Doppelganger (36 page)

“
Kirov
,” said Dorland, “the ship that once went by the code name
Geronimo
when you first encountered it, though that moment is about to be re-written by events now underway. From my perspective in 2021, I have the advantage of history to let me look over my shoulder to these days and learn things that occurred. Unfortunately, circumstances are no longer the same here, and that history is now badly frayed. Whether it will ever be saved is in grave doubt.”

Tovey nodded. “Yet given what you have just said, you must certainly know the outcome of all these events.”

“That was once quite true,” said Dorland, “at least for the broad strokes of history. Most events in human experience go unrecorded, and only the big things stand the test of time and survive as recorded history. But now, not even that can be relied upon. The interventions made by this Russian ship have changed everything. From our vantage point in the future, we could see many of those changes manifesting as variations against the history we already knew. But when these things happen, it takes time for the changes to migrate forward to the future—to our time and beyond.”

“Yet the Russians were clearly aware of events about to unfold in this war—at least to some extent.”

“It is that certainty that is fading now,” said Dorland. “Nothing can be relied on in the history at this moment, particularly now, for we have entered what I call a kind of zone of chaos after the 28th of July. You are aware of the significance of this date?”

“I was told it was the date the Russians first arrived here. That was on Wake Walker’s beat, but I know this only because of a few very odd file boxes where I seem to have written up reports on the entire affair. They were found at Bletchley Park by our Mister Turing. I hoped he could be here for this meeting, but the plane is running late. Might you have any explanation?”

“Let me try,” said Paul. “Whenever something moves in time, it opens a temporary hole in the continuum, or to put it another way, it creates a little whirlpool in the stream and slips through. Sometimes other things can be dragged along with it, particularly things related to events it may have altered during its time in the past. As we have seen, those events can cause serious harm to the continuum of future events. So these little things can be very dangerous, like contaminates or waste byproducts from the intervention. The easiest way to think of it would be to imagine Mother Time trying to sweep up bits of broken China on her kitchen floor. Sometimes she can be very meticulous. Other times things can happen in a haphazard or random way, particularly in a Chaos Zone. That refers to intervals of instability that accompany objects and persons moving through time. And when we get an entire battlecruiser, with a crew of over 700 men doing that movement, the disturbance can be quite significant.”

Tovey was able to follow the logic of that easily enough. “According to the reports from my own hand, I didn’t personally encounter the Russian ship until August 4th, cruising south of Iceland. Are you saying that one of these chaos zones has formed around that date—the 28th of July? The young Russian Captain was particularly concerned about that day. He kept referring to it as a Paradox.”

“And rightly so,” said Dorland. “Well… It has just occurred, and because the Russian movements in time also took their ship as far back as 1908, changes that took place at that time have been migrating forward, and they have obviously reached the 1940s. This world seems quite different, a completely different history in many ways, though still very familiar to the history we knew in other aspects.”

“Yes,” said Tovey. “Now that you mention that, I believe my last statement was in error. I think I first set eyes on that Russian ship as a very young man, a Lieutenant serving aboard the armored cruiser
King Alfred
out of the China Station. We were involved in that big battle—the Second Battle of the Tushima Straits, and I’m certain it was the Russian ship we faced there—until it vanished, just as it did a few months ago while steaming some 500 meters off the very bow of this ship!”

“In fact,” said Dorland, “that was an alteration of your own personal timeline, or meridian as I use the term. You were never supposed to have seen that ship, and there was no such battle ever recorded in the history I know. These things all happened as a consequence of
Kirov’s
intervention in time. We only just perceived these variation flags in our research systems, and we have seen the changes occurring that far back, to 1908. Now changes from that day are reaching this time, though they have not yet reached my time in 2021. Think of these changes as moving in waves, like a tsunami, and they have finally reached this shore of 1941. Yet that date—July 28th—did indeed present a Paradox. The Russian ship was here, approaching it from the past, yet it was the date of its first appearance, so that would create quite a problem. Too many cooks spoil the broth. You say
Kirov
vanished in May, and there has been no further sign of it since that time?”

“Not a whisper on the radio sets they left with me.”

“I beg your pardon… Radio sets?”

“Yes, they brought over some of their equipment to facilitate secure communications. I believe Miss Fairchild received it as well.”

“Confirmed,” said Elena. “We’ve a Russian set aboard the
Argos Fire
, for secure encrypted comm-links with
Invincible
and
Kirov
. The Russian Submarine has the same, but we’ve no contact with it.”

“Submarine?” Now Paul remembered that Nordhausen had mentioned he had data on that, along with a photo of these new ships at anchor, the funnies. “Yes, we just learned of that. Frankly, you can tell me much more about it than our researchers are likely to find.”

Elena took a moment to explain, as far as she had learned it from Fedorov, how the use of Rod-25 in conjunction with a nuclear reactor had enabled
Kirov
, and then
Kazan
, to move in time.

“Amazing,” said Paul, surprised to hear all of this. “Then that control rod was still aboard the Russian submarine?”

“As far as we know, though it may have been transferred back to
Kirov
. In any case, both vessels are gone now, and that all occurred during that little naval spat we recently concluded in May. I’m sorry to say there was a nuclear detonation involved as well.”

Now Fairchild told the professor about the presence of the
Astute
Class submarine, obviously escorting the small transport flotilla they had inherited.

“Yet another interloper,” said Tovey.

“Yes,” said Elena, “only this one probably did not realize what had happened. It appeared here, perhaps because of an event that occurred in 2021, and then probably detected the Russian sub.

“The two got into quite a scrap,” said MacRae, “and one side or the other must have made a donnybrook of it when they used a nuclear tipped torpedo.”

“So we get another rip in the continuum at that time,” said Paul, shaking his head, “along with all the others connected with these keys. I’m beginning to think that all this is related now—these natural rifts in time we spoke of earlier, Miss Fairchild. Yet let me ask you something directly if I may. What meridian are you native to?”

“I’m not sure I understand.”

“When were you born?

“Professor Dorland, one never asks a lady to state her true age, at least not one over thirty. If you mean to ask if 2021 is my own native time, then you are correct.”

“You have not moved here from any future time?”

“Certainly not.”

“Very well. I had to ask that, and I will of course take your word on the matter. I raise this issue because we’ve had… dealings with other operatives from the future, so I can empathize with you, Admiral Tovey, in having to put up with all of us tramping through your garden.”

“Well,” said Tovey, “as you chaps seem to be doing a good deal of weeding while you’re at it, I have no objection. But this business about Chaos Zones does seem a tad disturbing. Might you expound on that further?”

Now Professor Dorland explained how the Heisenberg Waves emanating from 1908 might split into two distinct wave sets when they encounter the Paradox he had spoken of earlier. He took up pencil and paper and drew a diagram to help them visualize it.

“See how the dual wave sets now overlap one another on the other side of Paradox Time? That’s where we are now, in the Chaos Zone. Things can get very strange there, though there is a hidden order at the heart of chaos itself. This business with the radio sets you mentioned—neither set should have survived here in this milieu after July 28th. The Russian ship and sub were conveniently gone when the final bell tolled on July 28th, but those radios are the kind of loose ends often cleaned up by Paradox. They should have been annihilated, but the fact that they remain here is very curious, and also somewhat alarming.”

“Like those file boxes we discussed?” Tovey put in.

“Perhaps,” said Paul. “But the radio sets may have been protected by a Nexus Point. That’s rare, but it can happen. All of you have been so enmeshed in these events that you may have become what I call Prime Movers, important willful agents that can affect the course of time and events. Primes, and things around them, can be very resilient in chaos, and even when facing Paradox. And so here we all are. Here I am, thinking I might possibly find some way to set things right again, though the history looks completely broken as I see it now.”

“And all the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty together again,” said Tovey.

“Quite so,” said Paul. “Beyond that, we have another problem with the discovery of these natural fissures in time. I assume that is how your ship got here, Miss Fairchild? Am I correct? Was the location of a natural fissure inscribed on the shaft of that key in your possession?”

“Not at all,” said Elena. “I received my orders to go to a specific point, the Oracle of Delphi. I was to excavate the shrine, and was very surprised to find a well engineered passage way. It was certainly nothing that could have been built in antiquity, not even in this time. There were precision milled doors and hatches, all opened by my key, so I assume the Watch received this information by other means.”

Now she shared the strange message she had found in the box, presumably sent by Admiral Tovey himself. She produced the note, handing it to Paul, who read it with studied intensity.

 ‘Should you read this your mission will have concluded as planned. Keep this device within a secure room aboard Argos Fire at all times and it will serve to hold you in a safe nexus. As of this moment, you are now Watchstander G1. Godspeed.’

Paul looked up at Elena, a question in his eye. “Miss Fairchild,” he said quietly, “why do I get the distinct impression that you know a good deal more about all of this than you have yet spoken?”

“Because I do,” Elena said with equal calm.

Chapter 32

“Have
you told him about the box?” said MacRae, not knowing whether or not he was revealing some great secret.

Elena looked at him, then simply shrugged. “You may as well know everything,” she said. “We were ordered to the Delphi Shrine by the Watch, the Group supposedly established by our good friend Admiral Tovey here, though he has yet to live those days out, and now may never do so if this Heisenberg Wave you speak of takes down that little sandcastle and washes the shoreline clean.”

“Yet it did occur once,” said Paul, “and you remember it because you are now clearly a Prime Mover, and this ship, and your own, are in a Nexus Point, a kind of safety zone in the chaos of time when things begin to change. We all share it, otherwise the Heisenberg Wave would be affecting us all here at this very moment.”

“That’s how she explained it all to me once,” said MacRae.

“Yes,” said Elena, “and I used that very same phrase, not because I had any innate knowledge of it. It was simply information I received from the Watch, and they purportedly got it from the future… Until the voices and information from there went silent.”

Now she told Paul her full story, and how the Watch had received those strange transmissions from the future, information from another time!

“Yes,” said Paul. “I’m afraid I pioneered the technique when we were trying to clean up a little mess involving the
Bismarck
, though that was before these radical changes migrating from 1908.”

“Then do you also know about Tunguska?”

Paul gave her a searching look now. “What about it?”

“The Tunguska Event,” said Elena. “That occurred in late June of 1908, and we have learned that it may have caused some very significant damage to the continuum of time, as you refer to it.”

Yes, thought Paul, Tunguska! It was a major explosive event, and we’ve already learned what can happen when they occur. Why didn’t I think of this earlier? There it was, right in 1908. Did Nordhausen mention anything about it? Then the revelation Miss Fairchild made next struck him with equal surprise.

“I believe the box we found at Delphi may contain a fragment from the Tunguska Event—a massive explosion that disturbed both space and time here when it occurred, and ever since then, other explosive events have continued to fracture time. This is how we learned of these natural fissures.”

“This was information from the future?” Paul asked quickly.

“I believe so,” said Elena. “I can’t say I was really told everything, even though that note there seems to elevate me to the top of the list where membership in the Watch is concerned. This talk of Paradox and Chaos Zones has me worried. We learned that time may have been badly fragmented by that event, like pottery or glass that’s been cracked.”

“And it’s getting worse,” said Paul. “So this is why you knew of that other term, Grand Finality.”

“I was told that as well,” said Elena, though I can’t say I fully understand it.”

“I don’t suppose anyone really can,” said Paul.

“Well whatever happened, time has a crack in it,” said Elena, “more than one, and now any big explosive event seems to cause additional damage. Remnants of a strange element found near Tunguska also seem to have this same effect, opening time, creating one of those whirlpools you spoke of. I don’t know what metaphor best describes it now. It’s very confusing. British intelligence first thought this was something the Russians were experimenting with. We even managed to obtain a few samples of a material we thought was from Tunguska, and now we’ve learned that it can be catalyzed by nuclear detonations as well. Then we learned the Russians were using it in the control rods of the nuclear reactors aboard that battlecruiser—
Kirov
. It took a good long time for us to discover that, but we eventually learned about it. And that box we found at Delphi contains a Tunguska fragment. It was activated when I used my key.”