John Schettler - Devil's Garden

“You’re telling me this Russian ship was deliberately trying to prevent this war?”

“We think so. But they failed. They forestalled the attack on Key West , but it only bought us a brief respite. The events leading to the war have too much kinetic energy in them. The outcome is too close to us now, just like that big asteroid in my example. Kirov bought us a short interlude, a brief delay-nine days in fact. As things turned out the war starts nine days later than it might have. There’s a prelude of nine more days of conventional warfare before it all goes ballistic-literally-and this is day eight, Gordon. So now you know what I mean about the 48 hours. The clock is ticking, and time’s nearly run out.”

“Then the Russians know about all this?”

“We aren’t certain of that. They know something, but we don’t know whether they are being sent any information from the future. Our intelligence is good, but let’s face it, it’s much easier to hide something than it is to find it. We don’t really know what the Russians have learned.”

“Then what was that order about to go after the Spetsnaz operation in the Caspian?”

“Good that you should mention that. I’m sorry about the loss there. Yes, it was probably stupid to think we could pull off a surprise attack and not have it be opposed. Well, Navy intelligence has had a look at the objective site. There’s nothing there now.”

“Nothing there? Did Lieutenant Ryan get off a missile and take the target out?”

“That’s not what Mack Morgan tells me. No. We lost an X-3 trying, and Ryan got out, thank god for that. But the target is gone.”

“So the Russians sailed off. That was a ship we were after, eh?”

“No, it was a floating nuclear power plant. They moved it alright, but not in space.”

MacRae took that in, realizing what she must be saying now.

“You’re telling me they moved it in time?”

“This is what we believe.”

“The bloody Russians are operating in time? With Spetsnaz commandos?”

“We think it was Naval Marines, but yes, they were mounting some kind of an operation involving time displacement. They’ve learned how to move discrete objects-objects as big as a ship like Kirov , and everything aboard or within a limited radius of the ship. We couldn’t understand why at first, but from our lead Admiral’s perspective it made perfect sense. A warship like Kirov is an ideal vehicle for intervention in a given time period. You’ve got mobility, autonomy, survivability, and power all rolled into one. If you want to stay hidden, the ocean is a very big place to hide. You can get to virtually any place in the world on a ship, and a ship with helicopters is even better. This is another reason why the Watch is always at sea.”

“That objective site-Morgan told us the Russians had a big helicopter on the roof of that powerplant.”

“We had to wonder where they planned to go with it, and with what looked like a heavy company of Naval Marines. We have people working on that problem right now, though we may not solve it in time. The bottom line is this: we think the Russians are trying to change history, possibly to redress failures or shortcomings that affect their nation badly. Up until now the changes have not been truly significant. We’ve received transmissions of dual files, a kind of before and after, if you will, and they’ve showed us how some things have changed. When did the United States enter the Second World War?

“Easy enough,” said MacRae. “August of ’41, right after the Germans torpedoed the Mississippi . The Yanks were shouting ‘remember the Mississippi’ all through the war.”

“Well you might be surprised to know that we’ve receive a transmission of another starting point for the American entry. It was in December of that same year, over three months later after the Japanese Navy attacked the American fleet at Pearl Harbor. That never happened in the history you and I know, yet we have video of the USS Arizona being blown sky high in the harbor.”

“From the future?”

“Precisely.”

“Then the Russians are trying to change things? They’ve got the ability to shift a thing like that battlecruiser through time, and they’re deliberately using it as a lever on events.”

“We’ve debated the why of all this for decades, ever since we first deduced that Geronimo was actually from the future.”

“How long have you known-the Watch-how long have they known this ship was from the future?”

She smiled at him. “Here’s another kick in your ribs,” she said. “Since 1942!”

“All that time?”

“Yes, but it took that long watch of eighty years to finally confirm it when Kirov vanished during that accident in the North Atlantic last July. The thing finally came full circle.”

“Well if you know the Russians are up to something, have you figured out what it is? You mean to say that when the Americans were closing in on the Russian fleet a few days ago, the Russians just pulled a fast one and slipped away in time? Where did their ruddy ships go this time?”

“We think we know that now. They re-appeared in 1945, at the very end of the war, and raised a ruckus with the US Pacific Fleet. But get this, Gordon. We have another version of how that war ends. The Americans hit Hiroshima and Nagasaki with atomic bombs, and that is what prompted the Japanese surrender.”

“Then there was no battle over Hokkaido with the Russians?”

“Not in the files we received presenting an alternate history.”

“How do you know which one is correct?’

“We don’t. All we do know is that we now have direct evidence that the Russians are trying to change history, and in some ways they have been successful. The gap between the old line of events and what is happening now is getting wider and wider, and soon it will be a chasm that will make it impossible to ever set right again. They’re changing the history, Gordon, but instead of applying a scalpel to the delicate weave of time, they sent this damn battlecruiser to do the job, and someone aboard has been a real bear. We haven’t got all the pieces of the puzzle yet, but we’ve seen enough to realize their meddling is going to have severe consequences. Whatever they’re doing is going to unhinge everything, and it may be too late now to do anything to stop it.”

Oncethe God Zeus released two eagles from opposite ends of the earth, and they met at Delphi, high on the slopes of Mount Parnassus in Greece. It was the center of the world, the navel of the earth, the center of Greece itself, and the heart of an ancient mysterious Oracle that carried the words of Apollo when she spoke, revealing the fate of men and nations in days yet unseen. Now it was a national park and ski resort, with a tourist center at the Oracle site ruins that drew over two million visitors every year.

They were in the Strait of Artemisia. Argos Fire sped on through the night as the mission was being prepared. Now MacRae looked out the cabin window, watching the hills rising in the pre-dawn light, the Rocks of Phaedrades on the high slopes as they tumbled to the Malian Gulf below. His mind was still brooding over all he had heard the previous evening. That and the gin was enough to send his head spinning. That and the scent of the woman as he sat close to her on the loveseat. He spent a long, restless night with her there, and they finally joined in a way he had always dreamed about, though there was a hurried urgency to it all, as if they both could hear that clock ticking in the room.

“O lente, lente currite noctis equi!” she had whispered in his ear. “Go slow, go slow, ye chariot horses of the night…” It was a reference to from Ovid's "Amore," and a plea to slow time’s chariot and extend the hours they had together that night, both the first night as well as the last night in this world they would share that way together.