=4=
As Markman sat before his boss, he was, again, dismayed by her skepticism.
While her appointment to head the division in which he worked had been disparaged as "equal opportunity in action", he was well aware she was very sharp intellectually. It was just that she held preconceived notions with which she was unwilling to dispense, and in the field Markman worked in, that kind of bull-headedness was a disadvantage.
What she wanted was a neat and orderly world; one which comported with the standard histories of the postwar era. What Markman and his colleagues had been try to convince her of was a reality altogether different.
"Look, Markey", she said. "My grandfather was a black man in what was a segregated American military at the time. He was in a disadvantaged group, yet he and his fellows bested the toughest soldiers Germany had to offer at a town called Crossen ... I mean, America won completely in 1945 ... yet, you're trying to tell me that Germany was far ahead of us in terms of technology. If that is so, then why didn't they win World War Two?"
Markman sighed. Where to begin?, he thought. He recalled reading the report of a senior British officer who had been tasked with the recovery of German high technology as the Reich collapsed in 1945. His words had been stark: "We won the war with no time to lose." The implication was clear-- the Germans had projects underway, that had they matured, would have completely altered the nature of warfare as it was then understood.
"Boss", he said, "I hear what you're saying, but the truth is that some of the research done by the Germans is even today only partially understood. Yes, we won the war. But when our technical recovery teams sifted throught what they had found, they realized the Germans had looked into topics that were completely unknown to both us and the Soviets. None of this is as straightforward as it has been made out to be."
She was staring hard at Markman, yet, her skepticism seemed a bit dented. "Okay", she said. "Educate me on this topic, Mister Markman."
=4=
=5=
Markman spoke up as his supervisor stared at him.
"Well, to give one example. You may know that when our physicists theorize about space-time, they use mathematics as a way of modeling how it works."
She nodded her head.
"The German approach was different. They rejected what they called Jewish science" ...
Her head pulled back. "Say what?"
Markman nodded. "Yeah, their ideology tainted almost everything in their society, to include pure science. Anyway, their approach to exploring space-time was much more hands-on. They didn't want to model it at all-- they wanted to gain control of it and change its characteristics at a given point.
"Why?"
"Some of the German scientists believed there were worlds parallel to our own that we were normally unaware of, yet that could be accessed if one knew how do it. Another way of describing what they were attempting was interdimensional travel. They didn't want to imagine such a door existed, they wanted to kick it in so they could access those other worlds!"
Her gaze had become one of concern. "And did they succeed?"
"The Germans? We're not sure, but we think that although they made progress in their research, they never actually got that 'door' open. Of course ..." Markman's voice trailed off.
"Of course what?"
Markman grimaced. "A bunch of Nazis disappeared after 1945. Some of them could be tracked, some of them resurfaced in other parts of the world. But some of them ... never seen again. I don't know if you ever watched the original Star Trek series on television ... anyway, there was one episode in which the characters encountered a world modeled on the Third Reich. I can assure you that several figures in the community were highly incensed when that episode came out. No one believed the producer and writers came up with that on their own ... there was some kind of leak regarding the analyses of just what the Germans had been able to accomplish with their space-time research."
She shook her head. "I don't like where this discussion is going."
=5=
As Markman sat before his boss, he was, again, dismayed by her skepticism.
While her appointment to head the division in which he worked had been disparaged as "equal opportunity in action", he was well aware she was very sharp intellectually. It was just that she held preconceived notions with which she was unwilling to dispense, and in the field Markman worked in, that kind of bull-headedness was a disadvantage.
What she wanted was a neat and orderly world; one which comported with the standard histories of the postwar era. What Markman and his colleagues had been try to convince her of was a reality altogether different.
"Look, Markey", she said. "My grandfather was a black man in what was a segregated American military at the time. He was in a disadvantaged group, yet he and his fellows bested the toughest soldiers Germany had to offer at a town called Crossen ... I mean, America won completely in 1945 ... yet, you're trying to tell me that Germany was far ahead of us in terms of technology. If that is so, then why didn't they win World War Two?"
Markman sighed. Where to begin?, he thought. He recalled reading the report of a senior British officer who had been tasked with the recovery of German high technology as the Reich collapsed in 1945. His words had been stark: "We won the war with no time to lose." The implication was clear-- the Germans had projects underway, that had they matured, would have completely altered the nature of warfare as it was then understood.
"Boss", he said, "I hear what you're saying, but the truth is that some of the research done by the Germans is even today only partially understood. Yes, we won the war. But when our technical recovery teams sifted throught what they had found, they realized the Germans had looked into topics that were completely unknown to both us and the Soviets. None of this is as straightforward as it has been made out to be."
She was staring hard at Markman, yet, her skepticism seemed a bit dented. "Okay", she said. "Educate me on this topic, Mister Markman."
=4=
=5=
Markman spoke up as his supervisor stared at him.
"Well, to give one example. You may know that when our physicists theorize about space-time, they use mathematics as a way of modeling how it works."
She nodded her head.
"The German approach was different. They rejected what they called Jewish science" ...
Her head pulled back. "Say what?"
Markman nodded. "Yeah, their ideology tainted almost everything in their society, to include pure science. Anyway, their approach to exploring space-time was much more hands-on. They didn't want to model it at all-- they wanted to gain control of it and change its characteristics at a given point.
"Why?"
"Some of the German scientists believed there were worlds parallel to our own that we were normally unaware of, yet that could be accessed if one knew how do it. Another way of describing what they were attempting was interdimensional travel. They didn't want to imagine such a door existed, they wanted to kick it in so they could access those other worlds!"
Her gaze had become one of concern. "And did they succeed?"
"The Germans? We're not sure, but we think that although they made progress in their research, they never actually got that 'door' open. Of course ..." Markman's voice trailed off.
"Of course what?"
Markman grimaced. "A bunch of Nazis disappeared after 1945. Some of them could be tracked, some of them resurfaced in other parts of the world. But some of them ... never seen again. I don't know if you ever watched the original Star Trek series on television ... anyway, there was one episode in which the characters encountered a world modeled on the Third Reich. I can assure you that several figures in the community were highly incensed when that episode came out. No one believed the producer and writers came up with that on their own ... there was some kind of leak regarding the analyses of just what the Germans had been able to accomplish with their space-time research."
She shook her head. "I don't like where this discussion is going."
=5=
Fire In The Hole