The Gemini Divergence (88 page)

“Please be careful not to attract attention
Senator, I believe that is why you called the meeting here in the
first place.”

Symington returned his gaze to Schwerig, “I
see many faces that could be young Raumsfahrtwaffe pilots.”

“Yes, but I’d wager that most are your
returning Vietnam veterans… Perhaps some of them are your elite Air
Force pilots with secret clearances that have covertly shot at me
in space before today.”

“Perhaps… I have received notifications that
some of those very pilots had resettled within my district.”

Schwerig responded to Symington’s confession
with a very delighted and inquisitive expression.

Symington continued, “…We do keep tabs on
people in the know with these matters. We’d like to know just what
they do with their… extended knowledge.”

“But, of course; thoroughness is the only
method.”

The maiden showed up with their drinks and
Schwerig winked politely at her as he helped her distribute the
mugs. Then he pointed to Symington, “He’ll get the first round. He
invited us here today.”

Symington was startled at Schwerig’s
forwardness but after pausing for a moment, reached for his
wallet.

Schwerig further commented, “Be sure not to
skimp on the beautiful young Fraulein, A gentleman would surely
keep her hard work honorable,” as he winked again at the young lady
while bringing the beer to his mouth.

She smiled politely back to Schwerig with the
unhidden expression that she secretly thought that he was a creepy
old man then held her hand out towards Symington.

Schwerig winced at the taste of the beer, “Oh
my… I seem to have forgotten how drab American beers can be. Young
Fraulein… would you be a dear and bring us some of your local white
wine?”

Symington silently shot Schwerig a look of
stunned disapproval, as Schwerig gestured for him to calm down,
“Don’t worry, my friends… I will get this round.”

As the maiden walked away, Schwerig babbled,
“The local wines are actually not bad. I had the pleasure of
tasting some during a tour of one of the local wineries this
morning. There is fascinating history here. Do you know that some
of the local wineries are over a hundred and fifty years old? And
they are ingeniously developed and engineered. The one that I saw
earlier today was set up with the vineyards at the top of the hill
and a trail of buildings, each with an individual purpose towards
the wine production, proceeding linearly down the hill towards the
river. It is set up to use gravity as a power source for
production… how clever. None of the work ever goes uphill. It just
gradually flows down hill, eventually to end up at the river’s
edge. Where, in times past, the river boats would carry it away to
the cities down stream.”

Symington interrupted, “I don’t mean to be
rude, but, we really don’t have all day.”

Schwerig smiled and replied, “O contraire…
‘I’ have till nightfall, and I’m sure that neither of you flew all
of the way here for any other purpose than to talk with me… I
believe that would indeed give us… ‘all day’.”

“You’re English is surprisingly good for a
foreigner; much better than others that I have heard.”

“Yes, well, I continually aspire to do ‘all’
things better than ‘others’.”

The waitress returned with the wine and
poured Schwerig a glass. The others politely declined. Schwerig
then handed the girl some folded bills that immediately brought a
puzzled look to her face.

“Sir… I think that you have made a mistake.
The wine is only…”

“No mistake, my darling. I can’t use it where
I will be traveling later tonight… It’s yours.”

“…Thank you.”

Her face lit up as she walked away proudly
holding the wad up for her friends behind the bar to see, as they
all exchanged looks of disbelief.

“Did you bring ‘your’ papers?” Symington
quietly growled.

“Why yes.”

Schwerig opened his travel bag and produced a
folder which Symington quickly began to peruse. Volmer produced his
own set of documents and handed them to Schwerig, who in turn began
to quickly glance through them; verbally checking off every item
that had been promised to be on the agreement.

As he got to the part about records disposal,
Schwerig smiled and said as he began signing the documents, “I see
that the President’s staff was able to dispose of any Air Force
record that would expose the existence of the war with the
Raumsfahrtwaffe without a single spark of suspicion.”

Symington responded as he signed as well,
“Yeah, I wasn’t real happy about that, especially since it happened
in my district and erased the official records of my own legacy…
They omitted to tell me anything about it until it was already
done.”

“You have to appreciate efficiency,” Schwerig
gloated as he leaned back and swirled his wine as he gazed at the
glass.

Volmer responded to the wine twirling, “Herr
Schwerig, if you’re always so efficient and nothing without a
reason, then why are you twirling your wine like a tourist? Do you
know the real purpose for doing that?”

“Why yes, Herr Volmer, I do… It is to test
the sugar level of the wine… If there is too much sugar, either
because fermentation is not completed or because the vintner
cheated by adding sugar, then the surface tension of the wine would
cause it to stick to the side of the glass. But as this wine shows,
it is not sticking to the side. Therefore, it is properly
fermented; quite tasty as well.”

“Well, you’re just a plethora of
information,” smarted Symington as he tossed his pen onto the table
and closed the folder.

“One tries.”

Volmer asked, “Will you be exploring beyond
Mars? …Have you traveled to Jupiter yet?”

Schwerig smiled, “Jupiter, no, but we have
sent prospectors into the asteroid belt. There is enough there to
keep us busy for some time, a literal cornucopia of raw materials…
very strategic as well. It covers the entire sol planum, and
contains a trillion places to hide… Once the asteroid belt is
settled, there will never be a human force large enough to extract
us, or force us to move again. It is nature’s most perfect
entrenchment… Would you like to see it for yourself, Herr
Volmer?”

Otmar recoiled at the thought, “No, thank
you… I mean… I would love to actually see it, but I’m afraid that I
must decline.”

“Well, if you all continue to hurl yourselves
into space atop of Von Braun’s fizzle sticks; it will be decades
before I see any of you out there anyway… You really must develop
other means into space.”

Volmer pointed at the pile of papers that
they had just signed, “What good would it do? We are now limited to
LEO for manned missions.”

Schwerig facetiously answered, “Oh, damn the
luck… Mehr Glück nachster zeit, (
better luck next time).”
Then he took a last sip of wine, “That is ‘so’ good. But really, I
must stop… I have to drive later, you know.”

As Schwerig put his papers away and prepared
to depart, Volmer asked, “Is this the last that we will ever hear
from you?”

Schwerig held his satchel to his side and
patted it in a reference to what was within, “As long as you boys
keep your end of the bargain; I suppose that it is.” He shook both
of their hands and then rose to his feet.

Before he left he tipped his hat, “Auf
Weidersehen my friends.”

Then he quietly strolled away down the
street, disappearing into the crowd.

Symington looked around at the crowd, “Can
you really believe what just transpired here?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, Versailles, Yalta, the deck of the
Missouri in Tokyo bay.”

“I suppose it is a little ironic that we are
in Missouri.”

“I suppose.”

“You had better phone the President.”

“I have all day, remember? We can sit here
for a moment. What are you and your team going to do for work
now?”

Volmer looked surprised, but confidently
replied, “Senator Sir, they have not vanished from existence,
merely from here… There will still be plenty of work verifying this
treaty, as well as the treaties with the other governments of the
world.”

“Yeah, I guess we can’t trust anybody.”

“In God we trust… all others are
monitored.”

“That’s for sure.”

“It is hard to fathom though… I mean, even if
we were to stand up and shout to this crowd what just happened, I
doubt a single one of them would believe us; the saucers, the space
stations, the moon, Mars, its too rich for even a pulp fiction
novel. A secret civilization in space… really?”

Symington looked at his drink, contemplating
as he nodded yes, then he looked up to Volmer, and with the most
serious look that he could muster, asked, “Have you ever heard of
green skinned beings that may live under the ground?”

Volmer recoiled in shock at the comment; his
eyes bugging through his coke bottle glasses in astonishment, as he
quickly and covertly glanced at the drinks on the table to see how
much Symington may have already drank.

*~*

Later that night, locals witnessed strange
lights in the sky over the town. Many people followed the lights
until they were restrained by the river’s edge. A crowd began to
gather in the parking lot of the court house overlooking the river
from atop the bluffs; all of them standing along the precipice
fence pointing at the sky.

Just before the local newspaper reporter and
the police arrived… the objects disappeared into oblivion.

16 November 1973

The Skylab 4 mission arrived in space and
stayed until the 8
^th
of February the next year.

With the last remaining Apollo rocket already
assigned to the upcoming Apollo Soyuz mission, Skylab was then
abandoned… Nothing would then remain of the Apollo program.

18 May 1974

The newly formed AFTAC detected India’s
testing of their first nuclear device, justifying that it was a
good idea to not completely dissolve AFOAT.

9 August 1974

Nixon resigned.

When President Ford took over, he officially
announced that the U.S. Government would finally come clean about
the UFO activity of the past decades before the end of the
year.

It never happened.

Many believed that presidential staffers
remaining from the Nixon administration along with, George Bush,
the new director of the CIA, talked him out of it.

July 1975

The United States and the Soviet Union
simultaneously launched vessels that would unite in space for the
Apollo Soyuz mission.

The mission was portrayed as an end to the
cold war, but in reality the cold war would last another 24
years.

Actually, it was a secret celebration that
America and Russia had secured victory in LEO, and would now
symbolically parade their space vessels in unity as they orbit the
Earth unabated.

This mission was also the symbolic transition
from the old NASA, to the new.

The white shirted, skinny tie, engineers with
pocket protectors that were the last vestiges of the Von Braun era
NASA, were retiring in droves as the new long
haired-boomer-generation of engineers, with no ties, started to
move in.

The ash trays found their way into the trash,
and the cigarette vending machines in the halls were replaced with
designer coffee machines.

The old blue patch with the swoosh was
replaced by the new ‘worm font’ patch.

They even moved into more modern offices as
the old offices were relinquished to AFTAC.

The newer engineers knew nothing of the
Gemini war. The old and now retired engineers knew nothing about
the new engineer’s glorious plans for the new Viking mission…

to Mars.

###

Connect with Eric Birk at

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6430359.Eric_Birk

~~~**^**~~~

Glossary

35-10 –
Air Force regulation governing proper uniform.

AC –
Aircraft Commander

AFOAT –
Air Force Office of Applied Technology

AFTAC –
Air Force Technical Applications Center

AGE –
Aerospace Ground Equipment

Alert –
In Air Force terminology, alert is not usually an action, but
more often a status.

Almaz –
Russian space station, 60’s equivalent to NASA/USAF ‘MOL’ or
Manned Orbiting Laboratory

Alpha 4 –
Air Force emergency code for nuclear
contamination situation.

Arean –
Of Ares, the god of war, also of the god Mars, or of the
planet Mars. Not to be confused with Arian, (of the ram
constellation), or Aryan race or language

ATIC –
Advanced Technological Intelligence Agency, headquartered at
Wright Patterson AFB in Dayton Ohio. Rumored to evaluate foreign
technologies that are deemed to be a threat to the United
States.

ATC –
Air Traffic Control

Aus Blick –
German for view, panorama, or sight. Literally
‘out look’

AUTEC –
Atlantic Underwater Testing and Evaluation Center

Baikonur Cosmodrome
– The Russian equivalent of America’s Cape
Kennedy

Bogill –
Old Scottish or Gaelic for hobgoblin, gremlin or
bogie.

Bosch –
French term for Germans

Bivouacked –
military term for set up camp, (pronounced
biv-wacked)

Bunny Suit –
Air Force slang for radiological protective suit,
because they are white and baggy.