John Schettler - Stormtide Rising

“I see where this is going,” said Karpov. “Very clever, Mister Fedorov; worthy of my own conniving genius.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment. I thought that if we could break that alliance, it would go a long way towards restoring the balance on the East Front. If the Germans do come to blows with Volkov, then we get a war in the east very similar to the one from our own history—with the full resources of all Russia united against Germany.”

“Not necessarily,” said Karpov. “That would mean that Volkov and I would have to reach an accord, and that Sergei Kirov and Volkov would also have to mend fences. I’m not sure either one will happen. Right now I’ve had my brother building airships and raising troops to reopen the front at Omsk. It’s all part of my Plan 7, which I was very much enjoying now that I control all of Kamchatka and half of Sakhalin Island. In the Spring, I had another big operation planned for the drive on Vladivostok. Alas, if we do what we must, I’ll miss all that.”

There came a knock on the door, and it was Nikolin, bearing a recent message transcript. He handed it off to Karpov with a salute, and was back to his post, but he wished he could have stayed there in that room to hear what would now be discussed by Fedorov and Karpov. On the way back to his post, he would lean in over his friend Tasarov.

“Listening to whale songs, or rock and roll?” he asked.

“What?” said Tasarov, removing his headphones. “I’m listening for any sign of those Japanese ships.”

“Well I just heard something pretty dramatic. There may be a peace proposal being floated between Siberia and Orenburg. Can you imagine that?” He gave his friend a wink, and was off to his post. Nikolin always knew everything, privy to every message and secret of the ship in his position as chief of communications and encryption. But sometimes he knew too much….

“Well, Fedorov, your little scheme seems to have worked! Volkov actually sent old Doctorov to a secret meeting with my brother and Tyrenkov near Omsk. I don’t have all the details yet, but it appears that the Ambassador was bearing an olive branch.”

“From Volkov?”

“A document signed by his own hand.”

“That is news,” said Fedorov, “very good news indeed.”

“Assuming I treat with that criminal.”

“What? Don’t you see what an opportunity this would be? You were just talking about it a moment ago. If Volkov turns, then the entire momentum of the war in the east turns with him. He’s a free radical, and one with terrible power to influence the outcome of these events.”

“Assuming he lives to participate in any of these events,” said Karpov darkly. “Assuming he lives at all…”

That got Fedorov’s attention. “Now what is that supposed to mean?” he asked.

“Things have changed here,” said Karpov, “just as they changed in the Western Desert when you ran into that Brigade from 2021. We may have to take a different view of things now that these damnable modern Japanese ships have appeared. If we stay here, I think I would have to withdraw to the north soon to support the renewal of operations on Sakhalin. That is very near Japanese home waters, and so we’ll probably have to face that enemy task force again soon. Combat is always risky, as we’ve just seen. Suppose we get hit, or even sunk?”

“Losing your nerve, Karpov?”

“No, quite the contrary. I’m just listening to my head. It tells me that we have some hard days ahead. This new Japanese task force could cause a great deal of trouble. Imagine what they could do if they aren’t eliminated? They could stop the momentum the Americans are building up in the New Hebrides, I’ll guarantee that much. Those F-35’s would make short work of a few Essex Class carriers, and never even be seen while they do so. The Americans will be cruising along, and then their carriers will simply begin exploding right under their fat asses.” Karpov smiled. “Oh, how I’d love to see the look on Halsey’s face when that happens.”

“Considering that he almost ran you off the map in 1945,” said Fedorov. “No offense intended.”

“None taken, Fedorov. I get your point.”

Now Karpov lapsed into silence for a moment, thinking. “Fedorov,” he began. “Suppose we’re going at this all the wrong way. All these contaminations we’re trying to cleanse from the time line seem to be multiplying. We set our minds on getting Takami , and now we’ve a whole new enemy task force out there to deal with.”

“Yes,” said Fedorov. “Don’t remind me.”

“Well this isn’t going to be as easy as we first thought.”

“I never thought it would be easy.”

“True, but you thought it would be possible, otherwise why commit to this course of action in the first place?”

“I suppose you’re right.”

“Well,” said Karpov, “things have changed. The presence of that new Japanese task force may present us with an insurmountable problem.”

“You really don’t think we can beat them?”

Karpov narrowed his eyes. “Like I said, I’m just reasoning this all out. I’m a realist, Fedorov. You saw what it took to fend off that surprise F-35 attack. We had helos up, and the damn planes flew right through their radar coverage. If we engage again, this ship will do harm, I can assure you that, but we may have to take our lumps to do so. We could survive one hit, and possibly two, depending on where the weapon struck us. But tangling with that task force here and now is going to be very dangerous. Kazan has a better chance than a surface ship like Kirov . He has both stealth and speed at his command, not to mention the missiles and torpedoes. If we continue this fight, we’ll have to rely a good deal on Gromyko.”

“How would you proceed?”

Karpov thought for a moment. “I would picket Kazan , well north of my position, and then I’d bark like a dog until they get a fix on me. They’ll come for me, and to do that, they would have to run right over Gromyko. That’s when he throws everything he has at them, and I mean everything. If he can’t take them out with his missiles, then he should also strongly consider resorting to a special warhead.”

“What? didn’t you hear what I just said about the fragility of the continuum?”

“Yes, I heard all of that, but if you want the job done concerning this new threat, you have to be ready to use a hammer.”

“Well, you might just end up smashing your own thumb,” said Fedorov. “I’d be very cautious about throwing another nuke here.”

“Agreed,” said Karpov. “Your scheme to drive a wedge between Hitler and Volkov was very clever, but there may be another way. We could roll the dice again.”

“What do you mean?”

“What I mean is this—beating that Japanese task force isn’t going to be easy, and if we do, our missile inventory is going to be very thin when we’re done. Kirov has 33 SSMs left under that front deck. And we’ve only 24 S-400’s remaining. After that, we’re down to the medium range enhanced Klinok system. They aren’t nearly as effective as the Triumf , and their range maxes out right around the typical release point for another of those damn glide bomb attacks. That means that they can penetrate our radar coverage, and probably get to their release point safely if I don’t have the range of the Triumf to deal with them first. If I get another sixty bombs inbound, we’re finished. The Klinok system can’t handle that kind of saturation attack. Oh, we’ll get many of them, and it will be a grand fight when they get in close and the Gatling guns and Kashtans go after them, but I’m telling you right now—we’re going to take hits. We stand a very good chance of losing the ship. That eradicates us from the time line, eh? But it may leave the Japanese ships here to raise more hell. Kazan has only so many missiles. Gromyko won’t get them all.”