9 Days Falling, Volume I k-5

by John A. Schettler

  9 Days Falling, Volume I

  ( Kirov - 5 )

  John A. Schettler

  The war foreshadowed in Kirov’s long voyage to the past has now begun and will escalate over 9 days as humanity begins its descent into oblivion. Now the officers and crew of Kirov hold the last straw of hope in the bottom of Pandora’s jar as they struggle to prevent the war from ever happening.

  Join Admiral Leonid Volsky, Captain Vladimir Karpov and ex navigator Anton Fedorov, each one holding one piece of the confounding puzzle that might save the world from imminent destruction. As Karpov confronts the US 7th Fleet in the Pacific, Fedorov leads a daring mission to the past to search for Gennadi Orlov. Meanwhile Admiral Volsky is embroiled deeper in the web of mystery surrounding Rod-25, and forges an unexpected alliance with a powerful figure in the Russian Government.

  As the war begins, a British company struggles to secure vital oil reserves and is led into the midst of the mystery of Kirov’s disappearance. Fedorov’s mission makes two startling discoveries, and Karpov finds much more than he bargained for when the Red Banner Pacific Fleet engages the Americans. The story takes an dramatic turn when catastrophe erupts amid the fury of all out conventional war at sea.

  Kirov Saga

  NINE DAYS FALLING

  Volume I

  by John Schettler

  “Nine days they fell: Confounded Chaos roared,

  And felt tenfold confusion in their fall

  Through his wild anarchy, so huge a rout

  Encumbered him with ruin: Hell at last

  Yawning received them whole, and on them closed;

  Hell, their fit habitation, fraught with fire

  Unquenchable, the house of woe and pain.”

  ~ Milton, Paradise Lost

  Author’s Introduction

  “If the facts don’t fit the theory, change the facts.”

  ~ Albert Einstein

  The Kirov Series as it is now conceived begins with the opening Kirov trilogy, which focuses on the long odyssey through time to the 1940s by the Russian battlecruiser Kirov. Book I covers action in the North Atlantic, Book II covers the Mediterranean, and book III the Pacific. The fourth book in the series, Men Of War, recounts what happened to the ship and principle crew members after their return to the year 2021. As such it is a kind of bridge novel that leads the story into the modern day presentation of the dreadful war in a second trilogy entitled 9 Days Falling.

  The crew of Kirov learned of this war, and how it was to begin, during their journey, and they came to suspect that their own actions in the past gave birth to the catastrophic future they discovered. The strange disappearance and sudden return of the battlecruiser were critical factors in igniting the tinder dry political situation in 2021, where an energy starved world gears up for the first great global conflict of the new century. At the end of book III, Pacific Storm, Karpov realizes that, in some other cycle of these events, he may have been the man who triggered the war by firing on the US submarine Key West. The main characters have all seen the awful consequences of this war on one blackened shore after another, but they soon realize in Men Of War that the dreadful fall of the dominoes continues. Karpov’s dramatic rehabilitation and restraint has only bought the world a brief respite, and the conflict begins with another flashpoint over the Diaoyutai / Senkaku Islands.

  With foreknowledge of where this conflict will lead and the power to travel to the past still within their grasp, the story’s main characters take upon themselves a great task—to see if they can discover how to prevent the war from ever happening. When they learn that the surly Chief Gennadi Orlov is still alive in the 1940s, Fedorov is convinced that his presence there can do no good, and the deepening mystery and utility of “Rod-25” allows him to launch a daring mission to the past to try to find Orlov and bring him home. He will find much more than he bargained for, but all that lies ahead in the story, which brings me to my next thoughts.

  These novels present an alternate history of events taking place in the 1940s, and a fictional depiction of a war taking place in the year 2021. The action in the past is also not in sync, on a day by day basis, with the action in 2021, as Fedorov notices that time seems to move at a different pace and does not respect our calendar. This effect was very obvious each time Kirov shifted to the past and returned to the dark future that was conceived by their actions. Things happen earlier or later than they might have, and sometimes they don’t occur at all—like the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor that Kirov’s action in the North Atlantic wipes from the history books.

  The research involved in trying to make a story like this ‘ring true’ is considerable. It required discovery of the exact deployment of the Royal Navy on the date that Kirov appears in 1941, and then extended to the principle officers and even individual crew members and pilots on those ships.

  Sun and moon data for all dates in the story were determined, and even prevailing weather data when I could find it. Navigation charts for all restricted waters were researched. All buildings, facilities, inns and street names on land settings were fished from the Internet. The placement of vessels in any given port, and shore batteries involved in the action are all accurate, except where I deliberately moved ships as a result of Kirov’s actions. The capabilities of naval systems and weapons, their ranges, lethality and armor penetration were all calculated.

  A former professional war game designer, I spent a lot of time simulating potential battle outcomes, and expenditure of Kirov’s limited inventory of missiles and shells were tracked in every engagement, round by round. Flight time of missiles after launch and of aircraft on strike missions to determine time on target were also computed, sometimes down to the second. Naval ranks, uniforms, caps, insignia, call signs, codes, flags and procedures were also part of the research.

  That said, while I have worked hard to give the novels a strong historical underpinning, I have also changed the history you may know as I craft this tale, and this was done deliberately to serve the story. In some ways the altered reality will be remarkably faithful in reflecting the real history, in other places dramatically different, like a cracked mirror. The big changes on the strategic level are quite apparent: the United States enters the war in August of 1941 and there is no attack on Pearl Harbor. Admiral Yamamoto adopts Yamashiro’s plan and decides to strike south at Noumea and Darwin, discarding the Midway operation. Yamamoto survives the war and is instrumental in persuading the Emperor to order the surrender of Japan. The war ends without the use of the Atomic bomb.

  On the operational level the air attacks on Petsamo and Kirkenes and the planned landing at Dieppe are both cancelled, along with a number of other minor operations like Operation Agreement and the planned attacks against airfields on Rhodes. In the Atlantic, Admiral Tovey sorties with major elements of the Home Fleet on two occasions, and in the Med Operation Pedestal sees Syfret’s Force X turn back hours early and involved in a major surface action with Kirov.

  Ships sustain damage or are sunk by Kirov, and others are redeployed to deal with the threat the mysterious raider poses. Repulse and Prince of Wales are not sent to the Pacific to be sunk by the Japanese as in our time line, and Repulse is instead sunk by Kirov, in the Atlantic while Prince of Wales survives the war. The US carrier Wasp, battleship Mississippi, cruisers Quincy and Wichita, and numerous destroyers are sent to Davey Jones Locker by Kirov’s powerful offensive punch. The Italian Navy also takes a few hard lumps, and moves and deploys capital ships that otherwise were kept in more secure ports in response to Kirov’s sudden appearance. German U-Boats figure prominently in the action at several points in the story, and some are compelled to change their patrol routes and tactics due to their inte
raction with Kirov.

  Beyond these things, there are many other fine cracks in the mirror of history in this story. As Einstein suggested, I have changed the facts when they didn’t fit the theory I was laboring to bring to life. Astute readers in the UK will quickly note that the story also references a "Queen" and not a "King" in the 1940s. Another wonders why I have a character address Churchill as “Sir Winston” when he wasn’t knighted until 1953. This is intentional, as in this alternate history King George VI is killed when a bomb landed near a Buckingham Palace courtyard. The eldest daughter of King George, Elizabeth, ascended the throne as a minor, but given the fact that she was not of age the Regency Act of 1937 declared Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, as Regent. However she was Queen in name and fact, and much loved, even before she comes of age.

  These changes were deliberate on my part, as were many other small details that I have given a Gaussian blur in the story. I think I have done a good job in placing the story in a historically sound setting in the 1940s, but don’t expect a carbon copy. I have deliberately chosen to alter certain facts to serve plot elements that have yet to be revealed.

  A good story and plot is a bit like a bathing suit—it reveals just enough to be interesting while concealing that which is essential. I cannot disclose, at this point, why I have made some of these seemingly minor changes, though anyone who has read my Meridian Series alternate history time travel novels will immediately know that I hold to a theory that fate and time turn at the whim of insignificant things.

  Playing with the ‘facts’ is what makes alternate history fun, and these changes are deliberate threads I am weaving into the plot. Some are planned foreshadowing of events yet to come; others are clues or the seeding of new potential plot lines, or simply a way of making it apparent that something is amiss and the history has changed. They may stand out like a loose thread at first, but they are there for a reason. I haven’t slipped a stitch. The moment Wake-Walker’s task force diverts from its assigned mission to raid Petsamo and Kirkenes and begins to shadow Kirov, the chronology of historical events has been fatally altered. The year 1942 the ship returns to at the beginning of book II is therefore not the same 1942 that played out in the history we know.

  Tovey and Turing spend a good deal of time trying to sort out the consequences of Kirov’s mysterious appearance, and I have also used the character Anton Fedorov to try and point out many of these historical changes to the other characters, and to you as readers. While I enjoy omniscient point of view on the story, and already know its beginning, middle, and end, Fedorov’s viewpoint is limited. There are things he does not yet know, and therefore things that you, gentle readers, will not yet know about what is to come.

  After crossing the bridge I built in Men Of War, the series will now transition to this initial volume of 9 Days Falling, a second trilogy that will present the first nine days of the war in 2021, with each volume covering three days time. Yet the story will continue to move back and forth between modern times and the 1940s, as you will soon see. All the major characters from Kirov will still be featured prominently in the action. I’ve grown too fond of them all to leave anyone behind. There will also be new plot lines here, and new characters, but they all are ‘common fated’ as the Tibetans might say. Each and every one of them has a part to play in how this story ends. There are some very startling and dramatic events ahead, and Kirov may again find itself in some very strange circumstances as in the opening book, so I hope you will buy a ticket and take the ride.

  Thank you all for reading this far in the series. Your intelligence and curiosity, and your knowledge of the history, are all key ingredients in making this magic formula work. It was your enthusiasm for this story that has inspired me to extend it through a full seven volumes and I am very grateful for your support as I present this next evolution of the Kirov Saga — 9 Days Falling.

  Prologue

  The helo swooped low over the site, the pilot aghast at what he was seeing. It was a British Petroleum ride, out from Port Fourchon in the Mississippi Region on an emergency rig tour after Hurricane Victor cut a swath through the production zone at sea. Thus far 15 platforms had sustained damage that would be at least a week in repair, perhaps longer. This was the last planned stop for the day, to the crown jewel in the joint BP-Exxon operation in the region. They were going out to Thunder Horse, the world’s largest semi-submersible oil platform, so big you could put three football fields up on the topside area. It was fully submersible now.

  “Look at that!” the pilot pointed at the badly listing platform. Thunder Horse was keeling over on her massive industrial orange flotation columns, and apparently still taking on water. It weathered, a blow from Hurricane Katrina years ago, and the last few brushes from the big storms never seemed to bother the immense platform—until now. The 650mm torpedo was a little more than the design engineers had ever planned for.

  “What could have caused this?” The engineer aboard knew they had not suffered a direct hit from Victor this time. Yet the damage was plain to see. “Can you get a bit lower, I want to check the other side.”

  She was obviously floundering, and in very deep water, sitting right astride block 778/822 in the Mississippi Canyon, the bottom over a mile away, some 6300 feet below. One of her massive cranes was already completely underwater.

  “Damn, with Mad Dog damaged we can’t lose Thunder Horse,” said the engineer.

  Mad Dog was dubbed one of the 50 projects to change the world by Goldman Sachs, sporting the world’s largest single piece truss spar, one of the biggest lifts ever set in the Gulf of Mexico. The big dog was permanently moored to the seabed, with a capacity to produce up to 100,000 barrels of oil and 60 million cubic feet of natural gas per day, much smaller than Thunder Horse, but significant. She was also damaged, but remained intact.

  “Shall I spread the word?” The pilot gave the engineer a sheepish look.

  “Better tell the techs on Mad Dog to get over here first,” said the engineer.

  “Lord,” the engineer was scratching his head, eyes wide as he surveyed the platform below them now. “We’ve got a fire down there too! With Caesar and Cleopatra off line, and big rigs like this in the water, we’re buggered for weeks, mate. Better blow the horn. This baby needs help fast. Damn thing’s about to go down under!”

  “Right-o,” said the pilot, flipping his headset on to begin transmitting. “Mad Dog, Mad Dog, this is BP Survey, Over. “

  A scratch voice answered in a few seconds. “Go ahead, Survey.”

  “Thunder Horse down, mates. Repeat. Thunder Horse down. Survey engineer says we’ll need all your people out this way on the double, with anything you can float, over.”

  Someone swore on the other end of the transmission. Then the voice came back, “Roger that, Survey. Thunder Horse down.”

  The fall of Thunder Horse was to be the final blow that would virtually end drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico. It made the earlier Deepwater Horizon spill seem a minor precursor by comparison, though the Gulf had yet to recover from that event. Coastal areas of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, and Florida, and adjacent marshlands were still contaminated with oil, as much of it was simply covered up by BP crews working late night shifts with bulldozers after the disastrous spill of 2010.

  The vast deepwater plumes of oil had eventually settled to the floor of the sea, or dispersed in an emulsified soup throughout the Gulf. The massive methane gas release that was at least 40% of the total toxins emitted had created broiling tides and huge dead zones devoid of oxygen where nothing could live. The humid rain would be tainted for months after the event.

  The public was not told the full extent of the damage. Mainstream news outlets focused on a single leaking well close to the original site of the platform, but Thunder Horse had long tentacles servicing widely dispersed well sites over a reservoir of one and a half billion barrels of oil. Seven wells were ripped from the sea floor when the big platform fell. They were going to gush in
to the ocean, virtually unimpeded, for the next year and a half, after which the pressure would equalize and the flow rate subside.

  The damage from the seven ruptured wells, the “seven sisters of doom,” as they came to be called, was dire enough. The question of saving the Gulf of Mexico was on everyone’s lips in the beginning, but the effects of the disaster on domestic pricing and supply for oil and gas were equally severe. The US had been trying to ‘frack’ its way to energy independence for years, effectively squeezing oil out of rock. Now that limited and very expensive production method could in no way compensate for the massive shortfall, and the President quickly announced the release of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to mitigate shortages.

  What he didn’t announce, however, was the inevitable fact that this problem was going to be far more serious than anyone first believed, and the shortages far more pronounced. Nor did he mention the fact that the 700 million barrels of oil in the reserve would only last 35 days if it had to sustain the average US daily usage of 20 million barrels. If doled out at a more conservative rate of 5 million barrels per day it could ease the shortfall, but producers were immediately looking for any offshore oil they could get to move into the system. Oil on the sea, or ready at coastal terminals was premium now, and any carrier positioned to deliver these commodities to US terminals.

  But the US, and the world, did not have 35 days to worry about the problem as the oil dwindled away. They had nine days. Events would soon push even this disaster off the headlines as political posturing and squabbling quickly became all out military confrontation. It would start slowly, building like a bad storm, and Nature would groan in protest, shaking the world with her wrath and displeasure. Nine days…Unless a new version of the events now unfolding could be forged in the past.