Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread III

Part 127, Chapter 2147
Chapter Two Thousand One Hundred Forty-Seven



17th June 1972

Wollin Island

The trees were close together with dense undergrowth. The tactical situation was poor because an entire army could be within a hundred meters, and you would be none the wiser until you stumbled across them. According to Wulfstan, the small community that his father led was in the northern portion of this island on the Pomeranian Coast living their own version of Germany’s Pre-Christian past. Christian would have preferred to make the walk from Misdroy at noon as opposed to late afternoon, but the train had been late. Not for the first time Christian wished that he had a car and didn’t have to depend upon others to get him places on time. It was almost enough to make Christian think that coming with Wulfstan to try talking his crazy father out of demanding that he quit the Heer wasn’t worth it.

“You are sure that this is where your family lives Wulf?” Christian asked, “Because there is nothing but forest out here.”

Wulfstan gave Christian a baneful look.

“There was talk of building a road that would go right past the village” Wulfstan said, “My father’s very existence threatened to make the project cost prohibitive.”

This wasn’t the first time that Wulfstan had mentioned something along those lines about his father. It sounded to Christian that the man was a religious zealot and a tyrant within his own household. Christian found it incredibly ironic that Wulf’s father had separated himself from the larger society ostensibly to be free of it but seemed to have recreated the worst aspects of it on his own. If Christian had to guess, Wulf’s father would have been just fine with the larger society if he just happened to be on the top of the heap. Just that fact that the likes of Wulfstan considered him the embarrassing relative spoke volumes.

Wulfstan was walking down the trail and every minute or so he would look over his shoulder in annoyance.

“Could you make more noise?” Wulfstan asked.

“Last I looked, we are not trying to sneak in” Christian replied.

“At least it isn’t dark” Wulfstan said, “You’d have an electric torch out and would be letting everyone for kilometers around see you.”

Looking down at the exposed tree roots across the trail, Christian could see that without being able to see them he would be stumbling around in the dark. If Wulfstan thought that he was making too much noise now…

A figure jumped down from one of the trees and landed between Christian and Wulfstan. To Christian’s surprise it hissed at him before Wulfstan shoved it away. The figure landed in the dirt of the trail with a squawk. Christian got a full view of the figure’s face was that of an adolescent girl with tangled blond hair and blue eyes that were full of anger.

“I’m telling Momma that you did that Wulf” She cried as she bound to her feet and Christian instantly knew who she was to Wulfstan.

“And I’ll tell her that you are scaring guests again” Wulfstan replied, “See how that works out for you.”

The girl stood there pouting as Christian followed Wulfstan.

“Who is this outsider?” The girl asked, “He walks like he is from the city.”

“Possibly because he is from the city and he is an actual guest” Wulfstan said, “Now please shut the fuck up Mathilda.”

Mathilda blew a raspberry at Wulfstan as she fell into step with them. It seemed that little sisters were the same no matter where they lived.

“You’re from the city?” Mathilda asked, “Which one?”

“Originally Brandenburg on the Havel” Christian replied, “Potsdam these days.”

“What’s it like?” Mathilda asked, “I understand that buildings go all the way up into the clouds.”

“In Berlin and Hamburg, they can” Christian answered, and Mathilda seemed genuinely amazed by that. He didn’t mind answering her questions. She reminded him a bit of Larissa, his own little sister who was around the same age. Both of them had probably spent their entire lives within a few kilometers of where they were born and tended to ask the same sort of questions.

“Were you in Argentina with Wulf?” Mathilda asked. The way she said Argentina suggested to Christian that it might as well be Narnia as far as she was concerned.

“We were in different outfits” Christian replied, “I was in 7th Reconnaissance while he was in the 49th Regiment of the 4th Panzer Division.”

Mathilda gave Christian a puzzled look. The concept of a Motorized Division would probably be completely foreign to her.

“Are you his Koryonos?” She asked.

It was an archaic term, basically a warband leader. When Christian had realized what he was dealing with he had gone to the library and looked up some books on the subject. It was mostly from the conjunctions of Historians and Archaeologists. It related to the practice of ritually chasing out young men from the communities so that they would take their destructive tendencies elsewhere, usually in the form of raiding neighboring tribes. It also related to the wolf cult that Wulfstan had reminded him of in the first place. It was a practice that had had driven exploration and conquest but had far reaching consequences in the form of entire civilizations burned to ashes and their remaining populations enslaved. In short, there was a reason why the prehistory was exactly that. Someone had burnt all the records.

“After a fashion” Christian replied, “I’m the Oberfeldwebel of your brother’s current Squad.”

“Oh” Mathilda said before skipping off as they entered a village that looked like something from a thousand years earlier.
 
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And it was a quiet night at the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate complex...
G Gordon Liddy sits at home with a hot chocolate with a wired nagging feeling there's something he should be doing...

I didn't realise Liddy had died 5 months ago OTL.
 
And it was a quiet night at the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate complex...
I mean, that's if it's even built TTL. No post-war economic Boom in the US means odds are less money for construction projects, especially strange and esoteric ones (which the Watergate was at the time).

There might be a Watergate complex, but it could just be something a lot more simple and less impressive, which would be a shame as the Watergate is a fantastic series of buildings from an aesthetic point of view.
 
I know that this will start a series of fruitless arguments but while there is no post war boom for the US economy, the United States did make out like bandits during ITTL WW II.
With no Saudi Arabia, no Arab-Israel conflict, no OPEC oil boycott the world does not go through the Stagflation of the Seventies and worldwide economic growth is more stable.
No Cold War means less money is spent on military items and more money is available for domestic programs and consumer spending.
A non Soviet Russia that is more open to outside companies in developing the vast natural resources of Russia means that oil and natural gas production is more efficient and Russia is exporting them at a more competitive rate which lowers cost of energy around the world.
There should be more Free Trade Agreements between nations as they replace arm sales in influencing nations.
The United States-Germany rivalry is not an ideological one but two different capitalist countries trying to increase their own market share and influence and while that has led to a couple of proxy wars there hasn't been any direct conflict between the two nations
The closest we will see a direct conflict will be later this summer in Munich.
The world ITTL is at a much place then it was IOTL but it is still very far from being "Sunshine, Rainbows, and Lollipops".
 
Part 127, Chapter 2148
Chapter Two Thousand One Hundred Forty-Eight



19th June 1972

Mitte, Berlin

Marching out in formation, conducting the changing of the guard at the New Watchhouse, and then standing guard as the tourists gawked at you. That was the role of the soldiers of the First Foot until there was need for them to take on the more complex duties that the Regiment engaged in. Eighteen months of a mix of parade duty and intense training to take on the role of the personal bodyguards of the Emperor. For the individuals involved, that included standing guard in two hour shifts at the Memorial for the Fallen within the Watch House. For Wulfstan, it was an honor to do this duty.

With long practice, Wulfstan saluted the statues of Scharnhorst, Bülow, Wolvogle, and Schmidt as he marched the fifteen paces from his post as he did every fifteen minutes before turning on his heel and marching back. He knew that those four men were regarded as the greatest heroes of the Realm. There would be others who would join them in time, but they were still alive so memorializing them would be premature. There were also names proposed but the committee that made that determination was still debating whether or not to include them. He had heard this line of statues referred to as two lions, a wolf, and fox. It didn’t take much guessing as to who was being described that way. It seemed to him that during the Second World War the Realm had needed a wolves and foxes far more than lions. Lions were symbols of courage and strength, while foxes were cunning, and wolves had all those qualities as well as seeing the value of the pack. It was Wulfstan’s understanding that there were also bears and tigers around, but they were seldom in evidence. It was an idea that he liked quite a bit.

Resuming his assigned place at the guard post, Wulfstan saw that there was a tourist photographing him as he assumed Parade Rest with his rifle’s butt by his right foot. His instructions were to ignore them.

Again, his thoughts started drifting, mostly out of boredom. A couple days earlier, Christian Weise had talked his father into dropping his demand that Wulfstan return home. It seemed that Christian had known exactly how to talk to his father, but it had not been until they were on the way back to Potsdam that Wulfstan had asked Christian how he had known what to say. It had turned out that the Oberfeld had read up on what he would need to say ahead of time. For Wulfstan, it was rather annoying to learn that there were Professors in University Anthropology Departments who knew almost as much as he did about his beliefs.



Kiel

She should have been studying for the upcoming written exams for her Mariner’s Certification. Instead, Kiki found that if she didn’t busy herself with something else then she would start getting anxious the way she always did whenever she had an important test coming. So, it was fortunate that there was a community here in Kiel that was extremely interested in having a Physician there on the waterfront. The fact that she worked out of the ML Epione gave her instant credibility much to her amazement. A fisherman who was based out of Kiel had come to the Epione complaining of the aches and pains that came from a lifetime spent doing hard work aboard ships at sea. Him having the surname of Fischer meant that his family must have been in the same business for a long time. It was in many respects Kiki’s life coming full circle as it was the same name that she had used as a Nom-de-Guerre years earlier. He was aware that she had done that and had jokingly referred to her as his long-lost cousin.

“I figure that I am not telling you anything that you haven’t heard before” Kiki said to Herr Fischer, “Eat better and moderate your intake of alcohol.”

“That is easier said than done” Fischer replied. It was probably the truth. He would be battling a lifetime of bad habits if he tried to do as Kiki had just suggested.

“I understand” Kiki replied as she wrote a prescription for what was essentially aspirin “Just see what you can do.”

“Thank you, Ma’am” Fischer said before he stepped out of the examination room onto the aft deck of the Epione. There were other patients waiting in the saloon, so far none of them had presented with nothing urgent. She suspected that most of them were here because they were curious about her and the Epione.

Getting Steffi to send them back was easy enough. As far as Steffi was concerned, anything that Kiki did that burnished her public image would make her job easier. Having Kiki conducting her rather mobile Medical Practice could only result in good copy when the Press learned of it. Kiki sincerely hoped that Steffi wouldn’t issue a press release on the sly because that would complicate matters.

Kiki was also becoming aware that her workspace was rather close to the gally, and she could smell what was being prepared for lunch. She had promised Ben that she would have lunch with him on the foredeck today and it seemed that the new Cook was going all out to impress her. She had told him that it was unnecessary, but he said that he wanted it to be an occasion.

A minute later, a woman with a little girl entered the examination room, the girl looked a bit pale and seemed a bit listless. “So, what can I do for you today?” Kiki asked.

The little girl just stared at Kiki, looking a bit dazed.

“She’s been getting sick all week” The woman said, “My Ma said that it was one day bug, but this has been more than one day.”

It seemed that a genuine medical case had just found its way into the examination room.
 
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Kiki finally finds her true passion, practicing medicine while traveling the waterways of Europe.
It will make a great premise for a television show about a doctor on a boat, the English translation of the title is Waterfront Doc.
It seems that the Changing of the Guard at the New Watchhouse rivals the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace in tourist must see list.
As for the list of others to be honored I will bet that von Richthofen already has his spot picked out by him.
 
wasnt she dating the american officer of ritchie outfit?
Former officer and now former CIA officer. Much to the disappointed of his mother, who, IIRC, considers herself "Old Money" and looks down on the former German Army officer, (a woman officer, not a lady), without realising that Sigi comes from the Oldest money...
 
Chapter Two Thousand One Hundred Forty-Eight

With long practice, Wulfstan saluted the statues of Scharnhorst, Bülow, Wolvogle, and Schmidt as he marched the fifteen paces from his post as he did every fifteen minutes before turning on his heel and marching back. He knew that those four men were regarded as the greatest heroes of the Realm. There would be others who would join them in time, but they were still alive so memorializing them would be premature. There were also names proposed but the committee that made that determination was still debating whether or not to include them. He had heard this line of statues referred to as two lions, a wolf, and fox. It didn’t take much guessing as to who was being described that way. It seemed to him that during the Second World War the Realm had needed a wolves and foxes far more than lions. Lions were symbols of courage and strength, while foxes were cunning, and wolves had all those qualities as well as seeing the value of the pack. It was Wulfstan’s understanding that there were also bears and tigers around, but they were seldom in evidence. It was an idea that he liked quite a bit.
I wonder if there’s also a Mad Dog before ‘the Committee‘ for consideration?
 
Part 127, Chapter 2149
Chapter Two Thousand One Hundred Forty-Nine



1st July 1972

Mitte, Berlin

Berlin’s Central Station was unlike anything that existed anywhere else in the world, making you feel as if you were in the very center of it. Perhaps something like it could be built in New York, but that would require people in the United States to fall out of the exclusive love with that they had with their cars, something that Parker didn’t see happening any time soon.

There were multiple levels that serviced different trains going every which way. Overnight Express trains going to destinations like Moscow, Kiev, Rome, Athens, or Paris with adverts for places at points beyond. Adventures in the Russian Far East, soaking up the sun on a beach in the South of France or Greece, taking in the history in Italy or tasting wine. There were also regional train lines that promised the sights of the German countryside, finally there were the tunnels that led to Berlin’s own mass transit system. The City was a world unto itself. This was the sort of thing that Parker had sought out over the last couple years as he and Sigi had traveled around the world following their whimsy.

They had never passed through Berlin though. For Sigi, it was very complicated. If she came home, she would need to have it out with her mother who lived in a decaying house in Potsdam, bitter about the downward trajectory her life had taken after she had been the mistress of Wilhelm III for a brief period. There was also the little detail that the sitting Kaiser of Germany happened to be Sigi’s nephew. Something that doubtlessly complicated everything.

Sigi thought that any encounter with her father’s family increased the odds of some enterprising Journalist from a tabloid stumbling across the truth. Parker had listened to her mention that many times and figured that she was probably correct to a degree. It was not as if Sigi wasn’t well known for her role in the European Space Program. She had been the first woman in space and had commanded the first landing on the Moon, becoming the first person to set foot on another world in the process. It was something that would probably be totally overshadowed when someone landed on Mars or Venus, Parker figured that would happen in the 80’s or 90’s. After the Germans managed to edge out the United States in the Moon race, Parker figured that NASA must be rearing to go when it came to the next big challenge.

Not that it mattered though. Sigi was just as much out of the Space Program as Parker was out of the CIA. She had told him that being the Operations Officer at Waltz Research Center in Peenemünde had been a miserable experience. She had gotten involved with that program to be an explorer and had found herself shuffling paper. Lots and lots of paper.

They had been renting a cottage on a beach near Valencia in Spain and debating the next journey they would take when Sigi had gotten a phone call. Considering that there were only a handful of people who knew how to reach them, it was seldom good news. Sigi had said that she needed to go home due to her mother’s deteriorating health and she had not wasted any time in packing their belongings and arranging train tickets to Berlin via Madrid and Paris.

Still, that did leave the question open as to what they were going to be doing while they were in Berlin. Sigi said she had no desire to stay at her mother’s house in Potsdam and had called her brother to see if there was somewhere quiet, they could stay in the meantime. Parker figured that was the direct result of them staying briefly with his mother on Long Island last year. To say that his mother had a lot of questions for Sigi was an understatement. Just who was she? Were they planning on getting married? If so, when? And so on. Sigi was clearly worried that her half-brother and his wife would have similar questions for Parker. There were also her two youngest nieces to consider, they were regular chatterboxes and awkward questions were their stock in trade.

Parker thought about all of this as they made their way up to the street level. When they had stepped off the train, there had been a half-dozen men who had the look of Special Forces there to greet them. The other passengers had said nothing as Sigi, and Parker had been hustled away, as if this were an everyday occurrence. They were still wearing the same clothes that they had been wearing in Spain. So, Parker felt a bit out of place. He figured that if he and Sigi had been on their own they probably would have taken their time getting through the train station just to soak up some of the frenetic energy that the place had.

As soon as they reached the sidewalk, Parker could feel the warm, extremely humid air. Berlin felt much like Boston this afternoon and if he had to guess it would probably start raining within a few hours. A door to a big, black car was opened, Parker and Sigi were told get in while what luggage they had was placed in the trunk. Parker saw that Sigi was watching the city roll by out the window and could see how stressed she was. He really did wish that they could have made this journey by choice, rather by circumstance.
 
I have seen the Berlin Central Station on several YouTube videos and I am wondering what it would look like ITTL because the IOTL station was built in 2006 with a modern glass and steel look.
Depending on when it was built ITTL the Furstin may have some ideas that run contrary to the Modern Brutalism that is the current style of this time.

As for a mission to Mars that is going to be a cooperative effort because no one program can do it alone.
There are several problems that have to be solved before an attempt is made.
First is long endurance space mission in near zero gravity and that can be simulated with an Earth orbiting space station.
Second the ability to construct a long term shelter in a hostile environment which can first be tried for at a moon base.
Third is the ability to send to Mars a rocket that carries enough supplies to sustain a long term space mission and that means extremely large boosters.
 

ferdi254

Banned
Actually there were quite a number of short SF stories about humans living on Venus in the 40s, 50s and early 60s but after the facts were clear those ceased to exist. 400 degrees Celsius, acidous like hell and an atmospheric pressure equivalent to deep sea diving.

No human will ever set foot on Venus.

And that is not considering the fact that with Venus being about the same mass as earth it would be a one way trip to start.
 
With long practice, Wulfstan saluted the statues of Scharnhorst, Bülow, Wolvogle, and Schmidt as he marched the fifteen paces from his post as he did every fifteen minutes before turning on his heel and marching back. He knew that those four men were regarded as the greatest heroes of the Realm. There would be others who would join them in time, but they were still alive so memorializing them would be premature. There were also names proposed but the committee that made that determination was still debating whether or not to include them. He had heard this line of statues referred to as two lions, a wolf, and fox. It didn’t take much guessing as to who was being described that way. It seemed to him that during the Second World War the Realm had needed a wolves and foxes far more than lions. Lions were symbols of courage and strength, while foxes were cunning, and wolves had all those qualities as well as seeing the value of the pack. It was Wulfstan’s understanding that there were also bears and tigers around, but they were seldom in evidence. It was an idea that he liked quite a bit.
Scharnhorst & Bülow = Lions;
Wolvogle = (Old) Wolf ;
Schmidt = Fox
Or zella daddy later?
Emil von Holz {aka Jochen Lowe (Lion)}. Despite the cinematic alter-ego, I'm not exactly sure what people would think of when remembering Emil. Even Wolvogle considered Emil to be an extremely dangerous & capable member of the new breed of German soldier. Emil always put me more in mind of a Leopard more than a Wolf or a Lion
Kat is very obviously going to be remembered as The Tigress.
Manfred the Elder is equally obviously Der Adler.
 
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