The World as God Sees it
Four days had passed since the massive, three-stage, 363-foot Saturn V launched with 7.5 million pounds of thrust; so the three astronauts of Apollo 11 could free themselves of earth’s gravity and get into orbit.
The control room in Houston was quiet, very quiet. You could cut the tension in the room with a knife. Wernher von Braun had returned to the control room and was listening with interest, so far his rocket had done its job; now it was up to the Lunar Module Eagle to get Armstrong and Aldrin down to the surface of the moon.
The doors into the control room opened and a security guard walked in.
“Mr von Braun, there are three people to see you.” He sounded confused.
von Braun turned around to berate the man, “Are you mad, we are in the middle of a crucial part of the mission… No visitors.” He turned back to face the screens full of the various readouts.
“That is no way to treat old friends Wernher.” A voice chimed out.
The hairs on the back of the former Nazi scientist rose up and a chill went through his very core. ‘He never wanted to see those men again, he made that clear last time, so why were they here now of all times?’
Von Braun turned, his face was red, “I told you never to visit me again, I kept my part of the deal so I expect you…” His eyes widened as he recognized the third figure.
“You, I thought you were dead?”
The elderly man came out of the shadows, “Nice to see you too komrade, can we have a private word with you?”
Von Braun got the feeling he was not asking.
“Follow me.” Von Braun led the three men into an empty office and locked the door behind him.
“Ok, what do you want Hans?”
Kammler laughed, “Always to the point hey old friend, my colleagues here say you might be able to help me with a little project I have going.”
“What have you got your murderous little hand into now?” Von Braun asked, he kept his eyes on the men in black, they looked disinterested but he knew better, they would not be here unless they had an agenda.
“Well to be blunt komrade, we have found Die Glocke…”
“You what?”
Kammler smiled, “We are having, um… well difficulties accessing its secrets. We were hoping you could help?”
Von Braun just shook his head slowly, “Only Gerlach knew how to operate that thing, and he took his secrets to the grave.”
“How do you know he’s dead, he only disappeared.” Kammler said angrily, “Now will you help us?”
Von Braun thought for a minute, he needed to choose his words carefully, “I can’t help you, I am too busy here and anyway I never actually worked on the device…”
The two men in black turned to face the aerospace engineer.
“However.” Von Braun continued, “If you are mad enough to try and activate the device then I know some people who may be able to help, they have great minds and are experts in their fields.”
“We are listening.” The men in black said in that tone that Von Braun feared.
“During Operation Paperclip you picked up a few men, try the Physics professors Gunter Guttein and Gerhard Schweinger. Also, Rudolf Schildt who is an expert in material Science.” Von Braun paused as he thought, suddenly he snapped his fingers, “Theodor Benzinger who is the leading expert on chemical weapons, he should be able to help with the Xerum. And finally, Hans Amtmann who is an expert on Astronautics.”
Kammler’s face went red, “Is that it?”
Von Braun nodded.
“look here, you traitor I can have you arrested again and this time you will be on trial here…”
Kammler was cut off in his prime.
“Thank Wernher, we will take your advice. Get the scientists to Hanger 6 immediately.” The men in black said. “Come Han’s, we are leaving.”
Von Braun watched as the three men unlocked the door then left, the security guard showed them out. As soon as they were out of sight Wernher slumped into an empty chair and put his head in his hands.
The Lunar Eagle reached the surface of the moon without incident and landed in an area known as the Sea of Tranquility. Mission Commander Neil Armstrong made history by becoming the first man on the moon, he was joined twenty minutes later by Buzz Aldrin and the pair spent just over two hours walking around the surface.
The two astronauts spent just under a day on the moon’s surface in total until the Lunar eagle rejoined with the command module Columbia in lunar orbit; Michael Collins, who had stayed alone onboard to pilot the command module, was the first to congratulate the pair.
The Apollo 11 mission returned to earth without major incident and when they splashed down in the Pacific Ocean and were picked up safely the whole world celebrated. Von Braun, however, was observed to be deep in thought, distracted and worried by the unexpected visit he had received.
Wernher von Braun never admitted it but he was worried that Kammler and the men in black might actually succeed in utilizing Die Glocke as a weapon. This thought above all others kept him awake at night.
Ancient flames awakened
The last two weeks had seen a renewed amount of activity around hanger 6 (Hanger 27 as it was known on official documents), a group of new scientists had arrived, along with a lot of new raw materials; finally, last week a huge amount of electrical equipment was delivered on three separate semi-trailers, these included large, industrial-sized electrical transformers.
“What they building a new city in there?” One of the guards casually remarked.
“Designing equipment for space travel clearly consumes a lot of energy, your papers all check out, let them through.” The second guard said.
Deep inside the cavernous hanger 6 the project was picking up the pace, the new group of ex-Nazi scientists was working well under the watchful gaze of Hans Kammler. Kammler finally felt alive again, he was leading a project and he could sense his workforces fear, that fear is what he lived for.
Two young American technicians were dressed head to toe in full radiation suits, they were nervous. They had the unenviable task of clearing the transparent cylinders of the highly toxic red mercury. They gingerly took the half-full tubes and placed them in lead tubes full of liquid nitrogen; this was considered much safer than just lead casing. The tubes crackled as they were frozen instantly, one of red mercuries stranger properties was that it did not seem to freeze under any temperature.
After fresh tubes were placed on the structure the device looked complete, it stood twelve-foot-tall with a layer of ceramic tiles covered by a thin metallic skin. It looked much more like a bell now and not a golden acorn.
“Are you sure this is right Amtmann?” Kammler snarled from his perch.
Amtmann snorted in annoyance. “Who is the only one here to ever see a picture of Die Glocke? Me or you?”
Kammler’s face flushed red with rage at the insubordinate tone the man had used but he let it go.
“That’s what I thought, now please let us work. The faster we can get this thing completed, the quicker we can go back to our lives.”
Kammler smiled, ‘Keep thinking that fool.’ He thought.
The lift slowly descended to the bottom floor with three trucks full of the electrical equipment.
“Finally.” Ernst Baars said with relief, “I thought it was never going to get here.”
He ordered the lab technicians and engineers to unload the equipment so he could inspect it.
The two Electronics experts Baars and Josef Boehm shook their heads and tutted, “It’s American made, not the German quality we were expecting but it will have to do.” They laughed.