In 1940, two years after a brutal civil war that resulted in the return of Kaiser Wilhelm II, the revived German Empire emerged as the dominant military, economic, and technological power in most of Europe. The Central Powers had been reformed, and...
Elaine continued to stare at the box that was in front of her at the library, a metallic box with some sort of glass on the front with a darkness inside of it, just one of the dozens stretched across the table she, curiously, sat alone at. It was so black she could see her own reflection. Of all the time she spent watching the Germans, studying every piece of their technology, she still did not know how to operate such a mechanism. A coffee machine was one thing, but a machine that is supposed to function as a library was another.
Simo, dressed in a Finnish-stylised Wehrmacht uniform, stood beside her, too, staring at the screen in curiosity, his fingers rubbing along his bony jaw. Despite appearing as if he could actually be of service to the young magician, Simo was just as confused in such technology as any native beyond the Gate was.
"So, what am I supposed to do?" Elaine asked, breaking the awkward silence.
"How do I know how to work this thing?" Simo said, sounding genuinely as confused as her.
Elaine spun her head, casting a confused glare at the man, "I thought this is your technology?"
"Saksan Kieli technology," Simo corrected. "Nowhere in Suomi or anywhere in the world is there a thing like this. Strange as well, at one point we were living in economic depressions ten years ago, and then suddenly the Germans suddenly have the technology not due for a hundred years."
"So they don't seem to want to share it with any of their allies?"
Simo chuckled. "If you have the technology to conquer the world, I'd think you too would only share it after you conquered the world with it first. I'll have to get the librarian to sort this stuff out, despite me being an officer."
When Simo abruptly left, Elaine took a moment to process what she just heard. The Germans were the only ones with this kind of technology? No country on the outside matches this technological innovation? They only conjured this technology in less than a decade? No, two years was not a decade. All these questions only made Elaine's head spin. All this technology was foreign to her and foreign to the whole continent of Europe as well. If the Germans hadn't gotten their hands on it, then they might have remained under Nazi occupation. And then, everyone beyond the Gate would've been slaughtered like animals.
She tried not to stare, but everywhere she went, she saw those grey uniforms in every room and every door. With the Gate open within the capital city, she can understand why martial law would be in effect. But unlike them, they were more numerous protecting books than. If she didn't know any better, it was as if they were protecting the library from her. She didn't understand why, when she specifically stated she only wants to gain knowledge for her studies, not to blow it up.
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She took note that the Germans on the German side of the Gate wore vastly different uniforms from the Germans sent beyond the Gate. While they did have the grey uniforms, they wore more metal on their shoulders. Their Stahlhelms had either a metallic full-face gas mask or a metallic eye visor underneath. On the chest, it had a strange-looking breastplate connected to a metal backpack on their backs, which lit up electricity once in a while. Whatever the function of the electrical backpack was, it sure added to the sheer intimidation the German soldiers already projected.
