The Synchronicity War Part 4 (18 page)

With Wolfman back in his fighter, Kelly
hurried to her cabin in order to question him about his data. She really wanted
to take a shower first to get rid of the foul smell that seemed to cling to her
uniform, but her curiosity won out. A quick chat with Falkenberg to make sure
that Resolute was on its way back home, and then Gunslinger switched her over
to Wolfman.

"What have you found out about that
Bug, Wolfman?" asked Kelly.

"As you know, Commander, the RTC can
follow an object or person back in time by tracking the individual atoms that
make up the target. That's why the target doesn't have to be alive. From the
atomic point of view, there's no difference between life and death. Since some
of the atoms in the body were also at some point part of the female that
produced the egg, the RTC can actually trace those atoms back across multiple
generations. The results can best be understood by showing the trajectory of
the tracked atoms across space. I'm sending the data to your display now."

Kelly saw her display power up with a star
map. One of stars was blinking red.

"The red star is Omega77. I'll now
show where this particular mothership and predecessor ships came from." A
yellow line moved away from the red star and connected with a series of stars
in a trajectory that had a slight curve to it. As more and more stars were
connected, the scale zoomed out to show more of the spiral arm of the galaxy.
The line stopped at a star that flashed blue.

"The amount of mass being tracked
declined significantly here, Commander. I conjecture that our Insectoid was
created here by implantation into a host. That suggests that this system
contained a life form that was large enough and populous enough to warrant
exploitation by the Insectoids. From here, the trajectory deviates enough that
it could suggest a different mothership. There are 5 more of these types of
star systems where some kind of change occurred that could very well be the
birth of a new generation of females. When I include all the available data,
here is the overall configuration."

The display now showed a scale of distance
so large that Kelly could make out the edge of the spiral arm that humans
inhabited. And while the trajectory wasn't straight, the overall direction
looked like the Insectoids were coming from the outer edge of the spiral arm
and moving deeper into the galaxy. A horrible thought intruded on Kelly's
consciousness.

"Wolfman, could the Insectoids have
originated from outside our galaxy?"

"Not outside, no, but rather from a
different spiral arm of our galaxy, Commander. By the time the tracking reached
the vicinity of the edge of our spiral arm, there were too few atoms left
together to be able to follow them."

"What kind of time frame are we
looking at here?" asked Kelly.

"The point where I was no longer able
to track the target was seventeen point three years ago."

"And does this data confirm that
Insectoids did not evolve naturally in our spiral arm?"

"The data is not conclusive but it
does strongly suggest that Insectoids are not native to this spiral arm. If
they originated in another part of our galaxy, then they would not be in danger
of extermination as a species even if we managed to destroy all of them in our
spiral arm."

"Damn. I was hoping we'd get
conclusive proof. I have a feeling that the Friendlies will give the Bugs the
benefit of the doubt. But even if they originated in our arm, they still might
not have evolved naturally. Isn't that so, Wolfman?"

"The probability that the Insectoids
have evolved on their own is small but not zero. We do have two possible ways
of attempting to confirm either the external origin or the artificial origin,
Commander."

Kelly was confused. "Two? Valkyrie’s
timeship is one but what's the other one?"

"We send a ship to the farthest point
on this track to see what's there," said Wolfman.

Kelly felt a shiver go up her spine. With
over 17 years to build motherships, that star system could be crawling with bug
ships. Still, it was an intriguing idea.

"Just out of curiosity, how long would
it take a ship to get there?" asked Kelly.

"The theoretically shortest time is 34
days, however, considering the difficulty in making a single jump accurately
and allowing for the risks involved with extremely high pre-jump speeds, a more
practical profile would take 89 days one way, Commander."

"Wow! That would be one hell of a
mission."

"That it would, Commander," said
Wolfman.

Kelly decided she had enough information
for the time being. She had a lot to think about, and she did some of her best
thinking in the shower.

"Thank you, Wolfman. I want to think more
about this before I continue this discussion. Unless there's an emergency, I do
not wish to be disturbed while I'm in the shower."

"Very well, Commander. I would like to
say though that we AIs don't really understand the attraction that humans have
for standing under falling water. Perhaps you could explain it to us
sometime?"'

"Perhaps," said Kelly with a
smile.

Shiloh didn't know whether or not
Gunslinger planned it that way, but Resolute arrived back in Earth orbit just
in time for Kelly to come down to the ground and join him for dinner at the
Flag Officers' Dining Room in the HQ building. Over dinner she told him what it
was like standing next to a dead Bug and about Wolfman's results, along with
her idea for a recon mission to the bug point of origin. That mission intrigued
Shiloh, but he wasn't sure if it was doable. Getting there and back would take
more than half a year. That would require a lot of consumables, far more than
either the light or heavy carriers were designed to carry, and they would have
to sacrifice some of the hangar bay space for the extra cargo. Dreadnought, on
the other hand, had enough spare cargo capacity. It also had the advantage that
its very thick armor would protect it against impacts from interstellar dust
while accelerating or decelerating at very high speeds. That was something that
the light carriers couldn't do. They would have to travel at a slower speed,
thereby lengthening the duration of the mission.

The question that Shiloh wrestled with had
to do with whether having Dreadnought unavailable for anything else for over
half a year was worth whatever information it brought back. The ship by itself
wasn't powerful enough to take on even one insectoid mothership and win. If
there was more than one mothership there, then the only way to destroy them
would be to use multiple attack drones with the new Mark 6 high-spin warheads,
of which there was a limited supply. With dozens, maybe even hundreds of
insectoid motherships roaming around the galaxy by now, destroying a handful
would not make that much of a difference.

Putting that topic aside for a later time,
Shiloh switched to the upcoming mission to intercept the first mothership at
the Sogas home world. Kelly was about to say that Gunslinger would want to
command that mission when she noticed that Shiloh was sitting still with his
eyes closed.

After a few seconds he opened his eyes and
said, "Damn." The low volume of his voice did not hide the intensity
of his feeling. He looked at her. "I've just had another vision where I
tell Admiral Howard that the fighters sent to Omega54 didn't return, and we
don't have any idea why not."

Kelly could see this bothered Shiloh, and
she understood why. That mission was intended to accomplish two very important
goals. Destroying the mothership was one of them; the other was demonstrating
to the Sogas that Humanity could be a valuable ally instead of an enemy. If the
attack failed, then that second goal was probably in jeopardy too.

"The Sogas may give us credit for just
making the attempt," said Kelly.

"Maybe, but it's not just their
reaction that worries me. If that bug mothership isn't stopped there, then
we'll have to face it here. And since we don't know why the attack with Mark 6s
failed there, we won't know if they'll work here." Neither one of them
spoke for a while as they struggled with their own thoughts. Shiloh glanced at
Kelly and noticed that her expression was beginning to show fear.

"What is it?" he asked.

"If you wanted to send back a vision
with information about how to deal with the mothership when it arrives here,
when would you send that vision back to?"

He immediately understood her fear. Given
the level of concern generated by the uncertainly over the outcome of the
encounter, he would send a vision back to himself here and now. But there was
no second vision dealing with the mothership's arrival at Earth.

"I'd send it to myself now, and since
I apparently haven't done that, we have to ask ourselves why not. The obvious
reason is that we won't be able to, either because the RTC was incapacitated
or...we were overwhelmed by Bugs before we had a chance to send something. Can
you think of any other reasons that would explain the lack of retro-temporal
communication?"

Kelly was frowning now. "Well, even if
there's no magic solution that we wouldn't normally think of ourselves, I would
still expect there to be some kind of vision telling us we survived the battle
so no...I can't think of another explanation and that scares the hell out of
me."

"Me too."

More silence followed. When Kelly spoke, it
was clear that she was trying to lighten the mood with a more upbeat demeanor.

"Maybe we can improve the outcome of
the Omega54 mission if we send the right AIs," she said.

"I don't see how. My vision didn't
specify who would be sent on that mission, so that tells me that the outcome
would be the same regardless of who I send."

"Maybe if we send Gunslinger—"

"NO! I'm not sending Gunslinger or any
of the other veteran AIs In fact, now that I think about it, I may just send
new AIs who haven't evolved sentient personalities yet. If this really is a
suicide mission, then that would seem to me to be the most compassionate choice
I can make."

Kelly realized that Shiloh had made up his
mind and would not let her change it. That intransigence put a damper on the
rest of the dinner and the rest of the evening. It was only when they went to
bed that they put aside the residual negative energy by mutual consent and made
love.

When they finished, Kelly very quickly went
to sleep, but Shiloh was wide awake. Prudence dictated that he assume the worst
about the apparently eventual arrival of the mothership here and make plans to
deal with it. With all human colonies now gone, Earth was the only place where
humans existed. If this planet were to become another breeding ground for
millions of bugs, then establishing a new colony somewhere safe would ensure
the survival of the Human Race. The question was where and how. Trying to
re-establish a colony on a decimated colony world was highly risky. What little
information they had about the bio-weapon suggested that it could be airborne
and therefore might eventually infect the new colony too, regardless of where
on the planet they established it. That only left two other habitable planets
that Shiloh knew about. One was the planet at Site B. The other was the planet
containing the cute furry aliens. Site B was close enough that Space Force
ships could make multiple trips there and back before the insectoid showdown.
With just three operational and uninfected freighters left now, the more trips
those ships could make, the better off the colony would be. The planet with the
furry aliens was much further away and therefore presented a challenge in terms
of transporting colonists and cargo.

Site B had problems of its own. Shiloh knew
from Kronos that the Bugs had found and overrun Site B in the other timeline.
For that matter the furry alien planet was also in the bugs' path. There was no
obvious solution. He finally decided that he would ask Kelly to pose the
question to the SPG. Answers to questions like that was their whole reason for
being. When he finally surrendered to sleep, Shiloh’s last waking thoughts were
of Iceman and how much he missed him.