Grand Alliance (Kirov Series) (12 page)

“I
think I follow you. I understand the importance of secrecy, as you have urged.”

“Your
own Mister Churchill said once that ‘In war-time, truth is so precious that she
should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.’ It is a well turned phrase,
and carries the essence of what I am trying to tell you now. Yet Churchill may
never utter those words. They were spoken to a man named Joseph Stalin—a man
who no longer exists in this world of yours. So you see, things have changed.
Our knowledge of what is to come may seem a solid thing to us, but in reality,
it is becoming more and more insubstantial with each passing day. I told you
that you should be in an Italian prison now, but here you stand, and your
freedom, and the knowledge you now have, makes you one of the most significant
men alive. Here we stand, discussing all this, like three kings on a raft at
sea. Yet those waters are turbulent, and the tides of war are flowing even now
as we speak. Rommel is not waiting on our decision. One day soon he will factor
our potential choices into his war planning, but for the moment, he is
ignorant. That will soon change, because even now he is driving east against
the last few reserves General Wavell has managed to scrape up.”

“Then
we’d best see about that,” said O’Connor.

“Yes,
we must. It is time for Generals to confer over maps, and we have much to plan
and do here. The fate of your nation, and the outcome of the war is now in our
hands. General Kinlan’s brigade represents a powerful new addition to the
British order of battle here, and a shocking new threat and rude surprise for
General Rommel and his Afrika Korps. Yet know this… With every round your troops
fire, your power diminishes. This brigade is a force that must devour itself every
time it is used. Yes, some of the munitions you expend might be duplicated in
this world, but most will remain beyond the capabilities of any industry here
to replicate. Look there, general O’Connor. The map on that screen, and the
equipment that displays it, could not be designed or duplicated by the combined
knowhow and resources of your entire nation, even if we were to give you
detailed blueprints of how it was made! There are materials and processes in
this equipment that will not be understood or mastered for decades, just like
the armor on those tanks you visited earlier. Understand? Well then you must
also understand this… Take a hammer and put it through that screen, and that
equipment is gone—permanently—and it is irreplaceable. So when you plan your
war, realize that some of your vehicles will be lost, and worse, that men here will
die, as they have already died aboard my ship. This is the nature of war, and
we are but a torch in the wind here, bright, powerful, but doomed to expire one
day, as all men must.”

Part IV

Torch in the Wind

“In the
beginning, a flame, very pretty, often hot and fierce, but still only
flickering light… Later, coals, deep burning and unquenchable.”

―
Bruce Lee

Chapter 10

Admiral
Cunningham had heard it all, and he had
gone through the same shock and disbelief that O’Connor had, but in the end,
had been treated with the same cure. After the initial briefing, if it could be
called that, Admiral Tovey suggested that they all adjourn, and then take a
launch over to the new ship come to meet with them here,
Argos Fire
. It
would give Cunningham that same experience Tovey had when he first boarded
Kirov
,
the hollow verse of T. S. Eliot rolling through his mind and the coffee-spoon
normalcy of his life being stirred away forever that day. The evenings,
mornings, and afternoons would never be the same for him now, nor would they
ever be the same for Cunningham.

They
crossed to board the sleek white destroyer, a most unusual ship, with odd
angles and a superstructure that blended seamlessly into the hull. Its tall
superstructure was crowned by a large white dome.

“This
is a warship?”

Tovey
had much the same reaction when first seeing
Kirov
. At least the lines
of that ship had that sharp and menacing aspect, the long foredeck and the
rising steel battlements behind it, that spoke of power and danger on the sea.
Yet those lines had been deliberately smoothed and softened in the refit
Fairchild had applied to
Argos Fire.
It was necessary to have Captain
MacRae deploy all the guns, which were retracted below deck when not in use.
Even so, Cunningham did not seem all that impressed.

“What
do you people do when it comes to a fight?” he said, trying to add an edge of
humor to soften his obvious deprecation. “Pardon my remark, but do you simply use
harsh words? Those two deck guns of yours are good for a light destroyer, but
we’ll generally give them at least four or five. Your ship would match the
displacement of most of our heavy cruisers to my eye. Take our own HMS
York
by way of an example. She has six good 8-inch guns on a little over 10,000 long
tons full load, and here you sit with no more than a two guns that looks to be
a 5-incher.”

 “This gun
replaced your own 4.5 QF Mark V in the 1960s. It was actually a 55 caliber
barrel at that time, the Mark VI version firing ordinance that had been used by
a 105mm artillery gun. We call it a Third Generation Maritime Fire Support Weapon.
It can fire 25 rounds per minute, out to a range of 27,000 meters with our
latest munitions.”

“Yes?
Well with all due respect, I’ll put my money on our HMS
York
if the two
of you tangle.”

“Well
sir, we aren’t really designed to be a ship killer, though we do have other
means than our deck guns. I was told you witnessed the rocket defense the
Russian ship put up when it arrived at Suez.”

“That I
did, and it was quite impressive.”

“We
have a similar air defense system. In fact, that is the primary role and
mission of this ship. In our day, two adversaries at sea will seldom ever lay
eyes on one another. You never really darken the horizon of an enemy ship. We
have other missiles, rockets, that have a good long range, well over that
horizon, and that big dome on the mainmast up there masks a radar system that
is able to see an enemy ship out well over the horizon. So if it came down to
it, Admiral, I could put missiles into your HMS
York’s
belly long before
she ever knew I was there. You might think of us a bit like an aircraft
carrier, only instead of planes we use these rockets to attack both incoming
enemy aircraft and enemy surface combatants as well.”

“Interesting,”
said Cunningham, cocking his head to one side. “And may I ask just how many of
these rockets you carry?”

That
hit on a nerve that MacRae was still soothing once he had realized what had
happened to them. The power of his ship was awesome when used against the
technology of this era, but it was also limited, a bright burning torch in the
beginning, but deep burning coals in too short a time.

“We’ve
enough to handle ourselves,” MacRae said diplomatically. “Though I take your
point, sir. What power we have will be temporal. I realize that. Each missile
we fire is one less under that deck there at our disposal, and I’m afraid that
your own industry will not have the means to replace them, even if we put our
technicians and engineers at it right alongside your very best people. A great
deal has happened in the last 80 years.”

“I
understand,” said Cunningham. “Fleet air defense you say?”

“Yes
sir, that is our primary role. The aircraft, or other missiles fired by
opposing ships, are the main threats to any warship in our day. Those and the threat
from a submarine are the things we worry about.”

“I
imagine you have some real demons under the sea in your day then?”

“That
we do, bigger, faster, deeper diving, and much more deadly than anything from
this era, as you might expect.”

“Well
at least a submarine can hide when it needs to evade an enemy. That’s more than
your ship could do, or even that big fellow there.” Cunningham thumbed at the
distant silhouette of
Kirov
now. “Once you run out of those rocket
weapons, things look a bit different. I hope you’ve decent armor.”

“Not
much to speak of there, sir,” said MacRae.

“Then
you’ll need the protection of the fleet, won’t you? Join us, and the Royal Navy
is your armor, Captain. I hope you understand that.”

“Well
sir… I did join you, in 1996, serving twelve years before I mustered out and
was picked up by Miss Fairchild here. In fact, I served aboard this very ship,
HMS
Dauntless
as it was called when active with the Royal Navy. We’ve
given her a makeover, but she’s still the same ornery beast underneath the
white paint.”

“No
doubt,” said Cunningham, though he took the matter of the limited missile
inventory within, and filed it away with all the other astounding things he
would see and hear in the next few hours. After touring the ship, meeting the
Argonauts and the crew, and seeing the fancy whirligig aircraft in the aft
hanger deck, the officers all convened again in Fairchild’s stateroom, her
executive suite.

“I
thought seeing the ship would help you deal with all this,” said Tovey. “I went
through the same thing when I first toured the Russian ship.”

“Quite
amazing,” said Cunningham. “Truly astounding, particularly the bridge. We’ve a
good hammer here, and it comes at a time of most pressing need. So now all the
secrecy surrounding the Russian ship makes sense. But Admiral… How long do you
think we can keep our light in a basket? Crewmen on your ship are gawking from
the gunwales even as we speak, and you know how rumors make the rounds aboard
ship, and then how they jump from there to every bar and brothel they can find.
You tell me the Prime Minister doesn’t even know about this business as yet?”

“Not at
all. And for the moment we must keep things that way. The less said, the
better. There will be some who must know, and your name was uppermost in my
mind when I first thought on this. I should also think Admiral Fraser would be
a good man to bring in, and certainly Churchill will have to know in time, but
can you imagine trying to get Admiral Pound in this same bathtub?”

“I see
what you mean,” said Cunningham. “Then Somerville doesn’t know any of this? And
what about Holland with Home Fleet?”

“Both
in the dark as you were some hours ago.”

“And as
I still am, for the most part. This is…. Well it’s simply an unbelievable
story, as you well know. If I wasn’t standing on this ship, and seeing the
equipment and all here, I’d be a stubborn nut to crack myself. What is it they
call those glassy colored screens on the bridge?”

“Computers,”
said Tovey. “Don’t ask me to explain what they are and how they work.”

“Well I
saw the young officers there simply poking their fingers at the glass and they
could run the entire ship! Astounding.”

“I
suppose so,” said Tovey. “But we haven’t time to gawk and ask questions now. Billy
Wind is out there in the Italian Fleet, and he’s heading our way. We’re going
out to meet him, and you will see the rockets fly soon enough, just as I did
north of Iceland. Certainly you heard about that.”

“Hearing
is one thing, but standing on this ship quite something else. The Russian
Director put it right when he invited me to take hold of the elephant’s tale.
This whole thing is double Dutch, yet here it is.”

“And
here we all are,” said Tovey as Admiral Volsky came in with Kamenski and
Nikolin. They had been touring the bridge with Mister Dean as host, and were
now ready to rejoin the conference.

“Ladies
and gentlemen.” Tovey played the role of chairman of the board again. “So we’ve
all had a good stiff drink from that cup Director Kamenski referred to so
artfully. Now it’s time we decide what we can do about the present military
situation here in the Mediterranean. I sent the main body of the fleet south to
lend a hand off Tobruk while we’re here, but we will soon rejoin them, and
point our bows west for Malta. We must decide how to set our order of battle. I
propose Admiral Cunningham lead the main body as planned, with his flag on
Warspite
.
I will sail with you, Admiral Volsky, though we will remain in close supporting
range in case ABC gets into more trouble than his three battleships can handle.
Any thoughts on how things will play out?”

“I see
this ship has helicopters,” said Volsky. “And we also have two aircraft
carriers. I propose that you use any reconnaissance assets to quickly locate
the enemy fleet, and then my ship, and perhaps that of Miss Fairchild here,
would be well disposed to engage at very long range. This attack might even be
combined by a strike mission from your carriers. What our intention should be
is to strike first, and narrow down the odds.”

“From
what we know,” said Tovey, “the German fleet has reached Toulon from Gibraltar.
Hindenburg
and two of their newer ships were there, and we believe they
will sortie with the French Fleet soon. The Italians are already at sea, so we
do not yet know what the enemy intends. It may be that they plan to rendezvous
into one grand fleet, which would be somewhat imposing, if I dare say. The
French will have the
Normandie
, which proved to be a very formidable
ship when engaged off Dakar, and they’ll throw in two battlecruisers and plenty
of supporting cruisers and destroyers.”