The Synchronicity War Part 2 (21 page)

The vision faded back to the view from the HQ
roof. Howard was looking at him strangely.

“You seemed to be in another place for a few
seconds. Did you just have another vision?” asked Howard.

“Yes, Sir. I just saw a text message from
Vandal, telling me that Hunter made it back from a successful
strike on Zebra19 but the only reason why he made it back was
because of a reserve jump drive that I apparently insisted on
adding to jump-capable fighters. That tells me, that I have to
supervise the jumpfighter project. I may still be able to meet with
Kelly and Valkyrie but they can’t have me full time, Sir.” Howard
frowned. He looked like he was about to refuse Shiloh’s
recommendation. Just as he opened his mouth to speak, Shiloh jumped
in.

“There’s more at stake here than just bringing
back one A.I. pilot, Sir. If jump drives on fighters are prone to
failure, then that could negatively impact the search for a
suitable location for Site B too. The other thing to consider is
that if Hunter didn’t make it back, we wouldn’t know…or at least
couldn’t prove to the Oversight Committee, that the attack on
Zebra19 was successful and they might therefore want to try it a
3rd time instead of striking at another target system. There could
be all kinds of ripple effects down the timeline, Sir.” Howard
thought for a few seconds, then said,

“Alright. You’ve convinced me but try to find
some time to strategize with Kelly and Valkyrie while you’re
supervising the jumpfighter project, Cmdr.”

“Yes, Sir and thank you, Sir.” Howard nodded his
acknowledgement.

“I’ll have my Office issue the appropriate
orders later today. I think we’re done here. I’m going to stay up
here for a while but you’re free to go, Cmdr.” Shiloh thanked him
again and turned to go. When he reached the entrance to the stairs
leading down, he turned around and looked back. The Admiral was
starring out into the distance. Behind him, off into the distance,
Shiloh could see a bolt of lightning from an approaching storm. The
analogy was striking and profoundly moving. Whatever burden Shiloh
may have felt himself carrying with his visions had to pale by
comparison with the burden that the Admiral had been carrying on
his shoulders since Day One of this war. He said a silent prayer
for the Old Man and headed down the stairs.

24 hours later Shiloh was on a shuttle heading
for a rendezvous with the resupply ship Reforger, which was being
used to conduct field tests of the jumpfighter prototype. Howard’s
orders, putting him in charge of the project, were in his uniform
pocket. The current project leader, Lt. Cmdr. Morgan, formerly a
member of the Strategic Planning Group, wasn’t going to be pleased
at having his project taken away from him only days after being put
in charge of it. Shiloh had to wonder if Howard had chosen Morgan
for this assignment, given that Morgan had been kicked out of the
SPG on Howard’s orders for being resistant to Valkyrie’s ideas and
suggestions. That apparent dismissive attitude towards A.I.s seemed
to be at odds with the project goal of fitting A.I. controlled
fighters with a reliable jump drive. Perhaps someone else had
assigned Morgan here without Howard’s knowledge. In any case, once
he learned who he was taking over for, Shiloh lost all doubts about
pushing for his assignment.

When the shuttle docked with Reforger, Shiloh
expected Morgan to greet him at the docking hatch but he wasn’t
there. In fact no one was which was contrary to standard protocol.
When your boss shows up, greeting him or her was considered the
polite thing to do. Once it was obvious that no one was going to
greet him, Shiloh activated his implant.

“Senior Commander Shiloh to Reforger
Bridge.”

“Lt. Cabrera here, Commander. Welcome to
Reforger, Sir.”

“Well I’m glad that someone is welcoming me to
the ship because no one’s here at the docking hatch to greet me.
Where is Cmdr. Morgan?” The Lieutenant’s voice now took on an
embarrassed tone.

“Ah… I believe Cmdr. Morgan is in the Hangar
Bay, Commander. Shall I call him and have him come to your
location, Sir?”

“No. Just send someone down here to have my gear
taken to my quarters and to show me to the Hangar Bay
afterwards.”

“Yes, Sir. I’ll send someone right away, Sir.
Anything else, Sir?”

“No, Lieutenant. That’ll be all for now. Thank
you. Shiloh clear.”

Ten minutes later, with his gear stowed in a
tiny cabin, Shiloh stepped through the hatch into the Hangar Bay.
There were a group of individuals standing in a circle around what
looked like a fighter. As he walked up to the group, he said,

“Commander Morgan!”

“Yes?” said a man who had his back to Shiloh and
didn’t bother to look around.

“Yes, what?” said Shiloh as he started to get
angry. Morgan turned to look at him and suddenly realized who was
talking to him.

“Oh, sorry, Sir. I wasn’t aware that you’d be
here so quickly.”

“Really? Are you saying that you weren’t aware
that a shuttle was inbound and due to dock with Reforger,
Commander?” Morgan hesitated for a second and then said,

“No, Sir.” Morgan’s eyes started to glance at
the others near him.

“So if I check the Comm. logs and look at when
they were accessed and by whom, your name won’t show up. Is that
what you’re telling me, Commander?” He saw Morgan swallow as his
expression turned from concern to fear.
He’s lying and he knows
that I know that he’s lying. If he sticks to his story, he knows
I’ll check the logs and if he admits he’s been lying, I can then
officially reprimand him which will stay in his personnel file
forever.
Morgan did not respond to Shiloh’s question, which was
itself technically insubordination although a borderline example.
Shiloh knew that he himself was dangerously close to crossing the
line between questioning a subordinate in front of others and
chewing out a subordinate in front of others. The former was okay.
The latter was considered an example of poor leadership.

“Walk with me, Cmdr.” said Shiloh in his best
‘Command’ voice. He turned and walked back towards the entrance.
Morgan followed him. Shiloh stepped through the hatch and turned to
the right so that both of them wouldn’t be seen or heard by the
others still in the Hangar Bay. Morgan’s look of fear now showed
tinges of defiance.

“Let’s get some things clear here. I’m aware
that Admiral Howard gave you the boot from the SPG because of your
attitude towards A.I.s. What I’ve seen with my own eyes so far
strongly suggests that you’re letting you personal feelings once
again get in the way of performing your job to the best of your
ability. If you’re pissed off that you’ve lost authority over this
project less than a week after taking charge, then you find a way
to deal with that in such as way that I won’t have to take notice
of it. I’ll make it even more clear to you. You have a problem,
Cmdr. If you can’t deal with it, then I have a problem with you and
I guarantee you that I WILL deal with my problem. Is that clear
enough for you?”

“Yes, Sir.”
At least the fear and defiance in
his face are gone now.

“Good. Now we’re going back to the group and I’m
going to ask you to brief me on the status of the project, when we
rejoin the group. Let’s go.” Shiloh followed Morgan back and when
they reached the group, Shiloh said,

“Alright, Commander. Please bring me up to speed
on where we are with this project.” He saw Morgan’s back straighten
up before he replied.

“Well, Sir. Jump Drive Specialist Rollins was in
the final stages of getting our first test ready. I’ll let him
explain what that test is all about, Sir.”
You bastard! Thought
Shiloh. I told you I wanted you to brief me, not fob it off on
someone else.
Shiloh made a special effort not to let his
expression reflect his inner thoughts and emotions. He nodded to
the technician who was looking at him.

“Yes well…ah…after carefully examining the
interior of the engineering section of this CFP, we determined that
there’s not enough room to insert a message drone jump drive,
without radically rearranging the existing equipment. The next
thought was to use the jump drive of a message drone that was being
carried by the CFP. In other words, the CFP would piggyback to the
message drone as far as the jump drive was concerned, instead of
the other way around. Theoretically it should work. However, we
have instructions from HQ that the jump-capable CFP’s payload
capacity has to be available to carry extra fuel so the piggyback
idea had to be discarded. The next thought was to place a message
drone jump drive inside the module that’s designed for a human
pilot. Because that module includes room and facilities to enable a
human pilot to keep his CFP in the field for days at a time,
there’s open space that can be used for the jump drive. I’m now
very close to being finished hooking up the jump drive with the
CFP’s power plant and Astrogation sub-systems.”

“Does that mean that there’s an A.I. piloting
this test vehicle?” asked Shiloh while looking at Morgan.

“No, Sir. The Astrogation sub-system can reverse
course and do a reverse jump calculation on its own…Sir.”

“Fine. How soon can we do the first test?” The
question was aimed at Morgan who looked at Rollins.

“Ah, we could do the test right now if you wish,
Sir.”

“I’m not in that much of a hurry, Rollins. Let’s
take some extra time to get this right. You keep working on this
and when you feel there’s nothing left to do, then notify Cmdr.
Morgan and we’ll conduct the test. Okay?” Rollins smiled and
nodded.

“Okay, Sir!” Shiloh turned to look at Morgan and
said.

“I’ll be in my cabin, Commander. Notify me when
you’re ready to launch the test vehicle.”

“Yes, Sir.” Shiloh turned and walked away.

An hour and ten minutes later, Shiloh was on the
Bridge, standing beside the Command Station that Morgan was
occupying. Shiloh was okay with that. For this project, Shiloh was
content to let Morgan continue as the ship’s CO with the
accompanying responsibilities including taking duty shifts on the
Bridge. Shiloh, on the other hand, had no specific duties and could
do whatever he pleased. As he looked at the tactical display, he
said.

“How big of a jump will the test vehicle
attempt, Commander?” Shiloh pretended not to hear Morgan sigh.

“1 million km, Sir.”

“And how quickly should we expect the text
vehicle to turn around and jump back?”

“Roughly ten minutes, Sir.” came the reply.

“Fine. If everything looks good, then let’s do
this.” Rollins, who was monitoring the CFP’s vitals from the ship’s
seldom used weapon station, nodded.

“First test jump
in…five…four…three…two…one…Mark!” The fighter’s icon on the
tactical display disappeared.
So far, so good,
thought
Shiloh but he knew the key would be if the test vehicle could jump
a second time. For the next ten minutes, Shiloh leaned against the
console next to Rollins and engaged him in chitchat, while
studiously ignoring Morgan. When the ten minutes was up, he stopped
and stared at the display. Seconds later, a green icon re-appeared
as the display pinged to notify that a status change had occurred.
The sidebar data showed that the test vehicle’s transponder was
transmitting and Shiloh could tell from Rollins’ station readouts,
that all the fighter’s systems were in the green. Rollins started
to turn to look at Morgan but Shiloh tapped him on the shoulder and
as Rollins looked up at him, he said,

“Report to me, Rollins. I’m the Project Leader
now.” Rollins smiled a happy smile and said.

“From what I can see on my instruments, Sir, the
first test seems to have been a complete success.” Before Shiloh
could respond, Morgan clapped his hands together and said in a loud
voice.

“Excellent! Let’s bring that bird back to the
nest and then we can head back to base.” Rollins, now looking
confused by the source of these orders looked at Morgan and then
back at Shiloh who shook his head.

“That’s premature, Commander. One successful
test isn’t enough. We need to do more tests.” Morgan looked like he
was about to protest but then thought better of it and said
nothing. Looking back at Rollins, Shiloh said.

“Program the test vehicle for a 10 million km
jump and a return, Specialist Rollins. Execute when ready.”

“Ten million. Yes, Sir.” He had the 2nd test
ready in less than 3 minutes and counted down again.

“Three…two…one…mark.” The icon disappeared
again. This time the wait was slightly longer. Almost 11 minutes
later, the icon returned and all systems continued to look green.
An hour later, they had successfully done three more tests, each
time multiplying the distance by a factor of 10. The 10 billion km
test was all the way across the Solar System and back. The CFP
seemed to be fully operational. Shiloh was starting to relax a bit
but when Morgan asked if they could declare the project finished,
he looked at Morgan and said,

“We have to test this arrangement over
interstellar distances too, Commander. I want the test vehicle
brought back on board and inspected by the technicians carefully.
While they’re doing that, Reforger will make a jump to a point that
is 1/10th the distance to Alpha Centauri. When we get there, we’ll
conduct the next test and if that’s successful, then we’ll jump the
ship to Alpha Centauri and conduct the test from there. Any
questions, Commander?” Morgan looked deflated. His hopes for a
spectacularly quick and successful project, which he could try to
claim credit for, were evaporating in front of his eyes.

“No questions, Sir.” Shiloh looked at Rollins
and said.

“Bring her back, Rollins.”

“Yes, Sir.” said Rollins cheerfully. Unlike
Morgan, he seemed to be enjoying himself immensely. Shiloh walked
to the hatchway and said.