Doppelganger - John Schettler

Doppelganger

Number XVII of Kirov

John Schettler

The Writing Shop Press (2015)

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Kirov Saga:

Doppelganger

By

John Schettler

A publication of: The Writing Shop Press

Doppelganger ©2015, John A. Schettler

KIROV SERIES:

The Kirov Saga: Season One

Kirov - Kirov Series - Volume 1

Cauldron Of Fire - Kirov Series - Volume 2

Pacific Storm - Kirov Series - Volume 3

Men Of War - Kirov Series - Volume 4

Nine Days Falling - Kirov Series - Volume 5

Fallen Angels - Kirov Series - Volume 6

Devil’s Garden - Kirov Series - Volume 7

Armageddon – Kirov Series – Volume 8

The Kirov Saga: Season Two

Altered States– Kirov Series – Volume 9

Darkest Hour– Kirov Series – Volume 10

Hinge Of Fate– Kirov Series – Volume 11

Three Kings – Kirov Series – Volume 12

Grand Alliance – Kirov Series – Volume 13

Hammer Of God – Kirov Series – Volume 14

Crescendo Of Doom – Kirov Series – Volume 15

Paradox Hour – Kirov Series – Volume 16

The Kirov Saga: Season Three

Doppelganger – Kirov Series – Volume 17

More to come…

Kirov Saga:

Doppelganger

By

John Schettler

“We are past the end of things now, but I don't want to leave.”

—Richard Ford: The Sportswriter, 1986

“The vision recurs; the eastern sun has a second rise; history repeats her tale unconsciously, and goes off into a mystic rhyme; ages are prototypes of other ages, and the winding course of time brings us round to the same spot again.”

― The Christian Remembrancer, 1845

Kirov Saga:

Doppelganger

By

John Schettler

Part I – Fire & Steel

Part II – The Final Shift

Part III – Gladiators

Part IV – Interlopers

Part V – Nothing Is Written

Part VI – Mirrors

Part VII –War Plans

Part VIII – Doppelganger

Part IX – Backwash

Part X – Loose Ends

Part XI – Chaos Zone

Part XII – The Second Coming

Dorland’s Time Glossary

Author’s Note:

Dear readers, this is the opening volume of the third “season” of the Kirov Saga, Doppelganger, and a proper continuation of the events presented in Paradox Hour. The challenge facing the ship on 28 July, 1941, only just began to manifest in the previous novel, and will reach a full resolution here. In writing this, I thought long and hard about the Paradox facing the ship as it approached that date from both the future and the past. That collision in time promised to be as harrowing as the strange incident with the cruiser Tone at the end of Pacific Storm. Then again, it might be nothing at all.

The mystery inherent in time travel has long been at the heart of this series. You sat with me, patiently watching Fedorov and Volsky slowly peel that onion, discovering what was moving the ship in time in Rod-25. Men of War, introduced yet another major element of that mystery when Fedorov inadvertently discovers the natural time rift aligned with the back stairway at Ilanskiy. The connection of this event to 1908, concurrent with the Tunguska Event, took the mystery of time displacement to another level, particularly when Inspector Kapustin discovers that elements used in the making of Rod-25 were mined near the epicenter of that event. The importance of Tunguska in what is now happening is far from over, and more of this segment of the mystery will be revealed in upcoming books.

You have also watched the slow evolution of Director Kamenski’s character, from a whimsical old man discussing battleships with his grandson, to something quite more. I have used this character to be a mouthpiece for some of this mystery of time travel, a sounding board for Fedorov as he struggled to understand what the ship and crew might be facing soon, and the consequences of his own actions in the past.

Kamenski’s revelations concerning the Russian nuclear test program were another peek behind the curtain and, in Paradox Hour, he spends some time trying to explain the nature of time to Fedorov, and also reveals one other startling fact—like Elena Fairchild, he has been the keeper of a strange artifact from the future.

The “Keyholders Saga” was first introduced as the final scene in my five volume Meridian Time travel series, which was reprised in an edited version in Paradox Hour to help explicate events that are now unfolding in the Kirov Series. Another enigmatic figure, Sir Roger Ames, the Duke of Elvington, also served to slowly plant the seed of the tree that is now growing when he took us on that strange retreat to the castle of Lindisfarne, yet another hidden natural rift in time, secured, and opened, by a key from the future.

The mystery and purpose of these keys soon became an imperative in the naval chase that saw Kirov sail with Admiral Tovey’s HMS Invincible, first in

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