John Schettler - Paradox Hour

Bogrov shook his head, still trying to understand what had been happening these last hours. There we were, sitting right over Ilanskiy, though the place didn’t look right. It was too small! None of the outlying hamlets were there. It looked as though the surrounding woodland had just swallowed them whole! I know this ground like the back of my hand, and there was something very wrong here. That tree line there. Why, two hours ago it was creeping right up on the rail line. Now it’s well back as it should be. And where was the mooring tower at Kansk? Something is very odd here.

The Admiral has been completely phobic over this place for months now. He’s posting at least two airships here at all times, and keeping a good garrison on the ground as well. The men have been cutting trees for lumber and he’s brought in engineers. What is that demon up to down there? It all has something to do with that damn railway inn, the place where Volkov staged that raid earlier. And here he comes again with damn near half his fleet! We were lucky to come out of that storm as we did, and find ourselves right over those airships. I’ll give Karpov one thing—he can fight. I’ve never seen any man so ruthless and determined in battle. We were badly outnumbered here, and look now—Volkov’s boys are running for any wind they can find.

Yes, Volkov… That’s what this is all about.

Karpov is dead set on making sure Volkov goes down with his ship. Who could survive what we saw, but he’s taking no chances. If Volkov was there, then he’s probably lying in a pile of burning wreckage down below, but Karpov is maneuvering about like he’s still in the hunt. He thinks Volkov made it safely to ground, and if he did, the man would be trying to get airborne again as soon as he possibly could. That’s why Karpov pulled north after these cruisers. Now he’s pulled west for that second contact.

The Signalman came in again, and this time he went directly to Karpov, speaking quietly. Bogrov pretended to be checking his instruments and ballast board, but he was keeping a subtle eye on the two men, wondering.

“You have the bridge, Bogrov. Get us west over that contact. I will return shortly.”

“Aye sir.”

“Admiral off the bridge,” said the boatswain.

Aye, thought Bogrov. The bloody Admiral is off his bloody bridge, most likely off to the radio room for some business or another. Maybe its Kolchak this time. Maybe he wants to know why Karpov needs the entire goddamn fleet out here over this stinking little railway inn, while there’s a major offensive underway out west on the Ob, and we’ve no air cover there. When Karpov had gone, he looked around at the other men, and finally breathed a little easier.

“As you were,” he said quietly, glad for the opportunity to give an order up here once in a while. He was the goddamn Air Commandant of the entire goddamn fleet! Except when Karpov was here, and Karpov was always here, wasn’t he….

The Signalmanhad a handle on some odd radio traffic, ship to ship, and he thought the Admiral would want to listen in. Tunguska had been running west at good speed, and they were very near the contact the Topaz Station had reported, close enough to pick up the short range ship to ship radio sets used for fleet order transmission.

“It’s two ships, sir,” he told the Admiral, “ Pavlodar and Talgar .”

“Can we break in on this channel?” asked Karpov.

“I don’t see why not.” The Signalman began to adjust his radio dials, and then handed the handset over to the Admiral.

“Very well. Dismissed.”

The man saluted and was out the door, leaving Karpov alone in the radio room. He pressed the send and began to speak, hailing the other ships out there beneath the cloud deck. They were very close, down there somewhere, lurking like submarines, and he had the same odd feeling as he might have aboard Kirov whenever Tasarov reported an undersea contact. All he wanted to do is find the damn thing, and kill it.

“Good afternoon, gentlemen,” he said. “This is Admiral Vladimir Karpov. Welcome to Siberia! My radar crew tells me you’re running west. Not very sporting of you to leave without paying the full bill.” He smiled at that, and waited, knowing that if Volkov was down there the temptation to get on the line with him would be overwhelming. He did not have long to wait.

“Greetings Admiral.” The voice was unmistakable. “So you’ve found me at last. I thought you had taken the bait and were up north after my cruiser squadron.”

“Volkov! You son-of–a-bitch! What do you think you’re doing here? Didn’t I teach you not to try and sneak through the back door like this? A pity I had to repeat the lesson.”

“Yes,” came Volkov’s voice. “A pity for the men on Krasny , and on Orenburg as well. You want to play with fire, Karpov? You think I’m a fool? You think I don’t know what you’ve been doing collecting all that coal dust? Well, let me tell you that two can play at that game. I had my service jacket on when I went down those stairs, and I’ve spent a good long while archiving every bit of information it contained. You hit me again with a thermobaric, and I’ll lay waste to every city on the Ob. Then you can sit up there and watch them burn.”

“Don’t threaten me,” said Karpov. “You’re in no position to do that or anything else here. If you haven’t noticed, a good number of your airships are missing, are they not?”

“Missing? Like Yakutsk, Tomsk, Angara, Krasnoyarsk? That’s half your fleet, Karpov. I meant to kill them all, but I’ll admit that while my intelligence is usually spot on, we missed this little maneuver you pulled here just now.”

“Oh? And did you also miss the fact that half of your fleet is missing as well? I took down six ships here today, including your precious fleet flagship, and put damage on at least three or four others. Now I’d like to finish the job.”

“Don’t quibble with me,” said Volkov. “Yes, we took our lumps here, but you can’t trade with me. This was only half my fleet, and you damn well know that. I can come back here with twelve more ships any time I choose, and next time there will be no mistakes. I’ll grind what’s left of your air fleet right under my left boot, including that monstrosity you float about in up there.”

“Your cruiser squadron took one look at us and ran north, Volkov. With men of that caliber at the helm, I have nothing to fear.”

“Don’t be stupid. They ran north because that is exactly what I ordered them to do.”

“Yes? Well I wasn’t stupid enough to take your bait, Volkov. I’m sitting up here at 5000 meters watching this lovely storm brewing. Why don’t you come up and we’ll settle this?”

Volkov laughed now, long and hard over the strained airwaves. “You’d like me to do exactly that, wouldn’t you? No thanks, Karpov. We’ll stay right where we are, and if you have the guts for another fight, then come on down and join me. We’ll lock horns down here, and then I’ll order those three cruisers to come in on top of you and put you out of your misery.”

Karpov nodded, realizing that was Volkov’s only play now. He had to stay low, and count on the fact that he still had those three cruisers up there to tip the scales in his favor if I drop elevation to engage here. I could call for Abakan to join me soon, but it would probably get here too late.

He decided to goad the man one last time, but he knew he could not indulge himself here, no matter how badly he wanted to get Volkov in another fight.

“So you’re running west now, are you? Well don’t wait for Armavir . We took care of that ship as well. And when we finish rounding up the men you left behind on the ground, the interrogations will be very thorough.”