Kirov Saga: Armageddon (Kirov Series) (3 page)

“I see…You mean the possibility that we might succeed in stopping
Karpov exists now, and so time must wait for us?”

“You have it exactly, Admiral. Wouldn’t you agree, Mister
Fedorov?”

“That theory coincides with work I have read on the subject by an
American physicist, a mister Paul Dorland. He even uses that same terminology—nexus
point. He would call this situation a deep nexus, and he believes it has a
universal effect on all time meridians passing through this point.”

“Then my thinking has good company. In any case, I believe we need
only concern ourselves with the outcome of our plan. Let us begin with the
submarine.
Kazan
is a very good choice. Then we must decide what to do
with it!”

Admiral Volsky looked at Fedorov now. “It is clear that we must
try to get the submarine back to 1908. We can do nothing with it here to
influence Karpov. Are you certain you can get us there, Chief Dobrynin? This situation
is somewhat different, is it not?”

“Kirov
used KN-3B reactors, and they are pressurized water reactors
using enriched uranium-235 fuel. Rod-25 also worked successfully on the
Anatoly
Alexandrov
, and it uses a KLT-40S reactor.
Kazan
uses the same basic
type. Rod-25 is compatible, and the other two control rods as well.”

“Alright. Let us rely on Rod-25,” said Volsky. “If it fails us,
then we can try the others. And you say you can hear the shift and control it
now, Dobrynin?”

“I got us home safely, Admiral. I cannot promise you anything, but
I will do my best.”

“That is all we have to go on for the moment,” said Kamenski.
“Alright, gentlemen. Suppose we do get there safely. Then what?” He looked at
Fedorov now, wanting to know what the young Captain had in mind.

“As I see things we have two choices,” said Fedorov. “The first is
to contact Karpov and see if we can all persuade him to relent and rejoin us.
This I would prefer, but the Captain may not want to cooperate.”

“In that instance, contacting him will give away the enormous
advantage of surprise.”

“Correct,” said Fedorov, though his eyes seemed troubled now.
“What you should know, Director, is that Captain Karpov has a kind of phobia
where submarines are concerned. Approaching him in any wise with an undersea
boat will be dangerous.”

“And do not forget Tasarov,” said Volsky.

“Tasarov?” Kamenski did not know the man.

“He is the sonar operator aboard
Kirov
, and one of the very
best in the fleet. His ear for sonar is every bit as good as Dobrynin’s where
these reactors are concerned. If we do take the hard road, and that would be to
take action without first contacting Karpov, then Tasarov will be the main
obstacle to our success.”

Volsky folded his arms. “This will not be an easy mission,” he
said with obvious sadness in his voice. “These are my men—the fighting crew of
Kirov
.
That ship has been through hell and back again, and to think of what we may now
have to do is most unsettling.”

“We need not decide our final course at the moment,” said
Kamenski, “but I agree, this will be a major fork in the road, and in some
respects it influences a choice we must make before we get underway. I assume
we have an approximate idea of
Kirov’s
general position in 1908, Mister
Fedorov?”

“We were able to generalize their signal as coming from the Sea of
Japan, and Karpov confirmed that.”

“An encouraging start, but ships move, so we must wonder where he
might go.”

“He will most likely look to dominate the Japanese Imperial Navy,”
said Fedorov. “This will be necessary if he is to have any real influence
there. To do so he will have to engage that fleet in battle, and he will be up
against a very wily Admiral Togo, perhaps one of the greatest Admirals in
modern naval history. If I had to bet on it, I would guess the action would
occur at a key chokepoint waterway—either the Yellow Sea, or the Straits of
Tsushima.”

“Alright,” said Kamenski. “You and the Admiral can plot all this
out on your navigation maps, but my question is when do we sail south—in
time
,
that is? Do we proceed in the here and now? Or do we shift back to 1908 first
and make our approach in that era?”

Volsky nodded his head gravely. “I can see how this choice relates
to the other decision we must make. If we sail south now it will be very risky
with the Americans and Japanese all stirred up here.  That said, we might be
very close to
Kirov
when we appear and achieve complete tactical
surprise. Then again, if we make our approach south in 1908 the journey will be
relatively safe and quiet, except that silence in the sea gives our mister
Tasarov the best possible chance to hear us coming. We have a great deal to
decide here gentlemen. But I suggest we get to the
Admiral Kuznetsov
first.”

Chapter 2

“There’s
one other matter before we go, said Fedorov. “Orlov has asked if
he could come with us,”

“Orlov?” Volsky’s face revealed some hesitation over this. “The
man has already jumped ship once, Mister Fedorov. This may not be wise.”

“That is not how he tells the story now, Admiral. He says there
was an electrical fire on the KA-226 and they were unable to communicate with
us. The radio was dead.”

“I see…And the jamming?”

“I asked him about that, and he claims the emergency systems came
on during the fire. Then he saw our missiles and jumped. The pilot could not
get out in time.”

“You believe him?”

“I would like to, sir.”

“Even so, what does he contribute to the mission?”

Kamenski spoke up now, raising a finger to make a point. “This
Orlov was the man Mister Fedorov rescued in 1942? That means he has moved in
time, Admiral. He is here in the nexus point with us, whether we bring him
along or not.”

“A lot of others have moved in time as well. I had a full
reinforced company of Naval Marines with Mister Fedorov. Are they all in the borscht
with us?”

“In some regard, but Orlov is special. This Mister Dorland, the
American Physicist, I have read his work as well. I think he would call Orlov a
free radical, someone at large in the meridians of time with a great deal of influence.
After all, if Fedorov had not gone after him, then we would not now know what
Karpov was planning or even where he was. The history might have simply
changed, and we would have changed right along with it—in fact, we might not
even exist! Orlov led Mister Fedorov to 1942, and from there he fell through to
another gopher hole and found Karpov in 1908. That was either very fortunate,
or very fated. Time lifted her skirts to show us where Karpov was hiding, and
we have Orlov to thank for that knowledge. You can leave him behind, but
somehow his life and fate seems closely associated with the outcome of this
saga.”

Volsky considered that. “I suppose we could keep a good eye on the
man if we do take him. I know Orlov. If we leave him behind he will start
talking to anyone who might listen about his little exploits. Very well. He can
come, but I will have words with the man before we launch the mission. I want
no nonsense.”

“As acting mission commander I restored Orlov as a Captain of the
second rank,” said Fedorov. “He thought we had come to arrest him for court
martial. In fact, he thought we were trying to kill him. Those S-300s we fired
left him with a bad feeling. I think he attributed it to Karpov, but I was
Captain at the time, and the final authorization to fire came from me, though I
haven’t told him that yet. So I thought restoring his rank would be a good way
to start again with this man.”

“Perhaps, you are right, Fedorov. Very well. I will let this
decision stand and confirm his rank as Captain. Send him along with Engineering
Chief Dobrynin.”

“There’s one other thing, sir.” Fedorov looked from the Admiral to
Kamenski now, the light of something very important in his eyes. “On the way
west to find Orlov I discovered something quite alarming.”

“Go on, Mister Fedorov, you have told us nothing of that journey,
but I assume it was somewhat dangerous. What happened?”

“We stopped at a small railway in east of Kansk at a place called
Ilanskiy.”

“Yes, there is a naval arsenal just south of that location,” said
Volsky.

“Well there is something else there too, Admiral, something very
important.” He went on to describe the inn, the stairway, and the strange
incident that had occurred, along with the meeting with Mironov.”

“My God,” said Kamenski. “The stairs took you to the year 1908? You
are certain it was Kostrikov?”

“I was just as shocked as you seem, Director, but it was him. I
looked up photos of his early life, and I never forget a face. I met Sergei
Kirov there in the dining hall, but the really significant thing I discovered
was on that back stairway. Kirov got curious about me, I suppose. He may have
been suspicious of my uniform, and he came up that back stairway. It brought
him from his world of 1908, to the one we were in at that moment, 1942.”

“Astounding! Then there is some kind of rift or tear in the fabric
of time there,” Kamenski’s face belied that he knew more than he was saying
now, and Fedorov could perceive it.

“This is how I came to understand it, Director, and I think it all
has something to do with the Tunguska event.”

“Yes,” said Volsky. “Mister Kamenski and I came to a similar
conclusion. These control rods have materials in them that we now believe
originate from that event. Whatever it was that exploded over the Stony
Tunguska River Valley that day, it has created some very unusual effects.”

“It may be that this rift in time was not the only one to result from
that event,” said Kamenski quietly.

“You know of others?”

The silence after that question was very telling, holding the
answer in the affirmative within its emptiness. “Yes, gentlemen, we know of
others. This one, however, is something new. This we did
not
know. To
think that it may have existed there on that back stairway is most troubling.
Who may have traversed those stairs in the past, coming and going from one era
to another?”

“The young woman I met there—I think she was the proprietor’s
daughter—in any case, she told me those stairs were haunted, and she seemed to
fear them.”

“Perhaps because people may have unknowingly taken that stairway
before, and suddenly appeared in her hotel!” Kamenski had a wry smile on his
face. “But Sergei Kirov! I have lamented his assassination all my life. Who
knows how Russia might have developed had he been elevated to General Secretary
of the party instead of Stalin.”

Fedorov gave him a furtive glance. “I think I should tell you that
I said something to him that I may now have to regret.”

“Oh? What was that, young man?”

“I…well I warned him not to go to St. Petersburg in 1934. I told
him to beware the 30th of December! I know it was foolish, but I just couldn’t
help myself. He was always a hero to me. That is one reason I applied for an
assignment aboard
Kirov
.”

Kamenski smiled. “It was called Leningrad when he was killed
there, of course you know that, but it may interest you to know that he was
assassinated on December 1st, and not on the 30th. That was the way it happened
the first time. Then things changed.”

“What do you mean?” said Volsky. “Are you saying there are two
versions of the event?”

“Just as there are two dates for the American entry into WWII. Yes,
in another meridian of time Sergie Kirov was assassinated on December 1st. Yet
Mister Fedorov is also correct. The history he knows will have that date set as
the 30th.”

“Just a moment, Director,” said Fedorov, a troubled look on his
face. “It’s clear to me that we caused the Americans to enter the war early,
yet I would have told anyone that Kirov was assassinated on the 30th even
before
we left Severomorsk.”

“That is the date I remember as well,” said Volsky.

“Yes, and many others will have that date in their heads,” said
Kamenski. “But this old head remembers it on the 1st of December. A few of the
Party elite would celebrate it quietly, behind closed doors. I have drunk many
a toast to Sergie Kirov on that day. But the people I can raise a glass with
are now are few and far between.”

Fedorov was very surprised now. “But that would mean …”

Kamenski looked at him, again with that wry smile. “Go on,” he
said, waiting.

“Well that would mean something happened to change the history
even before
Kirov
left Severomorsk!”

“You are very astute, my young man. Yes. That is exactly what it
would mean. There may be only a small handful of people who know what you have
just concluded—and know it to be a fact and not mere speculation. I happen to
be one of them, and I have lived with that knowledge for a very long time.”

Admiral Volsky thought this might have something to do with the
strange time shift effects that were discovered after the massive Tsar Bomba
detonation. “Tell him about the Kuz'kina Mat,” he said, wagging a thick finger.
“Tell him about the Tsar Bomba!”