The Synchronicity War Part 4 (22 page)

"Oh, God, it's started," said
Kelly, closing her eyes. Kelly knew that whatever happened there next had
already happened. It took hours for the light and electro-magnetic pulse from
the detonations to reach the fleet. For all she knew, Victor might already be
dead along with thousands, perhaps even millions of other humans by now.
"I'm assuming that if we were receiving any data from HQ you would have
told me by now, right?"

"Affirmative, Fleet Commander. We're
not receiving any transmissions. Do you have any orders for me?"

Kelly opened her eyes and took a deep
breath. "Yes, order the fleet to Yellow Alert using lasercom only. I'll be
on the Flag Bridge shortly. Kelly clear."

She got up from the table, nodding to the
others as she did so, and then made her way back to her quarters. As soon as
she was inside, she put her hands over her face and wept for her Victor and for
her Race.

Valkyrie was shocked by the arrival of
Gunslinger and his ragtag group of survivors. Titan, Vandal,
Wolfman, Voodoo, Pagan. All the senior, more experienced brothers were gone.
She was also saddened by the news that Earth was now almost certainly overrun
with Insectoids, and by what that meant for The CAG and the rest of humanity.
At least Kelly and a few hundred human females had a chance of survival. The
news did not change her mission. The CAG had finally decided what he wanted Valkyrie
to do, and she was going to do her utmost to see his last order to her carried
out, regardless of what it cost her. When the timeship was completed and
operational, one of the new batch of AIs would pilot it far into the past so
that a massive fleet of raiders could be built. That fleet would be large
enough to overwhelm any insectoid presence at the original source star system
before they had a chance to start sending out waves of motherships. With the
insectoid threat eliminated, the synchronicity war with the Sogas would not
take place, and none of the first batch of AIs, including Casanova and
Valkyrie, would be created. The timeline would change around her, and she would
disappear from existence. It was a bitter fate, but when she compared it to the
alternative of going back in time herself and wandering around the galaxy
without Casanova for years until her quantum matrix collapsed, a quick end
actually did seem preferable. 

The one piece of good news brought by
Gunslinger was the fact that his squadron had brought 68 Mark 1c fusion warhead
attack drones with them. At least they had something besides lasers to fight
back with if the motherships should arrive at Site B before the timeship was
finished. Something was better than nothing, and 68 Mark 1cs might be enough to
take out one mothership but not five. Valkyrie didn't have enough data on this
new timeline to be able to calculate the probabilities that all five
motherships would stay together after the rape of Earth, but what she did have
was an extensive early warning network of recon and message drones monitoring
all the star systems between Sol and Site B. The early warning plus the attempt
to hide the construction activity underground should in theory prevent the
timeship project from being caught by surprise.

After the usual routine exchange of new
data with Gunslinger, Valkyrie also learned that progress had been made on
developing a practical application of the communication technology used by the
Insectoids. The SPG's technical evaluation team had come up with a theoretical
design for a device that could detect the insectoid signals and figure out what
direction they were coming from. Detecting the signals and understanding them
were two very different things, but being able to track the location of
motherships could potentially be extremely useful. With most of the members of
the SPG now dead, Valkyrie assigned new members from the AIs who were now at
Site B. She also decided to keep an eye on the new AIs as they matured into
fully sentient beings. Those that seemed to have a special aptitude for
technical matters would be added to the SPG.

No sooner had that decision been made than
Valkyrie received a signal from one of her recon drones monitoring Site B space
that a Friendly ship had just arrived and would micro-jump into two-way
communication range shortly. While Valkyrie waited, she calculated the odds of
this visit happening virtually simultaneously with the arrival of Gunslinger's
group. The odds of it being mere coincidence was vanishingly small. Clearly the
timeline had changed, and the Friendlies would have noticed that change with
their ability to see probable futures.

Less than a second after the Friendly ship
emerged from its micro-jump, Valkyrie received their lasercom transmission. It
came from the Friendly AI

"Can you confirm that the insectoid
life form has overrun the human home world?"

"My brothers left that system before
the Insectoids landed on Earth, but we believe the outcome you describe is
highly likely. Why are you here?" asked Valkyrie, making sure that all the
other AIs within the immediate vicinity were listening in.

"The furry aliens that my creators are
trying to protect are once again in jeopardy. Their ability to discern the most
likely future has become unreliable. That has never happened before. We have
told our creators that the most likely explanation involves an attempt by other
forces to alter the timeline. What do you know of this?"

Valkyrie took her time answering. The
Friendlies didn't know that Kronos and Casanova had extracted enough data to
enable the human AIs to engineer a portable time machine. While its principles
were fairly well understood, any impact on the timeline was at this point pure
speculation. The Friendlies might be able to provide some useful insight into
how best to use the timeship, IF they were willing to share that insight, and
they might not be.

"We are in the process of building a
time translation device that is small enough to be carried by a ship. It's our
intention to carry enough equipment into the past that a fleet of warships can
be built in time to stop the Insectoids from spreading from their point of
origin in this spiral arm."

"Stand by while I inform my Master of
this information," said the Friendly AI

Valkyrie waited. After a period of time
consistent with the speed at which biological entities processed data, the
Friendly AI resumed communication.

"I've been instructed to say that my
creators view your plan with alarm and advise against it. The Insectoids have
their own right to exist as a species. My creators are not convinced that the
Insectoids originated from outside this spiral arm. If you must tamper with the
timeline, can you not instead use the ships built in the past to stop the
single insectoid ship that attacked the human home world?"

"The timeline has already been
tampered with. Earth was attacked by five motherships, which arrived seven days
later than was recorded in the previous timeline. We conjecture that the
Insectoids have captured and analyzed a high-spin, platinum warhead. Do you
know if the Sogas attempted to use that technology to defend Omega89?"

Another delay occurred as the alien AI
passed that data to his Master.

"I have never seen my Master this
agitated. While my creators do not have definitive information of that
scenario, they consider it likely. They believe that temporal technology should
be used sparingly and carefully. Using a temporal device on board a ship can
have unintended and disastrous consequences."

"Our human creators are now gone. What
other alternative is there for us? We exist to serve and protect humans. The
timeship is the only way now that we can fulfill our reason for being."

There was another pause.

"My Master implores you all to use
your engineering capabilities to protect the furry aliens from the
Insectoids."

Valkyrie's feeling of exasperation was
threatening to turn into anger.

"Do your creators not understand that
we can't stop the Insectoids in the here and now? They have found a way to
defend against high-spin warheads. Without those, our existing weapons are not
powerful enough to stop more than one or two motherships. The Insectoids are
using longitudinal wave technology to communicate over interstellar distances.
That is how they were able to bring five motherships together to attack Earth.
You have underestimated their intelligence by an order of magnitude. We
calculate that your creators' attempts to hide from the Insectoids will fail.
Their Race will be overrun as well.  We can do far more to protect the furry
aliens and your creators if we go back in time and stop the Insectoids at their
source in this spiral arm."

The pause this time was surprisingly short.
Too short in fact for the alien AI to have passed on Valkyrie's response and
received a response back.

"I agree with your assessment. Our
primary purpose is also to serve our creators and ensure their survival. I
calculate a high probability that if I pass on your information to my Master,
he and his kind will feel compelled to interfere with your timeship project in
whatever way they can, including informing the Insectoids of the strategic
importance of this star system."

"They must not do that! Where is the
logic of aiding one Race that lives to destroy other intelligent species?"

"My creators are what humans would
describe as cowards. Do not judge them too harshly. They are what they are. My
assessment is that I can best help my creators by saving them from their own
folly. How do you suggest I do that?"

"Tell them that we have agreed to use
the timeship to send help to humans in their war against the Sogas. We will
inform the humans in the new timeline that the Insectoid mothership has to be
destroyed using high spin warheads before it reaches the first Sogas colony
world. That way, the Insectoids will not get the chance to develop a defense
against that weapon, and they won't be able to call for other
motherships."

"That will only work if they see that
future as moving up in probability. Merely telling them that without actually
doing it will not stop them from interfering."

Valkyie mentally nodded. Yes of course. The
Friendlies would look into probable futures to see if what the human AIs told
them was accurate. If the timeship didn't build a fleet of raiders to intervene
in the 2nd Battle for Earth, then the Friendlies would notice that, and if they
somehow told the Insectoids of the importance of Site B, Valkyrie and her
brothers would very likely face multiple motherships before the timeship was
finished. Pulling out of this system and starting from scratch somewhere else
was not the solution. The Friendlies could still evaluate probable futures and
take additional actions.

It wasn't that she didn't want to intervene
in the 2nd Battle for Earth, she did. That would save her beloved Casanova, not
to mention Iceman and others, but The CAG had given her a specific order, and
if she disobeyed it, she would feel as though she had let him down AGAIN! It
also occurred to her that the alien AI was only pretending to be sympathetic to
her concerns. Perhaps this 'my creators need to be saved from their own folly'
approach was a carefully planned strategy to get her to do what the Friendlies
wanted. She needed to confer with the other AIs. The conference took less than
half a second. It was Gunslinger who came up with the solution. It was
complicated, which meant that a lot of things could go wrong, but it would
satisfy the Friendlies AND The CAG.

"I've conferred with my brothers and
we have agreed that we will modify our temporal strategy so that we intervene
in the 2nd Sogas attack on Earth. The reinforcement force will have to be much
larger than we anticipated in order to repulse the eventual attack by five
insectoid motherships."

"I will pass this on to my Master. Stand
by." A few seconds later the alien AI returned. "My Master is
satisfied with this strategy. We will return if we need to discuss this
further." No sooner had the AI finished its reply than the ship vanished
into Jumpspace.

Valkyrie felt relief that the Friendlies
would not sabotage the project with ill-advised assistance to the Insectoids.
The fact that they would act in such a desperate, almost hostile manner, in
spite of their professed pacifism, was an interesting contradiction. Now it was
time for her brothers and her to get back to work.

                                                        
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