Three Kings

Rodenko was an old hand at radar, and he immediately knew what he was looking at, but it made no sense, and his first thought was that it must be a glitch or after effect from the many time displacements that left their system dazed for hours after they moved. This was reading for the British SAMPSON long range AESA Air Defense radar, a kind of phased array system used by modern Royal navy vessels, particularly the newer Type 45 Destroyers.

“Some difficulty?” said Admiral Volsky as he came onto the bridge, the men all standing and saluting as he was announced.”

“Welcome back, Admiral,” said Rodenko. “It seems we have a little mystery on our hands.”

“We’ve certainly had nothing else since we left Severomorsk,” said Volsky. “What is it this time?”

“Well sir, we just got painted by a radar common to the British Type 45 Destroyer class.”

That got Volsky’s attention immediately. “Type 45?”

“Yes sir, but I have no sub-line signature. The entire electronic suite is lining up on that IFF resolution, and I’m definitely reading two rotating planar arrays. That’s unique to the Type 45 SAMPSON.”

Most other modern phased array systems used multiple arrays for constant 360 degree coverage, but the SAMPSON used only two, and they rotated at 30 revolutions per minute in the spherical dome high atop the characteristic tall main superstructure of the ship.

“An error, Mister Rodenko?”

“Possibly sir, but now I have confirmation from both our long range systems, and simultaneous failure of both systems is not likely. We’re definitely getting a phased array radar signal, sir. Our IFF module could be defaulting to this interpretation, but itseemes fairly certain.”

“Phased array? Here? What other ship could possibly have such technology. This makes no sense.”

Volsky came over to the radar console to see for himself, though he was not entirely sure what he was looking at. Radar applications had never been his strong suit, but Rodenko was one of the very best in the fleet.

“I could try to challenge that system and see what happens. It is fairly well impervious to jamming, but if this is a false positive from a local radar set from this time period, we’ll jam it easily.”

“Make it so,” said Volsky, arms folded as he waited.

“Mister Yazov.” Rodenko passed the order to his radar watchstander, and he keyed the jamming challenge. It should have blotted out any radar of this era with little difficulty, particularly as Rodenko had tuned the system to hit typical bandwidths used in WWII. But seconds later the IFF was again protesting that the ship was receiving a phased array signal. Rodenko gave Volsky a look that spoke volumes, real concern in his eyes now.

Volsky hesitated, for the barest moment, then he gave a series of orders that were deadly serious given his tone of voice, though he maintained a calm demeanor.

“The ship will come to full battle stations immediately,” he said. “Mister Nikolin, please call Chief Dobrynin and ask him if there has been any unusual flux event in the reactor core. Has he run any rod maintenance procedure in recent hours?”

“Aye sir.”

“What are you thinking, Admiral?” Rodenko asked.

“The impossible again,” said Volsky. “Either our electronics are having a nice laugh with this little joke today, or there is a British Type 45 class destroyer out there somewhere painting us with this radar signal. That can mean only two things. Either we have moved again, subtly, without our even realizing it, or…”

The second alternative was obvious, but inexplicable. “I don’t see how a Type 45 could be here, sir. That is if we still remain in 1941, which seems most likely. I have solid returns on all the other ships in the British fleet. They are right here with us.”

“Yes? Well it would be a stretch, but we have pulled things along with us before during a time displacement.”

“A torpedo, sir, and a small fishing trawler when the Anatoly Alexandrov moved, but we’re talking about an entire fleet here, several hundred thousand tons of material. I doubt that we could move that kind of mass.”

“As do I,” said Volsky, “and I know Dobrynin will tell me he has stowed those control rods away, but I must check every possibility to be certain. Yes, the presence of the other British ships is quite telling, but could there be a modern British warship here? Where is this signal originating from?”

“Due east, sir, and given the maximum range of the SAMPSON system, it could be no father east than Santorini.”

“Santorini?” That name was familiar to Volsky. If Fedorov were here he would have picked up on it as well. “Santorini is a volcanic caldera, is it not?”

“I believe so, Admiral.”

“Then we may just have an explanation. Let us not forget where the Demon volcano sent this ship of late.”

“An eruption sir? We see no sign of that.”

“Not here, Mister Rodenko. But if that island erupted in the future it could have sent that ship through a time rift.”