated
from the military and transposed into another organization, clearly
separated, but still strongly controlled by our military.

At first Von Braun refused to leave Redstone
and join NASA. He held his ground because he was adamant that
research continue on his Apollo rockets and a future space
station.

He still retained a strong resentment that
his satellite program had been held back by the Americans, and
further resentment that the Germans had crushed his aspirations for
a space station, and then turned around and started building them,
using his plans in his absence.

He would not be betrayed again.

The Air Force finally relented in 1960; but
only partially capitulated. They would allow research on the Apollo
rockets, as the military also saw there possible use for future
military purposes, but there would be no space station.

6 December 1958

Pioneer 3 is suddenly lost on its way to the
moon.

It was the first U.S. attempt to send a space
probe to the moon.

Most in NASA suspected that it was a
technical fault that caused Pioneer 3 to be lost, but the few in
the know about the Raumsfahrtwaffe, assumed that their probe had
been captured or destroyed by the Overseers.

8 June 1959

Werner Von Braun, still at Redstone at this
time, issued a report titled, ‘Lunar Military Outpost’, which
outlined what would be needed to facilitate a military installation
on the Lunar surface.

It was part of a U.S. Army program called
‘Project Horizon’ that would use Von Braun’s Saturn rockets to
build a permanently manned military base on the moon by 1965.

The project would use 40 Saturn rockets to
start ferrying equipment and building supplies to the moon in Jan
of 1965 and have the actual first man on the moon by April
1965.

The Americans had no proof, but now strongly
believed that the Raumsfahrtwaffe had a base on the moon. Little
did they actually know that it was not only there, but was a
totally self sustaining industrial city, with mines, factories, as
well as a continuously growing population.

~~~**^**~~~

The
Space Race / A Ghost From The Ashes

Schwerig was standing at attention to the
left of Kreutztrager, with Graff to the left of Schwerig: paying
respects to the passing of their Führer at his funeral in
Paraguay.

Bormann had succumbed to the ailment that was
attacking many of the Germans that had made space their new home.
They figured it was a combination of atrophy and radiation. They
couldn’t figure out why it attacked some more harshly than others,
but many of higher rank now spent more time on the ground at El
Impenetrable in an attempt to thwart off the drastic early aging
the disease seamed to cause.

Skorzeny was desperately been trying to
recruit qualified expatriate Nazi doctors to help them remedy this
problem. So far the most qualified doctor he had been able to find
was Aribert Heim, who was known by the name of doctor death in the
concentration camps. He started working part time on the problem
until Nazi hunters fingered him in Germany, practicing medicine. He
left everything behind and fled to Argentina where Skorzeny found
him. Now he had thrown himself into a full time position of finding
a cure.

They all stood in fine military tradition as
the honor guard lowered Bormann into the red Paraguayan clay. It
was to be a temporary grave, as Bormann wished to be returned to
Germany whenever possible.

All of them were wondering who would be
taking his place. There was no real voting or inheritance to
receive the job… The Raumsfahrtwaffe was too young of an
organization to have longstanding traditions.

All of the Raumsfahrtwaffe generals would
probably have to conceal themselves into a conference room and not
emerge until they had chosen the new Führer. Nobody would know how
they decided or what was said in the chambers. But when they
emerged, there would be a new Führer.

*~*

Later in 1959, during Khrushchev’s visit to
the United States, he tried to visit Walt Disney at Disneyworld,
but he was declined for security reasons.

It was reported that Khrushchev was
disappointed, but Disney was even more disappointed because he
wanted to show Khrushchev his submarines.

Instead Khrushchev was given a tour of IBM
and shown a computer. To the dismay of his tour guides and
diplomatic escorts, Khrushchev was not impressed with the computer.
He didn’t think that it would ever be very useful.

Everyone was dumbfounded though, when
Khrushchev was greatly impressed by IBM’s self serve lunch buffet.
He claimed that it was the most brilliant thing that he had ever
seen.

They were even more stupefied when Khrushchev
returned to the Soviet Union and ordered all of the government
cafeterias to be converted into the new self serve buffet
system.

*~*

The Raumsfahrtwaffe Generals had been barred
up for days. Everyone was wondering what was going on inside. Who
would be the new Führer? There was rampant speculation, but nobody
really knew for sure.

After a few days, a consensus was finally
reached and the Generals sent a runner to gather the
Raumsfahrtwaffe to congregate on the El Impenetrable tarmac to
greet their new Führer.

Schwerig looked around at the crowd. He had
never seen the entire Raumsfahrtwaffe gathered at one location.
Everyone was there except for the token men left behind to run all
of the necessary jobs.

Suddenly trumpets blared and everybody turned
to view the grand podium.

The first person to walk out was just a
Major, so Schwerig knew that he was probably just an announcer.

As the announcer took the microphone, he
pronounced, “After great consideration, the Grand Congregation of
Feldmarschalls has chosen a Führer who has been of great service to
the German people. Sadly we have thought for years that he was dead
during the Great War but he has returned. He spent ten years in a
Russian gulag, and has now worked his way to rejoin us, so without
further delay, may I introduce the new Führer, …Günter Von
Sterbenbach.

Schwerig’s heart fell in horror as he thought
that he was going to pass out.

“How could this be?” he whispered to
himself.”I killed him myself. I saw his dead body on the
floor.”

He watched as the new Führer walked onto the
podium and waived at the crowd.

There was no longer any doubt… that was
him.

Schwerig’s mind was racing,
I’m a dead
man. Does he know that I’m alive? What on earth is going to happen
now?

~~~**^**~~~

The Space
Race / The Blue Book Gaffe

In 1959 Project Blue Book Captain Edward J.
Ruppelt was quoted as saying during an interview, “
Known Nazi
designs discovered after the war could easily explain many UFO
flight characteristics and shapes. When WWII ended, the Germans had
several radical types of aircraft and guided missiles under
development. The majority, were in their most preliminary stages,
but they were the only known craft that could even approach the
performance of objects reported by UFO observers
”

Of course, Ruppelt actually knew nothing of
the real story, and thought that he was just being clever and doing
his job explaining UFO’s away to the press.

He had no idea of the hornet’s nest that he
had just kicked.

Unknown to Ruppelt phones began ringing
throughout the privileged, in the know echelons, of Air Force
Intelligence.

*~*

“I Swear sir, I haven’t told Ruppelt
anything,” insisted Lemay, as he sat in his office talking on the
phone, “I don’t know. He must have just dug it out from under a
rock somewhere.”

He tapped his fingers with his cigar between
them as he listened, “Oh, I can lead him away from the subject.
I’ll think of something. I’ll make him so sorry he said it, he
won’t mention the Second World War again.”

“Yes sir, I wholly understand the
implications.”

“Yes sir, I’ll rip him a new one right away,”
explained Lemay, as he put his hand over the receiver and called to
his secretary as he still listened, “Get that ignorant fool Ruppelt
on the horn, would you please?”

He then took his hand off and spoke, “No I
won’t let on why I’m really pissed, I’ll just tell him he’s scaring
the hell out of the public for no reason.”

Lemay then smiled and bragged, “Hell, they’re
all afraid of me. I don’t play favorites. He knows he can’t get on
my good side. Every man in this Air Force knows the only thing they
need to do to keep me from calling them is to just do what I
say.”

“Consider it done sir,” he finished as he
hung the phone up, then flicked his cigar over his ash tray while
he grumbled, “Damn cracker jack box Air Force officer,” referring,
of course, to Ruppelt.

His secretary notified him from the other
room that Captain Ruppelt was on the line, so he picked up the
phone and bellowed, “Ruppelt! What’s this crap I hear about you
jawing some crazy Nazi hypothesis to some ignorant media
snoop?”

Lemay was so angry, that as he listened, his
cigar lit up like a fire siren. Then he responded, “Do you realize
that I have gotten my ass chewed more times today than a legless
deer on a dog farm. Hell, Samford was so peeved that he broke his
damn phone screaming at me… By the way, he told me to expect the
bill for that in the mail… How bout’ I just pass that on to you?
…If you can’t find the money to pay for it, I will gladly have it
deducted from your pay.”