the crew, giving them a moment to let his statement sink in. Whilst he hoped that they would vote in favour of his plan, he also wanted them to fully understand the possible consequences of that choice.
“This is something that I cannot order you to do,” he continued, “so I am asking you all, if you will volunteer. This is a decision that the whole crew must make together. If even one of you decide that it is too big a risk to take, then I will respect your decision and the plan will be discarded.”
With his proposal made, Gillitzer, returned to his chair, as he did so, Commander Braal, got to his feet and stood, as if to attention.
“Crew of the Erloser,” he said formally, “would all those willing to volunteer for Captain Gillitzer’s proposed plan to make an unsanctioned jump, please raise your hands.”
Without hesitation, Leitner and Ross immediately thrust their arms into the air. A couple of seconds later they were joined, first by Harris, then Fischer. Having waited for most of the crew to declare their positions, Braal, himself, slowly raised his hand. With almost everyone’s vote now cast, all eyes turned once again to Ensign Schultz.
As soon as she realised, with overwhelming dread, that the decision now rested solely on her shoulders, Schultz’s head dropped. Panicked by massive weight of responsibility that had been suddenly thrust upon her, she sat silently staring at her own feet, deliberately avoiding anyone’s gaze. The inevitable expectation on her crewmates faces was, at that moment, the last thing she wanted to see or, more importantly, be swayed by.
The dilemma was beginning to make her head spin. Although she had never been one blindly follow the crowd, the fact that every one of her crew mates were more experienced than her, was playing heavily on her mind. Surely, their collective judgement was worth trusting.
And yet, a very large part of her wanted to stand by her convictions and refuse to volunteer. As the Temporal Theory advisor, she knew better than anyone that travelling through time was not something that should be taken lightly. A temporal jump, based on calculations that had been fully scrutinized, could lead to consequences both far reaching and utterly catastrophic, and it was her duty to object to it.
“Ensign Schultz,” said Braal, disturbing her train of thought, “Are we to take it, that you are against the proposal?”
“I’m still thinking!” she unintentionally snapped, still wrestling with her quandary.
She sat motionless, for a while longer, still unwilling to rush a conclusion. When Finally, she had made up her mind she lifted her head, and took a long look around at her crew mates. Then slowly, and somewhat reluctantly, she too, put her hand in the air.
With the show of hands now unanimous, Gillitzer rose from his seat, once again.
“It is decided then,” he said, barely managing to disguise his delight, “We will begin preparations immediately. Lieutenant Harris, Ensign Schultz start running a full system check, Leitner and Fischer, I need you to begin navigational projections, Lieutenant Ross, we’ll need a patch to override the automatic flight systems.”
As their orders were given, in turn, each of the crew immediately went into action, and within seconds the bridge became a hive of activity, once again. The Erloser was soon filled with a palpable sense of excitement and anticipation as the preparations for the jump rapidly progressed. Even Ensign Schultz, became caught up in the crew’s fresh wave of enthusiasm, her misgivings about the mission were temporarily forgotten.
As the crew went about their work, Commander Braal was sat at his station, diligently monitoring the pre-jump preparations. Working both his station keyboard and datapad simultaneously, he double-checked some of the more crucial flight calculations whilst, at the same time, preparing a progress report for Gillitzer. Once the first phase of the report was complete, he once more went to the Captain’s side.
As he took the few short steps to Gillitzer’s chair, Braal was taken by a sudden rush of concern. There was something in the way that the captain was enthusiastically punching figures into his console, that worried him. Deep down, in the more cynical depths of Commander Braal’s mind, he was beginning to wonder if Gillitzer was motivated less by the chance to complete Operation Phoenix and more by the opportunity to restore his own battered reputation.
“Everything in order, Commander?” asked Gillitzer as he approached.
“Yes, Captain,” replied Braal, handing over his datapad, “the primary system diagnostics have all come back clean, jump calculations seem solid and Ross is making good progress writing the patch. Everything is proceeding according to plan.”
“Then why the concerned look, Pieter?” said the captain.
“I was just wondering,” said Braal, dryly, “whether we’re going to return home to find a parade waiting for us...or a prison cell?”
“You worry too much,” replied Gillitzer, “try to focus on the positives. We have the most advanced ship in the fleet...and the best crew, and if everything goes according to plan, we will soon be on our way home…with Adolf Hitler safely aboard!”
II
A Brief History of the Future
Initially it had been economic power, rather than military might that had driven the Fourth Reich’s rise to global domination. A global recession had caused the collapse of the world wide banking system which, in turn led to fuel and power shortages. As the crisis continued, conflicts, both large and small began to erupt around the globe, dragging the world slowly, but surely, into chaos.
Fear and panic, spread quickly as the fuel shortages led to the disruption of food and medical supplies. Many countries tried, in vain, to maintain some sort of order, their efforts thwarted by either civil unrest or internal conflict. One by one, each of the nation states started to crumble, as hunger and desperation took hold of their populations.
It was amidst this turmoil that the Western-European Alliance, as the Fourth Reich was then known, emerged from the ashes of the old world. The Alliance formed an emergency council comprised from the governments of seven different countries. In an effort to restore some level of stability, the council swiftly and decisively imposed martial law and rationing, which was reluctantly accepted by its citizens.
Whilst conditions within the Alliance’s borders were, for some time, far from ideal, they were still far more favourable than what was happening in the rest of the world. War and disease became rife in many areas of the globe, leaving the remaining, functioning nations on the brink of collapse. Many of them, fearing for their future, signed up to the alliance, immediately adopting the social and economic model that it dictated.
As the size of the alliance grew, however, so did the mistrust shown to it by those countries who refused to join. Nations which predominately held opposing political or religious beliefs began to see the alliances growth in power as a threat, both militarily and ideologically. Inevitably, a number of them developed territorial disputes with the alliance, which soon escalated into armed conflict.
The western European army was, for all intents and purposes, the world’s only remaining military force and, in those early battles at least, were opposed by nothing more than poorly equipped militias. Their victories came swiftly and decisively, with most conflicts lasting only a matter of days and, for a time, it seemed that there was no force great enough to challenge the Alliance. That all changed, however, with the formation of the Pan-Pacific axis.
The axis was, at first, a secret pact drawn up by a number of nations in Asia and the Americas, and masterminded by the formidable, General Ji Sun Li. Fear of the alliance’s technological sophistication and territorial dominance, had driven the axis into a programme of swift and secretive militarisation. Within three years, The Pan-Pacific army had grown to point that it not only rivalled that of the alliance...it dwarfed it.
With the emergence of the axis as a true superpower, fear and anxiety spread throughout the alliance. Those within the western European military began to lose faith he with the civil leaders in the high council and began pressuring them to step dow
n. Within a few weeks, the political leaders on the council were all gradually replaced until it was comprised solely of military hardliners and religious fundamentalists.
Renaming the Alliance, the Fourth Reich was the newly formed High Council’s first act; Reinforcing the areas that bordered axis territory was their second. Political tension began to rapidly rise between the two forces and diplomatic channels between the two became strained. The mounting combination of mistrust and militarisation meant that all-out war between the two became inevitable.
As with most major conflicts, world war three began with a relatively small event. A single, axis gunboat strayed into alliance waters near to the Persian gulf. It was attacked immediately by Fourth Reich drones and was destroyed with the loss of all hands. In the days following the incident, both sides mobilised a huge number of warships in the area, resulting in one of the largest naval battles in history.
The conflict swiftly spread around the globe, with conflicts erupting on land air and sea. The overwhelming numeric advantage that axis forces held, coupled with General Ji Sun’s brilliant strategic approach, led to the defeat of the Fourth Reich in several early battles. Although axis casualties were massive, they were slowly, and bloodily, grinding down the forces of the Reich.
The tide of the war was turned, however by the unexpected and mysterious assassination of General Ji Sun. Axis media channels reported that the general had been murdered by a Fourth Reich, spy, who had been captured at the scene, tried, then executed. Although there was grainy video footage to support this version of events, the high council had sent no assassin, and were in complete ignorance as to who had.
It was assumed, amongst the High Council, that the murder of Ji Sun was due to internal conflicts within the Axis, and that the subsequent official explanation was simply a convenient cover story, which would additionally serve as anti-Reich propaganda. Besides, they were far too preoccupied with exploiting the loss of the general’s tactical prowess, to be overly concerned with the identity of his killer.
With the loss of its commander in chief, the Axis forces had also lost their greatest advantage over the Fourth Reich. After a series of massive defeats, and the devastation of many parts of their territory, the once mighty axis forces began to crumble. And so it was that The Fourth Reich achieved world domination or, at the very least, the parts of the world left that were worth dominating.
For some time afterwards, the Reich knew nothing but prosperity. The high council implemented a programme of reconstruction, together with massive expansion in agricultural production, meaning that the majority of its populace were employed and well fed. At the same time, there were massive strides made in a number of scientific fields which helped to drive on the period of post-war prosperity.
The Fourth Reich soon learned, however, as with all empires do, capturing territories is one thing; holding them is another. Six years after the war many parts of the world experienced draught and famine, a situation made worse by a series of natural disasters. The Reich’s infrastructure struggled to cope as millions of its citizens became hungry and homeless.
As desperation spread, so did civil disorder. In many areas of the world riots had become commonplace, in others there was outright revolt. The Reich’s forces were gradually stretched to breaking point as they struggled to maintain order.
It was during these turbulent times that a new political movement sprang up within the ranks of the Fourth Reich military. Dubbed the New Order, it was a cult like group of right-wing extremists whose core principals were based on the writings of Adolf Hitler. Although they were considered, by many, to be nothing more than mindless fanatics, its following and support grew at an alarming rate.
In less than two years support for the new order had grown to such an extent they had become a serious threat to the stability of the Reich. Fears grew amongst the high council that if the new order influence grew much greater, they would attempt to seize power. Given the fragile state of the world, a civil war could not only spell disaster for the Reich, but for humanity itself.
One of the greatest scientific advancements made during the post-war period had been the discovery of the temporal void. The Reich’s foremost scientists had theorised that by passing through the void it would be possible to jump forwards, and backwards, through time. Soon after, the high council commissioned the formation the Zeit Korp, whose sole purpose was to test that theory.
Initially the Korp’s test programme was governed by strict protocols. Fearful of the unknown, and possibly catastrophic consequences of time travel, all jumps into the past, were limited to no more than a minute or two. The restrictions that the Zeit Korp operated under in those early years, as well as lacking any practical application, meant that many within the High Council, somewhat ironically, considered the Korp, to be a waste of time.
It was not until an emergency meeting about the threat of the New Order, that the council saw the potential usefulness of the Korp. During the meeting one of the councillors had joked that if only Hitler was on the High Council, the New Order would immediately fall into line. Only after their laughter stopped, did it suddenly daw on them, that the Zeit Korp could potentially make it a reality.
And so, in their desperation, the high council devised ‘Operation Phoenix’, the ultimate goal of which was to travel back in time, and rescue Adolf Hitler, just before the moment of his reported death. They then intended to give the former Fuhrer a seat upon the council and, through fair means or foul, use his influence to pacify the New order.
The council believed that the ambiguous accounts of Hitler’s demise, left a window of opportunity to extract him from the past, without causing any alterations to the future. They even went so far as to create a genetically engineered cadaver, identical to the Fuhrer in every way, to act as his replacement in the past.
Although the plan was fraught with risk, and success improbable, the men and women of the Zeit Korp took to the task with enthusiasm. Most were just relieved that the Korp had finally been given a true purpose and, despite the difficulty of their task, the crews of the time ships were confident that the operation would be successful. After all, with the Fourth Reich’s greatest scientists, strategists and pilots, all striving towards the same goal, what could possibly go wrong?
III
Planning for the Past
Gillitzer and Braal were hit by an icy blast of Siberian air as the hatch of the Erloser slowly hissed open. There was a slight tremor as the ramp met the ground and another as it locked into place. They both took a moment to let their eyes adjust to the bright morning sun, before they descended the ramp and cautiously stepped out into the ankle-deep snow.
The unregulated jump had brought them to April, nineteen forty-five, arriving just three weeks before minute zero. After travelling to a remote part of the Russian tundra, hundreds of miles from the nearest human habitation, Gillitzer and his crew had set up camp and waited until it was time to begin the final phase of Operation Phoenix. With ’Minute Zero’ now just a matter of hours away Gillitzer and Braal made their way across the frozen landscape, to set the navigation beacon that would notify Zeit Korp command.
“Do you think he will cooperate?” asked Braal, as the thick snow crunched under their feet.
“The Fuhrer?” replied Gillitzer, “he won’t have any say in the matter. If he causes any problems, I’ll just give him one blast of my stasis pistol and bloody well drag him out of his bunker”
“I mean, when we get back,” continued Braal, “with the high council.”
“They will give him less choice than I will.” Gillitzer chuckled, “one way or another, Hitler will do exactly what the council want.”
“But do you think it will work?” said Braal, as he paused to adjust the strap of the beacon, which was slung tightly across his back. “with the New Order...will the Fuhrer’s seat on the council pull them back in line?”
“Almost certainly,” Said Gillitzer, “The New Order see him as almost
godlike. They will follow any order from him unequivocally. The fact that he happens to be a genocidal megalomaniac doesn’t seem to bother them.”
Gillitzer stopped momentarily, and unfastened the clasp on his jacket pocket. Hindered by his thick gloves, he then wrestled his datapad from his pocket and clumsily activated it. Once he had glanced on the readings on the screen, he placed it back in his pocket then gestured to Braal that they needed to press onward.
“Mind you,” Gillitzer continued, as they began marching forward once again, “I can’t really criticise them for that, considering that we will soon be taking orders from a megalomaniac ourselves.”
“Who...Richtofen?” laughed Braal, “Is he really as bad as they say?”
“No,” answered Gillitzer, “he’s worse. Our only saving grace is that we won’t have to deal with him long. Once we get to Berlin, he will stay with the Turmfalke and oversee the operation from there. We will be on our own for the retrieval.”
“Are you going to tell him about the second jump?”
“Good God, no,” said Gillitzer, “I think that we will keep that fact to ourselves, for the moment. It can wait until we return home, at the debriefing. Besides, Richtofen is the sort of officer who would forget about completing the mission and drop everything just to put us in irons.”
After a few more steps, Gillitzer stopped once again and pulled out his datapad. Narrowing his eyes against the biting cold, he scrutinized the information for a second time. Once he was satisfied that the beacon’s signal would from interference, he raised his thumb to Braal.
The young commander took the beacon from his shoulder, carefully set it down in the snow, then flicked the activation switch. No sooner had he stood back upright, than there was the tell-tale blue flash of a Zeit Korp craft high in the sky above them. Both he and Gillitzer watched it descend until the distinctive shape of Major Richtofen’s ship was glistening in the morning sun right above them, the Korp’s pyramid emblem clearly visible on its underside.
Designed specifically to aid in the final phase of operation phoenix, The Turmfalke was unlike any other ship in the Korp. It was the smallest craft in the fleet, carrying a crew of only three, and it’s hull was delta shaped, instead of the usual ovoid. To aid in the Fuhrer’s safe retrieval, it had also been equipped with a number of specialised systems, notably a cloaking device.
Cloaking technology was a relatively recent development and the Turmfalke was, as yet, the only craft in the Zeit Korp fleet equipped with one. Adapted from stasis field technology,