Chapter One Thousand Six Hundred Eighty-Seven
22nd June 1965
Kiel
The experience was unsettling. Albrecht could see that Admiral Jacob von Schmidt seemed to be a shriveled remnant of what he had once been, it was the vacant expression on his face though that was the worst aspect. It was clear that his mind was completely gone along with everything that had made the Admiral who he had been in life. The trouble was that even in this state, Jacob remained every bit of the security risk that he had been throughout his life because no one knew what secrets remained locked in his head and could spill out at any time. The joke that flew around the offices of the Ministry of the Navy while Albrecht had worked there suggested that if Jacob ever did spill the beans, a lot of the senior Brass would be dragged out in handcuffs. Not that they would need to worry about a trial because a few minutes later nuclear tipped missiles fired by one of the many countries that Jacob had manipulated or antagonized would arrive…
That meant that his attendants had to be carefully screened to weed out anyone with a possible connection to a foreign intelligence service. The other consideration was that Jacob’s language skills had gone with his mind. These days he only seemed to remember Hebrew or Yiddish during his more lucid moments and that made finding attendants even more daunting.
It was Esther who Albrecht really felt sorry for though. She had stuck with Jacob through decades of marriage, raised two daughters and pursued her own career ambitions as a Civil Servant. Now in retirement, she helped care for a husband who had regressed to early childhood and no longer even recognized her. Albrecht remembered the conversation he’d had with the Admiral after the initial diagnosis. It had been his concern about what would happen to Esther that had prevented him from putting a bullet through his head, sparing him from this fate.
When he entered the room, Jacob muttered something that Albrecht didn’t understand to Esther who just smiled.
“He said that he always loved the sea and asked why a Kapitän would call on us” Esther said.
It was odd. The Admiral seemed to have forgotten nearly everything else, but he had instantly recognized that Albrecht was wearing the uniform of a Kapitän zur See.
“I came to tell him about the Taxidiotis Project and how Wernher von Braun is trying to build rocket engines powerful enough to make his dreams reality but they keep blowing up during testing” Albrecht said, “The Admiral would have been delighted to hear that.”
With the Space Center in Vietnam open again because an alternate overland route had been established, Taxidiotis was moving full speed ahead. Albrecht, who had been on the short list to take Command of an Aircraft Carrier had instead been reassigned to oversee the final implementation of the program. That included lighting a fire under van Braun, whose division had been soaking up money and had little to show for it except having found one of the most expensive ways ever devised to turn metal, graphite and ceramic components into shrapnel. When Jacob had been the Head of the ESA, he had frequently butted heads with von Braun over budgets and results.
“The games that boys play” Esther said with a touch of condemnation, but also with wistfulness as well because it reminded her of happier times.
Mitte, Berlin
Three written exams and one oral. All with incredibly high stakes involved and to Manfred as well as most of his Professors, he had passed all of it. “You have a bright future ahead of you Herr von Mischner” The Headmaster said when he found Manfred in the hallway outside the lecture hall where several of the students had been killing time while they waited for the results. “Try not to mess it up.”
That was as close to praise as Manfred had gotten from the Headmaster of the gymnasium over the previous seven years. Mostly he had gotten stern disapproval over being a far less than diligent student and some to the things that he had gotten into with his friends from time to time.
As it had turned out, his parents were less than thrilled by the news when he got home. “We can’t exactly tell you what to do anymore, our hope is that you will listen to what we have to say” Was what his father had said, “Just please think before you make any decisions.” His mother was a bit more direct. She didn’t yell this time though, instead she handed him a stack of catalogs outlining various University programs with a note on top that read; If you do nothing else, try to get this one right.
As much as Manfred understood his parent’s concerns, he wished that they weren’t pushing him so hard in the direction that they wanted. He left the house and was walking randomly an any direction on the streets of his neighborhood. It was only by coincidence that he found himself walking on the street where Suse Rosa lived. Looking up, he saw her looking down at him from one of the upstairs windows. Feeling obligated, Manfred knocked on the door. When the Butler opened the door, Suse pushed around him and was happy to see him.
“I heard when Momma talked to Aunt Helene just now” Suse said excitedly. “We did it, didn’t we?”
“Yes” Manfred replied, he had no idea how to explain this to Suse.