Chapter 1

A/N: This is my second attempt. My first story "Refuge" had to be written, for better or worse. It is now out of my head. I appreciate all the people who have read it and given reviews. I found that I enjoyed writing it and thought I would make a second attempt. I was poking around the cross-over section and looking at the Hogan's Heroes Section. I always thought that series was ripe for this type of story. There are some great scifi crossovers there and I applaud those authors for their efforts. I did not see one for Space 1999 so I thought I would give it a shot.

Space 1999 is owned by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. Hogans' Heroes is owned by Bing Crosby Productions. No monetary gain was made in this story.

Colonel Robert Hogan crept through the woods near the town of Hammelburg. He was with Corporal Newkirk, Private LeBeau, and Sargent Carter. They were dressed all in black and were near a dirt road about 2 miles outside of Stalag 13. Hogan was worried because there was a full moon and that meant there were may spots of where they could be illuminated and more easily detected. Even with their dark attire, there was a risk of being spotted.

They had been asked by London to check out a new radio installation that had been spotted by a British fighter. The location did not make a lot of sense, and it appeared unusual from German designs they had been seen before. Hitler was known to invest in foolish experiments but some of them had proven successful. Allied command did not want to take any chances. They were getting close to the location and noticed an encampment ahead. It was camouflaged and there was not a large military presence. Hiding in plain sight, was the first thought that Hogan had. The team moved in and took up position to observe.

The used binoculars to observe the target and Newkirk began to take pictures.

"What do think," whispered Hogan to the team at large. He had long learned to trust this group of men.

"Not sure," said Newkirk. "It looks like a radar dish but it is stationary. We are also in the middle of Nazi occupied Germany so there is not really needed for secret installations. I also have no idea what they are pointing at."

"I see," said Hogan. He took his binoculars and looked again. "What is that in the middle of the dish?" he asked. The parabolic antenna at first glance looked typical but there was something attached to the aiming arm in the middle. There was a glowing center that was unknown to him. Not only did it seem foreign in every sense of the word but it seemed to serve no purpose.

"Blimey if I know," said Newkirk. "I have seen radar installations before but not like this. That middle piece is huge and almost looks like it would get in the way of any type of sweep."

"Watch out!" hissed LeBeau. A German truck drove up to the facility. It was running with no lights and appeared to be making every effort to be quiet. It was followed by a staff car equally as dark and equally as stealthily. The Allied Prisoners of War crouched down as the truck and car got uncomfortably close to the unofficial commando squad. The car and truck stopped within earshot of the camouflaged men. They carefully controlled their breathing as they heard soldiers climb out of the truck and the doors to the car opened. They heard two sets of footsteps, one normal and one heavy as they listened intently.

"General Burkhalter, this is the facility we discussed," they did not recognize the man who was speaking.

"Herr Doktor Weibman, this does not look that impressive. I was told that I was to see a discovery that would render the Allied bombers useless. We have many much larger radar installations in more strategic portions locations than this one," answered the General in his usual gruff voice. Burkhalter's ego had gotten the better of him on more than one occasion but Hogan knew that he was not as militarily inept as Klink was. He could be downright brutal if he thought the situation called for it. Hogan was both very anxious to hear what he would say and concerned for his men. They were way too close for his comfort.

"Herr General, I know it does not look impressive. But we have made a discovery that could change everything. Six months ago, a Panzer division in Northern Africa discovered a stone made of a strange material they had never seen before. They did not think much of it but the commanding officer knew that Hitler was very interested in anything that may have to do with the occult. He kept the stone and sent it to Berlin. I was on the team that evaluated the stone. If you look, it is mounted in the center of the dish. As a team, we could not identify the elements or material. We also could not chip any of the material off for analysis. It seems to be indestructible. Out of desperation we sent a radio through it. The signal was amplified tremendously. All of the equipment in the room that was based on electronics was destroyed. At first, we were terrified but then it occurred to us that there may be a practical application. We constructed a well shielded lab and made some trials. We ran radar waves through it and the results were incredible. There seemed to be no degradation of the signal. No matter what we did, the returning signal was as strong as when it left the generator."

Hogan could tell that Burkhalter was losing patience. He sometimes wondered how he got to the rank of General with his temper. Officers were known to berate lower ranked officers when needed but the best listened when it mattered.

"Herr Doktor, what does this have to do with the war? Do we now have one remarkedly impressive radar that is better than all the rest? I welcome it but that will hardly make Churchill 'quake in his boots'" The last part he said in English.

"Herr General, I do not believe that you understand yet. I mean no insult. I work with men of science and it took us quite a while to realize the impact. The degradation does not occur even when the signal bounces off an object. And the signal always comes back intact. We were able to bounce the signal off multiple items and always received it back. We realized quickly that we could use our existing technology to peer into areas of Europe that we could not today. But then a young student of ours, Georg Schimmel, asked an interesting question: If the beam has no limit and could be bounced off an object, could we bounce it off the moon? We all froze at the prospect. At that distance and if we could set the angle just right, we should be able to get a picture of whatever side of the earth the moon was on. We can create a picture of everything in the sky and moving on the ground."

Burkhalter was quiet for a moment. Hogan was not used to this side of Burkhalter who never seemed to be at a loss for words although they were usually War Propaganda that had no merit. He was an opportunist, but this sounded too fantastic to be true.

"Herr Doktor, this sounds fantastical. I hope you are right because if you brought me out here for nothing, you will regret it. Why are we here?"

"Herr General, tonight is to be our first test. We do not believe that we will see everything on the first try but we should be able to demonstrate the potential. Our soldiers have set up a monitor here. You will be to see what we see."

"Very well Herr Doktor. I look forward to this."

Hogan, Newkirk, LeBeau and Carter all were anxious as well. The storyy sounded ridiculous but if the Germans really did have a way to see all bomber squads that early, it would create a huge tactical advantage for the Third Reich. Hogan tried to move into a better vantage point for observing the test. He wished that Kinch was here. He would be better able to give Hogan an assessment.

"Los!" cried the German doctor. "Die erste Sendung machen wir in eine Minute," One minute, thought Hogan. Here we go.

The troops manned a portable display device that looked much like a radar screen. The Doctor looked over some controls and satisfied, began the count down. "Zehn – Neun – Acht- Sieben- Sechs- Fuenf – Vier- Drei – Zwei – Eins – Senden."

Everybody looked on intently, both those invited and those not. The dish turned to a direction that made no sense before but now the covert team realized was directed at the moon. Sargent Carter could only think about Flash Gordon comics he had read. Newkirk was convinced that this had to be a scam of some sort. He marveled at the scope of the con. LeBeau did not know what to think but his hatred of Germans drove him to wish a complete failure regardless of the actual worth of the effort. Hogan tried to note as many details as possible. It seemed impossible that they could actually pull this off but he wanted to give a full report to London when he got back.

The dish hummed slightly. Hogan recognized the electronic sound as a radar station in operation. At first nothing seemed special. He saw Doctor Weibman pointing to some items on the screen. Burkhalter did not seem impressed. Despite himself, Hogan glanced at the full moon. This is waste of time, he thought when suddenly the ground shook. It was sudden jolt that lasted for only a moment. It did not feel like a bomb. He had been around enough of those. It almost seemed like an earthquake. In Central German? he thought. But that was not what startled him. He had been looking at the moon when the ground shook. He swore that the moon shifted slightly to the right.