Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread III

Part 114, Chapter 1894
  • Chapter One Thousand Eight Hundred Ninety-Four



    4th December 1968

    Tempelhof, Berlin

    There came moments when you discover that your parents are human. There were also moments when you also realize that you have pushed things way too far. For Tatiana both those moments happened at the same time. Her mother had found out that she had applied to join the training cadre of the BND at the same time she started University. She had expected her mother to go through the roof when she found out. That hadn’t happened.

    Instead, her mother had asked her if it was true. Tatiana had answered truthfully and had seen the look of pain on her mother’s face. She had expected to be yelled at, the same way that her mother had in the past. Or being forced to do the most grueling household chores as had happened when Tatiana had gone way over the line. “You made a choice Tat” Her mother said, “I just don’t think you fully understand the personal costs involved, but I cannot stop you.” And that was all she said.

    That was when Tatiana saw her old ragdoll on her mother’s desk, the one that she thought that she had thrown away years earlier when she had thought that she was beyond such things. They had sat there in silence for several minutes before Tatiana got up and left, her mother didn’t stop her.

    “What the Hell have you done this time?” Malcolm asked as Tatiana passed him in the hallway outside the parlor in an accusing voice. It was rare that Malcolm was angry about anything, this time was different. Sophie and Marie were staring at her from the landing above. In the past, she could always count on her siblings to at least stay out of the way. This time it was clear that they thought that Tatiana’s actions had gone beyond the pale.



    6th December 1968

    Mitte, Berlin

    Rauchbier heard the footsteps before Kiki did, his ears perking up as he woke from sleeping on the couch next to Kiki. Someone was walking down the gangplank onto the ML Meta. She had been brooding about the rotten week that she had just survived and wasn’t really interested in company. All she wanted was a quiet night with a book to read. There was a knock on the door to the pilothouse and Kiki pretended that she couldn’t hear it.

    “Come on Kristina!” Kiki heard a familiar voice yell, “I know you are in there!”

    Kiki looked at the small stove that heated the saloon of the Meta and was a bit annoyed. That would give away her presence like few other things. At the same time, it was cold on the water and the weather report had predicted that it might snow, Kiki didn’t want to had hypothermia to her already extensive list of problems. With a sigh, she threw the blanket off her lap and put her book aside. Climbing the ladder to the pilot house, Kiki saw Peter Holz with a smile on his face in the window.

    “So, this is the infamous Berlin night life I’ve heard so much about?” Peter said as he stepped through the door in a misguided attempt at humor.

    “I just wanted a quiet night” Kiki replied, “I doubt I can make a mess of that like seem to do with everything else.”

    “You’ve no reason to be so pessimistic” Peter said as he took off his coat as he followed Kiki down the ladder.

    “I can get that” Kiki said, taking the coat and hanging it on a rack next to the door.

    “Love what you’ve done with the place” Peter said as he gave Rauchbier a pat. The dog had no interest in getting up from the couch, so his tail beat on the cloth surface.

    “Here to tell me what the damage is?” Kiki asked as she fumbled around in the gally as Peter took a seat at the table. There was hot water in the boiler. Normally you should offer a guest tea, Kiki thought to herself, but found that much was difficult.

    “Defending your dissertation could have gone better” Peter said, “But it was nowhere near the disaster that you are making it out to be.”

    Kiki had completed her Doctorial thesis and had found herself having to defend it in front of a committee. How much of it was based on her actual observations in the field versus research culled from accident reports. The photographs that Kiki had included in her thesis had been described as disturbing among other things. What happened to an unsecured body during an accident at highway speeds was not pretty. It had been asked if Kiki understood the policy implications of her conclusions. She had, but never thought that her thesis would be read by anyone in a position to ever implement those policies. It seemed that Kiki had been wrong about that and was personally responsible for the SPD considering mandates for seatbelts and other safety devices. Car manufactures already included them, but there was not a law that said that people had to use them. It seemed that might be changing in the near future because of her. In front of the committee, Kiki had become tongue tied at times and had nervously answered the questions as best she could. It had dragged on for nothing short of an eternity.

    Peter Holz was her Doctorial Advisor, so of course it was his job to put the best spin on things. Aside from the classes she was obligated to attend, Kiki had only left the Meta to walk Rauchbier since she had made it back from Jena a several days earlier.

    “When are we going to hear back from them?” Kiki asked, giving up on tea.

    Peter just shrugged.

    “They move at their own pace Doktor Prinzessin Kristina von Preussen” Peter said, “I was interested in knowing if you wanted to go get a drink to celebrate.”

    Was he making fun of her?

    “Why?” Kiki asked.
     
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    Part 114, Chapter 1895
  • Chapter One Thousand Eight Hundred Ninety-Five



    15th December 1968

    Mitte, Berlin

    Nella and Nan had promised to moderate their intake of sweets this year. Nan wasn’t the issue. Instead, it was Nella who had made herself sick year after year when they had gone to the annual Christmas market in the Alexander Marketplace. So much so that when Nan had come along Kiki had been afraid that she would end up having to contend with two sick little girls. Just in case, Kiki was keeping Nella under tight rein as they worked their way down the lines of stalls.

    This year they were joined by a larger than usual crowd of friends and family. Zella and Yuri, who were there recording everything for the ARD news that would probably air that night. Freddy and Suga had decided that Mirai was old enough to come. Even Kiki had to admit that it was delightful to see her niece’s reaction to the Marketplace as it was done up for the holidays. Finally, Louis Junior and Anya had tagged along. Kiki found it funny that Louis and Zella were spending the afternoon pretending that they didn’t know each other, as if they were fooling anyone. Anya had been invited because her entire family was in Moscow and Kiki felt that she shouldn’t be alone this time of the year.

    That was why Kiki found herself chatting in Russian with Anya as they followed Nella and Nan.

    “I can’t believe I asked Doctor Holz why he wanted to go out for a drink to celebrate” Kiki said, “Why else would he have come to Berlin other than to tell me that my Doctorate had been conferred?”

    Anya smiled.

    “You have got be the most Russian German woman I know” Anya replied, “Every silver lining is attached to a storm cloud that will wash everything away.”

    “I am not like that” Kiki said. This wasn’t the first time that Kiki had been called something like that. She had been referred to as Germany’s Russian Princess for years and she had never liked it.

    “Here you are with the highest academic degree possible, magna cum laude no less, and you were so wrapped up in being depressed and miserable that you didn’t even recognize it when your Doctorial Advisor told you” Anya said.

    Kiki started to say that it might have been summa cum laude except she was terrible as a public speaker but thought better of it because that would just confirm what Anya was saying.

    Fortunately, she was saved by Freddy. Which was the first time that had ever happened. Earlier in the day on the car ride to the Marketplace he had said that he could no longer call Kiki by the nickname Whippet, from now on it was Doctor Whippet. And she contemplated opening the car door and shoving him out into traffic. Not that she wanted to see him killed, just hurt really bad. Freddy having both his legs in plaster casts for the next eight weeks or so was a delightful thought. Suga had told Freddy to stop acting like a child and he had, for a few minutes anyway. Their father had told her that Freddy was so serious most of the time these days and that poking fun at his little sister was a bit of an escape for him. So, Kiki tolerated it for now.

    “Take a look Kiki” Freddy said handing her a purple and yellow striped knit hat and matching scarf. “Like when we were children.”

    “Thank you” Kiki said, and then noticing that Yuri was taping this replied. “Except when we were children you would have snuck up behind me, put it over my head, completely covering my face and calling that a vast improvement.”

    “I only did that once” Freddy said indignantly. “Just try on the hat Kiki, please.”

    Looking at Suga and Mirai, Kiki realized that they were wearing hats and scarfs that Freddy must have picked out. Suga with green and white stripes and Mirai with red and blue. For years Kiki had wondered if there must be some sort of significance to the colors, but Freddy had never explained. Putting on the hat and scarf, Kiki felt silly. Freddy looked happy as he went back to give hats and scarfs to Nella and Nan.

    With that Kiki and Anya resumed walking down the rows of stalls. That was when she came to the stall run by the Russian woman who sold pickled vegetables and preserves. She smiled when she saw Kiki and Nella, the two of them had gotten the pickled ginger root that had helped Nella when she had over-indulged in years past from her.

    “You have gotten big” The woman said in Russian to Nella, who didn’t understand.

    “Nella doesn’t speak Russian Grandmother” Anya said, “We do what we can though.”

    The woman who ran the stall chuckled at that while Kiki looked at a jar of rosehip preserves. It was a good example of products of medicinal value that Kiki had been keeping an eye out for. As she grabbed that and several other jars, she made a point of getting a jar of ginger root because she would probably need it later.

    “Kristina and Antonia have come here in the past?” Yuri asked.

    The woman gave Yuri the look that often greeted him when he spoke Russian with a Berliner accent. He might as well have waved a flag that said Son of Exiles on it.

    “Yes” The woman said as she deliberately avoided being framed in the camera that Yuri was carrying. He might be an ethnic Russian, but he revealed himself as being not from there when he did things like this.
     
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    Part 114, Chapter 1896
  • Chapter One Thousand Eight Hundred Ninety-Six



    25th December 1968

    Los Angeles, California

    Richie had agreed to come to midnight mass with his mother and was pleasantly surprised when Lucia was there. She had not been thrilled to receive a series of letters from him that had been heavily censored by some bureaucrat in the bowels of the Pentagon. He had tried to explain that while his team was in the field that was the cost of doing business. There would be a lot of his professional life that he couldn’t talk about. Perhaps it was too much to expect her not to be fast on the uptake, but she had asked Ritchie if he had been in Ecuador over the prior weeks before he had gone on leave and he had almost cursed aloud. Anyone who had watched the news would have been aware of that clusterfuck.

    The proxy war that had been simmering between Peru and Ecuador had suddenly heated up while Ritchie’s team had been in-country in the disputed border region. They had discovered a few things while they had been fighting for their lives to get clear. The first was that the part of the Argentine Army that Ritchie had encountered was composed of a bunch of complete lunatics. The other was that while “Canadian Pattern” Panzer 7 Lynx II tanks could kill a late model M-7E5 Buford at damn near any range, the 90mm shells fired by the Bufords seemed to only piss the Lynx crews off. Third, the two M-20 Super Bazookas that Ritchie’s team had weren’t much better. The fourth thing was that armored personnel carriers were not to be trifled with. Ritchie had seen an Ecuadorian Rifle Platoon ripped to pieces by 20mm shells and machine gun fire when they had attempted an ill-fated counterattack. Finally, the fifth thing that they had learned was that the Stoner Rifles and FN Minimi Light Machine Gun that Ritchie’s team had been equipped with had performed flawlessly in less than ideal conditions. The relatively light weight of those weapons had been a godsend when they had been running for their lives, beating a strategic withdrawal, or whatever the Brass termed it as. The Brass had not been happy that Huck had said that out loud during debrief though.

    Eventually, the Peruvian Army and their Argentine allies had out stripped their supply lines and had to stop when they ran out of fuel. At that point, the diplomats had stepped in and started negotiating a ceasefire. Fuel. The thought of that was particularly bitter for Ritchie. The gasoline used by the Continental Engines used by the Bufords was one of the things that caused them to erupt like a damned volcano then they got hit by one of the fin stabilized shells that the Argentinians used. Ritchie had no idea what a long-rod sabot was until he had seen one lance right through a Buford and hardly slowing down. It seemed that Intelligence knew about them but had no idea that they had been fielded anywhere. Mullins, always a font of positive thinking, had pointed out that the Lynx II was no longer in service with the German Army having been replaced by the Leopard, a vehicle that the CIA was supposedly still trying to nail down the capabilities of.

    “You are angry?” Lucia asked as she saw the look on Ritchie’s face.

    “I’ll just be glad when this year is over” Ritchie replied.



    Großer Müggelsee

    The entire reason why Kiki loved living on the Meta so much was the freedom that it offered her on days like this. The only difficulty was presented by having to take Rauchbier ashore for a while so there were no accidents.

    When her father had done his Christmas radio address the night before, had done his usual rundown of what his children were up to after he had wished the people of the German Empire a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year. For Kiki, the trouble had started when he had announced how proud he was of his eldest daughter for finally getting her Doctorate and wished her a happy twenty-seventh birthday. Then Kiki’s father dropped a major bombshell by announcing her engagement to Benjamin without actually mentioning his name. Predictably that had resulted in a stampede of the Press to the Military Museum where they knew she would be. By then she had already slipped the mooring and had steered the Meta up the river. It was hoped that being moored at a dock on the lake in the southern suburbs of Berlin would keep Kiki out of the public eye until this blew over.

    “Are you going to be alright for the rest of the day Ma’am?” The head of Kiki’s security detail asked, and Kiki had to stop herself from making a sarcastic comment back. They were only here because they had been ordered to. The deal was that if she took the Meta anywhere on the inland waterways, she would take them with her. Fortunately, the cabin they were staying in were in the bow while hers was in the stern. So, she had a peaceful night at least. This morning, while sitting in the pilot house drinking a cup of tea, Kiki ran through the list of things she would need to do today. Calling Ben and apologizing for her father blowing his life up again was at the top of it.
     
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    Part 114, Chapter 1897
  • Chapter One Thousand Eight Hundred Ninety-Seven



    1st January 1969

    Moscow, Russia

    It was cold in the apartment just after midnight as Gia snuggled against Fyodor in the bed they were sharing tonight. All she could think about was how Alexei was probably sleeping soundly in the warm, spacious apartment she normally lived in, in the center of Moscow. She was here out in the suburbs as a protest as she had for the prior two weeks. The construction company that had built this building had refused to finish the job and Gia had decided to put what people said about her to proper use by living in the building until the construction company was shamed into acting because the media had taken an interest in Gia’s cause, even if it was mostly as a human interest story. The oddsmakers had told the even press that they were not going to make bets as to how long Gia would stick it out because they knew not to bet against her after some of the things that had happened in the past.

    Fyodor and a couple dozen of his men had tagged along as security. The result was that Gia and Fyodor shared the bedroom while the people in the rest of the building looked with no small amount of fear at the Spetsnaz soldiers who were among them. That was until the local toughs who had been terrorizing the residents fled the district after their leaders had been found in the building’s entry with their arms and legs broken.

    Gia had learned a lot about this building and the ones that surrounded it in recent days. They were of prefabricated concrete construction, capable of being thrown up fast and could, in theory, help alleviate the housing crisis that had plagued Moscow for decades. The construction type had also been expressly banned in Germany with the rest of the Europe following suite with the exception of Serbia and England for some incomprehensible reason. Gia personally found the buildings to be uniformly soulless and boring.

    “This reminds of something I was thinking about the other day” Fyodor said, “What if you had remained Gianna Strobel instead of coming home and taking back your identity? What would our life be like?”

    “What do you mean our life?” Gia replied, “I would have been a reporter for the BT and the Mirror as well. I might not have ever met you.”

    “Some things are just meant to happen” Fyodor said, “I would have come to Berlin on a task for Georgy, we would have met, and the rest would be history.”

    “I fear that you would have found yourself with a rival or two for my affections” Gia said, and Fyodor just shrugged.

    “We all know who the best man is” Fyodor said jokingly.

    “If you only knew” Gia joked back. For years she suspected that he knew about her relationship with Asia but had the good sense not to mention it. That was just the sort who Fyodor was.



    Mitte, Berlin

    “She is a complex young woman” Louis Ferdinand said, “For all her evasions and protests, have you noticed what Kristina is not doing?”

    “If you say so” Ben said. As much as he loved Kiki, her manic behavior at times could be aggravating. Often it felt like she had to be maneuvered into doing something and whether or not it was something she wanted never seemed to be a factor.

    Ben sipped from a bottle of soda water that was from the small refrigerator behind Louis’ desk. He’d had no idea it was even there until Louis had opened it and pulled the bottles out. Louis had said that they were in for a long night and would need to keep their wits about them while they waited. For lack of anything better to do, they were talking about what was generally going on and the subject of Kiki’s reaction towards the announcement of their eventual marriage came up.

    This was because Kiki had dropped everything, including whatever plans she might have had with Ben hours earlier when she had received word that Victoria had gone into labor on New Year’s eve and had rushed off to the airport to catch a flight to Munich. Ben was disappointed, but he understood that Kiki had made a solemn promise to her sister that she would be there for her. Oddly, because Kiki had been continuing her education by working in the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department of the University Hospital, she was the perfect person to help her sister. Louis had left the festivities that were going on in the Old Winter Residence and had returned to his home office to wait for news. Freddy and Ben had been invited to accompany him. Freddy had declined, saying that someone would need to play host in Louis’ absence.

    Shortly after midnight, the phone finally rang.



    Munich

    “You are the sister who facies herself a Doctor who Victoria mentioned” Frau Aue said when Kiki had introduced herself to the elderly Midwife. The way she said that suggested that she felt that Kiki’s medical knowledge made her a mere apprentice. None of this was helped by Frau Aue looking like the very stereotype of a witch. Doctor Berg had warned her that she would encounter those like Frau Aue in her career, at best she should try to learn from them because they had probably forgotten more than Kiki knew, which was why they had been hired to assist the birth. Otherwise she would be well advised to keep out of their way.

    When Kiki had rushed into the hospital she had been out of breath after running from the car to the ward in a sprint. Frau Aue had laughed and told her that this was her sister’s first baby, so there was no need to hurry. That had been early in the evening. Kiki had found herself among the team of surgeons on standby in case of an emergency. They were observing Frau Aue and her two assistants, both cut from the same cloth and were likely to be one of Frau Aue’s daughters and granddaughter if Kiki had to guess.

    The baby finally came at around midnight.

    Frau Aue turned and looked at Kiki and said, “You are his kin so introduce him to his mother.”

    Kiki had a so far nameless baby wrapped in a blanket thrust into her arms. The look on his face reflected the mutual confusion that both he and his aunt were feeling. There was a commotion in the waiting area as Frau Aue and a Surgeon who Kiki had not been introduced to were looking at what Kiki realized was the placenta as it was being expelled. Taking her eyes off that, Kiki focused on Vicky who looked completely dazed. She’d had a rough day by anyone’s standards.

    “You’ve a little boy Vicky” Kiki said with a smile.

    “Max” Vicky said absently as she took him from Kiki. “I told Albrecht that we had agreed that if it were a boy, we would name him Maximilian Joseph, it made him happy.”

    “Max then” Kiki said to Vicky and then she saw the celebration that was ongoing in the waiting area. “What is going on out there?” Kiki asked Frau Aue.

    “Typical stupidity” Frau Aue replied as she washed her hands with isopropyl alcohol, the tone of her voice one of disapproval. “The Registrar thinks that the boy might be first child born in the New Year, in Munich at least. Good omens or some other manure.”

    Kiki had not thought of that.
     
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    Part 114, Chapter 1898
  • Chapter One Thousand Eight Hundred Ninety-Eight



    7th January 1969

    Los Angeles

    It was early Tuesday morning and Ritchie had been unable to sleep. Going down to the donut shop for a Pershing and a cup of coffee was an ironic way to go out and not get hassled by the cops. For lack of anything better to do he was reading a magazine that a prior customer had left in the shop. Celebrity gossip, mostly implied speculation about who was fucking who in Hollywood and the latest about European Royalty. Ritchie wondered why anyone cared, it wasn’t as if anything printed on these pages truly impacted the lives of the readers. What did the latest antics of Princess Margret or Rock Hudson once again being voted the best dressed man in Hollywood have to do with anything. The closest thing to actual news was the birth of a Bavarian Prince photographed with his mother and three aunts. The difference there was that Ritchie had actually met Kristina von Preussen when she had been the Liaison Officer for the German Army when the 1st SFG had been in Laupheim and had done a fairly good job of it. Unlike some of the other wastes of oxygen featured in this magazine she wasn’t wasting her life. Instead of focusing on Kristina, the magazine spent an astonishingly inordinate amount of ink speculating about her younger sister Marie Cecilie and the rumors that she was gay. Ritchie threw the magazine back into the bin on the wall where he had found it in disgust. Where was the newspaper that was supposed to be there?

    “That is no way to treat that sort of thing” A man wearing a depressingly familiar uniform said, “The trashcan is over there.”

    He gestured towards the front counter.

    “If you are here to give me the talk about how your Department is looking to stomp me to death if you get the chance I’ll save you the trouble and let you know I am going back to New York next week” Ritchie said, glancing at the man’s name tag he saw Capt. Evans and wondered what he had done to draw the attention of the LAPD’s Brass.

    “It’s the Detective Bureau who has the beef with you” Evans said, “They really don’t like there to be unfinished business. I am from slightly more enlightened Division of the Department.”

    Ritchie took a drink of his lukewarm coffee because he didn’t trust himself not to say what he thought of that. Enlightened was the last word he would use to describe any part of the Los Angeles Police Department.

    “Oddly, it is because of that beef that we’ve had our eye on you for a very long time Valenzuela” Evans said as he pulled a business card out and slid it across the table. “How you just happen to be a Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Army Airborne Special Forces. But just how long do you expect that to last? Which do you think will give out first, your knees or your back? I’m sure your CO has already mentioned that you need to start planning for what comes after.”

    “What do you care?” Ritchie asked.

    “Lets just say that I know what I am talking about and John Casey had nothing but good things to say about you” Evans said, “Let me know if you have any questions, so enjoy your coffee and have a good day.”

    With that, Evans got up and left. Looking at the business card, Ritchie saw that it had the words Tactical Response Division printed on it. Ritchie knew exactly what that had been, and the irony of the situation was profound.



    Kreuzberg, Berlin

    The Russian diaspora to Germany had come in three separate waves. The first composed of those fleeing the Bolshevik Revolution. The Second being those who had been taken prisoner during the Soviet War and afterwards had been unable or uninterested to return to Russia. The third was ongoing and it was composed of those seeking economic opportunities. The result was an odd culture that had sprung up in all the major cities.

    That was never clearer than when the Orthodox Christians celebrated Christmas Day. To the rest of Berlin it was just another weekday.

    Kiki figured that with the birth of her nephew and finally getting her Doctorate, it would look odd if she blew off Church Services that morning and wherever Kiki’s mother had ended up, going would make her happy for a minute or two. Fortunately, she didn’t have to go alone because Anya was more than happy to come with her. In a twist that Kiki had not expected was that she would feel envious of her friend.

    “So, I got another invitation for this afternoon” Anya said, “Supper party, holiday themed of course.”

    “Have you figured out which ones you are going to go to?” Kiki asked, wishing she were so bold and had the freedom to go from party to party meeting friends, then going out and singing in the streets once the sun set as had become a tradition in the Russian community. Kiki couldn’t change who she was any more than she could go without the security detail that surrounded them as they made their way from the car.

    “I am still trying to decide” Anya said as they walked through the doors of the small Orthodox Church that served Kreuzberg.

    Kiki was instantly recognized, and the Priest said he was honored that someone of her stature had made the choice to attend services here. Always a fucking political angle, Kiki thought to herself as she had graciously thanked him for his welcome.
     
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    Part 115, Chapter 1899
  • Chapter One Thousand Eight Hundred Ninety-Nine



    10th January 1969

    Mitte, Berlin

    Meeting two of her surrogate Aunts for tea was normally fun, not today though. Unfortunately for Tatiana, the two of them clearly preferred to talk about more serious topics this afternoon.

    “You seriously messed things up Tat” Leni said, “And it is entirely up to you to make this right with your mother.”

    Tatiana had thought that Leni and Anne would be a lot more sympathetic having had dealings with her mother in the past. They were. However, they had not pulled any punches in pointing out that they both thought that Tatiana’s conduct had been appalling for the last few years.

    “You are skipping through a minefield composed of everything that Kat has been trying to protect you from your entire life” Anne said, “If you get hurt, or worse, have something happen to you like what happened to Asia that leaves you broken, your mother will never forgive herself for not being able to stop you.”

    Tatiana was starting to get annoyed by the assumptions that others were making. Of course, she understood that something bad had happened to Asia in America. It was something that was occasionally mentioned, but never in detail. There were also the motives that everyone was suggesting that she had.

    “Why is everyone assuming that I am just trying to get at my mother?” Tatiana asked sharply, “At what point does everyone stop treating me like a child who cannot make her own choices?”

    “Legally speaking, you are still a child Tat” Leni said, “For another month anyway, and all any of your elders want is for you to not make the same mistakes that they did.”

    “It is hard to do that when no one wants to tell me the truth about what they are so intent on protecting me from” Tatiana replied.

    “What you are being protected from is the reality that when one of our illustrious sisterhood is involved, there are many countries in the world that are more than willing to throw out their own rules” Anne said, “The Americans had Asia strapped to a table and were shocking the shit out of her in preparation to cut into her brain. Supposedly, it was to send a message to the rest of us.”

    “How come no one told me any of that?” Tatiana asked.

    “Because you’ve proven to no one that you would have the maturity to handle it” Leni said.

    “It seems to me that if you want to be treated like an adult, you need to start acting like one” Anne said, “And being an insufferable bitch for the last few years doesn’t help with that.”

    Tatiana fell into an appalled silence as Leni and Anne began chatting about the recently concluded holiday season. Leni’s attitude came as something of a surprise. She would have thought that as a Librarian, Leni would have found a great deal to enjoy about the season.

    “You dislike the holidays?” Tatiana finally asked.

    “I don’t mind the holidays so far as celebrating them with friends and family” Leni replied, “The imagery though…”

    Tatiana gave her a quizzical look.

    “Hans Christian Anderson and Charles Dickens” Leni continued, “Most people don’t realize just how much social commentary they had in their works.”

    “And Magdalena thinks that cuts a little too close for comfort at limes” Anne said, “Some of the things that happened to her when she was a child for example.”

    Leni shot Anne a dirty look, she had never liked her proper name.

    “There is a story about a child freezing to death on the city streets because she was told to not come back until she had sold everything her overbearing father told her to. But it is fine because her soul goes up to Heaven where she is reunited with her recently deceased grandmother” Leni said, “That might as well have been my story except mine had a happy ending that didn’t involve hallucinatory dreams of warmth and comfort. In my case I came home to discover that my entire block had been pulverized by a Russian air raid and I ended up in State Care. Not everyone finds becoming an orphan to be a tragedy.”

    Malcolm had once said that Leni had apparently been an accomplished pickpocket in her childhood and that her father was a Fagin. As soon as Tatiana had that thought it occurred to her that Fagin was a character in a novel by one of the two authors that Leni was complaining about. As a Librarian she would be reminded of that constantly during the holidays and the anger in her voice suggested that she was still angry and was about more than just the words of Christmas themed stories.



    Near Prague, Bohemia

    Michael had taken a direct interest in the post-mortem of the Polish campaign. While the Bohemian Army had served with distinction, everyone felt that there was a great deal of room for improvement. Improving the mechanized units was at the top of the list and there were ongoing experiments in how to go about doing that. The specially modified Leopard that he was observing was going to play a key role in that, if they could ever get the autoloading system to work.

    The 12.8-centimeter gun fired causing the Leopard to rock back on its suspension. According to Skoda this was the latest attempt to address an issue that plagued the Panzer VIII Leopard since it had first been fielded, the simple fact that the shell cases weighed 30 kilograms. There was also the issue that the armor of Panzers was expected to grow more effective in the coming years. According to Intelligence, the Americans had caught on to the fact that the homogeneous steel armor used by their vehicles was ineffective against the fin stabilized APDS and Monroe-Nuemann shells used by the Lynx II that was in service with the Argentinian Army who had retrofitted a 10.5-centimeter smooth bore gun to that platform.

    To overcome the anticipated improvements in armor improvements to shells and propellants were needed. Something that would inevitably further increase weight. Hence the experiment with the autoloader system and judging by the cursing that Michael could hear coming from the turret, it had just broken down again.
     
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    Part 115, Chapter 1900
  • Chapter One Thousand Nine Hundred



    20th January 1969

    Washington D.C.

    As Nelson Rockefeller was being sworn in for his second term as President, the leadership of the Democratic Party was meeting across town to discuss an ambitious legislative strategy for the coming 91st United States Congress. Behind the scenes, the President had already threatened to use his veto pen on the vast majority of it but that was exactly what Bill Stoughton wanted. The President had limped across the finish line in November with the mess in Indiana and an economy that was showing signs of becoming moribund weighing on him. The public was clamoring for changes and if Rockefeller came to be seen as a roadblock to what people said they wanted then that suited Stoughton fine. Stoughton’s only regret seemed to be that the railroad crew had not stumbled across the bones of the missing Bonus Marchers a few weeks sooner.

    James Hendrix wasn’t quite as prepared to be that cynical though. The good news was that he was no longer a freshman Congressman from what was seen as a backwater State. The bad news was how that had come about. Recently, Boeing had rolled out their newest airliner, a massive airplane that could comfortably seat five hundred passengers. It was a feat that had catapulted the aerospace corporation into another league with only Focke-Wulf-Dornier as a rival and they were enjoying their newfound clout as their American competition scrambled to respond. Hendrix had found that he had a large corporation that was trying to corner the market on their product operating within his District and the sort of skullduggery that Stoughton was advocating went both ways. The White House was making noises that suggested that Boeing could easily run afoul of various laws and regulations that were meant to maintain a competitive marketplace. While Hendrix understood that it was in no one’s interest to have one player dominate an industry the people of Seattle were not stupid, Boeing doing well meant a whole lot of high paying jobs. Boeing getting hurt by an anti-Trust action could well mean that Hendrix himself could take it square in the teeth.

    Bill Stoughton had told Hendrix not to stress about it too much and had quietly slipped new subsidies into the latest Appropriations Bill that would be directed almost entirely to Curtis-Wright Aviation. The minor detail that Curtis was based in Upstate New York and had large manufacturing centers mostly in Ohio and California shouldn’t have been lost on anyone. Particularly because the Curtis operation in California was located on the home turf of Dick Nixon, the Governor of California and the man who was widely expected to be the Democratic Nominee for President in 1972. Hendrix was reminded of what he had heard about how the House of Representatives was run. That no matter what happened, it was Big Bill Stoughton as Speaker of the House who always won in the end.

    Hendrix had seen that over the 1968 election when he had found himself campaigning in not just his own Congressional District in Washington State, but in other locations in the South-West, Mid-West, and South. “You’re a gifted orator with quite a stage presence Jim, and with practice you could be great” Was how Stoughton had put it. “You also can speak to a diverse audience like few others.” Hendrix understood that meant that he could talk to black folks so that Stoughton, who had about as much use for diversity as his largely Irish Catholic base did, wouldn’t have to bother. At the same time, Stoughton did care about not leaving unclaimed voters for the opposition to scoop up come Election Day, so Hendrix found himself in Churches, Historically Black Colleges, union halls, juke joints, or wherever else they would have him.



    Volkspark Hasenheide, Berlin

    It had started when Sophie had mentioned running down a hill with momentum and gravity pulling her forward, being unable to stop herself. The feeling of being completely out of control. Ziska had said that she had never been able to run, so didn’t know what that was like. It had been something that had confounded them. Ziska’s right leg would always be a problem, but by no means should it be an insurmountable one. The only question was, how would they go about doing it?

    The answer came over Christmas when Katherine and Douglas gave a bicycle to Sophie. Kat said it was because she had been a good girl over the prior year and that it would expand her world. It had been exactly what Sophie and Ziska had been looking for, but the difficulty was that Ziska had never attempted to ride bicycle in her life and it had seemed rather daunting. It had taken several days after school along with many bruising falls, but Ziska had gotten the hang of it. The trouble with making sure that her right foot was firmly planted on the peddle being the most difficult part. Finally, on a Monday afternoon Ziska had talked Sophie into going to the big park just north of her neighborhood where it was said that rubble from the city had been buried during the Soviet War creating an artificial hill. As Ziska had peddled up one side and coasting down the other side, Sophie could see that she had a look of pure bliss on her face.
     
    Part 115, Chapter 1901
  • Chapter One Thousand Nine Hundred One



    24th January 1969

    Kiel

    There was a great deal of mirth among the Staff of the Grand Admiral as they reviewed the various attempts by Skoda, Rheinmetall, and Krupp to successfully develop an autoloader for the Panzer Corps. As far as they were concerned the Army was trying to reinvent the wheel, essentially doing work that the Navy had done decades earlier. Louis Junior wasn’t so sure though. Admiral Teichert had wanted to know more so he’d had Louis call around to those companies that were doing the work and Louis had gotten an understanding of the difficulties involved and why it was different. If anything, he was reminded of why a gunboat like the SMS Windhund had a plywood hull and mounted nothing larger than 37mm dual purpose guns. Like ship construction, building armored vehicles was a series of compromises. There were also two contradictory missions that Panzers had to engage in, providing fire support for Infantry and battling other armored vehicles.

    According to Rheinmetall, switching between armor-piercing and high-explosive shells was difficult to do on the fly. They had a great deal of experience from the construction of the open-topped Skorpion Tank Destroyer, which had used a shell and cased propellent system that had required a fifth crewman and a hydraulic ram. They figured that they could build a more heavily automated system and as they described it, Louis was reminded of the system aboard the Preussen Class Battleship. Except those fired a 42-Centimeter shell and were prone to breakdown if they tried to maintain too high a rate of fire for more than a few minutes. What Louis didn’t mention was that those who had seen that system in action had referred to it as the Hand of God. The silence on the other end of the phoneline suggested that the Engineers at Rheinmetall had run into the same problem again. Still, the Project Supervisor said a few minutes later that the Heer wanted a high velocity version of the 12.8-Centimeter gun and left it at that. Louis knew that what the Heer wanted from Rheinmetall, they got and there was the always present fear that Krupp or Skoda would steal a march on them.

    Then the question had come up; What was the High Seas Fleet’s interest in the project? Louis had lamely said that the Marine Infantry had an interest and the Project Supervisor had said that it was about time. That had prompted Louis to make some more phone calls. What he learned was that the Marine Infantry was almost totally lacking in armored, depending on the Fleet, Luftwaffe or whatever Heer Division happened to be around for fire support. Except for a handful of antiquated Luftpanzer I’s leftover from the Second World War the Marine’s had no armor of their own. Louis knew that in Vietnam, Mexico, and Korea the Marines had gotten themselves into hairy situations where they could have easily come to grief due to that very thing. Picking up the phone, Louis told the Operator to connect him to General Dietrich “Tilo” Schultz. Everyone knew that the Marine General was completely batshit insane, but he also had a reputation for being open minded. Perhaps openminded enough for what Louis figured needed to be done.



    Rural Brandenburg, Near Luckenwalde

    Snow swirled against the windscreen of the helicopter as it progressed through the storm. Just minutes earlier word had come through the University Hospital that all Field Personnel on duty needed to grab their winter gear and report to the rooftop helipad immediately. For once, Kiki’s security detail didn’t second guess her once she was headed in that direction. They just fell in line once it was clear that they had two choices, follow, or get out of the way. She put them to use carrying the bags of medical supplies that would be needed in the field when they got to the site, wherever it was.

    As the helicopter descended Kiki saw through the window soot covered snow and scorched trees that had been snapped off. The wreckage was still burning in places and the local Fire Brigade was spraying foam on the smoldering fuselage that was in two pieces where the whole thing had skidded to a stop. Kiki tried to remember the properties of the kerosene used as jet fuel. Did it have a higher or lower flashpoint that normal avgas?

    The door opened as the skids of the helicopter touched down and the sudden cold air rushing into the cabin was shocking. Through long practice, Kiki jumped out the door and kept low knowing that the rotor was spinning at thousands of revolutions per minute just over her head. As in the past, whenever she arrived at a scene like this all people saw was Notarzt spelled in high visibility letters across the red coat she was wearing. No one cared about who she was and that told them all they needed to know. The Chief of the Fire Brigade saw the FSR patch on her coat and Major’s epaulettes on her shoulders and unconsciously started to come to attention. Former military and probably enlisted, Kiki thought to herself as she filed that away for further use if she needed it.

    “What’s the situation?” Kiki asked.

    “Frightful mess” The Fire Chief said, “The Flight Crew must have known they were in trouble and tried to bring it in easy, but then it broke up and caught fire.”

    Kiki tried not to react to that as she followed him towards the canvas tents that had already been set up as a makeshift field hospital. Surviving a crash just to get incinerated on the ground before rescue could arrive was the stuff of nightmares.

    “We have found a number of survivors so far and we’ve been doing our best for them until you got here Doctor” The Chief said as Kiki tried not to look at the dozens of figures laid out under tarps who had not been so lucky.

    “Thank you” Kiki said as she entered the first tent. The scene inside was exactly as she feared it would be. A number of scared, injured people and she would need to impose order on it before she could even start. Pulling a stack of “Federal” tags out of her pocket, Kiki looked at the first man she came to. A well to do Japanese businessman in his forties if what was left of his Savile tailored suit was anything to judge by. His left side had been shredded during the crash and Kiki could see that he had suffered a major brain injury and his left arm was missing from just above the elbow, it was a wonder he was still alive. Kiki attached the tag to the front of his shirt and tore it off, black. These people might not be military, but they all knew what that meant, and that Kiki meant business by being here. Of course, those who might be scared of her were those who needed help the least.

    “Get his passport and inform the Japanese Embassy as soon as you get the radio up” Kiki said over her shoulder to one of her team as she moved on to the next patient.
     
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  • Chapter One Thousand Nine Hundred Two



    2nd February 1969

    Wunsdorf-Zossen

    “As of thirty years ago today, before most of you morons were even born the Empire got a taste of things to come!” Jost proclaimed to the assembled Company. “I was just as clueless as you fuckwits, having no idea what the damned Russians had in store for me over the next five years! I thought I knew war because I had been in Spain. The truth was that it was a walk in the park compared the Soviet Front, and I was too stupid to realize it!”

    Jost glared at them, he was in a particularly foul mood because the Oberstlieutenant who commanded the 7th Recon Battalion had implied that Jost needed to start thinking about life after the Heer again. He had even gone so far as to mention that he would be turning fifty-one in April. Jost hadn’t thrown that jackass out the nearest window, but he had certainly felt like it. He was one of the few men left in the 4th Panzer Division who knew what the grinding attrition of real war was like and how to survive in it. That wasn’t enough though. Even his transfer from 140th Regiment to the 7th Recon Battalion had been intended to send him the message that it was nearing time for him to leave.

    “As you observe a moment of silence this afternoon, I want you to consider the reality of hundreds killed in an instant. Thousands of their friends and family mourning their loss as well and consider that it is your job to prevent that sort of tragedy from befalling out nation again” Jost said stalking around in front of the men as he concluded.

    “Thank you Oberstaber Schultz for putting all of you in the right frame of mind” The Oberstlieutenant said.

    Like always, there was a weakness that Jost detected in the man. Lack of confidence in his own abilities and judgement if he had to guess. Jost just hoped that he retired himself before that got any of those under his command hurt or killed.

    “We will now observe a moment of silence for those who died in the Reichstag bombing” The Oberstlieutenant said looking at his watch, “Starting now.”

    At that moment, Jost knew that the entire nation stood still for a moment. It was a rare late winter day with the sun shining in a vivid blue sky that seemed translucent. The only sound was the wind and one of the men coughing briefly. He understood that the events of the 2nd of February 1939 were already fading from public memory with calls to end the ritual growing louder every year. Eventually, probably sooner that he would like, it would just become another day like any other with only a short paragraph below the fold in newspapers to mark the occasion.



    Berlin-Brandenburg International Airport, Schönefeld

    Of all the fatalities of the crash of Lufthansa Flight 4 between Berlin and Tokyo, only one had the distinction of being someone who Kiki personally had been unable to help. Hiroshi Yamauchi had been a prominent businessman from a corporation called Nintendo that manufactured playing cards and other entertainments. As it turned out, the same corporation had recently entered the consumer electronics market with some rather innovative products. He had been considered an up and coming member of the community and much of Japan considered his death to have been a tragedy. Kiki felt a stab of guilt whenever she considered that it was extremely likely that she would probably have been introduced to Hiroshi sometime in the coming weeks because he had been looking for investors to help his bid to enter the European Market. The result was that an investigation had been performed into exactly what had happened.

    The autopsy had confirmed Kiki’s initial assessment, saying that Hiroshi had suffered severe brain damage and that it had been an intracranial hematoma that had been named as his cause of death. There had been quite literally nothing she could have done in the field. The Löschmeister who had supervised the fire service personnel on the scene had confirmed she had had several other survivors of the crash in urgent need of medical attention in adverse conditions. That meant that no one faulted her for her conduct. The investigators had understood that the triage system existed for a reason.

    Still, Kiki being true to herself, had felt that she owed Hiroshi’s family more than just a perfunctory note of condolence. That was why she was waiting for his wife and three children in the International Arrivals section of the airport when they came to claim his body and arrange for its disposition. She had somewhat abused her authority to make sure that they would get through customs without much static. All it had taken was introducing herself as Oberstabsarzt Doktor Prinzessin Kristina von Preussen zu Hohenzollern and the Supervising Officer of the Federal Border Police who ran security in the Airport with enough attitude and he had just about shit himself. Occasionally, there were advantages of having a very recognizable face. The sight of the medals on her dress uniform did wonders in getting officialdom to see things her way.

    Having taken the time to look up photographs before she had left for the airport, so she recognized Hiroshi’s widow as she came out of the jetway. “You must be grieving terribly” Kiki said in her best Japanese, “I offer my condolences and am here to help you through this difficult time.”

    The woman looked at Kiki and said nothing. Something about her expression though suggested that she was someone who had been drowning and Kiki had just thrown her a rope.
     
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  • Chapter One Thousand Nine Hundred Three



    15th February 1969

    Britz, Berlin

    It had taken a whole lot of cajoling, but Ziska had talked her parents into buying her a bicycle as an early birthday present. This was after they had been less than thrilled to learn that Sophie had been teaching her to ride on the sly. Kat said that it was because they were used to treating Ziska as if she were made of porcelain. They had even built a house in the Berlin suburb of Britz that was all on one floor, so that Ziska wouldn’t have to take the risks involved in walking up or down stairs. Sophie had been there many times over the prior months and still found the experience a bit odd. Astrid, Ziska’s older sister found the whole thing funny, sharing the same perspective as Kat, that Ziska was far tougher than her parents realized.

    Then the incident happened, and it sort of ruined everything. A few days earlier, Sophie and Ziska had decided to take advantage of her newfound mobility after school to go to the corner store to get a forbidden treat in the form of a chocolate bar. The problem they ran into was that they were in the midst of a cold snap and Ziska had hit a patch of ice in the shade of a building on the way back. She skidded out, skinned her elbow, and hurt her dignity. That would have been the end of it except they drew the attention of a well meaning but unfortunately easily excited woman. She had rushed over to help Ziska to her feet, not realizing that Ziska was trying to secure her right leg back into its socket on the prosthesis. Ziska’s leg below the knee fell off and the woman had started screaming, attracting a crowd in the process. Ziska and Sophie had been forced to explain several times what the truth was, starting with the crowd of people who had not really been interested in listening and eventually to Ziska’s parents after they had been brought home by the police with a warning about creating a public disturbance. As if what had happened had been an elaborate prank they had pulled or something. They had also not been thrilled about the two of them sneaking a chocolate bar without permission and it had been taken from them before they had a chance to take a bite.

    Now, Ziska was grounded, forbidden from leaving her room for anything other than school, family meals, or anything else that had to be strictly necessities. Her mother had however relented when Sophie had explained that she was there to help Ziska with her studies. Kat and Doug had been understanding, knowing that it had not been Sophie’s intention to cause a scene. She got the impression that her Aunt and Uncle had seen and heard everything over the years between their own children and a number of young women who had occupied Sophie’s position over the years. Of course, rather than studying Sophie and Ziska were laying on her bed and were reading fashion magazines that belonged to Astrid which they had borrowed. With any luck they would be able to put them back before she noticed they were missing.

    “Could you imagine wearing something like this?” Sophie asked pointing at a model wearing a very revealing dress.

    “No” Ziska replied, and Sophie realized that she was staring at her right lower leg. It was painted to look like flesh, but it was hardly convincing, especially where the paint had chipped revealing the grey fiberglass beneath. The dress was cut to show off the model’s legs, among other things.

    “I couldn’t either” Sophie said, “The thought of men’s reactions, yuck.”

    “My mother and Astrid both say we will want that sort of attention…” Ziska replied, then paused on seeing the look on Sophie’s face. “What is so frightening about that?”

    “It’s nothing” Sophie replied. Knowing full well that wasn’t true. It was something that she had only discussed with Kat, how much she feared what would happen to her when she grew up. Kat had said that while growing up was inevitable, the sort of person she became was entirely her choice. The problem was that Sophie’s mother had pounded the idea into her head that she was a terrible person who ruined everything she touched. Even though she hadn’t seen her mother in months, Sophie still had intrusive thoughts that unsettled her which were frequently in her mother’s words. One of those was how Sophie was bound to be a worthless slattern because that was all she was good for. When Sophie had told Kat about that, Kat had mentioned something about projection. Whatever that meant.

    Turning the page in the magazine, Sophie saw a photograph of Kristina in surgical scrubs at what must a hospital somewhere alongside a photograph of Ben Hirsch sitting in the cockpit of his fighter plane yelling over his shoulder at the man in the seat just behind his. Are they getting ready to tie the knot? The headline asked. Sophie checked the date and saw that it was from late the year before. Emperor Lou had announced their betrothal on Christmas Eve.

    “Remember when we ran into Benny in the castle last summer?” Sophie asked, “Sneaking back from Kiki’s chambers.”

    “Astrid said that they must have been snogging” Ziska said with a bit of a giggle.

    “Why’d you go and tell Astrid about that?” Sophie asked, a bit put out that her friend would have violated Kiki’s privacy like that.

    “I thought she might know what was going on” Ziska said, “She’s fourteen, you know.”
     
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  • Chapter One Thousand Nine Hundred Four



    3rd March 1969

    Mitte, Berlin

    The man was a headache that Helene had to deal with on a regular basis. It seemed like every choice she made resulted in Gustav Heinemann, one of the members of the “Team of Experts” that the opposition had assembled publicly second guessing her. It was obvious that he would likely have her post in the Cabinet if the National Liberals were in charge and his party was in a coalition with them. She had found that her office had to contend with Government agencies that frequently had contradictory missions, tight budgets, and fraught politics. So, having someone second guess her when she was doing enough of that herself was not needed.

    Then there was the latest trouble caused by her father. Frequently, Helene wondered why he couldn’t just go off and happily spend his days at his hunting lodge. She knew he preferred to be there. Instead he was in Breslau where it seemed that he was able to exert an incredible amount of influence due to the minor detail that nearly everyone in a position of power owed him a considerable amount of money. They had thought that putting him forward to be the Prince-Elector of Silesia would cause him to tone it down a notch once he was in the public spotlight. They clearly didn’t know him as well as Helene did because she might have warned them that was not how her father worked. Give him cameras to get in front of and an adoring crowd and you would seem him play the public like a maestro.

    A Reporter had asked Helene about what might happen if he went over the line. Would she be willing to use her position as Minister of the Interior to rein him in hard? The truth was that while Helene would have no problem doing that. The trouble was that it would probably cost Helene her career because her father was extremely popular in Silesia, especially in her own constituency. She would need to have a quiet word with her father to tone down the powerplays for a while. It was something she would need to do with a bit of caution because no one dared to tell the great Manfred von Richthofen what to do.

    Closer to home, Helene had Hans to contend with. For years, his career had been a constant source of worry for her. She had never considered what would happen when that career ended. He had been quietly been mustered out after his final promotion to Generaloberst and had joyfully taken up his new position as a Commentator for the Federal Football League while he waited for his resignation from the Heer to become official. Talking Football was something that he still couldn’t believe they were paying him to do. The issue for Helene was that she had gotten used to having her life a certain way and always having Hans at home disrupted that. On the other hand, he had been spending a lot of time with Ina and the two of them were closer than they had been in years.



    Tempelhof, Berlin

    Marie Alexandra was upset and much to her annoyance, it seemed everyone was indifferent to her this afternoon. That was until they weren’t, and it was for all the wrong reasons.

    “This is what happens when you get like this all the time” Petia said when Marie had brought it up with her. “Too much drama and you acting like every little thing is the end of the world, no one wants to hear it.”

    Today, the crisis had started when she had noticed that her cat had abandoned her. She had never had to think too much about Cheshire, the tabby cat was always around but today he had not been in evidence. Eventually, she had found him dozing on the windowsill in Sophie’s room. That had caused Marie to rush in there and she had said a few things to Sophie that she knew she really shouldn’t have. It ended with Sophie breaking down sobbing and Marie getting read the riot act by her mother after she got home that evening.

    “There are some things you need to understand Marie” Marie’s mother said to her, “Sophie is rather delicate, and it doesn’t take much hurt her feelings. She really does look up to you, so that made what you did especially painful for her. The other is that Cheshire is the family’s cat, not just yours alone. We never really own cats, they own us, and choose to spend time with us if they are being nice. Cheshire is choosing to spend time with Sophie for his own reasons, but she needs that more than you do right now.”

    Marie had spent the next several minutes staring at her shoes feeling guilty about what she had done. Eventually, she had agreed to apologize to Sophie. The walk up the stairs became the most difficult of Marie’s life and her feelings of guilt grew when she saw Sophie laying on her bed. She wasn’t crying but her eyes were still swollen meaning that she had been until just a few minutes earlier.

    “Sophie… I just wanted to say that I am terribly sorry about what happened” Marie said, “Is there any way I could…”

    “Get out” Sophie said sharply getting off her bed and pushing Marie towards the door. “Out, out, OUT, OUT!” Sophie’s voice rising before she slammed the door in Marie’s face.

    Marie stared at the door that had stopped only a few centimeters from her nose. She could hear Sophie crying again on the other side of it.

    “You have your work cut out for you if you want to regain her trust” Marie heard her mother say, “And I hope you learn an important lesson from this, your actions affect other people.”

    Marie had not noticed her mother following her and something about her mother’s face, the set of her posture, was unsettling. For years, Marie had heard about those who feared her mother, she realized that this aspect of her was exactly what they were afraid of.
     
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  • Chapter One Thousand Nine Hundred Five



    24th March 1969

    Tempelhof, Berlin

    Why did anyone agree to this? Kiki thought glumly to herself as she saw Zella and Yuri entering the University Hospital’s Emergency Department. Yuri was already filming things and one of the patients in the waiting area was mugging in front of the video camera. It was funny how no matter how sick they were, they still did that.

    Zella had great success with her first documentary featuring Kiki traveling in America. When she had heard about Kiki being one of the responders to the plane crash that had occurred in January despite Kiki’s attempts to keep her involvement out of the public eye Zella had approached her. “The public wants to know more about who you are” Zella had said, “The real you, not just who they see in public appearances. Let them see that you are an Emergency Surgeon for real.” Oddly, that was the part of her life that Kiki didn’t exactly want the public to see. There was also the aspect of what happened whenever a video camera entered the room. In a case of dirty pool, Zella had buttered up Doctor Burg, in turn Burg had told the Hospital’s Medical Director what a wonderful idea it was.

    “Zella, Yuri” Kiki said in greeting with a bit of apprehension, “I know you were informed about what the rules are, so I will not have to repeat them.”

    They were to observe, not to interfere. Kiki had no idea how to make sure that happened. Zella did tend to make herself the center of the story.

    “Yes” Zella said as she followed Kiki down the corridor. “We might need to interview you directly later. Do you have an office we could use?”

    “I have a locker” Kiki said, “I might be in my final year of my Internship, but I am still low on the totem pole. Only the senior staff get the use of offices.”

    “Couldn’t you pull rank or something?” Zella asked.

    “I would never do that” Kiki said without further elaboration. Things were already awkward enough around the Hospital without having the detail that she outranked many of her instructors coming up again. “If you really want to do that, the cafeteria would probably be our best choice, the chapel or the benches in the atrium might also work.”

    “Alright” Zella said happily. She was entirely too agreeable making Kiki wonder what Zella had up her sleeve.

    “What is your opinion of Emperor Hirohito of Japan praising your actions and your respect for the Japanese people at a public forum recently?” Zella asked. That caused Kiki to stop walking.

    “I did what I felt was right” Kiki replied, “Whatever the Emperor of Japan has to say is immaterial.”

    “But your own father…” Zella started to say only to have Kiki hold her hand up silencing her.

    “Please” Kiki said, “That doesn’t interest me, so can we talk about something else? Have you talked to Aurora recently? I’ve been so busy for the last few months that I’ve completely lost touch with her.”

    Aurora was a dear friend of both Kiki and Zella, for the last few years she had worked for the Public Relations Department of Krupp Steel in Essen. That had made it difficult to maintain their friendship.

    “She was doing well when I talked to her on Saturday” Zella replied, “She is trying to get a job in Berlin so that she can be closer to her family and to us.”

    Kiki might have mentioned that she considered Aurora and Zella to be a part her family but lacked the courage at that moment.

    “I would like that” Kiki said as she resumed walking towards the cubicles where the patents awaited. It being a Monday afternoon, there was bound to be a case that was disgusting or disturbing enough to keep Zella and Yuri’s interest.



    Washington D.C.

    It was called a charity dinner, but Hendrix didn’t see anything charitable going on here. It was mostly about being seen and the internal squabbling of the various factions Democratic Party as it played out at events like this one. What it came down to was a number of old men stuffed into tailored suits who paid a hundred dollars for a plate of inedible food and to pretend that they were not here for the most cynical of reasons.

    “Your name sounds like that of a Rock and Roller” A man who Hendrix had not been introduced to said. Tall, thin, and bespectacled. He didn’t seem to be particularly malicious, but Hendrix had a lifetime of being cautious towards people like this. Especially because he heard a slight accent that betrayed this man’s Southern origins. Presumptions were presumptions regardless of the intent of those who made them.

    “You know, J.M. Hendrix, or Jimmy Hendrix” The man said, “That sounds like the name of a Bluesman.”

    “Southpaw” Hendrix said holding up his left hand, “My folks didn’t have much coming up, so learning guitar was out of question even if they could have found one that I could have played.”

    “That’s too bad” The man said, “I play out with my Tele every once in a while, though my wife hates it when I come home with my clothes smelling of smoke.”

    “Tele?” Hendrix asked.

    “Yes, I’m a Fender man myself” The man said not realizing that didn’t mean a whole lot to Hendrix. “Where are my manners, I’m Charles Holly, though my friends call me Bud or Buddy.”

    Of course, they would, Hendrix thought to himself as he shook Bud’s hand.

    “And just what do you do Mr. Holly?” Hendrix asked.

    “I am Senior Legal Counsel to the New York Democratic Party” Bud said with a smile. That was not what Hendrix was expecting.
     
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  • Chapter One Thousand Nine Hundred Six



    1st April 1969

    Mitte, Berlin

    “I know her Yuri” Zella said as they reviewed hours of footage from the University Hospital Emergency Department that they had shot over the prior week. “Kiki is going to hate what this will do for her public image.”

    Yuri looked dumbfounded by that.

    “People will see that she has a stressful job and works hard to be the best she can at it” Yuri said, “They will see that she is professional and cares about people.”

    “Perhaps” Zella said. They had inadvertently caught the aspects of Kiki that she tried to keep hidden which is what shaped Zella’s opinion, it had been exactly what she had wanted from this. They had a lot of that on tape. Things like Kiki getting flustered about something she thought was stupid once she thought no one could see or her trying to comfort a child who had suffered a minor injury but still thought it was the end of the world. Mostly what they caught was Kiki’s humanity, that she was just as fallible and imperfect as anyone else. That was completely contrary to what Kiki felt she had to be seen as.

    “Will you look at that?” Yuri said as he played the tape of Kiki as she was assisting another more senior Surgeon as they were working to stabilize a man who had an unfortunate fall from a ladder with a pair of hedge clippers. They were trying to clamp off an artery that was spraying blood every time they loosened the tourniquet on his leg. Kiki had been so focused on the task at hand she hardly acknowledged that some of the blood had sprayed her in the face even as a nurse was wiping it off her glasses for her. Zella understood that viewers would be completely enraptured by this. They would be seeing a Princess who many thought of as being little more than an ornament, the pretty poster girl for the Medical Service, being nothing short of heroic. This was the Kiki who Zella had known since she was a child, and it was about time that others saw it too.

    “We are definitely keeping that part in” Zella said.

    “The Suits upstairs might not like it” Yuri replied.

    “You don’t know them like I do” Zella said, “Blood and guts draw viewers, which is all they really care about. If they give us trouble, we will just remind them that bloodless drama is what the entertainment networks provide in spades. We deal in reality.”

    “If you say so” Yuri said.

    Zella wasn’t even going to pretend she was unbiased with this story. The presentation was going to be incredible. Kiki at work, interviews with her colleagues, instructors, and even Kiki herself. Like always Kiki attempted to minimize her accomplishments and she saw those supervising her saying that she was competent but still had a lot to learn as validation of that. Zella however understood that was actually high praise from some professionals whose judgement was extremely tough. For her entire life Kiki had wanted to be treated like anyone else, in Zella’s opinion, her friend had finally found an environment where she was.

    “I’m going to a party after work tonight” Yuri said, “Artsy crowd, mostly from the theater scene, an invitation was extended to you.”

    “I already have a date with my bed and about twelve hours of sleep” Zella replied, “We have days of editing this down to something workable for the network ahead of us, so try not to have a late night.”

    “Alright then” Yuri said, sounding a touch disappointed.



    Washington D.C.

    “Here is the truth about Party politics” Bill Stoughton said, “We always have to play the long game and keeping a man like Bud Holly happy and on side is a part of that. He’s not going to be a Lawyer for our people in New York forever. He is young, looks good on television and has a young family. His wife Maria, she is a lovely woman, but her background is Puerto Rican. That might play well in New York City, but we have the rest of the country to consider.”

    It was comments like that last one that made Hendrix understand just what he figured Stoughton had to say when he wasn’t in the room. It would be just him like to say one thing in his presence and something completely different if the room was full of members of the Southern branch of the Democratic Party, the guns and God crowd who Hendrix generally avoided.

    This conversation had started when Hendrix had come for his monthly meeting with the Speaker and Stoughton had somehow learned that he had a conversation with Bud Holly. It was the idea behind having events like the one that Hendrix had attended, being seen and meeting people.

    “He seemed like a nice guy” Hendrix replied.

    “Yes” Stoughton said, “And it seems that the Senate Judiciary Committee shares your assessment. The trouble is that the White House is a bit of an obstacle at the moment.”

    That meant that they were eying Bud Holly for a Judicial appointment as soon as Nelson Rockefeller was out of the way. No wonder they were trying to keep him happy.

    “What about your own ambitions Jim?” Stoughton asked, “You have to want more than just a Congressional Seat in Washington.”

    “Some of us learn to temper our ambitions by considering what is possible first” Hendrix replied, cautiously.

    Stoughton just stared at Hendrix for a moment before flashing a tight smile and saying, “Playing the cards close to your vest Hendrix, I like that.”
     
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    Part 115, Chapter 1907
  • Chapter One Thousand Nine Hundred Seven



    26th April 1969

    Mitte, Berlin

    “I wish I were there instead of here” Kiki said into the telephone as she looked out of her bedroom window at the city streets far below.

    “I doubt that” Ben replied, “This is about as exciting as watching paint dry, or glass being ground as it is in this case.”

    The giant mirror that was being fabricated by Zeiss in Jena was one of the largest ever attempted and the process had proven painstaking, with several new technologies having to be invented in the process. The process of casting and annealing the mirror had gone on for years. The grinding and polishing had gone faster, but not by much. Ben was there observing the final stages of the process. He had done his best to explain how even once the fabrication was complete, the mirror would still need to be transported to Balderschwang and hauled up the mountain to the observatory that was being built atop Girenkopf, a mountain in Southern Bavaria that happened to be on land that Ben owned. That was supposed to take place over the summer.

    “Boring seems like it would be a welcome change” Kiki said, “After what Zella did, I can’t seem to get a moment’s peace.”

    “She was clear that she wanted to world to see you for who you are” Ben said, “I doubt that she meant any harm.”

    Zella’s latest production had aired a few days earlier and it had turned her life upside down. Kiki knew that if even Ben was defending Zella’s actions, it suggested that she was not exactly being reasonable. Still, Zella’s latest documentary had featured her working in the Emergency Department at the hospital. The reaction had been unexpected. Unlike the previous documentary that Zella had made, which had featured Kiki and Vicky doing frivolous things on Holiday, this one could not have been more different. It showed her at work, and while the cases she had dealt with over the week that Zella had been filming had been relatively minor, as in not life threatening with prompt medical intervention. People had seen things differently, especially that one shot of Kiki trying to stop the bleeding in that man’s leg. That had really caught people’s imagination, especially when the man in question had given an interview singing her praises. Kiki had made sure that the press knew that she had not been the primary Surgeon on that case and that the credit should go to the Doctor she had been assisting. That had turned out to have been a mistake. She had been forced to move out of the Meta and into penthouse apartment that was the current Winter Residence, not because she was being threatened, but instead due to people who seemed to love what they thought she was and wouldn’t leave her alone.

    “People already think they know me” Kiki said, “This will just make that worse.”

    “People will forget about you soon enough Kiki” Ben said, “Eventually there will be a plane crash or a volcanic eruption, something of actual import. And if you give someone else a chance to be the first responder on the scene, no one will make as big a deal about you being there.”

    Kiki was starting to suspect that Ben was making fun of her.

    “My life is a mess” Kiki said.

    “I love you too, Kiki” Ben said, “I really am looking forward to seeing you next week. In the meantime, go do something fun with your sisters, something mindless, even if it is just taking the dogs to the park.”

    “I’ll see what I can do” Kiki replied.

    “The world is not your responsibility” Ben said having picked up something from the tone of Kiki’s voice.

    “I know” Kiki said, “But you know?”

    “Yes” Ben said.

    With that, Kiki looked over at Rauchbier and Weisse had worked out who got the preferred spot of sleep in next to the radiator in the time-honored manner of dogs since time out of mind. By doing their level best to push the other one out of the way. Weisse was no longer what might be considered a runt, being just as big as his sire. However, Rauchbier had done his level best to let his offspring know exactly who was boss, as comical as that was as it had played out. Rauchbier just wasn’t good at being mean when the opportunity to play presented itself.

    Ben was right about Nella and Nan wanting to come along when Kiki took the dogs out for their afternoon run. That would be in a couple hours though because the girls were in school for a few more hours. Charlotte would want to have the noon meal ready as soon as they got home, which meant that Kiki’s father would be there. No one seemed to have any idea where Rea was, which was probably a good thing.



    Krakow, Provisional Galicia and Ruthenia

    Waiting at the station for the woman who was going to be the Queen of his fledgling nation was about par for the course for Olli these days. The train was pulling in and Olli found the new electric units lacked the drama of the old steam locomotives had before they had been replaced.

    Despite his best efforts, Olli had been unable to return to farming. The Government was paying him enough to make him well to do, but it was not what he wanted to be doing with his life. After the events of the previous summer, he had managed to negotiate what he thought was the best deal possible for the breakaway province he had unexpectedly found himself playing a leading role in. If he had to guess, the plebiscite that was coming in just a few months’ time was a way to stick it to the Warsaw Government. Few had doubts about the outcome of the vote for independence from Warsaw. It was the draft Constitution that was the sticky part. They had to stitch a nation together that was composed of Germans, Poles, Jews, Ruthenians, Gypsies, and God only knew what else. All of whom had played key roles in the battle to liberate this country and felt entitled to a slice of the pie now that it was being divvied up. In Warsaw they’d had a common enemy who would have cheerfully killed the whole lot of them. Now that the threat had passed, they needed a figurehead of sorts to rally around. It was only a question of finding the right one.

    The Provisional Government had a few ideas about who that be once they settled on the idea of a Constitutional Monarchy to provide that figurehead. They needed a member of the House of Hohenzollern who wasn’t stubbornly tradition bound and open-minded enough to assume a role that would probably require being different things to different people. The faction in the Government that had felt that Galicia would be better off as a Republic had settled on a name, largely because of the rumors about her. It was said Princess Marie Cecilie preferred the company of other women, so she was unlikely to produce an heir. So, they would get exactly what they wanted in a generation.

    “You are Olaf Bauer?” Marie Cecilie asked as she stepped off the train.

    “Olli” Olli said, “No has called me Olaf ever.”

    “Fine Olli” Rea said as they walked towards the main station building surrounded by bodyguards. “I was reading the draft constitution on train. It is very inclusive and progressive. I like that.”

    “You took the time to read all that?” Olli asked. That was something that no one had expected.

    “Yes” Rea replied as they walked through the station with a smile on her face. “I think I might be happy here.”
     
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    Part 115, Chapter 1908
  • Chapter One Thousand Nine Hundred Eight



    30th May 1969

    Moscow, Russia

    Georgy had told her that she had won in the end, so she ought to give it a break. It had taken months but the construction firm that had failed to complete the building that she had been living in had finally relented after her cause had gotten international exposure. While Gia wouldn’t lie and say that she didn’t enjoy the comforts of her apartment in the center of Moscow, she had liked how the community in the neighborhood had eventually accepted her, especially once Alexei had moved in with her once the weather warmed in the early spring. He was still at an age when it seemed like everything was just pure joy with him and finding himself with dozens of other children his age to play with was bliss.

    Of course, regardless of what her cousin had to say Gia had no intention of resting on her laurels. Today, she was preparing her notes as she was about address the Moscow Duma. As far as they were concerned, she was Jehane Alexandra Thomas-Romanova, Private Citizen, and the detail that she was the cousin of the Czar was immaterial. It wasn’t that she didn’t have allies among them, it was that she wasn’t seen as being an expert beyond having lived in a half-completed building abandoned by the builder for several months. The goal was to establish enforceable minimum building codes in the City of Moscow and the larger Oblast that surrounded it.

    The problem that Gia ran into was that most of the people she spoke with were suspicious of anything that sounded like direct control of industry by Government. The Soviet Union might have been gone for decades, but memories of inept central planning of the economy remained. The very abuses she was here to address showed the need for the free-for-all economy to have some rules and regulation was hardly central planning. She just needed to persuade a skeptical City Government of that.

    “It is time” One of the functionaries said poking his head into the hallway where Gia was waiting. Putting aside her nervousness, she followed him onto the floor of the Duma.



    Wahlstatt

    While the school didn’t have a problem with individual celebrations, they didn’t put any effort into them either. Mostly, they were rewarded for group accomplishments or they celebrated holidays. That was why Sabastian’s birthday was hardly going to be acknowledged this year. Coming at the end of May, it fell right in the middle of the mid-term exams and with his parents living in distant Flensburg he was only able to have a brief phone call with them. His mother had told him that his father had a transfer pending and would be serving on the Staff of the Grand Admiral of the Navy in Kiel. So, when he visited home over the summer, he would have a big port City to explore. Provided he could stay out of trouble between now and then.

    School had been a constant ordeal. Sabastian had always been an indifferent student. He was finding that was not tolerated here in Wahlstatt. The teachers had been given wide latitude when it came to their methods and punishments. Sabastian knew he could take a thrashing, but when a teacher turned the entire class against him that was a different story. Not even Niko could keep him from getting beaten up that time and he had landed in the infirmary with bruised ribs and a battered ego.

    Things had gotten better once spring had arrived. The entire class had been encouraged to spend their afternoons out on the athletic field and Sabastian found that he was good at the various activities. Football was always fun, but it was the track and field that held his interest. Everyone had been encouraged to try their hand in the various events and it seemed like everyone had found them daunting except Sabastian. Staber Arbeit had told everyone that they would be terrible at first, but to keep trying because that was how they became good. Sabastian also watched the upperclassmen practice pole vaulting and it looked like it was a lot of fun. He had told that to Staber Arbeit, and the Drillmaster had said that being an athlete was in his blood because of how his Grandfather had competed in the Olympics. That was something that Sabastian had no clue about until Arbeit had shown him the entries featuring a J.S. Schultz, who represented Germany in 1912 and 1920 in a Sports Almanac. Arbeit had also told him that his class would start taking fencing, wrestling, contact combat lessons next autumn, but he would need to keep his grades up if he wanted to spend time doing sports.

    That had caused Sabastian to double down on the events and his classwork. He knew he wasn’t the fastest runner, but there were a lot of things he could be good at instead. Today, he had been practicing at throwing the discus, he could only throw it a few meters, but one day he knew he would throw the one and half kilo disk a kilometer. He was working at that when the bell sounded, calling the students in for supper. He ran back to the dormitory in the old Abby, where he quickly bathed and put on fresh clothes as they were strongly encouraged to do.

    “Bas” Niko said in greeting as Sabastian sat down at the table across from him. “I got this for you.”

    Niko passed something under the table to Sabastian. Looking down, he saw brightly colored wrapping paper. For the first time in what had seemed like ages, Sabastian realized that this had been a good day.
     
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    Part 115, Chapter 1909
  • Chapter One Thousand Nine Hundred Nine



    7th June 1969

    Mitte, Berlin

    One never knew what would greet them when they went to the Alexander Marketplace. It being late spring going into early summer, the Marketplace was full of the odd varieties of vegetables that could be grown over the winter. To Marie Alexandra and Sophie, the biggest surprise today was the number of half-grown lambs that happened to be in a pen near the entrance. Yes, they were cute for the first few minutes. However, Marie had swiftly discovered that they were greedy, obnoxious little brutes that were destined to find themselves becoming acquainted with an oven and mint garnish in the near future. Sophie loved them though, even as they mobbed her when she tried to give a bit of attention to one of them.

    The farmer who had brought them watched with wry amusement as Marie tried to get Sophie move along. There were still so many other things to see today and they had so little time. Aunt Marcella and Petia had given them each a few Marks, told them to stick together and they would all meet back at the entrance in three hours.

    It was the promise of ice cream that caused Sophie to take an interest in moving on. It was how things had gone for the last few months as Marie had tried to do her level best to bring Sophie around. Marie’s mother was adamant that Marie couldn’t just bribe the younger girl into liking her again, she had to be Sophie’s big sister. Why had Tat never had that asked of her? That was the question that Marie had asked. Her mother said that the situation was different because Tatiana and Malcolm were five years older than her. It was enough to make her want to start pulling her hair out in frustration.

    Minutes later, Sophie took an interest in watching a Blacksmith punching holes in white hot steel bars as they ate their ice cream outside the roped off area. It only took a few minutes for Sophie to start to get bored, so they moved on. That was when Aunt Marcella found them, and Marie found herself translating Korean to German as Marcella haggled over the price of salad greens at a stall that smelled heavily of mustard and garlic. It was to Marie’s astonishment that the Korean woman who managed this stall explained that everything she was selling had been grown in back gardens and on rooftops in Berlin itself, so it was guaranteed to be fresh.

    As the deal was concluded, the Korean woman told Marie to tell Aunt Marcella that she was lucky to have two lovely granddaughters, one of whom spoke Korean. Sophie was dumbfounded when she heard that. Then Marcella said that she was looking forward to a Sunday family meal of lambchops tomorrow…



    Potsdam

    “Try not to panic” Ben said as he sat down on the couch in the outer room of the suite that Kiki had used since she was a girl. She was sitting on the floor surrounded by study materials for the third and final State examination to receive her Medical Certification. Kiki had no idea what subjects the exam would cover and would need be prepared for anything.

    “I am not panicking” Kiki replied, “There is so much I need to know.”

    “It cannot be any tougher than defending your Doctoral dissertation a few months ago” Ben said, getting a dirty look from Kiki in the process.

    “Actually, it is” Kiki said, before holding up a medical journal that she had been reading. “This has an article about a young man in Missouri who died of a form of pneumonia normally seen only in the very elderly last month. I have to know about it because a nearly identical case turned up in Norway and the Physicians in every Emergency Department and Clinic throughout the world are supposed to be keeping an eye out for it.”

    Ben was a bit surprised by the scale of what Kiki had just described. “After just two cases?” He asked.

    “It is anomalies like these which get attention of the OIHP” Kiki replied, “It is why the organization exists in the first place, to keep two from becoming two million.”

    “Any idea about the cause of the anomaly?” Ben asked. He knew about the International Office of Public Hygiene which was a part of the League of Nations.

    Kiki frowned. “It doesn’t say” She relied, “It just says to treat the symptoms and to inform local health authorities.”

    “It sounds to me like you have this down” Ben said, “You just need to go in there next week and amaze the Examiners.”

    “This isn’t just an oral exam this time” Kiki said, “There is also the written and practical portions. The most challenging part is that there are rumors about how you are supposed to know that one of the answers might be to do nothing at all.”

    “Nothing?” Ben asked.

    “It is also known as wait and see” Kiki replied, “Our first instinct is to begin aggressive treatment when we should be observing. You can do a lot of harm that way.”

    Ben could see full well that Kiki was prepared for the examination. She was just fretting about it like she always did whenever failure was a possibility. If he had to guess, she would probably be near the top of her class, one last time.
     
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    Part 115, Chapter 1910
  • Chapter One Thousand Nine Hundred Ten



    20th June 1969

    Balderschwang, Bavaria

    The month of June had started off well but had quickly turned to shit. First, despite her fretting Kiki had passed her third and final State Examination to be a Licensed Physician. Then she had gotten new orders from the Medical Service assigning her to the SMS Prinzessin Antonia, a posting on a Hospital Ship like that had been her dream since she had been a girl. Ben had only been able to congratulate her even as he had seen the torn look on her face when she had learned of it. Apparently, the orders had been cut more than a year earlier and had only Kiki’s completion of the final exams holding them up. She had needed to report to Kiel that week as the Antonia was about to put to sea after her latest refit. That also put their plans on hold for at least a few months.

    For Ben, he had not been allowed much time to process this latest twist of fate because he had needed to go straight to Balderschwang in order to deal with the issues that were cropping up. It seemed that the local villagers were taking issue many of the changes that were happening within their own community. A few years earlier when the Observatory had first been proposed, they had been happy about the prospect of dozens of construction jobs and the year-round employment opportunities it represented. Now that the Observatory Complex was taking shape in the ridge above the village, the other aspects of the project were coming into focus. Heavy lories moving earth and construction equipment had been the first thing that had been disruptive, followed by blasting up on the mountaintop. Then a rail spur had been extended from the Kempten to Oberstdorf line to facilitate the construction and that was when the reality hit them that the entire world was coming into their sleepy little corner of it. In the months since then, the village’s population had almost doubled as workers and technicians had flooded in. Many of them were employed by the Consortium of Universities that were building the Observatory and would be for the next several years, so they were looking to put down roots in Balderschwang or one of the neighboring towns and villages.

    That had already altered the character and politics as those who had lived in Balderschwang before swiftly adopted an “Us and Them” attitude. Ben understood that there were profound differences between the two populations but that was no reason for conflict, even if it was just a war of words. None of this was helped by the publicity that surrounded Ben having his Doctorate of Astronomy conferred to him as he tried to keep things moving along as the mirror continued its slow journey from the labs of Zeiss Optics in Jena. The last thing they needed was for someone to be trying to slow things down in some misguided attempt to put toothpaste back into the tube.

    The Mayor still returned Ben’s calls because he remained the Burggraf despite everything else, but he made it clear just which side he thought Ben was on. Ben was left trying to explain the there were no sides in this situation, that things would eventually settle, and it would be for the benefit of everyone involved.

    Today, everything they had worked for was hopefully coming to fruition as the diesel locomotive pulled the specially designed flatcar up the valley. Ben just wished that he weren’t in such a foul mood for the occasion. When people heard that it was a mirror, they thought of the one hanging on the wall in their bathroom. This was entirely different though. At six meters the primary mirror was on an unimaginable scale and even with the protective coverings, it was still a sight to behold. It had taken a lot of cajoling by Ben, but he had gotten the Department Heads from the Universities along with the Village Mayor and the Municipal Council to agree to a photograph. It was because they were all part of something profound whether they were willing to admit it or not. Standing in the middle of the gathered group, Ben just wished that Kiki could be here. He figured that she would enjoy watching him trying to play the mediator.



    Atlantic Ocean

    The Shetland Islands were grey-green against the sky as the SMS Antonia Marie passed to the south of them. The vast ship was bound for Panama and its annual journey around the world to a number of stops in the Pacific Islands and Far East. She would be redirected to wherever it was felt she was needed if a disaster occurred. Going with her this time was a dream come true for Kiki, she felt completely rotten about it though. She had left her entire life behind and that included getting married in just a couple of months. Ben had told her that she needed to go because of the opportunity it represented, and this was perfectly in keeping with what Doctor Holz had told about needing to stop feeling guilty about things beyond her control.

    That didn’t change the way she felt though. This was exactly the sort of thing that she feared would happen. Looking out at those islands on the horizon, Kiki realized she was saying goodbye to home again at a time when she wanted more than anything to stay.
     
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    Part 115, Chapter 1911
  • Chapter One Thousand Nine Hundred Eleven



    2nd July 1969

    Potsdam

    “It is an impressive feat” Louis Ferdinand said looking at the magazine cover which featured Benjamin standing among several University Department Heads and members of the Local Government in Bavaria at the dedication of the Argelander Observatory inside the magazine was a similar photograph with fewer people, but before the massive primary mirror that was at the heart of the telescope that the Observatory was being built around. “I am sure that Professor Hirsch must be proud of you.”

    “He is, he just wonders exactly what I intend to do with the Doctorate” Ben replied glumly, “He thinks that I ought to go on to a Professorship like he did.”

    “That might be a waste of your time” Louis said, “After this, you might be in high demand as a Project Director. Especially after this telescope first sees light.”

    “That will be a year from now” Ben said, “One more thing that I have to wait for.”

    Part of the reason that Louis had invited Benjamin Hirsch to his office was that he had wanted to see how the boy was fairing after Kristina had been called away on assignment. That had put their plans on hold until she got back. According to Louis’ source aboard the SMS Prinzessin Antonia Marie, Kristina was taking this turn of events slightly worse than Benjamin. He had understood that she had been ambivalent about the prospect of marriage. Yet apparently, she hadn’t been planning on backing out of it. Louis could only imagine what the two of them would have to say if they ever learned the truth about what had happened, that Louis himself had requested Kiki’s latest posting months earlier after she had asked the Medical Director at the University Hospital in Halle to begin disciplinary proceedings against her. That was due to her having missed two shifts because she had volunteered to come to Berlin to assist in the response to the deadly mass shooting that had occurred on the 30th of June 1967. Louis had felt that Kristina needed a reminder of how the world really worked as opposed to her idealistic perspective. The same perspective that caused her to blame herself when she inevitably came up short of her ideals. Months spent on a hospital ship where she would need to make do with whatever resources happened to be aboard had seemed like good experience for her.

    Nearly two years later, Louis had discovered that there were several unforeseen consequences of that request, not the least of which was that the marriage plans that been put on hold. Then there were the tabloids which were having a field day with this. Headlines to the tune of Heartbreak in the House of Hohenzollern followed by articles about how Kristina and Benjamin had been childhood sweethearts and just when they were about to ride off into the sunset, a heartless system, which had little regard to personal feelings, had cruelly separated them. If they ever caught wind about what had truly happened, then Louis would have a major public relations problem, and that paled in comparison to what his daughter would have to say.

    “Kristina will be back soon enough” Louis said, “And there is no reason why we cannot arrange for you to see her while she in the Caroline Islands or Taiwan.”

    “Really?” Ben asked, brightening at the prospect of that.



    Fort Drum, New York

    All things have a beginning, middle, and an end. For Ritchie, the end started when Jules Mullens requested a transfer back to the 82nd Airborne with the promise of a cushy logistics slot. The tightknit team that had been together for years suddenly didn’t seem quite so tight because that had started a slow exodus as everyone started looking at what would await them after they were no longer in the Green Beret. Probably the biggest surprise was that Jamison Parker wasn’t just leaving the Green Beret, but the Army as well. Parker said that he had his reasons and had refused to elaborate further. Huck and Kravitz weren’t planning on going anywhere for now and Destrehan said that he had just gotten into this outfit.

    Ritchie still had the offer from Captain Evans to consider, especially with Lucia telling him that she wanted to know that he was serious about them and there was not a chance in Hell that she was moving to New York. So, when was he going to be coming back to LA? What had once seemed completely unthinkable, working for the Los Angeles Police Department, suddenly didn’t seem so farfetched. It had taken Ritchie only a few minutes to get Evans on the line and he had learned that there were a few things that Evans could offer that might sweeten the deal, the most intriguing being that Evans had connections with the California National Guard. Meaning that Ritchie could start a new career in a matter of weeks with his remaining obligation to the Army being spent in a Guard Unit, playing at being Soldiers for a couple days every few weeks.

    There were a lot of positives though. Ritchie would finally be able to go home because it would also get the assholes from the Detective Bureau off his back forever. He would be able to see Lucia every day as well. The only trouble was that even thinking of taking the offer made him want to kick his own ass.
     
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    Part 115, Chapter 1912
  • Chapter One Thousand Nine Hundred Twelve



    3rd July 1969

    Panama Canal Zone

    Watching the jungle roll by was relaxing as Kiki looked out the porthole of her cabin for lack of anything better to do today. As a Doctor and the Commanding Officer of the Ship’s FSR Company, she had a room to herself. It wasn’t a whole lot, just a bunk and a desk that were bolted to opposite bulkheads, but it was hers alone on ship where space was at a premium. The porthole was open allowing fresh air in, though it was hot and humid it was a welcome change from the stormy North Atlantic days earlier where opening it would have gotten her a face full of spray. Even a ship as big as the SMS Antonia Marie could get thrown around by a storm at sea. While others in the ship’s company were looking forward to the 24-hour liberty in Panama City, Kiki wasn’t planning on joining them. What she wanted was for the Hospital Ship to get to Western Samoa so that the official mission could began. The ship would ply the waters of the South Pacific to the remote island chains. The annual visit would be when the people of the islands got medical services beyond the rudimentary care they normally received. According to the Head of the Mission, the operating theaters aboard the Antonia would be used to perform dozens of elective surgeries, so not only would they be saving lives, but they would also be improving the quality of those lives markedly.

    Kiki not being interested in going on liberty was yet one more thing that caused her to stand out from the rest of the Medical Staff aboard the Antonia. During the hours when she had been on duty, there had been briefings, planning meetings, and inventories that had needed to be conducted. The rest of the time, Kiki had spent in her cabin unless she needed to make use of the facilities in the common areas. It was something that she had found excruciating. Mostly because everyone had heard about the events that had preceded her coming aboard and thought they understood how she was feeling. Mostly they got it wrong by blaming the Medical Service, when Kiki knew that was completely misplaced. It was rare that any of the Service Branches overly concerned themselves with what individuals wanted, there were however the occasional exception. A Princess who had just completed her medical certification and explicitly stated repeatedly in the past that she had wanted to go out on these ships because of the adventure and experience that it would bring, for example. Kiki had gotten exactly what she wanted at possibly the worst possible time and had no one other than herself to blame.



    Mitte, Berlin

    Zella maintained her regular column in The Mirror, mostly her thoughts about the music scene. It was also the reason why she received the latest albums from the Record Companies and the Artists themselves. Already from this month’s offerings, it was clear to Zella that John Lennon’s refusing to compromise a couple years earlier had unforeseen consequences. As the Moondogs had moved in a heavier direction, a legion of other bands had followed. That was clear from the band whose music Zella was listening to, some no-name outfit out of Birmingham that she had never heard of before, whose love of camp horror movies was clear from the songs and the artwork on the album cover. Zella used her cigarette lighter to light a smoke that contained no tabaco to steady her nerves, fortunately her mother left her entirely alone if she knew that Zella was working. Then she continued to contemplate the structure of the article forming in her head.

    The Kinks and the Animals had stepped up with offerings of their own. It was as if the Moondogs had given everyone permission to pull out all the stops. Zella put those albums in the pile of those she wanted to write up in a good way. Next to it was a shorter pile of the albums that she intended to pan. There was only one album on that pile so far, a terribly derivative album that seemed to rip off every blues cliché to the point of plagiarism. Considering what she knew about the individuals who made up the band, it would be a race between a civil lawsuit and a host of very likely criminal charges that would result if they attempted to tour the United States. Of course, Zella wouldn’t mind seeing their guitarist be on the receiving end of a bit of ironic justice if he landed in an American jail considering the sort of pervert he was reputed to be. Not that Zella could write a word about that unless she had concrete proof, but if she ever did… God help him, because no one else on Earth would.

    The album, she was about to put on had a note attached saying that the band had met her at the V8 Club a couple years earlier. She couldn’t recall having seen a band called The Skorpions, but she would give it a listen to see if their latest studio offering were any good. Putting on her headphones and laying back on her bed. Zella listened to the music that was heavily influenced by the Berlin Gutter Blues scene, clearly owing a lot to the bands Napkinwaffe or die Idioten in particular. Zella would say that they had a great deal of potential and leave it at that. High praise indeed if they were savvy enough to understand that.
     
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    Part 115, Chapter 1913
  • Chapter One Thousand Nine Hundred Thirteen



    4th July 1969

    Mitte, Berlin

    The exhibition in the Heer Hall of the Imperial War Museum was a 25-year retrospective on the Soviet War in photographs. Many of Doug’s photographs were featured in exhibition, as were those of his professional rivals. Only one of them was present tonight, Franz Grasser. During the war, Grasser had enjoyed an inviable position as the official photographer of the General Staff during the later stages, after having impressed Field Marshal von Wolvogle somehow. Also, unlike Doug, who had been imbedded with the 4th Panzer Division, Grasser had been one of the Soldaten himself, so he had enjoyed access to every unit of the Heer and Luftwaffe.

    “You really needed to be mindful of the shutter speed” Grasser said looking at the print of one of Doug’s photographs. “This image is a bit blurred when you don’t want it to be.”

    “The idea was to create a sense of movement as opposed to just looking like everything was hanging in air” Doug replied as he turned his head to keep an eye on what Marie was doing.

    The photograph was of Jost Schultz and Henrik Werth attacking a dug in Russian position. In the foreground, Hans von Mischner’s left shoulder was visible. Doug remembered that he had been somewhat distracted by the bullets flying around his head and shutter speed had been the last thing on his mind. It had been a happy accident that the image being slightly blurred had lent a sense of motion to the photograph.

    “If you don’t mind me asking, what became of the two men in the photograph?” Grasser asked.

    “The one in front, Henrik Werth, died in Moscow a few hours before the war ended” Doug replied, “The last I heard, Feldwebel Schultz is still in the Heer.”

    He figured that Grasser would probably take a bit too much amusement in knowing that Doug had ended up married to the little sister of the acting CO of the outfit that he had been with. So, Doug didn’t mention Hans being in the photograph. Glancing back over his shoulder, Doug noticed that he had lost track of Marie. Looking over his other shoulder, he saw that Marie was wandering vaguely towards the far wall.

    “Is something going on?” Gasser asked.

    “My youngest daughter” Doug replied, “There is always something going on with a thirteen-year-old. And because Marie is very much her mother’s daughter, having her being bored in a museum is like juggling atomic bombs.”

    “I would rather face the Russian Army again” Grasser said, before he rushed off towards something presumably outside the blast radius.



    Panama City, Panama

    Kiki might have wanted to sulk in her cabin as the rest of the crew had gone on liberty. The Captain of the SMS Antonia and the Director of Medical Mission had other ideas though. There was a reception at the German Embassy in Panama and wasn’t it a happy coincidence that Doktor Kristina Prinzessin von Preussen zu Hohenzollern happened to be available to attend. It seemed that the wife of the Ambassador was a fan of hers. Because she came from one of the wealthiest families in Germany, the Medical Service was angling be the benefactor of any largess if Frau von Achterberg were in a charitable frame of mind. That was where Kiki came into the picture, whether she liked it or not.

    The theme of reception was German-American friendship, and it was being held on the American Independence Day. Even Kiki could tell that the BND’s North American Division must have been behind the planning of the reception, John Volpe, the U.S. Ambassador to Panama had been forced to cross Panama City and make an appearance. He had clearly been less than thrilled by the interruption that had resulted and had only said a few curt words to Kiki when they had been introduced. It might have been because of the unrelated machinations of the BND-NAA and they didn’t even acknowledge her existence, but it was nice to know that Kiki wasn’t the only one who had been pressured to attend the reception.

    “This young man who you were going to marry, this Burggraf Hirsch, is he nice?” Frau von Achterberg asked. Of course, that was what she, along with everyone else, wanted to talk about.

    “He is” Kiki said. They also seemed to be focused on his title, as if Kiki cared. Both times she had entered into a relationship with Ben had been before he had taken that on. The entire reason why he had accepted a courtly rank was entirely because of her. Her own unconscious snobbery was something that Kiki looked at with considerable regret. If she could have handled him asking her to marry her before he went to the Moon, things would have been different.

    “Is it true that he is obsessed with the stars?”

    “Benjamin has a Doctorate in Astronomy” Kiki replied, “That said, the last time we talked, he wanted to talk about anything else. The Friedrich Wilhelm University stuck him in a leading role in the construction of the Argelander Observatory and that has basically become another job for him. He did not seem particularly happy with it.”

    “He surely has other things in his life” Frau von Achterberg said.

    “He loves to fly” Kiki replied, and his interest in Kiki herself. She didn’t feel the need to mention that last part.

    “Yes, your Benjamin is a pilot” Frau von Achterberg observed, “Isn’t he.”

    At that moment, the fireworks that had been promised all evening started being fired off in the Canal Zone. Saving Kiki from further conversation.
     
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