John Schettler - Crescendo of Doom

“Mister Lovell,” he said imposing calm on himself. “The ship will come to our best possible speed. I know that won’t help the fire crews up front, but it can’t be helped.”

“Very good sir. Flight crews say they can get the first squadron of Swordfish spotted in five minutes, but we’ll have to come round into the wind.”

“That will put us at three-three-zero, but I’m afraid we haven’t the time just now.” Wells was squinting through his field glasses, trying to pick out details in the distant silhouette. The details, the details. That’s where the devil lived. He could see the tall central superstructure, but he did not think this was one of the German battleships. He walked briskly to the plotting table, where he fetched a printed card with silhouettes of all the known enemy ships. Somerville had informed him of the composition of the enemy task force, and he knew this was neither Bismarck nor Hindenburg .

So it has to be the Kaiser Wilhelm , he thought, quickly running his finger down the estimated specifications on that ship. A single note was printed where the speed would be indicated: Observed running in excess of 34 knots during trials.

“Mister Lovell,” he said again in a measured voice. “The ship will come hard about and steer two-one-two. Ahead full. Signal Coventry , Sheffield and Gloucester to follow. The destroyer screen will make smoke at once.”

“I’vesent instructions to the bridge,” said Tovey. “We’re all ready running at 28 knots, but we might kick that up a notch. I can have word sent to your ships to match speed, but there’s little else we can do for the moment. Let us conclude our meeting, and then we’ll slow to 10 knots for your departure. I think we’ve a good deal more to discuss.”

“Agreed,” said Fedorov, still struck by the realization of what he had learned. Signals from a future time! Someone else was trying to intervene in the course of these events! But who?

“These signals,” he said. “They were a warning of some kind?”

“Most certainly,” said Elena. “And now this gets to a part of the story that has been kept secret for decades. I suppose the easiest way would be to show you.”

She reached to her neck line, drawing out a simple gold chain with something dangling from one end. Fedorov could see that it was a key of some kind, looking very old.

“This key was necessary to activate the box we have been discussing. In fact, it was used to open the site where the device was found at Delphi. It was given to me, to be held secret until the day and hour I received instructions to use it. That was the day that sent my ship here.”

Fedorov looked from Fairchild to Tovey, but the Admiral merely shook his head. “Notwithstanding the fact that my name was in that box,” he said, “I can add nothing further. I know nothing whatsoever about that key.”

“But I do,” said Elena. “To begin with, this is one of several similar keys, and they all have a connection to a specific place, very special places, like that railway inn you described to me.”

“Ilanskiy?” said Fedorov. “Explain please.”

“That site appears to be a rift zone. That’s what we call these places—rifts in time. The signals we received were more than a warning. They contained… instructions, and something more, information concerning certain artifacts—each one embedded with one of these keys.”

“Artifacts?”

“Objects, some very old, and all prized in our day as works of art. Each one held a key, though I cannot name them all. Frankly, I was only told a part of this tale, the information I’m relating to you now. I knew there were other keys, but not their number, or where they might lead; what they might open.”

“Who told you this?”

“Our organization, the Watch. How they came to know about all this I can only speculate. My assumption is that those signals from the future revealed this information.”

“Then these keys came from there—from the future?”

“We believe as much.”

Of course, thought Fedorov. Rifts in time! Perhaps they were the result of that first event at Tunguska. The first cracks in the mirror, were not caused by the ship, not by Kirov or anyone aboard, but by that thing that slammed into the earth and exploded above Tunguska.

“Then there is a key that is somehow connected to the railway in I described?” asked Fedorov. “Is this so?”

“That was unknown to us,” said Elena. “At least it was unknown to me. I was aware of only two other keys. One was assigned—to a Keyholder—that’s what we are called. Anyone given a key to hold in trust is a Keyholder, and it is a very exclusive club. As for that railway inn, we knew nothing about it.”

“I have considered this,” said Fedorov. “When I realized what was happening at Ilanskiy, I attributed those effects to damage caused by that event at Tunguska, and thought there may be other similar places, other rifts in time. Then you know of two others?”

“I know they exist, but not much more. In fact, I had no idea what to really expect at Delphi. I was merely sent there, and told that I would need to use this key at that time. Oh, I had my inklings and speculations as well. We knew that one key opened to another passage similar to the one you describe at that railway inn. So I thought there might be a similar passage beneath Delphi, but found nothing but that box. Believe me, after I tested the key a second time aboard my ship, I was quite surprised at the outcome. But once I realized what had happened, I assumed it was all planned. Yet I could not see what I was to do here, aside from throwing in with you and the Royal Navy, Admiral Tovey. Now I think otherwise.”

“What do you mean?” said Tovey.

“Well,” said Elena with a sigh. “I told you I was aware of at least two other keys, but there is more to that. One was assigned to a another Keyholder. The other, however, was lost.”

“Lost?”

“Yes, in spite of its importance, it went missing. I suddenly realized that when I was trying to sort all this through in my own mind. Why was I sent here, I wondered? Was it only because your ship was here, in this time? This was my first guess, as I had long been standing a watch waiting for your ship to return. I must confess, Captain Fedorov, that your vessel was always regarded as a dire threat in my mind. My first thought when I realized you were here, was that I was sent to try and destroy Geronimo , sink your ship, and it took some adjustment to think of you as an ally. Now I finally think I know why I was sent here.”

Fedorov simply waited, his eyes on Fairchild, and the silence was thick in the room. Even Nikolin hung on her next words, waiting to translate, amazed to be hearing all this.

“The other key I knew about was found in an artifact retrieved from ancient Greece, a particular piece of artwork that was a part of the Parthenon. It was embedded in the base of the Selene Horse, along with other artifacts that have since come to be known as the Elgin Marbles. We learned it was there, at least this is what I was told, but it was never assigned to a Keyholder. It went missing, strange as that may sound. It went missing this very year, on the 27th of May, 1941. And as remarkable as it may sound, it was actually in your charge at that time, Admiral Tovey—at least in the keeping of the Royal Navy.”

“My charge? But I know nothing of this matter. Perhaps some other John Tovey, in some other time might be the culprit—the man you claim to have met in 1942, Captain Fedorov, but this John Tovey remains in the dark.”

Elena smiled. “That may be so, but I know for a fact that this particular key was loaded aboard the battleship HMS Rodney , right there in the Selene Horse along with other segments of the Elgin Marbles, and a goodly amount of the King’s Gold.”