end with a bang, but a whisper. You’ll want to read these reports I’ve managed to pull out of the data stream. It seems they cut a deal with the British and were ready to accept internment at St. Helena, but they vanished.”
“That had to be another time shift,” said Paul. ‘This is what I mean. What catalyzed that shift? There was no reported explosion, not natural or manmade. Yet they turn up in the Timor Sea a day later, and there is no way they could have sailed from St. Helena to the Australian coast in that time.”
“Alright,” said Nordhausen, “they raise hell with the Japanese, yet the data shows a marked difference from the history when they arrive.”
“Yes, Yamamoto forsake the Midway operation in favor of a plan aimed at isolating Australia. The Japanese operation in the data was to strike at Darwin, and push further south from the Solomons. But the actions of this ship end up causing so much disruption to the Japanese plan that they fail to coordinate. The Americans produce another miracle victory north of the Solomons, and the Japanese carriers are busted up almost as badly as they would have been at Midway.”
“At least they did something right,” said Maeve, cringing at all these deviations in the history.
‘Well it seemed to set the war back on a normal course in the Pacific,” said Paul. “Then the ship moved forward again, and without any explosive event. Correct Robert?”
“Correct. I find nothing indicating they used nukes on the Japanese, and no natural event of any consequence near the action.”
“Goddammit,” Paul swore. “How are they moving?”
“The Russians clearly have something up their sleeve Paul,” said Maeve, “Robert did some digging and it looks like they were playing with time effects in the nuclear testing program.”
Paul stroked his chin, thinking. “It must have something to do with their reactors. That’s a nuclear propulsion system on Kirov—dual naval reactors. The energy driving these unassisted shifts has to be coming from that propulsion system. Robert, are you sure you haven’t missed anything?”
“I was very thorough,” said Nordhausen. “If the Russians did come up with a technology they could use in tandem with their nuclear propulsion system, then they’ve kept the secret well.”
“Alright…” Paul spread out a chart he had been drawing, with lines indicating the known movements in time they had postulated for the Russian ship. “The war starts revving up in the Pacific, and Kirov puts to sea,” he said. “It is involved in that big incident with the US 7th Fleet, and then vanishes again. This time we have an assist—the Demon Volcano. Where did they go?”
“1945,” said Nordhausen. “I’ve got variation data in the Kuriles very near the ship’s last reported position in 2021. They supported Russian operations there, then moved south and ran into the American Pacific Fleet. Then all hell breaks loose. First off, there is evidence that the ship did not move alone this time. I have data on at least two other vessels.”
“Most likely part of the battlegroup Kirov was operating with in 2021,” said Paul.
“My God,” said Maeve, clearly bothered. “Three ships now? What did they do?”
“Oh nothing much, they sunk an American aircraft carrier, and a battleship, and with a nuke. It pissed off Halsey and the Americans so bad that they bombed Vladivostok.”
Maeve looked at the ceiling, agonizing over the damage to the history. “That’s in the data stream?”
“I’m afraid so,” said Nordhausen.
“Then why don’t I know about it? That would be one of the most significant events in modern history.”
“Because they weren’t finished,” said Paul grimly. “Maybe you did know about it at one time, but then they continued to operate, and things changed again. Unless we were safe in a Nexus Point, we would have changed right along with that history.”
“You’re saying that as long as they remain a free radical in time, that the history cannot solidify?”
“Correct. Their actions in 1945 may have generated a Heisenberg Wave to migrate changes forward to our time, but it could have been swamped by a larger wave generated later. That nuke they used in 1945 moved them in time again.”
“All three ships?”
“No,” said Robert. “Two were reported sunk. Only Kirov moved.”
“Where?”
“To 1908.”
Maeve’s initial silence underscored the gravity of that development. “They went further back in time?”
“Apparently so,” said Robert. “And this is where we really get red lines all through the history module. The whole course of events begins to spin off in wild directions. There’s a big battle