Mishka picked up her thoughts when they all got seated and had mugs of the local brew.  “Decker, I don’t know if you can grasp this, but stupidity and ignorance come in all shapes and sizes as well as colors.  It is not always color.  It is not always a black and white situation… If you know what I mean.  Right now, this whole continent looks like war, maybe the whole world, and it has nothing to do with black or brown people.  In fact, the American Civil War is the only war I can think of where the color of a person’s skin mattered, and that was fought to keep things as they were or set people free, not to make matters worse.  Some fought to end the tragedy of human slavery, but some states wanted to decide for themselves what was property and what was not.  Okay.  It got decided.  Human beings are not property, though human trafficking continues well into the future.  You understand human trafficking, and it touches just as many white women as black, brown, and Asian women.”  Mishka paused to growl at her mug.  “The point is, this coming war has nothing to do with the color of a person’s skin, or with European colonialism, or any such thing.  Some people want freedom.  They are oppressed minorities in certain countries and such.  They don’t like the way the European map is currently drawn.  Frankly, I think this whole thing is no more than too much testosterone run amok.”  She shrugged.

“Go on,” Stefan encouraged her as she looked down at her untouched beer.

“It is plain stupidity and ignorance, in my opinion.  America has the right idea, to prohibit discrimination based on race, creed, color, national origin, or sex, even if it takes years and years—a century or two before the nation begins to live up to that ideal.  In 1914, there is still a long way to go.  There may always be some personal incidents or instances of discrimination.  I cannot say.  But they are small, personal incidents.  The system has got it right.  People just have to live up to the ideals.”

“You are on fire right now,” Walter said.  “What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking I may have to give up everything I have worked so hard for since I was a child.  You have no idea what I have been through and the struggles I have had, as a woman.”

“Tell us,” Nanette said, and reached over to take Mishka’s hand.  Mishka nodded, pulled in her breath, looked at the table, and talked.

“I was born in Estonia.  My mother was second generation English.  My father was technically Russian, though he undoubtedly had mostly Western European blood as well.  We spoke Russian in the house and moved shortly after I was born.  My father was an engineer and we lived in several cities, including Kiev and Moscow, where he ran the waterworks for the community.  He eventually got promoted to the Saint Petersburg waterworks.  He met the Tsar and his family several times, and knew many members of the Duma, including Kerensky and others.”

“Lenin?” Decker asked.

Mishka waved him off.  “I have met him,” she said, and continued her story.  “In Saint Petersburg I had the best education, all the top tutors, and connected with a doctor who treated all the top people in the city, including the Tsar and his family.  I hate Rasputin, I must say.  As early as 1901, when I turned twelve, my doctor-mentor began to write to universities all over Western Europe.  My father encouraged the doctor, though I had no idea.  The doctor did not think much of Russian medical schools and refused to see me shoved into some nursing-midwife program.  He and my father got the Duma itself to write recommendations and they even pledged some money to support me in my time of study.  I had no idea, but when I turned eighteen, I got put on a train and headed for Paris.  Paris was difficult, especially at first…”  She let her voice trail off into the silence and finally took a sip of her beer.

“Tell me,” Nanette encouraged her.

“Well, at first they thought N. I. Kolchenkov was a man.  They had me assigned to housing with a bunch of men.  I had to find and pay for my own housing.  Then I had one professor in particular who said I had no business studying medicine and he planned to fail me and get me kicked out of the school.  I had to work double hard—triple hard.  I passed his class, but barely.  It was hard for four years.  There are many stories you don’t need to hear.”

Food came.

“Lord Leslie was nice, before Walter.”  She patted Walter’s hand.  “He took me to London for Christmas, twice, and the summer between on summer break.  He was studying antiquities.” she said that to Tony.  “He was fascinated with Stonehenge.  He was also part of the upper nobility.  His father was in the House of Lords.  He said he planned to marry me.  I said I was not going to marry him, and I believe his mother sighed a great sigh of relief on hearing that.”  Mishka smiled at her thoughts and ate a little.  “I got a letter and donation from the Empress Alexandra that summer.  She encouraged me to strike a blow for all women.  That letter made Leslie’s mother sigh not so loud, perhaps.

“So, how did you end up here?” Tony asked.

“It was the only residency in surgery I could get in all of Europe, and they thought I was a man.  They were positively delighted to have me until they found out I was a woman.  I immediately got put in charge of the women’s clinic and ignored.  I spent a whole year delivering babies and training the nurse-midwives to run the clinic while I complained to everyone I knew.  I was accepted to residence in surgery.  I had no business in the clinic.  The surgical staff was where I needed to be.  Finally, and I don’t know who got to the university, but I got the chance.”

“And she is the best surgeon on the staff, hands down,” Stefan said.

“Absolutely,” Walter agreed.  “And I think she should stay.  If old Kress gets drafted, she could run the surgical department.”

“Kress is too old to get drafted and Stottlemeyer would probably take over.  You and I, however, will undoubtedly be dragged into it, however it goes,” Stefan countered.

Walter put on his mopey face.

Mishka nodded for the men and then shook her head.  “Now, I don’t know.  Women doctors are rare, in case you did not get that message.  They are even more rare in Russia, and mostly confined to women’s issues.  I’m thinking N. I. Kolchenkov might join the army.  I might get commissioned before they realize I am a woman.  At least I could practice real medicine and my surgical craft.”

“If they don’t discharge you right away,” Decker said.

Mishka smiled for the man.  “But for you, I have the Men in Black in North America getting yours and Tony’s papers in order.  I also have a present for you before you leave.”

“We have to leave?” Nanette asked.  “Right away?”

MIshka nodded this time without shaking her head.  “I will be taking the Sunday train in the morning to Prague. I will change trains there for Bucharest.  Romania is making noises about remaining neutral in whatever madness breaks out.  I should be able to get home from there.  Meanwhile, you shot a man, in case you forgot.  He will be all right…” She looked at Stefan and Stefan nodded.  “But I expect the police to show up at some time, probably in the morning, or it being Sunday, maybe the afternoon the way things work around here, but you need to be gone.  So, Decker, stand up.”  Mishka stood so Decker stood to face her.

Doctor Mishka took two insignia of rank from her purse.  She unpinned his insignia of lieutenant colonel and pinned on the full bird.  “It is my honor.  Congratulations Colonel,” she said. Decker came to attention and saluted.  She returned the salute saying, “I will have to learn how to do that properly.”  She handed Decker the lieutenant colonel silver leaves and a pair of captain’s bars.  “You might recognize the captain’s bars.  They were yours that Casidy got from Major Lockhart.  She kept them through all your adventures with her own lieutenant bars.  Give the captain bars to Tony when he is ready. He has been registered as a captain and your adjutant back in the states, but I know he has more to learn.  You, on the other hand, will train African American marines and no doubt some of your ideas will filter into the whole marine corps.  Watch your history.  Don’t get ahead of yourself.”

“Ma’am,” Decker said with another small salute.  He put the insignia away for safe keeping.  He patted Tony on the shoulder.  “You need to hit the books as soon as we get some.”

“Sir,” Tony said, and swallowed.  He was a scholar, not a fighter.  Books he could handle.  He was not sure about war, but he would not let his country down in their time of need.

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Don’t Forget tomorrow (Thursday) there will be a post and the end of the episode.

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