09:51 (Berlin Time)
Thursday, June 26, 1941 ‘B’
Tempelhof military hospital
Berlin, Germany
Farah Tolkonen emerged slowly from her sleep to find an ancestor woman sitting by the side of her bed and watching her. By the dryness of her throat and the difficulty she felt in concentrating, Farah understood that she had been given pain-killing drugs. She didn’t like the idea much, as such drugs were not used any more in the 34th century due to their habit-forming effects. She had to get access to her own medical kit. A wave of searing pain went through her body when she tried to move, making her cry out in pain. The ancestor woman held her down gently, concern on her young face.
“Please stay still, miss.” Said the nurse in German. “Your wounds will be quite painful for a while. Do you want more morphine?”
“NO!” Shouted Farah, surprising the nurse. “I don’t want your primitive drugs. Let me have my own medical kit instead.”
“Are you a doctor, miss?”
“Yes! My kit contains very advanced medical equipment. I will need it if Nancy Laplante is to be saved at all.”
The nurse straightened up, clearly offended.
“Miss, we have the best doctors of the Luftwaffe here. We will be able to care for your friend.”
“You people don’t even know about antibiotics yet. If I am not allowed to treat her, she will soon die of a generalized infection. Where is Nancy Laplante now?”
The nurse hesitated for a moment before answering in a subdued voice.
“She is due to be operated on soon. Her breasts were beaten and burned so badly that they have to be amputated.”
“NOOO! Cancel that operation immediately! I want to see the chief-surgeon right now!”
“Calm down, miss! Colonel Mandell is very busy right now and you…”
“GET HIM NOW! YOU ARE GOING TO MUTILATE NANCY LAPLANTE UNNECESSARILY!”
“How could you pretend to do better than us?” Replied the nurse, now angry. Farah herself then became angry, maybe for the first time in her life.
“BECAUSE I’M A DOCTOR FROM THE 34th CENTURY, YOU IDIOT! I MIGHT AS WELL BE IN THE STONE AGE AS FAR AS YOUR SO-CALLED MEDICAL SCIENCE IS CONCERNED. GET ME YOUR COLONEL MANDELL, IMMEDIATELY!”
Badly shaken, the nurse got up from her chair and went to the door of the small room, knocking on the door. An armed Luftwaffe soldier answered her and spoke briefly with the nurse before letting her out and closing the door behind her. Farah heard the noise of a door bolt being pushed as she slowly, painfully sat up in her bed, which was too short by a good foot for her. The whip marks and the electrical burns to her breasts were causing her intolerable pain, yet what she had endured was nothing compared to Laplante’s ordeal. And all this had been started by two scientists from the Global Council.
Farah was still bitterly thinking over that fact when the door of her room opened and the nurse came back in with two men. One wore a white overcoat over a military uniform, had a stethoscope around his neck and had graying short hair. The other man was much younger and looked athletic. The open jacket of his gray suit let Farah see a holstered pistol for a moment. The older man spoke first.
“Miss, I’m Colonel Reinhardt Mandell, Chief-Surgeon of this hospital. I am told that you are a doctor yourself?”
“Yes I am, Colonel. You must cancel the operation on Nancy Laplante and let me treat her right away with my own medical kit.”
“What tells us that you won’t use your equipment to escape, Doctor?” Asked the younger man, suspicious. Farah gave him a poisoned look.
“Escape? How? Have you seen what you barbarians did to me and Nancy?”
“She’s right, Herr Braun.” Cut in the chief-surgeon. “Brigadier Laplante is in no state to go anywhere right now. In fact, she may very well die if we don’t do something soon for her.”
“Please, let me have my medical equipment so that I can help her.” Implored Farah, close to tears. Braun thought for a second, then left the room to speak to one of the soldiers on guard. He then came back and fixed Farah, his face hard.
“A guard will bring the belongings of both of you here. I will however have to vet any equipment you wish to take before it is given to you. If you try to trick us, you will be separated from Laplante for good. Do you understand me?”
“Yes!” Replied Farah weakly, lowering her eyes under his intense gaze. This situation was well beyond anything she had experienced before in her life. Braun was not finished, however.
“While we wait for your equipment, Doctor, I have a few questions for you. First off…”
“Before you go on, Herr Braun, I want Nancy Laplante brought here immediately, so that I can treat her without delay. If you don’t do that, then forget your questions.”
Taken aback for a moment by Farah’s sudden combativeness, Braun then nodded to Colonel Mandell, who in turn sent away his nurse with orders to bring in Laplante.
“Happy now, Doctor?” Said Braun in a cold voice. “Do understand one thing, miss: I am from the Abwehr, not the Gestapo, but I still place the interests of Germany first. As a spy and suspected saboteur, you still are liable to the firing squad. If you do not cooperate fully…”
“B… but I’m a doctor! I am incapable of violence. My society hasn’t known war for over 500 years.”
“You still broke into a German jail to try freeing the person widely considered to be Germany’s most dangerous enemy, miss.”
“But Nancy is not an enemy of the Germans per say. She has always treated German prisoners the best she could. She even served alongside a German Army unit in the year 2004.”
That seemed to shock the two Germans present to no small degree. Farah then pushed that little gain for all its worth.
“Look at what happened since she appeared in September of 1940: within two months after her arrival, the British stopped bombing indiscriminately your cities. Why? Because she convinced the british Prime Minister to stop such bombings.”
“For the good it did us.” Replied Braun sharply. “The new British weapons she helped introduce are destroying systematically our war industries.”
“So, they now target machines instead of people. I can live with that. Nancy Laplante is not a butcher or a sadist, contrary to some of your leaders.”
“Watch what you say, miss, or…”
“Or you will torture me and Nancy again? Don’t you have any shred of human decency left in you?”
Farah, at the end of her nervous resistance, then started crying, still sitting on her bed and wearing a hospital gown too short for her 220 centimeter-long body. Braun watched her in silence for a moment, unsure how to react. That was when Nancy Laplante was rolled in on a gurney. Still in a semi-comatose state and with most of her body covered by a linen sheet, it was still plainly obvious that she was in constant, severe pain, with her teeth clenched together and her body shaking constantly. Mandell looked at Farah apologetically.
“We already gave her as much morphine as we dared. More could kill her.”
Farah, fighting off her own pain, stepped slowly out of bed and laboriously walked to Nancy’s gurney. Tears came back to her eyes as she gently caressed the Canadian’s hair.
“Please forgive my people for dropping you into this hell, Nancy.”
Nancy responded by slowly moving her right arm to touch Farah’s face with her bandaged hand, while looking at her with her one good eye.
“Not... your fault… friend.”
Those words and the touch of Nancy’s hand gave back some courage to Farah, who glared at Braun.
“Where is my medical equipment? Has your guard stopped for a lunch break or what?”
Sighing in exasperation, the Abwehr agent left the room, locking the door behind him. He was back two minutes later with the Luftwaffe guard, whose hands were full with a cardboard box and Farah’s medical kit. The guard put both the box and the kit on the bed and left. Farah was eagerly reaching for her kit when the noise of Braun’s pistol being cocked froze her.
“Remember, miss: no tricks!”
Moving in slow, deliberate gestures, Farah opened her medical kit and took out two headbands with circuitry attached to them. Putting one around Nancy’s head, she then pushed a switch on it. The Canadian immediately sighed with relief, her body relaxing all of a sudden.
“These headbands are pain inhibitors. They block the pain messages from nerve endings from being registered by the brain. You won’t need to administer drugs to her anymore, but that headband is not to be removed for any reason until I say so: taking it off could kill her from the pain backwash.”
Farah then put on a headband herself and activated it. Sighing with relief, she then searched in the cardboard box and took out of it a hand-held instrument and what looked like a big wristwatch.
“These are a medical scanner and a data storage unit. I will now examine Nancy.”
Strapping first the so-called data storage unit to her left wrist, Farah then pulled away the linen sheet covering Nancy’s body and approached the medical scanner to inches of Nancy’s swollen, mutilated breasts, hoping all along that Braun would not be too insistent on inspecting her equipment. The unit now strapped to her wrist was in reality a portable time distorter, which permitted her to effect short space-time jumps. Nancy was however in no shape right now to escape with her. Farah had to heal her first before they could think about leaving. Switching her scanner to thermal mode, Farah swept it slowly around Nancy’s breasts first, then the rest of her body, while explaining her actions to the fascinated Germans.
“My scanner is now on thermal vision mode and gives me a view of Nancy’s internal temperature zones. Blue zones are coolest and red zones warmest. It is evident that much of her breast tissues are dying due to extensive blood cloths and electrical burns. The same applies to her genitals and most of her skin surface. There is also a large blood cloth blocking partially her left femoral artery. I am now switching to echo-sounding mode to check for fractures.”
Starting her scan at Nancy’s head, Farah quickly found something and pointed it on the scanners screen to Colonel Mandell.
“There is a fracture line along her right cheekbone, around the eye lobe. She also lost three teeth, with a fourth one loose.”
“This scanner of yours is incredible.” Marveled Mandell. “I wish that we could have such equipment.”
“Forget it, Colonel: your science is not advanced enough to even understand this equipment if dismantled for examination.”
Going down along Nancy’s legs, Farah swore as she scanned her feet.
“The bones in her toes are all smashed to bits. What the hell did they do to her?”
“An old Gestapo technique, Doctor.” Explained Braun in a subdued voice. “After pulling the toenails out, they smash the toes one by one with a hammer: an excruciatingly painful treatment but a generally effective one.”
That earned him a murderous look from Farah.
“You barbarians! How dare you call yourselves civilized people?”
“Miss, don’t confuse the Gestapo with the average German people.”
“Oh? What about the hundreds of thousands prisoners being beaten and starved to death right now in your concentration camps? What about the six million Jews and Gypsies that will be exterminated in specialized German death camps during this war? I bet that you will plead ignorance or obedience to orders, like your leaders will do at the end of this war. Forget it anyway: I have more urgent things to do than to discuss your personal guilt in those atrocities.”
Still furious and ignoring Braun from then on, Farah took out of her kit a small gray box and a flat case. Opening the case, she revealed a display screen and a control keyboard. Next, she took out of the box what looked like a syringe and carefully inserted its large needle in the femoral artery of Nancy’s left leg.
“For those of you who care, I’m going to remove that large blood cloth before it travels to Nancy’s heart or brain.”
The Abwehr man, thoroughly shamed by now, left the room with his head bowed low. Now more relaxed, Farah started punching directives on her control keyboard as Mandell and his nurse watched her intensely.
“How are you going to proceed, Doctor Tolkonen?”
“I will destroy that blood cloth from within, using a microscopic probe that I am about to inject in the femoral artery.”
Mandell looked closely at the syringe and shook his head.
“But I see only a clear liquid inside that syringe.”
“That’s because the probe is only a few microns in diameter. You would need a microscope to see it.”
“Microns?” Said Mandell, overwhelmed.
“Yes, Colonel. Watch this display screen now: it will show what the probe’s camera will transmit.”
“That thing has a camera? Mein Gott!”
Pushing a button, Farah sent the nanoprobe on its preprogrammed mission. She, Mandell and the nurse soon were watching a view from inside Nancy’s artery as the nanoprobe traveled towards the blood cloth. The latter soon became plainly visible on the display screen. Hugging it, the nanoprobe quickly started destroying it methodically.
“My probe is now using a special solvent to dissolve the blood cloth. While it is working, I will start another part of Nancy’s treatment.”
Farah took out of her kit a hypodermic injector and a small bottle full of clear liquid, plugging the bottle in the base of the injector. After setting the shot dosage on her injector, Farah made a number of quick injections into Nancy’s breasts, face, genitals and toes.
“What I just injected is a mixture of two products: one will dissolve and wash away the dead tissues inside her body; the other will stimulate and accelerate the regeneration of body cells. As for her external wounds, I will use a dermal regeneration unit.”
Farah took out yet another instrument that looked like a small flashlight and, activating it, started slowly playing its yellow beam of light from up close on Nancy’s whip marks and burns.
“Watch carefully how I do this, Colonel: you will have to do it on me afterwards, when I’m finished with Nancy.”
Farah had to work for nearly an hour on Nancy, so extensive were the Canadian’s wounds. Finally satisfied that she had done all she could for her for the moment, Farah then gave her dermal regenerator to Mandell and took off her hospital gown, standing naked in front of the German doctor.
“Your turn to get to work, Doctor.”
Mandell spent a good twenty minutes treating Farah. Finished with his task, he looked at Nancy Laplante and nearly jumped back.
“Mein Gott! Much of her facial swelling is gone already. I also see some pink back in her toes. This is a miracle.”
“No, it is 34th century medical science for you, Colonel.” Replied calmly Farah while putting on her 34th century clothes that had been in the cardboard box brought in earlier by the guard. Putting on last her boots, she went back to Nancy’s side to inspect her progress. Her eyes still unfocused due to the morphine still inside her body, the Canadian smiled weakly to Farah while taking hold of her right hand.
“Thanks, Farah. You will be my friend forever.”
“And you will always have my most sincere admiration: you are the bravest woman I ever met.”
“I could point a few others to you. You wouldn’t have some sort of contraceptive in your kit, by chance? The SS guards gang-raped me in my cell.”
That brought tears back to Farah’s eyes. Going back to her medical kit, she took out of it a small aerosol can and held it in front of Nancy’s mouth.
“Open wide, Nancy.”
Farah then let go a short spray inside Nancy’s open mouth.
“There! Don’t worry anymore about having an unwanted baby from one of those monsters. Is there anything else I can do for you?”
“Yes!” Replied Nancy, switching to French. “Get both of us out of here as soon as possible if you still can.”
Farah lowered her voice and also switched to French.
“I am afraid that is not possible anymore: I ordered my ship back while they tortured me, since I was afraid of breaking under the pain. I however still have a way to get us to England. We will go in a few days, when you will be able to walk.”
“With my smashed toes?”
“They will be mostly healed by then. Have faith.”
“Then, I guess that I will have to fake it out for a few days.”
“A good idea. Now, rest. You need to get rid of all those drugs in your body.”
The Abwehr agent then came back in the room. He went to Mandell and was about to say something to him when his eyes fell on Nancy. Utter surprise on his face, Braun ran to her and looked closely at her face. He then pulled away the linen sheet covering her and contemplated her half healed wounds.
“But… this is impossible! How did you do this, Doctor Tolkonen?”
“You want a five minute résumé on 34th century medical science, mister? You should have stayed during the class. You will however have another shot at watching me: I intend to treat the patients of this hospital afterwards.”
“You what?”
“You heard me well, Herr Braun. I am ready to help your wounded as well.”
“Please, Herr Braun!” Said Mandell. “We have dying patients that Doctor Tolkonen could save. Let her help them.”
Visibly moved, Braun’s expression softened.
“I sincerely appreciate this, miss, but it will have to wait: an important visitor is about to arrive to see both of you.”
“Could I have my clothes, then?” Asked weakly Nancy from her gurney. “If that visitor is the one I think, then I want him to see me as Brigadier Laplante, of the Canadian Army.”
“That is a legitimate enough request, Colonel.” Agreed Braun. “You are a prisoner of war and this is a basic right. Are you well enough to put on your uniform, though?”
“Except for my shoes and socks, yes.”
Braun then went to the cardboard box on the bed and took out the pieces of Nancy’s uniform, handing them to Farah.
“Here! I will leave now so that Brigadier Laplante can have some privacy while dressing.”
“You already saw me naked, Mister.” Cut in Nancy. “You might as well show your muscles to Farah by helping her to dress me up. I will need a wheelchair, though.”
“I will get one.” Volunteered the German nurse, leaving the room at a quick walk. Braun, a bit embarrassed at first, helped turn and move Nancy around as Farah dressed her up. Nancy was nearly dressed when the nurse came back, pushing a wheelchair. Braun then gently picked up Nancy in his arms and sat her in the wheelchair. As she had suspected, Nancy could not put on her socks or shoes without deforming her healing toes permanently. The nurse put Nancy’s shoes and socks in her lap instead, then covered her legs and feet with a blanket. Last, Farah adjusted Nancy’s green beret on her head, covering as much as possible the pain inhibitor band.
“Remember, Nancy: do not take off your pain inhibitor for any reason for at least another week, or it could kill you. Another thing: you will need one daily injection of my regenerative solution for the next three days if you are to recover to any fair degree from your wounds.”
“What if we get separated or your medical kit is taken away?” Asked Nancy, apprehensive. The German nurse found the solution to that.
“I could get a syringe set for Colonel Laplante to use. She could then keep her needed drugs on herself.”
“Good idea, Nurse Stauberger.” Replied Mandell. “I will sign a medical ordnance authorizing her medication. I doubt that anybody will countermand that.”
“Perfect!” Said Farah, delighted. “Let’s do it!”
Five minutes later, Nancy had in a pocket of her uniform a small case containing four syringes already filled with daily doses of Farah’s regenerative solution. The giant gave her as well a dozen large medical patches wrapped in sterile plastic packaging.
“These patches are soaked with regenerative cream and are meant to heal third degree burns. They are self-adhesive. You will need them to regrow your nipples.”
Nancy barely had time to pocket the patches before the sound of boots came from the hallway. Farah retreated behind Nancy’s wheelchair, fear overtaking her, as four big SS soldiers armed with submachine guns entered the room, weapons at the ready. Two of them immediately took position behind and on each side of Nancy and Farah, while the two others faced them with stony looks, fingers on the triggers of their weapons. Adolph Hitler was next to enter the small room, half a dozen high-ranking Nazi officials behind him. As the Germans present gave the Nazi salute to Hitler, Nancy’s eyes zeroed in on a tall, handsome SS officer close behind the Fuhrer.
“Heidrich!” She said in a low voice full of hatred. The man was both dangerous and ruthless, apart from being highly intelligent and ambitious. Most Nazi officials justly feared the head of security of the SS Corps. Reinhardt Heidrich, as well as Hitler and the others, heard Nancy and glared back at her as Hitler looked on in apparent amusement.
“It seems that Die Wolfin doesn’t like you, my dear Heidrich.”
“Why did we spare her, Mein Fuhrer? She has too many important secrets to tell for us to show manners with her.”
“I decided so because she showed mercy to our own people, Heidrich. I will not go back over this.”
Hitler’s final tone made Heidrich snap to attention.
“Yes, Mein Führer!”
Hitler then looked up and down Farah with intense curiosity.
“So, this is what women will look like in the future. Are men also bald in your time, miss?”
“Everyone in the 34th century is bald and has six fingers per hand, sir.”
Farah’s polite answer got her an angry correction from one of the SS guards.
“You will call him Fuhrer, not sir!”
“S… sorry, I didn’t know.” Pleaded Farah, shrinking from the SS soldier. That made Heidrich snort in disdain.
“Tall but cowardly. These future humans are clearly an inferior race.”
Nancy had to control herself in order not to shout at Heidrich.
“She is a pacifist and her people have not known war for centuries, yet she came unarmed and risked her life to try saving me. She is not a coward.”
Hitler contemplated Nancy for a moment, thoughtful.
“Like a true she-wolf: dangerous, cunning, yet protective. You have a lot to be admired for, Brigadier Laplante, starting with your consideration towards the safety of German civilians and your scrupulous treatment of German prisoners of war. You will be treated as a genuine prisoner of war, but you are however too dangerous to be sent to a normal prisoner of war camp. I have thus ordered that you be transferred immediately to Oflag {19}IV-C, in Colditz Castle, where you will be kept in solitary confinement for the rest of the war.”
Nancy couldn’t help feel despair then: Colditz Castle was a forbidding castle fortress in Saxony reserved for prisoners deemed too high risk for other camps. The prospect of spending years in solitary confinement there would be daunting even to the toughest persons. Farah reacted with dismay and horror to Hitler’s announcement.
“But… long term solitary confinement could drive her mad.”
“I am sure that Die Wolfin can stand up to that trial, miss. You should worry more about your own faith, as you don’t benefit from the status of legitimate prisoner of war.”
Nancy’s face hardened at those words.
“Reich Fuhrer, my friend is a doctor and a pacifist: she knows nothing about war or advanced weapons and can’t possibly help you in those matters. If you want her help, then let her treat the patients of this hospital with her advanced medical knowledge and equipment.”
That made Hitler pause a moment before glancing at Heidrich, who shook his head.
“She can’t be seen in public, Mein Fuhrer: the British must not learn about her. What we need from her is her time machine. With it, we could procure advanced weapons in the future and win this war, which our good Brigadier Laplante has tipped so heavily in the British’s favor.”
All eyes then went to Farah, who realized that she was now backed up in a corner from which she could not escape anymore. Terrified of what would happen to her next, she slowly collapsed to her knees, sobs raking her.
“Do what you want with me, Reich Fuhrer: my ship is no longer in this century. It went back on a preprogrammed return trip to the 34th century while I was being tortured.”
Hitler glared at her, with Heidrich turning to face the Fuhrer.
“Let me punish her properly, Mein Fuhrer. She must learn who to obey now.”
“YOU DAMN SADIST, HEIDRICH!” Shouted Nancy angrily from her wheelchair. “Reich Fuhrer, don’t listen to him! Let my friend stay here, where she can do the most good. This is a Luftwaffe hospital after all: you give the order and nobody here will divulge my friend’s presence.”
Furious, Heidrich went to Nancy and slapped her hard.
“SILENCE! How dare you give advice to the Reich Fuhrer?”
“HEIDRICH!” Snapped Hitler harshly, making the SS officer turn and snap to attention, a surprised expression on his face.
“But… Mein Führer…”
“Enough! Her suggestion actually makes sense. Many of our best pilots are here and could use her expertise. As for the loyalty of the Luftwaffe, it is certainly less questionable than that of the Gestapo, which openly defied one of my directives.”
Field Marshal Milch, head of the Luftwaffe, then cut in politely.
“Mein Fuhrer, I agree with Brigadier Laplante’s idea. We are critically short of experienced aircrews and this woman could help my men here. Torturing one more woman will help neither Germany nor my wounded pilots.”
“Then it will be done.” Said Hitler with finality. “Doctor Tolkonen will stay here under strict guard. Milch, make sure that no one speaks about her outside of this hospital. You will also take care of transferring Brigadier Laplante to Colditz immediately under Luftwaffe escort.”
“Yes, Mein Führer!” Said Milch, pleased. As he was calling in two Luftwaffe soldiers, Nancy noticed that Heidrich was starting to eye suspiciously the pain inhibitor around her head, which was only half hidden by her beret. Deciding to preempt him and maybe gain something in exchange, Nancy touched Farah’s shoulder while taking off her beret and speaking in German so that Hitler could understand her.
“Farah, if you are going to help the wounded here, you will need this.”
“NO! The pain surge could kill you.”
“I will survive it, Farah. Take the inhibitor and make the best use of it.”
Understanding that Nancy was giving her an extra excuse to stay in the hospital and away from Heidrich, Farah looked tearfully into the Canadian’s eyes while taking hold of the pain inhibitor.
“Brace yourself: this will feel like agony.”
She then switched off the headband. Nancy’s eyes immediately closed, while her body arched out of the wheelchair from the jolt of pain. The two Luftwaffe soldiers called in by Milch hurried forward as a frantic Farah lay Nancy down on the floor. The giant checked her pulse, but found none.
“SHE’S IN CARDIAC ARREST! NURSE, MY KIT, NOW!”
The German nurse thankfully reacted quickly and grabbed Farah’s medical kit, putting it down on the floor besides her. Farah then opened a panel on one side of her kit and grabbed two defibrillator electrode handles. Flipping on the defibrillator unit’s power switch, she quickly opened Nancy’s jacket and shirt, then grabbed back the electrode handles and approached them from Nancy’s chest.
“STAND BACK!”
She then applied the electrodes and fired the pulse. Nancy’s body arched up under the jolt of electricity. Hitler watched on, confused, as Farah checked again for a pulse.
“What is going on? What is she doing?”
Mandell answered him at the same time as he was kneeling besides Nancy to help Farah.
“Laplante’s heart has stopped, Mein Fuhrer. Doctor Tolkonen is trying to revive her.”
The German doctor then checked Nancy’s pulse as Farah performed artificial respiration on the Canadian.
“Her heart is still stopped. She is dead, Doctor Tolkonen.”
“Not yet! Stand back!”
Farah then administered another defibrillator jolt. As soon as her body fell back flat on the floor, Nancy’s mouth and eyes opened wide and she sucked in a deep breath, causing Farah to shout in triumph.