Si non iurabis, non regnabis.(If you do not swear, you will not reign.)-Chancellor Jan Zborowski to the elected but not reigned Henry de Valois who after these words refused the Polish Crown.
Commowealth/Rzeczpospolita,
Crown of the Kingdom of Poland
Warsaw, Capital City of the Rzeczpospolita
August 15 Anno Domini 2020
Royal Castle
Witold Czartoryski also known as Witold II the King of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania, Muscovy, et cetera, et cetera looked at what was happening in front of him with a headache clinging to him since the morning.
His ministers in the central government, although there were only seven of them, made a mess equal to that of the ministers of all the states of the Rzeczpospolita who meet once a year to discuss together with the central government and the King what to do next and to discuss the situation in their countries.
One should know that the Commowealth is not a homogeneous country, unlike the United States of Mexico, which has a federal government and elected state governors, where the individual states have considerable autonomy but still are not as independent as those in the Rzeczpospolita.
The Rzeczpospolita on formal and legal grounds is in a kind of supra-national state, which unites and allows to conduct a relatively uniform policy of individual states composing it.
Where ultimately the states are nevertheless purely administrative entities, the constituent parts of the Rzeczpospolita are de facto separate countries united by a common Sejm, monarch, currency, flag and foreign and defence policy. The army, the administration, the judiciary and the treasury remain separate, although reforms at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries created a central treasury to cover expenses that individual states were unwilling or unable to bear.
It is from the Central Treasury that the costs of financing the central administration, interstate infrastructure, foreign policy and the costs of modernizing the Armed Forces of the Rzeczpospolita are incurred.
In turn, the upkeep of the military falls on the individual constituent states, their colonial expeditions are also borne out of their own pockets, and those things that the central government simply does not have to do for them.
You know, schools, pension and health systems, less important infrastructure and things like that. That, of course, allows the Commonwealth, as a Central government, to focus its attention on what's important and throw more money at it than other countries.
Of course, this has the negative effect of pounding on taxes and the money from them between the central and national governments.
Why do I mention this? Because in a way it was about this again, and because money is limited ministers are trying to convince each other why they should invest in this and not others. The problem with this is that everyone considers their own project more important than others and tries to convince others to themselves.
Witold gratefully took an aspirin for his headache from his courtier and his right hand man Sławomir Wolff and senator from the Malbork voivodeship. He quickly took the medicine and sipped water.
He waited a moment for the medicine to take effect and when his headache lessened he thanked his friend. Then he rose loudly from his chair. The sound drew the attention of his ministers to him. They suddenly became quiet and looked at him carefully.
"Is something wrong, Your Majesty?" The Grand Chancellor of the Rzeczpospolita Jan Piłsudski asked on behalf of everyone at the table. Witold only raised an eyebrow in astonishment. "Are you asking what happened? The King asked calmly although one could see that his eyebrow was raised slightly.
"I wonder at you. Have you no shame to bicker like little children in the four hundred-plus years of this office? What would your predecessors say about you?" Said the King while showing pictures of the most prominent ministers throughout the history of the Greatest Rzeczpospolita as the Poles often said about their country.
Among them were such peculiarities as the Great Crown Chancellor Jan Zamojski, a great Rzeczpospolitaan and creator of the political system of the Rzeczpospolita, which destroyed aristocratic titles except for a few princely ones and de facto laid the groundwork for voter equality.
Sub-Chancellor of the Crown Hugo Kołłątaj Enlightenment reformer of the political system of the Rzeczpospolita to its present more centralized state, serving under the first King from the Czartoryski dynasty.
The Grand Hetman of the Rzeczpospolita, Józef Piłsudski, who thanks to his abilities ended the madness of the First Great War, which was the only war of its kind in which the Commowealth participated, brought down the short-lived hydra of the German union led by Bohemia and carried out the first successful invasion of England since the days of William the Conqueror, crushing their vast empire.
Besides them there were other less famous but not less important ministers. As for example Żupnik, (the equivalent in other countries of the minister of mining or something similar), Ignacy Łukasiewicz creator of the oil power of the Rzeczpospolita and the main responsible for the industrialization of Siberia until his time sparsely populated.
He turned this insignificant region into a real gold mine and a source of self-sufficiency for Polish industry.
Every minister of merit had a painting hanging in this office, and their number was quite large and had already reached the ceiling. Some people said that this made it necessary to either enlarge the gabinet or find a bigger room.
"Frankly, I think they would rather just sigh because nothing has changed since their time." Said the Grand Hetman of the Rzeczpospolita Kazujasu Piłsudski, grandson of Józef's brother Bronisław who married an Ainu on the island of Hokkajdo hence the unusual Japanese name. Initially the young couple lived on the island where Bronisław researched Ainu culture, but as a result of the Polish-Japanese War in 1905 he was forced to leave the island.
He succeeded thanks to the political influence of his more established brothers. Although he lived and died in Japan, his first-born son, not long after Kazujasu was born, decided to take advantage of his uncle Józef's offer and came to the Rzeczpospolita.
Here young Kazujasu was greatly influenced by the story of his uncle Ziuk (as Piłsudski is popularly called) and enlisted in the Lithuanian army like him to eventually become the commander of the entire armed forces of the Rzeczpospolita. One could say that he became like his idol. And the Great Chancellor was his cousin from his uncle Józef's side.
As for the role of the Grand Hetman, he is both the supreme commander of all the armies of the constituent states of the Rzeczpospolita and the equivalent of the Minister of Defense or War in other countries.
As for the rest, it may be better to introduce them as well as their duties. Let's start with the King, who in the Polish political system plays the role of prime minister and president in one. This is the result of the reforms of Kazimierz V the Wise, who together with Kołłątaj introduced the tripartite division of power, sorting out the not-so-clear competences of both the King and the Sejm, which were frankly getting in each other's way.
The Grand Chancellor of the Rzeczpospolita is the Minister of Foreign Affairs. He is responsible for sending deputies, signing declarations of war and international agreements. More importantly, he is the keeper of the seal with which important state documents are signed and he runs the royal chancellery.
The sub-chancellor of the Rzeczpospolita is theoretically his deputy, but over time this minister became more involved in culture, sports and education, trying to organize the not-so-formal system of education to teach the skills necessary as a formal minimum.
The Grand Marshal of the Rzeczpospolita is the most important minister. He serves as Minister of the Interior as well as Justice. It is to him that the Royal Tribunal, the Commonwealth Police, the Special and Secret Service are answerable. And many other organizations at the central level.
The Marshal was his deputy in many of these matters, but over time he began to fill the role of ministers responsible for industry, infrastructure, . It should be noted that technically these areas are subordinate to the Grand Marshal. The same as the field of the Sub-Chancellor and in case of need they can replace the Great if they are not appointed or are unavailable and vice versa.
Therefore, theoretically, it is possible to reduce the cabinet by three ministers. In practice, nobody does this because it would result in an overload of duties.
The third dual position is the Treasurer of the Rzeczpospolita. The Grand Treasurer is the equivalent of the Minister of Treasury and Finance. And the Courtier is responsible for social policy, family policy and development policy.
In addition, there are also special ministers appointed from case to case depending on the needs, such as the aforementioned Żupnik Ignacy Łukasiewicz.
Before the reform of Kazimierz V there was also the position of Field Hetman, but it was downgraded to a military rank, thus weakening the power of Hetmen over the army.
Another important thing is the fact that such a division occurs in each constituent country of the Commowealth, so to distinguish them from the central ones an appropriate segment is added to their names.
Hence, those coming from the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland are called Crown, those from Lithuania are called Lithuanian, those from Prussia, Prussian et cetera et cetera.
"What don't you say Kazi?" Winked maliciously the Court Treasurer of the Rzeczpospolita Włodzimierz Ziełeński using the diminutive of the popular nickname Kazujasu or Kazimierz. "Yes, yes, you damn comedian, you were better off as a clown in the circus than as a damn treasurer and you know it!" Piłsudski breathed in exasperation.
Ziełeński waved his hand at that. "Speak your mind." All the king could do was sigh. "Peace children." Said Bishop Jan Dąbrowski of Warmia who was also acting as Grand Marshal.
Unlike the more secularized British or French, Poles did not think that church dignity precluded being a member of the government or senate. Moreover, to them the separation of church and state sounds damnably illogical.
And religious tolerance, you ask? Well, Poles went through this stage a long time ago and today they don't give a damn. For today's Poles you can do whatever you want, but if you want to rule and influence the country you have to adapt to the requirements.
That is, knowledge of the Polish language, familiarity with Polish culture, and the Catholic faith, whether Roman or Greek. Given that the achievement of these three requirements de facto causes the Polonization, in effect, the only foreigners who reach the top are those from the third generation after arrival.
The exceptions are the members of minorities living permanently in the Rzeczpospolita, that is, the Koronian, Lithuanians, Jews, Ruthenians, Belarusians, Muscovites, Karelians, Permians, Donskoy Cossacks, Crimean and Kazan Tatars, Green Ruthenian, Alaskans, Dalians, Prussians, Latvians, Estonians, Silesians and Pomeranians, as well as the Negroes from Cameroon and Madagascar and the minorities of the native inhabitants of Siberia and Alaska. At their top are the Poles also called Sarmatians.
These Poles or, as you prefer, Sarmatians, took their name from the main element uniting the Commowealth, the inhabitants of which are much more often called Koronians from the official name of Poland, which is the Crown of the Polish Kingdom.
In turn, Poles are a kind of Great Nation that combines all these different ethnic minorities into one great cultural nation.
The main language spoken by all these ethnicities when not among themselves is Połański, which is a separate dialect of the Polish language heavily influenced by Latin, which used to be the main language of communication alongside Polish.
Over time it was supplanted by this reworked Polish and only in the famous Regnium Poloniae itself is it still used as an official language and for communication.
In addition, of course, there are other national languages that are increasingly being supplanted by Połański, especially in the big cities. And even these same languages reveal a fair amount of borrowing from Polish and Latin in their speech.
"Well done, Your Excellency" Said the two ministers to the Bishop in a pensive tone. The Bishop had a reputation for being a good though demanding and loudly dissenting man, especially in the area of personal culture, and was the only one who had previously tried to calm the quarreling ministers, unfortunately without success.
"Finally, the children are calm." She muttered maliciously to the only woman in their midst. Princess Karolina Maria Radziwiłł who was also the Grand Treasurer. "Or will you have to give them pacifiers in their mouths to keep them quiet?"
"Daughter, can you not excite the fires of argument again?" The Bishop asked in a calm yet firm tone driving his eyes straight into hers. "Oh there oh there, Father Bishop you can see for yourself that these are big kids who need their mommy." She replied in a dismissive tone then tilted her head "Though it's good that I'm not going to be their mother, I'm not fit for that." She added with a malicious tone.
The Bishop with all his self-control did not gasp at her, he waited a moment before retorting in the same tone as before. "Indeed I must agree with you, you are still a young child in need of a mother's or father's care the most out of all of us present."
The Duchess opened her mouth in astonishment for a moment, the answer stunned her, for so far the Bishop had tended to sit quietly or speak obvious platitudes. The others in the study laughed at her expense.
Though for the King it was rather a forced laugh, his head only hurt less than before, he must have caught some disease or something. And he remembered the warning of the Duchess' father, who told him that his daughter was... a bit eccentric.
In Witold opinion she is rather childish and too loose, but she knows her job so there is no reason to fire her for now. Contrary to the opinion of many, especially in the famous West, he did not hire her to fight against the old-fashioned and patriarchal social set-up in the Rzeczpospolita. If only they knew that this patriarchy they invented only in their heads does not exist in Poland and the culture is more matriarchal than at first sight Witold thought.
He was particularly irritated by the opinions of former British colonists in America who, after Britain's defeat in the First Great War, rebelled against Britain as part of a wider communist revolution. Although in Britain itself the rebellion was easily put down with solid support from other countries, in former British America the Mexicans stationed in the captured colonies were driven back as far as the Mississippi River line downstream, while on the north bank they were driven back so far that the Mexicans held only the southwestern portions of former French Louisiana.
What was formed in the former colonies, on the other hand, was the Union of Workers' States of America or UWSA for short. Only the strong Army, United States of Mexico and the army of the Alashkan Crown Colony kept the Commies locked up in America.
Ultra progressive country trying unsuccessfully to make a mess everywhere it could and spread its ideology. Recently they have liberalized a bit and taken the path of market communism and thus opened themselves up to the world, effectively becoming a kind of factory of the world. Of course, not all countries went for this. Both the Commonwealth and the United States smelled the writing with their noses and did limited business with them.
But that doesn't change much in a general sense, and the UWSA has grown rapidly over the past 35 years to become the third largest economy in the world behind Mexico as second and Poland as first.
The two countries were linked by a military alliance that had lasted since the end of the Second Great War, called the North Pacific Treaty Organization. The Commowealth as a country did not participate in the war by itself, but only by observing and supporting openly every anti-communist force with volunteers and equipment.
But a couple of constituent countries did. To be precise, only two, the Crown of the Polish Kingdom and its Colonies and the Curonian Principality and its Colonies. The legal loophole was used in this way, according to which both these countries existed after all as separate entities and although traditionally all constituent parts fought as a whole it was not required that they had to take part in the war.
In this way, any colonial adventurism by the Crown or the Curonian was at their own expense and responsibility. Not everyone in the Polish Rzeczpospolita was interested in the Polish idea of protecting the peoples of Africa from the more exploitative states, hence a loophole was forced upon the Sejm in 1856 which made it so that wars could only be fought by constituent parts of the Rzeczpospolita.
Witold, in turn, recalling Mexico and the UWSA, turned to Hetman's cousin, Jan Piłsudski. "Janie, remind me what the Mexican ambassador Mr. Tobias Espina asked us to do and the UWSA ambassador Matthew Pittman tried to stop?"
The Grand Chancellor thought for a moment before replying, "I believe Mr. Espina has asked us on behalf of his government to temporarily halt gas and oil exports to the UWSA in connection with the border incident until the matter is cleared up, and Mr. Pittman has reminded us that his country pays a lot of money for this, and that border incidents happen at least once a week, and that it generally looks ridiculous that we're making a big deal out of this."
"Again? "She hissed displeased like an exasperated cat Radziwill "If I remember correctly they have been asking us to do this for a long time. Why should we change our minds now?
"Because this is the first such serious incident in over 40 years?" Bishop interjected, recalling the infamous Fourth of July War when the UWSA suddenly attacked Mexico by surprise.
The world, according to some, was on the verge of nuclear annihilation, but those around the table knew the truth. Nothing of the sort was imminent, and to make matters worse, the UWSA only wanted to force small concessions from Mexico, but the situation escalated to such an extent that two units at one of the border crossings accidentally opened fire, which the Americans won, so the UWSA leaders, not wanting to embarrass themselves, went on the attack, contrary to Polish-Mexican predictions.
The war lasted three weeks claiming over one million dead and wounded soldiers, and about two million civilian casualties. Eventually everyone returned to the status quo ante on the U.S.-Mexican border when the Americans, after initial successes, first bogged down around New Orleans and, at the furthest point, reached the Great Salt Lake, from where they were repulsed after heavy fighting for the lakeside town of Ciudad del Lago Salado, which takes its name from the lake.
Only a solid Polish-Mexican counteroffensive drove the Americans from where they came and even entered their territory where they met the same fate as the Americans on the Mexican side.
Eventually the front was stabilized along the Mississippi-Cansez line, and probably both sides would have faced heavy trench warfare with rapid attack and defense maneuvers. But popular resistance in all these states was high, too high to afford such fighting, and there was no real will to fight among the elites of the time.
From there it came to the peace talks and recognition of the need to return to the status quo, with the UWSA recognizing the territories occupied by the Poles during the American Revolution. That is, the Territory of Canada to the city of Regina located just across the Polish-American border.
Needless to say, this decision was and still remains unpopular in the UWSA? Many want the city to be taken back from the hands of the imperialists, despite the fact that in the last century most of its former inhabitants were polonized or descended from refugees fleeing the red regime and it is the most anti-American and anti-communist city in the Rzeczpospolita.
In Poland and Mexico alone, this was seen as a missed opportunity to destroy the Communists, although no one believed it would be possible to restore British control over these regions, except perhaps the most out-of-touch British. Fortunately, they are a loud but insignificant minority.
Therefore Radziwill was greatly astonished when she heard the Bishop's answer. "How... bad is it, and why don't I know about it?"
Bishop glanced at Colonel Jerzy Englisch, the head of the infamous "Two" Polish military intelligence and counterintelligence agency, who was standing by the wall.
The colonel, seeing the look in his boss's eyes, replied in his calm voice, "The incident occurred yesterday evening in some wilderness fortunately, it is rumored that two regiments of their border guards were involved in the clash, so far the whole matter has been swept under the rug although rumors are spreading and it is expected that tonight or tomorrow morning both countries will issue a statement in this connection."
He then paused for a moment before adding "It is predicted that at least 450 men were killed in the battle but the Mexicans are still collecting their dead from the battlefield."
"Damn it, and what do we do about it?" The hitherto silent Court Marshal Andrzej Duda suddenly spoke up. As soon as those words were spoken Witold felt that something had suddenly happened.
Only after a moment he realized that the world seemed to have stopped for a moment, and in front of him stood a woman dressed in ancient robes of blue with a red cloak on her shoulders with golden decorations, and on the front of the cloak you could clearly see the coat of arms of the Polish Kingdom.
On her head, which was wrapped in a blue scarf so that it revealed her fringe, there was a crown, strangely familiar to Witold. Around her head he saw a faint golden halo. Then he looked at her face and saw the face of a beautiful Jewish woman with penetrating blue eyes. Her whole robe was covered with golden lilies and on her face, on her right cheek, Witold felt a strange tingling in his brain and saw two long wounds coming from her nose as if they were made by a sword.
The next thing the King realized was that she looked sad and sort of angry? Then she spoke in the most beautiful voice he had ever heard, "You will do nothing about it, for you will have no way." It was her expression of sorrow for the slain, righteous anger at the guilty, and anger at someone else but it was beyond Witold' comprehension who.
Witold, on the other hand, was curious about the phrase, "you won't have a how." With a questioning movement of his head he said, "What do you mean by you will have no how?" The woman grimaced slightly then replied, "Because the machinations of the false goddess have corrupted several worlds." Then her countenance hardened "You will be torn by her mistake from your world and thrown into another, there you will encounter allies and enemies and your actions will change their world."
Then she pointed her finger at Witold, "And you, Witold son of Paul, will lead my nation, beloved by me in many worlds, into the future. You will lead it through everything with my and God's help against the great evil that has many faces and a few of its faces will be where Poland will go."
Witold suddenly recognized her then added "And what sort of faces will these be my
Queen?" The woman called Queen smiled at the fact that Witold realized who she really was then answered him again with a serious face. "False Gods" Witold heard the clear mockery in her voice "whose face and amusement you must discover, brothers as if behind a distorting mirror in which are reflected the dark faces of the Poles" The King's eyes widened for a moment with fear, what dark face is she talking about? "And the Ancient Sorcerers for whom the lives of others are but toys in their hands and who have challenged the true God and those who men in their ignorance and terror have called Gods seeking to take them and His place." Her last sentence was full of clear disgust.
"Well..." Witold began "anything else Madam?" The Queen mused for a moment then replied "Yes, one thing, you will discover a certain Gate to another world the key to the riddle of how to destroy the false ones, behind it you will meet other selves but broken and destroyed. Normally in this century they are to gain an important position in the reborn world, after all I told them myself and promised them. However, there will be you. So if you can, raise their spirits and teach them that they are better than they are told." Then she smiled warmly and convincingly at Witold as if she were his mother telling her child that he was smart enough to do something like that on his own.
Witold nodded with understanding after a moment when he caught what was going on and then asked with some thought, "And when should I expect the Breach? And should I mention what you told me to anyone?"
The Queen raised her black eyebrows then lifted her right hand and folded her robe to see, to Witold' amazement, a modern watch with hands and then she said, "In five minutes the Rupture will occur, followed by another three when a soldier rushes into the room reporting that everything has been lost. Your job will be to keep everything in order. As for your revelation, you don't have to say anything for now. Maybe when you're old or something, say it or write it down somewhere so people can read it later. Anyway, you'd be surprised how many revelations pop up in a week and no one mentions them."
"I see." Mumbled Witold guessing one of the reasons for this approach and not the other. The woman in turn bowed and the world suddenly moved forward, Witold quickly looked around but there was no sign of the Queen, as if it were the hallucinations of his aching head...
Strange thought Witold, the head that was hurting him suddenly became light and empty and the pain disappeared somewhere.
He blinked his eyes a few times as if not believing what he felt. But his admiration and thanks to the Queen whose real name he knew was interrupted when the question finally came to his consciousness, "Your Majesty, is everything all right?" Said Duda anxiously.
"What...?" Asked Witold groggily after a moment correcting himself "I mean all right, I was thinking for a moment." Here Radziwill interposed her three cents, "I think I rather hung up like Ventanas Vista and only now have hung up." After which she began to laugh at a joke which only she understood.
Witold did not understand much her sense of humor or references to computer operating systems. He had heard that this Ventanas Vista system was famous for its powerful "reliability" to put it nicely. He was not too familiar with these games between technological giants.
He only understood that the Polish company "Jabłko" was in a fierce battle for customers with the Mexican "Microsuamer" and, taking advantage of this fact, launched its powerful media counteroffensive presenting its products as much better.
"Karolino..." Her subordinate Ziełeński began with despair in his voice. "Can the Duchess calm down?" He asked anxiously about what she would come up with. And just when the Duchess was about to answer they all suddenly felt a deep earth tremor and the sun outside the window disappeared for a moment. After that they began to feel strange vibrations of the earth.
"What the hell was that?" Hetman spoke up concerned. "The Americans started a third war?" His cousin chuckled.
And the soldiers at the entrance to the hall began to be alarmed, and the minor support staff whispered among themselves in terror. King Witold reacted quickly, "Calm down!" He said in an authoritarian tone after which he turned to the Crown Guardsman at the entrance, "Bannerman Nowak, link up with Colonel Szepard and have him quickly secure the Castle and establish a secure link in the command bunker to the Rzeczpospolita headquarters."
Nowak saluted with a resounding "Understood, Your Majesty." After which he quickly placed his hand on the headset and began asking to be put through to the commander of the Crown Foot Guard Regiment, Jan Szepard.
And so Witold anxiously counted down the next three minutes secretly noticing that the Bishop was strangely calm. He was like an oasis of peace in a desert of fear. And as soon as the hands counted down the three full minutes the Commander of the Guard entered the study. "Your Majesty I report that the Staff has lost communication with all allies." While he was saying that, the Guardsmen were quickly putting in order where who should go.
Then quickly the King set off, led by the Colonel together with his government, first to the anti-atomic bunker hidden under the Warsaw Castle. It was located deep subway in the City, below the capital's subway station which also served as a huge shelter for the population above and with which it was connected by a network of underground corridors.
It was neither easy nor cheap to build this under the city. Unfortunately, Warsaw has the bad luck to be located on very wet land and every digging into the ground deep enough lets water out.
What's worse, the ground under Warsaw is made not of rocks, which are enough to drill through, but of sand, which makes it necessary to reinforce the whole thing so that it doesn't bury the builders when they go underground with their construction.
Thus, the construction of the Underground lasted over 50 years, from 1923 to 1963. And according to some it lasts all the time because every now and then something must be repaired so that the tunnels do not collapse. That is why Witold did not like the bunker near Warsaw and preferred the one hidden under Wawel Castle in Cracow which is the capital of the Crown, but unfortunately the capital of the Commowealth is in Warsaw so he has to stay here although he tries to do it as rarely as possible.
"Colonel Szepard, what's going on?" She asked as they walked down the corridor to the elevator that would lead them straight to Radziwill's command bunker, the Colonel looked over at her then in simple soldierly terms stated. "I have absolutely no fucking clue." A couple of the ministers involuntarily smiled at this, though the Bishop squirmed a bit at this blatant disrespect for the beauty of the Polish language.
But still he remained silent, knowing perfectly well that this was neither the time nor the place for that. After a while they reached the elevator and from afar they could hear alarm sirens playing a signal warning of a nuclear attack. All in all, Witold thought it was a pretty good idea. This way, the population would be quickly gathered into a network of shelters and subways throughout the country, making it easier to impose a state of emergency.
The elevator closed quickly when everyone got in and then went down at high speed, but Witold felt it slightly, although he realized that he had had the same feeling a few minutes ago when the sun suddenly disappeared.
Then the door opened and Witold felt the coldness of the corridor in front of him. The cold and, as he saw on the walls, soaking concrete gave an unpleasant impression. The water, of course, was coming from the pipes that went through the concrete walls and into the sand so the water, as always, flowed out going along the pipes to reach the corridors.
He could also see, when he got out of the elevator, cables going along the ceiling or on the corners of the walls supplying power to the entire underground complex. From time to time he passed unfamiliar rooms where he saw low- and mid-level officials scurrying about, as well as soldiers who were supposed to be guarding the whole thing. He felt goosebumps every time he passed a fan that connected in a clever way to the city above and at the same time had a huge number of filters that, as far as he knew when he was introduced to the complex, protected it from every possible air contamination in every way known to mankind.
To what extent this was just a bunch of bullshit and bragging by the designers and builders and to what extent it was true, he did not know. Though every night he prayed not to have to find out. The corridors were quite well lit, although when they passed by the exit to another network of corridors leading to the Warsaw metro, this exit was bathed in darkness, and the guard standing there with a lamp on his forehead made Witold think of a book by the Moscow writer Dymitr Głuchowski who described a post-apo scenario about the remnants of humanity living in the Moscow metro.
Dark and disturbing and thought-provoking for King, but in the end he liked it. Then he returned again to the reality that the nukes had not fallen and, as he well knew, would not fall.
They stood in front of a large door made of the most durable composites and which was the main entrance to a four-level and consisting of about 34 rooms complex that served as both an underground command post and a bomb shelter.
Of course, this was not all, this complex in front of him was barely 1/10 of the whole underground system called "The Underground City". There was such a system under each of the major cities of the Commowealth, although it was not completed everywhere.
The Warsaw one is still under construction. These Underground Cities were supposed to be a safe shelter in case of a total world catastrophe for elites and city inhabitants, and they are built in such a way that they could accommodate at least 1/10 of the city population, but at the same time they could always be enlarged.
Each of these Cities is supposed to have huge stocks sufficient for at least 25 years of existence, of course the warehouses are barely full because the costs to be incurred are enormous and the reason to speed up the work is weak at the moment.
Then, when they passed through the entrance gate, they headed towards the command post, passing the unfinished platforms of the underground railroad that is to be the final destination of the entire complex. What they know about it. Officially it does not exist although rumors and official known network of shelters and subway especially thanks to Glukhovskiy caused a rash of very interesting visions of such a complex, and many writers followed this creating their visions of such systems.
Sometimes they came up with ideas which really interested designers who all the time add new ideas to the existing plans or rework the wrong ones. Sometimes their visions are disturbingly close to the truth, which makes Two and its armed arm SS-Special Service check such a delinquent if he didn't lead to the leak of important data.
And sometimes they themselves throw into the ether false and mixed up with the truth visions of what is really to mislead other intelligence. Especially the American one (the Cold War is still going on, even though it has died down), the British one (the British still have in their minds who broke the glory of the Royal Navy and the myth of unconquered Albion for 900 years, especially that the Koronians did it a second time supporting the independence of Ireland during the Great War II) and, of course, the Swedish one which is still looking anxiously at the Commowealth.
Although there was no war between the countries since the massive defeat of the Swedes at the beginning of the 17th century when the Poles instead of signing a peace treaty by taking Moscow for themselves threw full force at Sweden and the first bonds of brotherhood of the Muscovites with the rest of the Rzeczpospolita were forged in Livonia and Estonia and Finland.
They occupied and held Moscow and then installed Zygmunt III Waza on the Moscow throne. Against the will of the Bojars, however, they had to capitulate when the Poles successfully suppressed a revolt and then for several years pacified the shattered remnants of the former Grand Duchy, where minor aristocrats took the opportunity to become independent.
From this time the Commowealth gained great and smaller victories and suffered the same defeats, but the forces which it would probably lose in a constant struggle with independent Moscow used in other directions. For example, the settlement of the Wild Fields, the occupation of Crimea or the capture of the adventurous Zaporozhian Cossacks.
Pro Fide, Rege et Lege. Witold read in his mind the inscription which was the motto of the Commowealth above a huge monitor showing the whole world which was no longer theirs and the territory of the Commowealth and military units everywhere when they finally reached their destination. And all around the room rows of computers and shuffling soldiers could be seen and the sounds of desperate phone calls, conversations and keyboard pounding could be heard from everywhere. Here the Colonel quickly and efficiently led them to a command room cut off from the room proper and which was separated from the previous room by a glass pane and through which they could see this map on a monitor.
In that room were surprisingly gathered all chief commanders of the armed forces of the Rzeczpospolita. Witold clearly felt that someone higher up had made this
happen. However, there are too many of them to list them all, so instead I will tell you how many there are.
The Great Hetman of the Commowealth is also called the Hetman of the Wszechrzeczy and under him there are seven Great Hetmen who have specific areas of activity and who is subordinate to them.
These seven are, of course, the Crown (Poland, Prussia and Inflants and the Crown Colonies and Curonian Colonies), Lithuania (Lithuania, Prussia and Belarus), Ruthenia (only Ruthenia), Moscow (Moscow and Belarus), Northern (Karelia and Perm and, if necessary, can take command from the Crown over the troops of the Siberian Colonies and Alashki) and two called Great Atatamans, i.e. Cossacks (Zaporozhye and Danube) and Tatars (Crimea and Astrakhan).
Then we have fifteen Field Hetmans, some of whom have additional responsibility because they command more than one part of the Commonwealth. Here we also have an exception in the names because Hetmans of Prussia and Inflants are called Field Marshals.
Another group of high officers gathered are, of course, the Sea and Air Hetmans, respectively six sea (for Crown, Lithuania, Ruthenia, Moscow, Prussia and Inflants) and twelve air (Crown, Lithuania ,Ruthenia ,Moscow, Prussia, Inflants ,Karelia, Madagascar,Yaksa,Green Ruthenia,Belarus and Don.).
Grand Hetmans and Hetmans of the All-Territory for the Navy and Air Force are available but only three people have experienced this honor, most officers from these services have usually reached the rank of Hetman (ordinary). That is, in simplest terms, a Naval Hetman corresponds to a Vice Admiral and an Air Hetman to a Lieutenant General.
And to complete the formalities they are subordinated to Generals (for Field Hetmans), Admirals (for Sea Hetmans) and Marshals (for Air Hetmans.) Of course, the people with these ranks are not in the bunker, instead they command in the field trying to clear up the mess as much as they can.
"Your Majesty!" Prussian Field Marshal Jan Rommel spoke up in a faint German-Prussian accent. He then stood up and saluted and with him the other officers in the room to their superior. The King nodded "At ease!" then as the officers sat back and Witold sat down in his seat he asked "What is the situation?"
The first to speak was the Great Russian Hetman Sergiej Klitczko who with his eastern sonorous accent communicated "Frankly, fatal, we have lost contact with our allies and supposedly ships and divisions that should be abroad suddenly began to appear on the territory of their permanent home bases." And here Crown Hetman Field Rajmund Andrzejczak interjected, "Not supposedly! They are appearing, we already have the 18th, 1st and 10th Divisions back and yet they were permanently stationed in Mexico!"
Witold raised his hand to interrupt him and then, when he had calmed down, he asked the other officers, "Do you also have such situations?" They began to agree that they were also getting such reports about such units. "Good." Mumbled the King then asked, "Anything else?"
And as if on cue, a short shake went through the room, followed a few moments later by one of the technicians working in the room. He quickly saluted the ruler and then said, "I have an important report!"
"Very well, tell the pennant what is the matter?" Replied the King and a young non-commissioned officer with features betraying his origins in Cameroon although it was clear that some of his ancestors came from Europe in impeccable Mazovian Polish began "I report that the sun has returned to the sky and the quakes have disappeared abruptly and there is disturbing information coming in to our radars."
"What disturbing information?" asked the Great Crown Hetman Wilhelm Jagiełło. The young soldier swallowed his saliva loudly and then added with a kind of disbelief, "The point is that completely different lands have been detected than they should be." And then he paused for a moment as if he didn't want to say because he didn't believe what he was about to report.
"Bannerman, what has happened?" He furrowed his brows the Grand Hetman with a fatherly tone in his voice. The Bannerman took a deep breath then added "The point is Mr. Grand Hetman that it seems impossible what they have discovered." The Hetman raised his head higher "And what have they discovered?"
The answer he got stunned everyone "Radar on the island of Rugia has discovered land...sorry Islands... that look like the Japanese..."
Unknown Waters
North-west of Rugia Island
August 30, Anno Domini 2020
1 Flotilla Strike Force
OKP "Władysław IV Waza"
The medium-sized aircraft carrier sailed quietly toward the Islands temporarily named for Japan. Alongside her sailed her escorts and other support ships. To her right and left were the battleships "
Nieulękły" and "
Nieugięty," one per side.
They are called so because Battleship sounds firstly more dangerous than the missile cruiser they de facto are and secondly because they are the only ones besides the aircraft carrier with solid armor capable of taking a lot of punishment before they go down.
The whole was commanded by Rear Admiral Jerzy Dickman, a descendant of the famous Polish Admiral Arend Dickman from the 17th century famous for being the first commander of the first naval unit of the newly formed fleet of the Commowealth and for being famous for the victories of the Polish fleet over the Swedish fleet in the battles of Oliwa, Hel, Ozylia and Gotland.
His force consisted of four squadrons divided into two brigades.
So:
1st Brigade Combat Team
1 Linear Ships Squadron
OKP "Władyslaw
IV Waza
" Waza-type aircraft carrier
OKP "Nieulękły" Niezwyciężony-type battleship
OKP "Nieugięty" Niezwyciężony-type battleship
2nd Battle Ship Squadron
OKP "Burza" Grom-type destroyer
OKP "Błyskawica" Grom-type destroyer
OKP "Sztorm" Grom-type destroyer
OKP "Huragan" Grom-type destroyer
2nd Support Brigade
3rd Support Ship Squadron
OKP "Robotnik" Robotnik-type tanker
OKP "Kowal" Miecznik-type rescue ship
OKP "Nawigator" Nawigator-type radio reconnaissance ship
OKP "Hydrograf" Nawigator-type radio reconnaissance ship
4th Support Ship Squadron
OKP "Tkacz" Robotnik-type tanker
OKP "Grotnik" Miecznik-type rescue ship
Their goal was as simple as the construction of a flail, to make contact with this so-called State of Japan in international waters. Both sides sent a robust force to meet as they had agreed near Ogasawara Island.
In a way, the first contact came from the Polish side some ten days after the Event, more or less when the temporary martial law that was imposed on the first day in order to stabilize the situation of the Commowealth was lifted.
The economy went through an initial massive shock, when all markets were lost except those emerging in the Rzeczpospolita. It is difficult for a country the size of a continent with a large part of its revenue coming from the internal market to suddenly collapse, although it should be noted that companies going for external export were very much damaged by the fact that some of them declared bankruptcy and the rest are kept on a drip-feed from national governments to keep them alive until new foreign markets are found, but their collapse caused a large avalanche of problems stemming from the fact that the economy is a system of communicating vessels, destroy one and the whole will quickly pour out if you do not do something.
But never mind, more important now is this expedition. Officially, a laconic announcement was made about an unexplained event that caused Poland to be torn out of its world and the promising natives they were going to meet were discovered.
Unofficially, they were going to communicate with Japan, about which there were rumors in the form of whispers. The sailors chosen for this task were deprived of communication with the world as soon as the 1st Flotilla sailed from Gdansk and only then the secret was revealed.
What was the reason for this? Dickman had no idea, he was just told what to do and who to meet with and then his ships were loaded to the max with ammunition and equipment and a delegation to Japan was packed aboard his flagship.
And all this in just five days! The rush was total, just to be on time for August 30th. He did not like it one bit, he had laconic information about who he was going to meet. The Japanese and ... Americans. The latter made his eyes fall out of his orbit. Americans in Japan?
How? From where? They don't even have a port on the west coast of America! When he got the message that they were some AlterJapanese and AlterAmericans, he felt like laughing. Have they gone completely mad? If, assuming it to be true, especially since Dickman, like any self-respecting sailor, was cautious about "Two's" revelations, yes, he knew she was disturbingly effective in her work, but ten days was far too little to learn all the necessary information.
All he knew was that they would meet with the US-Japan Fleet near Ogasawara Island and that the meeting was to take place aboard the
USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier. And that the unknown fleet is to number eighteen ships. So his esteemed admiralty sent with seven combat and six support. Yes, he understood that two battleships and one full-fledged aircraft carrier is a force capable of fighting calmly on an equal footing with the theoretically much more numerous enemy fleet.
Theoretically, battleships of the type
Niezwyciężony built in the late 80s and early 90s were able to independently repel a much larger fleet of weaker ships. And they were created as a lesson from the naval battles of the Fourth of July War, which being the first since the Second Great War of such a serious armed conflict, though prematurely broken off due to lack of will to fight between the parties, was a serious test of many ideas and concepts that have emerged since the Second Great War.
The naval engagements made it clear that while technological advances had greatly improved the capabilities of smaller ships there was a distinct lack of ships capable of holding their own alongside carriers or being able to take hits. Another thing was that the idea of unarmored ships was tossed in the trash, while it was true that guided missiles could easily destroy any ship, the problem was that few survived such encounters, especially noticeable when carriers returned to their bases heavily battered but with few escorts and the more important ships which had armor had more sailors alive than those which did not. Another thing is that the number of survivors and repairable ships was very small, less than those with even residual armor.
So the navies of the world had to move away from the style of don't get hit to don't get hit but it's better if the ship can take something and survive on board. It is known that armor is very expensive, and looking at the costs that have to be spent on it and then at the theoretical effects before the war, it was thought that this is a better way than building ships with armor, which theoretically did not give much.
But theory is theory, and the practice of war has shown that all the wonderful things that are invented in the Admiralty offices and in accountants and which on maneuvers look cool on war suddenly appear quite a lot of things unnoticeable in peacetime things, or in a situation where one side is totally superior to the other.
One of these is the idea of shooting missiles over the horizon, great in theory, in practice if both sides are equal you might as well shoot God through the window. Both sides will fire a salvo each and both sides will easily dodge them.
Thus to destroy the enemy you had to get to a more familiar distance but then as both sides got closer they increased their chances of mutual annihilation. Hence the renaissance of battleships which as very expensive ships and less effective in the role of destroying the enemy fleet than carriers went into oblivion and now when you needed a ship able to safely take many hits (as well as give them away, because the larger the ship the more missiles it can take on board and at the same time it is easier for it to stop a larger salvo of guided missiles because it simply has more CIWS guns as well as more anti-missiles) thanks to the armor it came back into play despite the really huge costs.
That's why Dickman did not like his current situation, he knew nothing, and he was about to approach an unknown potential adversary who possessed unknown exactly what. Of course he was not as afraid as one might think. He was not afraid of the destroyers in his escort after all. They did not differ much from other existing destroyers except that they were much bigger, more modern and at the same time lighter than other destroyers.
What was the reason for that? Namely, they were ships of the so-called new generation after the era of steel hulls. They were built from composites in which the main part was graphene. Which as a material extremely strong and at the same time much more flexible and lighter than the ones used so far was theoretically supposed to replace steel and its alloys.
The live tests were very promising, and given that it was based on the very successful Strzyga type in terms of construction, any corrections and baby bug fixes were quick.
The ships themselves in fact came into being recently because barely two years ago the first "Grom" sailed for sea trials and in January of this year "Huragan". In total so far the class consisted of eight launched ships and four under construction and the next eight had their keels already laid. Eventually there were to be more than fifty-four of them.
Once the island loomed in the distance Senior Michman Jan Makgdomagal commander of the radio operators reported "Countermiral, the Americans welcome us." Dickman nodded and said "Then greet them and ask where we should stand."
S. Michman saluted then began to follow orders and gave a quick reply. "North of the island and east of their flotilla, with a ten kilometer gap between us and them." Dickman raised an eyebrow then gave the appropriate instructions and as the flotilla approached the island from the east they changed course and eventually parked as requested 10 kilometers east of one of the Japanese destroyers.
He turned to the commander of the Aircraft Carrier, "Captain Goldhamer, you are in command in my absence." The commander saluted silently. He spoke up only to announce that Dickman had left the command deck.
The Rear Admiral quickly descended the stairs and made his way to the helicopter being prepared to fly the delegation, including him as the Navy's representative. As he stood on the flight deck near the helicopter, he began to look calmly at the ships in the distance.
"An intriguing sight, isn't it Contradmiral?" The special envoy on behalf of the Rzeczpospolita, Tadeusz Zawadzki, asked him. Dickman turned his head in his direction then raised his eyebrows and nodded slightly "There's something to it Mr. Zawadzki."
Meanwhile, Zawadzki looked at the sailors busily working on the helicopter. "Oho, I see that your men are quickly and efficiently doing their work on this... W-3 Sokół?" He said somewhat uncertainly trying to show his knowledge of the Rzeczpospolita's military equipment.
Dickman smiled slightly then shook his head slightly and said, "Thank you for the praise but please tell Captain Fryderyk Goldhamer, and as for the helicopter, you missed but slightly. Technically you're right, but it's a land-based version and a civilian one at that. What you see here is the Navy version. ŚZL W-3PM Anakonda."
Zawadzki clicked his tongue, "I was close." After which he asked, "Just out of curiosity, what does the designation mean, because I know that Świdnickie Zakłady Lotnicze, but where did the W-3PM come from?" Dickman raised his eyebrows in surprise, he honestly didn't know where it came from and wasn't very interested in it until now.
Fortunately, the SS officer Captain Fryderyk Szot came to the rescue, "I know." Zawadzki raised his eyebrows questioningly to the chief of his guard. Szot in turn replied, "Well, I have a son who is crazy about aviation and he told me about his passion and so, walking with him and buying him models to assemble, I learned what the various abbreviations mean. So the W-3PM stands for Multipurpose 3 Passenger Seaplane."
Zawadzki raised an eyebrow "Sounds logical, but why three?" Szot raised his hands in a gesture of ignorance "I don't know, maybe it's that it's the third model? The third version? Something like that." Zawadzki nodded while Dickman entered the conversation while looking at his watch. "All right gentlemen, we'd better pack for Anakonda now, Bosmannat Mejer says she's ready."
"I understand Rear Admiral." After which he called to his SS subordinates. "Gentlemen and lady, let's go." Zawadzki and the rest of the delegation, that is, the necessary translators and other officials, and then they packed into the Anakonda, occupying all 14 seats, which, given the size of the helicopter and the fact that a lot of space was taken up by the equipment of the commandos assigned to guard it, meant that there was little free space in the machine.
Dickman looked out the window as the men slid away from the machine and slowly the waking whine of the twin KZS-10S engines came to his ears, then when the whine was at its limit the machine broke away from the deck and moved toward the American carrier.
USS Ronald Reagan
August 30, 2020 J.C
15:28
Vice Admiral Wiliam Mertz was anxiously tapping his foot on the deck of the aircraft carrier and his uncertainty was noticed by the carrier's commander Captain Fred Goldhammer. Standing next to them in the distance was a Japanese delegation creating an invisible wall between them and the Americans displaced from their homes to receive these ... Poles.
Further despite the ships standing in front of him with a red flag showing from afar with an armored hand holding a saber in his hand he was unable to believe in their existence.
In general, there has been little he could believe in since the craziness that began after New Year's Day, which promised to be another ordinary year, although disturbing news was coming from China about the mysterious Covid-19 virus. But all that flew out the window with New Year's Day when it suddenly became apparent that he could not connect to USPACOM.
They sat in the dark for three days before the Japanese kindly informed them where they had cut in their former superiors. For a moment he thought they were playing a joke on him. The grim faces of the Japanese made him stop laughing.
They have, of course, elected the Ambassador as Interim (a good phrase thought the Vice Admiral sarcastically) President with full executive powers. So far they don't have a single state and the election is cancelled probably forever, although a plan is germinating in his mind to find some free land and build the US anew.
However, the upside of this whole situation is that all that bullshit about LGBT+ and other weirdness that came out of nowhere, the Vice Admiral saw the long hand of Moscow in it, disappeared as if cut by a knife. Although, knowing life, when everything calms down again his sailors will divide into two camps, fighting each other to the last man alive, about who is right. Come back they are fighting all the time, but quietly, and the water is almost boiling in this damned madhouse that the United States has become.
The top American officer hoped that when this all blew up he would be long gone from this madness and running a ranch or something in the New United States. He could not imagine that anyone would want that this strange situation, in which the United States at the same time exists as an independent country and relies on financial aid from Japan, which is in a bloody crisis and lacks de facto everything, would continue any longer than necessary.
He couldn't imagine serving Japan oh what not! He'd sooner jump off the deck of that aircraft carrier into the ocean than serve that damn country. And it was supposed to be so beautiful and pleasant, with polite natives. Ba had no complaints about them until today. But since Japan had been taken by God knows who to this... New World, once again Mertz admired Japan's taste, or rather lack of it, in calling anything anything anything, then suddenly the Chinks who fucked-rice-for-every-fucking-meal had grown feathery and started behaving as if they were going to rule and you American Gaijin would keep quiet.
They got soft when this Poland from nowhere appeared about 15 days ago, suddenly they shit themselves when they saw a country next door the size of Russia, which after ten days of silence (and eavesdropping on what they say at home on the radio, it was a little strange to say in the whole fucking 7th Fleet there were barely 24 people who know something in Polish, of which only six know more than the basic fucking phrases! To make things funnier, barely half of those 24 had Polish ancestors, the rest didn't know a fucking thing, and those six had as much in common with Poland as a fucking chair with a goat's ass). Finally he asked if they could meet in some place designated by them.
Then, of course, the Japanese graciously remembered them once again, having previously pretended that they were not there. When they went to that Que-Tonye, they didn't say a word about their great allies across the ocean. And now, when they needed cannon fodder... that is, escorts and military support for their fleet, they appeared and asked if they could, with a hidden expression behind their smiles that this was an offer they could not refuse.
And so he stands here like some kind of a moron and a dog that has to bark at his Japanese master's orders. He hoped that Poles would set these lords up and fulfill the role of the one who keeps Japanese away from the box with Japan Power ideas!
These fools as he sees it in their eyes are only about to do something stupid when they recover from this mess, and it's not at all said that they won't fuck off something like Empire of Greater Japan 2: On the Pack. Seriously he was afraid of those crazy people.
Fortunately, his inner tirade against the Japanese was interrupted when he began to hear and then see the helicopter approaching. After a few more moments he involuntarily bared his teeth; after all, these Poles are not so scary, nothing like the Ospreys they have, looking with satisfaction at a rather typical transport helicopter.
From one propeller from above, and from the back of the tail. Underneath the rotor you could see the odd engine housing and below from the usual somewhat Soviet style Helicopter. It was white in color with red stripes going along the fuselage and having two shot lines up the middle of the fuselage and one on the tail. On the side one could clearly see the red and white chequered pattern, from what someone on the side had just said he understood that this symbol was also held by the Poles of his former world. Above the door and under the engines he could see letters forming the inscription KORONNA MARYNARKA WOJENNA.
He struggled to read silently muttering what it said, most likely he had twisted something, especially those double NNs. He asked the translator assigned to him what it said, "Lee, what does that sign mean?"
The mighty-sized Afroamerican Robert Lee quickly countered in his bass voice, strangely pleasant to listen to, "The inscription literally means Crown War Navy, sir." Mertz raised his eyebrows in astonishment, something he didn't do often. "You're not mistaken Lee?"
Lee shook his head "No sir. That is literally what the inscription says." Mertz nodded "Hmm , that means they have a king but why it is called Crown, I don't understand it is rather strange." To Vice Admiral Lee's surprise he shook his head again. "Not so strange sir."
Mertz became curious "And why is that?" Lee on the other hand looked at him seriously and replied "Because the Poles their country since their unification after breaking up into districts" seeing the mischievous face of Meztra he hastily explained "The effect of feudalism every European country on the continent went through this" Mertz understood "So sir, The Poles as they united their country from the time of Kazimierz III began to call it the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, or Crown for short, and the name Pole from the time of the Union of Lublin until about the partitions and even longer meant the same as a Briton or an American, the Poles themselves calling themselves and by other inhabitants of their Commonwealth "Koroniarz" or Crownman." He ended the argument by flawlessly saying a word on which Mertz would have broken his tongue.
Mertz made the face that everyone makes when they learn something very interesting. "Interesting, very interesting." Then when he saw the Polish delegation begin to disembark he patted him on the shoulder, "Okay Lee, let's go, it's time to see what your Polish studies are worth."
Lee smiled "Yes sir."
Taiji Asada looked at the walking American and his cronies with disapproving eyes, if it was up to him he would have kept that donkey away from an important moment for Japan but Mr. Ambassador... excuse me Mr. President Thomas Hayden in return for allowing his men, funded by the JMSDF budget to the annoyance of Asada, to do their job as a gesture of thanks for the Japanese help required that there be a small American delegation as well.
The government agreed, much to his surprise. He thought he had made a mistake, because sooner or later this ridiculous joke about America's existence would be over and their people would blend in with the great nation of Japan.
But less bullshit and more work, how can a nation be great when it's just idling around. Something for something Taiji Asado thought to himself. He didn't have such thoughts before, but after seeing what they were dealing with and the craziness going on in Tokyo in general, his attitude towards strangers changed a bit.
Of course he was not stupid, nor proud. He knew perfectly well that this led to the madness which was the simultaneous war with China, the Western Powers and the USA simultaneously, good that at least they had enough sense not to throw the Soviets into the mix.
This is little consolation, however, since Japan was ultimately destroyed as a result of the U.S. wrath they brought upon themselves.
But his further thoughts evaporated when they were reunited with the American delegation, he coolly bowed his head to Mertz and then they waited together for the Polish delegation to come to them from under the propeller.
This gave him a chance to look at them. He was being led by two men, a man of age with flashes of gray, blue eyes with, as he later noticed, green accents. He wore a large mustache. His nose was quite large and his curves were noticeable. He wore a dark blue suit to match the sailors standing next to him.
Next to him walked an officer, as the Admiral guessed, who commanded that group of ships. Admittedly, those two motherships next to the carrier looked rather disturbing. He did not want to find himself as their possible target.
The admiral, on the other hand, looked a little more bland. Similar to the diplomat, he had a square face, black eyes, black hair, and a dark blue uniform that made him stand out from the American sailors standing in front of him, who wore white. The same could be said of the marines standing behind them in their navy blue uniforms and helmets. As he noticed, all of them had their faces covered and their eyes were covered with goggles.
In their hands they held something that looked familiar to him, something like a combination of an AK and an M16, and so well that without a longer look he would not realize that it had features of both these rifles. The barrel on which the musket was placed looked like from an AK, next to the magazine and the breech lever, while the butt, the grip and the rest of the casing looked like from an M16.
Generally the weapon itself was rather, as Asada guessed, an original idea which unintentionally reminded him of known rifles. If only he knew that there existed in his world such a rifle which looked identical.
Then as Asada assessed them all he nodded to the Vice Admiral to begin as host.
Mertz accepted the gesture with understanding then spoke up through Lee, "Welcome, esteemed Polish" he could hardly believe he said it so fluently "delegation aboard the
USS Ronald Reagan CVN-76. I am Rear Admiral William Mertz, commander of the United States 7th Fleet, next to me is the commanding officer of this ship Captain Fred Goldhammer and the translators are Master Chief Robert Lee and I represent the Interim Emergency Government of the United States."
When this more or less dull speech, fortunate that it was not him they were to listen to in the end but Lee, was over, this Asada, as Mertz thought of him, spoke up, introducing the Japanese delegation more exquisitely and poetically in English.
"Well, not a bad first impression we made on them." Said Mertz quietly under his breath with a sarcastic tone, seeing that the Polish delegation reacted more vividly to Assad than to him. Though it was interesting to see the surprise of the Poles when he introduced the Captain. They looked as if they could not believe in his existence. Well, he will ask about it later, he thought, when the Polish diplomat spoke up.
"Hello ladies and gentlemen." He began as he realized in somewhat dull English, it didn't sound like the kind spoken by someone with a poor command of English but more like the kind of English that hadn't been used in a long time.
"I am Tadeusz Zawadzki, special envoy on behalf of the Grand Chancellor of the Commowealth, Jan Piłsudski, standing next to me is Rear Admiral Jerzy Dickman..." Here the Americans had to use all their self-control not to laugh or betray that this amused them. "... and there stand the gentlemen of our security force led by Captain Fryderyk Szot of the SS."
"Excuse me from what?" Asked Mertz when his red light came on "Well from the SS, or (Służba Specjalna) Special Service." And Mertz nodded with understanding. "Sorry my mistake, we know of another far less glorious organization with that abbreviation."
Zawadzki understanding that this was a touchy subject decided to postpone the question. "Good, I think that's all, please lead the way to the interview area." Asada quickly stepped forward "That's right, Mr. Vice Admiral has prepared a suitable place."
Then both sides went to the briefing room prepared in advance as a place for the first preliminary talks. They had originally wanted the island, but in the end decided that a warship would be a better place after all.
It did not escape anyone's notice that the Polish Rear Admiral had been looking at Goldhammer in disbelief for some time. As soon as they reached the hall, Mertz stopped Dickman for a moment and asked him "What are you staring at my captain like that?" Dickman only gave a sign that it was nothing serious and ordered the others to go although one of the SS remained watching Dickman and the latter replied "Mr. Vice-Admiral, you wouldn't believe it if I only had to tell you, therefore when this is over I invite you and your captain to the '
Władyslaw' you will see for yourself what I mean." After which he entered the room without further delay and a noticeably lower than the rest commando followed him.
Mertz, on the other hand, was curious about this, but preferred to leave it for later, first he had to see what he was dealing with. When he sat down and began to hear the first sentences of diplomatic fight he involuntarily smiled. He thought, when the hopes for easy talks from Asada's side were dispelled by Zawasky? Zawadski? He did not know how to pronounce this name, but it was worth watching, as he let the Japanese know that it was he who was doing them a favor, not they him.
OKP "Władysław IV Waza"
Flight Deck
18:33
When the first round of talks was behind them, all that had been agreed upon was the visit of the Japanese Prime Minister in Warsaw and the Polish King in Tokyo, and when, and the joint statement of their existence and the establishment of diplomatic relations and the temporary confirmation that the current ambassadors were fulfilling their role until they were replaced, Mertz, together with Captain Goldhammer, took advantage of Dickaman's invitation on his flagship. Asada invited himself on the Polish ship, Mertz did not know, but he guessed why.
What he heard in that room would surely go down in history, or at least he would remember for the rest of his life. Especially the discovery that their former worlds, although Earth, were completely different timelines, which was rather obvious. Mertz had never heard that his Poland had an aircraft carrier. But it was hard to believe after all.
Behind them followed the SS team, and Mertz had a strange certainty that the lowest one, how he knew it was a woman he had no idea but he felt it was her, had been watching him vigilantly all the time since he stopped Dickman.
Minor decided to interrupt the Rear Admiral's argument briefly presenting a kind of counterpart to his Reagan. Seriously, the Polish aircraft carrier was not much smaller than his and in terms of air wing had identical numbers. It was no secret, by the way, although he noticed that he omitted some details.
No wonder, although it is hard not to admit that it was not interesting, but nevertheless the aircraft carrier itself did not look more modern than his, probably in details there are differences, but in general when they walked through the flight deck and observing the machines on board if they ignore the different appearance of the uniforms, the different flag and the inscriptions on everything he could just as well recognize that it was another Nimitz. It's actually a little disconcerting if you look at it from another angle, because Japan only has three full-fledged aircraft carriers including its flagship. Because these landing ships can only be considered as light aircraft carriers, better than none but still in a classic naval battle they are an addition to the main force.
Therefore, he asked Dickman, "Excuse me, Rear Admiral, but how many fleet carriers do you have?" Dickman looked at him a little pace before his gaze regained focus and he got his answer. "We currently have 18 fleet carriers in the line, and 24 carrier-landing craft."
All the non-Poles stopped at that. "Excuse me how much?" Captain Goldhammer asked, thinking he had overheard. Dickman repeated in strong surprise, "Well 18 fleet carriers and 24 landing ships capable of acting as carriers. Although we do have some more regular landing ships."
"Uh..." Started Mertz, when he got Dickman's attention he added "In our old world we had the most of them, but only 11 like this one here" he pointed with his hand to
Reagan "and 8 of these particular landing craft-aircraft carriers. And it's all awfully expensive to maintain. How do you guys have that many?"
Dickman burst out laughing lightly "Well, I guess it's obvious, apparently we're richer than you." After which he became serious "And seriously, you Americans apparently have an unexplained attachment to aircraft carriers because in our world your smaller counterpart has about 30 regular ones and ... I can't remember now how many but quite a few smaller universal ones."
"That's quite a lot." Replied Mertz, to which Dickman denied with a wave of his hand, "Well yes but they're old and solid. And they've cut costs a bit, for example they don't have nuclear reactors like ours." Mertz got the point, a lot but not necessarily as advanced and large as these here though in their mass they certainly present a challenge.
Whereupon Dickman clapped his hands "All right, now what you asked me Vice Admiral a few hours ago before coming in." Whereupon he spoke up with a loud shout "Captain Goldhamer come down here to us!" Goldhammer for a moment suddenly jumped up thinking it was him he was calling but quickly realized it wasn't him.
Mertz wondered what the Pole was talking about that he did not want to say. He stopped when the Captain came out of the tower. When he saw him, his eyes almost fell out of orbit and his jaw dropped in surprise.
The Polish Captain approached the Rear Admiral and quietly saluted and with his silent base looked at the Americans, it seemed that nothing could surprise this man. Not even what the American Goldhammer said in a moment "He... looks like me!"
The Polish captain without any expression on his face looked at his American double, or maybe he's the American's double? And Vice Admiral Dickman replied, "You see, this is Captain Fryderyk Goldhamer, the commander of
OKP Władysław IV Waza. I don't think there's any clearer evidence that we come from completely different timelines."
Mertz, agreed with the Pole. And looking at the clone of his Captain Fred... heck even their names are similar... was weird. It was strange to look at someone who looks like someone you know and yet wears a completely different uniform, has different symbols on it. You can see a different eagle on his cap, and while his is more of a chatty jolly guy, this one looks like a terrible gloomy one. "May I return Kontradmiral to my work?" Fryderyk said and Mertz added in his mind no serious servant for whom the discovery of his clone was just another day on his calendar. He honestly had no desire to find out how it had happened that such a freak for him looked like an ordinary Tuesday.
Asada, on the other hand, added "This is getting interesting. I'm intrigued by what else you Poles have to offer." And Mertz, to his own amazement, agreed with him.
