John Schettler - Devil's Garden

“By an atomic weapon! I might have known Karpov would revert to his old ways. A bear is a bear, whether it is hunting for honey, fish or foul. But if the Americans bombed Vladivostok, then what are we doing here? How is it the history has survived to bring the two of us here like this? The odds against it ever happening would be staggering.”

“Hiroshima is a thriving modern city today. The same for Nagasaki. The Americans destroyed both-at least in one rendition of the history. We rebuilt the city, or so I have learned. In fact, should you discuss the bombing of Vladivostok in 1945 with anyone else in your headquarters here they will already know about it.”

“You remember Hiroshima? No one else seems to here. I let it slip once…Pearl Harbor as well, and all I got were blank stares.”

“Yes, I remember Hiroshima, and Pearl Harbor as well. They happened in the old world you and I left behind so long ago. No one else here will know about them, though they will know that Vladivostok was bombed in 1945.”

“They have seen this book of yours as well?”

“No, they don’t need my book, it is all the world they have always known, the world they grew up in. It’s all history to them. You and I were the only ones in the dark, Admiral, because we’re from another world, in a manner of speaking.”

“I don’t understand. You are saying they already know what Karpov did?”

“Certainly, just ask your Chief of Staff, or anyone else around here. They will know the history you just read, though that reference mentions nothing about Karpov. It was very vague, simply describing a Russian flotilla. They will know that history recorded an engagement between Russian ships and the US Navy in August of 1945, but nothing else-not the way the world used to be before Karpov vanished and appeared in 1945, the world we came from. That is reserved for old grey heads like yours and mine. For them, nothing has changed at all.”

“How is it we know differently?”

“Think about that, Admiral. You know a world where you sailed quietly out of Severomorsk to conduct live fire exercises. Then you know the world you came back to when you returned to Vladivostok. Now you know this world, the world after Karpov’s intervention in 1945, though you have probably been too busy to read up on things. Perhaps there are more worlds we will come to be acquainted with. I have lost track of them as they go by.”

“But Talanov does not know anything of Kirov’s displacement in time. He has no idea what really happened after we left Severomorsk!”

“He wasn’t even assigned here in that world. Talanov was in the Baltic, but he doesn’t know or remember a single minute of that old life-the life before Kirov vanished. When it happens, when things change, no one knows it except a very few. Talanov lives in the bliss of unknowing. He looks around at the world and accepts it as a matter of fact. It was always this way, the history he knows. Vladivostok was destroyed by the Americans in 1945. It’s history as it reads now, at least for the moment, and he has never known otherwise.”

“Then he could not perceive the change? Three days ago Karpov was here and nothing I just read in that book had happened. Talanov knew that world too, and in that world there was no such event as the destruction of Vladivostok by B-29 bombers. Are you saying he has no recollection of that either?”

“Precisely. Yet how is it you know these things, but he does not? This is your next question. Yes? Well, I cannot be certain, but I believe it is because you have moved in time, Admiral. You are a member of a very select group of people on this earth who have actually displaced in time. Somehow the contents of your brain are not affected by these changes. It is as if you reside on some safe spot in the time line of events now, like the eye of hurricane or the center of a whirlpool on the sea. It is a dead zone, a zone of calm and stability, and yet a place where any possibility could manifest at any moment. You are there, safely aware of all your experiences and free from the ravaging hand that rewrites history each time a crazy sea Captain decides to take on the world.”

Volsky gave Kamenski a long look, his eyes narrowing. “You say I know these things because I have traveled in time. Very well, let us assume that has something to do with it. But how is it you know these things, Mister Kamenski? The last time I looked you were not on the crew roster of Kirov.”

“Well said, Admiral. But the answer to that question should be apparent to you. I know these things because I, too, have moved in time.”

“You?”

“Yes, and it is a very long story. I told you something of it when I discussed the odd effects we discovered with our nuclear test program, if you recall that.”

“You mean the men who went missing, like our crew member vanished at the Primorsky Engineering center?”

“Something like that, though he was sent on his way by Rod-25, just like your Mister Fedorov and all the men on the Anatoly Alexandrov you sent back to fetch him home. Yes, we discovered some very odd things with those nuclear tests. The most shocking thing was that time travel was possible. It was kept very secret, of course, but we have been working on it, unbeknownst to the central government, and much has been done over the years. Only a very few men will know the whole story. I was one of them, being involved in intelligence my entire career.”

“How did you move in time? You must tell me.” Volsky was very interested now, leaning forward over the copy of the book Kamenski had given him, his big eyes searching the other man’s face.

“It’s too long a story to go into it all now. But suffice it to say that some of the ships and planes that have turned up missing over the years were not lost in accidents at sea or because their compass failed them as they searched in vain for a friendly airfield. All this has been kept very quiet, of course; very secret. And only those who actually do move in time really know about it. You are a new member of that very exclusive club, Admiral, which is why I take the liberty of revealing these things to you now.”

The ticking of the clock on the wall was the only thing to break the silence, its unfailing round marking off the seconds of that impossible minute. “This happened in the old world? The World I left at Severomorsk?”

“It did…”

“Then it was possible that world had been altered as well. What did these other ships and planes do, eh? Did they affect the history just as Kirov did?”

“In some ways. Yes, we actually tried to do this, but with very mixed results. Most simply thought nothing had happened. They didn’t know, you see, but I did. I took the time to study the history after each and every experiment, and I had a good number of references I could consult to see what might have changed. I knew things were happening, even if most of the project team itself was in the dark because they never displaced in time. So they still believed the world was the same as the one they were born to, yet I knew different. I knew the real truth. Believe me, Admiral, this can be a very heavy burden to carry. Kirov, however, was not planned. We had no idea that Rod-25 would cause such effects. It was an entirely unexpected event.”

“My God… then the world I came from-”

“Yes, it has changed many times, but in all those events you were one of the unknowing who changed right along with it, and were never the wiser-just like your Mister Talanov. After you displaced in time aboard Kirov , however, you fell into the void, the nexus point where every possible outcome of events intersect to choose a final course and destiny. Once you fall, Admiral, you are there to stay. You have been thrown out of paradise and now you have the privilege of knowing, or the burden, depending on how you look at it. This is why you now know the world has been changed when you read things like that book-because you still remember the old world you came from, and the world before you sent the Red Banner Pacific Fleet out to challenge the Americans-before your Mister Karpov did what you just read in that book.”