“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.”
“I see,” said Paul. “Are there other boxes associated with keys like the one you possess?”
“Not that I know of. In fact, I didn’t even know how this one would work, though I was aware that other keys existed, other passages securing rifts in time. The Watch learned of that, but it seems much of this has been embedded in British history for a good long while. Frankly, Mister Dorland, I have come to believe this history has been tampered with many times in the past. Yes, we’ve found evidence of keys associated with hidden passages, and always they were places under British control at some point. Delphi was a bit of an oddity, however. We never held Greece, though we’ve fought there. In any case, we’ve kept them very secret, known to very few living souls. So when I received my key, I had some inkling of where it might eventually take me. In fact, I thought our little foray to Delphi was going to be a farewell journey through one of those fissures in time, but all I found was that box.”
“So that your ship could move here,” said Paul, leaping ahead. “I see… the box must have amplified the effect, extending the shift radius, almost like that control rod did aboard Kirov, as you’ve explained it.”
“So it seems,” said Elena, “yet I could not fathom why, unless I was meant to join forces with Admiral Tovey here and fight the good fight with Argos Fire.”
“And that you have,” said Tovey.
“Thank you, Admiral, but the military assistance I can offer you has some hard limits.”
“Aye,” said MacRae, “We’re down to just seven missiles remaining after that last little foray, at least for the ship killers. Our air defense systems are a wee bit stronger, but as Miss Fairchild has it, we’ll eventually run out of those as well.”
“Well not just yet,” said Mack Morgan. “One of those ships in the flock we’re shepherding now is a fleet replenishment vessel. I’ve kibitzed with her Master, and they have a nice little snake pit over there, several cases of Aster-15s and a few more Aster-30s. No GB-7s, as that was a private special order for this ship, but they do have Harpoons, and we might easily adapt our firing systems to utilize that missile.”
“You’ve just won yourself a new feather for that cap. The job is yours Mack. See to it.”
“Aye, Mum, I’ll take care of everything with the ship’s engineers.”
“Well that’s encouraging,” said Tovey. “The Russians had a good deal to do with our holding off the Hindenburg and other bad company. Now that they’re gone, I’m realizing how crucial their contribution was to our effort here.”
“All this is very interesting,” said Paul, taking these revelations in now. “As to those keys… You said there was nothing machined on the shaft of yours?”
“No, I said the was no clue as to location there, at least a spatial location. My key was apparently designed to work anywhere in tandem with that box I retrieved from Delphi. Yet there was a series of numbers on the note we found in that box. They were temporal coordinates, a date, which is why I knew we might end up in 1941. I thought it was just a means of saving a chosen few, the Keyholders, and I was grateful my ship and crew could come along. When I first went to Delphi I thought it might only allow me to take a small contingent through that passage. Then I found there was no rift or passage there at all.”
Paul nodded. “So the box, and the hidden Tunguska fragment you suspect it contains, must have been tuned in some way to open the continuum to 1941.” Paul was analyzing all this new information, slowly piecing the puzzle together.
“Your guess is as good as mine,” said Elena, “but here we are. Yet I wondered why. Then I remembered another part of the story of these keys. The Watch knew there was once one hidden in the Elgin Marbles, only we didn’t discover that until it had already vanished, when the damage to the Selene Horse revealed it had once been there. You see, my key might fit into that impression left in the statue like a glove, which is why we knew it might be a very special key indeed. Then here you come in that uniform claiming you were the man who first discovered the key, and the very reason it disappeared.”
“Yours truly,” said Paul. “Guilty as charged. So when all this shenanigans started up again, and my key simply vanished, I came back to try and see if I could find it the very same way I encountered it the first time, in the one location where I knew it must exist—the hold of battleship Rodney. Well you may be interested to know that particular key is also associated with a hidden passage. Because I can tell you where it is. The shaft of the key had numbers engraved on it, and I deciphered their meaning.”
Elena was silent for a moment, then simply stared at him. “Do go on,” she said quietly.
Dorland reached into his jacket pocket and produced a paper with the number clearly printed out: 36.126225, -05.345633. “Unlike the number on the note you found in that box,” he said, “those are spatial coordinates. Why, in our time you could punch them into Google and get a map of the exact location.”
Tovey frowned, “Google?”
“It would take too long to explain just now, Admiral, but please indulge me. Let me make it a little easier for you, since I don’t think we have a nice handy internet connection to 2021. The key from the Selene Horse was targeted to another long time British possession—Gibraltar—a specific place on the Rock, to be precise, deep beneath Saint Michael’s Cave.”
Tovey was lost when the man spoke of an ‘internet,’ but mention of the Rock, and Saint Michael’s Cave brought him right back into the thick of things here.
“Yes,” he said grimly, “a former British possession indeed. That was where the garrison made its last stand. The Germans have it now.”
“Most unfortunate,” said Paul, “because that was one of those nasty little changes to the history. They never took it before the Russian ship went back to 1908 and generated a Heisenberg Wave. In fact, Admiral, this ship was never even built. All this is an altered meridian, and we, my friends, are now riding the edge of that very same Heisenberg Wave, and right into the Chaos Zone behind that Paradox. Who knows how far the zone of instability exists, how many days? Things will settle down again soon, or I can only hope as much.”
“Well this key can hardly matter now,” said Tovey. “It’s lost. We can’t use it, and neither can the bloody Germans. Do you suppose they’ve discovered what it might open? Might they have found that passage beneath Saint Michael’s Cave?”
“I would hope not,” said Elena, “Even if they did, it would take some doing to get through the door. The works I saw at Delphi were heavy titanium alloy, and very well made.”
“Yet the Germans can be very industrious,” said Paul, “and very determined. If they ever did stumble upon that passage, then it would certainly make them very curious. And as we have no way of knowing where it might lead…” The implications of what he was saying now were obvious to them all.
“Well,” Mack Morgan spoke up again, “all the more reason to make sure the Germans lose their lease on the Rock as soon as possible.”
“Here, here,” said Tovey. “Sir Winston has been in anguish over the loss of Gibraltar for months now. We all have. It was the most strategic base outside of England I could name, save perhaps Alexandria and Suez. Yet the loss of the Rock has closed the entire Eastern Med to convoy shipping. Yes Invincible made it through, with the able assistance of the Russians and Argos Fire, but none of our merchantmen would fare so well. I can say that Churchill would be in favor of anything we could tee up to get Gibraltar back, but I wouldn’t expect any major operation would be possible for some time. We just haven’t the capacity to make any sizable amphibious attack, and the only way to come at the place by land would mean we would have to control Spain, and th
at isn’t bloody likely in the short run. Get the Americans in it, and we’ll have another look at things, but it’s all we can do to hold onto Egypt and half of the Middle East right now, and that only by the grace of Brigadier Kinlan’s unexpected arrival.”
“What about a smaller operation?” said Dorland. “Might a commando team land secretly to gain access to that passage?”
“Possibly,” said Tovey. “We’ve some good men in the service of those misdeeds.”
“As do I,” said Elena. “My Argonauts have specialized equipment, night vision, and other technology that can make them very good in such an operation.”
“And we certainly know the ground well enough,” said Tovey. “We built the place, and have every nook and cranny very well mapped. But this is all academic, because that key is quite lost now, and with no blame to heap on Mister Wellings this time around—or is it Professor Dorland.”
“In the flesh,” said Paul. “At least for a while. But suppose I told you that exploring such an operation would not be a fruitless mental exercise, Miss Fairchild. Suppose I told you exactly how we might find that key again. You see, it remains lost here now, on this clear day in August of 1941. But at any other time, it might be found very easily.” He smiled, a mischievous look in his eye.
“Something tells me this visit was for more than idle chatter,” said Elena. “You have a plan?”
“Most assuredly,” said Paul. “Yes, I certainly do. But there is one further matter we must discuss before we get to that. You may have wondered why I spoke so harshly about the presumed fate of those Russian radio sets.”
“I assumed you meant they might have been pulled away to wherever the ship itself has gone,” said Tovey.
“In a manner of speaking,” said Paul, “but it’s a little more devious than that. I thought they would be annihilated, because they simply should not be able to exist in this time now.”
“And why not,” said Tovey. “Ours was a bit giddy the other day according to my radio man, on the 28th now that I think of it. But it seems to have settled down again, and functions normally. I was able to discuss arrangements for this meeting with Miss Fairchild and had no difficulty.”
Doppelganger Page 28
