The Gemini Divergence (42 page)

After a brief silence, while listening,
“Well, where the hell, do you get off, suggesting something like
that. You’re going to scare the hell out of the public. I don’t
know if you remember your commission oath, but we’re supposed to be
protecting them, not scaring them… I highly suggest that you more
carefully contemplate your press releases. Got it? Good!”

~~~**^**~~~

The Space Race / The Hawkish New Führer

Schwerig made it to his quarters at El
Impenetrable and didn’t even have time to take his coat off and
pour a drink before there was a knock at his door.

He turned to answer it but before he was able
to get there, the door opened and Kreutztrager entered with
officers from the Führer’s staff in tow.

“Haven’t we been through this before?”
Schwerig insolently sassed.

Kreutztrager spoke like an unsympathetic
robot, “You are to come with me Oberst Schwerig.”

“Am I under arrest?” queried Schwerig.

“The new Führer’s first order of business was
to speak with you. You are to come with me this instant. No
exceptions,” spoke Kreutztrager like a recorded message.

So Schwerig just rolled his eyes and followed
Kreutztrager with the other officers following behind.

When they entered Von Sterbenbach’s office,
Schwerig was astonished at how lavishly it was decorated. He had
never been here while Bormann was still alive. The walls were
covered in very ornately milled wood trimmings in the
Hallstatt-Bavarian-Celtic style.

Von Sterbenbach was standing at parade rest
looking out of one of his office windows. Without turning, he
ordered, “Leave the Oberst and I alone for a moment.”

At that, Kreutztrager and the others turned
and exited.

Schwerig said nothing, but waited patiently
for Von Sterbenbach to speak first.

He finally turned and grinned at Schwerig,
“Surprised to see me Wolf… sorry, ‘Oberst’?”

“Quite!”

“Are you in fear for your life?”

“What happens will happen. I couldn’t care
less.”

“You’re no fun. You’re as robotic as
ever.”

“What is this about?”

Von Sterbenbach paused and became more
serious, “I hear that you have done quite well for yourself and are
quite respected by all in the new Raumsfahrtwaffe…”

“Is there a point here somewhere?”

“You must realize that what happened back in
the war was just business, I had nothing personal against you.”

“Yes, that I understand, but again, the point
please.”

“Oberst Schwerig, its seems that now I need
you, more than anyone in the world, and I am prepared to promote
you to General and eventually Feldmarschall, so that you will have
the authority to handle the responsibilities that I need to lay on
your shoulders once again.”

Schwerig was shocked and immediately lost his
stoic stance. He was speechless and didn’t know whether to believe
him or not.

Von Sterbenbach continued, “Everyone here
already knows your story. We have no hope of hiding any of our past
duties or conflicts. My best political hope is to use your
reputation as a stepping stone for my future image. I know that you
have to see the logic in my plan. You are too much of a figure of
stability for these men.”

Schwerig snapped to attention and proudly
asked, “What is your plan for me, my Führer?”

Von Sterbenbach smiled at Schwerig’s change
of attitude and continued, “Bormann ruled like a timid child…
typical for one who spent his entire career as an administrator and
never a real soldier… I need a general that can run a real military
force. I am tired of taking concessions and hiding like rodents. We
now have the power. We ‘will’ have the respect.”

“What about General Kreutztrager?” inquired
Schwerig.

“He’s a patronizing word echoer. He is
useless as a military leader, but he will do fine as a staff
aid.”

Von Sterbenbach then reached for something on
his desk and tossed it to Schwerig. It was a set of General’s
epaulets and collar bindings.

“I wish that I could see the look on
Kreutztrager’s face when you walk out of here with those on.”

~~~**^**~~~

The
Space Race / Reaching For The Moon

2 January 1959

The Soviets launched a probe named Mechta, or
‘
Dream’
, but historically known as Luna 1.

Its original intention was to orbit the moon,
but for some unforeseen reason it flew by, and is now in Solar
orbit somewhere between Mars and Earth.

The ordinary workers and scientists at the
Baikonur Cosmodrome thought that it was just a technical fault or
part of an ongoing learning curve.

In reality, in the back offices, a selected
handful of scientists wondered what was amiss and re-plotted the
travel curve to discover that some unknown force had disrupted its
flight and changed its course.

3 March 1959

America launched its equivalent, Pioneer 4,
which followed a similar chain of events. Instead of orbiting the
moon it was nudged into deeper space as well; before it could carry
out any of its assigned data collection.

12 September 1959

The Soviets launched their second attempt,
Luna 2, instead of orbiting or flying by, it crashed onto the
surface.

In a post mission goal revision, the Soviets
report that their mission was intended to crash onto the moon all
along, and touted the mission as a complete success and the first
human made object to land on another celestial body.

Later in October of that same year the
Soviets launched Luna 3 in complete secrecy and was able to reach
the moon and pass around it’s far side unhindered, It took many
pictures, but after it reappeared on the near side of the Moon, it
was only able to transmit a small portion of its own reported
images before Luna 3 was suddenly lost.

The Soviets only release 17 images for the
rest of the world to view, but U.S. Intelligence received
unconfirmed reports that the Russians had photographed a moon base
on the lunar far side but were not able to work out detailed
co-ordinates for its precise location.

Also in the same year, the Soviets were
working on a project well ahead of its time, of developing a
reusable space plane called ‘Burya’. It however, crashed under
mysterious circumstances, killing its pilot, Mirya Gromova.

*~*

In America, NASA announced its selection of
the Mercury 7 Astronauts to an extremely jubilant and accommodating
public.

Secretly, the Americans were testing air
launched air to space missiles, using two separate launch beds
attached to the new B-58 Hustler and the B-47 Stratojet.

*~*

Due to the election of a pro American anti
Communist president in Argentina, diplomatic ties between the U.S.
and Argentina improve dramatically. President Eisenhower traveled
to Argentina in March of 1959 to visit their new leader, Frondizi.
Most of their subjects of conversation were kept confidential and
never made public.

~~~**^**~~~

The Space Race / Operation Crowflight

With the newly founded friendly relationship
between the U.S. and Argentina, Frondizi allowed the U.S. Air
Force, AFOAT in particular, to start flying U-2s from Argentinean
bases. He then notified the Germans near Fuerte Esperanza, in the
El Impenetrable wilderness, that they were no longer welcome in
Argentina and must leave.

Von Sterbenbach quickly worked out a deal
with Chile to build a new German compound just on the other side of
the Andes, but much further south than their present location.

They named it Colonia Dignadad and
immediately moved their recruiting operations to the new Chilean
facility.

For years to come many rumors flew about
Colonia Dignadad, how people entered but never left, but in reality
it was just a secret staging area for new recruits embarking for
service in space.

*~*

Gus and Jack were spending a night on the
town in Buenos Ares to celebrate Gus’s 33
^rd
birthday.
They were in Argentina to help set up ground support for the AFOAT
U-2s that were now flying out of Argentina in support of ‘Operation
Crowflight’.

They were carrying on a casual conversation
while dining, when Gus suddenly noticed something over Jack’s
shoulder.

When Gus squinted his eyes in order to see
better, Jack took notice and looked over his own shoulder wondering
what he was looking at.

Jack then turned back to Gus and asked, “What
are you looking at… a girl?”

Gus momentarily lost attention of what he was
staring at and laughed lightly as he responded, “No, I can’t
believe how much those two guys look like somebody I know from
somewhere, but I can’t place how I know them.”

Jack turned to look for a moment then faced
his plate again and continued cutting his food, as he responded, “I
don’t know how you can know them. Can’t you here them? They ‘re
speaking German,” which to Jack was not so odd, because of
Argentina’s large German speaking population.

Then a light bulb went on in Gus’s head,
“That’s it, they’re from the photograph.”

“What photograph?”

“The ones that Mr. Volmer showed us from
Holloman, when he was, you know, enlightening you as to what was
really going on with the ‘Overseers’. It’s them, I tell you.”

Jack turned to look again, and then
responded, “Maybe, I’m not so good with faces… What would they be
doing here anyway?”

Gus thumped Jack on the forehead, “What the
hell do you think ‘we’re’ doing here in Argentina, you dolt.”

“Ouch!” Jack responded, as he childishly
shoved the table back towards Gus, in response, “What the hell was
that for?”

“For being ‘Jack’, that’s what.”

“Well, just go over and ask them, if you
really want to know.”

“Are you crazy? … Forgive me, never mind?
Don’t you think that it would be slightly naive to let them know
who we are?”

“Maybe, but it would settle your curiosity,
then I won’t have to listen to you wondering if that was really
them all night.”

Gus folded up his napkin and laid it over his
plate, suggesting that he was finished, and then stood and reached
for his wallet.

Jack was still chewing on some food in his
mouth, but gestured to Gus that he understood it was time to
leave.

A few tables away, The RAF clerk and his
traveling companion… the old sergeant, on holiday in Buenos Ares,
witnessed Gus and Jack’s conversation.

“I say, did you see that?” asked the
clerk.

“See what?” answered his old sergeant.

“Those Americans… they just thump each other
at will, behaving not unlike the three stooges if you ask me.”