John Schettler - Devil's Garden

“Amazing…I …I don’t know what to say.”

“As I said earlier, you have been too busy trying to manage this new war to have paid any attention to how the last one turned out. Now you know, and if you were to investigate further in a good library, you would find out a great many things have changed. I don’t know which is the unkindest fate-to live in a world of unknowing where ignorance is bliss and the world under your feet seems solid and sure, or to taste of the forbidden fruit of knowledge, and yet never have the peace of certainty. I have made it a point to consult my references each and every day, Admiral, and I must tell you that much has changed over the years. More than we have discussed here.”

“It is enough to drive a man mad.”

“I felt the same way when all this first dawned on me. In fact, I believed I was going insane at one point. Then I found out what was really happening. It has been my lifelong business to know what really happens in this world. Very few men alive know the real truth of many events reported as history in all those library books.”

“So Kirov was sunk along with Orlan . And the destroyer the American battleship hit must have been the Admiral Golovko . God go with them. That was a good ship and crew.”

“Was it sunk, Admiral? Is that what the passage says there?”

Volsky looked again, and now he saw that the wording was deceptive. The passage read that during the Russian occupation of the Kuriles, a small task force of the Russian Pacific Fleet armed with advanced new weapons deliberately attacked US ships and planes and was subsequently engaged by the US Third Fleet under Admiral Halsey. In that battle the Russians successfully deployed a small yield atomic weapon to destroy the battleship Iowa , possibly as a threat intended to get the US to back down over Soviet aspirations to occupy the Island of Hokkaido. A large US fleet retaliated by air and sea, hitting another Russian warship which resulted in the detonation of a second bomb. All ships in the Russian flotilla were presumed destroyed.

“Presumed destroyed-it says that right here,” said Volsky.

“A presumption that was easily made under the circumstances. No trace of Orlan or Kirov was ever found, at least not there in 1945 in the waters southeast of the Kuriles. There was some gun camera photography of the final American air strike. It has never been published but I was able to get hold of this photograph.”

Kamenski reached into his pocket and produced a faded photo, handing it to the Admiral, who studied it closely.

“That is Orlan . Note the unitary hull and superstructure. There is no question about it.”

“Well, I’ve had some time to look into it a little further, and I believe that Kirov survived that battle.”

“Survived? In 1945?”

“No, I believe the ship was again displaced in time.”

“Where?”

“That remains to be discovered. I am waiting for more information, but our time grows short here. This war is very inconvenient.”

“How long have you known all this?”

“That the world is uncertain, always changing, liable to take a new and startling new shape at any moment? I have known since the Tsar Bomba event I spoke of earlier. That was in 1961, but I do not think that was the first instance. The interesting new twist on all this is Rod-25, a whole new factor in the equation. This connection to the Tunguska event is most intriguing. That may have been an event capable of producing these same effects where time is concerned. We stumbled on the secret that displacement in time was possible years later, in 1961, but how to control it? That was the real challenge. I only wish we had more time to investigate this Rod-25 business now. Perhaps it was foolish of us to send those other two rods back on the Anatoly Alexandrov . Yet in doing so we may have changed more than we intended.”

Volsky suddenly remembered Fedorov, and wondered if Kamenski knew the fate of that mission as well. “I suppose if Karpov did all this, then that mission was not successful. All his letter did is send us off on a wild goose chase. The idea to use the Mi-26 sounds preposterous now. What about that, Kamenski? Do you know what happened to Fedorov and Dobrynin?”

“To some extent. I can tell you that the Anatoly Alexandrov got back to 1942 safely, just as you planned it. Then things began to happen. Some very unusual things…because I just came from the special code room. We have received another message.”

Theysailed alongside the Empress of China for ten minutes, both sides gawking at one another through binoculars and telescopes. Yet Karpov saw no reason for any further contact. The steamer had told him what he needed to know, the date and time, and now he realized that the opportunities inherent in this moment were west, in the Sea of Japan, and not the wide Pacific.

“Ahead full,” he said calmly. “We head west now. In fact, I think we may even pay a visit to Vladivostok. Stalin would be a young man in 1908, and of no consequence. The Tsar rules now, but he is very far away. It was a three week journey to St. Petersburg from the Pacific coast. The Siberian railway had only just been completed. So we are in charge of Russia’s fate in the Pacific now, gentlemen.”

“We are in charge sir?” Rodenko raised an eyebrow at that.

“Who better? I intend to reverse the misfortunes suffered at the hands of the Japanese and set us back on our rightful course.”

Again Rodenko hesitated before he spoke. “Is that wise, sir? We could affect the history in ways we cannot yet see if we intervene here.”

“That is precisely the idea, Rodenko. No man can ever foresee the real consequences of his actions. If he tried to do so he would be forever frozen in inaction. If you want to change the world, you have to act. Admittedly, I have sometimes acted badly, but that was only because the challenge was simply too strong for a single ship to overcome. The American navy in 1945 was much bigger than I expected, and much more determined. That will not be the case here. The men of this era are no match for us now. This ship can impose its will on the Pacific and make it stick.”

“What do you intend to do, sir?”

“I believe one error I made in 1945 was not first securing the cooperation and support of our homeland. So I am setting my course for the Golden Horn Harbor at Vladivostok. Kirov is going home again. It may not be the city any of us know and recognize, but it will be home nonetheless. I intend to offer my services to the Tsar as the flagship of Russia’s new Pacific Fleet. With the support of the Russian Army, we will see what we might accomplish.”

“But sir… This is 1908. What if we affect the history that led to the development of the Soviet Union-the history that led to the design of this very ship!”

“If we do so, it will be for the good Rodenko. You have to believe that. There will be no need to resort to extreme measures here as I did before. I am ordering that all nuclear warheads currently mounted on missiles or torpedoes are to be removed and replaced with conventional warheads. They will be placed in secure storage in the magazine.”

“A wise precaution, sir. Then you intend to make Vladivostok our primary base of operations?”

“Initially, but it will have the same problem that prompted Russia to look for warm water ports in Manchuria-ice. That was why Russia was expanding here in the first place. We have always sought access to blue water ports throughout our history, and we have never been successful. That is why we shiver in the ice and snow of Severomorsk and Vladivostok. Admiral Makarov of this era set his sights on Port Arthur, but the Japanese foiled our expansion here in the interest of furthering their own domination of China, and they set us back on our heels. Russia never recovered from the beating she took in the Russo-Japanese War, at least not as a Pacific Power. We never were able to achieve our true and rightful destiny here. All that changes now.”