John Schettler - Stormtide Rising

“Very good, sir. Belanov will show you the way.”

“Signal on the secure channel, sir. It’s from Admiral Volsky.” Nikolin looked over his shoulder.

“Send it to my ready room. Mister Fedorov? Care to join me?”

The two men withdrew, with the hatch closed behind them. Karpov sat down at his desk, swiveling a pad device and tapping in the code to bring up the decrypted message”

“Ah,” he said. “Someone is getting curious. It asks me to confirm or deny use of special warheads. Very interesting.”

“Chernov,” said Fedorov. “He’s got ears like Tasarov. I don’t think that detonation went unnoticed. The blast wave would have hit the ocean surface very hard, even from the altitude where you detonated that warhead.”

“Indeed,” said Karpov. He was already tapping out his response. “I suppose I should inform his lordship, as a curtesy—not a response to any order he may have intended with that message.”

“Yes, your highness,” said Fedorov. “Who’s playing it high and mighty now?”

“Alright, Fedorov. I’ll admit I can be haughty at times.”

“To say the least.”

“It isn’t that,” said Karpov. “It’s about boundaries. Volsky should realize that he doesn’t rank me here—not any longer. That time is long past. So I’ll confirm on his request, and indicate it was a necessary expedient to save the ship. He can believe what he chooses in that. But Kazan has turned and they are now heading south. The good Admiral wants to know where we are going.”

“Well…. Where are we going? We broke off from that action some time ago.”

“I’m taking us south, away from that damn Japanese task force. It isn’t the destroyers I worry about, but those F-35’s are a nuisance.”

“That’s an understatement,” said Fedorov.

“Well, we’ve broken off, and I don’t think they know where we are, but that engagement was most unwelcome, and it cost us.”

“Yes, missiles, a KA-40, and one of three special warheads. That was a heavy price to pay.”

“It might have been much steeper,” said Karpov. “We would have gone the way of Takami , and getting that damn ship was our only consolation. If not for the carrier, I would have stood and fought those destroyers, and beaten them too.”

“That would have taken a lot of SSMs” said Fedorov. “We decided that Takami wasn’t worth the missiles.”

“Only after they had expended all their SSMs,” Karpov corrected. “Between those three destroyers, they had 24 to throw at us. I would have swatted each and every one down. They just move too slow, and make easy quarry for our SAMs. But their SM-2 is very good. It even has a chance against our MOS-III. My problem is that I need every missile we have to remain a viable threat here.”

“A threat? I thought we were trying to extricate ourselves from this whole scenario.”

“Yes, yes, but what about Volkov? And now what about all these damn modern Japanese ships that appear so suddenly like this? What the hell is going on, Fedorov?”

“I’ve told you what I think on that. The fabric of spacetime has been so damaged that things are slipping through, particularly when there is any active detonation event, like that Nuke you fired.”

“We did not detect any more interlopers after that,” said Karpov.

“That’s a relief,” said Fedorov. “The thing is this, Admiral. These detonations don’t have to occur here. They can happen at any point in time from this day forward. Think of all the nuclear testing that went on here in the Pacific after the war. Each one may have put a crack in time, and things can slip through. And what’s happening in 2021? My bet is that a lot of nukes are starting to fly, and that means trouble.”

“Youmean you believe things might still be coming through?” Karpov found that prospect very riveting. “Here? To World War II?”

Thus far, this is where most of the shifts have brought things,” said Fedorov. “You got further back, to 1908, when you used a nuke here. And just now, you saw what happened to the ship when you fired off this one. We phased.”

“Yes,” said Karpov. “I saw you vanish right before my eyes, and then reappear. “ You phased, Fedorov.”

“Somewhat frightening to think about.”

“And you believe the ship phased with you? Why was I the steady observer. Did you notice anything?”

“It all happened so fast,” said Fedorov, “in the blink of an eye. But a word to the wise. We phased, and if the ship had been closer to that detonation, who knows where we might have shifted.”

“But I have removed Rod-25 and placed it in a rad-safe container,” said Karpov.

“We don’t know if that is enough of a safety measure,” said Fedorov. “Hell, we don’t even know how the exotic materials in that control rod work their magic. The rad safe container may help, but it might not be fool proof.”

“Interesting,” said Karpov. “Yes, the ship got back to 1908 alright, and that set up a good deal of misery that I’ve been trying to redress ever since. I would have solved it then and there, if not for your little crusade.”

“Yes, yes, we’ve been over that. Well let me tell you something I’ve done recently in the here and now—a little secret project I’ve been busy with.”

“Go on,” said Karpov. “You know how I love hearing about your little schemes.”

“Iseeded German intelligence with information concerning all the oil reserves Orenburg is sitting on now. It’s clear that Volkov has been using his knowledge of field locations to position his forces with the aim of controlling those resources. Many may not be developed now, but they will in the future.”

“Yes, he’s already busy at Kashagan and the Tengiz fields,” said Karpov. “That man has sunk more tech dollars into improving his oil extraction methods than he has into building decent tanks and planes. I suppose he thinks his friends in Germany will supply all those other needs, while he provides the oil the Reich needs to keep running this war.”

“That is what I thought,” said Fedorov with a smile. “So I did a little whispering.”

“What do you mean?”

“I sent German intelligence a map of all present and future oil developments that would be under Orenburg’s control.”

“Ah… Then you thought to drive a wedge into that alliance?”

“Exactly. It may have already had an effect. I’ve had Nikolin picking up signals traffic, and we’ve been decoding German high level directives to field armies and such. I send it all to Turing at Bletchley park too. In any case, there have been some interesting developments of late—troop movements, redeployments. Hitler moved several Italian Korps into position along the Don and closed off all those crossing points. He’s also given orders for German troops to retain control of Baba Gurgur, and he’s sent another parachute division there to make sure that happens. The Turkomen divisions were getting pushy. In fact, we intercepted a direct order from Orenburg to their commander. He was to encircle and secure those oil fields, but Hitler has raised the ante. He had but one regiment there, now he’ll have four.”

“Interesting,” said Karpov. “I’m sure my Tyrenkov had all of this as well, but I haven’t spoken with him lately with all this business we’ve been about.”

“There’s more,” said Fedorov. “Orenburg has ordered a new Army from Kazakhstan to move to the vicinity of Maykop. Hitler gave his troops conducting their Edelweiss Operation direct orders that German troops were to occupy and secure those fields.”