John Schettler - Fallen Angels - 9 Days Falling, Volume II

“Well sir, we used a warhead and it got us nothing, geopolitically that is. The war actually started early, and the Americans gained an even better position in Europe, or so Fedorov tells me. But by and large our action had little real effect.”

“Oh, it had an effect, Rodenko. I’ve thought about this for some time, and discussed it with Fedorov too. He’s of a mind that the world we returned to in Vladivostok was not the same one we left. Our actions in the past changed things, and our foreknowledge of the third world war to come also gave us a decided advantage. And I’ll tell you another thing…” He lowered his voice now, implying the information he would now disclose would be confidential. “We lost men on our little safari through the Second World War. Well, it turns out that in the world we returned to they never lived!”

“I don’t understand.”

“They never lived, Rodenko. They were never even born . Think about that for a moment.” He told Rodenko what he had discussed with Fedorov and Admiral Volsky, and his new Starpom was finally impressed.

“So something we did changed the history enough to affect men on this very ship?”

“It appears so, and it also appears that time found a way to account for that. We did something—who knows what? We killed men that may have lived, and spared others that should have died. It was enough to affect the personal lines of fate for crewmen on this ship—every man that died in action, except Orlov.”

“Orlov?”

“That’s the big deal now. Fedorov’s mission involving that floating nuclear reactor ship. It was all to go back and find Orlov. But now they have much more than the former Operations Chief to worry about. We’re here, with nearly 1500 souls aboard these three ships and no way to get home.”

Rodenko was silent for a time, considering this, and trying to sort the puzzle through in his mind. If this were true, if they had already changed history more than once, then what might happen this time?

“What if we change things again, sir?”

“That’s the point of this discussion, isn’t it?”

“Yes, but what if we do something that also affects our personal fates, like those men you say were never born. You said time got rid of them somehow. Is that why they died in battle?”

“Fedorov thinks this is so. I, for one, do not think Grandfather Time is up there somewhere keeping score on everything we do. Call it God, or Fate, or whatever you choose. We speak of heaven and hell, Rodenko, but figuratively. Those places are simply the ends of our own desires, or our own mistakes. What we really know, deep down, is that we make our own heaven or hell by the choices we take in the here and now—right here on this earth. Every time we make a decision we affect our own personal time line—our own fate. I can’t live my life wondering whether something I do, or something I fail to do, will make an end of me one day. This world will make an end of us all. None of us asked to be here, but here we are, unless something happens as it did before.”

“What do you mean?”

“When I used that warhead, we vanished to a distant future soon after. I was in the brig at the time, but I learned what happened. I saw what was left of the world, I could see it from the port hole.”

“But I thought we moved because of the control rods in our own reactor system.”

“Yes, that’s the way Fedorov figured it out with Dobrynin. But we really don’t know. First we thought it was the nuclear detonations blowing a hole in time. Perhaps it was. Look what that volcano just did to us! Then we thought it was simply a matter of time, and no pun intended. Volsky and Fedorov saw an interval of twelve days between each time displacement. It was only then that Volsky and Dobrynin remembered those odd flux events in the reactors and mated that time interval to Dobrynin’s maintenance routine. So we came round to thinking this control rod was responsible—Rod-25. It suddenly became our own personal magic wand, except we never knew what would happen—where we would move in time if we used it. Then Fedorov began to take note of the fact that we always seemed to return to the approximate same time period in the past. It was his guess that Rod-25 would then allow him to go back to the 1940s and by god, his plan worked!”

“You mean the mission with Troyak and the others?”

“Yes…Fedorov got back safely. He left a letter for Volsky in an old storage bin, just as we did a few days ago.”

“Then the Admiral knows we’re here!”

“I hope so. He may get that letter, but who can say?”

“Well if he does, sir, wouldn’t he be trying to find a way to help us get home again?”

“I’d like to think so, Rodenko, but what could he do? They shipped that control rod to the Caspian to try and rescue Fedorov and Orlov. Then we pulled our latest disappearing act and I don’t think they could send Rod-25 back to us again. We’re in 1945! How would they find us? Even if we still had it aboard at this moment there’s no guarantee that we could move all three ships back home again. But that is irrelevant. We don’t have the damn thing any longer, and if we need that control rod to move in time, then we’re stuck here. This is what I tell myself now. We’re stuck here in the middle of the Pacific in 1945 with the American fleet at our throats. We get to fight the battle we just started in 2021 all over again here, though I like our odds much better now.”

“Who knows, sir? The allied navy had enormous resources at this time in the war.”

“I’ve read all about it. Well it will come down to fight or flight, the same primal instincts that have influenced human choice since we clawed ourselves up from the jungle floor and learned to stand on two feet. I’ll tell you one thing I’ve decided. I’m going to fight.”

“But what if they see what they’re up against and combine their forces for a massive attack, sir? They may even be doing that at this moment? Why would this Admiral Halsey call off that attack?”

“Who knows? But you are probably correct, Captain Lieutenant. Do you like how that new title sounds, Rodenko? Well let me tell you something…You could be very much more than that in due course. We all could. With the power we have at our fingertips we can be real men of war now, not mere pawns in the game. We can re-write history, and put our names in those books where Fedorov always had his nose buried. We have only to make that choice, and then figure how to use the power we have to achieve the most decisive result.”

“It sounds like you’ve been thinking about this, sir.”

“That I have, Rodenko… That I have, and I’ll tell you what’s going to happen here. They are going to regroup and come back at us in force next time, and I’m going to meet that attack with equal force. Understand?”

Rodenko looked down for a moment, then he met the Captain’s eyes. “Are you speaking of nuclear weapons now, sir?”

“There are five tactical warheads aboard this ship. Orlan has three, and Admiral Golovko has one. As acting Fleet Tactical Commander I was informed of this by Admiral Volsky before we left port. That’s nine warheads under our control at the moment. With those we could be very persuasive, wouldn’t you say? They could make for the worst nine days the allies could ever possibly imagine. That’s what they did to Japan in the world we left behind at Severomorsk. They hit Hiroshima—a black day for Japan indeed. But when that wasn’t enough they hit Nagasaki before the message got through. Fedorov tells me that never happened in the world we returned to at Vladivostok, so in one sense our actions, my actions, may have spared a great many lives. But we have nine warheads, Rodenko—nine days of hell on earth at our disposal if we have to send a message of our own.”