Jack watched the faces around the table. Salkukoff and Gervais were the only two Russians sitting in the meeting. Collins also noted that Henri Farbeaux was nowhere to be found. The Frenchman had been preternaturally silent during the last few hours. Jack had not questioned him about his orders from MI6 about what was expected of him. The less he knew about how and where Farbeaux would kill the Russian, the better.
“In the past few hours, we have made considerable progress in defining the technology of the phase shift equipment. I’ll leave that to Master Chief Jenks and Professor Gervais, who understand the science far better than I. My task was to discover just where it is that we find ourselves.” With a cautious look at Ryan, Charlie opened the laptop up and then turned it so most could see the screen.
“How fortunate you brought a laptop computer along that just happened to be shielded against an electromagnetic pulse.”
The portable Europa laptop was a closed-looped system that only used the standard hard drive for computing. Although the small device was not directly linked to the enormous system in Nevada, its computing power and memory rivaled most corporation databases; therefore, this laptop did not have to breach the differing planes in order for Europa to help them. Jack started to say something in explanation to Salkukoff, but surprisingly, it was Ellenshaw who held his hand up to stop Jack’s words.
“This is a military-grade system. So yes, it is shielded.”
Salkukoff didn’t say anything else. He just nodded in Collins’s direction as if to say, Touché.
“As I was saying, by directing our camera to the sky, our system was able to determine without a doubt that we are indeed on Earth. Not only that, the phase shift has done nothing other than alter the plane of existence. The time and distance is a constant. Nothing has changed.”
“Time and distance?” Salkukoff asked.
“Yes. What Professor Ellenshaw is saying is that we have not lost one minute of one day in the shift. It is the same date, the same time. Just our surroundings have changed.”
Salkukoff looked at the Russian professor and nodded.
On the computer’s screen was a picture of Earth with the representation Charlie and Europa Jr. had figured out for what their current Earth looked like. All heads leaned forward.
“As you can see, based on temperature and because of the shattering of the moon, the world is possibly covered in water with only the highest peaks on our maps showing. For instance, the island we see to the east is part of the Challenger Rise series of mountains in the North Atlantic. These mountains in our world are close to a mile below the surface of the sea. This tells us that somewhere in this world there are differing high water marks, perhaps brought on by massive earth movements and displacement. We just don’t have any of the answers yet.”
The screen was dotted with sparse islands of land speckled throughout.
“Where are the landmasses of our world?” Johnson asked. “I’ve climbed Mount Rainier, so where is it? Where are the Adirondacks? Where are the Blue Ridge Mountains?”
“From Professor Gervais’s and my own calculations, with the assistance of Master Chief Jenks, we have come to the conclusion that whatever happened to the moon destroyed most of the landmasses we know from our own Earth. Entire mountain ranges were swallowed whole. The Earth shifted on its axis, and we have what we see here today. We don’t have definitive answers here, gentlemen. It’s best-guess only, no real science to back us up. If we just had one or two weather satellites, we could get more concrete answers, but in the alternate world we find ourselves in, those satellites were never launched. We are truly on our own.”
“What about the ocean? Why violet?” Everett asked.
“We have analyzed the seawater. The color is produced through a series of different factors.” Charlie brought out a graph prepared by the portable Europa. He unfurled a long roll of paper. “As you can see, we have a varying number of different contaminants, from volcanic, sea life, and other organic minerals. Why violet? Your guess is as good as ours.
“That’s all we have on our environment for now,” Charlie said as he sat down and looked at Jenks, who made no move to stand up. He puffed on his cigar and then fixed Salkukoff with a withering glare. That look was followed by Henri pulling out a chair and sitting next to Ryan. Everett looked at Jack, and for some reason that look made the colonel wonder just what the Frenchman had come up with during his absence.
“The phase shift generator and application nodules have been disabled.”
“Application nodules?” Jason asked.
Jenks puffed on his cigar and then fixed Ryan with his intense stare. “Those lightbulb-looking thingamajigs, young captain. It seems our Russian allies were a little more advanced in 1944 than we were ever led to believe,” he said while fixing that stare onto Salkukoff. “It seems they had access to weapons-grade uranium long before we thought it possible.”
“I cannot answer for that; it was a little before my time,” Salkukoff said with a smirk.
Collins watched Henri as the Russian spoke. He was convinced that at least the Frenchman knew the Russian colonel was lying.
“Well, I took some scrapings from the conductor,” Jenks continued with a warning look toward Jack, “and what I saw was a bit surprising. The core material came from our own Hanford nuclear facility, the same batch as supplied to the University of Chicago and signed for by Professor Fermi himself. I would say someone of ill intentions grabbed some for comrade Salkukoff’s distant relatives.”
“How did you come to that conclusion, Master Chief?” Salkukoff asked.
“As I’m sure you know, comrade, every breeder reactor leaves fingerprints. That’s how we verified your atomic program in the ’50s was a legitimate concern. Your original stockpiles came in from the Ukraine. During our phase shift experiments, they didn’t have the correct power settings on board the USS Eldridge to get them anywhere but the shortest way to kill close to two hundred sailors. The Russians came along with a vast improvement, as they were able to get by the power restraints with the addition of stolen American enhanced uranium.”
“Yes, yes, the evil Russians once again thwart the forces of good in a time of war,” Salkukoff said as he tossed a pencil on the table. “I find your tone accusing and unacceptable. This should not concern us here, Master Chief Jenks. Can we get the cursed thing back on, and can we get home?”
“We have yet to determine that.”
Jenks waved to Charlie that he was done. He angrily threw his cigar over the railing.
“I want to know what this gentleman’s intentions are toward my NATO assignment,” Captain Johnson said. He had gotten a full measure of Salkukoff, and the captain found the Russian to be most disagreeable. The captain stood up and faced the Russian. “You fired upon my ship, sir.”
Salkukoff shot Jack a look as if Collins had betrayed him. Jack decided he wasn’t playing his game.
“I think the captain deserves an answer.”
Salkukoff kept his eyes on Collins. Then he too stood and faced Johnson.
“You and your NATO allies were in the process of stealing Russian state property. We stopped you from doing so — and will do so again at the conclusion of our mutual predicament.”
“That is an unacceptable—” Johnson began, but the emergency siren from Shiloh started blaring.
A runner came up and handed Johnson a message flimsy. His look from message to Russian was clear. He wadded the paper up and threw it at Salkukoff. Collins watched all of this as he stood.