“You mean about the atomic weapons?”
“No, not that—about Dobrynin and the nuclear reactors. Fedorov was talking about this confounding time displacement, and trying to link it to a strange flux in the reactor core. You said something that stuck with me ever since. You asked if we had considered telling Dobrynin to fiddle with the reactors a bit more.”
“Yes, you were all wondering what to do about Gibraltar, so I suggested you just have Dobrynin crank up the reactor and send us somewhere else. I was joking, of course. Just trying to lighten the mood of the discussion.”
“Well,” said Volsky with a broad smile. “We took your advice, Doctor! Fedorov and I conspired a bit and we found out something very odd. Dobrynin was running a maintenance routine on the reactor core, and every time he did it the ship ended up moving some hours later. Moving in
Zolkin was truly surprised now. His fanciful suggestion had been right on the mark. “You mean this is no longer 1942? We are somewhere else?”
“Not exactly, Dmitri. We did move, but the interval was somewhat short lived this time. That’s what Fedorov is calling these time shifts—intervals.”
Zolkin nodded, his eyes bright behind his dark spectacles, charcoal brows bobbing as he spoke. “A bright young man.”
“Truly,” said Volsky. “He has worked very efficiently with Karpov, and I must also say that my little experiment with the Captain has worked out to much good as well. He’s saved the ship on more than one occasion. A truly exceptional performance as a tactical combat officer. If I had listened to him, and struck at the enemy carriers as he advised, you would not have men in here talking about planes flying through them. Together the two of them have kept us all alive. I’m afraid I’m starting to feel like a big fat suitcase on a badly filled airliner. There’s not much room for me on the bridge now. Those two have the matter well in hand.”
“It’s good they both have performed so well,” said Zolkin. “Particularly what you say about Karpov. I must tell you that I had my misgivings about the man when you first returned him to duty.”
“Don’t worry yourself about it, Dmitri. I don’t think he will try anything like he did in the Atlantic. We seem to have reached an understanding. The men have also seen him in the middle of it all up there.” He pointed to the ceiling, fingering the main bridge somewhere above them. “They have come to respect Karpov in a way they never did before.”
“Yes,” said Zolkin. I’ve had
“No, we have also reached an understanding about that. Do not worry about it. But Doctor… A little more advice from you, if you would be so kind. We tried out this maintenance procedure with Dobrynin, but now we have regressed—that is what Fedorov calls it. I don’t really understand it all. He says the ship seems drawn to this time period, and that it has regressed to this date and time. Who knows why?” He held out his big empty hands in gesture, clearly indicating that he did not have the answer.
“The KA-40 was up at the time on surveillance operations. Fedorov suggested that it could have acted as a kind of anchor. It belongs to us and it seems Mother Time wants us to collect our things before we go anywhere again. That is the only way I can understand it. The helo was well away from the ship when we moved, shifted, and though we were only gone an hour as we experienced it, when we regressed the Helo found us and was nearly out of fuel. It had been searching for us for over six hours! It was already past noon, though we first noticed the odd movement a little after six in the morning. We lost all those hours, just like we seem to lose many days while we are in that other place, a future time when the world seems so empty and forsaken. Now it does not seem such a terrible place to me. The Japanese have pressed us very hard. The ship has been hit three times. We’ve taken some very severe damage and the money I will have to pay damage control Chief Byko for overtime is adding up.”
“Put me on your payroll as well,” said Zolkin.
“Yes, I know it must be very hard down here. The casualties have been mounting up as well. How many have we lost?”
“Thirty-six.”
Volsky sat with that for a while, saying nothing, his face drawn and concerned. “I appreciate all you have done, Dmitri. But hear me out. We may have a solution here after all, thanks to you. We have just discovered that we can cause the ship to move on our own—in fact we were causing the ship to move in time all along! Dobrynin was running this routine maintenance procedure every twelve days. And Fedorov says every twelve days we have moved.”
“Then it wasn’t that accident on the
“Who knows. He thinks that may have catalyzed the first incident, caused some change in our reactor. Then every time Dobrynin completes this procedure, we move in time.”
“Amazing,” said Zolkin. “Then do it again, Leonid. Get us away from these Japanese before they line more men up at my doorstep, or put another kamikaze dive bomber into the ship.”
“That is exactly what I was thinking to do. I just thought I would see what you suggested.”
“Do it, Admiral. It’s clear that we remain in grave danger here. We are not wanted. This Mother Time you speak of must be very angry with us, and not simply for forgetting our helicopters!”
“Fedorov is worried we have changed all the history and caused that holocaust in the future. In fact, none of the operations we have uncovered here are in his history books now.”
“I’m afraid so. We started the war early for the Americans, raised hell in the Mediterranean with the Italians and British. It’s as if we have slipped into Time’s mansion and broken quite a lot of china. She has finally taken notice of us and yes, she may be quite upset about it. It has occurred to me that there may be some kind of backlash for what we have done. Consequences for us as well as that future time we have blighted.”
“If I were Mother Time I would certainly want to find a good way to get rid of us,” said Zolkin.
“Well…” Volsky sighed. “The Japanese may take care of that for her. We have run out of surface-to-air missiles, my friend. All we have now to stop those planes are the close in Gatling guns, and when the ammunition runs out on those…”
“I see.”
“Another thing. Rodenko’s radar has sorted itself out again. He has spotted enemy ships bearing down on us from two directions, so we may be in another battle soon if we stay here much longer. We have two choices, Dmitri: we can either run like hell and try to get past these ships out into the South Pacific—”
“And find that island you’ve been yearning for?”
“Exactly. Either that or we run this maintenance procedure and try to pull another disappearing act.”
“Do it, Leonid. In fact, why not do both? Run like hell, and while you are at it have Dobrynin do his maintenance. Get us as far away from the Japanese as you possibly can. Send us into a thousand tomorrows, but don’t fight here any longer than you have to. I think we have been lucky so far. Very lucky. That could change.”
Admiral Volsky nodded. “Ah, but there is one small problem, Dmitri. Dobrynin cannot complete his procedure while the ship is running at any speed over ten knots. It involves retraction of one of the control rods in the reactor core. When we run up at higher speeds the reactor must have all the rods in place. He can’t remove one or we might risk overheating the core.”
“So it’s one or the other,” said Zolkin. “We either move in space, or in time. You have to decide, Leonid, and that quickly. We make our decisions on the spur of a single moment, and we pay for them for a lifetime, so choose wisely. I wish I could help you, but I can only say that I think it would be good to just get us out of here, any way you can.”
“Good advice, my friend. I think I’ll go find Mister Fedorov and see what the other officers suggest. We may have a little time before those enemy ships can get close enough to cause us trouble.”
The warning claxon suddenly startled them both, and Zolkin met the Admiral’s eyes.
“I think you had better hurry,” he said, and the Admiral wasted no further time.
