Winter Storm by John Schettler Read Free Book Online Page B

you lived through,
and it only happened because the ship somehow slipped to a time before the
first moment of its coming.”
    “Yes,
that’s how I understand it,” said Fedorov.
    “Well,”
said Zolkin, a determined look on his face. “Then I want to do everything
possible to see that I never have to write those damn autopsy reports…”
    Yes,
thought Fedorov, the reports in that encrypted file. Somehow they had survived
too, just like the evidence the British had uncovered in those file boxes at
Bletchley Park. All of this is starting over again. They were now rewriting
the history they had ravaged in their first coming. Those men might not have to
die.
    “But
the ship is heading east,” said Fedorov, greatly relieved to be through this
with the Doctor, and to know he had gained his understanding and support.
“We’re going to Vladivostok. Those were our orders after the live fire
exercises, but it’s 1941 now, and I’ll tell you another impossible thing. The
history here has changed.”
    He gave
him that part of the story now, Stalin’s death, the rise of Sergei Kirov, his
hunt for Orlov, and how that damn intelligence officer, Captain Ivan Volkov,
must have followed his trail along the Trans-Siberian rail.
    “Lord
almighty,” said Zolkin. “This all happened at the railway inn? What is the
world coming to? You could move in time just by using that stairway?”
    “It has
something to do with the time and place that stairway brought me to,” said
Fedorov. “It has something to do with the Tunguska Event. I’ve come to think
that impact did more than we realized. It fractured spacetime. In fact, it may
have cause this instability in time that makes the ship prone to slip. That
control rod I told you about? We later learned it had materials used in it that
were mined very near the impact site at Tunguska.”
    “This
gets even more twisted the longer we talk about it,” said Zolkin, exasperated.
    “Yes,
there’s so much more I could tell you, but our immediate problem is this…
Karpov is taking the ship east to Vladivostok, but Russia doesn’t control that
port any longer. The Japanese took it from us years ago, during the time before
the revolution, and possibly because of our own meddling in all of this
history.”
    “The
Japanese?”
    “Yes,
and think now, Doctor. It is 1941, and in a few months it will be December of
that year. What happened in the Pacific?”
    “Pearl
Harbor,” said Zolkin darkly. “Japan will be entering the war soon.”
    “Exactly.
So now do you see why I am worried about the course that man up there has set
for this ship? Karpov was dead set on restoring Russia’s presence as a Pacific
power. In fact, Admiral Volsky and I were trying to prevent his intervention,
trying to preserve the history, but once a plate cracks, it is never really the
same, no matter how much glue you use.”
    “So you
think Karpov is planning something now—with the Japanese?
    “Most
certainly. He said as much to me in my quarters earlier. I don’t know what he
has in mind to do, but it was clear that he laid a very careful trap to get
control of this ship again. He’s going to do something when we get out east,
and I fear the Japanese are in for a big surprise.”
    Zolkin
nodded, seeing the gravity in the situation now, and realizing Fedorov was
trying to find a way to prevent Karpov from rewriting the history again.”
    “Then
you believe he will attack the Japanese? Try to force them to relinquish
control of Vladivostok by using the power of this ship?”
    “He was
certainly on that same course before,” said Fedorov. “He’s asked me to study up
on that history, and I think for no good reason. He’ll want to use my knowledge
as a weapon against Japan.”
    “Yes,”
said Zolkin. “Knowing what your enemy is going to do, even before he does it,
is certainly an advantage.”
    “How
can I stop him, Doctor? Before it came down to a real struggle for control of the
ship. Sergeant Troyak