“Decades? What are you saying?”
“To be completely blunt about it, Takami was laid down in the year 2018, and commissioned into the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force in the year 2021.” He waited, saying nothing more.
Ugaki looked at Yamamoto, and when the latter simply laughed, Ugaki shook his head. “It seems you have already had your fill of that saké sitting there, and before you even offer it to your guests! More nonsense and evasion! So many words, yet nothing ever said. Such insubordination, and with the Admiral of the Combined Fleet sitting here before you!”
“Sir,” said Harada, “I know what I have said sounds like utter nonsense. We thought the very same thing just days ago when we transited the Sunda Strait. Takami was on a simple escort run from Singapore to Darwin. Then, all of a sudden, we found ourselves caught up in that terrible volcanic eruption. We sailed north, hoping to escape the ashfall, and that was when we came across General Imamura adrift at sea. It took us some time before we could believe he was the man he claimed to be—General Hitoshi Imamura, Commander of the Japanese 16th Army. You see, in our day, no such Army even exists, and we could see no reason why a Japanese Army officer would be where we found him. His uniform was archaic, even as you looked at our uniforms and insignia and knew something was amiss.”
“You persist in this?” Now Admiral Ugaki had a hand on the hilt of his sword yet again.
“Do not be so quick to draw that blade,” Harada pointed. “Hear me out. You can believe it, or laugh it away when I have finished, but at least have the courtesy to listen. No man or woman aboard this ship thought we would ever find ourselves in a situation like this. Yes, I said woman, just like Lieutenant Ryuko Otani there at sensor watch. Women have served in the Japanese Navy for years, and she is a fine officer. As for this ship, no nation on this earth could build it, or even begin to understand or manufacture any of the equipment you have seen us demonstrate here. I just killed men and planes out there, and at night, firing a weapon guided by radar alone and at a range exceeding 30,000 kilometers. That capability will not exist on this planet for decades, in spite of what you have told me about the Russian ship you believe is operating in the North.”
Now he lowered his voice, still working through his own thoughts in his mind, less certain, but no less determined to have his say. “Concerning that, there was another incident in our time, the year 2021, and just days before this happened to us in the Sunda Straits. A volcano in the Kuriles erupted violently, and at that time, a Russian battlecruiser was leading a small flotilla very near that location. Those ships vanished, and we believed they may have been sunk. Yet now, after what has happened to Takami, I wonder… yes…. Because the Captain of that ship was a man well known to many of us in the Navy. We often sortied in the Sea of Japan when the Russian Navy would joust with us out of Vladivostok. His name was Vladimir Karpov…”
Yamamoto sat there, astounded, listening out of politeness but unable to accept what this man was saying. And yet, this Captain was possessed with sincere urgency, with an almost desperate need to be believed. What Kami has taken this man’s soul, he thought? And the other one, the First Officer, he is thinking much more than he is speaking, yet between them there is a strained rope that tethers them together in this. They believe this story! As much as Ugaki was correct that this was insubordinate effrontery, here these men stand, and knowing Yamato has three 18-inch guns trained on this ship, yet this is what they tell me here. It is simply the most outrageous thing I have ever heard, but yet both these men believe it. I can see that on every line of their faces.
He pinched the bridge of his nose, as if to chase the weariness of the hour. On the other hand, look what this ship just did, he thought. I saw those planes fall with my own eyes. I saw officers below simply touching those panes of glass and lighting them up with maps and strange lines and symbols. Clearly this technology is equally outrageous in what it can accomplish. Is it real or theater as Ugaki suspects?
The death of those American planes was certainly reality. Could this preposterous story also be true? Could that be the real explanation for Nagumo’s shameful lapse in losing Hiryu. Our men call this ship up north Mizuchi, a monster from the spirit realm, and now here I sit, swallowed and in the belly of yet another Sea Dragon. These men now claim that they appeared here by accident. This ship was not some hidden project kept secret from the Navy. Assuming, for the briefest moment, that their claim is true, what is it they think to accomplish in coming to me this way? And now they have made yet another astounding statement, that this Vladimir Karpov is another Kami from some distant world, and not a man of our time.
“Vladimir Karpov,” he said. “You are telling me that this man is not….”
“He is not a man of this era sir. Yes. If this is the man I think it is, then he has come from our time, the 21st Century, and so has his ship. He was commander of the Russian battlecruiser Kirov in 2021, a guided missile cruiser, and perhaps the most powerful in the world. It has missiles, just like those you have seen us use against aircraft, and even more powerful rockets used to attack other ships. I am willing to bet that aside from that ship, there have been no other confirmed useage of these rockets anywhere else.”
Yes, thought Yamamoto, that would explain quite a few things. But who could swallow such broth and still pretend he is a sane man sitting at his table for lunch? In spite of that, how do I explain the presence of this ship here now, these weapons and radars? I am left with the distinct feeling that we will learn that these weapons are not really being manufactured by the Russians, just as this man says. If they had them, why didn’t they use them to defend Moscow? Why would they be on this single ship, and nowhere else… Yes… nowhere else. There has not been a single report of these rockets being used anywhere else, only with this mysterious Russian ship from the Atlantic…. Until this moment… Until a ship crewed by these officers and men, all Japanese, sail so boldly into my compass rose with this ridiculous story, and yet with power and a military capability that is simply astounding.
Ugaki wants to draw his sword and take this man’s head. Perhaps he should, but what good would that do? Suppose instead I join this Kabuki theater, and play my part. They are tapping out the rhythm, and so now, I will join the dance.
“Very well,” he said slowly. “Admiral Ugaki, if you squeeze the hilt of that sword any further you will shatter it. Kindly rest at ease. These men have certainly told us things no sane man could ever believe, though I do not think they mean any disrespect in so doing. After all these hours with them, I still do not know who they are, or where they have come from, but one thing I do know is this—they have power at their disposal that exceeds anything we have ever seen. And if they are loyal to our nation, then that power can make our fleet invulnerable to enemy air attack. Isn’t that what you claim?”
“For a time,” said Harada. “Like all other things in life, the power we possess is not unlimited. Our defensive capabilities can certainly shield any fleet we sail with, and keep it from harm, even if the enemy knows exactly where we are. Takami can detect and stop any air attack… until our missiles run out.”