The Synchronicity War Part 2

The Synchronicity War Part 2

By Dietmar Arthur Wehr

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2013 by Dietmar Arthur Wehr

http://www.dwehrsfwriter.com/

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Author’s comment: If you haven’t read Part 1,
you’ll find Part 2 confusing. Therefore I don’t recommend buying
Part 2 until you’ve read Part 1. Part 1 ended with a cliffhanger
(start of a space battle) on the last page. Some readers don’t like
that while other readers expect it. Part 2 does not end with the
opening stages of a space battle but does drop a bombshell in terms
of new information that could lead to more battles. It’s not a
cliffhanger in the conventional sense of the word. If you like
cliffhangers, don’t say I didn’t warn you. When you read this
novel, you’ll come across this word ‘shi’, pronounced ‘sheye’. It’s
not a typo. It’s my attempt to add a new word to the English
language and it is a short way of saying she/he/it for a 3rd person
reference to an entity whose gender is not known. If you like it,
feel free to use it. If you happen to be an H. Beam Piper fan,
check out my website.

Chapter 0 - Time to Roll the Dice (from Part
1)

That extra speed enabled Defiant to emerge 22
hours later into the Green4 star system 3 hours ahead of the bogey.
Time enough to deploy recon drones and a pair of jump detection
equipped fighters around each of the two gas giants while remaining
more or less equidistant from both. The drones would passively
search for reflected sunlight contacts while the fighters would
attempt to pinpoint the exact location (and number) of ships
emerging from jumpspace. Deploying only two fighters near each gas
giant was a calculated risk. A single fighter’s detection gear
could only cover a limited area and if the bogey(s) happened to
emerge from jumpspace outside that detection range, the equipment
wouldn’t see them and the space around each gas giant was so large,
that even if Shiloh had deployed all of his fighters among the two
gas giants, that still wouldn’t have guaranteed detection and
recovering his fighters from both planets would have prevented
Defiant from being able to jump ahead of the bogeys to their next
destination. The time to the bogey’s expected arrival in Green4
came and went. Because Defiant’s distance from either gas giant was
measured in millions of kilometers, ordinary light speed
communication by tight beam laser was too slow. The only way for a
sentry fighter to get word to Defiant quickly enough, was to launch
a message drone that would microjump to the area where Defiant
drifted and less than a minute after the arrival time, the ship
picked up a text message from a message drone sent from one of the
fighters monitoring the gas giant that Shiloh had designated as
Green4A.

[
55 ships detected emerging from jumpspace.
No visual contact yet
]

The text message was followed by a data stream
containing the precise coordinates. Shiloh was stunned. Fifty-five
ships! This was no recon mission. It was clearly a major attack.
The lack of reflected sunlight contact was very bad news. Without
some idea of where at least one of those ships was, the recon
drones would have no way of knowing where to point their laser
rangefinders and therefore couldn’t determine where those ships
were heading or how fast they were going, without using active
radar scanning that would tip the aliens off to the fact that
Humans were aware of their presence. At least the lack of contact
reports of any kind from Green4B suggested (but did not prove) that
the aliens were not intending to use it to refuel. Whatever else
Defiant might do, it had to refuel from Green4B as quickly as
possible otherwise its options would be severely limited. Shiloh
was about to order Tanaka to microjump the ship to Green4B to
refuel, when the Bridge faded from his field of vision and he saw
himself standing in front of Admiral Howard but this vision was
different. Instead of the usual crystal clear image, this image was
blurry, almost as if he were looking at the scene thru distorted
lens. Howard’s voice sounded strange too. The pitch was not quite
right and the words didn’t seem to be synchronized with Howard’s
mouth.

{I congratulate you on your decision to remain
at the star system where you detected the enemy fleet. If you had
continued to track them, you would not have been able to detect the
much larger force that was following in their wake and we wouldn’t
have been able to gather enough strength in time to stop it. For
your brilliant strategy, I’m promoting you to the next higher level
of rank.} As Shiloh listened to Howard’s words, which were said in
a calm, almost monotone voice, he noticed that Howard was
repeatedly jabbing his pointed right hand in Shiloh’s direction and
the expression on Howard’s face did not look particularly pleased.
If he’d been watching this scene without any sound at all, he would
have interpreted Howard’s body language as indicating anger. The
dissonance between the visual and auditory impressions was
striking. What is going on, he asked himself. He looked around to
see if anyone was looking at him. No one was. Tanaka was conning
the ship from the Helm Station again. Falkenberg was down in the
Hangar Bay supervising the fighters and their support teams. There
was something not right about this vision but Shiloh couldn’t put
his finger on it and he didn’t have time to analyze it further.
Decisions had to be made. The fighter at Green4A would be following
previously given instructions and maneuvering his drones under the
assumption that the fleet would head for the nearest gas giant.
Even if the drones didn’t detect any reflected sunlight from any of
the alien ships before they reached the gas giant, those ships
would agitate the planet’s atmosphere enough with friction and
turbulence that their presence would be detected if the drones were
close enough. The drones would then attempt to pinpoint the enemy’s
exact locations and vectors using the range finding lasers as the
ships emerged from the planet’s atmosphere. In theory it should
work but it had never been tried before so no one really knew.

What Shiloh had to decide now was whether
Defiant would proceed as planned to Green4B to refuel so that it
could boost a high speed message drone and also beat the enemy
fleet to their next destination. But if the vision was correct
about an even larger follow-on fleet, then staying right where they
were would be the best option. On the other hand, if the vision was
wrong somehow, then perhaps there was a third option that he hadn’t
considered yet. His visions so far had all involved a change of
plans from what he otherwise would have done without them. If he
applied that parameter to this situation, he would proceed to
refuel at Green4B. The mere fact that he was having some kind of
vision to begin with, strongly suggested that refueling to boost to
the next destination was NOT the optimal strategy but staying in
Green4 and doing nothing just didn’t sit well with him. The only
other strategy he could think of was to attack that fleet before
they could jump away. He needed to confer with his senior officers
and to his mind that included Iceman as well. Falkenberg could join
the discussion by video intercom as could Iceman. Tanaka and
Rodriguez could step over to his station as they had done before.
When all four were present either electronically or physically,
Shiloh said.

“Valkyrie had detected 55 ships emerging from
jumpspace near Green4A. He’ll try to pick up their precise
locations and vectors as they refuel. I now have to decide what our
response will be. For reasons that I do not want to go into now,
I’ll having doubts that our plan to refuel at Green4B and then jump
ahead of the enemy fleet is still our best option. I want to hear
assessments from all of you on an alternative strategy to attack
the fleet here in this system and if you have a completely
different idea, I’d like to hear that too. You first, Brad.” The
Deputy CAG took a deep breath and said,

“Well, we have 19 fighters still aboard and we
have enough attack drones to give them 5 each which should be
plenty but the challenge will be to get targeting lasers on each
enemy ship unless we want to use active scanning. Without one or
the other, the attack drones won’t know where to aim for. Right
now, Valkyrie doesn’t have enough recon drones to target more than
half a dozen ships at one time, assuming that they can find their
targets to begin with. If they are in fact intending to refuel at
Green4A, then the ideal time to hit them would be while they’re
still deep in the gas giant’s atmosphere. Their ability to see us
will be limited but we’d have to get drones and/or fighters in
close to be able to precisely locate their ships from the wakes
they leave behind as they plow through the gas.” Shiloh nodded and
turned from the video screen with Falkenberg’s image to his
Astrogator.

“Can we get our fighters that close before the
enemy re-emerges from the atmosphere, Astrogator?”

“There’s no way to know for certain. We don’t
have any data on how fast they can refuel, Sir. But if their
refueling time is similar to ours, then the answer is yes. Defiant
would have to jump as close as possible to the opposite side of the
gas giant to where the enemy fleet is, so that their jump detection
gear won’t pick us up. We then launch our fighters which will
accelerate at maximum in order to make a close, high speed pass and
fire their attack drones when they have visual contact with the
enemy ships.” He was about to say more when Tanaka interrupted.

“What if they keep some of their fleet in orbit
to stand guard while the rest refuel? If I was their fleet
commander, I wouldn’t risk exactly that kind of ambush by refueling
all ships at the same time. How would we deal with that?” There was
a short pause, and then Iceman spoke.

“We launch our fighters and use the gas giant’s
atmosphere against them. Our recon drones will monitor their
position and speed as they refuel. The fighters will enter the
atmosphere far enough away so that they won’t be spotted by the
enemy. When the distance has dropped to less than 100 kilometers,
our fighters will swing around so that they’re behind the alien
ships still refueling and then move back up to the edge of the
atmosphere. The enemy won’t be looking down at the planet for signs
of human activity. They’ll be watching the space around and above
them. When all 55 ships have finished refueling, our recon drones
will relay that data to our fighters, which will emerge from the
atmosphere, stay behind the enemy fleet at close range and launch
attack drones. At precisely that same time, our recon drones will
go to active scanning, use that data to triangulate each enemy
ship’s exact position and relay that data to our attack drones. The
enemy will react to the radar scanning from above, fire at our
recon drones while our attack drones get within one kilometer of
their targets. They then use their own radars for terminal guidance
and that fraction of a second before impact won’t be enough time
for the enemy to retarget their lasers.” No one said anything for
almost five seconds. Finally Shiloh said.

“That plan will require split second
coordination to work but other than that, I don’t see any flaws
with it. Does anyone else?” The responses were uniformly ‘no’.

“Iceman, have you calculated all of the vectors
and signal times needed to make this work?”

“Ah, roger that, CAG.” was the immediate
response. Shiloh took note of the fact that Iceman referred to him
as the CAG and not as the ship’s CO.

“Very good. In that case I want Iceman to
coordinate this attack. He will issue the necessary orders to
Defiant’s Helm, all the fighters involved as well as monitor the
attack as it proceeds and react as needed if things don’t go as
planned. Iceman, make sure you keep the Defiant’s tactical computer
updated on all vector changes and transmissions. XO? You’ll monitor
but not interfere with Iceman’s Helm directives.” As Tanaka nodded,
Shiloh continued. “Iceman, how soon do we need to begin the attack
plan?”

“The longer we wait the less chance of pulling
this off, CAG. I would not recommend waiting more than five more
minutes. The sooner, the better.”

“Understood. Does anyone have any questions?” No
one spoke up. “In that case, return to your stations.” When
everyone was back at their assigned stations, Shiloh took a deep
breath. I hope I’m doing the right thing, he thought to
himself.