the hunt for the Hindenburg, and then in the desperate effort to save the battleship Rodney, and the secret cargo it was transporting to Boston. Readers should know that this mission by Rodney was not a device arising from my own imagination. It was entirely historical. I merely inserted the key in the base of the Selene Horse in my Meridian Series. When Rodney sets sail to rendezvous with Kirov, those two story worlds also begin to join in Paradox Hour with the introduction of Lieutenant Commander Wellings—another historical figure whose identity was filched by an enterprising Physics Professor, Paul Dorland.
Readers of the Meridian Series will know this man well, along with the other team members from the Meridian Project. Some of you have even written to me asking whether the Meridian team was going to discover what Kirov was doing on its chaotic sorties through WWII. Now you have your answer. As the Kirov Series progresses, you will occasionally meet the Meridian team members operating from their Arch facility in the Lawrence Berkeley labs. Considering what has happened to Director Kamenski at the end of Paradox Hour, Professor Paul Dorland now steps in to help explain the Paradox, and further unravel this Gordian knot of time travel.
Through the mind of Professor Dorland, you will now gain an understanding of just what is happening to the time continuum. In this regard, I have included the lexicon of his time travel terminology as developed in the Dorland theory here at the end of this volume as an easy reference. (Just be sure you don’t peek at the ending if you navigate there!) If you listen carefully to the Meridian team leader here, you will soon come to understand why Kirov experienced all those strange effects, Lenkov’s fate, and by extension the fate of the entire ship and crew. You will also learn just what Elena Fairchild fears, even though she does not quite understand it, when she speaks about a “Grand Finality.”
Beyond that, there is a great deal more to come as Kirov finally faces the effects of Paradox Hour. An intriguing story line develops that will further explore this mystery inherent in time travel, and explain how the Keyholders relate to it all, while also taking us towards the year 1942. Yes, though these two volumes are heavy on the time travel angles in the story, the alternative history of WWII will also continue in season three.
There’s a lot of military action yet to come. Operation Barbarossa gathers momentum, as well as Volkov’s war with Sergei Kirov on the Volga front. In that regard, the fate of Captain Karpov will take an interesting turn here, for he must also stand before Time’s court, and answer for the many misdeeds he has committed. In this book you get the verdict.
The Japanese will soon be entering the war, and the Americans right on their heels. Meanwhile, the shock of Kirov’s missile technology, and the appearance of Brigadier Kinlan’s unstoppable 7th Armored Brigade, will prompt Germany to launch crash programs to develop new heavy tanks, jet engines, and rockets. The WWII looming ahead will be profoundly influenced by these developments, and Kinlan’s troops will be in the thick of that action.
To faithful crew members, my readers who have been with me from the first book, this volume will finally take us through the fateful date of 7/28/41 and lead to the progression of the war in 1942. Thank you all so much for staying with this story. I promise you another exciting ride here in season three. So without further preface, let us begin! - John Schettler
Part I
Fire & Steel
“The hardest steel is tempered by the hottest fire.”
― Proverb
Chapter 1
Tovey stood on the bridge of HMS Invincible, struggling to resist the urge to pace. Somewhere within him, he ladled up the cool waters of that reserve of calm he could call on—when his temper wasn’t hot and fired. He was fire and steel, the cold strength of well tempered metal, the heat and energy of the flames, all in one.
My god, he thought, as he noted the tall seething column on the horizon, rising like a thunderhead, up and up. He had seen this before… somewhere… He could not recall when and where it was, but the sight of that awful grey mushroom chilled him to the bone. What was happening here?
The plaintive reports from Rodney harried him as well, and though Invincible was running all out at her best speed of 32