Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread III

In the second thread someone posted after the wedding of Albrecht and Ilse and went to Vietnam that they would come back with some orphans, this is a natural and logical step for Ilse and Albrecht to take as it was a disappointment to them that they couldn't have more children together.
 
Part 117, Chapter 1955
Chapter One Thousand Nine Hundred Fifty-Five



2nd January 1970

Wunsdorf-Zossen

Manfred the Younger had finally gotten himself sent back to the 7th Reconnaissance Battalion and he had immediately discovered that it was vastly different from when he had left it eighteen months earlier. In that time, they had proven themselves in Poland and had been reorganized to reflect the lessons learned during that conflict. None of that was a surprise. However, Manny had found himself being briefed at the orders of the Oberstlieutenant about the evolving mission of the Battalion and his expected role in the future. For him, this whole thing was a bit insulting and not just because he had been there when 7th Recon had been reconstituted a few years earlier. It assumed that he didn’t understand the mission in the first place. Oberstaber Schultz had just told him to deal with it because those at Battalion Headquarters needed to feel like what they did mattered out in the field when they weren’t giving themselves medals for hangnails and papercuts. The truth was that his Platoon was going to be happy to have a Lieutenant who knew his ass from his elbow. Even so, Schultz warned that he could expect that he should probably expect some static from the Soldaten because most of them had been to Poland while he had sat it out.

The first days back had been every bit as unpleasant as Many had been expecting. While most of the Platoon obeyed his commands, it was clear that they did that and no more than they had to. Only Christian Weise, who had gotten himself promoted to Unteroffizer somehow, and the Squad that he led were happy to see him. Even if that included jokes about how he had spent months babysitting the Emperor and leading tour groups in museums. There was also a considerable amount of equipment that was still being integrated into the unit. The idea of every man in the unit having a radio was interesting, though it had already resulted in problems with “crank calls” being sent to Battalion and signal discipline had swiftly become a huge issue. Then there were the vehicles themselves. The Platoon used a half dozen Iltis Utility Vehicles. That had worked fine in the past, but Battalion felt that they needed to work more closely with a VAF, Tracked Recon Vehicle, Platoon. It was not that Manny had anything against the men who operated the Luftpanzer Vs that had been specially modified for the reconnaissance role. It was just that he found the Oberlieutenant in charge of them to be obnoxious.



Mitte, Berlin

“A bit of a wild night?” Kiki asked as she pulled a shard of glass out of Zella’s shin. Getting a baneful look from Zella in the process. Zella had gotten lucky in that Kiki had been on call in the Hospital when she had come into the Emergency Department. It had been the only stroke of luck that had happened during course of the evening. Looking at the leg of her blue jeans which were soaked in her blood and cut, first from the glass and then when Kiki had cut the denim to gain access to the wound itself. They were totally ruined.

“Don’t give me that” Zella replied, “I get enough of that from my mother.”

“Very well” Kiki said, “You will need stitches and I get to clean this out. Try not to kick me in the face please.”

“I was working if you must know” Zella said, “If I had just been hanging out, I would not have been knocked over because I prefer to be at the bar, were there isn’t a crowd or a pint glass that someone dropped.”

“All while not actually drinking, I know because you told me enough times” Kiki said.

Zella frowned before Kiki started cleaning the wound, which hurt a lot and she didn’t have anything to say because she was trying not to scream.

“Couldn’t you give me something for the pain?” Zella asked.

“I did” Kiki replied, “I asked if you wanted me to numb it, remember?”

“Fat lot of good that did” Zella replied through gritted teeth.

“Are you going to be this way for the rest of this?” Kiki asked.

“You’re a Doctor” Zella said, “You can prescribe whatever you want. Can’t you get some heavy shit?”

“There are protocols” Kiki replied, “Those drugs are carefully regulated for a reason, so unless I could justify it somehow the answer is no.”

“What would justification look like?”

“Certainly not a glass cut” Kiki replied, “More like being crushed in a car wreck or a gunshot wound.”

“People come in here who have been shot?” Zella asked.

“You would be amazed what the Medics bring in” Kiki said as she started the first suture. For Zella it was the tugging that she felt as Kiki worked that was most annoying. Then she noticed that Kiki was humming to herself as she worked. For her friend, this sort of thing had become old hat.

A few minutes later someone handed Kiki an envelope and she seemed entirely too delighted.

“The preliminaries on your bloodwork are back Zella” Kiki said.

“Impossible” Zella said.

“A little bit of sweet talk to the geeks in the lab and they are willing to do anything for me” Kiki said, “And I cannot imagine that they had a whole lot else to do at this hour.”

Zella had a sinking feeling that those tests would reveal a great deal more than she wanted about her personal life, or the complete lack thereof.

“Before you even start” Zella said, “It would be impossible for me to be pregnant or have the clap because I haven’t had sex with anyone in a long time. Yes, I use cannabis regularly because I find that it helps with anxiety. Happy?”

Kiki’s face fell. Clearly, she had been looking forward having the shoe be on the other foot and it had never occurred to her that Zella would simply refuse to play that game.

“I had figured that you would find it informative” Kiki said as she put the papers aside. “The in-depth tests will be complete by tomorrow.”

“Thank you” Zella said. She had been the wild child among them when they had been girls, now as an adult her life was anything but that. What had happened to her?
 
Chapter One Thousand Nine Hundred Fifty-Five

“Thank you” Zella said. She had been the wild child among them when they had been girls, now as an adult her life was anything but that. What had happened to her?
Zella, although very much her father’s daughter, is becoming more dedicated to making her way in the world like her mother as she gets older. Another great slice of life update @Peabody-Martini!
 
“Thank you” Zella said. She had been the wild child among them when they had been girls, now as an adult her life was anything but that. What had happened to her?
This can go a number of different ways, mainly, rebel against it and try to be the wildchild again or lean into it and start focussing on her career or another aspect of her life that she wants to move on.

I take it that cannabis is not illegal ITTL Germany?
 
This can go a number of different ways, mainly, rebel against it and try to be the wildchild again or lean into it and start focussing on her career or another aspect of her life that she wants to move on.
Or it could be a wake-up call to find a balance.Like, keep working by all means, but find time for fun and romance too.
I take it that cannabis is not illegal ITTL Germany?
Either that or it's just a law nobody really bothers enforcing. I mean, a lot of places in Europe they literally wouldn't bother unless someone lit up on a crowded street. I mean, some friends of mine were at a concert passing a joint around, and...they made the mistake of offering it to a guy at the periphery of the group who turned out to be a plainclothes cop. All he did was take the joint once they'd offered it to him and have a bit of a laugh at them before moving on.
 
If Zella really is on the relatively straight and narrow, the Uh-oh is for Kiki. She's been so busy for so long that she missed quite a bit. We haven't even heard from Aurora in awhile. This would actually be a good reckoning for Kiki. She did make the most of a liberty in training. Those three need to spend at least a weekend, just them, catching up, as obviously so much has happened in all their lives.
 
I was thinking more on the line of Chekhov's Gun. Why mention blood tests if they won't play a part in the plot. Genetic disease, leukemia or a precursor for some debilitating condition.
 
Part 117, Chapter 1956
Chapter One Thousand Five Hundred Fifty-Six



10th January 1970

Anhui Province, China

It is well that war is so terrible, or we would grow too fond of it.

Supposedly, those were the words of Robert E. Lee and Sun Li-gen remembered them from his time studying at the Virginia Military Institute in America decades earlier. Looking at the aftermath of the set-piece battle that had occurred between the Cities of Lu’an and Hefei Sun was reminded of that turn of phrase. Thousands of prisoners of war, what remained of the Northern Army’s rear guard, were being herded south by his men, he had standing orders not to mistreat them because they were potential recruits for his own army. Still, he understood that things happened in war, so not all of them would make it to the Yangtze River where boats would take them to where they could be best put to use.

With a strategic crossing of the Pihe river limiting any enemy movement and the Dabie Mountains covering their left flank, Sun had managed to goad Pan Yong’s forces into a battle on the ground of his choosing. He could hardly fault the conduct of Pan’s men. They had bravely followed orders to the letter but their General had not understood the terrain they were fighting on or that Sun had had months to prepare multiple defensive lines. When Pan had managed to push Sun’s men out of their positions, they fell back on their own supply lines on the Yangtze River. It had been that same river that had held Sun’s trump card in this whole campaign.

His superiors in the Southern Provisional Government had not been happy about the details of the deal that Sun had made, but they had begrudgingly accepted the necessity. The British Royal Navy had sent ships up the Yangtze. As soon that as Pan’s forces came to an agreed upon point, they had found themselves under intense shellfire from those ships. This had been the signal for Sun’s own forces to launch a counterattack, hitting the exposed flank of Pan’s army from the north. The result had been a victory, just not a complete one. Sun had been hoping for a rout, but for all his faults Pan was able to keep his men in good order long enough to retreat across the Huai River. It was a tactical victory, and it would severely limit the offensive capabilities of Pan’s army in the coming months.

That would have to be good enough, for now.



Plänterwald, Berlin

It was all stupid. Then again, it seemed to Aurora that everything they had been doing for the previous decade could be described that way after a fashion. All of them had met their professional goals but they would be hard pressed to say that any of it had made them happy. Spending the evening in the cottage that Kiki was living in had seemed fun and it had been, right until she was unfortunately reminded that Kiki tended to get rather maudlin when she was intoxicated.

Over dinner, Aurora that learned that Kiki had ordered a battery of tests on Zella and while she was relatively healthy there was some cause for concern. There had been a host of suggestions of things that Zella could be doing to maintain her health. Apparently, no one was impressed by the late nights, general lack of sleep, and the far less than complete diet of hers. Apparently living off coffee, apples and carrot sticks when she was on assignment didn’t cut it. The worst part though was that her mother had somehow found out that Zella had been to the Hospital and wanted to know exactly what had happened. Her mother had pointed out that she understood that Zella was a grown adult and she respected that, but as long as she lived in her house, Zella owed it to her to be straight about serious matters like that. Eventually, Zella had told her mother everything with her biggest complaint being how smug her mother had looked when she told her the Doctor’s conclusions.

Kiki said that she had ordered the tests almost as a lark when Zella had come in with a minor injury, though it was normally done as procedure to avoid dangerous errors or as a preventative measure. She did regret it if she had caused Zella any trouble in the process. It was a reminder that Kiki had reached her goal of becoming a Physician, only to discover that was only the beginning and that she still had a lot to learn. Aurora herself had worked for the public relations department of Krupp Steel in Essen and while she had enjoyed the work, she had grown tired of being a long way from home. Recently, she had taken a position with a firm that did consulting work with political parties and that seemed like it would be challenging. That was completely unlike Krupp, where her job seemed to have been convincing people that they needed a new toaster or set of knives.

Eventually, the conversation turned to one of the things revealed in the tests done on Zella, how she regularly used cannabis. For her nerves, she said. Aurora was familiar with the drug, mostly because many of her colleagues in Essen had been bewildered that the Americans got so bent out of shape over it. In Germany, it was viewed as being about the same as hard alcohol or prescription strength painkillers. That meant that it was regulated, but it was hardly in the same league as Opiates or methamphetamines. By then, all three of them had finished two bottles of wine that Kiki had liberated from her family’s wine cellar and Aurora had jokingly suggested that perhaps they ought to try the devil weed and make up their own minds. She had not been remotely serious when she had said that, but Zella had taken her seriously. It was only later when Kiki had started talking about how she was a massive fraud and Aurora had told her to shut up because no one actually thought that but her. That was when she realized that they were all acting out of character. She told the others that the whole thing was just stupid, and Zella just nodded and gave her a smile as if she had said something funny.
 
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Another great chapter :D

Hmmmm...Kiki I think could benefit considerably from this experience.

Also...

Her mother had pointed out that she understood that Zella was a grown adult and she respected that, but as long as she lived in her house, Zella owed it to her to be straight about serious matters like that.

Zella...time to move out. God knows you should be making enough money to rent a place.
 

ferdi254

Banned
Well in general THC is calming people down while alcohol has the opposite effect. Drunkards getting violent as a common effect while people getting aggressive on THC is a myth created by propaganda of the war on drug lobby in the USA.
 
F*s what are the British sniffing in this case? They are openly engaging in the Chinese Civil War Nr... dunno with but the number is certainly high.

That will bring all kinds of problem for them and "Westerners" in gerneral I think.
 
I don't think that Great Britain would act in such an open, blatant manner in China without tacit approval from Germany and the United States which has the most concerns about the potential spillover in the civil war in China for different reasons.

Kiki, Zella, and Aurora are close to thirty years old and by now some of their classmates from school and University are now married and have children of their own and some of them are still having careers of their own at the same time.
I wonder how the relationship between Zella and Louis Ferdinand Jr. is going and whether or not we should look to Romania to see if there is any complications from any plans that Kira made before her demise?
 
F*s what are the British sniffing in this case? They are openly engaging in the Chinese Civil War Nr... dunno with but the number is certainly high.

That will bring all kinds of problem for them and "Westerners" in gerneral I think.
It would have to be something to do with Hong Kong, probably getting Kowloon & the New Territories permanently, and possibly helping India and Tibet with border issues with China.
 
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