Quantum Karma
“QUANTUM KARMA – The influence of causality on a Time Meridian. Each moment on the Meridian affects the next with a kind of momentum, and certain Prime Movers accumulate an aura of Quantum Karma around them that also has profound effects on the configuration of future moments in Time.”
Chapter 34
“Con—Sonar—Sonobuoy in the water! I have active pinging.”
Gromyko reacted immediately. “Come right 15 degrees, 20 degree down bubble. Make your speed 12 knots. Make your depth 1200. We’re going deep.”
Kazan had been sprinting again at 35 knots, still looking for those carriers. Gromyko had been tempted to turn and try and close the range on the contacts behind him, naturally curious as to what they might be. Instead he decided to sprint one more time, giving Chernov another chance to listen fifteen minutes later. He refreshed his reading on that destroyer, still edgy about it, but not inclined to go to an active missile attack until he knew where the carriers were.
But he would not be satisfied that day. Admiral Kita had made a course and speed change an hour earlier, and was now over 30 nautical miles away. Kurama and Omi had also turned, the entire force thinking to rendezvous near the sinking site of Takami. Then came the sonobuoy, and Gromyko took Kazan deep, slowing to 5 knots, and then hovering in the dark cold stillness of the sea, very near the bottom.
Kita had been very wary, knowing that the Russian sub was out there somewhere. He had no contacts, but decided to act as though he did. He sent a message to Takao to have her helo drop three sonobuoys, and make them active. To any sub driver in the business, that was a strong and clear signal that he had been made. So Gromyko did the logical thing, going deep, hovering, becoming nothing and nowhere in the sea.
Kita’s move was a bluff, but it worked. Those three sonobuoys pinged away for an hour, and all the while Kaga and Akagi were steaming at 24 knots, opening the range to nearly 55 nautical miles as they slipped away, Takao still following as a screening unit. Kita’s task force would reach the rescue site, his Marines looking over some flotsam to see if anything vital might be recoverable.
After that long hour, Gromyko decided to creep away to the east, moving at a stealthy 5 knots for the next 30 minutes. The sound of the sonobuoys continued to diminish and fade, and finally Chernov looked at the Captain and spoke.
“Sir… I don’t think they have us. If they did, there would have been some response to this move. Those buoys are still back near our previous position. I think they were fishing, sir.”
Gromyko smiled. Perhaps they never did have us, he thought. Someone out there is very cagey. He knew I was out here, and perhaps they picked up a whisper of my trail on one of the high speed sprints. So he popped off those sonobuoys to make it seem as though they were prosecuting a contact. Very clever. I think my quarry has given me the slip this time.
“What was the last course and speed we had on that destroyer?”
“220 at 24 knots.”
Gromyko looked at his chart. Then he glanced up at Belanov. “Karpov reported the three destroyers chasing him broke off hours ago and turned northeast. Our last reading on this one had it running southwest. I think they’re making a rendezvous.”
‘Where, sir?” Belanov stepped over to the chart table.
“Here,” Gromyko pointed. “Right where we sunk Takami.”
“A good assumption,” said Belanov.
“Yes, Momma Bear has called home all her cubs. So what are we looking at here? That means there are at least four destroyers, and we also had those two other contacts trailing behind that we never investigated.”
“What do you figure them to be, the carriers?”
“Possibly, but now I’m thinking the carriers must have been off on 240 when we went deep, and I think we were very close. Then they played their bluff, and I knuckled under. Considering things now, what else would we typically see in a task force of this size, particularly one this far from Japanese home waters?” Gromyko was reasoning the situation out, his long years of experience at sea informing him where his sensors had failed to do the job.
“Replenishment,” said Belanov.
“Exactly. I think those last two contacts were most likely a replenishment ship, and possibly one more destroyer in escort. So let’s fill out the dance card here. Karpov reported he was attacked by strike planes, and from his last message, they got in close enough to deliver a glide bomb attack. What do you make of that?”
“Quite surprising. Japanese carriers are usually packing helos.”
“Right, but not this time. Strike range on glide bomb ordnance is around 45 miles. If they got planes in that close to Kirov, then they had to be F-35’s. But from what I know, the Japanese didn’t have very many of those, and the few they did have active were down on Okinawa at Naha or Kadena. So how do we get a task force like this way out here, and with F-35’s?”
“How do we get them here in 1943, sir?” Belanov brought them back to the moment, and Gromyko nodded.
“That nice little control rod Kamenski gave us accounts for our presence here—but the Japanese?”
“We’ll never figure that one out, sir. They’re here, and that’s all that matters. So what’s our play?”
“Let’s figure this from the other fellow’s side of the fence,” said Gromyko. “Somehow they shifted here, and right into the middle of our little conference with Fedorov and Karpov—uninvited guests. They obviously rendezvoused with Takami, another ship that appeared here under mysterious circumstances, and I don’t think any of them had control rods from Kamenski.”
“Very strange,” said Belanov. “Takami has been here for a good long while. This wasn’t the first time they tangled with Karpov.”
“Right,” said Gromyko. “Well, they called in some reinforcements.”
“Called them in? You figure they have some way of communicating with the future?”
“I was speaking metaphorically. But considering that, wouldn’t these events become … history? Wouldn’t the men and women in the future this time line gives rise to eventually know about what happened with Kirov and Takami?”
“That’s a lot of speculation, sir.” Belanov did not have the mental hiking shoes to wander down that path. “It’s a bit eerie to think they’re reading us like a book in 2021 and then sending back reinforcements to deal with us—with Karpov. I don’t suppose they would have known about Kazan.”
“They do now,” said Gromyko.
“Alright, but how did they get here, sir?”
“We got here. Perhaps they developed some means to follow us. Who knows? Then again, their presence here could be an accident. Kirov’s initial shift happened because of that detonation aboard Orel. We also know that Karpov and some of his flotilla shifted when that Demon volcano erupted.”
“Trying to sort through all the cards in the deck, Mister Gromyko?” Admiral Volsky had been resting, but feeling the boat move, he now returned to the bridge, approaching the two men where they huddled near the charts.
“Yes sir,” said the Captain. “Just trying to think things through. We were wondering how this welcoming committee got here. The way we figure it, they have at least one carrier, and with F-35’s. Throw in four or five destroyers and a replenishment ship, and this is one nice fat task force, way out here east of Ponape. That’s damn strange, sir. So we were wondering how they got here, and whether it was a willful shift, or an accident.”