April 13, 1945, rain.
It was raining in Berlin.
The expression on everyone's face was gloomy, just like the gloomy clouds that hung over Berlin.
Bad news came from afar. After a few days of intense street fighting, Vienna finally fell into the hands of the Soviets. At the same time, Königsberg also fell. The polar bears finally achieved the dream that they could not achieve for centuries – to take over the capital of East Prussia.
There had been no good news from the eastern front for a long time, and the situation on the western front was probably the same.
Anyone could see that the Reich was at the end of its days.
As a soldier, perhaps I should not make too many comments on the future of the Reich, but from the perspective of a husband and a father, I hoped that the Americans could reach Berlin first.
God, what am I saying?
…
April 14, fog.
It was foggy, and perhaps it was going to clear up soon.
There was good news, no worse news came from the eastern front or the western front.
There was no better news than no news, but everyone knew that this was just the calm before the storm.
In the morning, I received an order to transfer my work.
Should I say that this moment has finally come? Even as a civilian, I had reached the point where I had no choice but to pick up my rifle and shed my last drop of blood for the Empire.
However, things were far from what I thought. You will never guess what I saw.
In the basement of the Chancellor's office in Berlin, I actually saw the Fuehrer!
I could not describe the excitement in my heart at that moment. It's been a long time since I've heard his inspiring speech. Many people said that he had escaped with his mistress, but at that moment, all the rumors were destroyed. He was still in Berlin! He was still with us!
Although his face was more haggard than the last time he appeared in front of the public. However, his voice was still as infectious as ever.
He chatted with me for half an hour and asked me many things. It was hard to imagine that an insignificant person like me would receive an audience from him. I sat face to face with the great Fuehrer and talked about the past in Berlin.
At the end of the conversation, he asked about my loyalty.
I said, "If you need, I can pick up my gun and die for you right now, no matter if I die in the east or the west."
He said, "Compared to dying, I have a more important mission for you."
I can't believe it. The Fuehrer personally awarded me the Iron Cross.
I was terrified. I hadn't made any contributions, and I wasn't even a soldier fighting at the frontlines. How could I bear such a great honor?
But he dismissed my misgivings.
"If you can complete the mission I'm about to give you, your contributions to the Third Reich will be worthy of this medal."
I took a locked suitcase from his hand.
Then I was taken out of the basement.
I didn't even get to see my wife and daughter one last time before I boarded the Me 262b jet and flew to Norway.
To be honest, I don't want to see them one last time. Because I already had a hunch that this might be a one-way ticket.
…
April 15th, sunny.
Perhaps this would be the last time I would record the weather in my diary, at least for a few months.
We departed from the bottom of the sea and set sail with the U-234. We followed different directions and headed for the same destination — Far East, Japan.
It wasn't until the moment I boarded the ship that I realized the seriousness of the matter.
There were a total of 14 people including me. Every crew member was an important person, and the lowest rank was a lieutenant colonel. If it wasn't for the Iron Cross, I don't know if they would even look at a nobody like me. But interestingly, no one paid attention to the medal on my chest. Instead, they were more interested in the suitcase in my hand.
According to etiquette, everyone introduced themselves. Air force commander, army colonel, shipborne anti-aircraft technology expert … and I, an intelligence station communications soldier.
God, they are all the elites of the Third Reich, why are they sitting here? Sitting together with a nobody like me on a U-boat to carry out a "messenger" mission?
…
April 20th.
According to the captain, we were now sailing on the North Atlantic Ocean towards the South Atlantic Ocean.
Because we were already at sea, someone finally stood up and explained the details of the mission to us.
This submarine carried the most cutting-edge military technology of the Third Reich, such as the parts and blueprints of the V2 rocket, the "Junker" jet engine, the blueprints of the Tiger tank, and all the parts and blueprints of the Me-262 jet fighter.
These military technology and weapon samples were to be brought to Yoto.
As for the ten barrels, the captain didn't really understand the specifics. He only described them as materials for a certain weapon.
The atmosphere in the submarine was very quiet. People talked quietly or simply slept to reduce the time they spent awake. The only person willing to talk to me was a nuclear physicist named Fabian. Although I didn't understand what nuclear physics was, it didn't hinder our friendship.
He said that in this kind of environment, only by maintaining communication between people could one maintain mental health. I agreed with his point of view. When we weren't writing in the diary, we would talk about other things.
…
April 22nd.
Today we talked about nuclear physics, although I didn't understand what it was.
U-235。 According to Fabian, it was a group of ominous letters and numbers. It was the serial number of the U-boat, and it was also the abbreviation of the 235 isotope of uranium.
I didn't understand what uranium 235 meant, but I heard him say that this thing could be used to make a terrifying bomb. He mysteriously told me that if we could bring these ten barrels of uranium oxide to Japan, we would change history.
I didn't care about it. Even I, who hadn't been on the battlefield, knew that a few bombs were not enough to change the outcome of a war. If it could, we would have done it a long time ago. We would have dropped at least ten thousand bombs on London.
"These bombs are different from the ones in the past."
"Really? How does it compare to the V2 rocket? "
Fabian just laughed with disdain.
"It's comparable to the V1 and V2 rockets launched to London combined."
Okay, I felt like his mind was starting to go haywire.
…
May 4th.
The situation was getting worse.
The Goliath signal station that was responsible for providing us with instructions suddenly went silent. Immediately after, the Navy's main communication station near Berlin also lost contact.
With the intermittent arrival of a telegram, the thing that most worried us had happened.
Germany announced its surrender. The Imperial Navy's commander, Doenitz, ordered all the U-boats to immediately surface, hang up the black flag, and surrender to the allied forces.
Facing this telegram, everyone was silent.
Some people suggested that this might be a conspiracy by the allied intelligence department. But some people pointed out that it might be the case. After all, the moment they boarded the submarine, Berlin was already in danger.
The deputy captain suggested to turn on the radio silence and confirm the authenticity of the information with the nearby submarines. But the captain didn't accept his suggestion and gave the order to continue the journey.
U-235 was not part of the establishment. It directly obeyed the Fuehrer and didn't need to listen to Doenitz. The target was Tokyo, continue the mission.
Regardless, the submarine continued its journey. However, I could clearly feel that not everyone was satisfied with this order, including the captain himself.
…
May 10th.
We just sailed past Argentina and entered the Pacific Ocean from the southernmost tip of South America.
At this point, we should be considered to have completely escaped the pursuit of the allied forces.
But no one was happy with this good news.
Germany had already surrendered, and we were German soldiers. Was there still a need for us to continue fighting?
Maybe we should surrender to the allied forces nearby. As long as we were careful not to be encountered by the British, the Americans should let us go home. After all, we didn't commit any crimes. The U-boat hadn't even fired a single torpedo since we set off.
…
May 11th.
Something unfortunate happened again, but it didn't come from outside the submarine, but from within.
Someone died.
The deceased was Lieutenant Colonel Bertram. He overdosed on sleeping pills and committed suicide.
…
May 14th.
While I was writing this diary, Fabian went crazy. He was muttering something.
I couldn't understand his nonsense. "That's not physics, we got it wrong from the beginning." "It's not atoms, no, it's not matter at all." "It's not that it can't be observed with current technology, it doesn't exist."
He found me and confessed that he was the owner of the key. He begged me to take out the suitcase.
I refused him. The mission given to me by the Fuehrer was to send it to Tokyo. Before that, no one could open the suitcase.
Seeing my determination, he didn't insist.
…
June 1st.
We were supposed to arrive in Okinawa before the 10th, then enter a safe route and sail directly to Tokyo.
But an accident happened.
After arriving in the South Pacific, we turned on the radio silence. However, what greeted us was not the Japanese navy, but the UA ships.
The side of the submarine was hit, but fortunately, we escaped.
It seemed that Japan was completely defeated by the UA in the Pacific War. From a sad point of view, Okinawa might have changed hands.
…
June 2nd.
The captain found Fabian.
"If this 520 kilograms of uranium was sent to Tokyo, could it change the outcome of the war?"
Fabian didn't answer directly.
"Even if the UA lost New York in a month, could it change the outcome of the war?"
The captain was silent. Everyone knew that when the war had progressed to this point, the outcome could no longer be changed by one city or one lake.
"What about the suitcase?"
Fabian just shook his head.
"It's too late."
…
June 4th.
In order to avoid the search of anti-submarine reconnaissance aircraft, we had to change our route and return to New Zealand.
Some people said that the submarine had sufficient supplies. Maybe we should find a small island to spend the rest of our lives.
However, some people refuted this point of view. After all, not everyone committed war crimes. Many people still had families and were eager to know their safety.
In the end, the Allies made a choice for us.
On Little Barrier Island, we were surrounded by ships coming from three directions.
Surrender or stubbornly resist to the end?
I was surprised that the captain actually asked for my opinion. He hadn't spoken to me since I boarded the ship.
To be honest, I have a beautiful wife and a lovely daughter. I didn't want to die. Although I was ashamed of the iron cross on my chest, I chose to surrender.
Hearing my thoughts, the captain let out a sigh of relief.
It was as if a heavy burden had finally been lifted from his shoulders. He actually thanked me.
…
June 5th.
A sudden rebellion.
The captain died. He died of a gunshot.
Fabian died, but he died of suicide.
Now there are seven people left. Other than me, they are all war criminals. Some people proposed to execute me because I betrayed the will of the Fuhrer. However, some people said that I don't need to be executed. They just need to lock me up.
Those who refused to surrender proposed to drive the submarine into the Hauraki Gulf and avoid the search by going in the opposite direction.
Fortunately, we found a trench near Port Jackson. As long as we hide in it, no one can find us.
The supplies are enough for us to hide until the end of the year. When the situation dies down, we will land in Australia and live the rest of our lives incognito.
…
The diary ended here.
At the end of the page was a pencil drawing of the iron cross. The handwriting was elegant and should be the artistic font of the time. With the help of the translator, Jiang Chen read the last line of the diary.
The submarine named "U235", the last hope of the Third Reich, finally sank in the trench. The diary didn't record the specific reason for the submarine's sinking. But what Jiang Chen was certain of was that the person named Elias must have opened the suitcase.
Otherwise, the diary wouldn't have appeared in the suitcase.
Based on the content of the diary, Jiang Chen could speculate that perhaps Hitler knew his fate was ending, so he placed all his hope on the disobedient ally in the Far East. He packed all the advanced technology into the submarine and even included the suitcase that could "communicate with aliens".
However, the U-235 obviously didn't turn the wheel of history around.
Two months later, the United States ended the war with two atomic bombs.
"Do you know what this ball is?" Lin Lin let out a long sigh and ended the analysis of the ball in the suitcase.
"What is it?" Jiang Chen faintly felt that this thing might be related to the advanced technology that Frankberg took out during World War II.
And the word "help" was most likely a distress signal to the "future".
"A Klein particle transmitter." Lin Lin pointed at the line of small words engraved on the spherical shell. "Although the workmanship is rough, it does activate the Klein particle wave, although it is doing the useless work of broadcasting to the same space-time."
"Is there anything else special?"
"Do you remember what I told you? Every conscious carbon-based life has a trace amount of Klein particles, and they are usually stored in the back of the brain. "
"So?" Jiang Chen vaguely realized something as a chill crawled all over his body.
Lin Lin took a deep breath and spoke quickly.
"An entire metal ball of brain extract. This is a man-made crystal … using the brains of more than ten thousand people."
Ten thousand people …
Just to convey the word "help" that could never be heard.
"This is insane."
Jiang Chen gulped as he struggled to say it.
"But what shocked me the most was not the ten thousand lives." Lin Lin paused, then continued, "The target coordinates of the signal came from the void."
"What is the void?" Jiang Chen asked.
"In short, it is behind the wormhole. There, all the physics of space and time is chaos."
"So?"
"Do you remember the story of the six interstellar colonization ships I told you? Three of them headed for the wormhole. "
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