“I see! Good call on that one, Ingrid. How is it going apart of that?”
Nancy detected some contained anger in Ingrid’s voice as she answered her.
“We were unfortunately too late for many of the inmates, Nancy. All the male inmates of the men’s sub-camp were already dead when I arrived there. Over a thousand men have been summarily shot over there. Also, I found that all the sick inmates in the camp’s so-called infirmary were killed by lethal injection.”
“The bastards!” Raged Nancy. “Have you found the German medical staff?”
“Yes! They are now dead, including the camp doctor, Herta Oberheuser. I caught them as they were burning compromising medical files.”
“Well done, Ingrid. Out to you. Otto, how is the situation at the Youth Camp?”
The Austrian’s voice had a haunted quality to it when he answered back on the radio.
“I was too late for about sixty of the girls, Nancy. The guards were executing them as I landed. I have about 450 survivors with me, including a young girl who needs immediate treatment for a bullet wound. Could you come, over?”
“I’m on my way. Switch on your helmet light to guide me to her.”
“It is done. Please hurry, Nancy.”
Without taking the time to answer, Nancy activated her armor’s integrated gravity drive system and flew off the ground, heading at top speed towards the Youth Camp. She 732
arrived there just over a minute later, landing besides a ditch and near Otto, who was crouching over one of the small bodies lying on the ground. Nancy herself crouched and quickly inspected the wounded girl with the combined light from their two helmet lamps.
Not wasting time, she then applied her hands on the girl and concentrated, healing her in minutes. Otto then cautiously, tenderly took the child in his arms and hugged her.
Nancy could have sworn that the Austrian was crying, but Otto would never acknowledge that and commenting on it now would have been inappropriate. Nancy patted his arm instead.
“I will send a few captured trucks with French soldiers to pick up and bring the girls to the main camp in preparation for their evacuation. Are there any German guards left around?”
“None! I found the last of the bastards hiding in the toilets of the camp. I drowned him in shit.”
Nancy was silent for a moment, measuring the dept of Otto’s emotions, then nodded her head.
“Nice job, Otto. I am proud to have you with me tonight.”
“Thanks, Nancy…for opening my eyes.”
“And thank you for being a decent man, Otto.” She replied softly before flying off towards the main camp.
02:11 (Warsaw Time)
Local Time Patrol command center
Gesia Street, Warsaw Jewish Ghetto
Poland
“What is it, Mister Brunet?” Asked sleepily Shimon Huberband as he entered the second floor command center. One of the two Jewish fighters who stayed in the Time Patrol command post to act as couriers inside the Ghetto had just awakened him in his apartment, located in the building just across the rear courtyard. Fernand Brunet, himself looking tired, managed a weak smile.
“You remember about what I told you yesterday evening, about needing your community’s help in helping other Jews? Well, the time for that has arrived. I am sorry that we could not tell you anything more precise before, in order to keep the Germans from learning about our plans of action, but the Time Patrol has initiated one hour ago a 733
plan to take control of all the German concentration and extermination camps in Europe.
We have already taken eight camps and liberated their inmates. We are now about to jump to eight more camps to take them, but we have over 150,000 ex-inmates to evacuate to safety and to care for. Many of them will be brought to England but we plan to send here the Polish Jews found in Auschwitz-Birkenau, Majdanek, Sobibor, Belzec and Dachau and, later on, those found in Lublin, Treblinka and Chelmno. Adequate supplies of food and medicine will be sent with them but what we need are volunteers, by the hundreds, to help care for those poor souls. I was thinking that Mister Ringelblum could have his network of self-help organizations take care of findings such volunteers, along with temporary shelters for the camp survivors.”
For a moment, Fernand thought that Huberband was going to have a heart attack. The rabbi finally overcame the emotions that had nearly struck him down and shook Fernand’s hand vigorously.
“My friend, you don’t know how much of a gift to God you have just made. You can count on the full support of our community.”
“Then, you can tell Mister Ringelblum that a first shipload of about 600 survivors, along with supplies to care for them, will arrive in one hour in Muranowski Square.
There will be many more after those.”
“Then I must hurry and go inform Emanuel.” Said Huberband before looking at the Jewish fighter who had fetched him. “Will you escort me, Chaim?”
“Of course, sir!” Replied the young man before shouldering his captured German Mauser rifle and following the rabbi outside. The single Jewish fighter left in the command post, a pretty young woman with a fiery character named Liliana Edelman, looked at the camera pictures visible on the screens of Mona Zirel’s portable workstation.
“Mister Brunet, do you know if George is alright?”
Fernand hid a smile as he looked at the Jewish teenager. Liliana and George Townsend had been developing with remarkable speed a mutual interest into each other in the last two days.
“I spoke with him on the radio less than fifteen minutes ago, Liliana. He was fine then and was completing the capture of the extermination camp in Sobibor, but I can have Mona here show you live the view from his helmet camera, if you would like that.”
“You could do that?”
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“It’s easy enough: we have continuous contacts with all our agents presently involved in Operation MERCY. Mona, please put on George’s view on your top left secondary screen.”
“Coming up!” Replied the giant engineer, playing a few seconds with her controls before the moving picture from a helmet camera appeared on one of her three secondary screens. She then pulled up a chair so that Liliana could sit and watch comfortably. Fernand used that period of relative calm to call Farah Tolkonen ‘A’ in Northolt and to pass on the willingness of the Warsaw Jews to help in caring for camp survivors. Once that was done, he called by old-style telephone the head of the Polish underground secret army, General Grot-Rowecki. After going through one transfer and one junior officer, the Polish general answered in a polite but guarded tone: while the Polish resistance was most thankful for the Time Patrol having all but booted the Germans out of Warsaw, tensions had been starting to appear about the alleged preferential treatment the Jews of Warsaw were getting from the Time Patrol, compared to the help given to non-Jewish Polish citizens. Brunet had been trying hard to dispel these allegations, but there was apparently a lot of bad blood between Jews and Catholics in Warsaw as well as in the rest of Poland, much of it dating back from quite a long time. Still, Brunet had not given up on reconciling the two groups.
“General Grot-Rowecki, I have some good news to pass on…”
Brunet then took a few minutes to tell the Pole about Operation MERCY and about the impending arrival of Polish survivors from German camps. Grot-Rowecki was quiet for a few seconds, apparently stunned by the news.
“And you have been pulling all this off without a single casualty to your forces?”
“Up to now, yes, General. I am crossing my fingers, though: war can never be without risks. The reason I called is that many of the survivors that will be brought to Warsaw tonight will be catholic Poles who will need help and assistance in order to be brought back to health. While the Jews of the Ghetto have already accepted to assist the Jewish survivors, I will need someone from your side with enough resources in terms of transportation, shelter and medical care to assist the Catholic survivors. A ship with the first shipment of survivors should arrive in about an hour in Muranowski Square, at the northeast edge of the Ghetto. We will have some reserves of food that we will distribute to the survivors on arrival. One of my concerns is that some people without scruples or conscience could attempt to rob those sick and weak people of their donated food.”
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“Do not worry about that anymore, Mister Brunet: I will make sure that the people who will greet these survivors are incorruptible ones. From which camps will these survivors come?”
“The catholic Poles will come mainly from Auschwitz-Birkenau, Lublin and Ravensbrück, while the Jews will come mostly from Majdanek, Chelmno, Sobibor, Treblinka, Belzec, Auschwitz-Birkenau and Dachau. Thank you for your cooperation, General. May I hope to see you tonight at Muranowski Square?”
“You think that I’m going to miss seeing the landing of one of your spaceships?
Of course I will be there.”
The Pole’s tone then changed, as if he was afraid to be overheard.
“Uh, if we are going to meet tonight, could we then take some time to discuss the situation concerning the Soviets?”
“General, I believe that I already know what you are going to ask. I can tell you two things right now: first, the Soviets will not be permitted to set foot again in Poland, especially when considering what they did at Katyn; and, second, Stalin will not keep his head on his shoulders for very long. That comes from Nancy Laplante, who has a score to settle with Stalin.”
Brunet could nearly hear Grot-Rowecki gloat at the end of the telephone now.
“My friend, you have just truly made my day. See you in one hour!”
Brunet put the receiver down and, leaving the small lounge where the telephone stood on a corner table, returned into the room housing his command post proper. His satisfied smile faded at the sight of Mona Zirel’s concerned look.
“What’s wrong, Mona?”
“We just had our first combat casualty: Tom Allen was seriously wounded in Birkenau and is now onboard the KRONOS for medical treatment.”
“How did it happen?” Asked Fernand gravely. Mona paused for a moment, apparently affected seriously by Tom’s misfortune.
“Tom was doing house-clearing in the prison block of Birkenau, where the restricted space precluded the use of his electro-magnetic shield, when a hidden German threw a grenade at him. He rolled partly out of the way but still got multiple shrapnel wounds to his legs. I was told that he should recover fully within a week with advanced care. Of course, Nancy will go heal him as soon as she is finished with her own target list.”
“Did someone get that German?”
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“Oh yes! Twenty robots reduced the prison block to rubble once Tom was safely pulled out of there. On a different subject now, Fernand, the BABYLON is due to arrive in fifteen minutes to unload some extra food supplies for the Ghetto and the camp survivors. Farah also scrapped the bottom of the drawers and is sending us a small group that will help administratively process the survivors. They will also be on the BABYLON.”
“Hell, we have been scrapping the bottom of the drawers from the start, Mona. I still can’t believe all that we accomplished with so few people. Anyway, I suppose that I better go to Muranowski Square now. I will take Natia with me.”
Going down the stairs to the next floor, where their small medical team was installed, Fernand found Natia Mindicor combating the boredom of her night shift by watching the recording of some 34th century musical show on a holographic viewer. The young giant woman looked questioningly at him.
“What’s
up,
Fernand?”
“The BABYLON is due in soon to bring extra food supplies and an administrative support team from Northolt. The HERMES will follow in about fifty minutes with a first load of Polish survivors from the German concentration camps. You and I will have a busy night.”
Natia immediately stopped the recording and got up to put on her helmet and body armor. She then followed Fernand downstairs to the covered courtyard passage, where they took place in one of their three time scooters. With the combat robots on guard there opening the gate doors for them, they soon flew off towards Muranowski Square, arriving there a minute later. Fernand landed his small machine besides a large modular shelter set up near a row of cargo containers lined up along the perimeter wall of the Ghetto. Those containers were used to store the food supplies sent from Northolt and Fernand expected that the BABYLON would drop off quite a few more of them. He had to recognize that Boran Kern was doing an exemplary job of acquiring foodstuff by the hundreds of tons every day. That steady supply of extra food was doing a huge difference these days for the people of the Ghetto, who were now able to slowly recover from months of starvation. Kern had even been able to go back to 3386 ‘A’ at least once, to buy there much needed advanced medical supplies and to top up their reserves of isotopic fuel for their ships. As he had said himself candidly to Fernand yesterday, who in the Global Council would refuse to sell humanitarian supplies to someone who was both armed and ready to pay cash with pure gold? Besides, public opinion in the 737
Global Council had started to shift radically in favor of the Time Patrol, with the existing High Council looking increasingly about to be voted out of office via a soon-to-be-held popular referendum.
Going to the shelter, which was guarded like the containers by a squad of combat robots, Fernand and Natia switched on the portable workstation inside and the series of powerful light beacons that ringed the square to facilitate landings. It didn’t take long before people started appearing at the windows and balconies of the buildings surrounding the square: even at night, a ship’s landing always attracted a number of fascinated onlookers, especially children. Fernand didn’t mind that, as long as a crowd didn’t start a stampede in the middle of the landing area. This coming landing was probably going to cause some sensation: apart of being bigger and much slicker-looking than the HERMES or the light shuttlecraft that had landed here up to now, the BABYLON bore a name that had a powerful resonance in the history of the Jewish people, Babylon being where the population of ancient Jerusalem had been deported to in the sixth century B.C.E. after the destruction of their city and of their sacred temple.
Being probably aware of that historical fact, Amelia Earhart piloted the BABYLON
to a smooth landing five minutes later with all the ship’s navigational lights on. Fernand, watching from the periphery of the landing zone, thought about the irony that Amelia had actually been a Babylonian woman in one of her past incarnations. The big rear access ramp lowered open soon after landing, letting out first a group of nine people, all carrying a kit bag and with six of them each carrying as well a portable workstation. Fernand and Natia met the group at the foot of the access ramp and were not a little surprised by its composition. Jan Bella actually led the group, followed by Dina Mishtar, Lynda Crawford, Indira Saduranidrasekar, Misha Godunov, Gunther Braunig and Miriam of Magdala. At the end of the line were Baran Mishtar and Carolyn Anderson, both thirteen years old and wearing proudly their uniforms of cadets of the Time Patrol. Fernand was grinning as he shook hands with Jan Bella.
“I have to say that I wasn’t expecting top-flight scientists, a mother and a couple of cadets for this job, Doctor Bella. I have to warn you that the living conditions here are quite Spartan.”
“That’s alright with me.” Replied jovially the Chief Historian of the Time Patrol.
“It will give me a chance to see firsthand another historical event. By the way, Miss Lori 738
Kano is also with us. She will come down from the bridge in a few minutes, when she will be finished recording the ongoing operations in Auschwitz-Birkenau. But let’s get out of the way now, before the robotic forklifts trample us with their loads.”
As they moved off to one side of the access ramp, Fernand approached Miriam of Magdala and discreetly spoke to her.
“Why did you come here, Miriam? You should have stayed at our secret base to care for your infant son.”
The young Galilean woman, dressed in a traditional first century Jewish robe, looked gravely at him.
“How could I stay in our base and not help when my people is suffering so much here? Besides, Margaret MacDonald is taking good care of David and of little Steve Crawford.”
“As you wish, Miriam. I will show you and the others your accommodations once we have received the camp survivors. In the meantime, you can assist Natia with the distribution of the food supplies.”
“That will be most satisfactory, Fernand.”
They then moved further away, as the first heavy robotic forklift went down the ramp with a fifty-foot container in its grip. Going to the landing area’s reception shelter, Fernand then held a quick meeting with Jan Bella and Natia Mindicor. Jan first handed a data chip to Natia, who was the official supply officer for the Warsaw outpost.
“Here is the electronic manifest of the content of the eighteen containers of supplies you will receive now.”
“Eighteen containers? Wow! Mister Kern really worked his butt off on this one.”
“Actually, those containers were loaded directly in New Lake City, Natia: those supplies are a humanitarian donation from the Global Council. It seems that Tomi Kern, Boran’s wife, is playing all the right political tunes there. We were promised more supplies in the near future. The people in New Lake City were careful in their choice of foodstuff, so you won’t end up with the embarrassment of giving away pork products to starving Jewish camp survivors. One of the containers is full of wool blankets, while another one contains medical supplies and baby food. Also, you have two refrigerated containers for dairy and meat products. Doctor Keiko Miramoto has already gone through the manifest and has made a suggested list of items for individual food parcels.
A pallet that will be unloaded last has boxes full of heavy-duty plastic bags of various sizes that you will be able to use to make the individual parcels.”
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“Then, I better get busy. Can I use some people of your group to help me prepare the parcels?”
“Sure! We are here to help, after all. Take Miriam, Baran and Carolyn.”
As Natia walked away, Jan turned to face Fernand.
“Since you head the operation in Warsaw, I might as well give you some extra information. If you follow the suggested parcel list made by Doctor Miramoto, you should have enough supplies to feed well over 550,000 persons for a day. When I mean well, I mean as per Global Council standards.”
“Which are positively luxurious by local standards. We will make a lot of happy people today.”
“That is the plan, Fernand. On another matter, Farah Tolkonen is getting worried about the psychological impact of Operation MERCY on our members, especially on the field agents doing the actual camp cleanup work. They have been seeing unspeakable horrors for hours now and some are starting to show signs of mental distress. Frankly, I can’t blame them one bit: I personally could not have stomached even a bit of what they had to go through up to now, and they still have a lot of work ahead of them. That was one of the reasons why Farah allowed Lynda Crawford to come here, so that Jack can have the support of his wife when he returns here from his mission.”
“That will be very appreciated, Jan.” Said somberly Fernand. “In all honesty, I don’t think that I will be the same man after this. I never thought that some people would be capable of the level of cruelty I have witnessed here against the Jews of the Ghetto.
How are our German field agents reacting to these horrors?”
Jan gave him a nearly despondent look at that question.
“Fernand, you know as well as me how good and decent our German agents are.
Seeing the pain and shame they feel towards the Nazi atrocities is nearly painful to me.
Some, like Otto Skorzeni and Hanna Reitsch, are now going through a deep identity crisis and will need some time to psychologically recover from this ordeal. Otto in particular is concerning Farah: he is now a man full of rage and hatred. There is also another serious case for concern: Nancy.”
“How so?” Asked Fernand, frankly surprised. “Nancy is mentally about the strongest person I have ever known.”
“But she is also a telepath. What the others only see, she can also feel in her head. Can you imagine what it is like to hear the mental screams for help of tens of thousands of men, women and children. Farah is afraid that Nancy could be dodged by 740
nightmares for a long time after this operation. Our field agents will definitely need a good period of rest and rehabilitation once this is over.”
As both stood silent, reflecting on this, Lori Kano showed up in the tent. Dressed in a gray Time Patrol uniform and wearing body armor, she had her GNN head-mounted camera and microphone unit fixed to her Time Patrol helmet. Fernand couldn’t help notice how the normally jovial reporter now looked tired and nearly depressed. She was obviously as much affected by the latest events as the members of the Time Patrol were. She did manage a polite smile to Fernand.
“Hello, Mister Brunet. How are things going in Warsaw?”
“Much better now than a few days ago, Miss Kano. Did you cover our operations at one of the German camps?”
Any pretense at smiling then faded from her smooth face.
“Yes, I did. I spent one hour in Ravensbrück, which was probably the longest hour of my life. I don’t know if I will release my footage from that camp to GNN: some of the scenes would be simply intolerable to Global Council viewers.”
“Then, reserve that footage for the members of the High Council, so they can see the kind of criminals we in the Time Patrol are. I bet that some of these assholes will object to us taking justice into our hands.”
“You would probably win your bet, mister. Are we expecting some of the local community leaders here tonight?”
“We are expecting both Jewish and Polish representatives soon. Ah, talking of the devil, here is Mister Emanuel Ringelblum, one of the leaders of the Ghetto community, along with Rabbi Shimon Huberband.”
The two Polish Jews hesitated at the sight of Jan Bella and Lori Kano, with Huberband looking questioningly at Fernand.
“I hope that we are not interrupting some sort of meeting, Mister Brunet?” He asked in Yiddish. Fernand shook his head.
“Not at all, Rabbi. Does your friend speak English, French or German? I am afraid that my two friends here do not speak either Yiddish or Polish.”
“I do speak a fair French, Mister Brunet.” Answered Emanuel Ringelblum, a man in his early forties with a clean-shaven face. “May I say that your spaceship is quite impressive? It also has an interesting choice of name, especially for a historian like me.”
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“You are a historian?” Said Jan Bella, his face lighting up while he presented one hand. “Then we will have to have some serious conversation after this. I am Jan Bella, Chief Historian of the Time Patrol.”
A spark of interest appeared in Ringelblum’s eyes.
“A fellow historian, from the future? I will gladly spend a few evenings talking with you. First, though, we have to discuss how to welcome our unfortunate compatriots.”
“You are right, Mister Ringelblum. May I present you Miss Lori Kano, reporter at Global News Network, who came from the year 3386 to cover the events of this war?”
Both Jews looked up with admiration at the beautiful giant, with Ringelblum shaking hands with her.
“A reporter from the future? We will…”
An angry exchange of words in Polish just outside the tent then cut him off, making Fernand Brunet run outside. What he found was Zivia Lubetkin and Mordecai Anielewicz, armed with rifles pointed at three men, one of which was General Grot-Rowecki, of the Polish Home Army.
“Everyone will calm down, now! Zivia, Mordecai, lower your rifles immediately before I stun you both.”
The two Jewish fighters, still looking angrily at the Poles, lowered their weapons after a short hesitation. To play it safe, Fernand interposed himself, staring down severely at Zivia.
“I invited General Grot-Rowecki to come here. Why did you threaten him?”
“Because he has no business here.” Replied Zivia, clearly unrepentant. “The Home Army never did a thing for us. Yet, they show up the minute we have something they can steal.”
“As I said, they are here on my invitation. Many of the survivors that will be returned here from Nazi camps are catholic Poles and I asked General Grot-Rowecki for assistance into taking charge and caring for those survivors. Besides, all of Warsaw is open to all of the Poles now, Catholics and Jews alike. If the General wishes to visit the Ghetto, then he is entirely in his right to do so.”
“That’s fine in theory, Mister Brunet,” replied Zivia, “but they don’t put it in practice themselves. Nearly all of our people who tried to return to the apartments or houses they owned before being forced by the Germans to move to the Ghetto were turned back by the Poles who now occupy them.”
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Fernand, not liking this piece of news one bit, looked at Grot-Rowecki questioningly.
“Would you know something about this, General?”
The Polish general sighed in exasperation before answering him.
“It is true that many Poles refused to give back apartments and houses to Jews who previously lived there, but those Poles paid to live there. There is still a severe shortage of accommodations in Warsaw and there was no sense in leaving thousands of flats empty. So our people applied to the municipal authorities to occupy them and paid a substantial rent or even bought them outright in order to live in them. Now, they are asked to vacate them without any compensation and without alternate accommodations being available. Can you blame them for refusing to move out? Besides, many of the houses of the Ghetto belonged to catholic Poles before the Germans started cramming the Jews in here. When will those Poles get their houses back?”
“You think that this was our choice?” Cut in Mordecai Anielewicz. “We…”