Nemesis (37 page)

Troyak
gave Zykov a look, seeing the red weal on his face, noting Grilikov’s stance,
clearly at the ready, a very threatening presence, and feeling the tension as
thick as steel. He knew what had happened here, and was angry with what Zykov
had just said to a senior officer. Yet he was even more perturbed with Orlov,
and the scene he had clearly engineered here. So he slowly stepped up to the
Chief, looking him square in the eye.

“Sir,”
he said his voice like gravel. “Discipline of the Marine contingent is the
responsibility of the Sergeant Major.” He was so close to the Chief that Orlov
instinctively took a step back. Troyak was, in fact, the Sergeant Major, and he
was letting the Chief know that he would not tolerate his usual brash and
strong armed methods where his men were concerned.

Even as
he said that, Orlov had the strange feeling that this had happened once before,
those words, low and firm, the Sergeant’s stony presence in front of him, the
odd prickling of
Déjà vu
he felt seemed chilling…

Now
Grilikov turned slowly, looking at Troyak with an unfriendly face. Kandemir
Troyak was a Siberian Eskimo from the Chukchi Peninsula, a short, broad
shouldered man, very stocky, yet all muscle. But Grilikov was over six feet
tall, a wall of flesh and bone when he stood close, massively threatening.

Troyak
simply ignored the man, keeping his eyes on Orlov, unmoving, silent, the scowl
on his face enough to frighten a rabid bulldog. Orlov knew he was the one man
on the ship that had never been under his thumb, something he quietly resented,
and now, with Grilikov and three other security men behind him, he felt just a
little bolder, just a little more brash, just a little more his own ornery
self.

“Forget
that,” he said to Troyak. “You can paddle his ass all you want after I’m done
here. I came down to get access to the weapons lockers. The Captain wants a
full inventory.”

“The
Marine lockers?”

“What
else, Troyak, I don’t want to go through your underwear cabinet.” He grinned,
looking over his shoulder at the three security men.

Troyak
put his hands on his hips, and Zykov’s eyes widened. He had seen the Sergeant
do that many times before, and he knew what it meant. Nobody got into Troyak’s
business down here, nobody…. It was an unspoken rule of the ship, and Orlov’s
very presence in the Marine section of the helo bay was a transgression, an
offense, and the Corporal knew Troyak was not going to tolerate it.

“Sir,”
said Troyak again, his voice hard and steady. “The Marines conduct all muster
of arms in these lockers, and account for any inventory on hand.”

“Yes?
Well I conduct the inventory today, Sergeant. I assume you have the keys?”

Silence….
A silence so thick and impenetrable that no one dared speak or even move.
Troyak was looking right at Orlov, ignoring every other man on the scene, and
Zykov finally rubbed his cheek, scratching a way an itch from the blow he had
taken.

“Well?”
Orlov gave Troyak a disparaging look, but the Sergeant just bored into him with
those dark eyes. Then he spoke, his voice carrying a tone that meant real
business now, and every one of the Marines heard it, for they had heard it so
many times before.

“Did
the Chief of Operations hear what the Sergeant Major just said?” It was a stark
challenge, and only something that could have come out of Troyak’s mouth. Zykov
had told the Chief to fuck off in a fit of anger, though he knew he would
likely hear about that soon enough. But with that one cold, unflinching
statement, Troyak had just told Orlov to fuck off yet again, only he did so
formally, in language every man there understood, and the statement was an
escalation that took the tension in the room to a whole new level.

Now
Grilikov turned, squaring off to Troyak, looming over him, a full head taller.
His thick arms hung heavily at his side, and the light from the open hangar
door above gleamed balefully on his forehead. His presence radiated sheer
menace, and now the three security men behind Orlov also stepped up, one man
slowly moving a hand inside his trench coat.

Troyak
had been ignoring the man, for he knew the only person with any authority there
was Orlov, but he did not take lightly to any other man standing to in his
presence, and he knew a clear threat of violence when he saw one, his eye
unfailingly picking up the movement of the security man’s hand inside his coat.
The other Marines instinctively moved forward, slowly approaching the scene,
their unfriendly eyes on the men in those coats.

The
Sergeant Major heard them, and he simply moved one arm, his hand extending two
fingers, a gesture he might have made in the silence of a combat scenario. The
Marines froze in place, stopping where they were. Then Troyak slowly turned,
finally acknowledging the looming closeness of Grilikov, a nemesis the like of
which he had never seen. But this was
his
turf. In this bay, and with
these Marines, he was the final arbiter of truth or falsity, and no man would
overshadow him, overrule him, or ever violate that. He looked up at Grilikov,
Black Death in his eyes, in the stony cut of his shoulders, in the granite rock
of his chin. The two men stared at one another, one an immovable object, the
other an irresistible force, and no good was ever going to come from their
meeting.

“Chief
of the Boat,” said Troyak darkly. “Who is this man? He is standing too close to
the Sergeant Major, and he will now take one step back.”

Zykov
took a deep breath, and swallowed hard.

The Saga
Continues…

Kirov
Saga: Winter Storm

Harried
by the Captain’s suspicion, Fedorov desperately tries to find allies on the
ship, and gets a most unusual visit from Doctor Zolkin that gives him a faint
glimmer of hope.
Kirov
is bound for the Pacific, with tensions slowly
rising on the ship itself as the crew is briefed to gird themselves for war.
But the fighting may already be starting, simmering in the helo bay when two
immutable opposing forces stolidly stand their ground, refusing to back down.

The
action soon moves east, and bigger battles loom when the ship and crew find
themselves on the eve of a most fateful day as Japan prepares to enter the war.
But Karpov has plans for the Japanese Navy, and he soon sets the ship on a
collision course that threatens to ignite the fires of the Pacific war in a
massive conflagration.

On the
Russian Front, Sergei Kirov struggles to hold the line at the gates to Moscow
when the Big Cats arrive on the scene of Guderian’s bold thrust at Tula. The
action soon brings two storied tank killers face to face in the desperate
fighting, where the battlefield becomes the scene of a very personal duel.

Meanwhile,
Admiral Volsky has secretly made contact with the Commander of a British
submarine, hoping to convince the man that he must leave his arctic patrol and
sail for a rendezvous with Admiral Tovey. But the waters off the North Cape are
dangerous, and the journey will be far more perilous than he realizes. As he
labors to deliver his charge in the key Fedorov has entrusted to him, Professor
Dorland returns to his Meridian Team in 2021 to try and plan the recovery of
the key lost on HMS
Rodney
, but he soon makes a most alarming discovery.

The
action continues on both land and sea, as 1941 draws to a close and the most
fateful year of the war begins in the storms of the cold winter.

DORLAND’s
TIME GLOSSARY
–
Terminology

ABSOLUTE
CERTIANTY
– A condition brought about by willful determination that
serves to limit variation in the continuum, creating a kind of tunnel in the time
Meridian
that restricts outcomes to an absolute resolution.

ALTERED STATE
– A new prime meridian that has been recreated or radically altered to
incorporate consequences and changes due to variations in the original
meridian. See also:
Prime Meridian

ATTENUATION
– A property of an incomplete Time shift, where the traveler manifests across a
range of several milliseconds, slightly out of synch or phase with his correct
manifestation point.

BACKWASH
–
The reflection of
Heisenberg Waves
that propagate backward in time after
encountering
Paradox
.
Backwash
can create
Backward Causality
,
and literally alter past events.

BACKWARD
CAUSALITY
– A quantum event where entangled particles in the present or
future serve to alter the quantum state of particles in the past, leading to
the alteration of events in the past because of something that happens in the
present and future, usually a
Paradox
event. See Also
: Quantum
Entanglement

CHAOS ZONE
–
A kind of time moiré when dual
Heisenberg Wave
sets overlap on the
other side of
Paradox Time. Chaos Zones
can be very unstable and create
unexpected or odd effects. See also:
Dual Heisenberg Wave.

CLARITY
– Clear or good understanding of a temporal locus, pattern,
event,
Outcome
or
Consequence
.

CO-LOCATION
– The presence of an object or person transported back through time to any
point or Meridian on the continuum where that object existed. This is expressly
forbidden by Time, and therefore generally thought to be impossible. In like
manner, no person can ever shift in Time to a point where they co-locate with
themselves, which will create a Paradox if attempted.
EXCEPTION: See Dual
Heisenberg Wave and Doppelganger

CONSEQUENCE
– An undesired result achieved by a temporal
Transformation
– Usually
referring to the negative. (i.e.) Sometimes certain
Consequences
must be
accepted in order to achieve a desired
Outcome
.

CONVOLUTION
– The relative difficulty or complexity of a given temporal event or condition.

DEEP NEXUS
– Sometimes called a “Void” – A crucial, significant
Nexus Point
where
radical alteration of the time line is possible. A Deep Nexus has a universal
effect on all moments in Time until resolved, and can therefore be a portal
into any potential Meridian passing through the Nexus.

DENSITY
–
A relative term describing factor counts in temporal events. The more density,
the more difficult it is to discern possible outcomes on a meridian, and plan
intervention.

DOPPELGANGER
–
“Double Walker.”
A duplicate of a person or object arising as a result
of a
Dual Heisenberg Wave
during
Paradox Time.
Doppelgangers
are rare and unique duplications of information in the time continuum. They can
only arise when one information set, object, or person, is protected in a
Nexus
Point
, or protected by some other force, during
Paradox Time,
particularly
if the second duplicate information set, object or person is associated
with an
Imperative
or
First Cause
event that must occur.

DUAL
HEISENBERG WAVE
– A
Heisenberg Wave
that has separated into two wave
sets after encountering
Paradox Time
on the continuum. Such conditions
give rise to a
Chaos Zone
in the hours and days immediately following
Paradox
Time
, and can also lead to many strange effects, like
Déjà vu, Jamais vu, Presque vu, alterations in physical
matter, memory loss, and the creation of a
Doppelganger
.

ELASTICITY
–
The tendency of Time to resist alteration and reassume its original shape.

FACTOR
–
An element contributing to convolution in temporal events.

FINALITY
–
A catastrophic
Grand Imperative
(like the Cuthulu asteroid strike that
led to the eradication of the dinosaurs and other life.) See Also:
Grand
Finality and Imperative.

FIRST CAUSE –
A
crucial event in a chain of causality that initiates all following events. A
first cause is often associated with a
Time Loop
, and it becomes more
and more imperative the longer the looping occurs without proper resolution.

FREE RADICAL
– A dangerous, erratic variable in the course of temporal events – usually only
existing within a
Deep Nexus.

GOLEM
– A
special search program written by Kelly Ramer and distributed to hundreds of
thousands of computer users via the Internet. Golems are able to search and
report on information on the net, and can perceive data on every Meridian
during a time of
Deep Nexus
through the phenomenon known as “Resonance.”
Golems are arranged in to modules, and one notable module responsible for
fetching crucial variations was designated “Golem 7.”

GORDIAN KNOT
– A series of time loops that cannot be untangled, even by using the
annihilating power associated with
Paradox
. Such a knot can occur when
objects or persons are protected from the effects of
Paradox
by one
means or another. The presence or existence of a
Doppelganger
is a
warning that a
Gordian Knot
is starting to form from a
Time Loop
influenced by
Paradox
.

GRAND FINALITY
–
The inevitable end or result of a
Radical
Transformation
to
the time continuum. Such an occurrence can permanently rupture the meridians of
time, creating infinite
Time Loops
that can never resolve. In effect,
time becomes hopelessly tangled into a
Gordian Knot
, and this can lead
to the annihilation of the future, as events cannot progress beyond the point
of the knotted or looped time. Grand Finalities differ from natural finalities
in that they are the result of willful action, and not acts of nature.

GREAT VOID
– An interminable shadow or
Penumbra
cast by a
Grand Imperative
. It
can also refer to the void in time created by a
Grand Finality.

HAZE
–
Obscurity in the understanding of a temporal situation.

HEISENBERG
WAVE
– The transforming effect of an intervention in time, which propagates
forward along the continuum to radically alter all subsequent events. All major
variations in time, including
Paradox
, result in the creation of a
Heisenberg Wave, like a stone thrown into a still pool. See also:
Time
Tsunami.

IMPERATIVE
– An event in Time which
must
happen – Usually a natural event, but not
always, as in the case of a
First Cause
. A
Grand Imperative
is a
natural event of special significance. Some
Grand Imperatives
can become
a
Finality
.

INEVITABILITY
– A progression of events that is inexorable and unalterable.

INITIATOR
– A person directly responsible for a new
Time Meridian
(Like Mohammed,
or Christ). A
Prime Mover
of great significance.

LEVER
– A
secondary contributor to movement in a series of events.

MERIDIAN
–
An established line of temporal events on the continuum. A possible line of
causality. See also
: Prime Meridian

NEXUS POINT
– A point of connection, intersection or branching of one or more possible
Meridians
in the Time continuum.

NODE
– A
specific point on a
Time Meridian.

OUTCOME
–
A desired result achieved by a temporal
Transformation
– Usually
referring to the positive.

P-WAVE
– A
“predictive” or “precursor” Heisenberg Wave that acts as a harbinger of changes
to come, but does not introduce major changes to any meridian.
P-Waves
resonate across all possible meridians, and can therefore be detected as
possible variations in the
Resonance
around a series of events. Minor
effects may accompany P-Waves, which are often perceived as a sense of
emotional dread.

PARADOX
–
Time’s way of correcting errors in the Time continuum.
Paradox
arises
when an insoluble conflict occurs in the continuum, and time attempts to avoid
or correct that problem. It is therefore a real force, and quite dangerous. It
kills or erases people and objects from the
Time Meridian
when
unaccountable complications arise from their actions. A Paradox is NOT simply a
thorny problem; it is a real effect and the force of annihilation—a kind of
“Anti-Time.” See also:
Heisenberg Wave,
and
Time Loop.

PARADOX HOUR
– The moment when an object or person in the past reaches the moment of their
first arrival at a point on the continuum, their birth, or moment of first
cause. The annihilating force of
Paradox
attempts to resolve potential
conflicts by removing them from the continuum or any contact with
Paradox
Hour.

PARADOX TIME
– The time prior to, and during, a
Paradox
event. Odd effects of
Paradox
Time
can begin occurring, hours, days, weeks or even months before the
actual
Paradox
event, as a result of the subtle generation of
P-Waves
in the Heisenberg field.

PENUMBRA
–
The shadow of influence on future events cast by an
Imperative
, often
impenetrable or a great obstacle, to time travelers.

POINT OF DIVERGENCE
– The point of initial vitiation in any previously established time meridian.

POINT OF
ORIGIN
– The temporal locus where a person or object becomes a
Prime
Mover.

PRIME MERIDIAN
–
The initial or first meridian of time, and the one that all other potential
meridians must return to after a variation. Heisenberg Waves created by
variations serve to rejoin potential altered meridians back into one new prime,
which could then be a
Altered State.

PRIME MOVER
– A primary causative lever or agent for an event – usually a person but
sometimes an object.

PUSH POINT
– A moment of insignificance that gives rise to a key event on a
Time
Meridian
.
Often associated with a
Prime Mover
.

QUANTUM
ENTANGLEMENT
– A relationship between two quantum particles where the state
or condition of one causes the other related particle to also alter its state,
location, spin or other condition—instantaneously.
Quantum Entanglement
can lead to
Backward Causality
and other strange time effects, as the
two entangled particles need not be in the same
spacetime
.

QUANTUM KARMA
–
The influence of causality on a
Time Meridian
. Each moment on the
Meridian affects the next with a kind of momentum, and certain Prime Movers
accumulate an aura of Quantum Karma around them that also has profound effects
on the configuration of future moments in Time.

RADICAL
TRANSFORMATION
– A catastrophic alteration of the
Temporal Condition
that
can lead to a
Grand Finality.

RESONANCE
–
Information available in the intersection of a Nexus Point, where many
alternate Meridians “resonate” data concerning the possible outcome of events.
This data can be picked up by the Meridian Team
Golem
software,
registering as potential variations in the history in conflict with data stored
in the
Touchstone Database.

TEMPORAL
CONDITION
– The matrix, pattern or state of affairs in a given time period.

TIME LOOP
– A replay of events that occurs as a result of a
Paradox
event. Movement
to any point on the continuum prior to one’s first appearance in the past is
dangerous, as the arrow of time slowly brings that person or object forward on
the continuum to approach the point of its first entry. The prohibition against
Co-Location
creates a
Paradox
, and associated
Paradox Time
when the object or person arriving from the past encounters the moment of their
first arrival, or moment of
First Cause
. Time loops can result in a
Gordian Knot
if not properly resolved, which can lead to
Grand Finality.

TIME TSUNAMI
– A series of
Heisenberg Waves
generated by a
Grand Paradox
and
initiating changes and transformations so profound that they create a
Finality
.