This is a story I created once for a contest in a Sci-Fi magazine. I'm not even sure if I ever sent it in to be judged. I also thought about editing it prior to posting it here for you to read. However, I felt it had remained unchanged since 1989, and therefore it will remain the same here - unchanged from its first "final" form.
I hope you enjoy reading this tribute to Rod Serling.
Avalon Centre - November 9th 2138 AD
The mere mention of the name Adolph Hitler can send shivers up the spine of most moral people. Many people, over six million mercilessly silenced by his rule of law alone, would have wish that he had never have obtained power - much less existed at all. Worldwide many evils have continued to be propagated by people following his twisted philosophies. Even after two hundred years we are still dealing with the likes of the Autklarungskommandos (Enlightenment Commandos) who’s most recent movements are with the ‘Echt Volkischer Reich’ or the ‘true peoples empire’ political party. A minor political party at best but they are still propagating the hate-filled philosophy of Hitler. These people are basically just the next evolution of “Neo-Nazis” who surfaced shortly after the close of World War Two. Many moral activists would have history changed by simply removing this blight from the timeline. The consequences of changing history though can have far reaching ramifications. And as I have been repeatedly told by my managers “History can prove more difficult to change than one person might dare to think!”
Time travel was perfected by the British MI6 agency – the governments ‘secret service’ - in the middle of the 21st century. This technology was not revealed to anyone outside the agency until the year 2095 AD. The use of this technology was kept isolated to only very important events in history or to recover ‘lost’ artifacts. Only in rare cases was it determined that some small alterations could be made to history without actually affecting the future, or more appropriately, the present. But these were extraordinary cases demanding only a limited influence to the future. Most time travel was launched for the sole purpose of retrieving ‘misplaced artifacts’ or simple observation of historical events.
Observation became the most valuable implementation of time travel due to the revelation on true history as opposed to what we thought we knew. These excursions also had the least effect on the timeline and so where considered safe. These trips are very secretive and almost never fully revealed to the general public. One very important fact that had altered our perception was the events of the Camelot kingdom of King Arthur. Always thought of as simple mythos and imaginations it was found that the Pendragon crown was real (and Merlin as it turned was one of our agents!) this action did change the future of the British Isles. At present we are digging at the location where the Camelot castle did at one time stand. The revealing of this find was portrayed as a simple archaeological discovery and didn’t expose the time travel role in its discovery.
Our agents have observed other important moments in history but their reports and the details of these visits have never been fully released. Events like the birth of Jesus Christ or Moses freeing his people and crossing the Red Sea, or the E.L.E. (extinction level event) that wiped out the dinosaurs. No facts from these excursions have yet to be released to change any modern theory on these subjects. Other events like the assassination of the American President of the 20th century, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, did change our perspectives of the event - but not the results! People still believe that the government was responsible in some sort of conspiracy against the president. To date however not many trips back in time have been made as of yet. Simply because the emotional effect of the truth on the human psyche can be, at times, severe.
The items we retrieve are deemed to be lost to humanity and therefore would not affect the timeline. These items would be works of art and literature or significant items of history. The historical and scientific books of Ptolemey, Homer and Aristotle lost in the Alexandria library fire caused by the invading Romans was the most rewarding acquisition to date. Their vision of the world around them and its history has truly revealed a new light for us about their time. Avalon also made a series of launches to the 1500’s to secure some magnificent lost items. The fabled golden Sun Calendar of the Inca’s that disappeared during the Spanish invasion. The immaculate bronze armor of the Shogunate Shingen Takeda of feudal Japan that was lost during a power struggle. And the jewel encrusted Royal Calash (elephant carriage) of the wife of Akbar, Mongol ruler of India, are valuable and interesting treasures - but virtually unrevealing to historical events. At best these items have revised our views about the technical ability of the artisans who lived during these times we’ve visited. All of the items we’ve retrieved were lost and never again seen by anyone - that is by anyone before the year 2055 AD.
MI6 first set up a secret agency called the ‘Avalon Centre’ to investigate the possibility of retrieving these items and the results on history. An unknown effect to future archaeological digs was determined insignificant compared to the immediate results of retrieval. Besides, like with Camelot, sometimes the trips back in time helped in defining the archaeological digs. Eventually the authority of the time travel device, called the Angel Gate, began to research the possibility of engineering the timeline itself. This caused a major catastrophe to occur that altered the timeline.
The catastrophe that occurred was caused by the prevention of the Hindenberg airship crash. In a test to define the effects of altering the timeline a time traveler set out to prevent the airship disaster. The resulting ‘small’ alteration to the timeline eventually resulted in Germany having the upper hand in World War Two. The Germany victory in Europe, and the eventual alliance with America, resulted in Germany inventing nuclear weapons first. The entire Earth was eventually conquered by the Nazi regime within a scant one hundred years. Within that time they completed their war of genocide and slaughtered over 100 million of the Hebrew faithful around the world. Over 2 billion people ended up serving the Nazi Reich as slaves. The inhuman treatment of people worldwide by the Nazi’s exceeded anything that happened within the six years during the Second World War. This event was reversed through a parallel time jump aimed at securing the Angel Gate technology with MI6 before the airship was saved – just in case of this kind of disaster occurred – and this proved to be the crucial decision. For it allowed MI6 to revert to a timeline of events that had originally occurred before the airship was saved. Unfortunately this revelation had to wait until the year 2055 AD. Which left the world under Nazi domination for just over one hundred years until MI6 was able to reverse this catastrophe.
The Avalon Centre decided that any further attempts to alter the timeline were far too dangerous. As a result of this failed attempt to alter the timeline a law of ‘non-intervention’ by the time travelers was established. This law was based on what became known as the Hindenberg Effect and was revered, almost religiously, by the agents of the Avalon Centre. Many events are still suspected by the representatives of some governments associated to the project as to whether this rule has truly been followed here in the Avalon Centre. The Centre created a security force that was authorized to insure, with any use of force, that this law was upheld.
Two programs were instituted by MI6 to operating the Angel Gate device. One was commissioned to either observe events and/or retrieve artifacts. The other was set up for ‘continuity’ of the timeline - to control the Hindenberg Effect. The latter were responsible for assuring that no alteration would occur in the known timeline. They would be called the ‘Avalon Program’ - we called them the ‘Angels of Avalon’. These agents would go back in time to set it straight, or to keep it straight may be a more appropriate statement. On several occasions these ‘Angels of Avalon’ would never returned to our time. These people were the true heroes of our day! They would sacrifice themselves knowing they would remain in historic time, or die in the past, controlling our futures. Unknown heroes living as historic persons and keeping the timeline as clean as possible. The need for the Avalon program was necessary because once the news of this device became known outside the agency many ‘activist’ wish to try and steer history for their own agendas. So these agents - these Angels of Avalon - were extensively trained, and sometimes surgically altered, to protect the timeline. They would be sent back and fulfill historical roles that did just that!
The former agency would oversee the ‘artifact acquisitions’ of historical items. We would be called the Excalibur program – named for the sword of King Arthur given to him by the Lady of the Lady. We were simply the Knights of Avalon – guardians and protectors of the historical truth. A visit to King Arthur in his era of power by one of our agents was one of the first trips made through the Angel Gate. The Excalibur Sword is now proudly displayed at the entrance of the Avalon Centre here in Heathrow England.
As the ‘constant’ time past here at Heathrow, Avalon eventually became the center of attention for many national governments. By 2112 AD these governments became united in their ‘activities’ to preserve continuity of the timeline. This led to a single world order, more or less, for some of the authorities around the world seemed to resist this New World Order. Still we’ve come very close to world peace for the first time in a violent history.
My name is Konrad Frost and I was a primary level acquisition agent and in charge of the German development team for Excalibur. The six-member team from Germany would determine what items were safe for retrieval. Most items of true value to our time period could not be taken without affecting the timeline. These items would mostly fall into a category like that of the Hope Diamond. Either altered from the original designed and/or secreted away for awhile until resurfacing. Nonetheless they would continue to be an integral part of our living history and therefore - untouchable. Occasionally Excalibur would retrieve an item of significance like Galileo’s documents of his discoveries. Supposedly the Church destroyed them after his conviction of heresy. The ‘father’ charged with that destruction was actually one of the Italian agents sent back to retrieve the papers. That was how we worked. We would go back in time as one of the key players – but somewhat unknown to history – and retrieve our target item. It was simple enough for acquisition and not very dangerous to the timeline.
My turn arrived to time travel by being sent back to retain a piece of ‘lost’ history. I was to return to Hitler’s Nazi Germany in 1938 to obtain a valuable artifact of the Hebrew religion. I was extensively trained in the specific history of the time and notable people to better fulfill my mission. I was to return as a Captain of the feared SS, a member of Hitler’s private army, just in case I was challenged by anyone I might meet. My target search would be for a document, an ancient Scroll of Law, first used in historic Jerusalem almost three thousand years before. It had been brought to Germany from the Holy Land in 1349 when the first synagogue stones were laid at Nuremberg. The ancient Torah was moved to the Great Synagogue in Berlin after it was constructed on Fasanenstrasse. The item was then lost in the riots and fires caused by the Nazis at the time of kristalnacht – the night of glass - when the Nazi SS would destroy many of the Jewish business, possessions and synagogues. So the Excalibur agency had decided that they would liberate this artifact before it would ever be lost in the flames of Kristalnacht.
Germany November 10th 1938
Kristalnacht
I arrived at 2:00 AM on November 10th 1938 at Fasanenstrasse in Berlin. Kristalnacht occurred on the 10-year anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch, Hitler’s first attempt to gain control of Germany, on November 9th in 1928. Hitler would end up in jail where he would write Mien Kampf. Other leaders would be jailed as well, except for Hermann Goering, who almost died from gun shot wounds and later fled the country, until he could return and assist Hitler in bringing the Nazi’s to power. A troubled Hebrew teenager in France, troubled by what was happening to his family in Germany, would shoot and kill a low-level third secretary of the German embassy. This event would ‘spark’ the riots that erupted across German on this important Nazi anniversary in 1938.
Upon my arrival in Berlin I was to find my way to the Great Synagogue and open the ark. The area covered by the shroud and known as the “Holy of Holies” and home to the Scroll of Law. On this night of chaos it should prove to be very simple to find my way through the city and enter the synagogue unchallenged. In fact entering the synagogue with my covert mission was not the problem I would face at all this night. The fire brigades had blockaded many of the streets to keep back any traffic and to protect any ‘non-Jewish’ buildings. All electric lines and gas mains to Jewish property had been cut and turned off. For a “spontaneous riot” it was very well organized here in Berlin.
I was dressed as an officer of the SS – the Storm Troopers – and would be expected to partake in the looting and destruction. All I had to do if I was confronted was to pretend as if I enjoyed the act of destroying icons of a people’s faith. Something I would find to be a very difficult part of my mission – but not the most difficult part!
As the chaos reigned through all of Germany this night my actions were of no direct consequence to anyone. The item of my search was known by most of the rabble causing the ruin to a proud and historically chronicled people. To destroy the Scroll of Law was a most sacrilege act against the Hebrew faith and the object of destruction in many of the synagogues across Germany. I needed to get in and out before the true SS members seized these items and destroyed them. I followed a group of SS storm troopers as they broke down the doors of the building. They had just finished beating a porter named Wolfsohn who refused to open the locked doors for them. They were going to kill him before I suggested the idea of just breaking down the doors.
The other members of this group of Storm Troopers (All of them holding a lower rank than myself) began to destroy this historic building. Tossing the 78-stop organ over the balcony and throwing the extremely beautiful bronze candelabra into the conflagration beginning in the center of the synagogue floor. I had to commit the sacrilege of entering the Holy of the Holies by a non-Hebrew to obtain the Torah. As I left with the ancient Scroll of Law no one even questioned me about what I holding. All I needed now was a secluded place and a few minutes of privacy. Then I would be able to set the control belt recall and I would be on my way back through Angel Gate.
As I left the building and entered the courtyard I could see the reader, Davidsohn, pleading with the Fire Brigade to save the building from burning down. He was simply ignored by the Fire Brigade and jeered by the crowd of people watching the destruction of this building. Too many people were beginning to gather to watch this destruction so I began to walk up the street in the hopes of finding some privacy. This, however, was not to be granted to me on the riot choked Fasanenstrasse now.
Major Christian Wirth of the Gestapo saw me as I left the synagogue courtyard with the Scroll of Law. Davidsohn and Wolfsohn were names well document in the historical report given to me about the people involved during the destruction and burning of the Great Synagogue - Major Wirth’s name was not in the report! But I knew of him! He was the director of the department that was individually gassing the ‘incorrigibles’ or mental patience in the German hospitals and institutions. He would later be elevated to the directorship of the death camps and the wholesale gassing of the Jewish people themselves. This was not a person I had any desire in meeting. But I found that my desire to be anywhere but here was now impossible.
“Captain, what are you carrying there?” He called out to me as exited the synagogue courtyard.
“Excuse me?” I replied meekly.
“Excuse me, what?”
“Excuse me SIR!” I remembered now what position I held here.
“That is quite a trophy you are holding there Captain. Do you plan on worshiping the idols of these vermin?” the Major was intoning his racial slurs towards the Jewish people.
“Worship… these!” I held out the Scroll of Law, and gave a look of disgust.
“Not at all sir, I simply think they might be worth something. We could ransom them back… or something… maybe.” I shrugged with the question hanging.
“Sir.” I added quickly.
“It’s alright Captain, you can relax, we are all having a bit of fun tonight. I think I can forgive your lax attention to protocol. For tonight!” He seemed to smile warmly at me, almost as a reassuring gesture to a Party Comrade.
“Besides we are both officers of the SS, I think we can share a little fraternity!” He added as he slapped me on my shoulder.
“Yes sir. Thank you sir, I shall endeavor to be more attentive to protocol in the future Major.” I tried to speak with the ease of a trained soldier.
“Well now, let’s see what you have liberated from our purifying fires Captain…” He reached out for the ancient Torah. He didn’t realize the importance of those words to me – liberated from the fire! However I began to fear I may lose this item to this Major of the SS. Maybe this was how it all happened before. So this may wind up once again being burned in the fire and lost to all future generations. I handed the item over to the Major.
“Yes, very old indeed! I would say it could be worth quite a bit, Captain. I’m sure these Jews would be very willing to pay handsomely for the return of this trophy.” The Major stated as he opened the scroll.
“Are you going to liberate this trophy from me now, sir?” I tried to sound scared although my anger was now rising at the thought of losing this relic.
“Liberate… your trophy? Hmph! Captain I prefer works of art, not idols of vermin! Do with it what you will Captain.” The Major handed the item back to me.
“Thank you Major!” I said with honest glee. Now I would be able to return to my time with our historic prize. I started to walk away when he called out to me.
“Captain!” His call froze me in my tracks.
“Sir?” I spoke over my shoulder.
“You know, I believe I know someone else who might like to see your trophy as well.”
I slowly turned with regret to face the Major again. I noticed he was looking towards an automobile that was coming up the road past the Fire Brigade’s blockade. I began to consider my options now. If I ran I might be able to escape in all this confusion, I might be shot! That result would leave too many questions to be answered about whom I was, and where I came from. Not to mention if they got a hold of my recall belt! I just stood there considering what little choice I had in what fate bestowed upon me now.
“I believe that is the automobile of the Squad Commander… Yes, I would say that is Mueller himself!” The major turned to me.
“You are about to have quite an honor befall on you Captain.” He added with a smile.
“Mueller, sir?” I wasn’t really aware of whom he was referring to.
“Heinrick Mueller, Captain… the Gestapo Leader.” Major Wirth looked perplexed about my reaction of ignorance to the mention of his name.
It was from fear of my situation, rather than ignorance, that confounded my memory. But I knew of this Heinrick Mueller - the Gestapo Chief – and a man of incredible power! He was able to swing the entire SS apparatus into a frenzied riot of destruction on this night. Even though it was Joseph Gobboel's speech, the Nazi Propaganda Minister, that began Kristalnacht, it was orders from Mueller that sent the SS into action. I was quickly moving into an area of the timeline that I should not be involved with.
The events that followed gave me no room to maneuver and much confusion and fear. For the next couple of days I was treated as a star of the feared SS and was paraded around several offices of the Nazi party officials in Berlin. Apparently I was alone in following the direct orders of the Commander of the SS Gestapo Heinrick Mueller. He had ordered that any valuable possessions and religious property of the Jews should be taken out undamaged. At that point the buildings would be taken over or removed (Burned and knocked down – sometimes with dynamite). The Minister of Economics for the German State would then log in any valuables for appropriation and debt consolidation. Kristalnacht was not intended to be for destruction and looting of the Jewish property. The intention was to bring an influx of much needed hard currency to the cash starved German State by the ‘reclaiming’ of German property. Goering himself was very upset with Gobboels because of the lost revenue that would be going out to Jews in the form of insurance claims.
Because of my actions Commander Mueller was insistent that I meet with the leaders of the General staff. This was something I certainly wanted to, and was suppose to, avoid at all cost. My corruption of the timeline was probably already creating a minor Hindenberg Effect. But I was being given no chance to use the recall belt to return in time without creating a larger Hindenberg Effect. The belt would require the subject to remain in a stationary location for at least ten minutes. For the next fifty-seven hours I was consistently in the immediate location of one kind of guard or another. Even my bathroom and sleeping accommodations were of public domain and would not give me the privacy required.
By 11:00 AM on the 12th of November I sat in front of the desk of the Reich Marshall. Hermann Goering, the number two man in Hitler’s Germany, was sitting at his desk reading the report of Wirth and Mueller about my actions on the early morning of November 10th. The Torah, the ancient Scroll of Law, that I had liberated from the burning of the Great Synagogue sitting openly upon his desk. A reminder to my failure and I wondered where these items would end up now. They would now be passed down from person to person in the future instead of being burned in the Great Synagogue. What kind of Hindenberg Effect did I invoke upon the future by my failure?
As Goering read the report his Personal Assistant Pilli Koerner entered the office and whispered something in the Reich Marshall’s ear. Koerner then quickly ducked out of the office of the Reich Marshall. Within just a few moments Pilli returned and was holding the door open as he made an introduction. My clothes had already been covered in sweat, from the several tense moments of silence, while sitting within the Reich Marshall’s office up to that point. The announcement made by Pilli Koerner didn’t help my condition at all.
“The Fuhrer of the Third Reich – Adolph Hitler.” Goering’s Assistant stated as he raised his hand in a salute. Koerner then walked out and closed the door behind him.
I just about soiled my pants on the spot! I wished I could have disappeared right then, escaping this timeline before I corrupted it any further, but this was not possible now. I knew what I was expected to do now. I jumped to my feet and just about shouted my reply.
“Hiel Hitler!”
Goering also stood and made his pledge to the Fuhrer as Adolph Hitler walked into the office. Goering sat back down as the Fuhrer approached me and began to speak, I was lost in my own thoughts; this was all too much to believe! Then the reality came to me in a rush. This is the man responsible for the deaths over six million people of the Hebrew faith! And he was applauding my action on Kristalnacht. I could not believe this turn of events and I obviously looked very uncomfortable. Hitler expressed the fact that I could relax and that he was very pleased with my actions. He stated how Nazi Germany would need more people like me to guide them into the future.
How did time conspire to bring me to this situation? Face to face with this lunatic and he was speaking to me as a friend, so smoothly, and so appealing! I couldn’t help myself for feeling that way! I now understood why so many had fallen under his power – his spell! He was quite a speaker. To his close associates and friends he was reputed as being very cordial and pleasant. Now I fell into the inner circle, the web, of Adolph Hitler.
Then the thought came to me. Like a gunshot! Clear and precise in it’s deadly effect. Hitler stood less than two feet from me and somehow I was standing here with my SS leader dagger still on my side. I could easily remove it from its sheath and drive it into the man who would kill so many innocent people. But there it was – would kill. He has not done all those things yet. I alone, in this time, knew where this Third Reich was headed. Most of the world slumbered with their dreams of the future and were ignoring events here in Germany. After Kristalnacht they may have been able to guess what would happen here in Germany, but mostly they would look the other way as long as possible. I knew that within a year the war would start and then the millions would die. But Hitler was only now in the burgeoning of his power - and had yet to truly act out the horror of the Nazi regime. Six million people… they called to me from the future! I know what will happen here in Germany - unless…
Without thinking about it I felt the weight of the black dagger, with the twisted cross swastika emblazoned on the hilt, firmly gripped in my hand. The irony of this knife slamming into the Fuhrer’s heart was too appealing for me now. Hitler’s eyes went wide, as he surely knew what was about to befall him. I know now how it is with some cold-blooded murderers stating they didn’t know what was happening. It was like someone else thrusting the knife into Hitler’s chest. I was the power of six million voices screaming across the void of time. Now I had the chance to restore them to their lives. In just a few seconds it was all over. I stood over the body of the most infamous killer of all time. Then I wondered – what kind of killer would history make of me? How would future generations look back at what I had done? Was I to be a Hero or Villain?
Future generations looking back…
Then the reality of this situation slammed down on me and I began to wonder why there were no shouts from his second in command. How could it be that Hermann Goering would just sit there while I murdered his boss – his hero? I was very lost within this whole scene that surrounded me. The bloodied knife in my hands and the second in command sitting behind his desk and calmly shaking his head. Was he pleased that I killed his boss and put him in charge? My God! I just made Hermann Goering the leader of the Third Reich. I should have realized better than anyone should how a small change in the timeline can effect the future. And I just made a nuclear explosion of a Hindenberg Effect of a change. Hermann Goering would be a superior candidate for leading the Third Reich into a true thousand-year reign. Any second he’ll just call his assistant Koerner in, I’ll be arrested, and he’ll take over. What have I done?
“Well now Herr Frost, that was quite a courageous move you made! If you could’ve just listen quietly to the Fuhrer for a few moments you would be on your way home right now. I would have sent you on your way personally! He was only going to speak to you for a few moments. We would have been alone and had the time. But now… well, now, I must call in the guards!” Goering spoke to me but I wasn’t quite registering anything he was saying yet.
“This didn’t go as expected, didn’t go as expected at all! And now you will fulfill the duties for which you were hoping to end. Time to pay the price for your intervention Herr Konrad Frost.” He emphasized the word intervention. His statements and his referring to me by my proper name baffled me. Everyone here so far simply called me by my rank and last name.”
“Intervention?” I said dumbly.
“Yes, Konrad, Intervention! Unfortunately, now, we must correct this though…” Goering sarcastically repeated my statement.
“But… why would you… how would you…” I fumbled for a coherent thought.
“Is this the way it happen before Herr Frost?” Goering said smoothly while pointing to the body of Hitler lying at my feet...
“Before… no… I wasn’t… it couldn’t…” My head was still floating in this surreal scene, Goering sitting calmly at his desk, Hitler’s lifeless body at my feet – I finally released the dagger in my hand and it clanked on the floor.
“Come now Herr Frost, Surely you don’t think this will solve anything? You, of all people, should understand how terrible altering time can be?” I was stunned at this comment. How could Hermann Goering understand…
“How can you know about…” I began to ask.
“How can I know about your time travel Herr Frost? Because I work for Avalon, you fool! We knew this might happen…” He spoke that last part under his breath. Then a thought occurred to me ‘Of course! They would know that at some point someone would make this attempt’. But then why he didn’t stop me…
“If you knew that this might happen… why wouldn’t you prevent this…” I waved my hand at the lifeless body at my feet as I stuttered out my question.
“Nothing will change Herr Frost, nothing at all! Hitler will still reign, Germany will still go to war with the world, and the death camps will still fill their quotas! Nothing has changed here.” He stated with an evil contempt on the part about the quotas.
“But… how?” His statement lost me.
“Because you will do it Herr Frost!” He said menacingly.
“Wha…” I tried to speak but lost all wind of my voice.
“You will lead the German people to the battle field. You, Herr Frost, will fill the death camps with your rule of law. You Herr Frost have elected yourself as Fuhrer of the Third Reich.” Goering, this Goering from Avalon, spoke as if I didn’t have a choice in the matter.
“I won’t…” I said with all the power of a mouse.
“No, you will. For you have decided this will be the way it happens. For it must happen. And you know this.” He stated confidently.
“You can’t make me… I’ll kill myself first.” I said half-heartedly, and he must of known that.
“Come now Konrad, kill yourself? You must wait until it’s all over before you can do that!” He smirked when he stated this.
“I’ll change the orders, I’ll surrender… I won’t be forced…” I almost began to cry.
“No you won’t be forced, you’ll be… programmed to fulfill you destiny Herr Frost. You do not have a choice in the matter.” He almost sounded sad about this himself.
“But how…” I questioned his statement but I could feel the power of his words. If I had altered the timeline then things would be changing. They must change for me… as in the grandfather paradox. Or they haven’t changed? And if they haven’t changed then how…
“You will be sent back into the future where you’ll undergo surgery to change your appearance, luckily you’re about the right height and weight, and close enough in age, and then you’ll be trained to fulfil the role of the Fuhrer. With some chemical inducements you will be more than able to finish the job.” He stated this as if he were passing judgement over me.
“But why…” I squeaked out.
“WHY?” He shouted.
“I’ll tell you WHY Herr Frost. Because you broke the LAW! You committed an act of treason against the future. You put into work the Hindenberg Effect –Remember?” He was standing now.
“REMEMBER?” he shouted rhetorically.
“Remember what happens when you alter just a small thing? How many people do you think you save Herr Frost, HOW MANY?”
“I don’t know… but they won’t go through…” I was fumbling for a statement that I could believe.
“They would have died anyway! And many more! I know… I know.” He stated with the words trailing off at the end.
“For I once thought I could change just one thing and prevent this disaster from ever happening as well.” As I listened I was completely terrified about what I did, what timeline I put into effect?
“I thought I could prevent Hitler’s rise to power. I though if I just prevented President Hindenberg from appointing Hitler to total control of the Chancellery.”
“President Hindenberg?” I asked still very confused.
“Yes. I thought that if I just Killed Hindenberg before he gave Hitler the full control of the government that he was striving for… that the holocaust would never take place. But it did anyway! Under Hermann Goering! Then Germany went on to win the war. They continued their conquest until the entire globe fell under their control. All of their victories for a hundred years - because of me!”
“You mean like the effect from saving the airship?” I ask softly.
“No, it never happened that way… or I should say, it wasn’t that Hindenberg Effect that caused the change. I was sent back to warn the pilots of the airship. And so I did! And because of my actions I became a hero of Germany, much like you became a hero Konrad, nothing too big, but enough to get you noticed. Noticed enough so that you get close, you get close…” He seemed lost in that thought for a moment then continued.
“And then the emotion carries you away. ‘If I just make this one change everything will be all right, the nightmare will end.” He looked to me directly with very sad eyes and a very burdened soul.
“But the nightmare doesn’t end! It gets worse, and even more evil. And it was all because of a single thought! Just one good intention, a selfish intention.” I was stunned as I listen to him.
“Do you think you’re GOD? THAT YOU WOULD KNOW BETTER HOW THINGS SHOULD BE?” he shouted angrily to himself as much to me.
“You cannot make that kind of change without major repercussions to the future.” He was clearly speaking to himself as much as to me. This man was filled with his own demons. The same demons that began to rip at my soul.
“Yes, I Killed President Paul Von Hindenberg before Hitler was in complete control of the Reichstag. I helped assure that Goering would succeed as Fuhrer. And he was much more capable of running the Nazi’s war machine into full power… I helped in securing the true thousand-year reign of terror by the Nazi’s… I later found out that, only because of a double plant, was the world save from that horror! Saved from my actions.”
“My God…” I whispered.
“Yes, by God. So you see Konrad, the Hindenberg Effect does not refer to simply the blimp my friend, and you are my friend now! Much more so than either of us will care to accept, but there it is…” he left the statement unfinished, for it didn’t need to be.
Suddenly, the room was aglow with the light of the Angel Gate opening. A single shaft of light separating upon itself as if two rings of light were crossing each other. Swiftly and silently they opened until a full circle of light hung in the room. Through the gate stepped two Angels of Avalon – dressed in the uniform of the Avalon security guards. Wearing the beige Albert Pattern helmet, midnight blue tunic coat, with the gold and silver emblazoned Avalon ‘A’ patch on the shoulder and helmet. They also wore the beige cargo pants with the high brimmed light tan leather ‘combat’ boots. Strapped to their waist was the deadly ‘Rail Projectile Sidearm’, or “RiPS” guns, and capable of cutting through most forms of matter and/or exploding upon impact. These Rip guns also carried a clip of at least 100 projectiles, although they looked like a common Walther model 1890’s black powder pistol. This uniform was a throwback to a Victorian era colonial British soldier from India. They wore a slight variation of the uniform that I was not quite familiar with. It just had a slightly different style of ‘A’ that was on the helmet and tunic. There was a Neptune Triad symbol behind the ‘A’ pointed at the sunburst. They were obviously here with a mission; they were here for me!
“But I can’t send those people off to the camps, I just won’t mentally be able to do this…” I said as the two guards stoically approached me.
“Yes, you can.” Goering replied calmly.
“They will implant you with every detail of the decisions you will need to make. You will have a personal physician assigned to you, here in this time, which will give you a continual supply of chemicals that will reinforce your Avalon Foundation training. And before you know it, this will all be over, and you’ll be in your bunker – contemplating your suicide all over again.” He stated this as though it was a mantra.
Then I realized - he had lived this part already! This was his mistake too, and now I followed him down that same path. I remembered that Hermann Goering also committed suicide in his jail cell before the night of his execution. He was found guilty of war crimes by the Nuremberg Tribunal and was to be hanged on October 16th at 2:00 AM. He would swallow cyanide on October 15th 1946, almost a year and a half after Hitler would shoot himself in his bunker, to “cheat his executioners gallows” as Goering himself stated. Yes I could see this now; we would become good friends – like cellmates on death row in prison – a prison we built together.
“You can take him now Sergeant.” Goering said to the guards with a wave of the hand.
“Come along then.” The Avalon guard with Sergeant stripes stated.
“I’ll be seeing you soon Herr Frost… or as I should be saying soon, Herr Hitler!”
I walked towards the Angel Gate with little resistance, but with great reluctance. I knew what the future held – I’ve read the history books. Soon I would be returned to live this life, a life of an insane and paranoid man, as punishment for my crime. My mind still could not absorb all the events that surrounded me. Because of my inherent disgust of what this man did to Germany, my Germany, I was unable to control my feelings. For that I would now live a life I abhor. I was truly lost in my own misery already, but it would soon be compounded. Compounded by the facts I was soon to learn.
The Avalon Foundation
Samuel Ascot was able to replace the real Hermann Goering after Goering had sustained the life-threatening gunshot wounds to his hip and groin during the Beer Hall Putsch on November 9th 1928. Hitler made his first overtures to gain power and was thrown in jail for the Putsch with several other Nazi leaders. Goering was almost mortally wounded, but a short time later, was able to flee the country. This was the moment when two Angels of Avalon would replace Goering with Sam - while he had his wounds cared for by the Ballin’s, a pair of Jewish sisters who obtained some medical background during World War One, in their home directly next to the Marienplatz of Munich. Sam was punished for his crime against the timeline, by creating the first Hindenberg Effect, and had been programmed to replace Goering ten years earlier. Sentenced to serve his time in a life that had been put into exile and mental institutions. Now I would be sentenced to live a life that I would find appalling. Put in place for my crime against the timeline and made to act as mass murderer now.
I learned the two Angel of Avalon were not from my Avalon Centre however. They were from the Avalon Foundation. This was the organization that oversaw the operations of the Angel Gate in the year 2243 AD! From a time period one hundred years in the future from my previous life. My previous time! For soon I would be living my life as the leader of the Third Reich.
The Avalon Foundation had sent people back in time at the very moment that the Angel Gate went on line in 2055 AD. They then guided all operations of time travel from that moment on. Their mission was to assure that certain events would take place in our history to secure their timeline – and their dimension! By the year 2243 AD inter-dimensional travel had become possible. The timeline created by Samuel Ascot had created a dimension where a Nazi’s Germany had survived well past the twelve year Third Reich in our timeline. Nazi Germany, in that timeline, invented a device that allowed them dimensional shifting by the year 2013 AD. This was before our parallel jump allowed us to fix the Hindenberg Effect from Sam’s mistake in the year 2055 AD. Luckily in that dimension the Nazi’s haven’t invented the ability for time travel. This allows the Avalon Foundation to control time, but left the Nazi’s to wander in the other dimensions unchecked. Due to that timeline, and the resulting dimensional shifting ability of those Nazi’s, the Avalon Foundation was now in a pitched battle against these alternate timeline Nazi’s and their maniacal quest for total power and control in the other dimensions.
The Angels of Avalon had informed me that the Avalon Foundation would not be able to stop his original mistake. Until that event took place they were not even sure how the other dimensions were created. And once that timeline - that dimension - was created they were unable to remove it from dimensional space. That timeline now existed and that was that! If they interfered with that event, the creation of the first Hindenberg Effect, the dimensional shift technology of 2243 AD might not be invented. The Avalon Foundation would lose its most valuable weapon against the Nazi’s. For it was the curiosity, the theory of other timelines existing, that led to the development of the dimensional shifting Angel Gate itself. The best they could do now was to assure that our original timeline, the one where Germany lost World War Two, occurred. This act guaranteeing the invention of the dimensional Angel Gate by 2243 AD. All we could do now was to hope that in some future time the Avalon Foundation would be able defeat the Nazi Third Reich in the multiple dimensional wars now raging across the known dimensions.
I wondered about the dimensional shifting and the wars now taking place there. Sam, Herr Goering, later told me they knew of 26 different dimensions that have been discovered so far. It seems that because of this timeline invention of time travel - it is we who are creating the different dimensions. Each new possible timeline created by our travels through time begins a different dimension, a different possibility of existence, because of the Hindenberg Effect. The creation of a new timeline gives the Nazi Third Reich in their timeline the first jump, a beachhead if you will, at controlling the new dimension that we have created.
It’s very much like a farmer and their crop. We plow the field and lay the seeds, but it’s the gophers that know when the first roots have started. We can try and control the gophers, but they still have the ability to maneuver through the ground where we can’t see them yet, and attack a different root. We could plow over the entire field and start over, but that wouldn’t guarantee the destruction of the gophers! This would only guarantee the destruction of the crop and possibly our own ability to find the gophers. We needed to see where they would push through the surface to find what planting, what timeline, they were attacking. But these battles, these wars against the dimensionally shifting Nazi’s, would be fought by the true Angels of Avalon. In a different time, (a different time…) for in this time I have a new mission to complete. A mission I could have little heart for…
Berlin
April 30th 1945 3:20 pm
Fuhrerbunker
I sat on the couch, in my private room, after giving Eva her cyanide capsule. Her lifeless body slumped against the arm of the couch - another body added to the millions that I have ordered for death! This one however was sitting next to me, silently reminding me of my unforgivable mistake. What was about to follow was all too close to me now. At 3:30 PM on April 30th 1945 Adolph Hitler shot him self in the mouth and died. This act would officially end Nazi’s reign of terror in Germany. I knew this from the history books that I read in my secondary school as I grew up in Germany, my German, of 2112 AD. The last seven years of hell - the nightmare of Nazi Germany was just a little too real to me now from the history books I’ve read.
My personal physician, another agent from Avalon, Dr. Theo Morell had given me a ‘releaser’ shot over an hour ago. This reversed the action of the neuro-chemical implants that has given me the ability to be amoral and absolute about my actions over the last seven years. Implants that re-enforced the programming given to me, by the Avalon Foundation, that would allow me to fulfill the original Hitler’s attempts to rule the world.
A few minutes ago I walked down the line of people whom stayed in the bunker serving their Fuhrer over the last several weeks… I didn’t know them! I looked into their eyes and tried to recognize them. They are so different to me now! They looked back at me and seemed to notice that I was different now, something distant in my eyes, as I had become numbed to the reality of this time. I knew who they were and what they all did for Hitler… what they have done for ME! I could remember it all!
The releaser drug didn’t remove the memory of what has transpired over the last seven years. But I was not the murderer who enacted genocide of a whole people - this is not who I am! I had returned to being Konrad Frost a simple primary analyst, an Architect of Time, from the Avalon Centre in 2138 AD. I was simply trying to piece together a history, lost in the dust of so many battles, so much violence. Now realized to living the last few minutes of his life in the Fuhrerbunker, this concrete grave, in the bombed out ruins of Berlin. I was sentenced to death for the act of treason against the timeline.
I was moved into the future where I trained for six months to be Adolph Hitler. I was then returned to the Reich Marshall’s office only seconds after I had originally departed. I would now parish as the weak and frightened man who, because of his hatred for a people, killed millions simply because of their beliefs. Ironic! For that was exactly the same thought that I had possessed, against another human being, as I pulled a knife out and thrust it into Hitler’s heart almost seven years ago! Now I know the how history will label me for murdering the most infamous killer in history!
Was I any more justified in what I had tried to accomplish than what Hitler had tried to do? To remove what had I believed to be a blight on humanity? I’m sure many people would believe that I was justified in trying to kill Hitler, but I hated him, with a passion for spilling his blood. And maybe this was the crime I was being punished for – a lust for spilling his blood. Do any of us have the right for taking of even one life no matter how justified we feel about the act because of our passion or anger towards them? Maybe that is the act of holy salvation. Do not hate them for throwing you to the lions, but forgive them for their fear and weakness as a human being. Spare them regardless of their actions that may follow and pray that they may one day be saved from their own passions of destruction.
For all the Jewish people that I could have saved in World War Two, would the murder of one man have been right? Maybe - if it had succeeded and turned out the way I thought it would. But then why stop there? Why not go back and save the Hebrews from being enslaved and tortured by Egypt’s Pharaoh. Or why not stop the Babylonians from invading and dragging off the Judeo peoples before that? And why stop with the suffering of the children of Israel? What about the Manchurians whom suffered at the hands of the Japanese during World War Two? Or the Zulu crushed by the British invasion of South Africa? Or Cambodians who suffered at the hands of the Khmer Rouge during their revolution? Or the Indians slaughtered by the westward expansion of America? Or the Carthaginians removed from history by a Roman invasion? Maybe preventing Cain from killing Abel would do the trick! Or stopping Eve from taking the apple… but where would we be now? Where would that have left us? At bliss with our ignorance in paradise I suppose. But is that a place we wish to be – in ignorance?
The story of genocidal acts by one group of humans against another goes on and on and on. And now through several dimensions it will continue for some time into the future. The kind of decision required as to who shall live and who shall die requires that we must act like God. To deny our passion, deny what we want, and act on what is best for survival of us all. To simply act out of passion or to use only emotions when defining our actions would be selfish and self-destructive. We would be acting like a child-god whom believes that they posses all they need to bring about their desires. That they could bring about a paradise based on what they want – not what would be good for all of us. That would be a selfish dictator acting on impulse without control or restraints. And that’s what Hitler wanted to do! So do we, do anyone of us, have the right to decide the fate of others in this way? To act on simply what makes us feel good? To define our world’s morals based on what we, as individuals, believe? Or do we look to another source for those morals? Do we look to each other for the answer? Do we look to God? (Or somebody else’s definition of a God) to set our standards? Or can we just look to history and see when things worked right and when they failed us?
Then, of course, we do not have the right to question God as to why something has happened. For altering anything that has happened will change everything that follows. For better of for worse – we will live or die with those changes. And we will learn nothing! All we can do is pray for guidance and hope that God will give us the tools, and the knowledge, to use them properly. To use them justly!
If only I had maintained my thoughts and actions and used the tool of the Angel Gate properly – I might have been able to return home and live my life. Return to my time secured in my knowledge that nothing in time can, or should, be changed. After my accolades in 1938 they would have quickly forgotten me and I would have been able to return to my time with the Scroll of Law. Now the scroll has been returned to it’s people, in the future, and I remain a piece of history. We Angels of Avalon are here simply to witness, to remember and to try and recapture, what has happened so we will not forget – nor relive the suffering of our past. Our duty then is to try and prevent the evil from re-occurring, while re-enforcing the positive ways of our lives – by remembering those who suffered and were lost. By trying to change our history we will only betray those we intend to save and eventually we may cause more harm then any we solve.
Moving back in time and creating just one change could have such great ramifications, imagine what making one little change in the present can do! Instead of slandering a person’s heritage because it is different, compliment their uniqueness and learn from their achievements. Instead of hurling an insult at their follies, offer up bread and drink to bide their suffering. Or simply suggest an option to ease their lot and give thanks for being alive, for they may be able to help you before this day through. (Before this day is through…)
3:29 PM only a minute left now. What of those people whom survived this holocaust? What will be their hopes and dreams for the future? Will they look back at this time to focus their hate? To blame a people, whom were so vilified because of a previous war, that they began to blame someone else for their lot? Are the new victims now going continue this pattern of hate and destruction of yet another culture? But I do remember my time in the future, my time when this was the past. I remember that we had come so far! Moments when the wall that separated a war torn Berlin had come down without a war. A time when the world once divided in half now was now united as a multitude of cultures. A time when all nations came together to secure the past – a past they had fought so many wars in – to provide for a future with unlimited possibilities! We had made a future that was not based on hate or segregation or fear! We made a future together! Where all humans lived together and were free from fear of tyrants and oppression!
3:30 PM 30th of April 1945… for me - time is at an end… God, forgive me!
End.
