A Shift in Priorities - Sequel

[rast]

You can only analyse the data you have. Be strategic about what to gather and how to store it.
(Marie Curie)

Assessing the data acquired on Mars was a gargantuan task. RRA had engaged all major German universities to process samples. DELAG had been asked to scrutinise the “Wolpertinger” crash. Johannes Kreutzer was the team leader. He had been involved in design and construction of the landing craft for the Hammer in managerial capacity. Now, he was the master of fifteen subgroups that were looking into the different aspects of the accident.

Obviously, “Lohengrin” and “Melusine” had not suffered any problems; they had worked as they should. The two pilots were not reporting difficulties in steering them. But Karl Gmeinwieser had lost control of “Wolpertinger”. Why? That was the overarching question.

The crash itself was unspectacular: fast moving lander had met planet. Braking down hadn’t worked. But Max Steinle had begun crying even before the braking manoeuvre had been due. His utterances had been transcribed and analysed. Evidently, the hitch had been obvious to him. He hadn’t said Karl was disabled, but that he had lost control of the boat.

Failure of the control stand, was it possible? Not normally… One element might fail, but redundancy was integral. If the cyclic stick failed, you could override it. It was awkward, but it worked. If braking failed, you still could fire the braking rockets manually. It might affect accuracy, but it should take away the velocity – and allow you to ride down to the surface.

Sabotage? The notion imposed itself. The photographs taken by the “Melusine” crew weren’t helpful though. – Kreutzer had been present when “Wolpertinger” had been put through the final tests at Friedrichshafen. Everything had been in order. What had happened must have happened later – after the practice rounds in orbit, which had also revealed no hitches. Had there been a saboteur on board the Hammer?

 

[rast]

Example, whether it be good or bad, has a powerful influence.
(George Washington)

The infidels were cruising through the heavens. Some were even building a house on the moon. Dhuxul had tried to spot it, to no avail. Even the Turks were said to sail the distant skies. The populace were quite agitated. Had the infidels found ğanna, paradise? Was the paradise at all to be found up there? But where else should it be?

The imam of the Istishab Mosque claimed ğanna and ğahannam, hell, were only created on the Day of Judgement. Hence the infidels could have found nothing, seen nothing, spoilt nothing. Dhuxul wasn’t sure. How could jehadis march into paradise if it didn’t exist? And what about the houris?

The colonel of the Guban Rifles had said the northern infidels had sent a mighty battleship into the skies, armed with terrible bombs. Dhuxul had only made acquaintance with the southern infidels. Their small airplanes and helicopters had been more than he had ever wanted to meet.

How would that look like, a battleship in the sky? Dhuxul had gaped at the Egyptian destroyers and cruisers in port, formidable mountains of steel. Battleships were said to be even larger, like whole mountain ranges. Was it credible? The Egyptians were windbags; they must be exaggerating.

Well, Dhuxul had not only gaped at the Egyptian vessels, he had also taken photographs of them. The camera had been supplied by his contact person. A small flat apparatus he could tape onto his chest and hide it under the shirt. He had also taken picture of other military installations.

Actually, it were multiple cameras. They were swapped once a week. It was dangerous. If he was caught with a camera, he would be done. But it paid well. And who would suspect a simple soldier of the Guban Rifles to have a camera? It was worth the risk. With enough kurus in his pocket he could quit Jabuuti – and move on to Cairo, the largest city of the world.

 

[Kaiko]

I know that the UK, much less London, doesn't exist anymore, Mexico lost about half their population, and a lot of the construction efforts for cities in the US only recently restarted but it definitely seems odd that Cairo is still the largest city by population.

I wonder how long it would take for the non-Turkish regions of the Ottoman Empire to try and increase their influence over the empire at the expense of the Turks. Istanbul might even consider military action and nukes if they thought that Cairo would try to take over.

Let's just hope that Islamist forces (and I am saying Islamist due to the use of infidels and imams needing to weigh in) throughout the Middle East and into India in this TL opt to build their own cities in space instead of sabotaging any and all effort.

Great to see this timeline develop and see how things are going around the world.

 

[red1]

Is NPP an orion drive? I am surprised there is no effort to restrict such highly polluting propulsion technologies to space.

 

[RakhaAthaya]

Is NPP an orion drive? I am surprised there is no effort to restrict such highly polluting propulsion technologies to space.

Perhaps they believe that certain sacrifices (like pollution from NPP) are necessary in the name of scientific progress?

 

[Dain]

You'd be able to easily spot the Hammer in the night sky on its orbital overflights. It's bigger than the ISS. Not to mention what would happen once it fires up its drive.

 

[altamiro]

Perhaps they believe that certain sacrifices (like pollution from NPP) are necessary in the name of scientific progress?

They are launching the NPP space ships from very remote areas where pollution is less relevant: the Hammer starts from the entirely depopulated Ireland, while the Russians have more than enough empty space and the Ottomans have Arabian Desert to play in.

The global pollution effect from these few first launches is negligible, it would be only really relevant if NPP ship launches become a regular appearance like today's commercial sat launches.

However this TL shows a far less politically interconnected world, so if a certain bloc keeps blasting fission products into the atmosphere, there is no realistic way to stop them short of an outright war which is likely to put even MORE fission products into the atmosphere. And all that is going to be barely measurable compared to the amounts of radioactive dirt the Chinese have blasted out in their "experiment".

Once that problem occurs, I suspect there will be a chemical or nuclear-thermal first stage to the succsssors of the Hammer which will allow the NPP drive to only be engaged outside of the lower atmosphere. Already 50-80 km altitude may be sufficient.

 

[chrnno]

Is NPP an orion drive? I am surprised there is no effort to restrict such highly polluting propulsion technologies to space.

For the most part the pollution is local and they are picking unpopulated places. On the long term it is definitely an issue, but people behind it are generally on the older side so they don't give a fuck about consequences that will only hit next generations.

 

[rast]

Mankind invented the atomic bomb, but no mouse would ever construct a mousetrap.
(Albert von Einstein)

He was a colonel now; the youngest colonel in the armed forces. Yeah, and Kommodore Emmermann had been promoted to Konteradmiral. Mars bug quarantine was over, thank goodness. Jochen Zeislitz was preparing for an uplift to the Hammer. The boffins wanted him to be present when the pusher plate and the gun were scrutinised. It was an excellent idea, thought Jochen.

Making the Hammer fit for the journey to Jupiter, that was really important. There was more radiation residing in the impact section than anticipated. It wasn’t a showstopper, but alarming nevertheless. Mars had been a weekend escape compared to the projected grand tour to Jupiter. One couldn’t afford to get boiled in the process.

During quarantine, Jochen had looked into the radiation problem. Theoretically, the Hammer should be capable of completing three grand tours, before accumulated radiation became harmful to the crew. But that didn’t work, obviously. It looked as if the journey to Jupiter was going to be the Hammer’s last sortie.

The nuclear explosions were small air bursts, inside the atmosphere, and small remote bursts in space. They didn’t produce fallout in noticeable quantity. But ionising radiation – and most prominently neutron radiation – did affect the pusher plate, the shock absorbers and the gun. It seemed, one – the scientists – had underestimated the power of initial radiation, which even in such small bombs was substantial.

The personnel, residing higher up in the protected area, wasn’t affected – yet. Well, one would have to gauge the induced radiation over time. It should abate indeed. If that duly was the case, the hazard would die down – and the Hammer should be safe even for another trip. Well, one was going to see…

 

[rast]

There is nothing more foolish, nothing more given to outrage than a useless mob.
(Herodotus)

The local DVP dudes had eventually got their act together, pretty much. Yes, indeed, getting drunk was a marvellous idea. Egon Schagalla had immediately volunteered to join. But a drunken Gerdi was a mighty distraction, hence one had missed the riots. – Well, downtown Dortmund was still standing. Nothing much had happened; some broken windows and burst doors, but no jolly arson, no fierce urban battle.

In fact, the police had simply cordoned off the drunken lot – and had let them vent their fury. The broader population had just watched. There had been hardly any solidarity. It had been a kind of open-air freak show. According to the newspapers, piddle had run ankle-deep in the side streets, as beer was stimulating renal activity. Yeah, it had been a glorious flop.

At present, crapulence was the order of the day. It didn’t help. One had botched it, soundly. The media said that had been the case all over the realm. Only Berlin, Munich and Frankfurt had seen real riots. In Berlin and Frankfurt, synagogues had been devastated, and in Munich the town hall had been set on fire. Overall, Strauß’ appeal hadn’t produced anything near the desired result.

Egon wondered what Hanne might be doing right now. After all, the DVP was the largest party in the Reichstag. And if the MPs were anything like the local blokes, a lot of work should keep her busy day and night. She had a knack for sound organisation though – and might enjoy the travail. Would she remain in the background? Or would she thrust herself forward? She never had been lacking ambition…

 

[rast]

I usually solve problems by letting them devour me.
(Franz Kafka)

Suspicion of sabotage! That was extremely sensitive. Helga von Tschirschwitz looked at the folder: yes, top secret, for command personnel only – as should be. She read the text. All right, nothing proven, just a process of elimination. But it was dynamite nevertheless, and had to be kept under the rug at all costs. Inconceivable that the media should get wind of it – right now.

She scribbled her verdict on the folder and put it into the “forward” box. Her secretary would take care of it. – Sabotage! Could one believe it? Was it imaginable? If at all, the sabotage must have happened aboard the Hammer, the dossier had said. But the landing craft were stored outside. You couldn’t simply walk in; you had to dress for EVA. Okay, pilots and mechanics were doing that quite often.

Well, RRA Security would have to look into the affair, possibly even the Abwehr. The Russians? Strauß? Hard to tell sitting at a desk at Prerow… In the end, it didn’t matter. But the fact that RRA personnel must be involved was disturbing, downright scary. One would have to swap a major portion of the Hammer crew. That was awkward, extremely awkward…

Okay, the sabotage story was no news. – What was next? Uh-huh, Krupp had begun casting the pusher plate for “Feuerdrache”. Yeah, that was fine – and good news. They had even produced a short movie that could be used in TV. Smart guys! – What else? Gah! Accident at Lunoseló! One guy injured… Did she know him? No… The site engineer, Dobrovolsky, buried alive while digging for water, but rescued. Yeah, this water business was turning out to be quite tedious.

Any braking news from the RRA lunar project, Mondstadt? No, nothing doing… Yeah, undertaking such a programme with the old clobber was almost flippancy. Director Kammler was quite right to play it slow and safe. Let the Russians plough ahead – and learn from their mistakes… Phase One scheduled for summer and autumn, to fill the gap between Mars and Jupiter…

The Ottomans? Circling the moon… and mapping… Okay, they were getting ready for their first landing. Von Braun would manage that competently, no doubt. Any precise dates? No… not yet… mystery-mongers… What else was new? – The Hammer was scrutinised for radioactivity. Jochen had been lifted up, together with a bunch of boffins. Thank goodness for the DELAG space shuttles…

 

[Helga]

The plot thickens, it really is a marvellous tale you are spinning here and I can't wait if the mystery will be solved. For obvious reasons I'm always delighted when Helga shows up. Her insights should be helpful I hope. Thanks for sharing.

 

[rast]

Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.
(Oscar Wilde)

Half-time, thought Kaleu Karl Sikuku, another eighteen months until real life was going to strike again. Hoffnungshöh, the general staff academy, was like a big salutarium. You could study without ruffle and excitement, keep yourself fit – and shape your character. It was an ingenious system. The skill questions were parcelled into the term papers. And the tutors were evaluating you for your overall performance.

Yeah, they were not looking for geniuses but for folks who knew to keep working diligently even under extreme stress. Knowledge was not tested; it was considered a prerequisite. The final evaluation would range you in one of three groups: top class, very reliable, average. That would decide into which slot you were put as junior general staff officer.

Until then, however, one could enjoy the amenities of Hoffnungshöh. He was in perfect shape, was doing sports every day – and was keeping fit as helicopter pilot. He had just finished his quarterly flight training of twelve hours – and had received familiarisation lessons and exam on the new Rumpler Rüttelfalke helicopter. That had also comprised starting and landing on a ship.

It had been nice to be back on a destroyer, even if the vessel had hardly left port. The comrades had questioned him about his plans for the future. After all, he was the son of the famous nabob Max Sikuku. But he was not interested in business and grubbing money. He was determined to make a career in the Middle African navy. There was a fair chance he was going to be an admiral in ten or twelve years time.

Thank goodness dad didn’t insist that he, the oldest child and natural heir, follow in his footsteps. And thank heavens for Otti, his half-sister, who was now in train of succeeding dad. Neither he, Karl, nor Paula, nor Heine, his siblings, had ever had any zest for dad’s business. Mom always had backed them, and dad had soon enough realised that he couldn’t force the issue.

Indeed, dad had an incredible talent for making money, but he hadn’t passed it on to his children, at least not to those he had with mom. And that Snowpusher woman with whom he had sired Otti wasn’t a business type at all. She was a socialist politician. Strange… Or was it simply a knack for success? That would be epic…

 

[rast]

Historians are like deaf people who go on answering questions that no one has asked them.
(Leo Tolstoy)

It had been bound to happen and it duly had begun. Josef Dembitzer wasn’t surprised at all. The Rodinyadniki couldn’t help it, it was natural for them. Of course, the Baltic Countries, the Heymshtot, Poland, the Ukraine, Finland, the Evegstan Countries and the host of the Pan-Turan nations had once been part of the Russian Empire. Of course, an Ultra-Russian party would go for their return to the motherland. What else should one expect from them?

It wasn’t, however, well received in the countries concerned. All of them – except Poland and the Heymshtot – had sizeable ethnic Russian minorities living inside their borders. These good people were suddenly viewed as Trojan horses. Well, that had happened before – in each and every twist of Russian nationalism since the Great War. But this time, the situation had the potential to become nastier than ever before.

It was that old issue with the Russians: at times, their sense of reality got lost when all was well. They couldn’t tell apart wishful thinking from the realm of possibility. It was this trait that had led them to accept war in 1914. The coalition of Russia, France and Great Britain had been matchless; victory had been certain. The Bosporus would be Russian; Istanbul would be renamed Tsargrad; East Prussia would become another Baltic Duchy under the Tsar’s rule.

Okay, the results were known. But the contemporary Russians tended to disregard the lessons. Russia was doing extremely well; one had won the war in Far East. The world would do what Russia wanted. Shepilov had, narrowly, avoided a serious crisis over the Ukraine; Zademidko could only botch it ultimately. – It was not that the bloke was stupid, nor were his followers; they were smitten with blindness; fate had dazzled them.

 

[Radek]

And what, pray tell, do these Great Russian chauvinists intend to do when their "rebellious provinces" won´t return to the fold? Threaten war? That goes bad enough and we might just learn what nuclear winter looks like.

 

[Kaiko]

And what, pray tell, do these Great Russian chauvinists intend to do when their "rebellious provinces" won´t return to the fold? Threaten war? That goes bad enough and we might just learn what nuclear winter looks like.

It might be an acceptable outcome for Russia if they can take these regions with a limited fire and return fire of nuclear weapons, a problem occurs if another major nuclear power can retaliate en masse.

Ex, if Russia attacks Finland to annex it and Finland retaliates with 10 tactical nukes, this could be an acceptable loss. If Germany supports the Fins with dozens of not hundreds of their own nukes then this wouldn't be acceptable.

 

[rast]

The secret of politics? Make a good treaty with Russia.
(Otto von Bismarck)

One of the prices the SPD had exerted for entering into coalition with GDNP, Zentrum and LDP was the office of the foreign minister. Karl Johann Schmid was the incumbent. He hardly could be called an exemplary socialist: scion of a Württemberg upper-class family, Leutnant der Reserve in the Great War, lawyer, judge, professor for international law at the KWI. That made him greatly acceptable with his bourgeois colleagues, who nevertheless were still mourning after Hans Kroll, Schmid’s popular and quite successful precursor.

His job would be to create a viable working relationship with the new Russian government. Kroll had been lucky to have to deal with Shepilov and his crew. Schmid now had to face Aleksandr Zademidko and his foreign minister Yuri Andropov, another stout Rodinyadnik. It would be no easy task. In principle, everything the Ultra-Russians wanted had been taken away by the victorious Central Powers. Germany had served herself, as had the Ottoman Empire. And neither the Wilhelmstraße nor the Sublime Porte had any intention of changing any of this.

But Germany had also helped to save Russia from Bolshevik terror – and had been instrumental in reconstituting the Russian Empire. One was not Russia’s enemy. The Tsars’ colonial empire had been dismantled in and after the Great War, but Russia proper hadn’t been damaged. And Germany had lost her colonial empire as well. Everybody had lost his colonies – except those wiggy Japanese, who were still clinging to Korea.

What the Rodinyadniki wanted was altogether anachronistic. It couldn’t – and it wouldn’t – work. It was Schmid’s mission to bring that point home to Zademidko, Antropov and their associates. The ancient times wouldn’t come back. And the German Empire would not – in no sense – tolerate any infringement on the members of the COMECON. The Russians would have to understand that. It was not a question of mayhap; it was a blunt no.

 

[rast]

The disease of mutual distrust among nations is the bane of modern civilisation.
(Franz Boas)

You can’t do a number on geography, thought Admirál Nikolai Aleksandrovich Lunin. It’s against us, plain and simple. There was Sankt Peterburg on the Gulf of Finland – and there was Arkhangelsk on the White Sea, both ice-bound from December to May, and that was about it. The Nyemtsi had done a neat job in cutting Russia off from the warm waters. Finland had been encouraged to appropriate the Murman Coast and all of Karelia, barring the access to the permanently ice-free sea.

And because the ice situation was as it was, no other sea ports had been built in the north of Russia. The Weizsäcker Sun hadn’t changed anything – in the long run. The glaciers on Novaya Zemlya were back – and growing. The southern Barents Sea and the Kara Sea were freezing over in wintertime as always. – Compared to the conditions in Far East, which Lunin knew from wartime, the maritime military options were poor. Yes, submarines could operate below the ice – to a certain extent, but not close to the coast.

Indeed, there were secret channels by which submarines could leave and access even in deepest winter, but it was a troublesome process. And the Nyemtsi were out there. Their nuclear submarines were cruising the Arctic Ocean, ready to release their missiles on Russia. They were under the ice, always, even in summer. One could position hunter subs against them, but they were of course appointing hunters to hunt down the hunters. – The Russian nuclear submarines were operating in the North Sea and the Norwegian Sea; however, one never had been able to match German numbers.

Yeah, Russian nuclear deterrence opposite the Nyemtsi had to rely mainly on land-based systems. It couldn’t be helped. The navy was hamstrung – had been hamstrung very deliberately. Ládno, he had to brief the new minister of war, Pyotr Vasilyevich Dementyev. There weren’t many positive items he could list. The Murman Coast, if only one had the Murman Coast, things would be much different…

 

[rast]

Motion is created by the destruction of balance.
(Leonardo da Vinci)

The Sublime Porte was closely monitoring the change of government occurring in Moscow. Since the Middle Ages, Vienna and Moscow had been the grand enemies of the Ottoman Empire. Vienna today was an outer borough of Berlin, and Berlin was an ancient – though difficult – ally. But Moscow was still the centre of a movement that aimed at quashing the Osmanlı Devlet-i. True, as far as the Black Sea and the Bosphorus were concerned, the Russians had been pushed away effectively, but in Central Asia, the Muscovite Empire was still bordering the allied countries.

The Pan-Turan Commonwealth was a weak structure – because of low population numbers. Opposite 130 million Russians, prosperous Russians at that, one was at a plain disadvantage, even if modern medicine was leading to a gradual increase. In fifty years, the situation would be different. But right now, it was quite sinister. The Germans certainly could be trusted to deter the Ultra-Russians from interfering with the COMECON nations. But could the Sublime Porte discourage the Kremlin from overrunning Central Asia?

Because of Uyghurstan, China was an enemy as well. That was fit to complicate the situation. The Germans were only interested in sustaining the Evegstan countries. Anything going on east of the Caspian Sea didn’t really interest them. The Russian minorities, in Kazakhstan in particular, could serve as Trojan horses. Nuclear deterrence was nice and dandy, but hardly apt to solve a civil war situation. – Grand Vizier Gürsel Paşa was alarmed. One had to find out more about the intents of the Ultra-Russians.

 

[rast]

But still the block of vengeance firm doth stand, and fate, as swordsmith, hammers blow on blow.
(Aeschylus)

Ultra-Russians, jingoists, what might accrue from their regimen? Field Marshal Dang Gangjun had asked to be briefed about those Rodinyadniki and their aims. The university of Běijīng had sent two junior scientists, doctoral students of the renowned professor of history Mao, both specialists on Russian affairs. Their lectures had been enlightening for Dang.

Indeed, this seemed to affect first and foremost Europe – and perhaps Central Asia, but hardly the Far East. It was true that the Russians had originally aimed at conquering all of Manchuria. After all, Hā'ěrbīn, which they had destroyed 1942, had also been established by the Russians – in 1898 – as a central train station in their railway system. But this drive had been terminated already in 1904/5 – by the Japanese, hard to believe… And the Far East War had only been about those peripheral parts that the Russians had been allowed to keep in 1905.

Okay, so this Zademidko and his accomplices could be trusted to wreak havoc somewhere else, but not in Dang’s area of responsibility. What a pity! – However, could one perhaps take advantage from this development? Xīnjiāng presented itself. If the Turks and their backward confederates were kept busy in Kazakhstan, would they find the resources to defend the rogue province? His troops were already in place; he just needed to order them forward. Xīnjiāng was depopulated, only the western fringes held some wretched Muhammadans.

He had already sent a message to the Little Man from Sichuan. It could be done easily, disguised as humanitarian mission. There was nobody to resist the move. Once one arrived at the Tian Shan Mountains, one would collect the miserable survivors – and cram them into hospitals and reception camps. After all, Xīnjiāng belonged to the Middle Kingdom. – Well, he didn’t think the Little Man was going to agree. At least not now… But little strokes were felling big oaks. He would simply keep pushing. You never knew how the situation was going to evolve…