Eric Flint - 1636:The Kremlin games

Ruslan Andreyivich over-rode the political officer, who wanted to have Nick and the former commander executed. He wasn’t by nature a vicious man, just utterly pragmatic. Besides, after this had all settled out, he would be working with these people or their relatives. The less blood on his hands, the easier that would be.

He didn’t arrest Ivan the baker’s boy for two reasons. One, Ivan was too junior, and two, he was a Sheremetev connection who had gotten the post by virtue of his tie to Boris Timofeyevich Lebedev, so should be quite dependable. He considered promoting the lad to take Nick’s place, but he couldn’t. Ivan was, after all, the son of a baker. Streltzi. He couldn’t be placed over members of the service nobility.

“You know,” Tim commented, “when you came back to Murom, you didn’t realize that word had reached the town to arrest you. But we can be pretty sure that word has reached Bor. They may think that we’re heading directly Ufa, but to get to Ufa by river we have to go right by Nizhny Novgorod and Bor.”

“Do you think they will be ready for us?” Bernie asked. He’d seen Tim in the war games at the Moscow Kremlin and had been impressed by the kid in Murom.

“I don’t know.” Tim said. “That is, I don’t know how they will be ready for us. What they will have done to prepare for us. By now they know we are on the river but some of the messages we picked up when we stopped at that radio telegraph station suggested that much of the Streltzi from Nizhny Novgorod are out beating the woods looking for the princess. Getting the order to go into the field to the city that Streltzi are stationed in is easy with the radio links, but getting the order to go back home to them once they are in the field is a lot harder. Unlike the up-timer radios, the spark gap units that we are building here are not portable. Well, you can put one on a riverboat..”

“The strategic situation?” Natasha said. “Let’s keep to the point.”

“Sorry, Princess!” Tim blushed. “They may be able to get them back before we get to Nizhny Novgorod, but it’s not that likely. So it’s probably going to be about half the garrison at Nizhny Novgorod-that’s maybe a hundred people and we have almost that many with us. Nizhny’s Streltzi are pretty well-armed. I think they have the AK4’s, that is the cap locks, but not the 4.7’s which have the new chamber clips. So we will have a better rate of fire. That’s brand new.

Only the Gun Shop, the Dacha and your Streltzi at Murom are equipped with the 4.7’s.”

“And a few hundred rich nobles who have to have the newest gun no matter how much it costs,” Anya added.

Tim-who was wearing the brand new six-shot revolver-was spending quite a bit of time pink, to the amusement of the ladies.

“Anyway, we should have a better rate of fire for the first few minutes of battle if it comes to that,” Bernie said. “Got it.”

“Yes, but I don’t think it will come to that unless we actually stop in Nizhny. I think they will look at the boats and the guns and the fact that the czar is aboard and not shoot if we don’t. Maybe.”

“What about Bor?”

“The same. If we don’t bother them, they won’t bother us.”

“But we are going to bother them. We are going to go in there and take my dirigible,” Czarina Evdokia said. Since it was named after her, she took a proprietary interest in the giant airship. “It’s completed most of its trials and we are going to need it.”

Tim nodded respectfully. He agreed with her because it was the solution to one of the biggest problems facing them. The czar, or at least the czar’s family, must be protected, out of reach of the Boyar Duma. But at the same time, they needed a place where people could come join them until enough had joined them to take the fight to the boyars. The dirigible would let the czar reach the hoped-for followers without falling into the hands of the Boyar Duma. They had the place to meet, but it was too easy for the Boyar Duma ’s troops to reach by riverboat. The dirigible, which the czarina wanted for emotional and prestige reasons, Tim wanted for tactical reasons. Which meant they had to get it.

“Captain Ruslan Andreyivich Shuvalov is a skilled commander, if not overly imaginative. He knows that the dirigible is of considerable military value. He discussed it with me and Ivan on the boat that took me to Murom. He understands its scouting value but doubts its value as a cargo or passenger craft. He’ll be preparing to use it to track us for the Boyar Duma but he won’t think of us wanting it. At least, I don’t think he will. Ivan, though. Ivan might consider things like the prestige having it will give us and he will certainly see the strategic value of being able to get effectively out of the boyars’ range while still able to come in to strike them or recruit more forces. If I thought of it, Ivan has.”

Tim had a tremendous advantage in that he knew the players. He knew Captain Ruslan Andreyivich Shuvalov and he knew Ivan. They had the same advantage when it came to him, except they probably thought he was still in Murom with his cousin. So how would they figure Bernie would look at things and how about the czar? Ruslan Andreyivich would probably not consider Princess Natasha or the czarina. He had a bit of a blind spot where women were concerned. Ivan might, but…

“I don’t think Ruslan Andreyivich will be listening to Ivan that much,” Tim said out loud.

“What are you talking about, Tim?” Anya asked, and Tim realized that Ruslan Andreyivich Shuvalov certainly wouldn’t be considering Anya’s input.

“Ruslan Andreyivich Shuvalov is smart and capable and pretty open-minded,” Tim said. “But he doesn’t think of women as thinking creatures and he doesn’t really think of the lower class as thinking people, either. So he’s not going to consider what you, the princess or the czarina contribute to our plans. He will think about Bernie and the czar; he’ll probably think about the captain of the princess’ guard, not knowing about Captain Vladislav Vasl’yevich’s death. So he’ll figure our actions based on that. He knows that Bernie is…” Tim ran out of words. He wasn’t at all sure of how to put what was probably going through Ruslan Andreyivich’s mind.

The up-timer laughed. Well, snorted humorously. “He’ll figure I’m not an absolute coward but not someone that goes looking for trouble either. And sort of the same about Czar Mikhail.” The up-timer looked at the czar of Russia like a friend, not a monarch, and continued. “Sorry, Boss, but he’ll think it even less likely that you will attack.”

“Yes, I know,” said Czar Mikhail. Not like he was offended but more like someone touched by an old pain, a very old pain that had touched him many times before. “Good but weak Czar Mikhail, of kind heart and weak will. I know how I am thought of and I often wonder if they are right. Perhaps they are. I didn’t want to be czar. I didn’t want to take sides in this business, either. But I was given little choice in either case. Very well, General Tim. What will Ruslan Andreyivich’s beliefs about me tell him? Do not fear for my feelings. I’ve heard worse and we have more important things to worry about.”

Tim tried. “They will assume we will avoid a fight unless it’s forced upon us. That’s what the princess’ guard captain would have recommended.” It was also what Ruslan Andreyivich would see as Bernie and the czar’s natural inclination. And he wouldn’t be wrong. Tim didn’t think it was actual cowardice on the part of either Bernie or the czar. But they had kind hearts, perhaps even soft hearts. Not so the women. The czarina, the princess, and the servant girl sat in the royal duma like hungry lionesses. Worse, angry lionesses. The gentle hearts of the men might seek peaceful resolution of conflicts, but the women wanted blood.