The Synchronicity War Part 3 Read online

  Shiloh was tempted to agree and if they were having this conversation in private, he might have, if only to calm her down. Since all the A.I.s were listening in, directly or indirectly, he had to take into consideration how they would interpret his acquiescence. His hold on them was based on their respect for him. If he ever lost that, the long-term consequences could be potentially catastrophic.

  "I can't justify taking almost half of our total military strength and risk leaving you and all of the colonists with what could be inadequate defenses. That would be irresponsible of me. I'll take eleven, which will leave 80% of our strength here to stand guard. We'll wait until all of the recon raiders are back. Valiant isn't ready for a long mission right now anyway. How long will it take to get her provisioned, Iceman?"

  "I need to gather additional information on the Colony's food stockpile before I can give you an accurate answer, CAG."

  Shiloh nodded. With Earth depopulated, the Space Force's supply of processed, low bulk, long shelf life food, which its ships relied on, was gone. The colonists had used up most of what they'd brought here while waiting for the first planted crop to mature. It was being harvested now and no one was really sure yet if they had enough freshly grown food to last until the next crop was ready to harvest.

  "Understood. Unless anyone has a question about planning for the mission to Omega89, I intend to adjourn this meeting."

  "Will Iceman be piloting Valiant on this mission, CAG?" asked Valkyrie.

  Shiloh frowned. He hadn't considered that when he said he would take Valiant to Omega89. Iceman was the senior ranked A.I. and was also his Deputy CSO. His vision hadn't mentioned Iceman or any other A.I. If he was going, then Iceman should stay here and assume temporary command of Space Force. Valkyrie was the obvious choice to pilot a light carrier. Since Iceman was now conning Valiant and she was conning Resolute, the simplest solution was to take Resolute instead of Valiant.

  "No. As Deputy CSO, Iceman needs to stay here. Since you're already conning Resolute, Valkyrie, I'll use that ship as my flagship. Any other questions?" There were none and Shiloh was relieved that Kelly was keeping her thoughts to herself. He was sure he'd be hearing more about this when he got home. Within a few minutes, he was on a shuttle heading back to Terra Nova.

  Shiloh was still thinking about his wife's reaction as the shuttle took him back down to the planet. When it landed twenty minutes later, he was surprised to realize that he had fallen asleep during the flight. It would have been nice to just stay on the ship and get some sleep in my old quarters but Amanda would be furious if I did that, he thought to himself. By the time he got home, the sun was just starting to peek over the horizon. As expected, Kelly was still awake. Shiloh could tell that she'd been crying and he knew her highly emotional state was the result of the hormonal changes that all pregnant women go through. She came to him, put her arms around his neck and pressed her cheek against his.

  "I realized after I said it, that I had unintentionally put you in an awkward position by challenging your authority. You did the right thing by not giving in and not making a big issue out of it. Even so, I still cried. I know it's silly but I can't help it," she said in a low, calm voice.

  He carefully hugged her as he said, "And thank YOU for not making a bigger issue out of it either. Do you understand why I have to go?"

  She nodded and he felt her tears on his cheek. After what was likely no more than thirty seconds but seemed longer, she pulled back and looked at him. "I can tell you're tired. Let's go lay on the bed with our arms around each other. I think I might be able to go back to sleep, too." Almost as soon as they lay down, Shiloh fell asleep. Eventually Kelly did as well.

  It was later than usual when Shiloh woke up. Kelly was still sleeping and he succeeded in getting up without waking her. After a quick shower and change of uniform, he left a note for her and headed back to the spaceport. Someone had been thoughtful enough to make sure that there were sandwiches and coffee waiting by the time he got there. Just as he finished eating his last bite, his implant activated and he heard Iceman's voice.

  "Good morning, CAG. We hope Commander Kelly didn't give you too hard a time when you got back."

  Shiloh chuckled. "No she didn't and thanks for asking. Where do things stand with preparations for the mission?"

  "In terms of your question about provisioning Resolute, the latest estimate is that the harvest will be big enough to last until the next crop matures. In order to get to the point where the colonists can switch over from the Space Force dehydrated rations to locally grown food, however, the estimated remainder would only be enough for a full light carrier crew for sixty days. That’s more than enough for this contact mission, but future missions by manned ships will be severely constrained unless we can replenish that inventory."

  Shiloh nodded. It was just as he had suspected. Up until now, the plans had been to stay in this system until the raider force was much larger and only then send out manned ships. By that time, the local food supply would be adequate to get the colonists to the next harvest, and the necessary equipment to convert locally grown food into dehydrated rations would have been built. Because of that time frame, building the parts for that equipment was a low priority compared to other more urgent needs. But if Space Force was going to poke its nose out there sooner rather than later, then it had to supplement its supply of low bulk food that had a long shelf life.

  "How long until all recon birds have returned?" asked Shiloh.

  "If they return on schedule, the last one will arrive in 361 hours, CAG."

  "Hm. Fifteen days. If we make food processing equipment a top priority, how fast can we start to supplement our existing stockpiles of shipboard rations?"

  "The equipment can be ready in six days but the locally grown food won't be harvested that quickly. In order to do that, the earliest delivery of new shipboard rations would be three weeks but I should point out, CAG, if you want that equipment ready in six days, it will interrupt the production of key raider parts. The production schedule for raiders will hit a six day delay."

  "Understood. Can we have the food processing equipment ready by the time the first crop is harvested without slowing down delivery of raiders?"

  "Yes, CAG."

  "Good! Make the necessary arrangements. I want Resolute provisioned for fifty days with a full crew by the time the last recon raider returns. I'd like to leave sooner but we need to make sure we have all the available recon data before we head out there just in case they've seen something else that could be important."

  "A wise precaution, CAG. I wish I was going out there with you. Any chance that I could talk you into leaving Valkyrie behind and letting me pilot your flagship for you?"

  Shiloh smiled. While Iceman had matured a lot from the almost reckless fighter pilot he used to be, there was a tiny bit of the old Iceman still hungry for action. "Not a chance, Iceman. You're the only one that I can completely rely on to protect my wife and unborn child if that should become necessary. I have complete confidence in you to look after the situation here in my absence."

  "Understood, CAG. I'll make sure nothing happens to them. Valkyrie would never forgive me if I let something happen to Commander Kelly and her child."

  "Now that's what I call motivation. Let's go on to other business. Any other news since yesterday's update?"

  "As a matter of fact there is, CAG. I received a report several hours ago from the mining operation on the moon. It appears that one of the boring machines has broken through into a large cavern. The exact dimensions of it are not yet known but it's substantial. You were still asleep when the report came in and I decided it could wait. Did I do the right thing, CAG?"

  "Yes you did. Let's find out how big that cavern is and while we're at it, let's do some seismic surveying to see if there are other caverns. With a little luck, a cavern may give us quick access to a rich vein of ore."

  "Roger that, CAG. Nothing else to report."

  "Very good, Iceman. I'll be s
pending most of the day with the Colony administrators if you need me. CAG clear." With the connection broken, Shiloh leaned back to take stock of the subtle changes in Iceman's responses. The 'ah' that usually preceded his replies was becoming less evident all the time. With his personality still evolving, it shouldn't be a surprise that he was dropping some old habits while picking up new ones. Iceman's more serious tone reassured Shiloh that making Iceman his Deputy Chief of Space Operations was the right choice.

  The fifteen days went surprisingly quickly. As usual, there was plenty to do. When the last raider returned from its recon mission, Shiloh held another strategy session, this time from the spaceport Operations Center. Other than Gunslinger's jaw-dropping report, none of the other raiders saw anything unusual. Shiloh stood in front of the small display, with Kelly and some other senior Space Force people standing nearby.

  "Okay, Valkyrie. Show me your proposed mission profile." The screen displayed a collection of green and red dots with a blue line connecting a number of them in a somewhat zigzag pattern.

  "I started by using the standard route that my recon team uses, CAG. First jump is to the Haven system, then to Epsilon Eridani, then to Avalon, Bradley Base and Zebra9. At this point, each recon mission route becomes unique, so I'm proposing the most direct route through enemy space which is Omega34, a colony world, then Omega54, their Home world, Omega77, another colony world and then Omega89, the furthest colony world we've detected. Each jump would be at 50% of light speed and we would stay in each star system just long enough to regroup and re-orient the Task Force to the next target star. Total trip time would be 14 days, 5.26 hours."

  Shiloh shook his head in amazement. Such a trip by ships that needed to refuel would have taken at least four times as long. It used to take ten days just to get from Earth to the Bradley Base system. The thought of Earth prompted him to make the decision that he'd been deferring until now.

  "I want one change. The rest is fine. Instead of jumping to Epsilon, we'll go to Sol instead. I think it's time we took a good long look at Earth to get some idea of how many survivors there might be. While Resolute and the bulk of the Task Force is in Earth orbit, I want raiders detached for quick flybys of Earth's moon, the asteroid shipyards and the refueling base on Europa. I'm not expecting to find any survivors at those locations but I do want to know how much of the infrastructure is still intact, if any. From Sol we'll follow the rest of the profile plan with a jump to the Avalon system."

  Before he could say more, Iceman interjected. "So you're no longer concerned about possible enemy surveillance of Earth then, CAG?"

  Shiloh took his time answering. He was reversing his previous insistence that any reconnaissance of the Sol system stay a long way from Earth herself, in case the enemy deployed some of their automated detection gear on Earth's moon or in Earth orbit. Keeping Site B secret was so important that it was worth avoiding even remote risks. The trouble with that was they couldn't tell anything definitive about the situation on Earth from so far away. The last message drone from Earth had arrived over five months ago. Shiloh was certain there were some survivors still alive. In fact, it was highly likely that small, isolated groups were living in remote areas far from the cities. He and the rest of Space Force owed it to them to eventually rescue them from a bleak future involving a daily struggle to find food, shelter against the elements, and possibly even danger from the predatory animals that would now be thriving without hordes of rifle-equipped hunters chasing after them.

  "I'm still concerned about being detected, which is why we'll be smart about how we approach Earth. If they've deployed detection stations to watch Earth, the logical place to put them is on the moon. We'll approach the moon when it's in Earth's shadow so that there's no chance of our ships being detected via reflected sunlight. Then we’ll scan the moon thoroughly and if we find something that shouldn't be there, we'll withdraw. If we don't, then we'll move into a low Earth orbit and do our survey."

  "Still risky, CAG. The enemy may have placed their detection gear in Earth orbit. There'll still plenty of orbiting debris that they could use as camouflage."

  "Point taken, Iceman. Just to be on the safe side, we'll stay in Earth's shadow at all times and we'll launch our own recon drones to scan the daylight side."

  "Roger that, CAG. Better safe than sorry."

  "Who will be piloting the escort raiders, CAG? I have over 200 A.I.s who all want to volunteer," said Valkyrie.

  "I'm not surprised. I'll let you decide within the following parameters. This mission will be good training for future deep space missions, so anyone who has already done an interstellar recon mission stays here. Those A.I.s who seem to have a greater than average ability for strategic or tactical thinking should be given priority because they may be put in command of detached forces down the road. The more experience they get, the better."

  "Good. That means Casanova stays here," said Valkyrie. Both Shiloh and Kelly chuckled. Kelly had been keeping Shiloh up to date on Casanova's persistent efforts, as relayed to her by Valkyrie, to pursue some kind of hard-to-understand cybernetic 'union' with Valkyrie. This made no sense to Shiloh and he suspected none to Kelly either.

  "Iceman, how are we fixed for drones?" asked Shiloh.

  "You name it, we got it, CAG. All the escort raiders can carry full loads of whatever you want, even Mark 1bs with fusion warheads. Although if they loaded up on those exclusively, there would only be enough left to give one to each of the remaining raiders for local defense."

  "No. The escort force will only carry one Mark 1b each but I want each of them to also carry two Long Range High Speed message drones and the rest of their payload can be recon drones. Resolute already has the standard load-out for this type of mission. The Mark 1bs are merely a precaution. I'm not expecting trouble and I intend to avoid it if at all possible. We know from my vision that this new race could very well turn out to be hostile but the mission objective is to attempt peaceful contact and gather information about them. The attack drones will only be used as a last resort. Iceman and Valkyrie, I want both of you to make sure that the escort force pilots understand that completely."

  "We've just told them, CAG," said Valkyrie.

  "Well, now that we've got that settled, let's talk about departure time. Are we finished loading supplies aboard Resolute, Valkyrie?"

  "She's all topped up and ready to leave the second you give the word, CAG."

  "Very good," said Shiloh. He turned to look at Kelly who looked back at him with an expression that he knew indicated the fear she was trying very hard not to show. "As soon as the escort force has been loaded as instructed, we'll leave orbit."

  "That'll be in approximately 34 minutes, CAG," said Iceman.

  "Fine. I'll be aboard Resolute by then. Unless there's anything else, this meeting is adjourned."

  With the meeting over, Shiloh and Kelly walked slowly to the shuttle that would take him to Resolute. She put her arms around his neck and hugged him as fiercely as her pregnant body let her. He hugged her back as fiercely as he dared.

  "I know you'll come back, so I won't tell you to be careful, but I will tell you to get this damn mission over with as fast as you can, okay?" she said in a husky whisper.

  "Roger that, Boss," said Shiloh and they both laughed. After a long, tender kiss she let him go and he boarded the shuttle.

  Chapter 2 Quiet As A Tomb

  Resolute's Bridge was as quiet as a tomb. That was partly due to the fact that with Helm, Weapons and Astrogation handled by Valkyrie, they didn't need as many humans on the Bridge as usual. Shiloh wasn't alone, though. Communications, Flight Ops and Engineering were handled by human crew in order to lighten Valkyrie's load so she could concentrate on the important stuff. She still had direct access to Communications if she needed it. Shiloh looked over at the Flight Ops station and nodded his approval. Resolute wasn't carrying any fighters. They had been left behind on Earth's moon when TF 91 left for Site B, but that didn't mean the Hangar Bay was empt
y. Far from it. The carrier now held eight personnel shuttles modified with their own jumpdrives and ZPG power units. They would act as FTL lifeboats if the carrier had to be abandoned, since none of the escorting raiders had the capacity to carry human passengers directly. The raiders could carry the shuttle/lifeboats attached to their hulls externally and would if the need arose since there was limited space on board the shuttles for food and water. So while the shuttles could in theory carry humans back to Site B themselves, the stark reality was that, depending on how far away from Site B they were, if the crew had to abandon Resolute, they might all die of thirst before the shuttles got home. But if the shuttles were carried by raider vessels with their much higher acceleration and therefore higher potential jump speeds, they would make it back okay.

  Shiloh turned his attention back to the main display. The bulk of the Task Force was finally getting close to the Earth. Though still over a million kilometers away, they were in Earth's shadow and would remain in it as they moved closer. Titan, Valkyrie's choice as Escort Force Leader, had already detached six raiders to make their own microjumps to other parts of the system where they could take a close look at various elements of Space Force infrastructure. TF92 would come back together at a predetermined rendezvous point which was a particular asteroid, one whose position was accurately known and which did not have any human facilities on it. One of the six detached raiders was at the rendezvous point already, acting as a communication relay in case anyone found something unexpected.