Volsky. “Yes, they can tell you, within
milliseconds, when the moon will rise a hundred years from now on this day, and
predict it’s exact phase. That young man has a head on his shoulders, but now I
am beginning to doubt the one on mine! My friend, that moon out there is cold
hard reality. It is not subject to speculation or opinion. It is telling us
exactly what day and year this is, and our young Navigator was industrious
enough to get the data in the palm of his hand, and intrepid enough to bring it
here to my attention. The only question I have now is, whether or not I am
still sane. That was a very strange event…. Very strange. And now here we are,
out of synch with the sun and moon itself. Can this be so, Dmitri? Can we be in
another time?”
“Is
there any other way to account for that moon out there?”
“Only
what Fedorov suggested, if the entire world were off kilter, some aberration in
the spin or orbit of the planet, then we might see the moon rise early like
this. But wouldn’t there be many other effects if something that drastic had
happened? And why should the phase of the moon change? Fedorov says we should
be looking at a morning crescent.”
“Isn’t
it more likely that he has made a plotting error for our present position.
After all, he was rather disoriented, and I had to see him three times to get
that sorted out. And Karpov was riding him rather hard, or so I was told when
Nikolin came by earlier. Perhaps he made an error.”
“That
is the only thing that might make sense, but he is very good at his job,
Doctor. His manual plots were always spot on. No… as much as I would like to
hope that this is a simple miscalculation, something is telling me that if I
get on the computer and look up the moonrise data for this place and time, I
will see that there should be no moon out there at this hour. If Fedorov is
correct, then those two old ships we saw on the video feed….” The Admiral
lapsed into silence, remembering that radio message Fedorov had urged him to
send.
“He’s
different.”
“Fedorov?”
Zolkin leaned in a little closer.
“Yes…”
said Volsky. “He’s the same, yet not the same. I sense a restrained energy in
the man, something I have only seen in officers who have served through many
hours at sea. There’s a confidence beneath that young face that belies his age.
That message he asked me to send was another thing. Something about that word
he repeated seemed to strike me when he said it—Geronimo.”
“What
do you mean?”
“It’s
as if I had heard that before, knew it meant something—something very
important. I meant to ask him about it, but we got off on this moon business.
Dmitri, something is going on here, and Fedorov knows more about it than he has
said just yet. I’m an old man, and I can see through a brick wall if I sit
calmly and stare at it long enough. Well, I’ve been looking at this one since
they brought me in here, and it bothers me. Something has happened to us, yet I
do not yet know what it is. Then comes this coded message, authenticated by the
special final code word we put into the ship’s vault the day we sailed. That
had to be sent in the year 2021, yet Fedorov is telling me that moon cannot be
there if that is where we still are. The only problem I have now is
understanding how these two contradictory facts can co-exist!”
“Give
it time, Leonid. Rest another day here. We are on our way home. In a few days
we’ll see the Kola inlet, and slip into the bay. Then you will know where we
are well enough, and you may mark your calendar accordingly. Patience is a
virtue here, and we need only wait a few more days. It is just a matter of
time.”
*
Chief Dobrynin was working late that night, which was not
unusual, but he was surprised to get a visit from Fedorov at this hour.
“Excuse
me, Chief. May I bother you a moment?”
“Mister
Fedorov, certainly, what can I do for you?”
“I was
wondering how the reactors
milliseconds, when the moon will rise a hundred years from now on this day, and
predict it’s exact phase. That young man has a head on his shoulders, but now I
am beginning to doubt the one on mine! My friend, that moon out there is cold
hard reality. It is not subject to speculation or opinion. It is telling us
exactly what day and year this is, and our young Navigator was industrious
enough to get the data in the palm of his hand, and intrepid enough to bring it
here to my attention. The only question I have now is, whether or not I am
still sane. That was a very strange event…. Very strange. And now here we are,
out of synch with the sun and moon itself. Can this be so, Dmitri? Can we be in
another time?”
“Is
there any other way to account for that moon out there?”
“Only
what Fedorov suggested, if the entire world were off kilter, some aberration in
the spin or orbit of the planet, then we might see the moon rise early like
this. But wouldn’t there be many other effects if something that drastic had
happened? And why should the phase of the moon change? Fedorov says we should
be looking at a morning crescent.”
“Isn’t
it more likely that he has made a plotting error for our present position.
After all, he was rather disoriented, and I had to see him three times to get
that sorted out. And Karpov was riding him rather hard, or so I was told when
Nikolin came by earlier. Perhaps he made an error.”
“That
is the only thing that might make sense, but he is very good at his job,
Doctor. His manual plots were always spot on. No… as much as I would like to
hope that this is a simple miscalculation, something is telling me that if I
get on the computer and look up the moonrise data for this place and time, I
will see that there should be no moon out there at this hour. If Fedorov is
correct, then those two old ships we saw on the video feed….” The Admiral
lapsed into silence, remembering that radio message Fedorov had urged him to
send.
“He’s
different.”
“Fedorov?”
Zolkin leaned in a little closer.
“Yes…”
said Volsky. “He’s the same, yet not the same. I sense a restrained energy in
the man, something I have only seen in officers who have served through many
hours at sea. There’s a confidence beneath that young face that belies his age.
That message he asked me to send was another thing. Something about that word
he repeated seemed to strike me when he said it—Geronimo.”
“What
do you mean?”
“It’s
as if I had heard that before, knew it meant something—something very
important. I meant to ask him about it, but we got off on this moon business.
Dmitri, something is going on here, and Fedorov knows more about it than he has
said just yet. I’m an old man, and I can see through a brick wall if I sit
calmly and stare at it long enough. Well, I’ve been looking at this one since
they brought me in here, and it bothers me. Something has happened to us, yet I
do not yet know what it is. Then comes this coded message, authenticated by the
special final code word we put into the ship’s vault the day we sailed. That
had to be sent in the year 2021, yet Fedorov is telling me that moon cannot be
there if that is where we still are. The only problem I have now is
understanding how these two contradictory facts can co-exist!”
“Give
it time, Leonid. Rest another day here. We are on our way home. In a few days
we’ll see the Kola inlet, and slip into the bay. Then you will know where we
are well enough, and you may mark your calendar accordingly. Patience is a
virtue here, and we need only wait a few more days. It is just a matter of
time.”
*
Chief Dobrynin was working late that night, which was not
unusual, but he was surprised to get a visit from Fedorov at this hour.
“Excuse
me, Chief. May I bother you a moment?”
“Mister
Fedorov, certainly, what can I do for you?”
“I was
wondering how the reactors
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