The Gemini Divergence (83 page)

Schwerig scrambled to get operatives in place
to trail and monitor all of the people that disembarked from Von
Sterbenbach’s crew to points within the Martian infrastructure. He
wanted no stone unturned, and was determined to uncover any
underhanded maneuvers by Von Sterbenbach.

The Martian public was presented with the
televised pageantry of the Führer disembarking his shuttle and
being greeted by a smiling Schwerig, dressed in his formal attire
with a ceremonial sword at his side.

As Schwerig bowed and kissed the Führer’s
ring, Von Sterbenbach quietly commented to Schwerig alone, “I
didn’t think that you would be so happy to see me Wolf.”

Without looking up Schwerig answered quietly,
“I never thought that you would let me get this close before one of
your goons tried to take me out.”

Von Sterbenbach waved at the crowd as he
continued, “Well, I doubt you have anything to fear in front of
your minions. I dread that this may be an extended dog and pony
show.”

Schwerig stood back up, grinning and talking
quietly without moving his teeth, “I’m not dropping my guard for a
minute, Günter, and I’d never underestimate your ability to pull
off something that would appear accidental.”

“Well then… Let’s get on with this Bohemian
circus dance.”

In a tone that bystanders could clearly hear,
Schwerig offered, “Right this way my Führer,” and held out his
hand, gesturing down the red carpet.

As Von Sterbenbach walked by, Kreutztrager
followed closely behind and held his nose up in arrogance as he
passed Schwerig, who quickly smacked his lips and quietly
commented, “Love you too, Kreutzy.”

Schwerig was then distracted by the nervous
flinch of one of his own guards as his mind wandered to the
possibility of a skirmish erupting just from the nervous tension
between Schwerig’s Arean protectorate and Von Sterbenbach’s
Praetorian Guard; hopefully, they would all keep their cool.

The Führer was paraded around the various
installations of Mars with much pomp and circumstance. Von
Sterbenbach publicly admitted his amusement at the facie sculptura
at Cydonia as well as his genuine awe at the sight of Olympus Mons
and Valles Marineris, to which neither had been discovered or named
by the scientists of Earth as of this time.

As they toured around, Schwerig began to take
keen interest in a stranger that was following close behind Von
Sterbenbach, within the Führer’s entourage.

The stranger was a young general that spoke
little and appeared to be watching Schwerig every time that he had
glanced over at the young stranger as they toured.

Schwerig could bear it no more. It seemed
like every time that Von Sterbenbach produced a new General; it was
his replacement.

He strolled alongside the young General and
said, “I thought that I knew the names of all of the Generals
within the Raumsfahrtwaffe… Tell me, have you been recently
promoted?”

The young General looked startled to have
been approached, and cautiously answered, “Why yes, Feldmarschall
Schwerig, I have.”

“What would your sir name be?”

“Goerschelein.”

“Goerschelein,” responded Schwerig, “that
name is familiar… wasn’t your father a Hauptman in the SS?”

“Why yes he was… He served proudly under
Major Toelke… I’m told that you knew Toelke.”

Schwerig stopped walking for a second as he
rolled his eyes and began to touch his forehead in a non
intentional silent gesture of disgusted disbelief, when he quickly
realized that he was giving verbal cues, he corrected himself and
folded his hands behind his back and stood up straight with his
chin out, “Toelke… Yes I do believe that I remember that name… What
was it that your father did for him?”

“He was his personal assistant and secretary,
but unfortunately he was missing in action just days before the
airlift from Riese to New Swabia. I myself had to wait until I was
grown and looking for work in Argentina before I was able to join
the Raumsfahrtwaffe… I served under you during the construction of
New Swabia.”

Schwerig looked at Goerschelein with great
surprise as he asked, “You don’t say. What function, exactly did
you do for me?”

“I was a simple leutnant civil engineer
within your construction division.”

“Schwerig looked yet again surprised, “You’re
a civil engineer?”

“Yes… have been my whole life, Architecture
and CE.”

It was all now clear to Schwerig. Whether
this new pawn of Von Sterbenbach’s knew it or not, he was obviously
in the Führer’s plans as a replacement for Schwerig’s present
duties.

He quickly disengaged conversation with
Goerschelein and whispered into Graf’s ear, “Watch him very
carefully… I believe that he may be my replacement… and possibly…
assassin.”

*~*

The Rhine Chasm was the pinnacle of
Schwerig’s achievements on Mars, and therefore, the last spectacle
to be shown to the visiting Führer and his unsuspecting
entourage.

When Schwerig had first set eyes and then
drafting pencil to what his men would eventually name the Rhine
Chasm, he never could have imagined that this, at first seemingly
mundane Arean valley would quickly evolve into the jewel of
Schwerig’s sub-empirical world.

At first it was just a Spartan valley that
his prospectors had stumbled upon that had no metallurgical or
mineral value, but had a severely aerated -- high porosity volcanic
layer of hardened lava that was extremely easy for his men to carve
out into living quarters.

The chasm walls were horizontally striped
with rows of this porous lava, sandwiched between layers of
limestone that contained ice crystals of water, frozen within the
cracks of the Martian limestone.

At first, the valley’s inhabitants started
using the rubble that had been casually dumped out of the freshly
carved living spaces onto the valley floor to build arches spanning
the smaller rills that fed into the chasm with the intention of
building large covered green houses that within they would grow
their food.

As the demand for food as well as the profit
to grow it grew, the locals built larger and larger steel and
composite arches that covered even larger parts of the valley until
some locations of the valley were spanned by greenhouses that were
300 meters across.

Then the water started flowing… Within the
larger greenhouses, the warm environment allowed the ice in the
limestone to melt, thus unchocking the natural frozen spigots,
allowing the water to run from the cracks as a myriad of artesian
spring wells.

Once the water started seeking lower ground,
they started expanding the roof, building ever larger arches
spanned with crystal, until they had enclosed miles of new pristine
river valley.

The valley walls soon filled with tropical
vegetation that climbed the constantly water dripping walls, as
well as beautiful vines that draped over the protruding balconies
of thousands of homes that the chasm dwellers had hewn into the
stone.

There were water wheels along the new river
to harness the power of the moving water, and a large tarmac or
pavement running through the middle of the valley that had been
constructed by crushing, leveling and then packing the debris from
all of the digging that had been piled into the middle of the chasm
as well as from the dredging of the new river to ensure its healthy
flow.

The saucers and vehicles of the inhabitants
were parked on the tarmac within berths covered by dutifully
trimmed vegetation of vines and flowers.

There were even birds flying about within the
open space, coasting through the mist that wafted up from the
falls, covering the inside of the crystal ceiling with a constant
condensation that acted like a million little magnifying glasses,
focusing the light into the greenhouse and multiplying its warming
effect.

Row upon row of grape vines, and coffee beans
sat upon terraces carved into the chasm walls, while rice patties
had been laid out onto the lower elevations closest to the river.
Corn, soybeans and potatoes covered the higher levels of the chasm
floor.

Though not the original intention, the Rhine
Chasm had developed into the bread basket of the Arean world.

Schwerig had intentionally set the Führer and
his entourage down upon the floor of the mesa overlooking the chasm
ceiling and walked them through a man made tunnel so that their
first glimpse of this glorious wonder would be from walking out
onto a grand balcony overlooking the mist laden grandiosity of the
chasm’s lush interior.

From the balcony, Von Sterbenbach could see
for kilometers through the arches that were hundreds of feet high,
spanning valley widths of hundreds of meters.

At the far end of the chasm they could see
the reservoir that the inhabitants had named the New Bismarck Sea,
which had a large hydroelectric power station on the back side that
ran the water through electrical turbines as it flowed out of the
colossal man made structure and into a massive aqueduct that
carried water to every other city and mine within the great
valley.

On the balconies sporadically lining the
valley walls and on the ground below, a sea of people expressed
immediate exaltation at the sight of their Führer.

“How the hell did you do this?” asked an
extremely mesmerized and impressed Von Sterbenbach.

“I didn’t!” answered Schwerig as he pointed
out across the valley, “They did… The thousands of inhabitants that
chose to live here and used their backs, and their regolith torn
hands, to shovel every kilogram of rubble from those chasm walls
and then constructing all of this. Melting and blowing their own
crystal from the silicates they extracted from the saprolitic
aggregate strewn across the chasm floor. They smelted the steel
beams and reinforcement rods from the crimson iron oxide that
peppers the entire planet, nurturing all of these plants from mere
seeds that they had managed to stick into mason jars that they had
carried from their former homes in poverty stricken South America…
‘They’ did it… Not I. Yet I seem to get credit for everything, by
merely allowing them to do it, and by routinely checking to make
sure that they were constructing it safely. I couldn’t have built
this by myself if I had a thousand lives to live, end to end.”

Von Sterbenbach was at a loss for words as he
watched a small schwarm of three open gondola saucers slowly
approach the balcony and hover, as if parked, alongside the
balcony.

Schwerig held out his hand and gestured,
“Your chariot awaits, my Führer.”

Von Sterbenbach recognized the pilots on the
waiting craft as his own, so with little hesitation, he waived to
the crowd and walked onto one of the waiting saucers. His entourage
quickly followed suit; finding their own places upon the three
floating vehicles.

Once aboard; the saucers departed and
leisurely levitated down the enclosed chasm valley, over the
crowds, in echelon formation.

They slowly traveled over the spectator’s
heads, waving to their adoring minions as the military regiments
stood quiet with discipline while their civilian counterparts waved
and screamed at the top of their lungs.

Von Sterbenbach turned to look at the vehicle
behind him and noticed Schwerig leaning over the vehicle’s rail
waiving to somebody below.

He then made eye contact with Goerschelein,
who was standing in the same vehicle as Schwerig, directly behind
him. Goerschelein silently acknowledged that he was aware how
dangerously far Schwerig had leaned over the rail.

Von Sterbenbach then deviously grinned, and
motioned with his eyes for Goerschelein to push Schwerig over the
edge.

Goerschelein started to walk towards Schwerig
and pretended to trip… shoving Schwerig over the rail with both of
his hands.

The crowd gasped with horror as Schwerig fell
over the side.

With the poise of a Shakespearian actor,
Goerschelein stood back up, pretending that it was all a horrible
accident.

But, to his immediate dismay, he noticed that
Schwerig had managed to hold onto the rail with one hand and was
still dangling dangerously over the crowd.

Goerschelein quickly ran to the rail and
pretended to hold out his hand for Schwerig while he actually
placed his other hand over Schwerig’s and began trying to peal
Schwerig’s fingers loose with his thumb.

Schwerig knew that he only had seconds to
react, so he quickly reached up past Goerschelein’s outstretched
hand and grasped his wrist so that Goerschelein would not be able
to reciprocate the clasp, as he also placed his foot onto the
bottom of the saucer to give him the leverage that he needed to
quickly pull Goerschelein over the side.

Schwerig held on for his life and quickly
pulled with all of his might as Goerschelein, who was completely
unprepared for Schwerig’s quick thinking, was pulled right over the
top of Schwerig’s head and to his death below.

Von Sterbenbach did his best to conceal that
he was secretly brimming with fury that Schwerig had so quickly
thwarted his plan to replace him.

He immediately signaled for one of his
Praetorian guards on the same saucer as Schwerig to finish the job
before Schwerig climbed back on, but Schwerig saw Von Sterbenbach’s
facial signals and quickly unsheathed his ceremonial sword and
slashed across the face of the guard as soon as he peered over the
rail at Schwerig.

Screaming in agony as he held his face, the
guard stepped backwards until he fell over the opposite rail behind
him. The crowd beneath scattered as the second man fell to his
death.

It was pandemonium as the spectators in the
chasm tried to figure out what was happening before their very
eyes.

Schwerig strained to pull his head up over
the rail, only to see the Praetorian pilot pointing a pistol at
him. He quickly ducked back beneath the rail before the pilot
fired, penetrating the rail and severing it directly next to
Schwerig’s fingers and just missing the top of his head.