The Gemini Divergence (75 page)

“I guess that you just wish that ‘you’ were
in space.”

“No Colonel… I wish that we were all in
space.”

May 1966

General Fitzpatrick received intelligence
that unidentified space craft wreckage had been found in the jungle
of the Rio Negro District of Brazil.

Volmer speculated that it was from a skirmish
that had occurred the previous year. He and Gus were so busy at the
time they assumed that the wreckage would never be found in the
remote jungle.

Fitzpatrick suddenly became worried that any
other wreckage that was assumed to never be found must now be
searched for to prevent further mishaps.

He figured that they had more time to do so,
now that things had slowed down somewhat. He had noticed that the
Raumsfahrtwaffe attacks seemed to be getting more desperate and
unfocused as the Overseers had drastically reduced their patrols in
LEO as well as within the atmosphere. The number of reported
run-ins with the Overseers was dropping dramatically.

He thought silently to himself.
They must
be pulling their people back to regroup deeper in space, away from
our detection capabilities, and away from the reach of our
weapons.

3 June 1966

NASA launched Gemini 9 carrying the backup
crew astronauts, Stafford and Cernan. The mission was fairly
uneventful, as far as the Overseers were concerned. The only mishap
on the mission was from a failure for the equipment to function
properly.

August 1966

Lunar Orbiter 1 successfully took many
pictures of the moon for NASA to use in finding a suitable location
for a landing site.

Shortly after it transmitted the images back
to earth. It too suddenly vanished.

Scandal erupted this time, as Air Force
technicians that had seen images of cities on the moon, leaked
their experience to the press.

The Air Force and NASA immediately dismissed
them as hacks, out for publicity.

NASA then produced an image that Von Braun
had created during his time with Disney, of a fictitious city on
the moon, as a possible explanation for what the technicians may
have seen.

The technicians later denied that the Von
Braun image was what they had seen in the Air Force photo lab.

*~*

Schwerig was once again working at his desk
when there was a knock at his door.

“Enter,” he summoned, after which Graf
entered the room.

Schwerig noticed that Graf seemed a little
hesitant to approach his desk, so he queried, “Why the sudden
shyness?”

Graff, to Schwerig’s silent shock, sat in a
chair in front of Schwerig’s desk before he was asked to sit, and
as he nervously rotated his hat in his hand as he spoke, “I have
been thinking about what you spoke about the other day… when you
instructed me not to think another moment about it.”

Schwerig, a little amused, inquired, “What
are you talking about?”

“…The futility of this war… how unnecessary
it really is.”

Schwerig was instantly cautious that Graff
may have ratted him out to Von Sterbenbach and could now be setting
him up… So he listened in silence.

Graff slowly continued, “I know that you must
be alarmed with caution at the moment, so if it may set your mind
at ease; I have not come here to solicit a response or an act of
any kind… I am merely here to tell you that I may agree… and
whatever you decide, that I will remain loyal to ‘you’ and not
Kreutztrager or Von Sterbenbach.”

After he spoke his mind, Graff stood and
pondered at the risk that he had just taken for a moment in
silence, and then with a cautious grin, he turned and exited the
room without a single word from him or Schwerig.

Schwerig sat silently thinking in his chair
for a moment, then, he turned his head and blankly stared out the
window at the Earth, which was growing farther away with each
passing year.

Not only was it actually farther away than it
was just a few days earlier, but mentally… it seemed farther away
than it ever had before.

12 September 1966

NASA launched Gemini 11, carrying astronauts
Gordon and Conrad into orbit.

During the mission, Conrad reported to
mission control that their Gemini capsule was being observed by a
UFO that he estimated was about six miles from his position.

*~*

Schwerig contacted Graf with orders to escort
him on a patrol; telling him that they were going to personally
observe the Gemini 11 craft, but in reality, Schwerig was trying to
get Graff alone, where no one else could hear them speak.

As Schwerig was approaching the presumed
location of Gemini 11, he noticed two extra glints on the horizon
behind the Gemini 11 capsule.

He slowed his craft and pointed them out to
Graf, as he quipped, “I see that our Gemini 11 friend has brought
his dogs out for a walk today,” referring to the obvious presence
of Blue Gemini escorts following the NASA vehicle from behind in a
firm tactical formation.

“What now, Feldmarschall?” asked Graf.

“We keep our distance and observe… I feel
that there is no need for the Raumsfahrtwaffe to loose another
saucer and two of its leaders today… From what you told me the
other day, I would think that you would agree.”

Graf, being shocked and reserved at
Schwerig’s baited phrase, sat silently, waiting for Schwerig to
speak again.

Schwerig sat straight and stoic as usual,
never even glancing at Graf as he continued, “You know that I could
have you arrested for your insolent comments the other day.”

“Feldmarschall Schwerig… I don’t believe that
you would have wasted the time or the resources, or taken the risk
for that matter, to bring me all the way out here just to tell me
that.”

Schwerig finally glanced at Graff and
professed, “Just less than a decade ago. I stood in Von
Sterbenbach’s office and observed Kaiser Mondkrater from the
windows of Schloss Krystal Adler as ice crystals fell within the
crater like snow and the Führer’s praetorian saucers returned from
maneuvers… At that moment, I thought that the Raumsfahrtwaffe was
at the apex of human achievement… Now that entire city is
abandoned… The people fled like rats from sinking ships… even with
public execution waiting for them if they were caught… Now… I feel
exactly as I did a decade before that… when I watched the Americans
fly that single B-36 over New Swabia… I sat there helpless as I
watched the moonlit contrail pass over our desolate keep, as
hundreds of us stood out in the moonlit snow wondering what would
become of us now.”

“So what do we do now? If you’ve been through
this before… then what do we do now.”

“Do you mean, what should we do, or what will
Von Sterbenbach want us to do… and may I remind you that he never
stood foot in New Swabia.”

“Should we try to recruit Kreutztrager? He
was there in the snow with you… Wasn’t that when he turned to you
for help and promoted you to Oberst… Perhaps he may feel that need
for your help again.”

“Tell him nothing! I wouldn’t trust
Kreutztrager with any of this… He is a patronizing back stabber and
is still extremely bitter that I passed him in rank… He would
probably celebrate serving my head to Von Sterbenbach on a
platter.”

“We must have allies though, if we do
anything by ourselves, then we would be considered nothing but
seditious gangsters.”

Schwerig stared out at the three Gemini
passing around to the dark side of the Earth, but still catching
the sunlight, “Yes… I must admit that you are right… But we must be
more reserved than ever about who we approach. One wrong move would
be the end of everything.”

6 November 1966

NASA launched Lunar Orbiter 2.

It vanished somewhere in the proximity of the
moon as well.

When Schwerig received the news that another
photograph taking probe had been apprehended, he realized that now
more than ever, they must move on to Mars and the asteroid belt,
before the earth dwellers could deal them any more pain. He also
relented to the fact that he must now relay this news to Von
Sterbenbach, who had been sinking ever lower into depression and
anxiety… masking his despair with ever more hawkish behavior.

24 November 1966

Howard Hughes came to Las Vegas to stay,
arriving with his entourage and belongings by train.

He quickly moved, unannounced, into the
‘Desert Inn’.

At first the Desert Inn management was elated
that a celebrity like Hughes would be staying in their hotel, but
were then, quickly unnerved as Hughes booked up the rest of the
floor and would not vacate the rooms to honor other patron’s
previous reservations.

They soon progressed from unnerved to
infuriated, when Hughes moved all of the hotel’s furniture from the
entire floor and had his furniture brought up to replace it.

When contractors that the hotel did not
solicit showed up for some remodeling on Hughes’ floor, management
finally had enough and called their attorneys to have Hughes thrown
out.

When Hughes found out about the plot to throw
him out, he had his attorneys hire private detectives to dig up any
angle that he could use in his favor.

When they reported back to him that the hotel
was having financial trouble and had secretly been seeking a buyer,
he immediately bought it and fired the management.

With that problem removed from his concern,
Hughes set about his daily commute by aircraft to Groom Lake north
of Las Vegas, where he would be managing the U.S. Governments
technological programs concerning the Raumsfahrtwaffe.

He poured himself into his secret work and
soon developed the reputation of being a hermit when he
continuously declined invitations to local celebrity get
togethers.

Initially, Hughes had just bought the Desert
Inn to get the management off his neck, but when his accountants
showed him the lucrative balance sheets from a casino that was
unencumbered by mob fingers, he immediately ordered his accountants
to find out if any other casinos were for sale.

The Federal Government was overjoyed that
Hughes began buying casinos all over Las Vegas, because he was
chasing the mob out of Vegas faster than the Feds ever could in
decades past, merely by buying them out.

With his new ability to root the mob out of
Vegas and his constant philanthropic gifts to the city, Hughes
encountered little resistance from the local government against his
growing influence in the area.

Within a few short years, Hughes owned most
of the major casinos on the Las Vegas Strip, eventually moving the
control center of his dynasty into the most popular casino on the
strip, ‘The Sands’.

In ironic conflict with his purpose for being
in Las Vegas in the first place, Hughes became very vocal with his
opposition of nuclear testing at Yucca Flats.

It was most likely actually because of the
proximity of his work place, being on the ridge between Groom Lake
and Yucca Flats… The nuclear testing would have been a constant
interruption to his work within AFOAT’s groom lake facilities.

*~*

UFO reports escalated wildly in South America
as the Raumsfahrtwaffe temporarily transferred large segments of
its population back down onto Colonia Dignadad.

*~*

“Feldmarschall Kreutztrager… what are your
thoughts about our compatriot Schwerig’s ideas about retreating to
Mars?” asked Von Sterbenbach as he and Kreutztrager dined alone in
a breakfast room with a splendid view of the Earth and Moon
together in the same picture window.

My Führer… I wouldn’t trust Schwerig at all…
He’s already attempted to kill you once.”

“Yes, but that was decades ago… in a totally
different and albeit desperate situation.”

“In my opinion, it must still be taken as a
warning of Schwerig’s self serving tendencies.”

“Perhaps… perhaps.”

“My Führer… I fear for your safety… I think
that you must remove Schwerig from Command of the Combined
Schwadrons, Jastas and Schwarms … he has far too much influence
over the very people that fly and maintain all of your Praetorian
conveyances.”

“Unacceptable! Despise Schwerig as I may… I
currently have no suitable replacement for him, and at this time, I
still need him.”

“You may not have any generals that are
worthy, but you have many obersts… remember, that Schwerig was an
oberst when you promoted him to general and gave him this
command.”

“Have you consulted Skorzeny? He has always
had a knack for finding perfect candidates.”

“Skorzeny has been spending most of his time
in Europe now and has slowly been morphing himself more into Cold
War espionage than Raumsfahrtwaffe concerns.”

“Contact him and ask for his help… But even
if he finds someone, what would we do with Schwerig… He is far too
popular with the commoners to have executed or arrested, and
everyone will look at any transfer that I can think of for him as a
demotion.”

“Tell the people that Schwerig did such a
magnificent job with New Swabia that you are going to commission
him to engineer your glorious new capitol on Mars.”

Von Sterbenbach burst into laughter as he
replied, “Oh that’s rich… That’s perfect… That is what we will do…
as soon as you produce a suitable replacement.”

*~*

Mr. Johnson walked into a hanger where
Everett was working at Groom Lake, and in an agitated tone queried,
“Have you seen Howard Hughes?”

“No sir, not today.”

“He borrowed an autoclave and some sonic
thickness testers, and as usual, he hasn’t returned them.”

“Well I don’t think that Mr. Hughes would
steal them…”

“I’m not suggesting that he stole them… I
merely remember what a scatter brain he can be from when he started
his company in the corner of the Lockheed hanger, way back in the
day when I was doing a job similar to yours.”