The Synchronicity War Part 2 (23 page)

“Yes, Sir. How much does the Oversight Committee
know about these preparations?” Howard smiled.

“They know that a battle is coming.” He nodded
when he saw Shiloh’s puzzled expression. “The SPG is fully in the
loop now and by the way, a majority of its members are A.I.s now
too. The SPG told the Committee the truth, just not ALL the truth.
What they said was that they think there’s a high probability that
the enemy will strike directly at Earth. What they didn’t say is
that the probability is 100% because of the warning that we have.
What they also didn’t say is that the A.I.s are convinced this
attack is actually a diversion to pull our defense forces away from
the colonies and bases. That means we should be prepared for
another attack somewhere else at roughly the same time. When I
heard that, I questioned the whole premise of our force buildup
here. Valkyrie then pointed out to me that the diversion could
actually be a legitimate attack too and if we try to defend against
both, we could lose both battles. Given that we were warned about
this one and not another one, it may be that letting them win
somewhere else may be the lesser of two bad options. In any case,
I’m not going to risk the lives of 12 billion people on Earth in
order to maybe defend a few hundred thousand somewhere else. I
think that would be a huge mistake and if I attempted to split our
defenses, the Committee would sack me and for good reason!” That
made a lot of sense to Shiloh too.

“I wonder what brings me back here after the
battle is over.” Howard shrugged.

“No way to know ahead of time. If I didn’t know
that you needed to come back to essentially warn us not to risk
Iceman on the first Zebra19 mission, I’d order you to stay at Site
B indefinitely. I have to assume that you have a good reason for
coming back at that point.” When Shiloh said nothing in response,
Howard slapped his knee and said.

“Well, I have to be heading back. I can take the
soil and plant samples back with me. You should get packed and say
your goodbyes. The Task Force can leave orbit as soon as you board
Valiant.” Howard got up and walked over to Shiloh.

“Good luck, Command…oh Christ! I almost forgot!”
Howard fished in his breast pocket and took out a small box with a
clear lid. He handed it to Shiloh who saw two gold stars inside.
“You’re not a Senior Commander anymore, Shiloh. You’re a
Vice-Admiral again and this time it’s NOT a temporary promotion.
Congratulations.” The two men shook hands.

“Thank you, Sir.” There was a pause that was
quickly becoming awkward.

“Well? Aren’t you going to put them on?” asked
Howard. Shiloh laughed and nodded as he opened the case and took
out the two stars. Each star had a strong magnet inside that kept
it in place on the uniform collars, which had a thin strip of steel
embedded within. He pulled off his gold Senior Commander’s
insignias and replaced them with the stars, one on each side of his
uniform’s collar.

“Much better.” said Howard. “Okay, Admiral, it’s
time.”

“Yes, Sir.” said Shiloh. They left his quarters
and headed back to the Hangar Bay. On their way there, Shiloh used
his implant to order the samples loaded on the Admiral’s shuttle.
That was being done as they arrived back in the Hangar Bay. Most of
his officers had left. Those that were still there stared in
surprise at Shiloh’s new rank. When they got to the shuttle, Shiloh
shook Howard’s hand again but neither man said anything. There was
nothing left to say. After the shuttle’s departure, Shiloh walked
back to his quarters and started to pack his things. He had just
gotten started when the buzzer sounded.

“Enter!” said Shiloh. The door slid aside and in
walked Tanaka. She looked at him closely and then nodded.
Word
travels fast. Someone notified her about the stars on my collar and
she came to see if it was true.

“So the scuttlebutt is true.” she said. Shiloh
resumed packing.

“If you’re referring to the stars on my collar
then yes, it’s true. You’ll be putting on some new insignia too,
Sumi. The Old Man is giving you Defiant and a promotion to go along
with it. She’s yours now.” He could see that she had mixed emotions
about that news. She knew it was bound to happen sooner or later
given how fast people were being promoted but the two of them had
become quite close in a professional way and she didn’t want to see
him go. He tried not to think about Iceman’s message that Defiant
would be badly damaged in the battle with Sumi’s fate unknown. The
burden of knowing the future was getting heavier.

“It’ll be hard to fill your shoes,
Vict…Admiral.” After a few seconds pause, he said,

“I know that you’ll do just fine, Sumi. I have
confidence in your ability to rise to the challenge. The crew like
and respect you.” She nodded.

“Can I ask you a question, Admiral?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Do you know if there’s a big battle coming our
way?”

“What makes you think that, Sumi?” That clearly
wasn’t the answer she was hoping for.

“It’s a combination of things. There seems to be
a new urgency in the air. Nobody’s talking about another strike
mission which is odd considering how successful the Zebra19 mission
was and there are rumors that ships based elsewhere are being or
will be called back here.” Shiloh stopped packing and pondered how
much to tell her. She wasn’t cleared to know the BIG SECRET but
that didn’t mean he couldn’t tell her the same thing the SPG told
the Committee.

“What I’m about to tell you cannot be share with
ANYONE else. Is that clear, Sumi?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“The Strategic Planning Group is convinced that
the enemy plans a major attack on Earth. The Old Man is taking the
necessary precautions. That’s all I can tell you.”

“I see. Will you be taking charge of the defense
forces, Sir?” Shiloh resumed packing once again.

“That hasn’t been decided yet. I may not be here
when the attack comes. I’m taking command of a Task Force on a
special mission as soon as I report on board Valiant.”

“Will Defiant be part of the Task Force?”

“No. Defiant will stay here and help protect the
Home world.”

“I suddenly have this feeling that I’m never
going to see you again, Victor.” Shiloh was so shocked by that
statement that he dropped the book he was in the process of
packing.

“This war does strange things to a man’s
beliefs. I now have a strong belief in fate. If we’re destined to
survive the battle, we’ll see each other again.” Tanaka said
nothing and took a deep breath.

“Well in that case, good luck to both of us,
Sir.” She gave him a smile which he returned and then she left.
When he was finished packing, he said,

“Intercom…Helm Astro.”

“Maverick here, Admiral.” Shiloh couldn’t help
chuckling. Was there anyone aboard ship that didn’t know about his
promotion now?

“I’m ready to leave the ship and I wanted to say
goodbye. I want you to know that you deserve a lot of the credit
for finding the Site B system as quickly as you did. The timing may
turn out to be crucially important. I know that Defiant will suffer
major damage during the upcoming battle. I hope you make it
through, Maverick.”

“Thank you, Admiral. It’s been an honor serving
aboard your ship. We’re glad that you won’t be here during the
battle. We’d hate to lose you.”

“Thank you. I hope I’m lucky enough to have you
at the Helm and Astrogation on one of my ships again sometime.
Shiloh clear.”

Leaving Defiant for what could very well be the
last time was hard. Word got around that Shiloh was leaving and off
duty officers and crew gathered at the Hangar Bay to say their
goodbyes. It took Shiloh almost an hour to shake hands and say
goodbye to everyone. He was grateful that Sumi had taken the
initiative and asked Valiant to send over a shuttle to take Shiloh
and his gear back. The trip to his new flagship was a somber one.
When he stepped down onto Valiant’s deck, he saw most of her
officers lined up to greet him and heard the announcement.

“Task Force 89 arriving!” The simultaneous
salute from the officers reminded him of just how much authority he
had once again and would continue to have. With the salute out of
the way, he greeted his flagship’s officers and quickly saw that
all of them were new to him.

“Thank you all for this impressive greeting.
I’ll make this short because we have a mission to execute and I
want to get started as soon as possible. I intend to get to know
each and every one of you personally in the days and weeks ahead. I
know that Valiant and her people will make me just as proud as did
Defiant and her people. Commander. Pass the word to the Task Force
to prepare to leave orbit upon Valkyrie’s signal. I’ll be going to
my quarters first and then I’ll join you on the Bridge. Carry
on.”

When he arrived at his new, larger flag
officer’s quarters, he shook his head in amazement at the opulence.
When light carriers were being designed, the specifications called
for the ability to use them as flagships and therefore room was set
aside for the flag officer’s quarters. Shiloh had never used
Defiant’s FO quarters even when he was a temporary Vice-Admiral
because it seemed pretentious to move his gear across the corridor
knowing that he’d have to move back into the CO’s quarters later.
When his gear had been brought in and he had the place to himself,
he sat down and took a deep breath.

“Intercom…Bridge.” he said.

“Bridge here. Welcome aboard, Admiral. How can I
help you?”

“Thank you. I’d like a private line to
Astro-helmsman Valkyrie, please.”

“Certainly, Sir. That line is now open. Go
ahead, Sir.”

“Shiloh to Valkyrie. Congratulations on getting
your first ship and a carrier too.”

“Thank you, CAG. I’m still getting used to this.
These light carriers are much bigger than the sentry frigates but a
lot of the less critical sub-systems don’t need my constant
attention so it’s actually less difficult to con a carrier than a
sentry frigate.”

“That’s good to hear. Where is Iceman now?”

“He’s conducting training exercises out near
Neptune. I can send a text message to him for you but as you know,
the communication lag is so long that a two way conversation would
be impractical.”

“Understood. Here’s the message I’d like you to
send him. CAG to Iceman. I’ll see you on the other side. You have
my fullest confidence. Do whatever you have to do to protect Earth.
Good luck and good hunting. End of message.”

“Message sent, CAG. What else is on your
mind?”

“Get the Task Force moving as soon as possible.
You do know how to get where we’re going, right?”

“Very funny, CAG. Yes I do. How fast do you want
to get there?”

“Minimum possible time while keeping standard
fuel reserves. Subsonic refueling procedures.”

“I would recommend supersonic refueling, CAG.
Some of the cargo on the freighters might be damaged from the
bouncing around if we go subsonic. The extra time required will be
less than 5% of total trip time.”

“Recommendation accepted. What’s our estimated
ETA?”

“We should arrive at the destination system is
301 hours from now, CAG.”

“Fine. Do I know any of the other Astro-helmsmen
in the Task Force?”

“Just Rainman. The others are; Titan, Jester,
Gunslinger and Casanova.” Shiloh laughed and said,

“Casanova? Really? How are you getting along
with him?”

“Oh just fine. He’s a persistent bugger but the
fact that I’m conning a warship gives me enough status to keep him
respectful.” Shiloh was tempted to ask what Casanova was persistent
about but decided not to.

“I see. Let me guess. Jester likes to tell
jokes.”

“Quite the opposite in fact. He has no sense of
humor at all that any of us can tell.”

“Remarkable. What about Titan and
Gunslinger?”

“Gunslinger is very eager to get into combat.
He’s somewhat annoyed that he got a freighter instead of a warship.
Titan is more patient but he believes he has a superior grasp of
combat tactics.”

“Tell Gunslinger for me that I’m sure he’ll get
a warship and see combat eventually. This war isn’t going to be
over any time soon.”

“I’ve passed that on. I’ve also been looking
over the cargo manifests of the freighters. We A.I.s are concerned
that there’s no equipment for creating more A.I.s this trip. One of
the main reasons why Site B needs to be set up as soon as possible
is to have a 2nd source of A.I.s.”

“I haven’t had a chance to look at the cargo
manifests or the mission profile yet, Valkyrie, but if I had to
guess at why that is, I’d say it’s because this first trip has to
concentrate on equipment that can build infrastructure such as
UFCs, mining, refining and fabrication equipment. How many UFCs are
we carrying?”

“Twelve. I understand that, CAG but I don’t
think you understand the urgency. Right now Epsilon Eridani has the
only A.I. manufacturing facility. Since the enemy has our
astrogational database, they know that. Given that they’re using
A.I.s too, they also know how useful they are and it’s logical to
assume that the EE facility has to be a high priority target for
them. Did the Old Man brief you about the Raider concept that the
SPG came up with?”

“No. Tell me about it.”

“It’s an idea that came out of the realization
that the enemy has continued to build large numbers of relatively
small ships. As far as we can tell from radar data brought back
from the encounters at Zebra9 and 19, Green4 and Bradley Base,
their ships continue to be in the 15,000 to 20,000 metric ton range
or roughly about the same size as our Exploration Frigates only
optimized for combat. We on the other hand are building bigger and
bigger ships. The first Heavy Carrier will be completed in about 3
months and work has begun on a million metric ton superbattleship.
Those same million metric tons could build 50 exploration frigates.
If those frigates were optimized for combat instead of exploration,
there is considerable doubt that one superbattleship could win
against 50 frigates. One penetrating hit at the right spot could
cripple that ship. The offsetting advantages are that a ship that
big, can carry enough consumables to keep a human crew in the field
for almost a year at a time along with large quantities of recon,
message and attack drones. The most obvious disadvantage is that it
can only be in one place at a time. The Raider concept starts with
the notion that completely automated ships under A.I. control are
the ideal method of achieving extended duration missions. Think of
a ship of somewhere in the 10,000 metric ton range, completely
streamlined for gas planet refueling, with two retractable laser
turrets, the same sized power plant as you have in an exploration
frigate, with the capacity to carry up to 50 drones. No human crew
at all means no room set aside for crew quarters, consumables, etc.
Its small size makes it harder to detect visually and also allows
for hull designs that minimize radar returns. A ship like that
might very well be able to refuel at gas giants, which are being
monitored by enemy detection gear and still avoid detection. So you
wouldn’t need VLETs to refuel fighters. If an asteroid with the
right metals and right size were found, it would be possible to
have an assembly line building process, built into the heart of
that asteroid, that could manufacture a complete raider in far less
time than a similar sized ship could be built the way we do it now.
That kind of ship would be perfect for Site B production but in
order to make it work, you’d also need to have high volume A.I.
production too.”