Sergo’s interest in flight oddly, did not include combat. In his heart he was fascinated by things that fly and not things that are used to shoot down things that fly. In fact it was offensive to him that there was a need to do such a thing. Flight was glorious. It was life as far as he was concerned, yet he couldn’t bring himself to participate.
The injuries caused by the accident in his youth had instilled an overwhelming fear in him that he just couldn’t conquer, no matter how hard he tried. He became physically paralyzed if he even seriously thought about getting on any kind of machine that could fly. If he was tied up and carried on to a plane he was sure his heart would stop long before he reached its door.
No, he would never fly. He could make things that prevented others from flying over the Motherland for the purpose of dropping bombs. For whatever reason he could naturally see a problem and come up with a most logical solution to fit. What he had always lacked, was a way of communicating those solutions and the power to implement them. Now, he had both.
His memos were read by Stalin, and Stalin had the power to make his ideas reality. It baffled him, as I’m sure it baffled Ford and Edison, when others could not see the wisdom that was placed in front of them. People who stuck to the old ways just could not see the future. He was not a visionary or an inventor but he could see when someone had a good idea and could visualize best how to use that idea to considerable advantage. That was his apparent talent. Taking great ideas and putting them into action in their most practical application.
The captured German scientists were an enormous source of this kind of content and the American and British industrialists were exceptional sources of what methodology works, and what doesn’t. It’s actually pretty easy for him to look at something that others have already done successfully and replicate those successes. I mean, how hard is it to just copy what works and learn from what doesn’t work?
It was just luck that put him in this position. Imagine all those years ago if he hadn’t attended that horrible party and what if Stalin had not spotted him hiding in the corner. For once, his lack of social skills and inability to be politically-correct had not only saved his life, but actually made all he had accomplished possible. For once, his inability to lie or to deceive had actually made him successful; quite amazing when you think of it, which of course, he did relatively often.
Thank goodness Stalin saw him for what he was and not some kind of threat. He had seen what happens to people who are a perceived threat to Stalin. They simply disappear.
Take for example the idea of testing and using prisoners for production. How smart is it to just kill potentially useful individuals just because of their ethnic background or political beliefs. If a person is dexterous and nimble why not use them in some meaningful way instead of killing them? Feed them enough and have them perform a function that is meaningful. If you have to kill off useless mouths to feed, well then, kill off the fat-fingered stupid ones. The ones who were too old or too ham-fisted, those are the ones who you discard. Use the young males, and females, who test well for the proper jobs.
For the ones who show certain abilities train them for more exacting tasks. I’m even considering holding classes for the ones who show promise in design or engineering. A great mind is a shame to squander. It’s not like these workers can cause any trouble with their ideas or their political beliefs. They barely have time to eat and sleep, and they have no contact with the outside world. As far as their relatives are concerned, they are dead. Only their work keeps them alive and fed.
He did, nevertheless, hate using the children. He had to only because their small nimble fingers could accomplish some of the tasks necessary. Seeing them work day after day reminded him of the times after his accident. With only one good eye, his grandfather thought all he was good for was menial tasks and shoveling manure. Fortunately for him, his grandfather died, and his mother was able to retrieve him from the farm.
That reminded him that it was time to finish with the last idea he had about another guidance system the British had developed. Sooner or later, the enemy will discover just how the current system worked. This would be a tragedy and he had warned Stalin of such an event. This is why he insisted that they could never use the system for anything but air-defense over friendly territory. All it took was for just one unexploded warhead to be recovered by the enemy and NATO will be better able to develop a defense. It won’t be hard to come up with a way to defeat the system, once they apply a maximum effort into doing so.
It was Beria’s idea to go ahead with the invasion, even though they had nowhere near the number of missiles needed to protect even their major cities. Essentially it was his idea to bluff the Americans and British into thinking that they had missiles covering everywhere across the Soviet Union. He was totally confident that his spy network would be able to give their forces two weeks’ notice of where the next target would be. With that kind of time to plan they could get the few missiles that they had available into position.
How long this situation would last, he had no idea. Beria said at least two more years. He personally doubted that. In the meantime all he could do was to try and develop the next generation of air-defense weapons. One possibility was to keep using the old German technology and as NATO fails to jam it they may decide to stop wasting their time and equipment and move on to other techniques. Then it was thought that they could switch tactics, and actually use the old radar guidance system from the Fritz. It was a move born of desperation, but it might be worth a try. There was always a small chance that it could work. They would keep bombarding the jamming systems with signals they know the enemy can easily defeat in the hope that they will stop using the most primitive jamming efforts. Beria believed they would move on to more and more sophisticated methods and eventually forget the old ones.
Believe it or not, this was a hard concept to explain and Stalin had nearly thrown him out of his office when he tried to talk to him about it. Fortunately he had at least agreed to continue using the old radar and radio control systems. It must be undoubtedly driving the enemy crazy. They must be positive that their efforts are capable of jamming the Soviet primitive attempts are working. Yet the missiles keep finding their targets. Oh how he would have loved to overhear their scientists and engineers squabbling over potential solutions.
Chapter Twenty-Eight:
Late Into the Night
The dacha was eerily silent. Everyone knew he was trying to sleep. It was early morning and as usual, he couldn’t sleep. Even at this hour he was rarely alone. At his insistence he was always surrounded by people. For whatever reason, he was not anxious nor even afraid to be unattended for now. He was comfortable and lying in bed recovering from another bout of sickness. He was alone with his thoughts.
He was never one for self-examination but attacking Europe and starting World War Three did tend to get one thinking and possibly questioning his decisions. Despite all the fools around him filling him with information they suspected he wanted to hear, he realized that his great army was in dire need of rest and recuperation. Perhaps, he should have waited a few more years to attack, and rid Europe of capitalism. Yet how much more time did he personally have?