we stay in
the service, the Admiral, you, myself, then we might have some power to prevent
the war we know is coming.”
“You
think we could prevent it from ever happening?”
“We’ve
already kept it from starting when it was supposed to. If we stay in the
service for a while we could at least keep our hand on the tiller and try to
steer things away from conflict.”
“True,”
said Karpov. “We would have some authority, particularly if they do end up
giving us Kirov back again. If war does come, and starts here in the
Pacific as we discovered, then they will look to this ship to lead out the
fleet. It would be hard to go if that should happen, but just as hard to stay
behind, if you know what I mean.”
“Yes,
I do. But there is one other thing we have to worry about. There’s a lot we
have yet to learn about the world we’re coming back to. Things have changed,
Captain. There was no Pearl Harbor attack, no Battle of Midway, but the war
ended much the same, only no Hiroshima or Nagasaki this time. I haven’t had
time to look over everything after WWII, but I’m sure we’ll learn that quite a
lot of furniture has been moved around. We may even find that key officers have
been shuffled about in the navy. The world still looks the same. I’ll bet you
that all the pieces of that old puzzle are still here, but they may be in a
different order now, and the new picture may be a little unsettling.”
“What
do you mean?”
“Well
suppose a man takes his leave, rushes home, and finds his house was sold years
ago and is occupied by strangers. If the big things can change, then the
details can change along with them. We have no idea what we’re really going to
find here.”
“I
never quite thought of it that way,” said Karpov. “And I suppose we never will
find out what happened to Orlov, will we? Is that in your research, Fedorov?
Would it not be funny to see his face glaring at you from one of your old WWII
photo books?”
“I’ve
thought about that a good long time,” Fedorov frowned. “Orlov wasn’t likely to
do the world much good. I suppose he might have used his general knowledge of
the future to some advantage, but he wasn’t an educated man. He could probably
know that the Americans landed on the moon first, but could not tell you when
or very much else about it.”
“That’s
a blessing,” said Karpov. “Orlov’s ignorance may end up preventing a lot of
grief, but something tells me his temper is going to cause trouble, one way or
another. He’s cagey, Fedorov. It wasn’t all brawn and bad temper, and he will
think himself more than he really is, a wolf in the fold, if you will.”
“Well…
Now that we speak of this, I did find something that was a bit unsettling when
I went over the ship’s library computers. Someone made a big download a few
weeks ago, and they didn’t know enough to cover their tracks in the data logs.”
Karpov’s
eyes narrowed. “Orlov?”
“Perhaps.
Would he be that selfish and foolish to take something back with him?”
“Take
what?”
“Who
knows. Maybe he loaded data onto a cell phone or a pad device. He obviously
planned his escape very well.”
Karpov’s
eyes widened with sudden recollection. “His jacket!”
Fedorov
didn’t understand and the Captain explained.
“He
had a Computer Jacket, just like the Marines use for special operations. I
remember him talking about how he liked it because he could listen to things on
his earbuds while making the rounds, news, music, that sort of thing.”
“I
can’t say I like the sound of this,” Fedorov had a very disheartened look on
his face now.
“Don’t
be surprised, Fedorov. You had better check the history very closely when we
make port if Orlov downloaded data into that jacket.”
“I
plan to do exactly that, though I’m not sure what good it will do at this
point. Whatever Orlov ended up doing, it’s all over and done with now. He would
have to be dead by now. It’s history. But
the service, the Admiral, you, myself, then we might have some power to prevent
the war we know is coming.”
“You
think we could prevent it from ever happening?”
“We’ve
already kept it from starting when it was supposed to. If we stay in the
service for a while we could at least keep our hand on the tiller and try to
steer things away from conflict.”
“True,”
said Karpov. “We would have some authority, particularly if they do end up
giving us Kirov back again. If war does come, and starts here in the
Pacific as we discovered, then they will look to this ship to lead out the
fleet. It would be hard to go if that should happen, but just as hard to stay
behind, if you know what I mean.”
“Yes,
I do. But there is one other thing we have to worry about. There’s a lot we
have yet to learn about the world we’re coming back to. Things have changed,
Captain. There was no Pearl Harbor attack, no Battle of Midway, but the war
ended much the same, only no Hiroshima or Nagasaki this time. I haven’t had
time to look over everything after WWII, but I’m sure we’ll learn that quite a
lot of furniture has been moved around. We may even find that key officers have
been shuffled about in the navy. The world still looks the same. I’ll bet you
that all the pieces of that old puzzle are still here, but they may be in a
different order now, and the new picture may be a little unsettling.”
“What
do you mean?”
“Well
suppose a man takes his leave, rushes home, and finds his house was sold years
ago and is occupied by strangers. If the big things can change, then the
details can change along with them. We have no idea what we’re really going to
find here.”
“I
never quite thought of it that way,” said Karpov. “And I suppose we never will
find out what happened to Orlov, will we? Is that in your research, Fedorov?
Would it not be funny to see his face glaring at you from one of your old WWII
photo books?”
“I’ve
thought about that a good long time,” Fedorov frowned. “Orlov wasn’t likely to
do the world much good. I suppose he might have used his general knowledge of
the future to some advantage, but he wasn’t an educated man. He could probably
know that the Americans landed on the moon first, but could not tell you when
or very much else about it.”
“That’s
a blessing,” said Karpov. “Orlov’s ignorance may end up preventing a lot of
grief, but something tells me his temper is going to cause trouble, one way or
another. He’s cagey, Fedorov. It wasn’t all brawn and bad temper, and he will
think himself more than he really is, a wolf in the fold, if you will.”
“Well…
Now that we speak of this, I did find something that was a bit unsettling when
I went over the ship’s library computers. Someone made a big download a few
weeks ago, and they didn’t know enough to cover their tracks in the data logs.”
Karpov’s
eyes narrowed. “Orlov?”
“Perhaps.
Would he be that selfish and foolish to take something back with him?”
“Take
what?”
“Who
knows. Maybe he loaded data onto a cell phone or a pad device. He obviously
planned his escape very well.”
Karpov’s
eyes widened with sudden recollection. “His jacket!”
Fedorov
didn’t understand and the Captain explained.
“He
had a Computer Jacket, just like the Marines use for special operations. I
remember him talking about how he liked it because he could listen to things on
his earbuds while making the rounds, news, music, that sort of thing.”
“I
can’t say I like the sound of this,” Fedorov had a very disheartened look on
his face now.
“Don’t
be surprised, Fedorov. You had better check the history very closely when we
make port if Orlov downloaded data into that jacket.”
“I
plan to do exactly that, though I’m not sure what good it will do at this
point. Whatever Orlov ended up doing, it’s all over and done with now. He would
have to be dead by now. It’s history. But
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