Grand Alliance (Kirov Series)
Page 32
Karpov would not find that out for some hours, while the airship hovered like a great beached whale over the downs of Tunstead. There was a winding road not far from the place where they ground anchored for repairs, and on that road was another late traveler on a bicycle, working his way along the track towards the old rectory. He was making a very early delivery at two in the morning, and he had promised the parson he would have fresh cheese, milk, and a morning paper well before dawn. He had come up Peter’s Lane from Ice Well Wood, feeling the chill on the air as he rode, and then he saw it, the massive shape hovering silently above the ground, the shadows of men beneath it, and the sound of an odd language being spoken.
Tyrenkov’s security men stepped out of the woods, brandishing submachine guns, and he made the sign of the cross, thinking the only thing that made any sense to his startled mind at that moment. It was the bloody Germans! That thing on the downs looked like one of their massive airships, and the invasion everyone had been worried about was finally on—but not the invasion that had been expected in 1940 or 1941. No. The date on the newspaper found in his delivery basket would say something quite different.
Soon Karpov would have another real mystery to sort out, and very little evidence to come to any real conclusion, except for the absence of one prominent thing in the sky. The date on that newspaper was very odd, and the fat gibbous moon that had grinned at them as they taunted the storm over the North Sea was gone. In its place, rising that very moment, was a thin morning crescent, almost entirely dark!
Karpov looked at it, the conjunction of too many ominous signs now stacking up in his mind in one sudden moment. The strange rippling fire in the ship… luminescent, green and violet light… the sudden disappearance of the rain and the warmer temperatures that they would not expect in February at this latitude. Then the radio calls that went without an answer became more significant, the scratch of Morse code in their place. The missing airfield… and now this…
He stared down at the newspaper Tyrenkov had handed him and read the headline: “Scareships over East Anglia for a second night – Constables on the Watch!” It was Dated May 18, 1909…
* * *
How could this have happened, thought Karpov. How was it possible? There was no detonation, no explosive volcano, and no Rod-25, but there had been that massive storm they challenged, and the strange energy that had flowed through the skeleton of the ship was most unnerving. Beyond all that, he could feel that something was badly off its kilter. He had shifted in time too often now, and he knew the feeling, the odd discomfiture and disorientation, and the sudden inner sense that his life and being had been profoundly moved. He was somewhere else, not in space, but in time. How it had happened did not really matter. If it proved to be the case, then….
His mind now whirled with a thousand thoughts mushrooming up just as that storm had hours ago. They shook the outer canvass of his soul and rippled along the cold duralumin beams of his brain. We’ve moved! By god in his heaven, the whole ship has moved!
Now he had a sudden realization, and a heady feeling that was almost exhilarating. It was the same feeling he had when he realized that Demon of a volcano had blasted Kirov into another century, to the year 1908. He had managed to stay there only a few brief days, but in that time he had hatched a plan to reset the entire power structure of the Pacific. He could do this because he had a ship unlike any other in the world, with power unlike any other man alive.
Now he looked over his shoulder at the looming hulk of Tunguska—an airship unlike any other in 1909. There it sat, bristling with recoilless rifles, racks of incendiary and high explosive bombs, makeshift rockets in the nose and the makings of his thermobaric bomb aboard as well. Britain’s first powered heavier than air flight had only been achieved a few months ago, by Samuel Franklin Cody on 16 October 1908. There were a few airships in the world, but they could barely navigate a distance of 700 kilometers or reach altitudes above 4000 feet. In fact, the British had only one or two, and the Germans only three. If the date on that newspaper is accurate, he was a demigod again, not merely a man desperately trying to earn the respect and attention of others greater than himself. He was invincible.
I’m here, he thought, and for a reason too. Time keeps sending me back. Then he suddenly realized that Ivan Volkov was here as well, but that he was just a very young man in the Russian Naval Intelligence, somewhere in Siberia… perhaps still somewhere near Ilanskiy…
And that place was there as well, wasn’t it? That little railway inn was just sitting there, and so was that damn back stairway! He suddenly realized what he could do, his eyes widening with astonishment and a heady sense of thrilling energy. He felt as big as the airship, as big as Tunguska, bigger than all of Siberia, better than them all.
“Captain Bogrov!” Karpov shouted to his men. “Can the ship make way?”
“Sir? We’ve nearly finished repairs on that aft engine. It was not as serious as I thought, and the engineers had replaced a few loose and broken rivets and stabilized the airframe.”
“Excellent! Get the men aboard. Tyrenkov, let that idiot go and gather up your security team. We return to Ilanskiy at once.”
“Now sir?”
“You heard the order, Bogrov. Now let’s get moving!”
Yes, let’s get moving, because I have miles to go before I sleep, and a lot of people owe me out there—owe me a great deal.
So now they are all going to pay.
The Saga Continues…
Kirov Series: Hammer Of God
The decisive battles of February 1940 on both land and sea present new challenges for the Germans and British. Paulus has convinced Hitler not to abandon his Mediterranean strategy, and strong new reserves are ready to move to North Africa even as a massive airborne operation is planned to seize the Island of Crete. The Germans hope to press this two pronged offensive while Hitler continues to build up forces for his next big operation, Barbarossa. This time the target is not Moscow, but the Crimea, where the German Army plans to stop Sergie Kirov’s offensive in the Caucasus and link up with Volkov’s Orenburg Federation.
At sea, the recent conflict has moved the scales in the balance of power, but the imminent threat to the Crimea compels Volsky and Fedorov to lay plans to come to the aid of their embattled countrymen. It will mean a daring and dangerous sortie through the Aegean to the Black Sea, and the gates of hell itself in the narrow Bosporus and Dardanelles. Meanwhile, Vladimir Karpov confirms that the mighty airship Tunguska has indeed moved in time, and now he plans how to use this sudden unexpected turn of events to his great advantage.
The action and mystery abound in this action packed continuation of the amazing Kirov Series!
Dear Readers,
Thank you for reading Grand Alliance, and especially if you have been with me from as far away as Book I in this series. I am still seeking a “Wiki Master” to build the Wikipedia entries to describe the series. Numerous examples exist for other fiction works on Wikipedia, but they prefer that the entries are made by third parties and not the author or publishers. Is there anyone out there who is a master of Wikipedia and interested in taking on the task to become the official historian of the Kirov Series? If so, please drop me a line and let me know.
My thanks also to all those who have written to me with comments, questions, suggestions, and reflections on the story, and in particular to Don Ursum who has been a valuable resource for the extensive research that goes into each and every one of these novels.
Best regards,
John
Reading the Kirov Series
The Kirov Series is a long chain of linked novels by John Schettler in the Military Alternate History / Time Travel Genre. Like the popular movie “The Final Countdown” which saw the US Carrier Nimitz sent back in time to the eve of Pearl Harbor in 1941, in these books the powerful Russian battlecruiser Kirov is sent back to the 1940s in the Norwegian Sea where it subsequently becomes embroiled in the war.
Like episodes
in the never ending Star Trek series, the saga continues through one episode after another as the ship’s position in time remains unstable. It culminates in Book 8 Armageddon, then is resurrected again in a 9th volume entitled Altered States, which begins the third trilogy in the series.
How To read the Kirov Series?
The best entry point is obviously Book I, Kirov, where you will meet all the main characters in the series and learn their inner motivations. The series itself, however, is structured as sets of trilogies linked by what the author calls a “bridge novel.” The first three volumes form an exciting trilogy featuring much fast paced naval action as Kirov battles the Royal Navy, Regia Marina (Italians) and finally the Japanese after sailing to the Pacific in Book III. The bridge novel Men Of War is a second entry point which covers what happened to the ship and crew after it returned home to Vladivostok. As such it serves as both a sequel to the opening trilogy and a prequel to the next trilogy, the three novels beginning with Book V, 9 Days Falling.
The 9 Days Falling trilogy focuses on the struggle to prevent a great war in 2021 from reaching a terrible nuclear climax that destroys the world. It spans book 5, 6, and 7, featuring the outbreak of the war as Japan and China battle over disputed islands, and the action of the Red Banner Pacific Fleet against the modern US Fleet. It then takes a dramatic turn when the ship is again shifted in time to 1945. There they confront the powerful US Pacific Fleet under Admiral Halsey, and so this trilogy focuses much of the action as Kirov faces down the US in two eras. This second trilogy also launches several subplots that serve to relate other events in the great war of 2021 and also deepen the mystery of time travel as discovered in the series. The trilogy ends at another crucial point in history where the ship’s Captain, Vladimir Karpov, believes he is in a position to decisively change events.
The next bridge novel is Armageddon, Book 8 in the series, which continues the action as a sequel to Book 7 while also standing as a kind of prologue to the Altered States trilogy. In this third trilogy, Kirov becomes trapped in the world made by its many interventions in the history, an altered reality beginning in June of 1940. The opening volume sees the ship pitted against the one navy of WWII it has not yet fought, the Kriegsmarine of Germany, which now has new powerful ships from the German Plan Z naval building program as one consequence of Kirov’s earlier actions.
Altered States also covers the German attack on the carrier Glorious, the British raids on the Vichy French Fleets at Mers-el Kebir and Dakar, and the German Operation Felix against Gibraltar. Other events in Siberia involve the rise of Karpov to power, and his duel with Ivan Volkov of the Orenburg Federation, one of the three fragmented Russian states. (And these involve airship battles!)
The sequel to the Altered States Trilogy and the bridge novel leading to the next set is volume 12, Three Kings. It covers the action in North Africa, with a decisive intervention that arises from a most unexpected plot twist at the end of that novel. Book 13, Grand Alliance continues the war in the desert as Rommel is suddenly confronted with a powerful new adversary, and Hitler reacts by strongly reinforcing the Afrika Korps. It also presents the struggle for naval supremacy in the Mediterranean as the British face down a combined Axis fleet from three enemy nations.
The Grand Alliance Trilogy continues with Hammer of God, and Crescendo of Doom.
You can enter any of these three trilogies that may interest you, though your understanding of the characters and plot will be fullest by simply beginning with book one and reading through them all!
The Kirov Series: (Military Fiction/Alternate History)
First Trilogy:
Kirov - Kirov Series - Volume I
Cauldron Of Fire - Kirov Series - Volume II
Pacific Storm - Kirov Series - Volume III
Bridge Novel:
Men Of War - Kirov Series - Volume IV
Second Trilogy:
Nine Days Falling - Kirov Series - Volume V
Fallen Angels - Kirov Series - Volume VI
Devil’s Garden - Kirov Series - Volume VII
Bridge Novel:
Armageddon – Kirov Series – Volume VIII
Third Trilogy:
Altered States– Kirov Series – Volume IX
Darkest Hour– Kirov Series – Volume X
Hinge Of Fate– Kirov Series – Volume XI
Bridge Novel:
Three Kings – Kirov Series – Volume XII
Fourth Trilogy:
Grand Alliance – Kirov Series - Volume XIII
Hammer of God– Kirov Series – Volume XIV
Crescendo of Doom– Kirov Series – Volume XV
Discover other titles by John Schettler:
Award Winning Science Fiction:
Meridian - Meridian Series - Volume I
Nexus Point - Meridian Series - Volume II
Touchstone - Meridian Series - Volume III
Anvil of Fate - Meridian Series - Volume IV
Golem 7 - Meridian Series - Volume V
Classic Science Fiction:
Wild Zone - Dharman Series - Volume I
Mother Heart - Dharman Series - Volume II
Historical Fiction:
Taklamakan - Silk Road Series - Volume I
Khan Tengri - Silk Road Series - Volume II
Dream Reaper – Mythic Horror Mystery
You can view information on all these books at:
www.writingshop.ws
or
www.dharma6.com
Mailto: john@writingshop.ws