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Enjoying the AAR.

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Keep up the reports. It' like watching a regular TV programe.

Captain Reizin put down his binoculars and gave me a slap on the back that knocked the breath out of me. We had both been watching the remnants of a German platoon scampering towards the tree line north of the town of Khisova. Reizin’s 2nd Company were the ones to drive the Germans away and retake the town.

The joy of the moment could be seen up and down the full length of the line. They had reason to be proud. They had done good work.

Yet, the Germans were quick to remind us that they were not out of this war yet. In the midst of the celebration, the Germans answered with machine gun fire from across the valley.

As soon as I heard the first bullets hiss by and plop into the snow, I found shelter behind the nearest shelter.

The Germans occupied the town of Navinskaya, which sat at the opposite end of the valley from Khisova. There, the Germans had placed an array of machine guns that they used to fire across the valley. They opened up with all of them, forcing the Soviet defenders to find the nearest safe cover.

It did not take me long to realize that some German observer was probably already calling some German battery, ordering an artillery strike on our position.

I rolled over next to Captain Reizin. “You need to get us out of here before the Germans take advantage of the situation.”

Reizin responded by calling to a runner. “Have the squads spread out and brace for a German counter-attack.” He then called over another runner. “Tell Major Teodorovich that we have taken the town and we are waiting his orders. However, we are fish in a barrel to those Germans across the valley.”

I had transmitted the message to Captain Jenin before the runner had even left the building. Jenin had found a way to bring it up with Major Teodorovich.

I suddenly found myself with nothing to do. The fighting had taken my mind off of the biting cold weather. Besides, with all of the running and hiding I had worked up a bit of a sweat. However, all of that hard work dissipated quickly once I was no longer moving. The beads of sweat froze on my forehead and my heavy breath formed a layer of frost on the scarf that I wore. Soon, the cold was stinging my cheeks, nose, and ears. When I removed my hand from my gloves to warm the frozen parts of my face, the cold stung my fingers.

I moved off a distance from the others, to where I could whisper without drawing undue attention to myself, and asked, “How is Lieutenant Kajukalo?” I mumbled. The microphone in my throat picked up my question and broadcast it to Private Messerer.

“Still alive, sir,” Messerer answered. “The Captain kept him that way through the battle. However, now that the battle is over, the Captain might think that it is time to act.”

“You can’t let that happen,” I told Messerer.

“Me, sir? I remind you, the Captain has a pistol and he has shown that he will use it.”

“He won’t kill you.”

“I’m not so sure,” Messerer answered. “He’s willing to kill Kajukalo. I think he might kill me, too, if I got in the way.”

“Being with these soldiers should have taught you something. Some things are worth dying for.”

“Not today,” said Private Messerer. “I have plans that definitely do not involve dying.”

“So did most of these soldiers,” I reminded him.

Our conversation was interrupted by news that Major Teodorovich was sending orders, and that he was ordering a withdraw to the east side of town out of site from the German machine guns and forward observers, where they could plot their next move.

“You should get back here,” Private Messerer said to me through my earpiece.

“What’s up?”

Messerer whispered, “The Captain is thinking that the fighting is over. It’s time to get rid of Lieutenant Kajukalo.”

“Have you tried explaining to him that this is just one battle in a war that still has four years to play itself out? Over those next four years, Kajukalo might do a great deal of good.”

“No,” answered Messerer. “Contrary to rumor, I am not insane. If you want to stop him from murdering Kajukalo, you had better get back here.”

“You started this, remember,” I said into my voice implant, approaching as close as I could to a shout without actually making any noise.”

“I just think he’s going to listen to you before he’ll listen to me. You’re a graduate student.”

“That doesn’t matter,” I answered, exasperated.

I was nearly out of breath anyway. I was with Second Company, climbing our way out of the business district for the village of Khisova. We had taken our skis off to make it easy to climb. German machine guns were chasing us up the hill, forcing us to run from one cover to the next. If any group of Soviets showed themselves to the Germans for any length of time, the area got sprayed with machine-gun fire.

There was also mortar fire as we retreated. Yet, the Germans seemed to be having difficulty getting zeroed in on us. Their shells, for the most part, landed behind us. I guessed that it did not occur to them that we would retreat back up the hill after taking the town.

I left 2nd Company and angled over to the north to find 1st Company. Messerer whispered directions in my earpiece to make it easy. They had retreated into the open field east of the town, where they were trying to dig fox holes in the frozen ground. They had left a few observation posts behind to watch for signs that the Germans were going to try to move back into the town in force.

In the mean time, the Germans continued to drop mortar shells on the town, to no effect, other than to catch a few buildings on fire and bring down a few others.

At the top of the hill I put my skis back on and slid on up to the command post. Of course, sentries challenged me as I approached, requiring my identification and papers before they would let me through to see the Major.

I had worried about what Captain Jenin would say when I arrived, but I did not need to. Jenin was involved in what appeared to be a tense conversation with Major Teodorovich, though it was tempered to some degree by their differences in rank.

I entered with a salute, waited for it to be returned, then said to Captain Jenin, “Second Company is moving into position. I think, sir, we must be heading back to headquarters. Our time here is just about up.”

“Nonsense,” Jenin said. “Sergeant Apalkin, answer me a question. If you were in charge, would you say that it is better to charge across the valley and take Navinskaya immediately . . .”

“Before the Germans have the time to get organized and maybe bring up reinforcements,” Teodorovich added quickly.

“. . . or call for reinforcements yourself. I’m thinking a machine gun platoon, fresh soldiers, and some heavy artillery.”

I could tell which option Jenin preferred without the sound of his voice in my ear. “I counted nine machine guns on the German side of the valley – most of them in that fortified church at the top of the hill, sir. It would be a bloody fight. I would want more than machine guns and artillery. I would ask for smoke. You’ll be dead before you get half way across the valley without smoke, sir.”

Major Teodorovich turned to Captain Jenin and said, “You train your pets well, Captain. Can you tell me how many machine guns the Germans will have tomorrow? How many tanks?”

“No tanks,” said Jenin. “The day after tomorrow, I would not be surprised to see tanks, but not tomorrow. You have until then, at least.”

“My superiors are expecting me to do more than hide in the snow,” Teodorovich said. “If I do as you say, it will look bad on my record. As foolish as it may seem, I will get more points with the brass if I charge across the valley and lose half of my men, than if I stay here today and take the town tomorrow with half as many losses.”

“Sir, request permission to speak freely,” I said.

“Granted.”

“Sir, it appears that you must ask yourself what is truly important. Is it scoring points with the leadership, or is it winning the war? If you score points with the leadership, and Germany wins, than you have won a prize that you can never spend. If you help to win this war, perhaps nobody will appreciate your contribution but you, but you will know what you have done.”

Teodorovich thought for a moment. “If you promise me that there will be no tanks tomorrow, then I will attack tomorrow. I will let the leadership measure my success today as they will. Tomorrow, we will have victory.”

“Very good, sir.” Jenin said. “My staff and I must report back. We will return tomorrow, before you start your attack.”

With a sharp salute, he concluded, “Good day, sir.”

I popped into the history lab, then quickly moved off of the platform, leaving room for Messer to appear. I was so chilled that I swore that the trans-verser had brought a bubble of cold air from the Eastern Front with me. Moisture from the inside air quickly condensed on the barrel of my rifle and on the buckles of my clothes, before the metal warmed enough for the frost to melt once again.

“Professor Jenkins, did you mean what you said about us going back again?” I asked as soon as I had unbuckled the outer layer of my clothes.

“I don’t think we are done there, yet,” Jenkins said. “The Soviet forces have another battle tomorrow that they certainly could stand to win. Besides, Kajukalo is still alive, and that’s a problem.”

“Not for me,” I said.

“Well, you’re not in charge of this expedition. I am. Tomorrow, after the attack, we will deal with him. In the mean time, we have an attack to plan – or, more specifically, we have an attack that needs to be planned. I will see you two back here tomorrow evening.”

“Professor, I am not going to be a party to murder,” I said flatly.

“What are you going to do, Chris? Our you going to tell the Council about our extracurricular activities? That would put a stop to us completely. No more opportunities to change the past. I brought you into this because I thought you had an appreciation for what we were trying to do. If you want to help those people, then you will do things my way. Now, tomorrow evening. We will take care of the capture of Navinskaya, then we will take care of Lieutenant Kajukalo. Do I make myself clear.”

I stared at the Professor, saying nothing.

“Do I make myself clear?” Jenkins repeated.

“Yes, sir,” I answered.

“Good. Now, get some sleep. I expect to see reports before we leave tomorrow.”

I was tired. It was an exhausting day anyway, and trudging through the snow and cold of northern Russia had nearly killed me. My muscles ached from the first day of fighting. Now, they ached even more.

Yet, I thought back on the soldiers we had left behind. They would be spending the night in the wind and the cold, trying to create fox holes in ground that the weather had made nearly as hard as concrete.

They would have no fires – a fire would invite artillery. They would have nothing but their clothes and blankets and whatever warmth they could generate from exhausting physical labor.

I stopped by at the command console, reached past Synthia, and typed in December 27, 1941, then clicked on the map in the area where we were fighting. The computer said that there would be thick morning fog that would limit visibility, with cloud cover that would make the temperatures a little warmer.

“Tell Jenkins about the fog,” I said to Synthia. “He’ll want to know that.”

As tired as I was, I still had a couple of hours of work to do before I went home. I needed to clean and put away my rifle, put away the rest of my gear, and answer a quick questionnaire about the mission. These would serve as reminders that I would use when I wrote my report in the morning, after I had slept on the events. Of course, I would have to doctor the report to make it appear as if our team was made up of passive observers. That would take some creativity that I was just too tired to do at the moment.

A good night’s sleep. Everything would be a lot clearer on a good night’s sleep.

When I returned to the History Department the next morning, I found a message waiting for me in my mailbox. Dean Kavlin wanted to see me in his office the moment I came in. His secretary saw me from her desk up the hallway, so there was no sneaking out the door and putting this off. She simply shouted, loudly enough for the Dean and me to both hear, “Jenkins is here,”

I walked slowly to the back of the room. Kavlin had stepped out of the office to summon me, and we met at the corner. “Come in,” he said. We went into his office, and he closed the door behind me.

“Clay, I understand that you are going back to the same battle for the third day in the row.” Kavlin said.

“I’m just following orders,” I shrugged. I knew that if the Council prohibited a third mission, that Jenkins would have lost his opportunity to murder Kajukalo. That would certainly be worth the price. We could do our work in some other part of the multiverse.

“And what are those orders? Why are you going back there?”

I did not expect Kavlin to be asking me these types of missions. He was asking me about Jenkins’ fitness to lead these missions back in time. Yet, if Jenkins did not leave these missions, I would, in fact, lose my opportunity to go change the future in these multiverses. No other teacher that I knew of questioned the idea that we were making these trips only to observe history and to use our observations to fill in some blanks in our own past.

“Professor Jenkins is observing what he sees as a transition in the Soviet soldiers. They have been losing this war for six months straight. They have been driven to the gates of Moscow. Now, during the winter, some units are starting to fight back and are starting to see some success. It is having an interesting affect on the morale of the troops. I think that Jenkins wants to see what happens next.”

“You realize that, in our own history, the Russians lost that particular battle. They tried to take Navinskaya on the second day and they were slaughtered by machinegun fire as they tried to cross the valley. Your Major Teodorovich decided to wait for reinforcements. It is just one battle in a huge war, but we are curious as to why he would make that decision.”

“I’ll ask him,” I told the dean. Dean Kavlin. I stood, and took a half-step to the door.

“If Professor Jenkins was losing his objectivity, what would you do?”

I paused for a moment. “I don’t know,” I said. “But, I’m a history student, not a soldier. When I say that my school work is killing me, that’s supposed to be a figure of speech.”

Dean Kavlin chuckled. “Okay. Keep it safe, Clay.”

“Yes, sir,” I answered. I stood and headed for the door, trying hard to compromise between wanting to get away before Dean Kavlin asked me any more questions out the door, while not giving the appearance of wanting to get out of there before Kavlin asked any more questions.

When I showed up at the lab that evening, I had my first pangs of, “I wish I had never gotten involved in any of this.” Every way I turned it in my mind, I could not see Professor Jenkins’ plan to kill Lieutenant Kajukalo as anything but murder. The more I thought about the situation, the more that it shocked me to discover that I had gotten myself into a situation where I was actually debating what to do about a potential murder.

Isn’t it obvious that the thing to do when confronted with a potential murder was to stop it? Isn’t this something that should be so close to the surface in a good person’s consciousness that even debating the issue was a sign of extreme moral degradation?

I could allow Jenkin to commit his murder and simply be done with it. I could ignore the crime and continue on with life as usual. Kajukalo would be dead – he certainly did not have any reason to let the situation happen. But, maybe Kajukalo would grow up to become a bad person.

Then again, maybe I could grow up to be a bad person. What’s to say that some college acquaintance of mine does not have a record of some vicious acts that an alternative version of me committed in the future. Would I have him kill me? No, actually. I would prefer that he warned me about what I was going to do so that I could take my life down a different course.

Then, again, maybe the difference between those who would actually commit evil deeds in the future and those who will not is that the latter are those who would listen to a warning and the former are those who will not.

These are the thoughts that consumed me throughout the day. In addition, we had a trip to plan.

I had to stop by the bathroom on my way to Professor Jenkins’ office for the mission briefing. I felt physically ill. I entered the office thinking that I should simply announce my decision. “Professor Jenkins, I will not allow you to murder Lieutenant Kajukalo.” Then, he could simply keep me off the mission, carry out his plans, and I would have done nothing but to clear another obstacle from his road to murder.

I had to go with him. Then, I had to be in position to prevent the murder from taking place.

So, I attended Jenkins’ briefing with the interest that would be expected of me in any mission briefing.

“The Council tells me that Major Teodorovich received his reinforcements,” Jenkins told me. “Two machine gun platoons. Artillery. Even some smoke shells for the mortars.”

“Do you have a plan?” I asked, knowing the answer but playing my role nonetheless.

Jenkins called up his map on the desk. “Crossing the open valley against machine gun fire would be foolish. The only reasonable thing to do would be to go around to south side of the forest, and then approach the town from that direction. You have cover, and you make this stone fort of a church all but worthless.”

“We’ll have to take that church sometime,” I said.

“Yes. That’s where the smoke comes in. Cut off the church. Isolate it. Bombard it with artillery. Then, throw smoke and launch the final assault. Then, the Soviets will own Navinskaya, and our work will be done.”

“There’s always another battle,” I said to Professor Jenkins. “For four more years, there will always be another battle. The Soviets will need good leaders.”

“Not too good,” said Jenkins. “Not so good that they can successfully establish an empire after the war.”

I let the topic drop.

“Get your gear and get ready. We’ll do what we did last time. You go with 2nd Company, while I travel with 1st Company. We’ll use our communication to keep their attack coordinated.”

I wondered if Jenkins knew that I would act to prevent his murder and if that was the reason he was sending me away, or if this was just coincidence. However, if I let Jenkins’ send me away this time, then this would be the same as letting him commit his murder. That was simply not an option that I was going to accept any longer.

When I showed up on the Russian front, the soldiers of Company 2 were anxious to tell me of their success the day before. The Soviet soldiers had driven the Germans out of Khisova, then pulled back before the Germans at Navinskaya, across the valley, could decimate them with machine gun and artillery fire.

Once the Soviets retreated, the Germans felt the need to send in a patrol, which they did.

“But the Major was ready for them,” said Corporal Braginsky, the sort squad leader who had been appointed to tell the story. “Our observers told us that there were Germans coming up through the town. We sent Second Platoon around to the left to cut off their escape. First Company sent their own second platoon around to the right. Then, BAM! We hit them. They didn’t have anywhere to run, so they surrendered.”

“What did you do with them?” I asked.

“We thought you had them,” Braginsky said, looking around for other soldiers to confirm his story. “We remembered what you said. Dead Germans don’t talk. We knew they was going to make us take Navinskaya today, so we were hoping you would tell us what we’re up against. Didn’t you see the prisoners?”

“No,” I said honestly. “They never made it to me. I don’t think Captain Jenin saw them either. He didn’t say anything.”

“So the Germans could have a whole battalion in that town and we wouldn’t know it,” Braginsky said.

“No. If they had a battalion, I would know about it. “I’m guessing, a machine gun company with mortars. No tanks – not yet. No signs that they are making any move to retake the town – no signs of a buildup. They’re purely on the defensive. I’m pretty sure that what they have in Navinskaya is something you can handle, as long as you fight smart.”

“Fighting smart is our specialty,” said Braginsky. “Just like taking those prisoners. We can fight smart.”

“Glad to hear it,” I said. “It’s almost time to head out. I’m going to hang out with Captain Reizin. You take care of yourself.”

I had taken my position with 2nd Company, just like the day before. I knew that Captain Jenin would not kill Lieutenant Kajukalo until after the battle appeared to have been won – winning was too important to him. So, I did not need to worry about that issue until it looked like the battle was coming to an end – one way or the other.

It was strange to be thinking about the end of the battle when the battle had not yet began. Who knows what would happen? Maybe Jenin or Kajukalo will get themselves shot and I would not have to worry about it.

For the moment, my responsibility was to keep 2nd Company alive and to help them win their objective. My secret weapon was my ability to communicate with 1st Company through the implants that I wore.

“Second Company standing by,” I whispered to Private Messerer.

I checked my watch. It was nearly 6:45 am, the official start of the campaign. I took a deep breath and counted down the final seconds. When I reached zero, I could hear artillery shells start to tear apart the town of Navinskaya, and the order came down the line to move out.

I think this ' Energizer Bunny ' needs a new set of batteries.