Walther stood erect and then stepped back, nodding in approval of Beck’s sentiment.
“From what I’ve heard, your wife is an ardent supporter of the party,” Jadzia said, no longer trying to win over Walther’s support with logic but with delicate pandering. “And I find it remarkable that the Fuhrer, so steadfast against divorce, encouraged you as he did. He clearly has great respect for you.”
Walther’s blood settled and his stoicism returned. Jadzia stood and humbly leaned forward. “As do I, old friend,” she said. “If the Fuhrer values your input so much, why not use it to prevent calamity for Germany? A war is a bad idea; we both know that. Help me convince the officers to stand together with us, and resign if Hitler chooses to go alone.”
The Commander-in-Chief of the Wehrmacht Heer listened cautiously; the gears of his mind turned and worked out the solution Ludwig Beck presented. He sat motionless and stared at his contemporary, until finally he stood and said: “I’ll make you a deal, Ludwig: I myself won't do anything, but I won't stop anyone else from acting. I have too much personally riding on this issue and cannot take the position you want. However, should you be successful in your endeavors, you will find no enemy in me.”
Jadzia, against her own will and pleasure, raised an arm in salute and accepted Walther’s conditions with a smile and handshake. Walther smiled in return and left.
Once the door was closed, Genesis emerged from her hiding place and rested atop Jadzia’s shoulder.
“Do you think we were successful?” Jadzia asked.
“Let’s talk about it in the clearing. I’ll find out the results while you wait.”
“Very well,” she said. “Let’s go then.”
Ludwig Beck stood alone in his office and smiled in the belief that he did his best to convince his friend, completely unaware that his words were in fact controlled by a nineteen year-old Polish girl.
Chapter 6
Jadzia returned to her youthful body in the clearing and waited for Genesis to arrive from the future with news of their success. It was nighttime in the clearing and the moon was buried deep beneath a thick umbrella of storm clouds. Soft rain fell to the earth as Jadzia sat in the open air, closed her eyes, and listened to the sound of the droplets fall on the leaves.
Genesis appeared in a flash several minutes later and again rested atop Jadzia’s shoulder.
“How did we do?” Jadzia asked.
“Well, on a positive point, Walther’s comment about ‘doing nothing but not stopping anyone else’ is now a famous quote. Besides that, it doesn’t look as though his mind was changed. I think the personal issue surrounding his wife weighed too much on his decision. I can’t say I blame him: Hitler lent him 80,000 Reich marks; Walther couldn’t be part of a coup.”
“So what next? We go to Munich.”
Genesis hovered into the air and folded her arms beneath her breasts. “About Munich, I’m worried that may prove too harmful for you.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, if I need to transfer your mind from person to person over and over again to control the outcome of the entire meeting, I’m not sure how that will affect you in the end. It may not hurt you at all, but the mind is a delicate thing - I don’t want to risk hurting you again.”
“I think it’s very nice that you worry about me like that, but I’d like to take that chance.”
“Why? I mean, I know you want to prevent the war but this is getting too dangerous.”
“If not my life, whose?”
Genesis backed away from Jadzia in stunned silence. Her jaw dropped at the cavalier attitude with which she regarded her possible fate. “I have so much to learn from you,” she said aloud, but to herself. Indeed, Genesis often prided herself on her altruistic nature; the calling she felt was her destiny in life, the knot in her stomach that compelled her to help people in danger. And although she had taken risks of her own, none of them have been so dangerous as to endanger her own life.
Whatever stress Jadzia may have felt was imperceptible from the outside: she sat on the grass, her arms behind her, back arched, her head thrust back with her eyes closed, her entire body bathed in the rain that fell more rapidly now. “Let’s rest for the night,” Genesis said. “We’ll go to Munich in the morning.” She quickly assembled a net of leaves and draped it under the tree like an umbrella. She then warmed the ground so they didn’t sleep in the mud and the women huddled under the net and fell fast asleep.
As day dawned over the clearing in the Canadian wilderness, Genesis and Jadzia awoke and prepared themselves for the day. After discussing all they knew of the meeting at Munich, during which Britain and France would try to appease Adolf Hitler, the time-travelers realized that their success depended on presenting a united front against the German dictator. The history from the future confirmed that the British Prime Minister’s desire for peace would ultimately betray his sense of reason. More importantly, Genesis and Jadzia had to ensure that no agreement at all was signed with Hitler, he being a serial betrayer. Instead, the other parties would have to apply a heavy hand on Hitler and not cave. Such a task might be easy for the French representative, Edouard Daladier, who opposed caving in to Hitler, but the real challenge lied in forcing Chamberlain and Mussolini to speak words unlikely to come from their mouths unaided.
Like Hitler, Genesis reasoned that the German Foreign Minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, would be unlikely to link minds with on account of their poisonous ideology. As a result, their attempts at convincing Hitler to pursue any course other than war might be worse than an uphill battle - it may be impossible.
“You know enough about history to wing this,” Genesis said to Jadzia. “At this point, it may not reasonable to expect war to be prevented; it will likely only be delayed.”
“I understand,” Jadzia said. “The longer we postpone the inevitable, hopefully the fewer people will die. Where will you be?”
“If I need to switch you in and out of minds,” Genesis explained, “I’ll need to stay in the stream. Don’t worry; I can read your thoughts. When you want to switch, just think of the person’s name and you’ll be transferred instantly.”
“Okay,” Jadzia said. “Let’s not wait any longer.”
“When you awake, you’ll be in the body of Deladier.”
In the blink of an eye, Jadzia was in a room surrounded by all the familiar faces of those participating in the Munich Agreement. The men were milling about the room, shaking hands and making insincere chit-chat. Chamberlain was the first to approach Jadzia who presently resided in the body of Daladier.
“I hope your trip was enjoyable,” he said.
“As enjoyable as it can be, Mr. Prime Minister,” Daladier answered.
Without wasting a moment, Daladier walked straight toward Hitler and extended a hand. Hitler received him and smiled as warmly as the man could muster.
“I have only one thing I wish to say, Mr. Chancellor,” Daladier said. “The French people will not stand by and desert the Czechoslovakians.”
Chamberlain was taken aback by his friend’s uncharacteristic boldness. “Mr. Ambassador, I really think...” he began, but Jadzia quickly thought of his name and instantly saw Daladier through the eyes of Chamberlain, who continued: “...that I agree with you. Nor can the British, Mr. Chancellor. We’ve come to tell you that should you attempt to annex the Sudetenland, we shall be forced to honor our commitments.”
Hitler’s translator worked quickly, feverishly translating the words into German. Hitler reacted as Jadzia expected: he leaped out of his chair and took an aggressive posture. Through the translator, Hitler replied: “This is unacceptable! The German people trapped inside the Sudetenland are being abused by the Czechoslovakian government and you would have me stand by and do nothing?”
Mussolini entered the discussion, but before he could utter a word, Jadzia visualized his name and was transported into his body. He said: “I agree with the representatives from Great Britain and France. We will do
whatever it takes to prevent German aggression in any part of Europe.”
At this, several German officers in the room scuffled about as one of them reached for a document inside a nearby desk and pulled Mussolini aside, whispering something in his ear. His words, in Italian, were amazingly translated by Genesis, whose voice from the stream Jadzia could suddenly hear: “Mr. Prime Minister, what are you doing? We have your assurances that you would stand alongside Germany.”
Mussolini ignored the officer and said to Hitler aloud: “I will defend Germany!” Jadzia panicked at the words uttered by the body she believed she had complete control over. What’s going on? she thought. Immediately, she was transferred back to Daladier.
“We do not wish for war, Herr Hitler,” Daladier said, “but we will not accept any other resolution to this discussion but that you give up the idea of expansion in Europe.”
The officers in the room who were capable of understanding Daladier’s words were speechless, either from the bold words of the Frenchman or from a seething rage that was testing their self-control. One of them approached Hitler from behind and whispered something indiscernible in his ear. He acknowledged with a nod.
Jadzia seized the moment of silence and jumped back into Chamberlain’s mind. “We’ve spoken with the Soviets,” Chamberlain said, “and they have agreed to honor their commitments to the Czechs, Mr. Chancellor.” Jadzia hoped no one in the room was able to call her bluff. From the reactions of von Ribbentrop and Hitler himself, it seemed as though her ruse worked. Angrily, Hitler stormed from the room, followed by his translator, von Ribbentrop, Mussolini, and eventually, everyone but Chamberlain and Daladier.
Within seconds, Jadzia was pulled into the stream where she said to Genesis: “Can you put me in the mind of anyone in that room with Hitler?”
“I’ll try,” she said.
A brief moment later, Jadzia was in the mind of Hitler’s translator. Hitler was pacing back and forth across the office while everyone said nothing. In an effort to show poise, he said: “Gentlemen, this has been my first international conference and I can assure you that it will be my last! If ever that silly old man comes interfering here again, I'll kick him downstairs and jump on his stomach in front of the photographers.” Everyone in the room laughed, as did Jadzia, delighted by the reaction her efforts had on the man who killed her parents. Jadzia thought of the clearing, and a second later, she was there.
Jadzia, safe in her own body once more, fell to her knees and laughed at Hitler’s tantrum. She would need to wait for Genesis’s return to confirm if her efforts had the effect she hoped for, but the laughing felt good nonetheless.
Shortly, Genesis arrived and fell to the ground, exhausted and out of breath. She soon turned over on her back and took in several deep breaths, her pulse eventually settling to normal.
“So was it a success?”
“Not really,” Genesis said. “Which doesn’t surprise me. After all, even when he did sign the agreement, he broke it soon afterwards, so Britain and France standing up to him didn’t seem to do much - at least not with regards to his resolve.”
“Did it prevent the war at all?”
“A couple of weeks. But with Hitler angrier than before, the war was actually more violent. I guess we actually made it worse!”
“That’s a disappointment. I thought for sure I had gotten to him.”
“I’m sure you did, especially on a primitive level. But the man is evidently more complex than most of the history books give him credit for.”
“What happened with Mussolini?” Jadzia asked.
Genesis shrugged her shoulders. “Probably just a poor link between your mind and his. He’s probably just as poisoned as the Nazis.”
“Something tells me changing that one man’s words wasn’t going to affect that much anyway. As for Hitler,” she said as she began pacing across the clearing, “we need to start earlier...” She continued her pacing for several minutes, her mind deep in thought.
“Jadzia!” Genesis called.
She stopped and faced Genesis.
“There’s not much we can probably do once Hitler comes to power. If we go back further than that, it may be before your conception.”
“I understand,” Jadzia said. “It isn’t about me anymore - it’s not even about my parents. I know what they would have me do. They gave up their lives honorably. Why should I do less?”
“Because you still have a life to live. They didn’t have that choice.”
“We’ve been over this!” she said. “There is no life for me in a world where this war existed.”
Genesis flew into the air and hovered within a few feet of Jadzia, who stopped pacing once Genesis approached. “You have nothing to prove to me,” she said. “And there’s no need to be a martyr either. There are small corners of the world that never know of what happened in your homeland. I can bring you there, you can start a new life with the native peoples, and you wouldn’t even have to wear clothes!” she laughed.
Jadzia smiled at the suggestion. “That is tempting,” she said as she stepped forward and brought Genesis closer to her with her hands. “How could I leave all those innocent people to die and go off and live in the middle of nowhere?”
“You already live in the middle of nowhere.”
“Only until we stop the war. Then I want to return and rebuild my life before the war. But I have the power to go back and make a better world for everyone.”
“You’re wrong,” Genesis said. “I have the power. And what would you do if I didn’t want to continue, if I just left you here all alone. You don’t even know what year it is, do you?”
Jadzia suddenly realized the truth of her words. She always assumed the year was 1945, but there was no reason to conclude that she wasn’t somewhere in earth’s distant past or future. “You wouldn’t do that. You’re here for the same reason I am: you have a desire to help people.”
“I know,” Genesis said. “I just wanted you to realize that we’re in this together. And if something happens to you, it won’t just be you who is affected.”
Jadzia fell the ground and bowed her head in shame. She crossed her legs and buried her face in her hands. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t realize I meant that much to you.”
Genesis swooped down from the sky and stood on her knee. She reached out and touched Jadzia’s cheek, now soaked in tears. “You’re my best friend. Without you, I’m all alone in this world.”
Jadzia wiped the tears from her face. “I’m not trying to be selfish, but I feel like I was freed from that awful place of torture to do something grand. And returning to Poland only to have a family of my own seems selfish somehow.”
“But that’s what every other survivor is doing,” Genesis said. “They’re getting on with their lives. I came to you, not to sacrifice your life to a greater cause, but to reward your courage. I can’t do that if you don’t exist.”
“What should I do, then?”
“I can’t tell you that. You need to decide which path to choose, whether you want the life of a survivor or the life of a martyr.”
Jadzia lied back on the ground and just shook her head as she felt overwhelmed by the divergent choices, both opposed to each other.
“On a positive note,” Genesis said, “you’re in no rush. As I said before, I’m in no rush to leave you. If you want to stay in this clearing for the next twenty years and sort out the direction of your life, you can. The war will always be there waiting for you to fix, as will your life after the war.”
“When I go home, to what time will you send me?”
“I won’t be able to take you to the point you left - if you stay five years, you’ll return to 1950. Anything else will cause a paradox.”
“That’s what I figured,” she said. “Don’t worry; I’ll decide quickly.”
“No rush,” Genesis said. She flew over to a nearby tree and began gathering fruit. “But since it looks like we may be here through the night, you’ll need s
omething to eat.” She tossed a piece to Jadzia, who promptly ate and went to sleep as the sun set. Genesis ate as well and sat at the top of the tree and watched the moonrise as day turned to night. She occasionally looked down to check on her friend, and as the night grew colder, she moved Jadzia to a more comfortable and warmer place in the clearing. Genesis later dozed to sleep herself on a tree-limb and wondered how long Jadzia would wait to decide her future. As her thoughts turned to dreams, the knot in her stomach returned. And until they two girls left the clearing, it never went away.
Chapter 7
The next morning, Genesis and Jadzia awoke and began their day as they had since they first arrived in the clearing. They never spoke of their conversation the day before, nor did Genesis try to coax her friend to make a hasty decision. Rather, she prepared a fish that Jadzia caught from the creek (her newfound vegetarianism had given way to hunger) and they feasted on the last of the fruit from the surrounding trees and enjoyed their breakfast.
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