326 Next Course of Action
St. Petersburg, Ruthenia Empire. Underneath the General Staff Building, the Command Ops were filled with joy as they just heard the recent news about Alexander.
“They’ll be departing as soon as all the injured crews in the battleship are ferried into the destroyers. The progress so far is 55 percent, it’ll take another hour for the evacuation,” Sergei reported.
“I’m relieved that my husband is now safe. I don’t mind if it’ll take an hour before they can leave London as I’m not only concerned for my husband but for the Ruthenian people as well.”
Everyone gasped softly at the compassion shown by Sophie.
“So, what are we going to do with the battleship? I know that it’s a state-of-the-art battleship integrated with advanced electronic systems that we can’t afford to fall into the enemy’s hands. Is it salvageable? Can it be towed out of London? Or is damaged beyond repair that we will have to scuttle the battleship?” Sophie asked, her demeanor and expression serious.
“The captain had just completed their assessment of the battleship. According to them, we can tow the battleship out of London as the bilge pumps were doing fine. The problem is we don’t have a ship powerful enough to tow a 70,000-ton battleship. For that, we will have to contact the Britannian Empire government and request permission for our ship to enter their sovereign waters to tug the battleship out.”
“Hmm?” Sophie’s brows furrowed. “Why do we have to ask for permission? Surely this was their fault that Black Hand got under their nose and commenced the most deadly attack they made to date that could have killed my husband.”
“Your Imperial Majesty, if I may be candid, we can’t just enter their waters unannounced. They’ll take it as a provocation, especially after the Dogger Bank incident and the fact that they are facing the worst crisis,” Sergei said in a careful tone.
“But you said earlier that we are allowed to send troops right?” Sophie said, recalling her last conversation with him.
“Yes but that applies only to the men who are in the Britannia Empire, the destroyers, and the battleships. But the Baltic Fleet has no authorization. We have just simply moved them near the Britannian waters to prepare for the worst,” Sergei replied.
“The Baltic Fleet?” Sophie repeated. “Is there a powerful ship there that can tug the battleship out?”
“There are Your Imperial Majesty. In fact, they’ll be the ones to tow the battleship out. Now we only need to secure the Britannian’s cooperation and permission,” Sergei said.
“Okay,” Sophie conceded to prolonging the discussion. “Then contact the Britannian government immediately.”
“Will do, Your Imperial Majesty,” Sergei acknowledged the order and pulled the telephone over to him, and dialed a number.
Five minutes had passed, and Sergei only heard a ringing sound from the line. Everyone frowned, as it was rare for the Britannians to not pick up their call.
“Your Imperial Majesty, the Britannian Government is unreachable. We can’t contact 10 Downing Street. I’ll try to contact the Britannian Embassy to see if he can contact them.”
p、A,nd A-n、o、ve,1 Sophie nodded, allowing him to continue.
Sergei dialed a different number and waited for the caller to pick up his call. A minute later, he is beginning to feel ashamed and embarrassed for making the Queen of the Ruthenia Empire wait. No one is answering his call.
“This is weird, why is the Britannian Embassy not picking up our call?”
“Call him again,” ordered Sophie.
Without hesitation, Sergei dialed the number of the Britannian Embassy once more, hoping this time, they would pick up his call. Ten seconds later, his call finally reached someone.
“Hello, this is Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergei. Is this the ambassador?… Great, I would like to speak with you about the situation of the Britannia Empire…”
And there started a long conversation between the two in which Sergei explained the situation to him where he can’t reach the Britannia government and asked the ambassador if it was possible for him to be one to contact his government.
Sergei waited for two minutes and then he received an answer.
“I see…thank you very much for your cooperation, Mister Ambassador. Thank you for the time and I godspeed,” Sergei hung up the telephone by returning it to the cradle.
He looked at Sophie with a positively grim expression. “The ambassador of the Britannia Empire is also having similar troubles, Your Imperial Majesty. I believe we can safely assume that the government of the Britannia Empire is incapacitated at the moment.”
Everyone in the Command Ops felt the gravity of those words. The government of the strongest empire in the world is down at the moment? It’s impossible. Such a thing is unheard of.
Well, at least the Ruthenian Empire can learn something from this. Like, build a line of succession so that if the emperor is incapacitated, the empress can take charge. And if both emperor and the queen are incapacitated then it would be the sons. If there are no sons then Romanoff’s relatives will take charge. It’s an outdated line of succession that Alexander wanted to change in the future. For now, this is the current system until Alexander changes the line of succession and repeals the Pauline laws.
“It can’t be helped then. They are facing the worst crisis in their country after all. So if we cannot communicate with the Britannian Government then how are we going to reach out to them and seek permission so that they won’t perceive our approaching Baltic Fleet violating their territorial waters?”
“I think I have an idea for that, Your Imperial Majesty,” the Minister of Defense, Alexei spoke.
Everyone’s attention shifted to Alexei.
“What is it?” Sophie asked.
“Your Imperial Majesty, one of the largest fleets of the Britannian Empire is their home fleet which houses dreadnoughts, battleships, battlecruisers, cruisers, destroyers, and submarines. If we cannot contact their government then why don’t we contact their military as they’ll be the ones who will greet us upon reaching Britannian waters?” Alexei suggested.
Sergei hummed. He leaned forward and propped his chin up with his hand as he considered it. After several seconds passed, he nodded. “You’re right, we should try to get in touch with them. But the problem is, they might see our appearance in their territorial waters as hostile and might fire upon us.”
“The Britannians won’t fire their weapons without putting a thought into it,” Alexei said. “Yes there is a state of emergency and their military is on high alert but all of it is happening on land, not in the water. As long as we make our approach peaceful, they’ll establish communication with us. And the Britannians are not that stupid. They might fire a warning shot but that’s it.”
“Well, we are going to need Britannian cooperation as Sergei had suggested,” Sophie spoke. “In that case, contact their naval warship but proceed with caution.”
“I’ll transmit the orders now, Your Imperial Majesty,” Alexei said.