The Synchronicity War Part 3 Page 24

  Howard shook his head. Thinking about this kind of time loop always gave him a headache. "Just play the damn thing for me, Iceman," he said. Seconds later, when he saw himself on the display, he thought, Do I really look like that?

  "Glad your Task Force made it back from Red11 in one piece, Iceman. Using your recon drones to pinpoint their positions so that you could target them with your jump drones was a brilliant idea, regardless of where it came from. Not only did they take some losses and turn back, but we now know that they've developed and deployed anti-drone missiles. If your fighters had fired their Mark 1s instead, most of them wouldn't have gotten through, and the enemy might have kept on coming. Now turn Resolute over to your XO. Then get yourself down here, so that we can use the RTC to send this and the other visions back, and get that out of the way. Howard clear."

  As soon as the recording had finished, Howard spoke. "Red11, eh? That's not far from the Avalon system."

  "Roger that, Admiral. In fact, it's close enough that they could refuel there, jump to Avalon, and still have enough fuel left to jump back to Red11 if they had to."

  Howard nodded. "And now they have anti-drone missiles, too! The SPG predicted they would acquire that capability sooner or later. You know what this means."

  "Affirmative, Admiral. It means the Mark 1b is very close to being obsolete. Our new jump-capable attack drones can work if we have precise targeting information, but that's not always going to be the case. It may be that the targets will be inside a gravity zone. If that's the case, then the jump drones won't be of any use. On the other hand, if we can get the bomb-pumped, x-ray laser targeting system working, we'll be able to blast through their ships' armor from beyond anti-drone missile range. From what Kronos has told me, the science data supplied by the Friendlies will speed up development of that weapon system."

  Howard grinned. "Damn right it will! I'll tell the AWD Team to expedite work on that project. Now, about this incursion. How soon will your Strike Force have to leave Sol in order to get to Red11 before the enemy does?"

  "If we want a reasonable margin for error, we should leave within 24 hours, Admiral."

  "Fine. The vision says that you're on Resolute when you return from this interception mission. Transfer over to her immediately and take 25 fighters on board. The Strike Force will now be Task Force 91. You'll be in command, of course. Your orders are to proceed to Red11 and inflict as much damage on this enemy fleet as you can."

  "Roger that, Admiral. It's too bad The CAG won't be back in time to come along, but he'll be able to command the next interception."

  "You think they'll try again, Iceman?"

  "Of course, Admiral. Even with the losses that we'll inflict, both sides realize this war will only end with one overwhelming blow. They'll try again. Having those x-ray laser warheads by then will help a lot, Admiral."

  Howard nodded again. "I hear you. Resolute can leave orbit at your discretion. Good hunting, Iceman. Howard clear."

  Chapter 24 What's The Bad News, Admiral?

  As soon as Resolute emerged from Jumpspace in the Red11 star system, Iceman launched half a dozen of the new jump-capable recon drones. They and the carrier were still moving at 61.8% of light speed and had to slow down before they could microjump close to the only gas giant in this system, but the recon drones could decelerate much more quickly. They could therefore get to the gas giant hours before Resolute could. When the ship arrived in the vicinity of the gas giant, Iceman wanted to have a good idea what, if anything, was already there. Odds were there’d be nothing, but this mission was too important to leave anything to chance. As Resolute slowed down, Iceman analyzed the local astrogational situation carefully. The gas giant was on the side of the local sun that was closest to Human Space and furthest from Sogas Space. In terms of the clock face analogy that The CAG liked to use, it was at the system's 10 o'clock position. That meant it was highly likely that the enemy fleet would arrive from the system's three o'clock position. If the fleet then microjumped directly to the gas giant, they would be approaching it with the local sun more or less behind them. That was unfortunate for TF91 because it meant they couldn't use the gas giant's shadow to avoid detection. If they tried that, the gas giant itself would block their view of the most likely avenue of approach by the enemy fleet.

  Iceman decided to take Resolute just beyond the gas giant's gravity zone and swing around the back of the planet. That way it would emerge from the planet's shadow and be moving towards the local sun, and therefore towards the enemy fleet, after their last microjump. Sixteen hours later, Resolute emerged from the gas giant's shadow as it curved around the edge of the gravity zone. Now it was time to launch two groups of fighters. The first group, under Titan, was composed of fifteen fighters, each armed with five of the new, jump-capable attack drones carrying the low yield, uranium-based Mark 1b warhead. As soon as they cleared Resolute, Titan's group conducted the first of a series of very short microjumps that left them between the gas giant and the local sun, approximately 3,000,000 kilometers from the gravity zone. Vandal's group had the remaining ten fighters, and they were carrying the old style recon drones. They also microjumped in order to take up their station just outside the gravity zone. As the two groups made their way to their designated positions, Resolute continued around the edge of the gas giant's gravity zone until it was moving parallel to a line connecting the local sun to the gas giant itself. Iceman then brought the ship down to a velocity of just one kilometer per second. When everyone was in position, they waited.

  Twenty-seven hours later, the enemy fleet emerged from its microjump. The pre-positioned recon drones caught the reflected sunlight from a small number of ships that varied from six to eleven depending upon which drone was doing the looking, but that didn't matter. By triangulating the bearings of all the sightings, Iceman was able to plot a very precise location and vector for the approaching fleet. He'd been hoping that the enemy fleet would be heading directly for the gas giant, and therefore into the gravity zone, but they were playing it very carefully. Their current heading was parallel to the planet, which gave them the option of jumping away if needed. There was nothing he could do about that. He relayed the position and vector data to both groups of fighters. Titan's fighters programmed their attack drones with the visual data. They were able to see a number of reflected sunlight contacts, which were constantly changing as some targets became visible for a few seconds and then vanished due to their maneuvering. By carefully keeping track of each temporary contact, combined with the relayed triangulated data, Titan's fighters were able to identify a narrow window where each enemy ship was likely to be in. Gradually they were accumulating data on more and more targets. When they had seventy-five target windows pinpointed, they would fire their attack drones. To distract the enemy fleet, Vandal's fighters quickly re-oriented themselves to the right bearing and made a very short microjump to a point that was only 10,000 kilometers in front of the enemy fleet. Immediately after emerging back into normal space, his fighters fired all fifty of their recon drones, which then accelerated at maximum towards the enemy fleet. Those drones did not use active scanning, in order to give the enemy the impression that the approaching recon drones were actually attack drones. As soon as they were launched, Vandal's fighters microjumped to safety.

  Not surprisingly, the enemy fleet detected the emergence from Jumpspace and began to scan with radar. With less than seventy seconds until the oncoming drones reached them, the enemy fleet fired their anti-drone missiles. Telemetry from the recon drones revealed that the anti-drone missiles were using low-powered lasers to locate and home in on the drones. It was an ingenious concept. From previous battles, the Sogas knew that radar was not particularly effective in detecting attack drones due to the drones' flat surfaces, which tended to bounce radar signals away from the source of those signals. So they decided to use targeting lasers instead. With the beam made wide enough to completely cover the entire cross-section of an oncoming attack drone, there would a
lways be some part of the front of the drone that would reflect the laser beam, even if it had only a very tiny surface area. Recon drones, on the other hand, were not designed to avoid detection. Their front cross-section was much more visible to both radars and targeting lasers. They had to be that way in order to hold and use their optical and other sensing equipment. So the anti-drone missiles had no trouble tracking the incoming recon drones that were masquerading as attack drones. At the last possible moment, the recon drones activated their own radars and sent the information back to Resolute. Iceman analyzed the data and understood how a missile could hit a high-speed target that had a cross-section of less than one square meter. The missiles had deployed metal fins that projected more than a meter in length. That effectively increased the surface area of the missile by a factor of ten. The missile didn't have to hit the target head-on in order to destroy it. If any part of the missile or the extruding fins hit the drone, the kinetic energy of the collision would destroy both objects. It was brilliantly simple and effective. All 50 recon drones were destroyed.

  With the apparent threat over, the enemy fleet continued to play it safe and maintained their vector away from the gas giant. That gave Titan's fighters those last few seconds of tracking data they needed to identify 75 targets. They fired their attack drones, which almost immediately entered Jumpspace only to emerge a tiny fraction of a second later within several hundred meters of each target. The drones activated their own radars and made the final course corrections too quickly for the enemy to do anything. Seventy-five enemy ships disappeared in the brilliant flashes of thermo-nuclear fireballs. It took a while before the pre-positioned recon drones were able to distinguish the reflected sunlight from the residual light of the explosions. When they did, it was clear that the remaining enemy ships had veered off and were now heading away from the gas giant in a curving trajectory that looked increasingly like an attempt to line up with the star that they had come from. By the time the enemy fleet jumped away, Iceman was able to confirm that they were indeed heading back the way they came.

  * * *

  Shiloh sighed and leaned his head back from the RTC device. After a week of tedious sitting in front of this machine, all of his visions had now been sent to the right places at the right times. As soon as TF91 returned, Iceman would be brought down to Earth, and all of his visions would be transmitted back in time. The duplicate RTC being made on Haven would be used by Jason Alvarez to send himself the vision responsible for the ZPG breakthrough. All of the RTC pieces were falling into place. The whole war effort was looking a lot more positive now. Work on the new, high-spin platinum warhead was progressing. The x-ray laser-targeting device was just about ready for testing. A.I. production capability was being rebuilt both here in Sol and at Site B. Howard had given his official approval to the building of raiders at Site B, in keeping with the plan that Site B would become the arsenal that was supposed to build the knockout punch to end the war once and for all. In the meantime, a new fighter assembly line was rapidly taking shape on Earth's moon, and it would be building the improved version of the fighter. This new version would have a built-in laser turret with enough power units to give that laser a serious armor penetration capability. It would also have jump detection gear and still be capable of carrying three drones. That was less than the five that the old version could carry, but the old version had to make a tradeoff. Either carry the modular laser or drones, but not both. The new version didn't have to make that tradeoff. The only drawback to the new fighter was its slightly larger size. It would still be possible to get 25 new fighters into the Hangar Bay of a light carrier, but it would be a tight squeeze.

  In addition to new construction, repairs of damaged ships were coming along nicely, too. The light carriers Vigilant and Intrepid, both damaged in the Battle for Earth, were almost operational again, and the new heavy carrier, Midway, was also close to being finished. Work was still continuing on Dreadnought, but only because of how useful it had proven to be against the insectoid mothership. Shiloh had convinced Howard to continue building freighters. Naturally, drone and warhead construction were still proceeding in high gear, but construction of other types of large ships had been halted, pending a review of what they should be building instead. The Sogas were obviously going for quantity over size, and the SPG was working on what the best counter-strategy for Space Force should be. Things were moving along as far as the nuts and bolts of the war effort were concerned. Shiloh wished he could say the same for his personal life.

  He and Kelly had crossed paths half a dozen times since learning of their alternate timeline involvement with each other, and each time they had tiptoed around the issue, either due to the circumstances of their encounter or the inability to have a private conversation. He no longer found the notion of becoming emotionally involved with her all that strange. It wasn't that he was suddenly falling in love with her, but rather that the idea of doing so was something he was now open to as a possibility. How she felt about it, he didn't know, but he decided that he would ask her the first chance he got to talk to her privately.

  As he started to get up, his vision faded to black for a couple of seconds. Then he saw himself standing on the Bridge of a ship but not the Bridge of a light carrier. This Bridge was much bigger. Could it be Midway's Bridge? That wasn't all he noticed. Some of the equipment in the background had been burned by fire. Parts of the ceiling were hanging down. He could see a lot of red status lights on various panels. On the very large display was Howard's face with a pained expression. Shiloh also noticed that the right side of his own head was bleeding. He heard himself say, "Some of them got through and are in Earth's atmosphere now, Admiral! It looks like they're headed for the urban areas. We have to assume that they'll release a bio-weapon."

  "There's still a chance of containment,” said Howard. “What cities are being targeted?"

  The display switched to a map of the Earth. Red dots appeared on the map, and a list of cities was displayed on the sidebar. As Shiloh heard himself read off the names of the cities, he repeated them out loud and then repeated the date and time that was showing at the top of the sidebar. When the Shiloh in the vision finished reading the city names, Howard said, "Exactly as predicted. Don't blame yourself, Shiloh. I know you gave it your best shot, even though we knew this would happen. If containment fails, then we just have to hope that we started work on Blackjack's idea in time."

  The vision faded and he was back in the RTC room. "Wolfman! Did you hear me say the names of cities plus a data and time?"

  "Affirmative, CAG. I was about to ask you if you were having a vision. You seemed to be staring off into infinity for a few seconds."

  Shiloh was relieved that they didn't have to rely on his memory for that information. "I did have a vision. Contact Admiral Howard and tell him I need to see him right away! Also transmit that list of city names and the date/time to my data tablet. I've just seen a vision that shows another Sogas attack on Earth that we weren't able to completely block. Those cities I mentioned will be hit with a bio-weapon."

  "That is very disturbing news, CAG. Based on that date, we have 91 days to prepare for that attack. I'll get the rest of the SPG working on this right away," said Wolfman.

  "And while you're at it, have Blackjack standing by for a conference with me and the Admiral. He just might be the key to saving Humanity."

  "He says he'll be available. I feel compelled to tell you that the SPG has already considered his idea. We believe there's only a small chance we could make the technology work, CAG."

  Shiloh groaned. That wasn't what he wanted to hear. He said nothing more as he hurried out the door and headed for Howard's office.

  Howard knew it was bad news as soon as Shiloh entered his office. His face was pale and he looked scared. Howard had never seen Shiloh scared before. He gestured for Shiloh to sit down and said, "Something's up. I can figure that out for myself. What's the bad news, Admiral?"

  Shiloh took a couple of deep brea
ths to slow down his racing heart and also give himself some time to collect and organize his thoughts.

  "I've just had a vision. In it, I see myself on the Bridge of a ship that's taken damage in another battle to defend Earth from the Sogas, and I'm in the process of informing you that we failed to stop all of the enemy bio-weapons from reaching Earth."

  Howard closed his eyes and said, "Damn!" After a few seconds he opened his eyes and said, "Do we know when this will occur?"

  "Ninety-one days from now." Shiloh then went on to relay what he saw and heard as best he could remember it. When he repeated Howard's comment about Blackjack's idea, Howard perked up a little bit.

  "Do we know what Blackjack's idea is?"

  Shiloh shook his head. "No, not yet, but I made sure that he's available to talk to. Shall I arrange for him to connect to our implants?" Howard nodded.

  Shiloh activated his own implant and told the Ops Center to put Blackjack on a three-way call with himself and Admiral Howard.

  "Blackjack here, CAG. Wolfman informed me of your vision. I take it that you and Admiral Howard wish to discuss my idea."

  "That's correct, Blackjack," said Howard.

  "Kronos brought back a theoretical description of a time machine that is small enough to be carried on a ship and that would allow that ship to make multiple trips backwards in time. My idea is to build the device and use it to send back a ship that will intercept the insectoid mother ship before it reaches Sogas space. By neutralizing that threat, the Friendlies will not feel the need to encourage the Sogas to start this war, and neither one of the bio-weapon attacks will occur."