John Schettler - Altered States

Volsky took a moment to let that sink in. “Then we cannot save it,” he said softly. “We never could save it-put the eggs back in the nest as you say with Fedorov.”

“Leonid, men have looked to the future for generations with the idea they could build it, shape it, save it for their old age or their children and grandchildren’s sake, but they never could. Most of the time it was all they could do to try and hold it together in the moment they lived. That’s all we can do, my friend. This moment, for most men without ships that travel in time, is the only place they are ever at liberty to be. They say they do things for a better tomorrow, but what they really do is live in the here and now, whether good, bad or ugly, and they try to make it just a little more sane, and a little more comfortable.”

“But we are at liberty to be somewhere else. That is the mind-numbing thing about our situation. The train is off the tracks, and we no longer have to follow it. We can move to another time-I can order Dobrynin to start the procedure in half an hour, and the moment we do this air we breathe, this sacred moment we once called the here and now everyone else is stuck in, well it just vanishes!”

“So you get another here and now after the fog clears, yes? It’s no different than going to sleep tonight. You close your eyes, your thoughts linger, images drift through your mind, then you let go and drift away. The next thing you know it is tomorrow, only that day is no longer something waiting to be, it is right there in the palm of your hand. So what do you do? You wake up, get out of bed, and walk into that new here and now. You see, Leonid, we are all time travelers. We get the present in little slices, like a loaf of bread, day by day.”

Volsky smiled. “Give us this day our daily bread…”

“And forgive us our trespasses,” said Zolkin.

“As we forgive those who have trespassed against us…” He took a long breath. “I suppose I had better get things moving. Dobrynin is waiting for the order.”

“So what have you decided?”

“Time to go to sleep, Dmitri. We may soon wake up and find Kazan is no longer in bed with us, but I don’t see that there is anything else we can do. If we stay here it will be a very long and sleepless night.”

The Doctor nodded, smiling.

Fedorov was on the bridge, finally hearing the news he had been searching for on the BBC. Nikolin was translating the English, and the picture of the world being painted was quite astonishing. When Admiral Volsky returned he came to the communications station to see what he had discovered. He saw his young ex-navigator sitting with a pad device, checking references as Nikolin fed him information, a perplexed look on his face.

“Mister Fedorov, you look as though you are having difficulty balancing your checkbook.”

Fedorov looked up, scratching his head. “I’m afraid I have bad news, Admiral. We’ve been monitoring BBC as you have asked. The date is June 11, 1940, just as I suspected, but the news is very strange. Some of it makes perfect sense to me. The British have just evacuated Norway, the German Army is in France, Poland has been divided between Germany and the Soviet Union. The big news of the day is the declaration of war by Italy against Britain and France.”

“And the Soviet Union? What was this business about a Siberian State you heard earlier?”

“That has also been confirmed, sir. From what I can gather, Russia has divided into numerous factions. One calls itself the Soviet Union in the west and the news from there is centered on Moscow. A second state seems to exist in the heartland of the Urals and south into Kazakhstan. News there came out of Orenburg on the shortwave, something about the 17th Airship Wing and Samara.”

“Airship wing? That is very odd.”

“Then we monitored that other source again, the Free Soviet Siberian State. But it wasn’t broadcasting from Vladivostok. The signal signed off at Krasnoyarsk. In fact, we could hear nothing at all from Vladivostok, at least nothing identifiable in Russian. Nikolin says he has Japanese stations broadcasting on that vector, and the call sign is Urajio.”

“What does this mean?”

“I looked it up, sir. It is the Japanese name for Vladivostok. Apparently the Japanese Empire has established itself there, and extends from Korea, through Manchukuo and into the Trans-Baikal and Amur region.”

“This entire sector is occupied by Japan?”

“It appears so, Admiral.”

“So Russia is divided. I cannot say this surprises me. It is a miracle that the nation survived the revolution in one piece after the Tsar fell.”

“This would have to mean the civil war had a very different outcome. Perhaps the Bolshevik Reds were unable to completely defeat the Whites, and these other two states arose.”

“That is a reasonable conclusion,” said Volsky. “And what of this fighting on the Volga? Have the Germans invaded?”

“No sir. In fact, Soviet Russia is a declared neutral in the conflict. Instead there seems to be ongoing fighting between that state and the Orenburg Federation, and there is fighting in Samara, Saratov and the Don Basin along their common border.”

“Well Mister Fedorov, the history did not survive Karpov’s intervention after all. We did what we could, but Kirov’s engagement there may have caused irreparable damage even before we snuck in with Kazan . Now the only question is what will happen if we try to shift again as planned? If the history is this badly fractured, I cannot imagine what the world might look like in 2021.”

“It might heal, sir. History has proved to be very resilient. There could be ethnic and national forces at work that will eventually see Russia re-united, and the war now underway in the West will also affect the outcome and shape of the post-war world.”

“So Stalin will be busy getting his house in order for a good long while. I wonder how this will affect the war?”

“Who can say, sir, though another odd thing is that there has been no mention of Stalin, at least not in the news we heard. We did here something else, a broadcast out of Volgograd.”

“Volgograd? The city was not called that during the war, yes?”

“No sir. Before the war it was Tsaritsyn, and then it was renamed Stalingrad in 1925 and was called that until 1961 when it changed to Volgograd.”

“What do you think about this, Mister Fedorov?”

“I cannot be certain without a good deal more information, sir, but it could mean Stalin failed to consolidate power in the Bolshevik faction.”

“That would be welcome news.” Volsky looked for a chair to get off his feet, sitting down next to Nikolin at his station. “The two of you have done well. Yet now we must decide on this shift. I have spoken to Doctor Zolkin and Rodenko, and they both feel we should try another shift. Chief Dobrynin says he has both control rods installed. What about those contacts Rodenko reported on? Are they still closing?”

“No sir, they broke off and turned back to Japanese territorial waters once we were well into the Sea of Japan.”

“Good. Then we will have time to move north and sort ourselves out without being bothered, and we do not have to rush into this procedure yet.” He looked at his watch, thinking how he never felt the same about it now. It was always a touchstone and reference point in the day, but now the time was never certain.

“Mister Fedorov, do you have any ideas concerning the deployment of Kazan relative to Kirov when we attempt this?”

“Well sir, given that the two vessels may not move together, perhaps they should stage at a very safe distance from one another. We know Rod-25 has a radius that can affect things several kilometers away.”