by Ian Andrew
They stood around swapping their weekend stories and drinking coffee. The full team had worked together for the better part of five years. All of them were comfortable with one another both professionally and socially. The cross-talk and laughter was in mid-flow when a deep and melodic voice sounded.
“Right now, from what I can gather you bunch have an awful lot of work to do. I’d like to suggest you cut this frivolity out and get back to it.” Konrad Lippisch was the last one into the lab as was his normal routine. His pronouncement was his best attempt at brusque and failed miserably as they all looked round at him. He was beaming and his eyes shone with good humour.
Chapter 17
“Now that Leigh and Francine are both back I want us to start getting into shape for the Führer’s visit. It’s just over three weeks away and I’d like a number of practise Projections just to get us fully up to speed. Our new head of security, Standartenführer Steinmann, will also be observing them. Leigh, I’m going to need you to run through things with him. He’s received only the scantest of information from Berlin. As usual.” The rest of the team gave a collective groan.
Leigh didn’t say that she already knew Heinrich understood little about the science, she merely nodded her head.
Konrad continued, “He’s been briefed on the safety and evacuation drills but other than knowing how to get out in case of a fire I doubt he understands anything about what we do. I ran into him on my way down and he said he would come in to see you this morning at ten if that’s okay?”
“Yes, that’s fine Konrad,” she said it in a mater-of-fact voice yet realised her stomach had given a little leap.
As the team went to their various cubicles and research benches dotted around the lab, Leigh sat in her glass walled office in the far left corner from the entrance. She turned her PC on and looked at the plethora of emails that had built up since she had been on leave. She turned the screen back off and decided to use her time to arrange a demonstration for Heinrich. She also extracted some relevant documents that would help him understand exactly what he was head of security of.
Very punctually at 10:00, he appeared in the doorway to Oscar. Leigh had been watching it off and on for the previous five minutes and was out of her office and on her way to meet him before he had managed to get a few metres into the space. He was dressed in the new pattern, in-barracks uniform of black bloused combat trousers, belt with unit buckle, and a black shirt. He wore no weapon and the only insignia was the Parteiadler on his right breast and two small Siegrune on each collar point surmounted by silver oak leaf rank tabs. She thought he looked remarkably handsome.
“Standartenführer Steinmann, welcome to Oscar.”
“Ah, Doctor Wilson, please, after my false start yesterday evening, call me Heinrich and may I call you Leigh?”
They went through the formalities of shedding their formality as Leigh led him across to the small tea and coffee making area. She knew it had to look and sound to any other members of the team like she was hosting a man whom she had had the briefest of meetings with and who she knew practically nothing about. As she made them a drink she asked him what he thought of the ‘Jewel’.
“I’ve only been posted in a short time but what is it with the names?”
“Oh you mean Oscar?” she said as she prepared the mugs, “How do you take yours?”
“White none please and yes, I meant Oscar. And is it Alex?”
“Alec,” she corrected. “It’s just a way to refer to them without having to use their full, official titles. The people who come up with official names for these types of things tend to be,” she paused trying to think of the right word.
“Full of their own self-importance?” he offered.
“Yeah that would be a good way to say it. I was thinking more of eejits, as my mum would have said, but we’ll go with yours. It’s probably kinder.”
He laughed with her and asked, “So what are the rest?”
“Let’s see, Arnie, Penny, Alec, Mel, Toby, Cesar and Ella. And of course Oscar.” She watched him running through the various labs trying to figure out how they had been given their nicknames.
“Okay,” he said a little hesitantly, “I get Penny for the Propulsion and Engines Lab, Mel’s obvious and even makes sense for the Mechanical Engineering Lab and I know Ella is the Electronic and Advanced something or other.”
“Advanced Instrumentation,” she said and handed him over a mug.
“Thanks. And the rest of them?” he asked.
“Arnie is armaments, Alec is electrical,”
“Shouldn’t that be an E-something?”
“Probably, but they’re electricians so be thankful it isn’t a V.”
“Fair enough.” He smirked and rose to follow her through the lab.
“Cesar is the Computer Science and AI Research geeks, I mean division,” she called over her shoulder, “and Oscar is for optical systems, or as we like to think Obviously Superior Clever And Revered.” She stood aside and waved him towards the spare chair in her office.
“Obviously,” he smirked and sat down. “That’s only seven.”
She moved past him and took the seat at her desk. “Who’d I miss?” she thought for a moment, “Oh yes; Toby.” She laughed and said, “We have a whole bunch of other people, academics, researchers, scientists, all sorts who come and go all the time. They study all sorts of stuff from the traditional physical sciences to nano-tech. They’re never really here long enough for any of us to get to know them and their lab never had an official name. It was just the spare. But one of them insisted one day that their work set the yardstick for all of our work.” She raised her eyes at the memory.
“I’m going to hazard a guess that wasn’t the greatest suggestion?”
“No, not really but it did give us the name for their lab, Toby. The Other Boffin’s Yardstick.”
“You’re all nuts.”
“Thank you. We’d accept that as a compliment.”
“So you’re going to take me through what your crazy science has come up with and show me your magic toy?”
“No Heinrich, I’m going to let you read the important bits of the Project Thule file. Then when you’ve managed to understand none of it I shall give you the same brief and demonstrations we’ve given every senior leader of the Reich. Including the Führer.” She said the last sentence as a punctuation to accompany her hefting a 7cm thick file onto her desk.
“You’re kidding, that’s going to take me all day!” he said, looking genuinely shocked.
“No, it’s not. I’ve been very kind to you. The essential extracts you’re interested in are here,” she smiled as she slipped a few pages out of the file.
“However Heinrich, before I can hand this to you I need to see your Thule card please.”
Heinrich reached into his back pocket and took his wallet out. He retrieved a small electronically chipped card and handed it over. Leigh scanned it with the compact Security Point Reader on her desk. A dialogue box popped up on her PC screen and confirmed that the holder of the card had been briefed on the Security Classification rules for Codeword Thule.
“Well that’s ok then.” Leigh handed him his card back and the pages she had taken from the file. “I’ll leave you to it?”
He nodded and Leigh swivelled her chair round to her desk and began to catch up on her significant post-leave emails.
Chapter 18
__________________________
Top Secret Thule
Subject: Establishment of Project Thule
Ref: ReichHC/FD/191/1.3/4
Date: 1 October 2016
Authorities: Project Thule is authorised by Reich High Command General Order 191/1.3/4 dated 1 October 2016. The Project is to be used for investigations commanded by the Office of the Führer, through the personal authorisation of the incumbent Reichsführer-SS. Security responsibilities will be undertaken by the Central Intelligence Office of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt. Scientific research and daily operation
s are delegated to the Director Project Thule and in absence, the Deputy Director Project Thule. Initial authorisation for live use of equipment will be the responsibility of the incumbent Head of Laser Research, Reich Security Directorate (Technical Division).
Background: During investigations into overcoming common problems associated with Ring Lasers in use with Luftwaffe navigational systems an anomalous discrepancy was discovered in September 2015 by Dr Leigh Elisabeth Wilson (SS No.TD2228228), Arcand Institute, Toronto, Germanic Commonwealth of Canada. The discrepancy revealed a gravitational effect caused by coherent high-powered in-phase Lasers that revealed a consistent warping of the gravitational fields. Subsequent experimentation over a period of months revealed an asynchronous disruption in the attendant time fields. Following a catastrophic failure of the laboratory test equipment in June 2016 it was authorised to relocate all personnel and equipment to the Deep Underground Engineering Laboratories (Todt Laboratories Complex) London and unite all research activities under one Project. This move was completed in September 2016.
Research Objectives: The research focus is to establish a stable and controllable environment that will allow on-demand and selective Time Window observations to enable Intelligence Collection, Counter-Intelligence Surveillance and Criminal Investigations to be conducted on operations deemed essential to the Security of the State.
Funding: Project Thule is funded by the Office of the Führer under special provisions and is designated Special Operations Project 1A-657.
Top Secret Thule
__________________________
As he finished reading the first extract Leigh looked round and asked, “All okay?” He looked up and frowned.
“Well, I’m one down and very confused. What’s an asynchronous disruption in the attendant time fields?”
She swivelled her seat round, smiled at him and said, “Keep reading and once you’ve finished, I’ll show you. And please, Heinrich, don’t fret. I’ve only picked out those paragraphs and reports that give you the potted history of Thule. Don’t get bogged down in the detail. I’m going to give you a demo later and show you a bit of archive footage. It’ll be fun.” She smiled again.
He frowned and picked up the other pages.
__________________________
Top Secret Thule
(SS Eyes Only)
(Material attached must be safeguarded in accordance with Reich Security Directive 49.137.3)
Extract: Executive Summary, Arcand Institute
Report – 9/56/4, Dated 10 March 2016
56. The time anomaly is best explained when compared to a telescope used for deep space observation. Light being observed from distant objects in space is thousands, hundreds of thousands and on occasion millions of years old. By increasing the power of a reflective telescope, observations of more distant objects may be achieved. In effect this allows the observer to look back along the timeline of the Universe. The time anomaly discovered by Doctor Leigh Wilson is a similar phenomenon but along the timeline of the Earth. Increasing the power of the laser disruption allows the timeline Window to observe events further back in Earth’s history. It is equivalent to viewing the Earth from deep space with a high-powered telescope.
Extract: Arcand Institute
Report – 9/134/6, Dated 16 April 2016
9. Subsequent experiments have identified a carrier wave within the Time Observation Window that on isolation and amplification have revealed an audio component.
Extract: Arcand Institute
Report – 9/179/1, Dated 5 May 2016
3. Outgoing modulated audio streams can be transmitted through the Time Window with reasonable success. However, direct effect on previous events had unexpected outcomes. Experiment 402H/2 placed an object in test position Alpha and using compliant conditions influenced a test subject to move the item. On movement being instigated the molecular structure of the object in the present timeline suffered catastrophic failure resulting in residual explosive collapse of the molecular field.
Extract: RHSA Summary Findings,
Arcand Institute, Dated 30 June 2016
109. Recommendation. The unauthorised attempt of the supervising scientist to directly manipulate the timeline by introducing a foreign object into the Time Observation Window resulted in a molecular disruption on a massive scale. The standing reflective wave that entered by feedback into the output detection fields of the RL-01 apparatus caused a systematic collapse of the whole system. Although the deaths of the personnel involved is regrettable it is of primary concern that the resulting explosion, despite local Propaganda Ministry intervention, created unwanted coverage in the local media. It is recommended that the whole time observation experiment is compartmentalised under a uniting Project and relocated to a secure, preferably underground, experimentation facility, namely the Todt Laboratory Complex in London.
Extract: Project Thule
Report – 191/60/5, Dated 13 September 2018
8. The successful reconstitution of a stable Time Observation Window on-demand has now been achieved on a complete and comprehensive basis. Despite this it is still localised to a 100-metre sphere of influence centred on the apparatus location.
Extract: Project Thule
Report – 191/60/109, Dated 18 December 2018
11. Direct geo-coordinate interlacing allows the time observation apparatus to be steered to any point on the Earth’s surface. However, the time distance is subsequently limited to 4.6 light years.
Extract: Project Thule
Report – 191/60/854, Dated 21 November 2019
37. Given the incorporation of the advanced power amplification circuitry within the transformer stages it will now be possible to fully incorporate the increased power requirements into the apparatus. Limited virtual and theoretical testing has resulted in a distance of 2707 light years being achieved. It is unlikely that given current limitations in electronic technologies this distance will be extended further.
Extract: Project Thule, Theoretical Limits
191/60/854, Dated 6 March 2020
106. It is therefore recommended that the Time Observation Window is limited in its use to that which does not, nor cannot, influence or amend preceding events. All experiments have recorded that a singular timeline exists and any change to it will adversely alter the present time continuity with unpredictable results.
Extract: Project Thule
Standard Operating Procedures 191/61/001
Dated 6 March 2020
4. All activations of the Time Observation Window are to be documented with the Project Director, or Deputy Project Director. All safety protocol keys are to be engaged prior to operation of RL mechanisms and the Berlin Key has precedence.
(SS Eyes Only)
Top Secret Thule
__________________________
Heinrich set the pages down and looked over at Leigh.
“Questions, Heinrich?”
“I can’t think of what to say, to be honest. When I was told what the project was in Berlin they made it sound that you could hop backwards and forwards and basically time travel. If I’ve got this right, from what I’ve just read you can look backwards and that’s it. You can look back at previous events, but you can’t interact with them?”
“Well I’m sorry to disappoint you Heinrich. It’s only taken us five years to get this far and let me be immodest. This is the biggest scientific breakthrough in history,” Leigh said a little too defensively.
“No Leigh, I didn’t mean I wasn’t impressed. I am, truly. I just mean this actually makes more sense to me. Berlin had me thinking I could go forward and see what I would look like in my 70s, or go back and stop the knife attack so I wouldn’t have the scar.”
“Well, you could go back and stop the attack. Or rather you could go back and warn your other self by talking to him. Except for the fact that everything in the world after that moment might be irrevocably changed and we would have no way of predicting what changes would occur. Where or
when. It’s possible that as soon as you change the timeline you would in effect cease to be you.” She looked at him and smiled sympathetically before continuing, “The truth is we don’t have the first clue about what would happen except that we think the further back you go the more everything would be completely and utterly changed. Everything and everybody you know would be gone, probably. Maybe.” Leigh shrugged her shoulders. “I can certainly say that sandwiches would not survive.” She smiled at her own in-joke.
“What?” asked Heinrich.
“Never mind, I’ll show you later. Come on, I’ll take you into the lab and introduce you to my toy, as you called it.”
Heinrich finished his coffee and got up to follow her.
“How did you discover this originally Leigh?”
“What are Berlin briefing you on?” she shook her head. “You know we insisted that anyone being read into Thule should come here first. There are currently less than eighty people within the project and only ten of them are in Berlin. None of those ten have any clue about the science or the history behind it. We’ve shown them what it does, we’ve briefed them on what it does and we’ve tried to tell them again and again of the limitations but to no avail. Part of us dreads when we finally go live and the Chiefs of Staff make some ridiculous request.” She was ushering him out of the office and into the main lab.
