"The technicians report that the seals have ruptured because of the cold, sir!" reported the chief scientist, Professor Jahnke who was starting to develop icicles from his nose.

Here close to the village of Havøysund, it was minus 30 degrees Celsius. The village is located deep within the Norwegian Arctic Circle on the island of Måsøy, not far from the Northern Cape, the most northerly part of mainland Europe. It was the perfect place to avoid the prying eyes of the British, the Americans and even the Russians that inhabit the islands a few hundred miles to the south west. Up here experiments could be conducted in total secret and this was a top secret project.

"Test it anyway!" replied the young Sturmbannführer Eric Krater.

Krater was a high flying SS Officer who had formerly been a professor of physics at Berlin's oldest university, the Humboldt.

For some academics the war had been a major interruption to their research but to Krater it had given it an unexpected boost, funds were freely available and he could go wherever he wished to conduct his tests. His work on non solid fuel rocket propulsion was getting really exciting. By developing a way of creating anti matter in his laboratory he was making science fiction science fact. Sure it was an unstable fuel but its possibilities were almost limitless. Krater was most interested in how it could power vast rockets at almost light speed. If his work bore fruit the war would definitely be over within six months. The Fatherland would literally obliterate the enemy without them even being able to fire a shot in defence! He'd even spoken to the Führer himself about his plans and he was so excited he'd given him almost unlimited funding for his work.

"But Herr Sturmbannführer!" argued the scientist, "it's too dangerous for the pilots!"