Sun of the Sleepless

by Patrick Horne

  Jolene's eyes were glazed as she contemplated the hypothesis.

  'They could control the very fabric of the universe -'

  She suddenly snapped out of her musing.

  'If it were possible, of course.'

  '- but its not, is it?' Dale tentatively asked, somewhat incredulous at the implications. 'I mean, you're talking about a Hollywood science fiction movie.'

  Jackson just shrugged and sat back in his chair, resting his fingertips against the edge of the table.

  'In truth, I cannot find a single shred of hard evidence that the allies found anything relating to this subject, either during or after the collapse of the Reich. Absolutely nothing!'

  He leaned forward and clasped his fingers together.

  'However, that is what makes this so interesting! The allied forces found underground factories and production lines with V2 rockets in various stages of construction. We found plans, designs and prototypes for all kinds of highly advanced aircraft, some of them displaying attributes that we would recognise even in today's stealth aircraft. We smashed and grabbed our way across Germany and the occupied territories and uncovered every technological advance that the Germans had made - except in the field of vortices. Yet, I have uncovered irrefutable evidence that the Vril Society had pursued this technology right from the 1920's, eventually obtaining funding from the Nazi regime itself, but nothing has been found, or rather, nothing is recorded as being found - that is what spikes my interest!'

  'Maybe nothing came of it,' Dale offered.

  'I don't think so, you see, every advance in technology has a precedent, the V1 pulse jets, the V2 rockets, the jet planes, everything derived from a chronological evolution, but there are instances of technology that jump out of nowhere.'

  'Such as?' asked Jolene.

  'Foo Fighters!' Jackson solemnly announced.

  Dale jerked his head back with incomprehension.

  'Foo Fighters? They're a band, I have some of their CDs. What do they have to do with anything?'

  Jackson shook his head wearily.

  'During late 1944, allied aircrews began to report sightings of mysterious balls of light that often buzzed their aircraft, diving and circling bombers and even fighters with ease. Their flight characteristics demonstrated that they obeyed no normal aerodynamic laws of flight, basically, they could out manoeuvre anything and perform what we would consider as impossible acrobatics; there are tales of them flying in tight circles around the fuselage of bombers as they cruised at over three hundred miles per hour.

  'Now, understandably, the crews were somewhat alarmed and considered these phenomena as evidence of some new German secret weapon, however, our intelligence investigations ascertained that German aircrews had also experienced the same kind of harassment, they didn't know what they were either!'

  Dale jutted his bottom lip as he thought.

  'So did they destroy many aircraft?'

  'No,' said Jackson shaking his head, 'that is the strange thing. There is no evidence of any of these strange balls of light ever directly attacking an aircraft.'

  Dale spoke slowly.

  'So, what were they for?'

  'Well, precisely, that is where we have to return to the secret archives. You see, although the public statements effectively indicated that both the allies and the axis didn't know what they were, the truth is somewhat different. In fact, they were part of a highly classified German project and even as events progressed in Europe, these things were also spotted in the Pacific theatre of operations.

  'In one event in November of 1944, a Foo Fighter was shot down by a B29 and broke up, falling to the ground and setting fire to the buildings that it crashed into. Now, the remains were soon recovered and examined but were quickly commandeered by a team that arrived out of nowhere.

  'With a stern warning to the recovery crew not to ever mention the incident again, the whole pile of debris was packed up and flown back to the US under complete secrecy, just like in the movies. The report I have found was prepared by the crew that initially arrived at the scene and who brought the remains back to their own base.

  'Once news leaked back to headquarters there was an immediate security clampdown but this document managed to escape the net and was never properly classified, probably because it was just sitting in somebody's in-tray waiting to be read.'

  'That all sounds vaguely familiar, so did they find any little green men?' Dale grinned.

  Ignoring the jibe, Jackson continued.

  'They found nothing that could be described as peculiar. The spherical body of the craft was simply a frame and shell constructed of standard aircraft metal struts and panels. Of course, most of the internal components were smashed and burned but they were able to identify simple devices for recording flight behaviour and atmospheric conditions, altitude and airspeed and such like.

  'They also recognised the remains of some electro-magnetic emission equipment, basically a very primitive EMP device that you could build in your own garage, some batteries and a small incendiary circuit which is what had caused the building fires, possibly a self-destruct mechanism.'

  'What about the engine?'

  'Well, that is the point; it wasn't what they found that was strange, rather, what they didn't find. There was no engine. There was no propulsion unit in the machine at all. In fact, the whole thing would have been better suited to hang beneath a very large weather balloon!'

  Dale looked at Jolene who noted his glance and quickly responded.

  'Alright, so how did it fly?'

  Jackson grinned and nodded.

  'Well yes, exactly. The only conclusion that the recovery crew came to at the time was that the device was remotely propelled. In the very best traditions of science fiction, it was mooted that some kind of 'tractor beam' guided it, although later more highly classified reports from scientists dubbed the process as telekinetics, now more commonly associated with psycho-kinesis and a subject of study within the paranormal field.

  'Of course, psycho-kinesis is more acutely involved with moving coins or small toys a couple of feet across a table using the power of the mind. The Foo Fighter was an object estimated to have weighed around fifty pounds and certainly was not held aloft simply by the concentration of the Luftwaffe staff.'

  'What about now?' Jolene asked. 'What do you conclude?'

  Jackson exhaled exaggeratedly.

  'There are no reliable contemporary sources of analysis and information and I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a scientist, I can only guess and I could be way off the mark.'

  '- but your best guess is what?'

  'Vortices. Vortices in the Aether. Purely within the context of the evidence at hand, my guess is that the Germans had reached a significant but still experimental stage in the work originally started by the Vril Society. I think that these Foo Fighters were simply test flight prototypes controlled by ground based beams somehow utilising vortices to manoeuvre them, the glowing light given off by them was simply an effect of the beam or ray that guided them. Thing is, times were getting bad for Germany in late 1944 and so they may have tried to rush in some defensive counter measures into these devices and that would explain the primitive EMP equipment; allied aircrews did submit reports indicating that their engine ignition systems were sometimes interrupted.

  'You must understand that this wasn't a fully fledged attempt to use Foo Fighters in combat, just a rush job to try to make the prototypes useful when the opportunity arose. The kind of engineering necessary to install heavy machine guns or air burst explosives would have required more time and resources, both of which the Germans were short of.'

  Jolene looked down at the table and concentrated for a moment.

  'Any other evidence?'

  Jackson harrumphed.

  'Quite possibly, you see, in April of 1998 the FBI eventually declassified a couple of documents that pertain to extraordinary flying craft deployed by the Germans during 1944 and 1945, significantly, there is an report of
something strange that occurred in the middle of September 1944 and well away from where the action was really about to happen, as Operation Market Garden was due to begin in earnest at around that time.

  'A German prisoner of war gave an account of an event that he had witnessed one evening in France near a small village called Reinange, located about twenty-five miles south of Luxembourg. He says that he saw an allied bomber flight of around thirty aircraft flying in close formation toward Germany, however, a small but incredibly fast plane appeared from below them, climbing up into the midst of the formation whereupon it suddenly exploded. The explosion grew into a rapidly expanding fiery ball before it flattened out, glowing red and appearing rather like the rings of Saturn, a circle parallel to the ground that kept growing with an empty space in the centre of the shimmering shock wave. As the allied bombers were enshrouded in the strange blast, they simply disappeared, no debris, no further explosions, just vaporised.'

  Jackson paused to let the full impact of the event sink it.

  'The small attacking aircraft was identified as a Messerschmitt 163 commonly known as a Komet, probably operated from an airfield near Saarbrücken. It was a very fast rocket propelled plane, possibly the fastest aircraft of the time but with a very limited range, no more than thirty miles or so. The idea was that the aircraft was a very fast bomber interceptor, it would take-off and fly to a target area very quickly and then dive three or four times to strafe lumbering enemy aircraft.

  'Now, the FBI report gave no other corroborating evidence, however, I just happened to have located a classified document concerning the loss of thirty aircraft near Luxembourg on September 15th, 1944. They were part of a diversionary raid to detract from the main sortie which was headed to Kiel, just south of the German border with Denmark. The official report indicates that only eleven aircraft were lost overall, however, the classified report clearly shows that statement to be false and it was never released at the time because of the effect it could have had on moral.'

  Jolene and Dale just stared at him in astounded disbelief.

  'The thing is, I believe that this evidence points to a different area of research which was to be combined with the remote propulsion system also being developed, probably to be installed in the type of inexpensive craft that was shot down a month later in the Pacific region. In this case, the Komet was probably remote controlled by wireless and was being used to deploy an experimental explosive device.

  'In the case of the Foo Fighters, they were developing the means of delivering the explosive device using highly manoeuvrable but disposable craft. Combined together, such technologies would truly have delivered a Wunderwaffe - a wonder weapon - that could have changed the course of the war even at that late stage!'

  'Could it have just been the plane's rocket fuel exploding?' Dale quizzed, shaking his head.

  'No, I checked the Komet's performance record and the only instances of engines blowing were in the early test prototypes and later as a result of battle damage; in this case, there was no battle. From the description this was something new, the flattened radial shock wave as described is incredibly unusual and the lack of debris shows that the effects were quite different to conventional weapons, then and now. This weapon destroyed a whole formation of thirty bombers, but think what it could have done if projected onto a city.'

  'Alright, very impressive, but is it true?' Jolene retorted.

  'Yes, I think so,' nodded Jackson, 'there is evidence that the FBI reports were declassified by accident, even in 1998. There is always a risk in heavily compartmented projects of missing documents since upgrading the classification of a something that is already out there can sometimes reveal the nature of the very secret you're trying to hide.

  'There are some irate memos on file indicating that that the military tried to prevent the FBI reports from coming out but they simply argued that the contents could be used to ridicule the intelligence services. After the documents were released, everything went quiet again, probably because they could then be used for misinformation - never waste a good disaster as they say - the object being for the public to conclude that they couldn't relate to anything important if they were now in the public domain.'

  The room remained quiet for a while as Jolene considered Jackson's story.

  'So we have a clear link from the Sun of the Sleepless to the Vril Society. We have the Vril Society playing an instrumental role in initiating the development of new technologies through the Society for Truth based on Aether physics, we have a consistent connection with the Nazis and the development resources to continue that research and we have hearsay evidence that a highly unusual propulsion and weapons system was deployed, even if in an experimental form. Is that correct?'

  'A fair summation I would say.'

  'Great,' Jolene gasped, slumping slightly, 'that will do for now, we'll send everything across to Kappel and confirm what he wants us to do next.'

  'What about Hanna's great-granddaughter and the RFID? What happens now?' asked Jackson.

  Jolene shook her head curtly.

  'That is up to Kappel, we now have evidence that links all of these things together and which supports the contention that the Sun of the Sleepless has the capacity to employ a WMD.'

  'So let's make the call,' Dale said, smiling at the surreal nature of the whole proposition.

  'Good evening Jolene, gentlemen.'

  Stefan Kappel's expression was slightly weary as he nodded on the screen, acknowledging the assembled trio in the Ambassador's conference suite.

  'Good evening sir,' Jolene replied in a crisp tone and momentarily oblivious to Kappel's actual time zone.

  'We have a further report which I hope has reached you safely. I must apologise for the late transmission but we have literally just finished reviewing the document and I wanted to ensure that we could have a brief meeting to close off the day and so that Jackson can give a review if necessary.'

  The face on the video screen nodded.

  'That is fine, give me your summary and I will go through the detail later.'

  Jolene looked over to Jackson and raised her eyebrows, impelling him to cough and start his exposition.

  'Good evening sir, I apologise in advance if this seems to meander but a number of interesting aspects to this case have been uncovered and I want to give you a précis of all of them. As a consequence, the thread may seem a little entangled at times.'

  Jackson smiled benignly as Kappel waved a hand in frank acceptance.

  'Understood, please go ahead.'

  He coughed again and lifted a bundle of paper-clipped pages to read from, withdrawing his glasses from the breast pocket of his jacket and sliding them on to perch on the end of his nose.

  'Sir, attached to my hypothesis for the development of the Sun of the Sleepless group and their integration into the Nazi regime up to and during World War II, you will find a number of appendices which may prove useful in proving the veracity of my conclusions. Alternatively, I'm happy to accept that my conclusions may equally prove to be simply overly imaginative. Either way, I have prepared factual information for further research and intelligence gathering. As for the conclusions, I'd like to start right at the beginning if I may?'

  Kappel flicked through the bundle of papers which had been transmitted to his office and printed out. He peered at the last set of pages and without looking up responded drolly.

  'Your disclaimer has been duly noted, please continue.'

  After a good half hour, Jackson had completed his summation of the evidence and his deductions. Kappel simply sat silently, seemingly in shocked contemplation.

  Jackson pushed his spectacles further up his nose into a more comfortable position and started to read from the last few pages of his document.

  'As for the appendices, Appendix 1 is a list of the names of the Vrilerinnen, the Vril psychics as reported by Hanna Paulus,' he announced.

  'Not much more is known apart from their names. I'm afraid that I have not succe
eded in tracing any further information from civil records, either historical or modern. Appendix 2 contains a list of some of the girls who were recruited into the Vril Society Sisterhood with notations for members who were regarded as the elite, what I have termed as 'initiates', however, I should clarify that this list is incomplete.'

  Jackson flicked over a page and then peeped over the top of his spectacles as he glanced at the screen.

  'Appendix 3 is also based on information originally provided by Hanna Paulus, this time detailing a few of the scientists who were connected to the Society for Truth along with their respective areas of expertise. Although Hanna didn't necessarily know who these men and women were at the time, I have cross-referenced the names with what we know now.

  'Appendix 4 is a list of notable locations, covering the dispersal of the Vril Society staff and members, including the psychics, also the Society for Truth and the scientists, although the latter section is a little sketchy.

  'Appendix 5 is a list of references - both open source and classified - that I have used to derive this presentation. It isn't exhaustive but it provides the basic audit trail for further investigation and I have tried to record relevant chronological information whenever available.'

  After a further moment of inscrutable contemplation, Kappel seemed to animate himself to respond.

  'Excellent!' he nodded, flicking through the pages again.

  'You've done some great work here. I am very impressed that this has been the product of only a day's work. We'll need to run it all of course but I definitely think that we have something to go on here. Thank-you.'

  Kappel placed the bundle of papers to one side and breathed in.

  'Now I'd like to give you round-up of events from the other investigation teams, please don't interrupt, I'll take questions at the end. I'm also getting a little bit of feedback so would you mind muting your microphone as I speak?'