Electrowave

Entweder oder Entweder

Maybe it was true, maybe it wasn't. It was all news to us, in any case. We didn't even realise they were scientists, conducting all these experiments in secret under their studio. But, considering that they were secretly the smartest scientists in Germany, Sonnenbrandt should have known better than to talk about their experiments in a police state. In a world where all technology was spying on you, it was a dangerous game to post anything onto the internet. How could they have thought they wouldn't get caught?
"Why did you post about it on the internet! You do realise the whole world is just one big police state, don't you?!" Venus yelled. It was almost as if she'd read my mind.
"Was... was one big police state," Korg said, "The police state is over now."
"Yes!" Plastique said, "Because of a war! That's not better! In fact, maybe we'd be better off under that police state! At least the world wouldn't have been destroyed!"
Silence descended on the studio.
"The world had been destroyed, Plastique," Sonne said, "Just, in a different way. It was more subtle, of course. But the world had already been destroyed."
"Besides, it's easy to judge," Brandt said, "What would you have done?"
"We would never!" Venus said, "If we were in you position would have never done it!"
Brandt laughed.
"Words, it's just words," he said, "And you don't speak for the whole of Welle: Erdball, I bet you don't even speak for yourself. Because I'm sure, if you were forced at gunpoint you would have built whatever they wanted, just like we did."

---

More silence, which I took to mean agreement with Herr Brandt. I thought about what we possibly would have done if we were in their situation. If we actually had any scientific knowledge instead of just singing about it, and if it was Welle: Erdball who had gotten kidnapped by the American government. Well, to be honest, we probably would have built it too. The difference is, we don't know how to build an Electrowave. They do.

---

A few days later, Sonnenbrandt were still with us in the studio. There was a huge disagreement within the band whether they should be allowed to stay or not. On the one hand, they were our friends, we had known them for years. On the other hand, well, you know. The Electrowave.

---

"There is a way we can make it up to you, Welle: Erdball," Brandt said one day, as we sat in the studio, "We've seen this happen before, the world being destroyed. But we escaped it. We can do it again, and you can too."
We all just looked at Sonnenbrandt like they were speaking gibberish. In a way, they were.

---

"Alright," Brandt said, "You don't understand, but don't worry, we can explain."
And so, yet another explanation by Sonnenbrandt began.
"Right yes, so Jojo and I-"
"Professionalism, Sonne," Brandt sighed.
"Ahem, yes of course. Right, so me and Herr Brandt have been working on this for quite a while now..."
"And I don't have a clue what's going on," Korg admitted, "I just watch them build it."
"Another machine?!" I said, annoyed. I had heard quite enough about Sonnenbrandt's machines for one day.
"No Honey, this one is a good one, we promise. It's called... the Universum Machine!" Sonne smiled.
"But that doesn't explain anything!" Alf said.
"It's hard to explain, but we can leave this wartorn planet," Brandt said, "And go somewhere new. Look, I can't explain much now, we're running out of time. Can we go to our studio and bring our machine here?"
"Fine," I said. Normally I would have been against leaving the studio and stepping out onto the ruined streets of Germany, but inviting Die Funkhausgruppe to stay with us had taken a huge chunk out of our supplies. Even Alf's hundreds of cans didn't last forever. And so, I decided that while we were out we would go and get some more.

---

A little while later we went back to Sonnenbrandt's studio to get the machine. It was easier than we thought, as they didn't just have a studio in Hamburg. In fact, they revealed to us they had another studio nearby, where most of their scientific experiments were now conducted, as well as the underground laboratory in Hamburg. Walking through the empty streets of Hannover, the city was now practically a ghost town. Once, this city had been bustling with people. But there was nothing left here anymore. And I couldn't tell you whether Sonnenbrandt felt even the slightest guilt over it, or whether we were all just pawns in their sick experiment. Who knew?