Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread III

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter Two Thousand One Hundred Thirty-Nine



22nd April 1972

Kiel

She was slipping in and out of sleep midmorning on a Sunday. Kiki didn’t want to get out of bed and face the various responsibilities, instead she wanted to sleep the day away.

Opening her eyes, Kiki could see the light coming in through the deck-lights above, the prismatic glass blocks set in the fore deck of the Epione. She had planned for the interior paneling and floor in light-colored hardwood, mostly maple and ash with walnut accent stripes. This was on top of making sure that as much natural light and air as possible made its way into the barge. That included the bay windows and skylights on the upper deck.

On the lower deck, that had proven a bit difficult. Each cabin had a porthole that opened, but they were of questionable value seeing that they were only fifty or sixty centimeters above the waterline so opening them at the wrong time could cause problems. It was a part of the Epione’s riverine nature, but there would be times when she would need to traverse rough water. That was why she had invested in a state-of-the-art ventilation and air-conditioning system. It was something that she had needed due to the installation of the medical suite anyway. That wasn’t the only new technology that had gone into the Epione. There was the solar array on the roof fore and aft of the wheelhouse. The Epione was the first craft to boast that feature which the European Space Agency wasn’t planning on launching into orbit. The Master’s cabin was located under the fore deck, so it was the only cabin that had the deck-lights in addition to the portholes.

Thinking about the Epione caused her to completely wake up. It was a disappointing development because Kiki also became aware of her present unclothed state. It was a reminder of what had gone on with her and Ben the night before and just thinking about it caused her to feel heat on her cheeks. It was something that they had done many times, but this had been one of the few times he had gotten everything right and that certainly made it memorable. Afterwards they had fallen asleep. Kiki had a dim memory of hearing Ben getting up, water running, and the door closing. She was a bit surprised that he didn’t stick around. He had woken Kiki with a kiss many times, usually as a way to get her to agree to another round and that had worked far more often than she was willing to admit. Even if it wasn’t particularly memorable, it was nice to be so close to him.

It was then that the door opened, and Kiki heard the sound of claws on the wooden floor before something landed on the bed next to her. She felt a cold, wet nose poking at her before Rauchbier started licking her face. She liked being woken with kisses, but not like this. “Enough” Kiki moaned, she scratched Rauchbier’s ears before she pushed him away.

“He needed to go out” Ben said before he handed Kiki her blue dressing gown.

“Where’s Nina?” Kiki asked as she pulled it on.

“With Fianna” Ben replied as he handed Kiki a cup of coffee. “She asked me to tell you that breakfast is ready whenever you are and wants to know when you are going to find a Cook so that she doesn’t have to worry about that.”

“I am working on that” Kiki said, “That won’t be as easy as it was with the additional crew.”

They had found two new crewmen in just a matter of hours, with the Atlantic Fleet trickling back from South America there were a substantial number of Sailors who were looking for greener pastures in the private sector or at least a billet where the crew wasn’t packed in like sardines, which was what happened most of the time with warships. The two who Gregor vouched for were of that sort. Finding a Cook was a bit more complicated. They had had men and women whose prior experience included working in establishments with Michelin Star ratings, the thing was that few of them were interested in working aboard the Epione once they understood what they would be doing. On the other side of the ledger were those with experience working aboard ships but would not be up to the task if Kiki found herself entertaining a Head of State, or someone equally significant.

“Fianna knows that” Ben said, “She just wishes that you would get it done.”

Kiki shrugged; it wasn’t as if she didn’t have other things going on. Everything happened in its own order and there wasn’t a whole that even she could do to change that.

“The other thing is that Grand Admiral von Hausen invited us to have a luncheon that he and his wife are throwing” Ben said, “So, you are not going to be able to lay around sleeping all day.”

“I hate his bird” Kiki stated flatly. Referring to the parrot that the Admiral kept as a pet. As a Junior Officer, von Hausen had lost an eye during the Battle of the South China Sea. Eventually, he had convinced the Navy to issue him a waiver to allow him to go back to sea and he had leaned into the whole piratical aspect by wearing a black eyepatch and adopting a black pennant to mark his Flagship. The men of the Navy loved it and had given him a parrot as a gift. As Kiki had learned, it had been taught to “speak” by a group of Sailors and it loved to sneak up on unsuspecting people and surprise them by loudly squawking obscenities into their ear. The bird adored von Hauser though, so it had stayed around as he had been appointed Grand Admiral at the end of a long career.

“You only need to put up with Rüdiger for a couple hours” Ben replied, “Getting cleaned up and clothes would probably be a good idea.”

“The Medical Service doesn’t answer to the Navy, so one of these days I am going to shoot the damned thing” Kiki said to Ben before she started walking in the direction of the bathroom.

 

[ejpsan]

The current Grand Admiral is one of the many protégés of THE GRAND ADMIRAL had over the years and he is probably one of the last in the line of Junior Officers from The Pacific War who is still around.
There may be two of three left from that war who are in line for the top job but after them the direct influence of Jacob von Schmidt is going to wane and while Grand Admiral von Schmidt left a plan for the future of the KM that is still relevant the needs are changing beyond the scope of those plans and knowing that von Schmidt probably promoted those who could adapt to the new realities that are coming up.
It also seems that those who fought in The Battle of the South China Sea are held in special reverence by other in the KM.

 

[HaroldWinthrop]

It also seems that those who fought in The Battle of the South China Sea are held in special reverence by other in the KM.

It certainly was the battle that made the modern KM against a peer opponent and largely single-handed. Both the 'gun club' and the aviators shared the honours. When you add the exploits of the Marine Infantry in Indo China, the Pacific Campaign was the making of the Navy as a whole.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter Two Thousand One Hundred Forty



1st May 1972

Washington D.C.

To burnish his legacy, Foreign Policy had become an important subject, but it seemed like it was just wasting time. The expression used was that politics stopped at the water’s edge. That didn’t exactly mean what those who sat in the House or Senate thought it did. There had been dozens of times when events overseas became political footballs, even during the present Administration. So, the idea that they wouldn’t make political hay over that was laughable. The truth was that Foreign Policy seldom won elections because most Americans didn’t really care what happened outside the United States. They tended to look at tabloids in the Supermarket check stands that featured the antics of European royalty as entertainment and it wasn’t an accident that the same magazines published celebrity gossip as well. It was all of the same vein. Beyond that, most Americans couldn’t tell you the first thing about Europe and places like the Middle East or China, both long festering geopolitical nightmares, might as well be on a different planet.

Nelson Rockefeller had said as much, but his staff was still planning him traveling to Europe before returning to the United States to address the Republican National Convention. He wasn’t interested in doing either. He didn’t like the direction that the Party seemed to be going in and Governor of Maryland was the favorite to get the Presidential nomination. For him it felt as if they had learned nothing from the last few decades. There was a reason why he had managed to become the only Republican to serve two terms in office since 1932. Dick Nixon was going to beat that Agnew like a drum in the General Election Campaign, it was something the everyone seemed to know but few were willing to admit.

Looking at the advance materials, Rockefeller looked at what the State Department had on the Germans. It was a bit disheartening to see that the Kaiser was a young man, only thirty-three years old according to the file. It would make all photo opportunities awkward because it would send a message to the world that Rockefeller didn’t want to send. The German Chancellor was a strange man by American standards, it seemed that he had started out as a Journalist eventually legally changing his name to that of his preferred pseudonym. One of the challenges for Rockefeller was that to many in the Republican Party, Willy Brandt was the personification of the Devil. The sort of figure that they knew they could get some of their followers into an incandescent rage just by mentioning the man’s name. Oddly, this was at the same time most of them couldn’t identify the German Chancellor in a crowd if their lives depended on it. Looking at the next file, Rockefeller was tempted to ask if this was a joke. A severe looking woman in her late forties whose faded red hair was pulled into a tight braid. He recognized her as Kurfürstin von Mischner zu Berlin. By every account, she ruled the city of her birth in a manner in which Niccolò Machiavelli would approve of. In America she was considered a Feminist icon thanks to her biography being published years earlier that somehow left out the iron fist and the velvet glove.

“You are having me meet with von Mischner?” Rockefeller asked, “I thought that the Secret Service didn’t want me within a mile of that woman?”

“She’s become too big of a player to ignore” The flunky from State said.

“What exactly do you expect her to say?”

The flunky just shrugged. “Listen and nod your head” He said, “No one expects her to ask for anything you can deliver, and she certainly won’t think you can give her anything she wants.”

“That sounds very cynical.”

“Just Diplomacy 101” The flunky replied.



Jade Bight

The lights of Wilhelmshaven reflected off the water as SMS Z66 “Schwertwal” returned to her homeport after being absent for the last year and a half. Even if it were not late at night, the mood of the crew was subdued as they approached the pier and the drizzling rain perfectly suited that. Word had come from Fleet Headquarters that like the other Type 1947 Class Destroyers, the Schwertwal was to be deactivated, the first step in decommissioning her. Her sterling service in South America had merely been a reprieve until she came back to Wilhelmshaven. Captain Wruck had made that announcement a couple days before and that had cast a pall over their homecoming.

Tonight, Louis was standing on his accustomed place at the Captain’s side as the ropes were thrown to shore and the Destroyer was tied to the concrete embankment. With nothing further to do, Louis went down to his cabin and collected the bags that he had already packed. At the same time that word had come of the Schwertwal’s fate, he had gotten orders telling him that he had a considerable amount of leave coming. That was what tended to happen when the better part of two years has been spent at sea. After that, Louis had no idea what his next posting would be.

Later when he was walking down the gangplank, he saw that despite the late hour there were members of the crew’s family who were there to greet them. He wasn’t expecting anything until Nella and Nan pushed through the crowd, it took a minute or two to recognize them. The entire time in South America, he had pictured them as they had been when he had seen them last. Now they were nearly thirteen, and Nella was nearly as tall as he was while Nan was half a head shorter. They were chattering at him as he did his best to answer their questions. That was what they were doing as the two girls led him to the car which had his father and stepmother had been waiting in.

 

[ejpsan]

IOTL Agnew won in Maryland as being the Pro-Civil Rights candidate when the Democratic Incumbent was upset in the primary by a rabid segregationist.
Possible VP picks for Nixon would include Sen. Muskie of Maine, Gov. Sanford of North Carolina, and in the irony sweepstakes Sen Humphrey of Minnesota.
With all the last posts about Kiki and her new boat it reminds me of a State Dinner that President and Mrs. Kennedy hosted which was cruise up the Potomac River ending at Mt. Vernon.

 

[Darth_Kiryan]

Dick Nixon was going to beat that Agnew like a drum in the General Election Campaign, it was something the everyone seemed to know but few were willing to admit.

Ok, can we have a post on them debating, its like the greatest ironic thing ever to see this happen.

 

[Wydo]

So why are the Republicans mad at Willy Brandt? Is it an ideological thing, or is he just a useful scapegoat?

 

[theg*ddam*hoi2fan]

So why are the Republicans mad at Willy Brandt? Is it an ideological thing, or is he just a useful scapegoat?

Because he's a left-leaning German?

 

[Dain]

So why are the Republicans mad at Willy Brandt? Is it an ideological thing, or is he just a useful scapegoat?

He is a social democrat and thus ideological enemy number one in this world.

 

[ejpsan]

He is a social democrat and thus ideological enemy number one in this world.

There is no "Big Bad" for the United States ITTL so something or someone has to take the place of the Soviet Union and the "Worldwide Communist Conspiracy" of IOTL.
Ironically if the OTL Nixon Healthcare Insurance Plan and Negative Income Tax were passed it would make the United States a bit closer in social democracy to IOTL Germany.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter Two Thousand One Hundred Forty-One



6th May 1972

Prague, Bohemia

The earmuffs made conversation impossible, but if Michael could have spoken to his brother it probably would have been telling him to stop or at least to focus. As it was, the little .22 bullets did little more than hit the target paper, if any were inside the rings it was a miracle. He was using one of the target pistols that Michael practiced with regularly, so the problem was clearly not with it. Mostly, it was that Louis felt obligated to take part and he really didn’t care.

“Doesn’t the Navy teach you how to shoot better than that?” Michael asked. Once he had taken the earmuffs off.

“What would be the point?” Louis asked in reply.

“To hit what you are aiming at” Michael said.

“I did though” Louis said as the paper was reeled in. “See.”

“The paper itself is not the target” Michael said, “There are rules.”

Louis gave Michael a look that suggested that he thought that Michael was being rather thick. “The only thing the Navy cares about is knocking what you are shooting at over” He said.

“But I thought you said that you led boarding actions off Chile?”

“As the Executive Officer of a warship that is expected and if there is shooting then it means that something has gone horribly wrong” Louis said, “Besides that, the weapons of choice in that situation are shotguns and machine pistols.”

“Philistines” Michael muttered as he started to pack up the target pistols that they had been shooting, Louis just chuckled. The idea of competition and representation for their own sake was lost on the Military with the Navy being the worst offenders. A fair fight was one you could lose, and they were having none of that. For Michael, just qualifying for the upcoming Summer Games in Men’s Pistols had been an uphill battle. He had faced stiff competition that was often from younger men who Michael himself had sponsored and he had found himself enjoying a challenge like he had not faced in years. It was refreshing. The Equestrian events were decidedly less fraught.

“I talked with Birdie over breakfast” Louis said, “She said that she is expecting to finally publish her Doctoral dissertation this autumn. She had a few questions about my time at Wilhelm Station.”

Michael tried to hide his reaction to that. Birdie completing her education in Environmental Science was a huge deal and it would also mean that she was going to be coming to live in Prague fulltime. For the last couple years, she had been going to the University of Breslau and studying for her Doctorate at the Richthofen Center. Michael was worried about what would happen. All the conversations that they had been putting off would come to a head. What if Birdie found that being around him for more than weekends and holidays was intolerable?

“What did she want to know about Antarctica?” Michael asked.

“How it exists for purely scientific research” Louis said, “That is what gets put out there for public consumption.”

“Did you tell her the rest?”

“No, it is no longer used that way, so why would I want to tell her?”

“I guess so” Michael replied.

The dirty little secret of Wilhelm Station was that in the early years it was such a brutal place to be posted that there were few volunteers. The Navy had been creative and for many years in had been where they had dumped certain undesirables that even the Marine Infantry would turn their nose up at.



Volkspark, Hasenheide

In the end, nothing changed. After all the drama that had occurred life had just resumed. Sure, Sophie knew that she had a sister now, but they lived in different parts of the city, went to different schools and other than the odd chance encounter would seldom see each other.

“I think you made out well” Ziska said as they looked down the hill towards the neighborhood that Sophie lived in and Ziska’s off to distance to the south. “Imagine if only I only had to see Astrid if I wanted to.”

Sophie knew that Ziska’s older sister had grown resentful and cruel at times to Ziska over the last few years. Astrid was of the opinion that Ziska’s parents had given entirely too much attention to Ziska at Astrid’s expense and let her get away with too much because of her missing lower right leg. As if Ziska had chosen to be born with it malformed to the point where they had needed to amputate so she could lead a somewhat normal life. It was small wonder that she liked the idea that seeing Astrid around being strictly optional.

“I barely know Gabriele though” Sophie said, “So it is way too soon to figure if this is me making out well or not.”

“You could always be Nan’s shoes” Ziska replied.

“No one would want to have that happen to them” Sophie said.

They had both heard some months earlier that Nan Pfenning had found out that among her actual family she was the sole survivor if one didn’t consider the half-sister who had been her biological father’s coconspirator. Yes, Nan’s life was good now, but according to Nella, Nan had a complete meltdown when she had learned about that. She had later bounced back, but Nella had told Sophie that everyone was worried about her.

 

[ferdi254]

Still you do not put worrysome people to the Antarctic. Way to expensive.

 

[HaroldWinthrop]

Still you do not put worrysome people to the Antarctic. Way to expensive.

Depends really on what you want to do with these 'hard cases'. Australia's penal colonies were where Britain dumped their prisoners. Most of them did their time and were freed after 7 years, but the hard cases got sent to progressively worse and worse penal stations. The ones on Tasmania's west coast (like Macquarie Harbour) were as close as you'd get to Germany's Antarctic stations, but with more trees and cannibalism.

 

[ejpsan]

Apparently there is no IOTL Antarctica Treaty of 1959 which reserves Antarctica for peaceful uses only.

 

[ferdi254]

Yep but in Australia people could live off the land. In the Antarctic you cannot. So you need to ship literally everything a human needs to survive down there. Way too expensive.

Just to give you an idea in today’s money keeping somebody alive during the summer is around 100k € during the winter we are talking 250k€. A prisoner in Germany is about 40k€.

 

[Rinasoir]

I mean, if it turned out the reason why in story for them no longer using it as a dumping ground as being down to the fiscal cost consideration, and no other, it would be fitting.

"How we treat these people is inhumane."

"Eh."

"It's also expensive."

"...We must end it NOW."

 

[ejpsan]

I have interpreted the Antarctic postings as a way for individuals to redeem themselves and not get a Bad Conduct Discharge or a Dishonorable Discharge.
Depending on whay kind of sentence that the "volunteer" would have received it could have been a wash of being kept in a military prison doing nothing productive for years versus an one or two year stint in the Antarctic and actually help advance scientific research.
Also in this timeline I have thought there were more than just "Peaceful Scientific Research" going on and now things have changed.

 

[Salamander]

Yep but in Australia people could live off the land. In the Antarctic you cannot. So you need to ship literally everything a human needs to survive down there. Way too expensive.

Just to give you an idea in today’s money keeping somebody alive during the summer is around 100k € during the winter we are talking 250k€. A prisoner in Germany is about 40k€.

Those supplies were an effective way to keep the convicts under control at Wilhelm Station.

Guard (to new arrivals): "Now remember, behave yourselves and things will be OK. Be difficult and your lives will become much harder."
Prisoner (looking around at the rock, ice & penguin poo): "How? What could possibly be worse that this shit-hole?"
Guard: "We could turn off the heat or do something worse."
Prisoner #2: "We'd freeze to death!"
Prisoner #3: "Wait... Worse? What's worse than freezing to death?"
Guard: "Cutting off all other supplies, including food."
All prisoners: <shudder>

 

[Lord Okkirke]

My understanding was that the men they (at first and around the time Louis was there) sent to the Antarctic Wilhelm Station weren't convicts (or had actually broken any laws or regulations that could see them dismissed from the service) but had otherwise run afoul of high ranking Officers that, to punish them, used them to man a harsh, dangerous and unpopular post.

 

[theg*ddam*hoi2fan]

Still you do not put worrysome people to the Antarctic. Way to expensive.

Depends really on what you want to do with these 'hard cases'. Australia's penal colonies were where Britain dumped their prisoners. Most of them did their time and were freed after 7 years, but the hard cases got sent to progressively worse and worse penal stations. The ones on Tasmania's west coast (like Macquarie Harbour) were as close as you'd get to Germany's Antarctic stations, but with more trees and cannibalism.

Apparently there is no IOTL Antarctica Treaty of 1959 which reserves Antarctica for peaceful uses only.

Yep but in Australia people could live off the land. In the Antarctic you cannot. So you need to ship literally everything a human needs to survive down there. Way too expensive.

Just to give you an idea in today’s money keeping somebody alive during the summer is around 100k € during the winter we are talking 250k€. A prisoner in Germany is about 40k€.

I mean, if it turned out the reason why in story for them no longer using it as a dumping ground as being down to the fiscal cost consideration, and no other, it would be fitting.

"How we treat these people is inhumane."

"Eh."

"It's also expensive."

"...We must end it NOW."

I have interpreted the Antarctic postings as a way for individuals to redeem themselves and not get a Bad Conduct Discharge or a Dishonorable Discharge.
Depending on whay kind of sentence that the "volunteer" would have received it could have been a wash of being kept in a military prison doing nothing productive for years versus an one or two year stint in the Antarctic and actually help advance scientific research.
Also in this timeline I have thought there were more than just "Peaceful Scientific Research" going on and now things have changed.

My understanding was that the men they (at first and around the time Louis was there) sent to the Antarctic Wilhelm Station weren't convicts (or had actually broken any laws or regulations that could see them dismissed from the service) but had otherwise run afoul of high ranking Officers that, to punish them, used them to man a harsh, dangerous and unpopular post.

Yeah, I saw it the same as ejpsan and Lord Okkirke. Like that bit in Mission: Impossible where that computer operator fouls up and lets Tom Cruise get into the secure vault:

"I want him manning a radar tower in Alaska by the end of the day. Just mail him his clothes."