The men assembled in the command compartment of the U-boat gathered round the radio. The voice, in English, came through and outlined the world they had found themselves. "This is the BBC World Service, on longwave, DAB and the Sounds app." The submariners exchanged puzzled glances. '...and it is two o'clock on Tuesday morning. These are the headlines. The UK and European Union remain at deadlock over the Irish border with both sides said to be digging in for a long campaign. The American President has denigrated the German chancellor for not spending enough on its the German military."
The commandant let out a snort of derision. 'Some sort of comedy show...?'
The radio continued. "The eyes of space fans are on Kazakhstan where the rocket belonging to online retail tycoon is being prepared for the first manned mission to the moon in fifty years, and the first such mission by a privately owned spacecraft. The launch window is in three days. Also taking advantage of the favourable launch conditions will be the Arianne Six rocket, which is expected to be Europe's first foray to our nearest neighbour."
"Finally, the Russian president has announced they will also attempt a manned mission to the moon, making a total of three missions. However we do not know at this stage how plausible the Russian plan is on account of its recent announcement and many industry observers speculate that important corners night be cut in their haste to remain a player in the current space scene."The signal faded and the radio operator adjusted the dials of the receiver. There seemed to be other signals out there, some of which seemed to be encoded and as such were inaudible. After the group's ears had been assaulted by a particularly piercing squeal from one of these stations, the commandant gesticulated that the station should be turned off.
'What could it all mean?' he asked, almost rhetorically.
'We are done for,' said the Captain. 'We have no way to get back home. The engines have stopped and there seems to be no air outside. The engines are needed to drive the generators that powered the apparatus that got us here and presumably are needed to get us home. With no power we are limited to our existing air supplies plus any filtration that we can perform manually.'
'The commandant turned to the leading scientist. 'Is this true?'
'Certainly we need the generators to charge the capacitor banks for the tele-porter,' said the man, 'and indeed there is no air for the generators to draw in from outside. It stands to reason that the hull is airtight because it must also be watertight. The duration of the air we have in here is anyone's guess and I defer to the captain's experience as far as his is concerned.'
'Space is also very cold. The submarine will be radiating heat and , in the absence of a heat source, will cool down to the point where we all risk death from hypothermia. In fact it is anybody's guess as to which will kill us first: lack of air or warmth.'
'Do you think there is any chance of rescue,' said the commandant.
'From the moon?' asked the captain.'why not?' said the commandant. 'We need to send out a mayday at the very least. We do not know whether that might be possible in this reality in which we find ourselves'
The head scientist interjected: 'I agree. It is clear from the radio broadcast we just heard that we are in a very different world from that we left, and one that might possess capabilities that we would read as science fiction. For example we had just started to discover the possibilities afforded by rocketry and it is quite possible that in this reality mankind might have already travelled to the moon.'
'But what about the mission?' asked the captain. My briefing is to protect the cargo and the technology aboard this boat for the establishment of a new Third Reich. In requesting salvage there is the risk that we will forfeit these things and fail the Fuhrer.''I don't think we need to worry unduly about that,' said the Commandant. 'The likelihood of the Third Reich having survived was minimal, as I recall from how the war seemed to be going immediately prior to our jump.''And what should we say,' asked the captain.
