Weapons of choice

"You don't need to explain my responsibilities to me, Admiral King," Kolhammer said pointedly. "I'm going back to Pearl to confer with my task force commanders on that very issue. And we know exactly what sort of weapons may have been salvaged-primitive ones, by our standards. The Indonesians weren't running the world's best navy."

Eisenhower interposed himself between the two volatile tempers. "We're going to have a hell of a time making this work, gentlemen. I suggest we stop beating up on each other and think about how we deal with the Japs. And with the Nazis, God help us, if they can lay their hands on any of this."

Roosevelt gripped the wheels of his chair and spun himself around with some difficulty on the thick carpet. General Marshall helped him with the last part of the turn, until he finished up facing King and Kolhammer directly.

"Ike's right. It looks like you're here for good, Admiral Kolhammer. I don't imagine for a second that it's going to be easy. I can already think of dozens of problems, and those are just the ones on the political side. The military implications of scattering your technology all over the globe… well, I don't even want to think about that right now. But I suggest you and Admiral King quit sniping at each other and come up with some plan to smooth your transition here, and get us back on the front foot."

Kolhammer gave King the benefit of a very long stare before slowly turning away.

"I've been thinking about that, Mr. President," he said. "I need to get back to Pearl right away. I have an idea I'd like to discuss with my people."

PART FOUR

IMPACT

36

USS HILLARY CLINTON, 0815 HOURS, 12 JUNE 1942

Apart from the gray metal bulkheads and exposed piping overhead, the main conference room in the USS Hillary Clinton looked like the meeting space at a business convention center. A semicircle of Ikea workbenches curved around in front of a video wall. When Kolhammer walked in, all his surviving commanders were present; the captains and executive officers of the Multinational Force had gathered in person, a rare occurrence, to discuss their options and settle on a course of action.

No '42 personnel were present.

Kolhammer thanked Captain Halabi for filling his seat while he'd been gone, and then launched straight into the meeting.

"Right. You've all read the condensed report from the Physics Research Group. Anybody still think there's a chance we can get home?"

He waited for somebody to put up their hand, but this was a room full of professional realists. They'd all studied the video of the Nagoya crumpling down into a singularity. They'd read the classified material about the sort of research Manning Pope's team was supposed to be carrying out. And they'd read the report of the Physics Group, explaining why that experiment had probably gone wrong. Having adjusted to the miracle of their arrival in 1942, nobody was holding out any hope for a second miracle to carry them home.

Kolhammer gave it ten seconds. He could see individuals searching within themselves, counting up their personal tally of loss and pondering the consequence of their bizarre fate. But no one seemed as if they were about to jump up and demand that a new time machine be constructed.

It just wasn't possible, and they knew it.

Finally Kolhammer broke the spell.

"Okay," he said. "Options. We fight or we don't."

He waited for a return but none came. A couple of officers threw a quick glance at the Japanese representative, Lieutenant Commander Mitsuka. The young man stared fixedly back at Kolhammer. The Multinational Force commander had commissioned him "in the field"-over Mitsuka's own objection-arguing that it simply wasn't practical to have an ensign in charge of the Siranui. What active role the ship and her crew might play, however, was another matter.

"Well, then, I guess that means we fight," Kolhammer said. "I don't see much of an alternative either, given the damage we did to the Pacific Fleet and the fact that the Japanese found the Nuku on top of that mountain. We have to assume they'll have salvaged material and information from the ship. It won't make an immediate difference, but if they share it with the Nazis, and we have to assume that they will, we could be looking at a greatly accelerated German rocket program, followed by a viable nuclear threat."

There was, at last, some reaction; an uncomfortable murmur and a noticeable number of men and women shifting about in their seats, almost as though they were trying to squirm away from the implications of such a nightmare.

"I'm not here to impose my will on anybody today. There is an option I want to discuss. But it's only an option. I'm going to throw the floor open to anybody who feels the need to speak first."