“But a good offense is our best defense,” said Captain Harada. “Our carriers, even with the few planes we now have, can get to the enemy before they ever know we are close, and destroy their carriers. Our destroyers may not ever need to use their missile compliment.”
“Suppose you encounter an enemy surface action group—with many cruisers or perhaps even a battleship.”
“Our planes would see them long before they could approach us, but granting your premise as a hypothetical, each of our destroyers carries up to eight larger missiles that target ships, and again, what we target, we hit, and without fail.”
“Yet you fought the Siberian ship, and where is your destroyer now, Captain Harada?”
“That was most unfortunate. However, my ship was not sunk by the enemy you call Mizuchi. It was hit by another Siberian vessel operating in these waters—a submarine.”
“I was not aware of this.”
“Neither were we, sir, and that was a surprise that was, in part, the reason I lost Takami.”
“So you are vulnerable to enemy submarines.” Yamamoto was covering all bases. “The Americans have many.”
“That is where our helicopters come in,” said Admiral Kita. “They can find and kill submarines of this era easily enough. In our time, a submarine is also quite stealthy. They carry missiles and torpedoes—a much more dangerous adversary.”
“Rocket weapons? On a submarine? I assume they must be on the surface to use those.”
“No sir, they can be fired while submerged, which is a reason why this enemy sub is so dangerous. We must maintain an almost constant anti-submarine patrol with our helicopters to keep watch for it, and also use highly advanced sonar, but it is very stealthy. We have only so much aviation fuel aboard, so it is obvious that we can function much better as a part of the navy you now command. In exchange for our service, we may need fuel.”
“Of course,” said Yamamoto, still dizzy with the capabilities these men were describing. Two ships, twelve planes, and he could break the American fleet and effectively win this war. Would the United States sue for peace if that happened, or would they persist, building more carriers like they have already done?
“How many times could you strike and kill an enemy carrier task force? I assume your magazines are not limitless.”
“Yes, we have limited stores of these weapons, but certainly enough to win this war,” Kita explained.
“But the Americans are a most persistent enemy. What if they will not accept a peace offer. I saw a terrible end in the library aboard your ship, Captain Harada. What of that terror weapon the Americans unleash upon Japan?”
“That will never happen,” said Fukada. “Even if the Americans do build their atomic weapons, they must get close enough to Japan to deliver it. We can prevent that from ever being the case.”
“And if they should then unleash it on our fleet? Suppose they targeted our base at Truk?”
“Again, we could prevent it.”
“Could you? I read that this weapon was delivered by a single bomber. Can you stand by every potential place they could send such a plane? Suppose they send them by the hundreds, as I also read in that library. How would your planes or missiles know which plane might be carrying their terror weapon?”
“You ask very good questions,” said Fukada, “but may I also point out that if we destroy the American fleet, they will not be able to defeat your navy. The Imperial Japanese Navy will reign supreme in these waters, and your ships and carriers, with our help, can then destroy all the bases they attempt to build for their bombers. We could even revisit Pearl Harbor.”
“We may be getting into too much here,” said Kita. “Suffice it to say, that we believe we can prevail in this war, but only fighting side by side with your own fleet, Admiral Yamamoto. This we are now prepared to do.”
“And the Siberian ship? Their submarine? They will undoubtedly fight on the other side.”
“That is the war we are prepared to fight here. We have already encountered that enemy, and driven him off, but not without cost. We are prepared to do so again.”
Chapter 35
That was the same issue that was now plaguing Volsky and Fedorov. Admiral Kita’s task force was out there somewhere, and how could they proceed with their mission, while leaving it to ravage the American fleet?
“The whole problem is a false one,” said Karpov. “This is all academic. Once we get to 1908, we can reset the entire history of this era. It will be as though none of this has ever happened.”
“That’s what is bothering me,” said Fedorov. “We devised this plan to go to 1908 precisely because all of this did happen. If it doesn’t occur, then we have no reason to go there—ever.”
“More of your fear of paradox,” said Karpov.
“A most justifiable fear,” said Fedorov back quickly. “Look what it did to you. There are two of you now! And what about your brother in all of this?”
“He will be what he will be. The way I look at it, the fact that there are two of us gives us twice the chance of surviving whatever we do in 1908. Hopefully, we will both survive.”
Volsky shook his head, a dazed look on his face. “I found one of you more than…. Sufficient,” he said. “No offense.”
“None taken, Admiral. But what I and trying to convey is this—we all know our personal fates are entwined in all of this business. If I am willing to put my fate on the line here, then you two must do the same—and you as well, Captain Gromyko. Now then, I’ve thought this through. You all have memories in your heads that are clearly not a part of this time line of events. You remember when you used the test reactors in the Primorskiy Engineering Center to move back to the 1940s at Vladivostok?”
“How could I forget that,” said Fedorov. “It led to this entire mess. I stumbled upon the crown jewel of your little empire, the railway inn at Ilanskiy, and that changed everything. I warned Sergei Kirov; he killed Josef Stalin, and Volkov came looking for me all in that same mission. There we have the entire train wreck, and all because of me.”
“You forget the Admiral who authorized you to do this,” said Volsky.
“Yes, and you also forget all I did in 1908 when I found myself there,” Karpov confessed. “But none of that is the point. That mission of yours first delivered you to September of 1942, right there at Vladivostok. From there you took the Trans-Siberian Rail to move west and look for Orlov at Kizlyar. You fought a battle there against the Germans, if I recall. Yes, in late September. Orlov was at Kizlyar on the 30th, because that’s what he put on that letter you found. Then you ran off on your mission to retrieve him. Well now, we didn’t do that this time around, did we? Not at all. In fact, in September of 1942 you and I were scheming on a plan very much like this one, to go back and deal with Sergei Kirov. I called that off, but you persisted, and then eventually failed to develop… what was it? …. Ah, yes, timely cruelty. You could not bring yourself to kill young Mironov.”
“Alright,” said Fedorov. “So what is your point?”
“The two months of September were not on the same time meridian.” He folded his arms, smiling. “You see? Your first mission to try and retrieve Orlov was in September of 42, but this time around your scheme was to get rid of Sergei Kirov—also in September of 1942. It was two different time lines! There’s no other way to explain it.”
“I suppose that must be true,” said Fedorov.
“Yes, but you thought everything would go to hell after September 30, 1942. Remember? You said this world would have no basis to exist after that, the day Orlov wrote that letter that you discovered. That set everything in motion, your mission to fetch him, your visit to Ilanskiy, your chat with Kirov, Volkov, the Orenburg Federation, and then all that I did. That is what built the world and war we’ve been fighting. Well, here we are, smack dab in the middle of 1943, and all still friends.” Karpov gave him a devious smile, then came to his point. “Nothing fell apart, Fedorov. The world did not end, nor did it start disintegrating, and it hasn’t spun off into an interminable loop like you suggested. It’s just blundering its way forward through all these Altered States. It’s a new time line, a new meridian—and guess what. Time has to settle her bets one day or another. We put an end to the old time line when we built this one. So this is all she’s got to work with now. See?”