John Schettler - Kirov III - Pacific Storm

“But why, Turing? What are they here for? Was this ship sent here deliberately? How could it possibly happen? Time travel is a thing for fanciful writers to bandy about.”

“We may probably never know the how or why of it all. But we do know the facts we have witnessed, Admiral. The ship was here, then it vanished and appeared in the Med a year later. That’s why we never saw it waving at us in the Straits of Gibraltar or Suez. It was somewhere else, moving in time , Admiral. Then it vanishes at St. Helena and re-appears 7,800 miles away overnight! Again, it could only do so by moving in time , or possibly through some higher dimension. We may never know this either.”

“Have they come here for a purpose? This is a warship. Were they sent here with some mission? After all, the history of this period is fairly critical, and as I think on it now, this ship was making a beeline right for the conference between Churchill and Roosevelt at Argentia Bay, and it bloody well blasted anything that tried to stop it, the American Task Force 16 getting the worst of it.”

“What you say makes a great deal of sense, Admiral,” said Turing. “Can you imagine that atomic weapon falling at Argentia Bay and killing both the Prime Minister and the American President in one fell swoop?”

“Believe me, I’ve had nightmares about it, Turing. The Government has had nightmares about it ever since, though now I think we can safely say that the Germans don’t have these weapons after all—not the naval rockets or the warhead that was so terrible to behold. You should have seen it, Professor. It was rather chilling.”

“And again, now this question of why we have seen no other deployment of these rockets by the Germans in a long year makes perfect sense. They never had them! Oh they’re working on designs of their own now, but not like the rockets that have been pounding the fleet, eh?”

Tovey sighed, his eyes searching, concerned. “I had a perfect opportunity to see just how many rockets this ship had left, Turing, and I let this devil go. Had it by the tail and let it slip away.”

“That may have been the wisest course, sir,” said Turing earnestly. “If you had fought your battle, and lived through it, then we might not have come to this conclusion here today.”

“It’s just that the man claimed to want nothing more to do with our war, as he put it—this Captain Nemo. He said he was only trying to get his ship and crew home. I wonder if this whole affair is some kind of macabre accident?”

“That may, in fact, be the simple truth of the matter,” Turing suggested. “Perhaps they are as bewildered about all this as we are. Perhaps the ship does find itself here by accident, and has not been sent here for some darker purpose. But one thing now looms as a most grave and dire threat either way. The presence of this ship has surely changed the course of events, sir. That engagement in the North Atlantic, the use of precision rocketry, atomic weapons…I’m afraid this ship has opened Pandora’s Box, Admiral Tovey. I am aware, as you may now be, that His Majesty’s government has undertaken to disperse its leadership assets all across the Kingdom, and has intensified several projects involving high level physics… It’s as if they were preparing for something they fear might come—something to do with these weapons this ship has so ably demonstrated.”

“I can’t say I find that prospect comforting,” said Tovey.

“Yes, and consider this…Surely these engagements would have never been fought in the Atlantic or the Med were it not for the strange presence of this ship. Why, we’ve canceled the planned air raid on Kirkenes and Petsamo, pulled Force Z off Operation Pedestal early, canceled Operation Jubilee, delayed the Torch landings. Those decisions must have had some impact on the course of the war. Beyond that, the Americans declared war because of the actions of this single ship and, were it not here, how long might it have been before that country really got involved in this conflict? Now the Japanese are in for it! This ship is a rock in the stew they have planned for the Americans.”

“Indeed,” said Tovey. “There’s a big operation underway in the Pacific. The Japanese are definitely coming south. FRUMEL HQ is all up in arms about it in Melbourne. This Darwin business is perhaps only the tip of the sword.”

“Think about it from another perspective, sir. We’ve fought with this ship. Men are dead now who might have lived out this war, and others may be alive that might have been killed. Surely you realize that could change everything from this day forward.”

“I see…” said Tovey, considering this for the first time.

“Well I can’t imagine the Americans would have come to the fight as soon as they did, in spite of Churchill’s hopes to the contrary. This ship made that certain when it attacked Task Force 16 and sunk the Wasp . It might have done that intentionally, as you proposed, though I can’t imagine why. Surely they must have realized that such an act would have dramatic consequences.”

“Perhaps, Turing, though this Captain Nemo did hint that there was some disagreement aboard Geronimo as to how they should act, and that he was indisposed when that action was fought. I came to the conclusion that there may have been a wolf in their fold, a hard liner in command at that time. This Admiral seems to be a good measure more sensible.”

“It’s chilling to think about in any wise, Admiral. Consider it… if this ship is from the future, then they have tremendous knowledge. They know everything that happens from our day to theirs!”

“And where to stick a crowbar in the corners of history, if they ever had a mind to.”

“Precisely, sir.”

Tovey rubbed his forehead, still bewildered by it all, and half way shaking his head at the notions they had discussed here. “Well, Professor Turing, those photos were taken three days ago. I’ve had my ear to the ground on these events ever since I received them. We’ve already sent word to FRUMEL to keep an eye out for this ship, and I suppose we’ll have to tell the Americans about this as well. Whether they’ll believe what we’ve just discussed here is another matter entirely, but we’ll have to tell them. I’ve got a man in mind for the job, but I’m afraid a great deal has happened in the Pacific since these photographs were taken. You may have heard about it through these dark channels you mentioned earlier, but it’s quite a story indeed.”

“I’m all ears, sir,” Turing smiled. “And I have all afternoon if you’d care to join me for lunch.”

Minutesafter they arrived at the distant island outpost of St. Helena, Rodenko knew something was wrong. He had been tracking three aircraft, and the two British cruisers, Norfolk and Sheffield . The planes were orbiting at intervals to cover the seas around the island, while the two cruisers had maneuvered to skirt each side, one sailing down past the small harbor at Jamestown and the other bearing along the northeastern shore. They were to meet at Sandy Bay to watch Kirov drop anchor, but minutes after the big battlecruiser slipped into the thick gray fog north of the island, Rodenko glanced at his screen and saw that all his contacts had vanished. All the drama and struggle of the world they had been sailing in vanished with them, and in time it became clear to them all that they were again lost on an empty sea, in a forsaken world.

Admiral Volsky circled round to the north cape and when they saw the complete destruction of Jamestown harbor, they knew they had slipped into that nightmare world again, perhaps of their own making, where every shore was blackened with the fire of a war they could scarcely imagine.