Operation Rusalka: Coming Through

Unending BE - episode 27828

The truck was a big Volvo semitrailer powered by what looked very much like a very advanced steam engine. It slowly backed inside the warehouse, its inexperienced driver almost knocking down some key devices in the process and ending up touching the node cube. He was quickly helped by other nerds and they finally managed to park the brown behemoth in a suitable position. Deciding to get ready, Sharon put on the helmet and vest and found out that the latter didn't fit her big, only slightly sagging boobs. She tossed the garment at Antoine telling him to fuckin'do something about it, and by the time the truck was finally stopped and refueled the vest had been reshaped, albeit crudely. "Thomas will give it the last touches as you go." Antoine told her. "So... this is it, right?" she asked. She wasn't really impatient to go trough a whole war, but on the other hand, it somehow looked better than staying there with a bunch of visibly goofy reality-travellers. "This is it. The trailer has a pool inside of it to carry you, and they made something warm to eat if you want." "Maize pudding and wurstels, is that okay, Fraulein?" a voice inside the trailer asked. "Yeah. Sure, thanks." Whatever, she thought. The truck's rear ramp was finally opened, and Sharon was brought in by two nerds who had visibly been waiting for that for quite some time. Most of the inside, which looked just like a large container, was indeed taken up by a pool, while the rest hosted a couch and a camping stool heated by the truck's exhausts. A girl of prosperous forms and visible German descent was inside, waiting and possibly preparing the wurstels. Sharon took the liberty of soaking her two carriers whole when they dropped her into the container's water-filled zone. They saluted Army style and closed the ramp; as soon as she was afloat again, Sharon distinctly felt the vibrations of the truck as it was being restarted. A lone light bulb lit up, eerily illuminating the container. A series of thuds and a heavy revving told Sharon that they were off. "I'm Greta" the fat girl said. Sharon's transformation took away some of her night vision in exchange for the sonar, but she could make out her companion's brown hair, round and pimpled face, and unshapely frame. All in all, she looked like person that under normal circumstance people wouldn't have noticed. "Want some?" she asked, presenting her a steel tablet with very smelly wurstels and yellow pudding. Only then Sharon realized just how hungry she was, and ate it all barely muffling a "thank you". Had it not been fried in motor oil, it would have been delicious; even like this, it wasn't bad at all. "It's the war. We don't have much of a choice as far as variety is concerned." Greta said with a quiet, everyday tone when Sharon asked if there was anything else. Sharon suddenly felt a little ashamed of herself, the remark reminding her of the other girl-- that with the missing leg. Sure, she herself didn't have any legs at all, but that was just two days of her life, not all of it. "Greta... among other things, Antoine forgot to tell me exactly what the plan is. Do you know anything I could use?" "Yes, yes, sure! You have to excuse the boys. Those who didn't escape the draft because of their factory work were there on leave, and they're all very tired." "Draft?" "Yeah. The people high up have got desperate since last year, they're drafting teenagers again... like in the Great War fifty years ago..." "Great War? Which one is that?" "Oh, sorry. They didn't tell you... this is 1958. You know, there is a slight difference in the 'speed of time' between alts. And before you ask, Hitler here lived and died as a rather mediocre painter. About half of the foreigners ask us that." Sharon was shocked. Some more exposure to this dark reality and she would have gone nuts. And why Jim didn't tell her anything? The thought of her being just a pawn in a bigger game was too strong to be repelled as simple paranoia. The best thing to do to retain sanity was to focus on the present, the here-and-now. "Ehm... what about the plan, we were saying?" "Oh, yes, silly me. It's rather simple, really. The Soviets have a very limited supply of fissile uranium, and the Leviathan usually runs on diesel engines as much as it can -- they keep the batteries for the EMP weapons, you see. There is a small island, jsut east of Denmark, which hosts a Soviet refueling base. It is surrounded by a thick curtain of depth mines and Allied subs cannot go deep enough to bypass them, plus the Allied navy never thought of that as an important target. We have seen the Leviathan's cargo manifest and we know it will stop there to refuel before going to Hamburg." "Why Hamburg?" "The Edda channel is large enough for the Leviathan to pass through and Hamburg hosts one of the three main Allied comm-nodes. Plus, the induced blackout would knock down most of Western Germany, and this includes the war factories of Alsatia and the Ruhr Valley." "How comes that you people know so many details?" "The cargo manifest was sent to us by another UNA member, the rest is mostly speculation. But we have borrowed some 'unreal' electronic equipment and an Analytical Engine to descramble some radio transmissions to that base, so we are pretty sure." "Analytical... oh, yeah, a computer, right?" "Yes. Really amazing things your world makes, considering that you people haven't even gone to Mars yet." "You'll have to give me a history lesson or two after we're through with this. Anyway, is that all?" "I'm afraid so. Your best option is to infiltrate the base and, well, carpe diem if you get the chance. We'll try to send someone to help you." Sharon felt extremely sleepy, and it didn't take long for her to slip into the water and fall asleep as she was. Greta smiled and shut down the light bulb, preparing to go to sleep as well. The truck continued its run across Germany until...

Go back - Go to the parent episode.

Conrad Volkov

Mon Jun 21 18:00:02 1999

Linking Enabled