Grand Alliance (Kirov Series) (40 page)

“I understand, sir. No problem
here.”

“But I know you and the men
didn’t like it.”

“No Marine ever wants to put his
weapon down in the face of a threat,” said Troyak. “But I could see what was
happening. I handled the men, and we had good treatment from the British—most
of them.”

“Oh? There was a problem?”

“Just a Sergeant that thought he
was too big for his trousers.”

“Right,” said Popski. “It almost
came to blows.”

“I see… Well I hope you
understand that is the war we’re trying to prevent. Fighting it here won’t help
us do that. The British must be seen as our allies now. Understand?”

“I do, sir.”

“Very good. I want to thank you,
and all you men as well. I realize it must have been a dull ride for you, and
not nearly the mission you were up for.”

Popski spoke up again. “They
didn’t get a chance with those Desert Witches,” he said, and Troyak smiled.

Fedorov went on to explain to
them what had happened, and what it could mean to the overall course of the
war. They could see that both he and Popski had been changed by the incident,
and did not really understand how it occurred. Popski had a strange, haunted
look in his eye, as if he were now in the company of unborn spirits from the
future. He was, and that thought bedeviled him on one level. Fedorov seemed
deeply troubled, almost as if he had built a sand castle on the beach, laboring
with great intensity, and now had to leave it, knowing the tides would come.
They wanted to know how all this had happened, and Fedorov had no real answer
for them.

“It’s like so many other things
that have happened to us. We don’t really know. Perhaps it was that detonation
I told you about from our own ICBM. Yet it’s ironic. It began in our time as an
act of violence against a perceived enemy, but it ended up sending those men to
us as allies in a time of great need here. Now they share the same fate we’ve
been struggling with. God go with them.”

There was a long silence, until
Zykov spoke up, asking Fedorov a question that was on the mind of many of the
men.

“Will we ever get back, sir—to
our own time?”

Fedorov rubbed the weariness from
his brow. “I wish I could answer that. I have often wondered what we would find
if we tried again. We saw that world once or twice if you recall, and it wasn’t
very appealing. Some of you were sent ashore at Halifax. Well the devastation
we saw there and other places leads me to believe there may not be very much
left of our old world.”

“But we did get back once,” said
Zykov. “What about Vladivostok?”

“That was before the war
started,” said Fedorov. “We appeared in that window of time between July 28
when we first disappeared, and the beginning of the war in the Pacific. We can
never shift to a time where we already exist, so we couldn’t revisit those same
days. If we ever did try to shift back, we would have to appear after July 28,
but before the date of our return in the Pacific, and that would be a very
short lease, because we already have tickets to those seats, if that makes any
sense. So the only safe shift would be for us to appear after the date
Kirov
disappeared while under Karpov’s command. By that time the missiles would be in
the air, as we have seen with this attack on the British brigade that sent them
here.”

“But sir,” said Chenko, a young
corporal. “If that is so, then will we find out things are being blown into the
past all over the world? That was not the only missile that must have been
fired.”

“I think there was another factor
involved in this incident,” said Fedorov. “I’m not quite sure about it yet, but
something else caused this breach in time here, something more than the
detonation itself.”

Orlov took notice of that, and
the fact that Fedorov had asked him to hand over the thing he found in Siberia
seemed immediately related to what the Captain was saying now.

“Maybe it was that thing I
found,” he said. “The Devil’s Teardrop.”

Zykov laughed at that, but Orlov
was serious. “Did you see how it glowed when we saw the sky light up? Hot as
hell too! I’d be careful with that thing, Fedorov.”

The crew settled in for the
flight to Alexandria, but Zykov had one more question. “Captain, you say we
can’t go anywhere that we already exist. Yes? Then what’s going to happen in
another few months? It will be July of 1941 soon, crazy as that still sounds.
Does that mean the ship can’t appear here like we did the first time?”

“We’re working on that problem,
Corporal. I’ve been discussing it with Director Kamenski, but you are correct.
I don’t think we can co-locate.”

“Hey Zykov,” said Orlov,
lightening the mood. “Too bad, because now you can’t go kiss your own ass come
July!”

All the men laughed at that.

* * *

That
was just one more
thing Fedorov had to worry about. A strange object in his pocket, possibly a
very dangerous one, but better there than in Orlov’s pocket, he thought. I
haven’t time to sort out what will happen in July now. First things first. I’ve
got to go through all of this with Wavell. At least I’ll be able to speak with
him directly in Russian, but how will I tell him about this? With Kinlan I had
the impossible disappearance of Sultan Apache, and much more evidence. With
O’Connor we had the shock of his seeing those tanks. But Wavell will be there
in Alexandria, a level headed, no-nonsense man, and if I just come out with the
truth he would think I’m a madman.

Thankfully, he did not have to
fight that battle alone this time. By the time the KA-40 returned he had
learned that the fleet was also close at hand, due in port within hours. So he
radioed Admiral Volsky to tell him something very important had happened, but
he needed to speak with him in person. Volsky told him to vector in on the ship
and land there, and the two men had time to discuss the situation with Director
Kamenski.

“I have a plan when it comes time
to bring Wavell over the line,” said Volsky. “You have done well, Fedorov. It
must have been a very difficult situation for you. I can only imagine your
surprise, though we have had more than our fair share of that on this journey. A
full British mechanized brigade?” Volsky shook his head. “Amazing. How did this
happen?”

“I don’t know, sir. But it may
have had something to do with this.” He reached in his pocket and produced the
Devil’s Teardrop, setting it quietly on the briefing table in the plot room
where they were seated. “Orlov found this on that mission to Siberia. They were
off course for a time, and came to the Stony Tunguska River. He says they were
investigating a sighting on the ground, and encountered a very strange artifact
there that seemed to unnerve the whole away team. It was just laying on the
tundra.”

Kamenski looked at the object
over the top of his glasses, his cinder brows raising as he did so. “Very symmetrical…
And you say Orlov said it reacted to the event that sent this British force
here? Very interesting. The Stony Tunguska… This is obviously no coincidence.
We already know that materials from that region found their way into that
control rod that moved this entire ship.”

“What could it be?”

“Possibly a fragment of the
object that fell. There is still much debate over what that actually was. One
researcher, Menotti Galli, had a theory that tiny particles of the object might
be stuck in the resin of the trees on the perimeter of the fall site. They did
find stony particles in the trees, but not that size, and this… why, it looks
metallic. It’s completely smooth, and note how it reflects the light, almost as
if it were polished. Did Orlov do this?

“Not that I’m aware of. He says
he just had it in his pocket. He was going to ask what Dobrynin thought about
it, and I had that same idea. So I went by engineering right after we landed,
and another odd thing happened. There was a problem with the reactors.”

This got Volsky’s attention.
“What kind of problem, he asked?”

“It happened just as I
arrived—some kind of flux event, and Dobrynin was not happy, so I left him to
his work.”

“Very curious,” said Volsky. He
reached for the intercom panel on the briefing table and punched up
engineering.

“Chief Dobrynin, please come to
the briefing room. This is the Admiral.” He looked at Fedorov. “We’ll get to
the bottom of this.”

“You suspect something?” said
Kamenski.

“We have had these flux events
with the reactors before,” Volsky explained. “They always seemed to be
associated with the time displacements. In fact, that was one of the clues that
led us to realize our own reactors were involved in the process. Well… The
Chief has a lot of ladders to climb. Let us turn to other matters for a moment.
You say that O’Connor has been briefed, and this new British General has
accepted his situation. Good enough. When we got the news of Rommel’s retreat,
the Admirals were overjoyed. Now we know why! This is the force on land we needed,
Fedorov. It is a most significant turn of events.”

“And a very dangerous one,” said
Fedorov. “It was an agonizing decision, but I could see no other way. Kinlan
had to know everything, and O’Connor as well. The British leadership here
cannot be left in the dark.”

“Agreed,” said Volsky. ‘This is
why we decided Admiral Tovey had to be let in on our little secret. Well, it
may comfort you to know that we have also briefed Admiral Cunningham. So I will
enlist their support concerning the matter of Wavell.”

Now he told Fedorov of the
strange appearance of the
Argos Fire
, and Kamenski listened quietly, a
light kindling in his eye as Volsky related the details of the meeting with
Fairchild and MacRae, and the battles they fought with the Axis fleets. “They
did not like our missiles,” he finished, but I will say this as well—I do not
like their air power. Eventually we will run out of SAMs, and after that the
situation looks very different for us. They can continue to build their planes,
but we cannot build more missiles.”

“Kinlan will soon face this same
situation,” said Fedorov. “Our power is waning, but we are still strong enough
to make a difference. We stopped Rommel’s advance into Egypt, and you have
seriously hurt the enemy fleets.”

“True, but have a look at that
battleship they towed in. The British lost their
Queen Elizabeth,
and
this one,
Malaya
, was badly damaged. Battered. I doubt if it will ever
be serviceable again. Yes, we hurt the enemy far worse. The Italians lost at
least three battleships—our Vodopad torpedoes performed very well this time—and
the French lost the
Strausbourg
. Yet all things considered, and after
tallying the roster of missing souls at sea again, the balance of power has not
really changed. The two German ships were damaged, but I think they will sail
again. So the Italians still have battleships, and the French have the
Normandie
and
Dunkerque
—not to mention the ships they still have at Casablanca. Theoretically
they could still amass a fleet that could overpower anything Tovey has left
here. Without us he has only
Warspite
with his own ship, and those two
carriers. So something tells me we may have to fight another major engagement
soon. Yet we have bought the British time, and that counts for something.”

“What about Gromyko, sir?”

“He’s out there,” Volsky pointed.
“I have him on a defensive patrol to keep watch over the
Warspite
until
it reaches port safely. He will join us soon.”

Then we still have three kings
here in the Mediterranean,” said Fedorov, “
Kirov, Kazan,
and this
Argos
Fire.”

“
Three kings with
dwindling missile magazines,” said Volsky. “We took inventory after the battle.
Not counting the close in Kashtan system, we have 76 medium and long range SAMs
left and 28 ship killers. Throw in the last four Vodopad torpedoes and that
makes 32.
Argos Fire
has 106 SAMs left, but only 10 ship killers. As for
Kazan
, Gromyko said he used a salvo of eight missiles, and he put two
torpedoes into the
Strausbourg
later. That leaves him ten more
Onyx
missiles and his remaining torpedo inventory, perhaps 30 fish. Given its
stealth, his boat is perhaps the most powerful in the world now, but after
those missiles and torpedoes are gone, he’s no more threatening than a ride at
an amusement park. On paper it sounds like a lot of firepower, perhaps it is
more than enough to win the next battle we find ourselves in. But between the
three of us 115 SAMs and 21 ship killers and torpedoes were used in this recent
engagement. Yes, we have another good fight or two left in the magazines, but
after that the numbers will get serious.”

“Then we have to make our
difference now,” said Fedorov. “We are as strong now as we will ever be again.”

“Yes, just as I am as old now as
I have ever been, and younger than I’ll ever be again!” Volsky smiled. “I am
not so much worried about our ability to control the sea against their navy,” he
said. “It is their air force that plagues me. The strength of their air power
was underestimated. We should have had you along to clue us in, Fedorov. They
hit us with three waves, and thankfully, the third wave failed to find us in
the storm.”

“Understood, sir. And as for
Kazan
.
I think Gromyko’s boat might be able to use torpedoes from this era. The
engineers could modify the torpedo tubes.”

“Possibly…. This was a very long
war, as you well know.” At that moment Chief Dobrynin arrived, just a little
breathless from his five deck climb. He saluted, greeting the men Volsky
gestured for him to take a seat.

“You wanted to see me, Admiral?”

“Have we had any reactor problems
today, Chief?”