Non-Combatant. Black Sea Ghost

The Crimean War has not yet become the Crimean War: an enemy armada leaves Varna in order to settle the “Russian question” with a single blow, but Captain Yuri Davydov—an ex–rear admiral from another world—has a secret weapon and an artificial intelligence, Hans, capable of turning the Europeans’ “easy walk” into a chaotic retreat off the Black Sea.

What Europe calls the Eastern War has not yet become the Crimean War either. The Black Sea campaign, which previously seemed simple and almost guaranteed success in an attempt to “bring Russia to heel,” suddenly turns into a chain of serious trials. A split is brewing in the enemy camp. A gigantic armada—warships and transport vessels with troops—sets out from Varna to cross the Black Sea and land near Yevpatoria, betting on one decisive strike to close the “Russian question.” But an opportunity appears to use a new, unknown weapon, created by the captain of the packetboat “Lebed” (Swan), Yuri Davydov—a man who, only recently, in another world, had been Rear Admiral Sergey Tikhonov of the Cosmo Fleet.

Will he, together with his electronic ally and assistant Hans—the artificial intelligence concealed in the secret ADM device—be able to turn the course of the Eastern War so that it never becomes the Crimean War? And will he force the European “civilizers” to flee from the Black Sea without looking back.