September, 1944

The sun began to descend below the horizon.

The evening was warm, but people stayed inside - which was a wise thing to do. The war had just ended for Finland, but it was still dangerous to move outside during the dark. Crime increased dramatically during these years; Robberies, beatings, you could easily just disappear, and nobody could do a thing because you would not be the only one gone missing.

But if you were for some reason near Nämpnäs this evening, you could see something unusual at the port of Österfjärd. Hundreds of serious-looking people - men, women, and children - boarded the ship. And among them was a fair-haired youngster who seemed to lead them all. He was not the leader of the country, not even a high ranked military person, he was the country. Tino Väinämöinen to those who felt uncomfortable to call a person as "Finland" or to those who didn't know what he was.

"Are we on schedule?", Finland asked from one of the leaders of the transportation. The nation looked more nervous than usual and glanced around.

"Yes, S/S Maininki will leave soon, and S/S Osmo and S/S Georg couple days later. S/S Lokki will began its journey at the same time as them from Uusikaupunki and there are also Estonian refugees aboard. Mr. Oxenstierna confirmed he will meet us near the Swedish border. It seems a storm is rising, but it shouldn't slow us down", the man answered with more confidence in his voice.

A small smile appeared on Finland's face as he nodded. Berward Oxenstierna a.k.a Sweden, or just Sve like he liked to call the man. This was their secret little plan. Finland would transfer all the information he had collected during the wars to Sve. There was stuff that some countries would probably be very eager to get their hands on - stuff about many countries, not just about Russia. That's why his intelligence officers and their families will be moved to Sweden as well. Families, because they could be easily used as hostages to get the information.

Or just to be killed, they may know too much, Finland thought in his mind.

He had signed an armistice with Russia and England not so long ago. Well, in fact he had signed it also with some other members of the Soviet Union, Britain, Australia, South African Union, India, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Ukraine, New Zealand, and Belarus. Those were the ones he had been at war with, but he hadn't seen them much during the war. No, they didn't make him worried. He was worried about Russia, he didn't believe in anything he said, didn't believe this peace will last if he's not cautious, and wanted to prepare for the worst. Somebody could call him paranoid.

This was one part of his own secret little war. He was preparing for a guerrilla warfare.

The ship left the port quietly as the rain started to pour down. Finland tried to look down to the waves, but it was too dark. He hoped nobody saw them, that the darkness hid them too. The Allies will send their control commission here tomorrow to make sure he was a good boy, and they will be mostly Russians. If they would learn about this, it would not only endanger his safety, but also Sweden's neutrality. And then they would get the cargo to themself. But there are limitations what about 200 people can do.

So, he had made sure they believed he was on the battlefield, fighting against the Germans who were still here. According to the peace treaty, he needed to get rid of his ex-allies. If somebody from the comission tries to contact him, his people will just tell them he's somewhere in the woods along with his soldiers. And if he's lucky they won't even miss him. But he hadn't been very lucky lately...

He wasn't worried about the war with Germany. He had got them to agree to retreat voluntarily. Soldiers from the both countries only pretended to shoot towards each other. But he didn't know how long they could continue like this. If somebody finds this out, Russia or Germany's boss... He had even asked from the Allies, if he could just disarm and keep them. But no, you really can't keep 200 000 Germans.

Right now he only wanted to see Sweden. And at the same time was afraid to see him. They had been quite distant these years, and he was afraid it will be like this permanently. But Sweden had agreed to join to this operation after he had told about it to him. Maybe he wanted to see him after all? They didn't have any personal grudges, but Finland wasn't good company if you wanted to stay out of trouble.

He scanned the horizon. They were almost there, soon they should see Sweden's ship. This whole operation was quite risky because the war was still going on elsewhere. They needed to be sure it's Sweden's ship and not someone's else.

"There!", someone shouted couple minutes after Finland had already turned away.

Finland looked at the sea again and narrowed his eyes. Yes, there was clearly something. And after the mysterious figure came closer, nobody could have mistaken it for anything else but a ship - it was huge and brand new. But was it Sweden's, that was the question nobody had time to think after bright spotlights from the ship lit up their own vessel and blinded them for a moment. Finland tried to open his eyes, but it hurt too much.

"Do you know the password?", somebody shouted the question from the foreign ship. In Swedish. This made Finland sigh from relief and then he said the answers to them with a firm voice:

"Stella Polaris"

It was the name of this operation. Stella Polaris, commonly Northern Star - a bright star that guides the ones who are lost. There was a good reason why Finland had chosen that name.

"Right", the spotlights were turned off, and soon after the passengers from the Finnish ship prepared to change the vessel. Finland was the first one to do so. He had no intention to travel with them to Sweden's place, he couldn't escape and didn't even want to do so, but he wanted to talk to Sweden. Maybe this was the last time he was able to see him...

They had said he will be here too, so he looked around. Everywhere the Swedish crew was busy helping people to aboard and carry the boxes full of secrets. Only one of them stood silently still and soon their eyes met.

"Sve", Finland almost whispered. He took one step forward, but stopped then. What should he say to him?

Sweden's face looked as hard as it always did, and he seemed to be uncertain what he should do too. For a moment Sweden just looked down, sighed, and then looked again at Finland.

"How are y' doing?", he finally said and Finland was almost sure he saw a small sad smile on his face.

"Horribly, just horribly. But you just made me feel a little bit better", Finland said and then continued happily, "Do you want to see what I brought to you? There are people out there who would be ready to kill you brutally to get those boxes". Sweden followed Finland's gaze to one of those boxes that had been already transferred to the deck. They didn't look very valuable.

"I'll tell to the b'rder guards that th'y contain medicines", Sweden said and then crouched down next to Finland as the other tried to open one of the boxes. Finland startled a bit when Sweden came so close, so suddenly, but managed to continue his work. "See, there are equipment, techniques, codes and documents. Various information about America, Russia, France and many others. I've read America's messages from the very beginning", Finland showed the papers to Sweden.

"Does he kn'w about th's?

"America? Yes, I told him I can read his messages about a year ago. Because I could read them, Germany was surely able to do the same. I was afraid Germany will find out what I was talking with America from America's own telegrams. About a separate peace with Russia, so... This is quite complicated you know... everybody tries to spy each other, they spied me too", Finland started to look embarrassed. He was babbling to Sweden again, just like in the old days, even if he had decided to stay more formal. He didn't want Sweden to get involved in this more than was necessary. Sweden's goverment had stated clearly, that he should make sure he doesn't endanger Sweden's good relations with Russia.

And it looked like Sweden wanted this to stay formal too. He hadn't even hugged him like he usually did when they met.

Sweden nodded. He knew everything about the matter - little too well. And Finland was selling these to him, because he was sure Russia will try something and he was preparing to fight if necessary. He didn't want all the material end to Russia. Sweden looked at the other nation, who looked tired and maybe a little bit older than he remembered. There he was, and he could just easily pull him into a close embrace, but he didn't do so. He didn't know how Finland would react. It looked like he wanted this to stay formal.

"H'w many people came w'th y'?", Sweden wondered when he looked around. "I thought y' meant about twenty people wh'n you said you'll move your intelligence officers to my place".

"Oh, over 700. They don't have any documents with them nor visas. Is that a problem?"

Sweden just stared at him for a moment. "No", he said finally. He was Sweden, he could bent some rules. He didn't like to do so, but sometimes it was necessary for them. But Finland never mentioned about this beforehand. Large numbers of people could draw some unwanted attention. He would hear about this from his superiors, that's sure.

Finland smiled. He didn't dare to say what would happend if he really needed to start a guerrilla war. How many people would then try to cross his borders without visas. Even the though made Finland feel uneasy. He stood up and prepared to leave back to his ship. Sweden stood up as well and put his hand on Finland's shoulder.

"Maybe... maybe y' could stay for a little l'nger? Eat s'mething?"

"No, it would be even harder to go back"

"Is th're any reason why y' are preparing to fight again?"

"Not really. People from the comission aren't nice to me, I was on their enemy's side so that's understandable, but I can't say they are really mean either. Can you believe, my Communists are going give them flowers! I hope they'll not think those are from me." Finland chuckled nervously and then continued "But all this preparing is only because of my former experiences... what I heard from Estonia... and because I'm able to read their messages".

And then he was gone.

...

Some time after the operation - the Stella Polaris affair, as Sweden called it - Sweden was back in Stockholm. The city was buzzing with spies, probably from every country. A neutral territory was the perfect place for them to exchange secret information.

The stellists, as they called themselves, were placed in a temporary refugee camp which was located in Gävle. Not all of them, but quite many anyway. The Swedish doctors there were excited because now they had a great change to study adult symptoms of scurvy. Sweden hoped it wasn't as bad as it sounded like. They wanted them to eat oranges, so maybe they will be just fine.

Sweden's people, on the other hand, were not as excited about them. Some of them thought the surprise refugees were rather suspicious.

But Sweden was not alone this early morning. There was somebody else with him and Finland's two intelligence officers, an another nation. They were discussing. At least one of them was talking. You could hear the enthusiasm in his voice:

"You know, you could sell copies of those papers to me. OK, it's a bit sly to buy information about your own allies, and I have no permission to do this, but I'm sure they wouldn't want to keep any secrets from me anyway. You two have sold some of those papers already to some other nations. If I want to be the hero, it's a good think to stay one step ahead, right?"

And outside, the sun began to rise.