Chapter Two Thousand Seventy-Five
23rd July 1971
Wahlstatt, Silesia
The end of the term was just hours away and it was so close that they could taste it. The Institution wasn’t about to let them go on their Summer Holiday without one last reminder as to exactly who was in charge here by announcing once their final exams were complete that a white glove inspection was going to be conducted on their dormitory. That meant that everything would need to be cleaned until it sparkled. Because it had seemed like the Staff had been easing up a bit as the end of the term had approached, there were portions of the dormitory that had not been cleaned properly in weeks.
As a Cadet Sergeant and Dorm Leader, it was Niko’s job to get everyone moving at a time when no one wanted to do anything. It was only now that they were starting to feel the heat as the time had been running out and word had reached them that they would not be dismissed on their holiday until the headmaster was satisfied with the state of their dormitory. They were faced with a task that was far bigger than it should have been. For once, Bas’ complaints about how things like this were totally contrived were dead on, not that Niko would tell him that, of course. Niko also suspected that no matter how hard they worked, the headmaster was bound to find something even if he had to put there himself. Again, that was not something which he was going to tell anyone else, much less Bas.
With the acrid smell of disinfectant filling his nose, Niko followed Oberstlieutenant Gruber, the school’s headmaster, and Staber Arbeit as they went through the dormitory. Every few seconds the two older men was say something quiet to each other and Arbeit would check something on the clipboard he was carrying. Niko realized that he was flinching every time something else was checked off. He was certain that they were dinging the dorm with every check and when they inevitably failed the first inspection the others who were waiting by their beds were going to take their frustrations out on him.
“I expect that you will have this up to my standard by the time I come back later this afternoon Nikolaus” Gruber said as Arbeit handed him the checklist. Then Gruber, Arbeit, and an aide who Niko didn’t know, went down the hallway to the next dormitory, leaving him to go back and break the news to the others.
As Niko looked over the list of items that had failed the inspection, he saw that it was even worse than he had feared. They were basically going to have to redo most of what they had already done that morning. Reluctantly, he walked back into the dorm. He hoped that the others would understand that this entire thing had been coming for weeks. Did they really think that the school would just let them go without doing something like this?
Potsdam
Looking out the windows at the Summer Residence seemed like it was about as close to enjoying the semi-rural surroundings as he could ever have. Later that afternoon, Freddy was going to have tea with Suga in the pagoda in the Zen Garden that had been a wedding present to them from his father. Just the fact that spending time with his wife and children was something that had of to be scheduled ahead of time spoke volumes.
In theory, Freddy’s position was largely symbolic, so he really could spend his days doing as little as possible. There were certain powers that his Office retained in regard to the Government, but everyone was happier if he only exercised those in conjunction with the Chancellor and he was supposed to be above politics as it were. He was also considered the Head of the Military, which again was largely symbolic. The High Command would probably lose the message if he tried to do anything in that capacity that the Generals disagreed with.
Instead, there were tasks that it was felt that he alone had the authority to carry out in service to the greater needs of the Empire. So, Freddy found himself on the phone arguing with Bureaucrats and Officials at various levels from a wide variety of other countries in the service of the German Empire and pounding out the latest draft agreements before those got dropped into the shredder. They were trying to nail down a final agreement regarding a treaty that would join all the nations of Europe into what would become the world’s largest customs union. There was an open question though as to who was a bigger pain in the ass, the French, or the Austrians? And the entire time England was egging them on. It was an almost exact repeat of the Common Defense Treaty from years earlier except then it had been the Italians, the French and the British causing the trouble. The Greeks had rather steadfastly refused to join that particular treaty, throwing in with the Russians instead. It wasn’t until years later that everyone figured out why, the Greeks had been planning on exterminating their neighbors and didn’t want any outside interference. Freddy’s father had once observed that things may have been different if bombs had been falling on London or Paris during the Soviet War along with Berlin but that hadn’t happened, so they needed to learn to live with them.
Into this had come news a week earlier that Grand Admiral von Schmidt had died. Freddy knew that Jacob von Schmidt had a problematic legacy as being the source of much of the distrust that the world felt towards the German Empire. He had been entitled to a State Funeral, but his family had opted for a simple ceremony that reflected his religious background. As far as Freddy was concerned that was a bullet dodged.
23rd July 1971
Wahlstatt, Silesia
The end of the term was just hours away and it was so close that they could taste it. The Institution wasn’t about to let them go on their Summer Holiday without one last reminder as to exactly who was in charge here by announcing once their final exams were complete that a white glove inspection was going to be conducted on their dormitory. That meant that everything would need to be cleaned until it sparkled. Because it had seemed like the Staff had been easing up a bit as the end of the term had approached, there were portions of the dormitory that had not been cleaned properly in weeks.
As a Cadet Sergeant and Dorm Leader, it was Niko’s job to get everyone moving at a time when no one wanted to do anything. It was only now that they were starting to feel the heat as the time had been running out and word had reached them that they would not be dismissed on their holiday until the headmaster was satisfied with the state of their dormitory. They were faced with a task that was far bigger than it should have been. For once, Bas’ complaints about how things like this were totally contrived were dead on, not that Niko would tell him that, of course. Niko also suspected that no matter how hard they worked, the headmaster was bound to find something even if he had to put there himself. Again, that was not something which he was going to tell anyone else, much less Bas.
With the acrid smell of disinfectant filling his nose, Niko followed Oberstlieutenant Gruber, the school’s headmaster, and Staber Arbeit as they went through the dormitory. Every few seconds the two older men was say something quiet to each other and Arbeit would check something on the clipboard he was carrying. Niko realized that he was flinching every time something else was checked off. He was certain that they were dinging the dorm with every check and when they inevitably failed the first inspection the others who were waiting by their beds were going to take their frustrations out on him.
“I expect that you will have this up to my standard by the time I come back later this afternoon Nikolaus” Gruber said as Arbeit handed him the checklist. Then Gruber, Arbeit, and an aide who Niko didn’t know, went down the hallway to the next dormitory, leaving him to go back and break the news to the others.
As Niko looked over the list of items that had failed the inspection, he saw that it was even worse than he had feared. They were basically going to have to redo most of what they had already done that morning. Reluctantly, he walked back into the dorm. He hoped that the others would understand that this entire thing had been coming for weeks. Did they really think that the school would just let them go without doing something like this?
Potsdam
Looking out the windows at the Summer Residence seemed like it was about as close to enjoying the semi-rural surroundings as he could ever have. Later that afternoon, Freddy was going to have tea with Suga in the pagoda in the Zen Garden that had been a wedding present to them from his father. Just the fact that spending time with his wife and children was something that had of to be scheduled ahead of time spoke volumes.
In theory, Freddy’s position was largely symbolic, so he really could spend his days doing as little as possible. There were certain powers that his Office retained in regard to the Government, but everyone was happier if he only exercised those in conjunction with the Chancellor and he was supposed to be above politics as it were. He was also considered the Head of the Military, which again was largely symbolic. The High Command would probably lose the message if he tried to do anything in that capacity that the Generals disagreed with.
Instead, there were tasks that it was felt that he alone had the authority to carry out in service to the greater needs of the Empire. So, Freddy found himself on the phone arguing with Bureaucrats and Officials at various levels from a wide variety of other countries in the service of the German Empire and pounding out the latest draft agreements before those got dropped into the shredder. They were trying to nail down a final agreement regarding a treaty that would join all the nations of Europe into what would become the world’s largest customs union. There was an open question though as to who was a bigger pain in the ass, the French, or the Austrians? And the entire time England was egging them on. It was an almost exact repeat of the Common Defense Treaty from years earlier except then it had been the Italians, the French and the British causing the trouble. The Greeks had rather steadfastly refused to join that particular treaty, throwing in with the Russians instead. It wasn’t until years later that everyone figured out why, the Greeks had been planning on exterminating their neighbors and didn’t want any outside interference. Freddy’s father had once observed that things may have been different if bombs had been falling on London or Paris during the Soviet War along with Berlin but that hadn’t happened, so they needed to learn to live with them.
Into this had come news a week earlier that Grand Admiral von Schmidt had died. Freddy knew that Jacob von Schmidt had a problematic legacy as being the source of much of the distrust that the world felt towards the German Empire. He had been entitled to a State Funeral, but his family had opted for a simple ceremony that reflected his religious background. As far as Freddy was concerned that was a bullet dodged.