Kirov Saga: Hinge Of Fate: Altered States Volume III (Kirov Series) (19 page)

“If I may, sir,” said Fedorov.
“This is about the time the Germans began to intensify their air campaign
against England with Adler Tag, the Eagle Day.”

“Yes,” said Tovey. “We have some
very capable men at a place we call Hut 6, and they intercepted and decoded the
German directive concerning this attack.”

“Then you may also know the
approximate strength of the Luftwaffe will be well over 2500 planes in these
actions. I’m afraid we haven’t quite that many missiles at our disposal. While
potent, our resources are limited, and therefore are best applied to decisive
engagements where we can aim them right at the hinge of fate, as your Mister
Churchill might put things.”

“I see,” said Tovey, realizing
that everything had limits, and even the power of this amazing ship he was
visiting was not boundless.

Fedorov could see he was
discouraged and offered another thought. “I might say that your Royal Air Force
may prove more resilient and capable than you might imagine at this moment. If
need be, and the battle becomes desperate, perhaps the Admiral might consider a
technology transfer. The radar sets we have discussed, for example. They can
dramatically increase your awareness of the battle space over England. Such a
radar set at Margate, Hastings or Eastbourne on your Channel Coast could see
the German fighters the instant they take off from their airfields as far
inland as Lille and Amiens.”

“Our Air Chief Marshal Dowding
would certainly welcome that. He places great faith in our radar sets. Would
you consider such a transfer?”

“It would require our own service
personnel to operate the equipment,” said Volsky, “but yes, it might be
arranged if the situation becomes desperate. Beyond that, however, we are a
power at sea, as you have seen. Is there anything we might do for you in that
regard?”

“Our intelligence indicates you
have already done a great deal, Admiral. We owe much to you for your timely
intervention during that recent engagement in the Denmark Strait. The
Kriegsmarine is much more of a threat than I believe Whitehall anticipated.
They might have pushed right out into the Atlantic, and in my mind they will
certainly try again. We have not yet seen the full weight and power of what
they are now capable of, and this business with the French fleet remains a
grave and unsettled matter.”

“Oh?” Volsky looked at Fedorov.
“I thought the British had already resolved that.”

“Not quite, Admiral,” said
Fedorov. “It seems that a good part of the French fleet escaped to Toulon,”

“That is so,” said Tovey. “We had
hoped to bottle them up at Mers-el-Kebir and settle the matter there, but they
seem to have had advance warning. Admiral Gensoul took his ships to sea,
against orders, we have since learned, but very wisely. Now that Vichy France
is openly courting alliance with Germany the French fleet at Toulon is a real
threat. Beyond that, there are three ships in particular that trouble my sleep
these days, and they are all located in French African ports on the Atlantic.”

“Perhaps we can assist you
there?” Volsky suggested.

“My watch remains with Home
Fleet, for the moment, but we are picking up some rather disturbing
intelligence concerning operations in the Mediterranean Theater. The Royal Navy
is strong, Admiral Volsky, but we also have our limits. The Vichy French have
powerful ships at their disposal now, and we will have to face them, the sooner
the better, for as long as they hold that sword at our backs I can never stand
an easy watch here against anything the Kriegsmarine might do again.”

“Well, Admiral, I do not think my
ship will be needed in our own home waters any time soon. We taught the Germans
a little lesson recently that they will not be eager to repeat. There are many
things I could do for you. One might be to stand a watch with you here. I could
single handedly close the Denmark Strait to access by German surface raiders.
This might relieve you of that burden, and allow you to use your ships
elsewhere without concern for that channel.”

“That would be much appreciated,
but sir, what if you were to find yourself opposed by a force the size we
lately encountered? It is true that our combined efforts were able to deter the
Germans in the last go round, but what if you were caught out there alone?”

“If it came to it, the result
would be the same. I will tell you now, and this is no mere boast, that you
have not yet seen the full measure of what this ship is capable of. I could
stop anything the Germans send at me. Rest assured.”

Tovey smiled. “Well then, the
Denmark Strait is yours, Admiral. The plan to establish your Ice Watch is also
a splendid idea, and I thank you. I can also arrange facilities at our
establishment at Iceland should your men need shore leave, and of course I
would make it my intention to stand out cruiser patrols to assist your
operations, and even place them under your command if it would facilitate that
watch. You cannot sail on indefinitely. Might I arrange for fuel transfers to
that port so that you may replenish?”

“That will not be necessary,”
Volsky said with a smile. “In fact, we
can
sail on indefinitely. We do
not use diesel fuel oil on this ship. Our propulsion system can operate without
any necessity for re-provisioning.”

This was yet another surprise to
Tovey, as he could not conceive of the possibility. “You require no fuel at
all?”

“We certainly need regular
maintenance, as any ship must. As for fuel, we carry all that we will ever need
with us at this very moment.”

“Quite extraordinary. We must
discuss this further some time.”

“There are other things we might
assist you with that will not require missiles,” said Volsky. “Our Mister
Fedorov is also very adept at signals decryption, are you not Fedorov?”

“That I am, sir, in my way.”

“You see,” said Volsky,
“information is as much a weapon in this war as anything else. The questions
you will want to ask us about how this war turns out attest to that fact. Yes?
Well I must tell you that these events may at times ring true to what we knew
in our own time, yet at others they are dramatically different, and things happen
that are completely unknown to us. That battle we found ourselves in, for
example, was one that will not be found in any history book I have ever read.
It is something we wrote together as we stood our respective watches and fought
side by side. This will be the case again. There will be things that may occur
here, and we will have no foreknowledge of them. That said, we have a man here
with a keen ear and the ability to decipher codes.”

“Indeed?” Tovey now looked at
Fedorov with a new eye. “We have such a man as well,” he said. “In fact, I have
only lately come from a meeting with him, and it was he who uncovered the
photographs and other material I shared with you here. Perhaps your Mister
Fedorov might wish to meet with our people, and with our own Mister Turing at
Bletchley Park. We’ve been working the German Enigma code, and any help you
might offer would be greatly appreciated.”

Fedorov passed a moment of
apprehension, realizing that he had no innate ability to decipher codes of any
kind. If anyone did on the ship, it would be Nikolin, but the applications he
had on his pad devices already stored the life’s work of the very man Tovey had
just mentioned, Alan Turing. Fedorov knew that he, like the moon, shined by the
light borrowed from that great mind.

The thought of actually meeting
Turing was as compelling to him as this meeting here with Admiral Tovey, but he
wondered in those brief seconds, if he might upset some delicate balance again.
Turing’s work on the Enigma code was not yet finished. Yet my application
stores all the conclusions he will come to on his own. Could I reveal them?
Would that affect his work? What might happen if he never comes to those
conclusions on his own and relies on my computer data, my Enigma tool? Would
that mean that tool could never exist or function as it does now? He realized
that he was skirting the dangerous edge of paradox here, and felt a moment of
cautious alarm.

“Perhaps some caution would be
advised here, Admiral,” he said to Volsky, holding a hand up to stay Nikolin’s
translation of that.

Volsky was quick enough to see
that Fedorov had some issue with this, so he deftly skirted the matter and
moved on. It was eventually decided that Fedorov might meet with Turing in the
near future, though that was deliberately left indefinite. As for the radar it
was decided that they would first monitor events and only intervene with the
technology if it appeared England was losing it air battle with the Germans.

The radar would be just a nudge
that would assure the delicate balance Air Chief Marshal Dowding was
maintaining in his deadly duel with the Luftwaffe, and enough to ensure that
the Battle of Britain would again be won by England. The real work would be
done by the brave and dogged pilots of the R.A. F., but the
Oko
panel could
be there to let them do their job in the most efficient way possible.

As for the ship itself,
Kirov
would stand a watch on the Denmark Strait, a place that had long been the
favored channel chosen by German surface raiders reaching for the Atlantic
convoys. Volsky could, indeed, make good his boast if he wished. While the
ship’s missile inventory was limited, he nonetheless had enough power in hand
to stop any ship or ships that would attempt to try his patience. But even as
he warned Admiral Tovey, things would happen in this war that no man could
truly foresee or fully anticipate.

And they did.

Chapter 17

The
aid and pledge of friendship offered by the Russians was a
great relief to Tovey, but he knew there were things that he learned that would
best be kept highly secret. Admiral Volsky had urged his discretion in the
matter before the two men concluded their Faeroe Islands conference.

“I hope
you do not think I am unforthcoming in regards to the support we can offer you
now,” he had said. “I insisted that you come alone for this visit aboard my
ship, and for reasons that should now be obvious to you. Things we have
revealed to you here will not be easily explained to others. In fact, I would
suggest that you consider limiting the information you have in hand to only the
most trusted few.”

“In
that I agree fully,” said Tovey. “You can rely on my discretion, Admiral, as I
am sure I will rely on you.”

Volsky
nodded. “I must tell you that I considered this matter long and hard before
making the decision to contact you and make these revelations.”

“I am
grateful that you did, and also for the able services of your Mister Nikolin
here as he builds a language bridge between us.”

Nikolin
smiled at that, as did Volsky.

“Yes,
our Mister Nikolin is a most capable man. In fact, we owe him more than he may
realize, for when the fate of this ship and crew once hung in the balance, it
was Mister Nikolin here that saved the day when he came forward with
information that was vital and timely.”At this Nikolin blushed, and he gave
Tovey a much abbreviated version of that line, but he was deeply appreciative
of the Admiral’s praise.

“That
said,” Volsky continued, “it is the question of timely information that we must
now discuss. Information is power. It can move the hinge of fate we have talked
about, but I must tell you now that there may be others in this world with
access to information that could prove decisive to the outcome of this war, and
they are not all our friends.”

“Others?”
Tovey was not quite sure he knew what the Admiral was hinting at here, and
Volsky could see this.

“Admiral…
Until Mister Fedorov and I have determined how those photographs and reports
came into your intelligence archive, I would be very, very cautious. Fedorov’s
suggestion that they could only exist here if they were brought here by someone
at least makes some sense to me—but there is a darker side to that. Who might
this person be, I wonder? How did he get here? I must tell you now that the
cracks in time that allowed my ship and crew to slip through to this era remain
a great mystery. We came to believe that it was our own foolish meddling here,
as evidenced in those photographs you showed us, that caused all the fractures
in the history that is now unfolding here, but now we are not so sure of this.”

“Yes,
well there is good and bad in all of that. Your meddling was kind enough to see
to the delivery of HMS
Invincible
to the Home Fleet, if I can believe
what you have told me, and I would have been lost without her these long and
arduous months.”

“Very
true. Yet what I am trying to suggest now is that, even as we have slipped
through those cracks, some of our analysts have come to think other men may
have done the same. A few we know of, but those photographs you have showed me
lead me to suspect that there are others we may
not
know.”

“I
understand the implications,” said Tovey. “Perhaps we need to keep watch on
more than the cold seas, Admiral.” Even as he said that, he was struck with the
feeling that he had come to this same conclusion before, and set a long and
well guarded watch on time itself, one that extended through all the remaining
days of his life.

“This
is a matter of some concern to us,” Volsky continued. “We are presently
involved in an operation to see if we can collar some of the other men we do
know about, and plaster over a few cracks in the wall, if that makes any sense.
I have no illusions that I can ever mend the world and restore things to the
way they once were—at least the way I once knew them to be. But I must tell you,
even though you may see our coming here as the arrival of a guardian angel with
a flaming sword from some unseen future, there are dark angels as well. There
are dangerous men at large in this world.” He let that linger, and Tovey
thought long and hard about it after the conference concluded and they bid each
other farewell.