Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread II

Too bad Midge and Frank are one off characters because it would be fun to see this timeline version of Berlin through their eyes.
They could get Korean Barbecue at the Alexanderplatz Farmers Market, stop off at Leary’s Tavern where they claim to have “The World’s Largest Bar” and “The Most Beers on Tap Anywhere”.
And the best part is going to the V8 Club and meeting John the owner and saying to each other “He kind of look likes... but that can’t be because he drowned in San Francisco Bay”.
 
Maybe Midge & Frank are the new wave of American tourists seeing the world as the U.S. emerges from it isolationist past. They could be our new "Unreliable Narrator" in letters home on events they happen to accidentally witness.
 
Just imagine some friend of Midge & Frank is shown their holiday snaps and there is Kiki who she recognises, at which point Frank starts bad mouthing their useless guide!!
 
The next morning Midge and Frank sees a picture of their guide on a German newspaper and ask why is that girl is in the news only to be told that she is an Imperial Princess and she has been accepted for parachute airborne training in order to be part of a Search and Rescue unit.
 
The next morning Midge and Frank sees a picture of their guide on a German newspaper and ask why is that girl is in the news only to be told that she is an Imperial Princess and she has been accepted for parachute airborne training in order to be part of a Search and Rescue unit.

Then the next step is the german special forces to emulate kat and prove that a princess can do it too??
 
Just to remind people: USAF Pararescue are full special forces, plus full SF medical training (IIRC they're just shy of actual doctors but without the degree), and on top of that they exist to show up behind enemy lines in the middle of a fight to save people.

And then you have the Coast Guard's Aviation Survival Technicians, who do most of that but jump into raging hurricanes and pluck people from the fury of Bering Sea typhoons. I highly recommend The Last Run or The Perfect Storm on the subject.


In the MCU, Falcon/Sam Wilson is Pararescue, though sadly he never gets to do anything medical (and the one time he tried, when Rhodey got shot down, Tony blasted him)
 
THere is a sub set of the Navy's air sea rescue people who are trained to risk the bends to rescue divers and to enter the decompression chambers with them and stay as long as needed to tend to people. They come out of the para rescue folks the Navy has and are prepared to deploy with small one and two man decompression chambers as needed.
 
If you are in a situation where you are being sued for the way in which you carried out your duties as an agent or servant of the government or a big corporation, you need a personal lawyer as well as your employer's legal representation. The government lawyer or company lawyer is there to safeguard the interests of his employer. If the employer's best interest in terms of liability and avoiding reputational damage involves throwing you to the wolves, guess what their lawyer is going to do. Your lawyer OTOH is employed by you to look after your interests.
Well, sure, but we have only seen it treated as a completely private matter so far with Kat discovering the details as if it was just her and her personal lawyer in a random civil case.
 
Part 92, Chapter 1443
Chapter One Thousand Four Hundred Forty-three


9th April 1961

Mitte, Berlin

It was a funeral service like no other that Saint Hedwig’s had ever seen. When such a prominent member of the Church passes away it is normal for the Funeral Service to be a raucous affair, they had no idea what they were getting with this one.

Aside from the recent deceased’s family and their guests, the vast majority of the people present seemed to be there to make sure that he really was dead. The remainder were those merely curious because they had heard the rumors about the man. It was easy to identify most of the former, nondescript men who had eyes that seemed like that of a shark. Katherine von Mischner, who had watched the service from one of the alcoves just seemed angry, though she didn’t say a word to anyone. Though later as things began to spiral, she did look amused. Jacob Schmidt was equally silent, but it was noticeable something was off about him as his wife Esther and one of his Aides guided him to his seat.

It all had started well enough, but things swiftly got out of hand. The litany had been the one chosen by the Widow and clearly it was how she preferred to remember her husband. Then the eulogies had started, and they were delivered by people who had actually known the man and weren’t afraid to say what he was like.

Not that the seating for the extensive Schultz family was much better. Helga, the matriarch of the family had been married to Johann S. Schultz for forty-eight years and was not taking the loss well. Despite that, she still felt the need to give her youngest daughter and her youngest son Tilo’s wife the stink-eye. After years of living in the Order of Saint Clair, Inga had suddenly decided that she couldn’t do that anymore if she wanted to be true to herself. She had decamped to Berlin where she had found work as a Hospital Administrator and was now happy with her life. Tilo had married Nancy, an American woman who had worked directly for his father’s enemies before she had landed a job in the Public Relations Department at Volkswagen. Presently, she was on leave from her job as the Press Liaison for the Imperial Court and the Order of Louise. Ava was a bit more charitable towards Nancy but couldn’t understand the choices that her little sister had made. Hanna was trying to be the peacemaker like she had since she had been a little girl, without much success.

Jost, Lenz and Tilo had been stuck with the thankless task of trying to keep the grandchildren in order. Despite the ongoing service, Jost reverted to dealing with them the same way he would if they were new recruits. Lenz and Tilo, despite their much higher rank had a lifetime of conditioning to let senior Noncoms deal with minor matters. The two oldest grandsons, Erik and Karl were completely indifferent to what was happening until Ditte, Karl’s older sister, got after them to help. It was a bit too late to prevent it from becoming a complete fiasco. Fortunately, it didn’t become an International incident though the potential was there.

Later, once the burial, and wake were completed the Bishop quietly told Tilo that his family wasn’t going be excommunicated after the day’s events. Besides that, no other denomination would have them, so the Catholic Church was stuck with the Schultz family because they had been grandfathered in. It was impossible to tell if he was joking or not.


13th April 1961

At least it had been a fairly easy morning, the group that Kiki had been leading was composed mostly of Japanese tourists. Once she got past their love of flash photography, they were extremely appreciative of her efforts. They seemed to be delighted to learn that she had lived in Kyoto for a year and they were very polite when it came to her Japanese, which Kiki knew was far from perfect. If only every group was as respectful. The previous group had been families who had looked upon Kiki as a babysitter of sorts. Next week, schools were going to be back in session and Kiki would get the privilege of leading other people’s darling children through the Museum.

Today, Kiki had just handed off a group of tourists to the next guide when she got a message that she had a visitor waiting for her in the Staff Dining Hall. At first, she was a bit reluctant. This was unexpected and it was a long trudge to the top floor of the Eastern Wing which contained the Staff Housing. Then she was told that meant the next group would be handled by someone else, effectively giving her the rest of the afternoon off. That put an entirely different spin on things.

The Dining Hall wasn’t a large room as these things went. It could be crowded during the regular mealtimes, particularly around noon. It was late afternoon, so the only one present was a Heer Major who Kiki had never seen before. He was seated at the table with a cup in front of him and a file that he was reading. He motioned her to have a seat across the table from him.

“Fraulein Fischer” The Major said as she sat down with a smile that suggested that he knew it was an alias, he set the folder down on the table and Kiki saw that it was her own personnel file. “I am Major Kepler, and I happen to be the S7 for the Training Cadre that you have applied to join this July. From reading your file I must say that you are an interesting young woman.”

“That brought you all the way to Berlin?” Kiki asked.

“I had other business here in the capital” Kepler said, “And the General always welcomes anyone with a few good stories to his table. Besides, I was curious about an Imperial Princess volunteering for some of the most arduous training imaginable and a career in what could only be described as insanely dangerous at times.”

“Because I want to” Kiki replied.

Kepler leaned forward, “That isn’t a good enough answer” He said, “I would say that you think you have something to prove, if I had to guess.”

Kiki was silent.

“You also turned down an appointment to train at Judenbach two years ago” Kepler said, “What we do at Laupheim is assumed to not be as extreme as Judenbach, that assumption would be wrong. We expect the same things and have a similar attrition rate.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Kiki asked.

“Because while you’ve already checked many of the boxes of what we demand of our people, you should not be expecting that this will be easy” Kepler replied, “With that in mind, would you care to explain your motivations.”
 
Last edited:
We are now coming to the point in this timeline where we are going to see more funerals of the long time characters.
It looks like that the Grand Admiral is starting to have more bad days then good ones and that is probably taking a huge toll on his wife Esther.
If Nancy wants to get on her Mother-in-Law’s good side then she needs to convert to Catholicism and raise the children as Catholic too.
The Grandchildren of Johann Schultz otherwise known as future recruits for the military have really lived up or down as in this case in true Schultz family tradition.
 
Johan Schultz, closed the final chapter of his life as he lived it, in chaos, with some sort of collosal mess going on around him from which he quietly slips away.
 
Later, once the burial, and wake were completed the Bishop quietly told Tilo that his family wasn’t going be excommunicated after the day’s events. Besides that, no other denomination would have them, so the Catholic Church was stuck with the Schultz family because they had been grandfathered in. It was impossible to tell if he was joking or not.

I was laughing myself off at this line. Something tells me he wasn't joking, too.

I can imagine Tilo's mindset: something among the lines of 'Goddamnit!'
 
Part 92, Chapter 1444
Chapter One Thousand Four Hundred Forty-Four


17th April 1961

Tempelhof, Berlin

Kiki looked at the papers detailing exactly what she could expect as well as what would be expected if she went to Laupheim and was at a complete loss. Her lunch forgotten on the table in front of her. The previous Thursday Major Kepler had given them to her with the warning that the training she would be doing was pass/fail, with failure being far more likely. No one would care about her being a girl or her social rank as a Princess. They would only see her as a Fähnrich who aspired to lead one of their FSR teams. If she didn’t measure up, then she would be gone, and the service would be better for it. Kepler had made it very clear that she could back out at any time with no judgement. History was working against her, of a couple hundred women who had volunteered to join the Special Forces only a handful had ever passed.

“You look worried” Doctor Berg said from across the table.

“Ever gotten yourself into a situation and realized you might not be able to handle it?” Kiki asked as she handed Berg the sheets of paper.

Kiki tried to eat some more but her stomach seemed to be rebelling against her.

“It looks like they want only the most dedicated and determined” Berg said, “There is a great deal of personal risk as well. Is this what you want?”

“It’s like I was saying to Major Kepler, I want people to see me as me” Kiki said, “Not Princess Kristina, not the daughter of the Emperor and most of all not as the spoiled rich girl who relies on her family name to open all the doors for her.”

Kiki had been a bit reluctant to tell that to Kepler when he had asked her what her motivations were. It was the truth though, if by some miracle she did this then no one could say that she hadn’t earned her place ever again.

“And you think that this is a way to do that?” Berg asked.

“Yes” Kiki replied, “Though I think this is impossible.”

Berg just harrumphed and read down the papers she was holding. “While I think that this will be extremely difficult, I don’t think it’s impossible, and this parachute instruction on the ninth week will probably be a whole lot of fun” She said, “This also reminds me that that your annual physical examination is coming up.”

Leave it to Doctor Berg to remind Kiki of a detail like that there at the end.

“Scheduling that will be one more thing that I have to do” Kiki said as she was starting to feel like she ought to just go to her room and throw the blankets over her head and wait for her problems to solve themselves.

“I’ve met a few of the women who have passed through one of these courses” Berg said, “And all of them have one thing in common. Not necessarily being physically strong or stubborn, though I’m certain that helps. Instead, they all have an awareness of who they are, are smart enough to use what resources they have wisely and to see garbage like this for exactly what it is.”

“Excuse me?” Kiki asked, wondering what Berg was getting at.

“You said that this was given to you by the Regiment’s S7, this Major Kepler?” Berg asked in reply.

“Yes”

“The idea is to intimidate you into withdrawing your name before you set foot in Laupheim” Berg said, “The mental aspect of this whole thing started as soon as you sent them the paperwork. Let me guess, Major Kepler filled your ears with how heavily the odds are stacked against you before he handed you these?”

Kiki had no idea that was what had happened.

“How do you know this?” Kiki asked.

“You don’t honestly believe that this is the only time in your life that you will encounter a situation like this?” Berg asked, “In the surgical theater, you will get challenged constantly and you will need to have an answer every single time or else someone might die. And it is not always obvious what’s going on. Seeing clearly the games that people play are a big part of that.”

“The other thing that is on the bottom of the second sheet” Kiki said, “If by some miracle I make through, I will have to put my education on hold for at least the next two years.”

“Yeah, so?” Berg said, “It will be two years spent learning the sort of things that can’t be taught in University. You are already far ahead of most others your age, so I would call it a sabbatical more than putting things on hold.”

“I’ll also be in the Heer as opposed to the Medical Service” Kiki said, “That will throw a bit of a wrench in whatever you and Doctor Holz have planned for me.”

Berg seemed to find that incredibly amusing.

“It will serve that pompous windbag right to have you no longer be under his direct purview for a while” Berg said, “My personal belief is that you will return home when it suits you to.”

“Home?” Kiki asked, puzzled by that response.

“Or at least what I think is the closest thing to home you’ve had over the last few years” Berg said, “Here, in this hospital or with your friends who are at the University.”

Kiki had never thought about it that way before.
 
Last edited:
BTW the Schultz family may seem over the top. What they started out like ITTL in the 1930s was based on a real family I once had an encounter with. On an airline flight for an eternity, okay it was only six hours but it seemed that way. The only real difference was that the family in question was Danish.
 
BTW the Schultz family may seem over the top. What they started out like ITTL in the 1930s was based on a real family I once had an encounter with. On an airline flight for an eternity, okay it was only six hours but it seemed that way. The only real difference was that the family in question was Danish.

Meh, I've seen worse at funerals.

Grief is a funny old drug.
 
Top