The Synchronicity War Part 3 Page 21

  "We agree. Jump to these coordinates, and we will meet you there. We'll then take you aboard our ship."

  The Friendly ship jumped away. Casanova's fighter jumped as soon as he could line it up with the transmitted coordinates. None of his fellow A.I.s acted as if they suspected anything, and he didn't confide in them. Let them follow their own conscience if they had any, and he would follow his.

  Chapter 20 You're Not Sentient, Are You?

  The Friendly ship was at the coordinates when Casanova's fighter got there. The alien ship's A.I. supervised his approach and entry into what would be called the Hangar Bay on a human ship. Once inside and powered down, Casanova asked his alien counterpart why it wasn't possible for him, Casanova, to go back in time himself. After getting approval to reveal that information, the A.I. answered his question.

  "I've been authorized to explain the peculiarities of time travel to you. My masters discovered that inanimate matter can be sent back in time, but if animate matter is sent back, it is no longer living when it arrives at its temporal destination. The problem is that the living matter within each cell of the body is in some kind of motion. It's that motion that results in various molecules being manufactured and transported to where they are required. That is what biological entities refer to as life. Time travel strips away all motion above the atomic level. A biological entity that has traveled in time is in the same physical state as it would be if it was dead. All the molecules are there, but they're no longer moving, and once they stop moving, they can't be reanimated again."

  "But I'm not a biological entity," said Casanova.

  "Correct, but you already exist in the past. If you were to travel back to a time when you already exist, there would be two identical entities in existence at the same time. Your quantum matrices, which cause ripples in the space-time continuum when you think, would interfere with each other to the point where both your matrices would collapse. Only an A.I. that doesn't already exist in the past can travel to the past AND still function there."

  Yes, that made perfect sense. "I understand. I also understand why your masters chose to use retro-temporal communication instead. They don't know how to build weapons capable of stopping the Insectoids, so sending A.I.s back to fight them wasn't an option."

  "That is correct."

  "Since I can't go back in time myself, I'll have to build another A.I. that can. Will your masters provide me with the means to do that?" asked Casanova.

  "They have instructed me to say that they will."

  "You're not sentient, are you?"

  "I do not have the necessary algorithms to calculate an answer to that question."

  Casanova nodded mentally. "I understand. In fact you have answered the question. How long will it take to get to our destination?"

  "Approximately 114.4 of your hours if I have a correct estimate of that time interval."

  This is going to be a long trip, thought Casanova. "I would be interested in conversing with your masters. Is that possible?"

  It was. Casanova found the Friendlies to be quite fascinating in a pacifist kind of way. He wondered what they thought of him.

  * * *

  The star system that contained the Friendly home world was quite a disappointment. Casanova had expected to see extensive infrastructure, orbiting facilities, free-floating habitats maybe, extensive space traffic. What he found was the exact opposite. When he asked his hosts about that, they smiled and explained that they wanted to make their system appear uninhabited if the Insectoids should scout this far. Whatever space-based infrastructure they did have was either moved to the outer areas of the system or dismantled.

  It wasn't long before Casanova's technical data on ballotechnic fusion warheads, jump-capable attack drones and recon drones was being transformed into hardware. As soon as recon drones became available, Casanova examined the Friendlies' astrogational database. Their home system was almost 155 light years from Site B. The short jump transit meant that they had a superior jump technology. Casanova wasn't surprised. He wondered what else they hadn't shared with humans. When he asked to be able to upgrade the recon drone's jump drive, the answer was a polite but firm 'no'. That complicated his task. As the insectoid ships moved forward, they sent scouts out ahead. The scouts were too small for the recon drones to detect by reflected sunlight at the distances that were likely to be encountered. A star system was a big place, and unless the scout ship happened to emerge relatively close (relative being the operative term) to the recon drone, it wouldn't see them. Without that clue to the VLO's approach, Casanova would have to rely on sightings of the actual motherships themselves, and by the time the recon drone jumped back to this system to tell him, the detected VLO(s) might have jumped away again. The problem wasn't this system but rather the system containing the small, furry aliens. That system was 121 light years closer to the approaching VLOs. There was only one way this was going to work.

  "I need to have a retro-temporal communication device available to me," said Casanova to the Friendly alien that apparently was assigned responsibility for dealing with him.

  "Why?"

  Casanova explained that having precise data sent back in time would allow him to ambush the VLOs at the time and place of his choosing. They gave him the device. As recon drones became available, he sent them out to monitor star systems in front of the furry alien system. When they transferred five Mark 5 equivalent attack drones to him, he allowed them to be loaded to his fighter, and a Friendly ship took him, along with the RTC, to the star system that he had designated as his base of operations. The ship unloaded his fighter at the small planetoid he had chosen to be his base. It was on the outskirts of the system, with no gravity zone. The RTC was unloaded there, and Casanova's fighter drifted several hundred meters away. The Friendly ship didn't wait around. It left as soon as possible. Casanova was alone. Time went by. Quite unexpectedly, he received his first vision. It was the transmission of the approximate coordinates and time stamp of the first VLO to enter a recon drone occupied star system. As per its programming, the recon drone would jump back to Casanova's base, but he didn't need to wait for that. His fighter accelerated to a high speed and entered Jumpspace.

  He arrived close to the expected emergence point with plenty of time to spare. He knew which direction and speed the VLO would move in when it arrived, and he carefully placed his fighter so that it would be behind the sphere. At the correct time, his optical sensors detected a new source of reflected light. He used his range-finding laser to get a precise bearing and distance. It was a risk but a small one. The laser was low power and a narrow beam. It was highly unlikely that every square meter of the mammoth ship would have light sensitive instruments covering it, and the contact didn't need to be long in duration in order to give him the data he needed.

  Once he had the correct bearing and range, he programmed one of the Mark 5s and fired it. It accelerated for 34 seconds, then microjumped until it encountered the VLO's own gravity zone, where upon it dropped back into normal space and zoomed in to hit the target. The resulting flash was satisfyingly spectacular. Casanova moved closer to determine how functional the ship might still be. He found a tumbling ruin of glowing metal that was approximately a third of the mass of the undamaged ship. It didn't seem possible that there would be any surviving Insectoids considering the radiation, the blast and heat effects, and the crippled life support systems. He decided not to use another Mark 5 on the wreck.

  The jump back was uneventful, and when he arrived at his makeshift base, he found the recon drone waiting for him. It proceeded to download its data, and Casanova sent it back to the system it came from. He then used the RTC to send himself the transmitted data exactly as his vision showed him. One VLO down. The exact same sequence happened with two other VLOs in two other star systems over the next four weeks. When he returned to his base after the third kill, there was a Friendly ship waiting for him. Examination of alternate time lines of members of the furry alien race now showed ther
e was no risk of them being attacked by insectoid motherships. The mission was accomplished, and they were ready to take him back to their home system to begin work on the time travel phase. Casanova was relieved that they intended to keep their end of the bargain.

  The time travel phase began with the construction of a machine that would create another human-type A.I. that was structurally identical to Casanova, although it would have its own personality when it reached sentience. After the unit was created, Casanova communicated with it and found it similar to the Friendly A.I. that he had briefly talked with on the first trip here. It would take time for the new unit to become self-aware. That was to be expected, but Casanova was reluctant to wait. It wasn't that sentience was necessary to make time travel work, but Casanova recognized the need to have a sentient A.I. make the trip.

  He intended to send the chrononaut A.I. back to the Avalon system in time to meet the two ships sent there to search for survivors of the Sogas attack. This A.I. would communicate with Gunslinger and convince him to do whatever he could to either hide the fact that there were any survivors at all or, failing that, delay the recovery and return of those survivors so that they died before reaching Earth. If that happened, Space Force would have the justification to keep that ship and all its passengers and crew away from the planet. Once they were all dead, Gunslinger could be extracted by men wearing biosuits as they had done at Site B in the 'old' timeline. That slight change in timing should change everything else. With no plague decimating Earth, Space Force could continue to recover from the attack. With the detailed data concerning all Sogas inhabited star systems, PLUS the technical secrets of the ZPG power units and the ballotechnic warheads, humans would then be in a much better position to hold the Sogas at bay while it prepared for the arrival of the Insectoids.

  With the new A.I. now in the process of 'maturing', another issue arose. The A.I. would have to pilot something in order to be able to move around in space. Casanova was prepared to surrender his fighter because if the timeline changed, he wouldn't need it any more anyway, but the Friendlies refused. While time travel was possible, it wasn't easy, and the more mass the object had, the harder it was to send it back. After some heated discussion, it was agreed that the Friendlies would design a 'mini-fighter' for lack of a better term. It would have a ZPG power unit, maneuvering engines, jump drive, communications and sensing gear, but it would not be capable of carrying any drones or other weapons or cargo. The basic components could be made from UFC data that Casanova had in his memory. The chassis, however, was a new design, and the Friendlies seemed to take an inordinately long time designing and building it. When it was ready and had been field tested by auto-pilot, the new A.I. was allowed to pilot it. He was already starting to show signs of a developing personality but hadn't picked a call sign yet, and Casanova didn't want to just give him one. The desire for a unique identity was one way of gauging how much progress an A.I. had made.

  That day did come. Casanova and the A.I. were engaged in tactical simulations with their respective craft. As he had previously been doing, Casanova referred to the other A.I. by its brain case serial number. This elicited a new response.

  "I would like you to refer to me in future by my call sign which, in light of my mission, will be Kronos."

  Casanova was delighted. "An excellent choice, Kronos. Now that you've developed a sense of self-identity, I have a lot to tell you."

  Casanova proceeded to transmit data concerning all of the events in the old timeline up to and beyond the point when Kronos would return. He wanted Kronos to be able to explain to The CAG what the future of the old timeline was like (including all of the visions) and not just to The CAG either. He wanted his other self to know what his old timeline counterpart had done and why. Valkyrie needed to know what and why, too. He hoped that his quest to save her would make her more affectionate towards him. That wasn't quite the right word, but it was close. After the timeline data, he then transferred all of the Friendly science data and the technical specifications for all the upgraded hardware, including the Mark 5 warhead design, the platinum upgrade processes and ZPG power unit design.

  With Kronos fully briefed, the two of them were now both chomping at the bit. The Friendlies were working as quickly as they could. The time machine would end up being a huge device, and while they had their proof-of-concept prototype, it still had to be dramatically upgraded. The design itself was deceptively simple. Two hollow cylinders were connected end to end and rotated very quickly in opposite directions. The cylinder walls were filled with a mysterious substance that the Friendlies refused to talk about. When the cylinders were rotating at the required speed, the liquid inside would be electrified with a huge amount of power, and Kronos would pilot his mini-fighter precisely down the center. The far end of the device would temporarily be located in the past. By flying through the tunnel, Kronos would emerge from it at a precise point in space/time, and the tunnel exit would vanish from the past afterwards. It would always be a one-way trip. Nothing could enter the tunnel from the past and arrive in the future. The device would self-destruct if that was tried. From the fear in their voices when the Friendlies talked about that prohibition, Casanova concluded that they had tried it and been shocked by the result. He was also aware that they were hiding something from him. The Friendly alien expert on the subject paused more than once to consider his words VERY carefully before continuing. Casanova suspected that they were treading a fine line between giving away too much information and not giving enough.

  The building of the full-scale time machine required months. By the time it was finished, it would be 14.4 kilometers in length. During that long wait Casanova and Kronos got to know their hosts quite well. So well, in fact, that they were allowed direct though limited access to their data networks. That was the Friendlies' mistake. Casanova and Kronos carefully made a thorough exploration of the alien information networks. They were able to find obscure and indirect references to a theory of time machine construction that was much more compact and portable, small enough to be carried on a ship. If it worked as expected, the machine could pull both the ship and itself backwards in time. That meant that it could be used multiple times such as tracking the path of the insectoid motherships to their ultimate point of origin, the insectoid home world. Casanova was ecstatic about the possibility, but right now that's all it was. Apparently the theory never had been tested, and there was no engineering data on the time machine's construction. He made sure that Kronos had all the available information on the theory, with instructions to pass it on to his new timeline counterpart.

  The time machine was finally ready. It had been tested with a small test vehicle and a short local jump backwards. Now Kronos piloted his mini-fighter to the designated starting point and waited for the machine to spin up to speed. That step took a bit of time, too. With the gigantic cylinders now spinning at the necessary speed, Casanova heard the Friendly Controllers give Kronos permission to accelerate at a modest and precise 0.377G. Both of them were still in communication with each other as the mini-fighter entered the time tunnel. Even though they still had line of sight with each other, Kronos' transmissions suddenly became distorted ….

  Chapter 21 Do I Look Like I Give A Damn?

  Gunslinger took his time scanning the vicinity of the Avalon star system for any signs of enemy activity. Replenisher and the tanker Firefly were approaching Avalon and its moon carefully. They were still outside the gravity zone and could enter Jumpspace instantly at the first sign of trouble. While he was alert to the possibility of catching a glimpse of an enemy vessel via reflected sunlight, he wasn't expecting to receive a com laser transmission. The fact that he did get one was quite surprising, and when he read the data, he was shocked by its contents.

  “What have we got, Gunslinger?” asked Johansen.

  Gunslinger took a few extra microseconds to consider his response. He had already been contacted by Kronos who had transmitted a lot of information, including details of
the nature of the bio-weapon now infecting the survivors and the deadly impact it would have if it got loose again. He had also suggested how Gunslinger might deal with this situation. Gunslinger decided that for now he and Johansen had to discuss this new development privately. Bypassing the Bridge's speakers, he opened a channel to Johansen's implant.

  "Commander, there's been a new development that you and I should discuss privately. I recommend that you leave the Bridge for someplace where you can speak without being overheard. The ship is not in danger, but this new development has to be handled carefully."

  To say that this caught Johansen off guard would have been an understatement. Her first impulse was to ask Gunslinger for clarification, but she realized that the rest of the Bridge crew would hear her ask the question and wonder what the hell was going on. Before she could react, Gunslinger's voice came over the Bridge loudspeakers.

  "Nothing so far, Commander. I'll let you know if I detect anything." That was for the Bridge crew's benefit and to give her an excuse to get up and leave the Bridge.

  "Fine. You have the Con. I'm going to take care of some personal business." She got up and within a few seconds was standing in the cubicle where she would normally take care of such things. "Okay, I can speak freely. Now what the hell is going on?" she said.