Kirov Saga: Armageddon (Kirov Series) (20 page)

The procedure was a slow game, centimeter by centimeter as one rod
lifted while the other descended. As soon as Rod-25 began to move, he heard the
song. It was a high chorus of angels singing from above, and their voices
deepened, spiraling down and down, ever so slowly. Then there came another
voice, as though someone in the audience of the theater had decided to sing
along with the choir. He heard the odd harmonic, and decided to try and vary
the speed to see if it would be affected. Yes, he could hear the voice change
as he sped the process on, and then change in tone when he slowed it down
again.

What to do? He had never heard this voice in his choir before.
Should he stop the procedure? No, that was impossible now. Once the music began
they had to see it through the entire score. So now he closed his eyes,
concentrating, trying to shut out all other sounds but the song of this
reactor. He had listened to twenty or thirty similar machines in his day and
this one was no different, except that it was deep under water, and it was not
cooled by pumps to mute the sound a reactor on a ship would naturally make.

Yes! That was it! There was an entire section of his orchestra
missing here, that was all. The pumps! He could hear where they were supposed
to be playing in his mind, but there was silence in those intervals now. Of
course! This was a natural circulation reactor, which is why it was so very
quiet. The voice he was hearing had always been there before, but it was
overlaid by the sound of water pumps before. If he could just add those sounds
back in his mind, and hear what his reactor should sound like with the pumps
thrumming like a section of brass behind his strings… Yes! That was what he had
to do, and so he closed his eyes again, settling deeper into his chair as he
listened.

“Increase to mode three,” he said calmly to his technician.

“Mode three, sir.”

“Note your flux level and tell me the instant you read anything in
the yellow meter spectrum.”

“Aye, sir. We are reading green.”

Part VI

Gathering
Storm

“I have
been riding with the storm clouds and have come to earth as lightning and rain.
There is no mercy at the edge of my storm, and no shelter from the wrath I now
bring.”

―
Sitting Bull

Chapter 16

“Gentlemen,
the Japanese seem to be somewhat worked up over an incident
lately reported in the Sea of Japan,” Captain Baker was addressing his bridge
crew aboard HMS
King Alfred
. “We have just received word of large fleet
movements in the Tsushima and Korea Straits, and Admiral Meux has informed us
that this squadron is to sail forthwith to observe the situation. Mister
Tovey…”

“Sir.” Tovey stood just a little taller, hands folded behind his
back and seeming to be at attention in spite of the “at ease” permission given
by the Captain. “You will supervise posting of the lookouts, and stand watch on
the weather bridge. Lookouts should be especially vigilant once we pass Jeju
Island. We have no specific details but the gist of the situation is this
gentlemen. The Russians and Japanese seem to be at it again. Several
engagements have been reported describing a large Russian dreadnought.”

“A dreadnought, sir?” Tovey was surprised to hear that a ship of
that class would be in these waters, particularly after the beating the
Japanese gave to the Russian Navy a few years back.

“Yes, a dreadnought, Mister Tovey, reported to be as big and
unsavory as our own ship by that name. We’ve no specific information, but if
this is the case, then it must have arrived from the Baltic or Black Sea in
recent weeks.”

“But wouldn’t it have passed through Suez, sir?”

“If it was as big as HMS
Dreadnought
, Mister Tovey, it
would be too large for the canal, as you should well know. That said, and given
the fact that we had no notice of this ship’s arrival in these waters, a
transit there seems unlikely. It must have gone round the Cape of Good Hope,
and the general notion is that it was sent here as a reinforcement for the
Russian cruisers remaining in Vladivostok.”

“And this ship is operating alone, sir?”

“My, my, Mister Tovey. Full of questions this morning, are we?
Yes, it is operating alone, and it appears to have ruffled quite a few skirts
of late. We’ve been ordered by Admiral Meux to get down there to the straits
and have a look around, and you, Mister Tovey will do the looking.”

“Very good, sir.”

The British China Station, established in 1865, had seen ships
come and go, assigned as the situation warranted, year after year. In the
volatile years between 1901 and 1905, as many as six battleships might have
been anchored there, but now the station consisted of a smaller armored cruiser
squadron. They were already a day out of port at Weihaiwei, and HMS
King
Alfred
was leading the way south through the Yellow Sea.

Young Lieutenant John Tovey was soon out on the weather bridge,
the wind in his face and eyes squinting through binoculars. As the squadron
completed a wide turn, he looked back at the graceful line of ships, the skies
charred up with smoke from their full coal bunkers. Behind the flagship, the
three
Monmouth
Class cruisers assigned to the squadron followed in line,
HMS
Kent
, HMS
Bedford
and then HMS
Monmouth
herself. These
were 9,800 ton ships with a battery of fourteen 6-inch quick firing guns. In
their wake the end of the tail wagging behind was HMS
Astraea
and HMS
Flora
,
smaller at a little over 4,300 tons each. The squadron dispatch ship HMS
Alacrity
had been left behind, as it was an older clipper style light cruiser that could
make only 17 knots.

The squadron seems in a bit of a hurry, thought Tovey. I hope I
wasn’t out of place with my questions on the main bridge this morning, but a
Russian ship the size of
Dreadnought
coming all this way around the cape
without being noticed was most irregular. We have ships posted all along that
route, at the East Indies Station, Colombo, Indian Ocean and Australia. Surely
someone would have seen and reported on this ship. Well, now that I’ve been
named the lookout watch officer of the deck, we’ll amend that oversight. I want
to be the first British officer to sight this ship…that is if the Japanese
don’t put it on the bottom of the sea first.

Tovey did not yet have much experience at sea, but he was already
developing a nose for the smell of battle. He could feel something, a strange
presentiment of foreboding in the back of his mind and an odd feeling of déjà
vu. It almost seemed to him that he had been in the vanguard of other squadrons,
hunting at sea for another strange, unaccountable sea raider—that he had done
this all before.

Little did he know that many such adventures at sea awaited him.
He would stand a watch in the cold icy waters near Iceland when the Germans
tried to push
Bismarck
through in 1941, and he would see that ship to a
timely end aboard
King George V
. Then, a year later, he would get news
of yet another strange raider heading for the Atlantic, and at a most
unfortunate time when the Prime Minister, Churchill himself, was putting to sea
for a conference with the American President Roosevelt. Tovey knew none of
that, however, as it was all long years away in a distant tenuous future, yet
somehow, he could feel it all coming, just as he could feel this strange
Russian dreadnought coming as well. And through it all he had the odd feeling
that he was somehow fated to meet this ship at sea, though he did not know why
he should think this.

His muse was interrupted when Captain Baker stepped out onto the
weather bridge for some air and was again at Tovey’s side.

“Fair weather for sighting, Tovey,” said the Captain. “I trust
you’ve posted good eyes on the main mast.”

“I have, sir, Jameson and Wilson—a pair of sharp eyed hawks.”

“Good then. Word is this Russian ship is a big fellow, so they
will have no trouble spotting it. But mind your recognition silhouettes as
well. Your first sightings will more than likely be Japanese ships.”

“Of course, sir.”

“Well then, here’s another bit of news for you. The Americans
might be sticking their thumb into the pie as well. President Roosevelt has
apparently altered the itinerary of the Great White Fleet. This Russian ship
fired on an RMS mail ship out of Shanghai bound for Vancouver and three U.S.
citizens were killed. That gets Mister Roosevelt a bit worked up, and he’s
cancelled the fleet’s port-of-call in Manila and ordered it to these waters
instead.”

“Indeed, sir? That is a rather important development.”

“Yes it is. With all of sixteen battleships it will be the most
powerful naval force in the region. Oh, I suppose the whole of the Japanese
fleet would overmatch it, but for sheer, concentrated power in one place,
sixteen battleships will outgun anything the Japanese have, and anything we
have here as well. We might have made a better show of things some years ago
when
Canopus
led the whole of her class out here, but now the squadron in
our wake will have to do. We’ve no quarrel with the Americans, of course, but I
tell you this as officer of the watch so that you might be aware of it should a
long line of ships suddenly appear on your horizon.”

“I see, sir. Any idea where the American fleet is heading?”

“They were scheduled to visit Yokohama, but that would put them on
the wrong side of the island for anything developing here. My guess is that
they’ll steam south of the main island, possibly into the Inland Sea, or even
further south. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to hear you report them off your
starboard bow, Mister Tovey. Do be vigilant.”

“I will, sir. And thank you for informing me.”

Well, well, well, thought Tovey. This was another interesting
development. He didn’t think he’d get a look at the Great White Fleet until
much later in the year, but now the whole itinerary was turned on its head.

“An interesting stew on the boil, sir,” he said.

“Yes, Japanese ships, American ships, British ships, and this
Russian raider all in the mix. Very interesting, unless someone tips the
kettle.”

*
* *

The
lighthouse of Ko Saki was one of the oldest under Japanese
management, and sat at the edge of a sheer cliff of striated black stone on the
southern edge of Tsushima Island. It was built to warn ships skirting the edge
of the island, or approaching the small fishing hamlet of Izuharamachi Azamo,
but now it served as a beacon to rally the gathering squadrons of the Imperial
Japanese Navy.

Ten ships under Vice Admiral Kataoka were already there, waiting
in the restless waters, their flags and masts stirred by the prevalent rising
winds that were common here. They were blowing from the southeast that night,
chasing dark clouds across the sharply defined morning crescent moon where it
hung low on the sea just an hour after midnight. The sun would rise in about
four more hours, and with it would come Vice Admiral Dewa, who had signaled
that he now led his squadron of eight cruisers and destroyers here to the rendezvous
point as ordered.

Dewa was restless that early morning, awake on the bridge after
having taken a long sleep the previous afternoon and evening. He was still
troubled by the news that Vice Admiral Kamimura had been unable to deal with
the Russian dreadnaught. Knowing Kamimura’s squadron was bigger and more
powerful than his own whispered the quiet meaning in the orders he received the
previous day. He was to be in the straits west of Iki Island by 08:00 hours
this morning, and he was early, eschewing the coaling operation at Oshima as he
had topped off his holds much earlier, and had ample fuel.

The journey south sighted an unusually large number of fishing
boats, and that had proved revealing as well. There were many eyes in the
straits now, and some of those boats held more than fishermen. They were joined
by six torpedo boats scattered in the wake of his squadron, and more eyes were on
the hills and coastlines of every island in the region. All would be searching
the gray dawn for any sign of the Russian ship, and Dewa had little doubt that
battle would soon follow any sighting.

Now he was to join with Vice Admiral Kataoka south of Tsushima
Island and be in a position to move either east or west depending on what that
sighting would reveal of the enemy’s intentions.

It will be in the Korea Strait this time, he thought. The Russians
have bad memories of their last visit to Tsushima. Then again, if this ship is
trying to avenge the humiliating defeat they suffered in those waters, it might
just return there again just to taunt us. Good. That would mean that my
squadron would be the first engaged, with Kataoka behind me and then Admiral
Togo swinging down from the Korea Strait. By the time he arrives I will be
ready to hand him news of another victory here.