Men of War (2013) (7 page)

The
Navy would have none of it. They secreted the five destroyers off to a lonesome
berth, painted over their hull numbers, renumbered and renamed each ship, and
then scattered them, and every man who had served on them, to harbors all over
the Pacific coast. Any man who ever mentioned
Desron 7
again was stewed,
which put a quick lid on the incident. A week later a special detail was
quietly sent to a lonesome and deserted bay in the area, where they proceeded
to burn and blacken anything in sight. Now if anyone got too curious the navy
could say, in closed quarters, that this was the bay that had been found by
Captain Kaufmann and his ships.

Alan
Turing was one of a handful of men who officially knew the whole story. There
were probably many more who knew about it unofficially, though they were wise
never to breathe a word of it. The whole thing eventually calmed down and went
into the file boxes, and a long year passed. Then it happened again, the same
nightmare as before, only this time in the Mediterranean Sea.

The
British finally though they had the matter in hand after that remarkable parley
between Tovey and the Admiral from this strange phantom raider…until it
vanished, just as it had vanished from the North Atlantic the previous year.

That
set the bells off rather quickly in the Golf, Cheese and Chess Society, until
reports came in from FRUMEL Headquarters in Melbourne just a few days later
that a strange ship was now engaged with the Japanese Navy off Darwin—and using
naval rocketry as its primary weaponry!

Admiral
John Tovey was quick to pay a visit to Hut 4 a few days later, and he briefed
Alan Turing on the matter, astounded to think that this might be the very same
ship that had vanished at St. Helena! Turing remembered clearly the
conversation he had with Tovey that day, and the startling conclusion they had
been forced to accept.

“It’s
Geronimo,” he said quietly. “There’s no question about it. The silhouette is
unmistakable. And those other ships are Japanese cruisers.”

“Indeed,”
said Tovey. “Those photos were taken August 24th. Now Professor, might you tell
me how this ship, which was a thousand yards off the Island of St Helena on the
morning of August 23rd, could suddenly vanish, and then reappear off Melville
Island, a distance of 7,800 nautical miles away in a period of 24 hours?”

“Well
sir, the ship would have to move in
time
. It’s the only thing that might
account for this sudden disappearance and reappearance half a world away.”

Even
now the notion still seemed fantastic to Turing, a matter for the fanciful
writings of H.G. Wells and not the cold light of reality played with in Hut 4.
Yet Turing was a man of great intellect, and equal imagination, well ahead of
his day in the many fields he chose to interest himself in. He gave the matter
more than passing thought, realizing that the entire logic of his assumption
rested on the sole premise that the ship now found to be in the Pacific was
indeed the same one that vanished at St. Helena. Yet as one photo after another
came in, and reports from coastwatchers out of Milne Bay also fleshed out the
information they had on this latest incident, it appeared that the Japanese now
had the pleasure, or the horror, of tangling with
Geronimo
.

Turing
had a contact at FRUMEL HQ down in Melbourne, a man named Osborne who fed him
everything they had on the incident. It all painted the same picture—the
photography, the naval rockets, and now the blackened and wrecked hulls of
Japanese destroyers, cruisers and battleships for a change. Appearing right in
the middle of a major Japanese offensive, ‘the ship’ had unhinged the whole operation
just as the Americans launched a devastating counterpunch at Guadalcanal that
also sent three Japanese fleet carriers and most of their planes and pilots to
the bottom of the sea. The one-two punch had set the Japanese back on their
heels, and changed the whole balance of power in the Pacific. It would be the
beginning of an American and Allied offensive there that would not stop until
it reached the home waters of Japan, though Turing did not know that just yet.

For
now the news was good for a change. It seemed that
Geronimo
was no
respecter of persons when it put to sea. It was ready, willing and quite able
to take on all comers, and punish any naval force that tried to impede it. And
then, just as it had done twice before, the ship simply vanished again!

Admiral
Tovey had been making regular visits to Hut 4 ever since. Like Turing, he also
found the notion that the ship had moved in time a bit of a stretch, but if a
man of Turing’s credentials could seriously entertain the prospect, then Tovey
thought it best to at least consider it as well. Now the Admiral was visiting
yet again, with an arm full of new material for the secret files, and an equal
number of other questions in mind. He alone had gotten a firsthand look at the
men from this ship. He spoke directly with the ship’s Admiral, astounded to
learn that they were not monsters or supermen after all, only a ship of men—but
they were Russians!

Turing
had suspected that himself once, given the place the ship was first spotted by
Wake-Walker’s carriers over a year ago. It was well north in the Norwegian Sea;
north of Jan Mayan. To learn now that the Admiral of this ship and crew spoke
Russian was quite telling. Yet Turing was convinced that the ship, its weapons,
and perhaps even its crew could not possibly have come from the Soviet Union he
knew in 1942. In fact, Tovey told him that the ship’s Admiral made a point of
denying any association or affiliation with Stalin’s Russia. All that did was
further reinforce the impossible conclusion Turing had come to in his own mind.

This
ship had come from some
future
time. It’s weapons were decades beyond
anything that any nation on this earth could produce. Its Admiral had stated
that they had the ability to convert sea water to steam and therefore had no
fuel problem, yet they would need something to kindle the heat required to make
steam for turbines powerful enough to drive a ship of that size at the speeds
reported. They clearly were not burning coal or oil to do so. Only some new
propulsion system from a future time seemed to solve that riddle. This Russian
Admiral even hinted that he looked upon the events of this war as history. In
fact, the only way that the presence of this ship in the Atlantic, the Med and
finally the Pacific made any sense at all was to consider it as having come
from another era, another future time, perhaps when the theoretical discussions
about the possibility of time travel had become a practical reality.

Why
was the ship here? Why had it come? Admiral Tovey had made a strong point when
he noted that it was indeed a warship that was sent back, not a polite
diplomatic mission. Was it on a mission where force of arms would be an
integral part of the outcome?

The
ship’s Admiral seemed to deny this, if he could be believed. He stated that he
wanted no part of this bloody world war, just a quiet island where he could
escape and consider how he could get his ship and crew home, wherever that was.
Turing believed that it was, indeed, Soviet Russia, and given his best
estimate, he thought it might be at least fifty years in the future, possibly
more.

With
these thoughts and questions in mind the Admiral had come to Bletchley Park
again that day to continue his discussion with the brilliant mathematician. There
was an odd edge to his voice on the line when he had called to arrange the
meeting. Turing could sense that he seemed harried, cautious, worried about
something. The whole scenario was indeed the most troubling event to come along
in the war, though relatively few really knew about it. He had the feeling that
Tovey was very concerned about something.

That
was it, thought Turing. He’s in the know now, just as I was a few weeks back
when I first set my mind on this conclusion about
Geronimo
. Now he knows…

And
he’s afraid.

The
two men were meeting again in Hut 4, and Admiral Tovey began by reiterating a
very chilling point he had suggested earlier. “Let us humor ourselves and take
your assumption as true for the time being, Professor. If this ship did come
from some other time, then when might it return again? Yes, it vanished as
before, but we waited a long year before we saw it in the Med. Might it
reappear in another year, or a month, or even any day now as it did before?”

“It
very well could, sir,” said Turing.

“And
for that matter, when might another come?” What is it doing, Turing? Have you
given that further thought? Is it deliberately involving itself in these naval
engagements, perhaps with the aim of changing future events? When it vanishes,
where does it go?”

“It’s
all very perplexing, sir, and we can only speculate. Perhaps it returns to its
home base to replenish. That would seem a natural conclusion. Might it return
to our time again? It’s already done that once, so it could certainly be
expected. Might other ships come? That, too is a chilling possibility. But as
to what its mission might be, that is difficult to know. It may indeed be
attempting to alter the course of events. This last incident with the Japanese
was fairly well decisive, wasn’t it? Lucky for us this ship can’t seem to
decide who’s side it on in our little war. In any wise, it doesn’t appear as if
it has an agenda favoring one outcome or another, at least at this point.”

“Quite
so,” said Tovey. “At first I had to believe this ship had it in for the British
Empire. It was driving for the Atlantic Charter conference, and that was a very
pointed thrust. Then this Admiral explained that he was not in control of his
ship at the time, and that there was a difference of opinions on how to
proceed.”

“Your
wolf in the fold, scenario,” said Turing.

“Precisely.
Well, that being the case, I’m of the mind that it simply wants to be left
alone. This Admiral was more than likely still looking for his damnable island,
if you want my opinion on it. The Japanese were just unlucky enough to get in
the way this time.”

“What
was wrong with St. Helena?”

“Good
point, Turing. Taking this line it would seem to me that the ship is not here
deliberately as I first feared. Could this whole thing be an accident, and not
intended at all?”

“Yes,
sir, it could indeed be here by accident. After all, if it does come from some
future time, and its appearance was planned, then why haven’t we seen any other
interventions of a similar nature… other visitors? There’s only been this one
ship, which is odd if I dare say. Why come in a warship?”

“In
some ways it makes a good deal of sense, my good man. You’ve never been on the
bridge of a battleship, but to feel it riding the swells of the deep ocean, and
at your command, is a rather heady experience. It’s a fortress on the sea,
fast, mobile, well protected, and as this ship has clearly demonstrated, it can
defend itself rather handily, and go wherever it pleases. My God, this ship has
sailed more than half way round this earth!”

“Yet
now it may be in some distress, sir, considering all the combat it’s been
involved in. If the Russians of the future knew this, wouldn’t they do
everything possible to rescue these men? We’ve seen no evidence of that. And if
this was an accident, it would seem to me they might realize the severe
consequences of their actions and be doing everything possible to remedy this
business—assuming they knew about this time displacement.”

“Do
you think they know about it?”

“Perhaps
they don’t. They might not know anything about it at all, just as this Admiral
claimed, which makes this incident seem a little less sinister in my mind.
After all, if they did know how to move through time, sending a ship like this
back would seem a bit much. All they would really have to do is send someone
like me back to draw up plans on all these advanced weapons we’ve seen and give
them to the Russians! Yet we’ haven’t seen a shred of evidence the Soviets have
anything like this in development. Yes, they have their Katyushas, but that’s
hardy on par with what we witnessed, particularly in the North Atlantic when
the American Task force 16 went down. So I lean toward the conclusion that that
future Soviet government may
not
know this even happened. That that,
too, could change if this ship ever does get home again, as this Admiral
desires. If something like this had happened to one our ships. If it ever did
get home again there would be inquiries, questions, a lot of digging.”

“Yes,”
Tovey rubbed his chin, thinking. “Look what the Americans did when those
destroyers showed up at Halifax. Look how we’ve covered up the presence and
activity of this
Geronimo
ourselves.”

“And
we seem to be doing a good bit of digging as well.”

“Yes
we are, so I take your point, Turing. I can imagine the Soviet government in
the future is going to do the very same thing if this ship ever does reach a
friendly port again. Forgive me for seeming a pessimist, but I can’t say I find
that notion in any way comforting. The Russians are somewhat a reluctant ally
at the moment. They’re with us now because they have Hitler and the German Army
at their throats, but we’re strange bedfellows, Professor, no matter how well
the Prime Minister may get on with Stalin in his dacha. This Russian Admiral
also made a point of suggesting our cozy alliance may not last in days to come.
Even if this were an accident, that future government might discover how it was
displaced in time, and they may not always be our allies. Things change…That’s
how he put it to me. Things change.”

“No
argument there, sir.”

Tovey
thought about that, nodding. “Well, Professor, you and I both know that they do
not always change for the good. I’m a military man, and one sworn to protect
the empire and the kingdom I serve. Perhaps I was foolish not to try and sink
this ship when I had the whole of Home Fleet at my back. Now we must live with
the situation as it stands. The point is this: whether deliberate or not, this
ship may return one day, or others like it, and we really don’t know what its
purpose is. Until we do know, and to a certainty, we must take every possible
precaution. Whether friend or foe, if the Soviet government of that future time
ever does learn what happened to their ship, then we’ve another problem as
well, because they will realize that this impossible notion of returning to the
past is within their grasp, and that’s enough to tempt any man alive, Turing.
That is
real
power.”