graduated to speaking with his janitor yet,” Mark countered. “You were in the process of convincing me you are not the greatest war criminal in human history. Please continue.”
Chapter 12: Strength Through Unity
Tomal made his way down the streets of Munich, Germany with a soft, metallic clink accompanying every other step he took. It was bad enough that his deformity produced a noticeable limp as he walked, but having that constant audible reminder of his inferiority was simply maddening. How he longed for his return to the Nexus and subsequent regeneration into a new, healthy body. Alas, he was only in his mid-twenties with plenty of years still left to clink about.
He was not alone in the unfortunate circumstance of his age. Every member of the Lazarus crew found themselves in their late teens, an ineffectual age, as the Great War unfolded. None of them were in any position to influence the behavior of nations in order to make the conflict productive. That was a grave miscalculation on Hastelloy’s part, and the captain even admitted as much when they all met in Zurich.
Tomal knew without a sliver of doubt that he could have made the difference. If he had led the German government, he would have poured all available resources into the development of advanced weapons, machinery, and tactics of war. Then the troops sent to the front would not have just sat staring across no man’s land at the enemy. They would have rolled right over them with armored vehicles and demolished their strongholds with heavy bombers.
Nothing would have stopped him from unifying all of Europe under his leadership. Then they could have devoted every effort to destroying the Alpha base still recovering on Mars. Instead, Tomal found himself mired in an economically devastated nation serving as a bottom rung intelligence agent tasked with investigating the activities of dissident movements within German borders.
At least Gallono had a chance to serve in the military during the Great War. As a result, he now sat poised to make noise if the armed services of Germany ever managed to shed the shackles imposed upon it by the Treaty of Versailles. That abomination may have brought the Great War to an end, but it effectively neutered Germany for all eternity by removing the nation’s ability to defend itself.
Tomal knew it was indeed for the greater good of their mission here on this planet that Gallono sat well positioned, but he could not fully suppress a certain amount of jealousy toward the commander. He was active and useful at a high level right now, while Tomal found himself heading to yet another grubby, bug infested beer hall. There he would listen to yet another windbag puff and blow for two hours, write a report about it, and then move on to the next pointless assignment.
He was so preoccupied with wallowing in his self-pity that Tomal nearly ran into a frail, old woman standing at the end of a bread line. The queue must have included fifty people that extended out the shop’s front door and halfway around the block along the sidewalk.
Tomal managed to sidestep the old woman only to trip over a wheelbarrow full of paper money in front of her. Half the contents spilled out across the sidewalk before Tomal managed to set it upright once more.
He was already running late to the meeting and gave a thought to ditching the situation, but his sense of decency won out. If one German could not take the time to be cordial to another, then the nation truly was at a loss. Tomal scooped up the paper Deutsche Marks by the armful until the spilled contents were back in the wheelbarrow.
Five years earlier, that would have been an immense fortune. Today it might buy the woman a couple loaves of bread. Runaway inflation caused by the Treaty’s harsh war reparations had done its damage. The government had no choice but to turn on the printers in the treasury building and let them run day and
Chapter 12: Strength Through Unity
Tomal made his way down the streets of Munich, Germany with a soft, metallic clink accompanying every other step he took. It was bad enough that his deformity produced a noticeable limp as he walked, but having that constant audible reminder of his inferiority was simply maddening. How he longed for his return to the Nexus and subsequent regeneration into a new, healthy body. Alas, he was only in his mid-twenties with plenty of years still left to clink about.
He was not alone in the unfortunate circumstance of his age. Every member of the Lazarus crew found themselves in their late teens, an ineffectual age, as the Great War unfolded. None of them were in any position to influence the behavior of nations in order to make the conflict productive. That was a grave miscalculation on Hastelloy’s part, and the captain even admitted as much when they all met in Zurich.
Tomal knew without a sliver of doubt that he could have made the difference. If he had led the German government, he would have poured all available resources into the development of advanced weapons, machinery, and tactics of war. Then the troops sent to the front would not have just sat staring across no man’s land at the enemy. They would have rolled right over them with armored vehicles and demolished their strongholds with heavy bombers.
Nothing would have stopped him from unifying all of Europe under his leadership. Then they could have devoted every effort to destroying the Alpha base still recovering on Mars. Instead, Tomal found himself mired in an economically devastated nation serving as a bottom rung intelligence agent tasked with investigating the activities of dissident movements within German borders.
At least Gallono had a chance to serve in the military during the Great War. As a result, he now sat poised to make noise if the armed services of Germany ever managed to shed the shackles imposed upon it by the Treaty of Versailles. That abomination may have brought the Great War to an end, but it effectively neutered Germany for all eternity by removing the nation’s ability to defend itself.
Tomal knew it was indeed for the greater good of their mission here on this planet that Gallono sat well positioned, but he could not fully suppress a certain amount of jealousy toward the commander. He was active and useful at a high level right now, while Tomal found himself heading to yet another grubby, bug infested beer hall. There he would listen to yet another windbag puff and blow for two hours, write a report about it, and then move on to the next pointless assignment.
He was so preoccupied with wallowing in his self-pity that Tomal nearly ran into a frail, old woman standing at the end of a bread line. The queue must have included fifty people that extended out the shop’s front door and halfway around the block along the sidewalk.
Tomal managed to sidestep the old woman only to trip over a wheelbarrow full of paper money in front of her. Half the contents spilled out across the sidewalk before Tomal managed to set it upright once more.
He was already running late to the meeting and gave a thought to ditching the situation, but his sense of decency won out. If one German could not take the time to be cordial to another, then the nation truly was at a loss. Tomal scooped up the paper Deutsche Marks by the armful until the spilled contents were back in the wheelbarrow.
Five years earlier, that would have been an immense fortune. Today it might buy the woman a couple loaves of bread. Runaway inflation caused by the Treaty’s harsh war reparations had done its damage. The government had no choice but to turn on the printers in the treasury building and let them run day and
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