John Schettler - Devil's Garden

“No identification?”

“We received the call sign KIRV, but there’s nothing in the code book for it. In fact, I checked schedules for outbound traffic. Monteagle is the only other ship that should be approaching us from the southwest, but she just left Shanghai on the eleventh, and there’s no way she could be this far out. Slow as molasses.”

“Indeed, Robinson. Well, this ship seems intent on making our acquaintance, but I can’t imagine why. A doggy chronometer is one thing, but what would a warship be doing out here alone like this?” Battleships of the day moved in grand formations, whole fleets deployed, and it was most uncommon to see a solitary vessel out like this.

“Can you make out her colors, sir?”

“Not at this range. In fact, I can’t seem to spy any markings or standards at all. But my eyes aren’t what they used to be. Perhaps this is a Japanese ship. There isn’t anything left of the Russian Pacific Fleet these days after that disaster at Tsushima Strait in 1905.”

“And another point, sir. She’s not making smoke. How can a ship work up that kind of speed without darkening the skies in her wake. She should be smoking like a wild locomotive, yet look, not a wisp.”

“Yes…” the tone of Archibald’s voice left something hanging in the air between them, something odd, indefinable and caddywumpus to the world they knew. The sudden appearance of this ship was most confounding, and neither man could imagine what it might be. Yet as time passed the ship loomed ever closer, their disquiet increasing with the growing size of the vessel.

“My God, Chief. Just look at her… Look at the damn thing. It’s massive! Why… it looks to be twice our size.” At a little over 455 feet in length, the sleek Empress of China was longer than most battleships of her day. She was sixty feet longer than the Kearsarge, Illinois and Maine class battleships of the US Great White Fleet, and the equal of the newer American battleships in the Virginia and Connecticut classes.

Yet the ship they were looking at now seemed much bigger. Kirov was all of 830 feet long, easily twice the size of any ship of that day, and at 32,000 tons full load there would be no ship to match or exceed her displacement for another two decades when HMS Rodney and Nelson were commissioned between the great wars. The US Navy would not have anything that big until the North Carolina Class battleships and, though not as heavy, Kirov was still a hundred feet longer than those ships. Only the Iowa class battleships recently faced in battle would exceed the Russian battlecruiser in length, or the massive RMS Titanic soon to be laid down in March of 1909 in the UK, and that by only fifty feet.

“That has to be the largest vessel I have ever laid eyes on!”

Now they could clearly see a white flag with blue St. Andrew’s cross in a bold “X” of the Russian Navy flying from atop the main mast.

“Either my eyes have failed me as well, sir, or that’s a Russian naval ensign there.”

“Russian? I know a few ships escaped from the Japanese and have been interred in places like Manila and others, but something this big? It’s unheard of! Anything that big at large in the Pacific would be well known by now. This is astounding!”

They watched as the approaching vessel drew ever nearer. “Mister Robinson. I think we’d best contact Dutch Harbor. Send that we’ve encounter a large warship, massive; apparently Russian. Send these coordinates. They should still be able to receive us. That ship looks to have business with us, and I’m feeling just a wee bit wary of that at the moment.”

“It doesn’t look like we can outrun her, Captain. And we certainly can’t outgun her. Why presume she would be hostile?”

A minute later they saw the ship winking at them by lamp.

“I’m getting a lamp signal. There, sir. Right amidships. They appear to be coming around in a wide turn now. I think they mean to come alongside us.”

“Mister Robinson. Send for Mister Cooper, and tell him he’s to bring his sidearm to the bridge, and three stout crewmen.”

It seemed a feeble precaution given the size and vastly threatening look of this ship, but the Chief nodded and went to see to the matter. Never a dull day at sea, he thought. But what in God’s name is this thing come up from Neptune’s locker? It’s a dragon, a real beast of a ship, and in ten minutes the damn thing will be right off our port quarter!

* * *

“WellMister Rodenko? Seeing is believing.” Karpov folded his arms, smiling for the first time in a good long while. “The HD video feed was one thing, but there’s nothing like the evidence of your own eyes.”

“I’ve come to believe the impossible many times over on this odyssey, sir. But are we wise to make such a close approach to this ship?”

“It clearly poses no threat, Rodenko.”

“Of course, sir. But what will they think of us?”

Karpov looked at him, considering that. “They will think they are seeing the largest ship in the world, Rodenko, and I intend to give them a good long look. Come about and reduce to match their speed at 16 knots. Maneuver to come along side that ship at 200 meters.”

“Very well, sir.” Rodenko seconded those orders, though he had real misgivings. “You realize that they’ll report our presence here.”

“Of course they’ll report it. We’re likely to be the most memorable event of their voyage.”

“Well do we want word to get out, sir?”

“Why not, Rodenko? We’re here, are we not? We were obviously displaced to this year by that last detonation. It appears that nuclear weapons play havoc with the tick of Mother Time’s clock. I’ve read some theoretical papers about it, though Fedorov would probably give us an earful if he were still here.”

“I wonder how he fared in his hunt for Orlov?”

“That was ridiculous. What difference would Orlov make in the world? It was just a waste of time and resources. That control rod should have been left here aboard Kirov where we could have put it to much better use.”

“It seems as though we got our chance anyway, sir.”

“We did, Rodenko, but I was remiss in thinking this single ship could confront the entire combined Allied fleet in 1945. Yes, I’ll be the first to admit that. But perhaps my own bull headed determination to make that engagement was the real deciding factor in all of this.”

“I’m not sure I follow you, sir.”

“Don’t you see, Rodenko? I had the right idea to oppose the Americans-but not the right time or place. Had we shifted just a few years further back in time as before, I could have used this ship to determine the outcome of the Pacific War. Fedorov believes our action in the North Atlantic prevented the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and brought the Americans into the war early. Even so, the Japanese seemed to be making a pretty good go of things at the outset. Then we showed up and Volsky sailed us right into the middle of a major Japanese offensive! We unhinged the whole scope of their operations and, in doing so, we inadvertently restored the balance of power in the Pacific. The Americans were able to establish themselves in the Solomons on Guadalcanal and defend that outpost. Then the rest of the history played out as before. Our arrival again in 1945 may seem like happenstance, but what if it was not? What if it was meant to happen this way?”

Karpov had a distant, searching look in his eyes now, as if he were coming to this conclusion for the first time, and suddenly seeing the possibilities inherent in the moment-endless open possibilities, for now he found himself in a most interesting position in time.