Chapter One Thousand Five Hundred Ten
15th September 1962
Mitte, Berlin
Over the course of one hundred seventy days in the Korean Theater of Operations, Leutnant Kristina von Preussen led five teams from the Luftwaffe Fallschirmjäger/Joint Medical Service Parachute Search and Rescue Corps. Completing 2031 hours aboard various aircraft and 891 sorties. Leutnant von Preussen is credited with rendering lifesaving aid to Soldiers from German, Korean and other Allied units, 5192 Soldiers, Marines and Airmen…
Kiki paused from reading the citation. The numbers were mind boggling. Yet there was no mention of two hundred and five men who had died in front of her despite her best efforts. As Kiki read down it mentioned how she had placed her patients first, frequently disregarding her personal safety and comfort even while under fire. The Press had glommed onto her having never fired a shot in anger during that time as the big story, they really shouldn’t have. The truth was that Kiki was either so focused on what she had been doing she had not paid any attention to what had been happening around her or she had had been too busy telling the others what to do. Kiki had never come under direct attack to the extent that she felt she would have needed to protect herself or her patents.
…in conclusion. Having previously been awarded the Iron Cross 1st Class, the Knight’s Cross, House Order of Hohenzollern and the Grand Cross of the Order of Louise, Leutnant von Preussen is hereby inducted into the Order of Pour le Mérite as approved by the Grand Master of the Order, Emperor Louis Ferdinand, First of His Name, Commander in Chief of German Armed Forces…
Her father, Kiki realized as she read out his entire title in this context. He had said that Kiki would accept this medal and she would be gracious about it. Then she would finally understand that she no longer had anything to prove to anyone and would stop taking so many stupid risks. It had been several days, but Kiki was still smarting over that conversation. Her father had come at her as the Emperor, not as he usually behaved towards his family in private. He had basically told her that she could do as she asked, or he would remove her from the means of chasing after oblivion using the resources of his office. He said he would revoke her commission if he had to in order to keep Kiki from hurting herself.
As she stepped out for the presentation ceremony, Kiki couldn’t see much other than the flash bulbs. Her original team as well as several others from the 5th KHF were present, including Sigi. When the drawdown in Korea had started, many of the people she had worked with had been among the first to return home. Ben was still in Korea and Kiki didn’t know what she would say to him when he returned. The last time she had seen him had been during the rescue after he had been shot down, the last thing she had said to him was to shut the fuck up. It was something that she regretted. After that he had joined Lieutenant Wilhelm Franke, the WSO/O who he flew with and they had not had a chance to talk.
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Watching from the audience, Kat saw that Kiki had a terrified expression on her face. She had read the after-action reports and knew that Kiki deserved this recognition as much as anyone else did. It was funny how she seemed to fear this more than actually getting shot at. Kat also had gotten a taste of what those who cared about her must have gotten years earlier when Kat had been busy throwing herself on fires as her Aunt Marcella liked to say. It all suggested several unflattering things about the amount of influence that Kat had had on Kiki when she was a child.
It was with a bit of bitterness that Kat had made it back to Berlin too late to see Tatiana and Malcolm off to the boarding school with high standards that had accepted them. The promise was that Malcolm’s dyslexia would be addressed in such an environment. For the first time since they had been born, they were living separately from Kat and Douglas. Kat had been able to visit them to see how they were adjusting and to speak with the Headmaster, she had let him know that if anything untoward happened to either of her children then he would find the weight of the entire State crashing down on him.
Finally, there was the reason why Louis Ferdinand had recalled her from Korea. Anton Knoph had been keeping careful track of various groups around Berlin that might one day pose a threat to the Royal Family and lately had been noticing that graffiti depicting the revolutionary Jacobin symbols of the fasces had been turning up around Berlin and Kat had been asked to get to the bottom of it. It was a bit of an annoyance because as Kat had pointed out, these were students playing at revolution so long as it didn’t threaten the comfortable lifestyle that their parents paid for. Anton had pointed out that the same thing could be said about the original Jacobin Club until they found themselves caught up in an actual revolution. Anton then mentioned that while Kat had been in Korea the economic indicators in Germany had indicated that rough times were ahead, and such a group could gain traction.
