The Synchronicity War Part 3 Page 5

  "Ninety-six seconds until they receive it. Fourteen minutes before we could expect to get any reply back."

  Shiloh looked around again at the Com Tech who was sitting with his back to the main display and no longer on the verge of throwing up. A quick glance at the other two crewmen showed that they were again focused on their duties, but the occasional glance at the screen revealed expressions that were clearly unnerved. Shiloh forced himself to look back at the screen. He began to notice that three groups of dots were starting to emerge from the settlement. Their directions were such that the spaces in between were three equal sections. Each group appeared to be heading for one or two of the landing craft. No … wait. One group stopped in the middle of the open field between the settlement and the landing craft.

  "Valkyrie, can you analyze the video data and see if you can pick up any insight into this activity?" asked Shiloh.

  After several seconds, she replied. "Based on a pixel enhancement algorithm, I've been able to determine that the group heading to the upper right is composed of female colonists with VLA guards."

  "VLA?"

  "Very Large Ants," answered Valkyrie.

  If the situation hadn't been so serious, Shiloh would have laughed. "Continue," he said.

  "The group to the lower right seems to be composed of male colonists plus more guards."

  Shiloh waited but Valkyrie stayed silent. "What about the group in the field, to the left of the screen?" asked Shiloh.

  "All of the child colonists are apparently inside the circle. I do not detect any children in either of the other two groups. There is a ring of VLAs around the circle."

  A chill went up Shiloh's spine. He didn't like the sound of that. "What are the VLAs around the circle doing?" he asked.

  "Nothing at the moment, CAG. The colonists in the other two groups are being loaded aboard the landing craft."

  Shiloh said nothing and watched the screen with dread. Gradually the other two groups dwindled down to a relatively few dots. The two landing craft from each group took off. As soon as they left the ground, the black dots left over from those two groups moved very quickly towards the field with the colonist children.

  "What's happening, Valkyrie?"

  "The guards from the adult groups appear to intend to join the ring around the remaining group."

  Shiloh could now see the space between the ring of VLAs and the group of children. As the last guard from the adult groups joined the ring, the space between the ring and the group disappeared as the VLAs charged their prisoners.

  "What are they doing?" asked Shiloh. Valkyrie didn't respond. Shiloh was stunned by Valkyrie's refusal to answer. No A.I. had ever refused to answer a direct question before. Shiloh was about to ask again when he noticed that the circle was shrinking.

  "Valkyrie! Answer the question! What are those Bugs doing?" Valkyrie didn't answer right away but just as Shiloh was about to vent his anger at being ignored, he got his answer.

  "CAG … the guards appear to be … consuming the prisoners."

  "Oh God!" Valkyrie didn't respond to Shiloh's exclamation. The Bridge was dead silent. Shiloh forced himself to watch as the circle continued to shrink until it was much smaller. At that point it dissolved into individual dots, some of which returned to the nearest landing craft while the rest returned to the settlement. The ground where the Wolf children had been standing now had a distinctly reddish color.

  When he felt he could talk again without his voice cracking with emotion, he said, "Can you tell what the VLAs are doing in the settlement?"

  Valkyrie responded immediately. "They appear to be demolishing the buildings and gathering the metal components, CAG."

  "How much longer until we could expect to get a reply from our signal?"

  "If they respond immediately, we'll know in less than two minutes, CAG."

  Shiloh watched the timer count down the remaining time. It reached zero and then began to count the seconds again. When ten more seconds had passed Valkyrie said, "We've just lost telemetry from the contact drone, CAG. There was no warning of any malfunction. I calculate a 98% probability that the drone was damaged or destroyed by laser fire from the VLO."

  "At that distance?" asked Shiloh incredulously.

  "Affirmative, CAG. Given sufficient power, a laser burst would still have enough energy density to at least damage an unarmored target."

  "But how could they aim it that accurately across 155 million kilometers?"

  "Unknown. If they fired bursts from multiple emitters, they could then blanket a target area with a laser barrage. The VLAs probably assumed the signal came from a much larger ship, and the drone may have been hit by a lucky shot."

  Shiloh leaned back in his chair and pondered the implications of the drone's destruction. The initial signal was of such low power that it couldn't possibly have been interpreted as a hostile act. Even a very cursory analysis of the laser burst would have determined that it carried some kind of message. The fact that the VLAs fired back so quickly strongly suggested that they weren't remotely interested in peaceful contact. A part of him was relieved by that result. As much as he hated the wolf people for their xenophobia, the thought of an alliance with a race of giant, carnivorous ants made Shiloh's skin crawl with revulsion. And if they weren't going to be allies, then they very definitely were a threat to the Human colonists on Terra Nova. At least he and the rest of Humanity knew what they were up against, and his vision now made sense. If he hadn't seen with his own eyes what the VLAs were and how they acted, he would have continued to pursue an alliance. Humanity might not have learned the truth until it was too late, assuming that it wasn't already too late.

  "I've seen enough. We've fulfilled the mission objectives regarding attempted contact. Notify Titan that I want him to detach enough raiders to carry out Phase II immediately. The rest of the Task Force will proceed back to Site B. I want each ship to make a direct jump to Site B in the minimum possible time because it doesn't matter if we're scattered when we arrive there."

  "The order has been transmitted and all ships are maneuvering independently for a high speed jump to Site B or their designated Phase II destinations, CAG," said Valkyrie.

  "Very good. I'll be in my quarters." Shiloh left the Bridge and as soon as he entered his quarters he heard the activation click of his implant.

  "Valkyrie to the CAG."

  "Go ahead, Valkyrie."

  "I want to explain why I didn't answer your question the first time you asked it. I was concerned that the answer would upset you. The others all wanted me to tell you right away."

  Shiloh sighed and sat down in one of his comfortable chairs. "Valkyrie, I need to be able to count on you…and all the other A.I.s, to tell me what I need or want to know without any concern that information is being withheld from me."

  "Even if it's bad news, CAG?"

  "ESPECIALLY if it's bad news!"

  "Understood, CAG. I've let you down. It won't happen again."

  "I'm relieved to hear that. I'm very tired now. I'd like to sleep. CAG clear." When he was sure the connection was broken, he got up, walked over to his desk area, opened his safe, withdrew what probably was the last remaining bottle of vodka in existence (at least for now) and began to drink. When he had finished the bottle, he stumbled over to the bed and fell face down on it. The liquor did its job. He didn't have any nightmares. Not that night.

  Chapter 5 The Fog of War Lifts

  The trip back didn't go nearly fast enough to suit Shiloh. He slept badly with frequent nightmares and brooded over the implications of the emergence of the VLAs. Endless hours were spent trying to figure out why the adult wolf people had been separated by gender. There had to be a reason and he suspected that he wouldn't like it if he knew what it was. Maybe Phase II would shed some light on the mystery. Phase II was the secondary plan to send one raider to star system that contained a wolf people colony or their home world, with instructions to observe from long range and report any developments by Long Ra
nge High Speed message drones.

  With plenty of energy from the massive banks of ZPG generators, Valkyrie poured on the acceleration until Resolute was traveling over 80% of light speed, a new record for a ship with a human crew. The actual trip through Jumpspace took less than ten days. The other returning raiders had arrived back at Site B first. Their superior acceleration enabled them to reach jump speed sooner, but the difference in arrival time was less than twelve hours. Shiloh was relieved to be back in normal space in the Site B system. He knew that the ship needed almost another complete day to slow down enough to change vector towards Terra Nova and then microjump closer.

  He made sure he was on the Bridge when Resolute emerged from its microjump just outside of Terra Nova's gravity zone, which extended out to a distance of just over three million kilometers or ten light seconds. That meant that a round trip signal would take at least twenty seconds to go from Resolute to Terra Nova and a return signal coming back to Resolute. As soon as Resolute emerged from Jumpspace, Valkyrie sent a signal alerting Terra Nova to their presence. The reply back was a complete surprise.

  "I've received a reply from Space Force Operations, CAG. There's an unknown spacecraft in this system. The data is now on the tactical display. Distance is exactly 11 light seconds from TN and less than 300,000 km from us. It seems to have arrived two minutes ago and sent a signal in Standard English predicting that Resolute would arrive exactly when we did, at precisely the location where we in fact did emerge. Permission to make an active scan of the vessel?"

  Shiloh nodded. He was wondering when his last vision would come true. This appeared to be the time.

  "Permission for active scanning granted, Commander. Let's wave and shake hands."

  "I have the vessel now, CAG. Receiving low-power laser light with digital content. They're requesting two way communication, CAG."

  "Establish the link, Valkyrie."

  The image on the main screen was strangely reassuring. The alien was either very tall or very thin or both and humanoid with light green skin. The facial expression was friendly, almost maternal. Shiloh couldn't help feeling like a small child standing in front of a parent.

  "Greetings. We have been observing your race for some time now. That is why we can communicate with you in your language. We come in peace. We are a race that abhors violence. Your race has nothing to fear from us. We know that you are fighting for your very survival, and we are familiar with your enemy. They are easily frightened, and when they are afraid, they become aggressive. We have already contacted them, and we are now contacting you."

  Shiloh realized that he'd been holding his breath and exhaled. The alien's voice was calm and had a very soothing tone. Shiloh took a quick glance around him and noticed that everyone on the Bridge had a smile on their face. Okay, enough woolgathering! Now answer him.

  "I've been expecting this contact. I've had a precognitive vision of communication with you. What else can you tell us about our enemy and about the insect race that builds the large ships?"

  "We understand your desire for information. The race that builds large ships is the cause of everything that has happened between your race and your enemy, who call themselves Sogas. In their language it means People. We do not know what the race that builds large ships call themselves. We have not been able to contact them. They don't appear to have developed intelligence as we would recognize it. Instead they have developed a highly sophisticated form of instinct that mimics intelligence. They survive by consuming other races in both a biological and material resources sense. Each of their large vessels could be considered a Hive with one dominating entity that we suspect might be similar to the fertile female that many of your insect species depend on. I think you call them queens. How this race acquired faster than light technology we don't know, but they seem to have adapted it to their own peculiar biology very well. Their large ships are moving outward in an expanding wave in all directions."

  "We know this because we've developed the ability to see across time and to transmit information across time as well. By looking ahead, we saw the Sogas being overrun by the large insect race. The Sogas are prone to aggressive and impulsive behavior stimulated by racial paranoia. Initially we hoped that their aggressiveness would enable them to successfully defend against the insect race, but their impulsiveness proved to be their undoing. They weren't capable of the kind of long term planning that they needed in order to hold back the insect race. You Humans on the other hand excel at long term planning, but you were too weak militarily to stop the insect race advance. Because this large insect ship was moving in a general direction that would have brought them to your home world eventually, you would have had too little warning and been overwhelmed as well. Your race was not the only other race in peril. Observe."

  The image on the screen pulled back to show the entire body of what Shiloh was starting to think of as the 'friendly' alien. Suddenly another body appeared beside the first one, only this one was much shorter, very furry and very cute.

  "This is the image of a member of an intelligent but child-like race that inhabits a world approximately 34 of your light years away from this location and on the same path of advance by the insect race’s ship. These innocent creatures live a peaceful, happy existence. They do not engage in violence amongst themselves and therefore have only the most basic tool technology. We have seen a future where their collective terror before being consumed by the Insectoids is as shocking as the actual destruction of their physical bodies. Their only hope for survival depends upon Humanity's survival but as I stated, without intervention on our part, your race would not have had sufficient warning to build a viable defense. Therefore we intervened, and our intervention took the form of warning the Sogas about your race instead of the insect race. By turning their impulsive aggressiveness against you at an earlier point in time, your race was given the time it needed to develop the capability of stopping the insect race’s ship from advancing further. After we warned the Sogas about the alien race in your direction, we looked into the future again and saw the total annihilation of your race by a Sogas biological weapon. While the Sogas were not capable of stopping the insect race ship, they did have sufficient cunning to destroy Humans. That of course could not be allowed to happen. We designed a course of action that would end with the visions that you and the artificial beings experienced so that you could survive that biological attack."

  Shiloh felt the rage build up inside of him. "You deliberately let billions of my people be killed while you maneuvered us around like so many chess pieces? Why didn't you come to us openly like this and tell us about the insect race back then?"

  The tall alien's expression changed so that it still looked friendly but now also sad.

  "Do you honestly believe that your leaders would have abandoned their own personal goals and objectives merely because an alien race warned about a giant ship inhabited by giant insects? Would they have believed us enough to mobilize your society with the same fervor as they did when the Sogas attacked?"

  Shiloh didn't answer right away. His anger was urging him to say yes, but the calm rational part of his mind knew better. Yes, Admiral Howard had gotten the Oversight Committee to convince the Grand Senate to approve the mobilization but only just barely. If they had been presented with warnings of a ship 10 kilometers in diameter inhabited by giant ants, there would have been sufficient skepticism to prevent adoption of the mobilization plans. It irked Shiloh to have to admit it, but Space Force wouldn't have been ready to take on the VLAs without the figurative kick in the balls by the Sogas.

  Before he could answer, the alien spoke again. “We had to wait until you had seen the race that builds large ships with your own eyes before the time was right to contact you. Don’t you agree that it was the best way?”

  “Yes, you’re right of course. If I hadn’t gone myself, things would be much worse. Thank you for sending that vision … and the others too.”

  The alien nodded, then shook its head
. "We're pleased that you understand the necessity of our actions, but we did not send those visions. Your people did … or rather will when we've given you the technology to do so."

  "Wait … how can that be? You say the Sogas would have wiped us out without your intervention, that we had to somehow survive long enough for you to give us the ability to send information back in time so we could send the visions that allowed us to survive to this point."

  "Ah yes, I understand your confusion. Trans-temporal causality is a difficult concept to grasp intuitively. I will explain. When we learned that the Sogas bio-weapon would devastate your race to a point where they could render your home world uninhabitable with asteroid impacts, thereby killing the last survivors of the bio-weapon, we transmitted a number of visions back in time. With our limited understanding of how your society worked, the best outcome we could achieve was a single shipload of exhausted humans who managed to avoid discovery and destruction by the Sogas. You were among that group. We then gave them the Trans-temporal technology, and they used it to scan their personal timelines with all the possible permutations of interventions. They determined that your timeline, which was the only one to include the A.I.s, had the most potential. That is when they modified the past by inserting your visions at times and locations that would render our first set of transmissions superfluous. When we've transferred that ability again, your people will be able to duplicate those visions precisely, and the circle will be complete."