Synchronicity War Part 1, The (28 page)

The deployment of the first pair of fighters in Blue1 went
smoothly. Defiant didn’t even slow down very much while in the system. The
deployed fighters accelerated towards the gas giant, and as soon as it was
deemed clear of enemy ships, Defiant pointed her bow to Blue2 and re-entered Jumpspace.

As the ship emerged in the outer reaches of Blue2, Shiloh
felt a chill run down his spine. He shrugged it off. Several hours later,
Defiant was close enough for her two fighters to streak ahead and verify that
this system’s gas giant was devoid of alien ships. Maverick and Hammer launched
and began their high speed run to the gas giant. While they were on their way,
Shiloh’s duty shift ended, and he returned to his quarters and went to sleep. It
seemed to him that he had just shut his eyes when the Bridge called. Checking
his chronometer, he realized that he’d been asleep for almost an hour.

“Shiloh here. What is it, Sumi?”

The XO’s voice was tense. “One of Maverick’s recon drones
has detected what appears to be reflected sunlight off a metal hull. Maverick’s
requesting permission to order the drone to determine distance with its
rangefinder laser.”

Shiloh was instantly wide awake. “Only one contact?” he
asked.

“Only one so far, yes Sir.” replied Tanaka.

Shiloh thought fast. The reflected sunlight, if that’s what
it was, had been detected by passive optical sensors, but it only gave the
drone a direction to the object, not a distance. The low-powered rangefinder
laser that the latest version of recon drones had would fire a timed pulse of
laser light and measure how long it took for the reflected laser light to
return. That would tell them how far away the object was. The risk was that the
enemy ship might detect the laser pulse, which would tip them off to the
drone’s presence and eliminate any advantage Shiloh had for covert
surveillance. But if they didn’t get a range determination, they’d have no way
of knowing where the alien ship was headed or how fast it was going, and THAT
information was critically important.

“Tell Maverick he has permission to determine the range.
Send the ship to Battle Stations. I’ll be on the Bridge shortly. Shiloh clear.”

No sooner had he finished speaking then the Battle Stations
klaxon sounded. Tanaka must have had her finger hovering over the activation
button while they were talking. He put on a fresh uniform and sprinted for the
Bridge, which was just down the hall. Tanaka saw him enter and unbuckled
herself from the Command Station chair.

As Shiloh walked over to her, he said. “I have the Con, XO.”

“Yes, Sir. Maverick has the word. We should get a report
back in about … 90 seconds or so.”

Shiloh nodded as he sat down in the chair. He buckled
himself in while the chair adjusted itself to his body.

“Good," he said.

Tanaka started to turn towards the entrance to head for
Engineering where the Executive Officer usually went during Battle Stations,
but Shiloh had other ideas.

“Not so fast, XO. I’m wearing two hats on this mission, and
if we find ourselves in a shooting match, I don’t want to have to con the ship
and fight the battle at the same time. So I want you to relieve Rodriguez at
the Helm Station, and you’ll take back the Con while I concentrate on the
bigger picture. Rodriguez can take your place in Engineering.”

Tanaka was clearly taken aback. “Well, if you’re sure you
want to do that, Sir, I’ll comply with your orders.”

Shiloh smiled and said, “I know what I’m doing, Sumi. I’ve
used this technique before when I was Squadron Leader, only this time I have a
squadron of fighters instead of frigates.”

“Yes, Sir.”

She nodded and stepped over to the Helm Station. Rodriguez
had heard the exchange and was already vacating his station.

As soon as Tanaka sat down, Shiloh said. “The XO has the
Con.”

With the rest of the Bridge personnel now clear as to who
was actually running the ship itself, Shiloh turned his attention to the
displays that monitored the status of the fighters still in Defiant’s Hangar
Bay. Most were showing the green light of ready-to-launch status. The Hangar
Bay was in the process of depressurizing. All personnel there had already
donned pressure suits.

“Iceman to CAG.”

The sudden voice made Shiloh jump.

“Make it fast, Iceman. I’m kinda busy now,” said Shiloh.

“Ah, roger that, CAG. If there’s more than one bogey out
there, we’ll have a better chance of finding them if we launch more recon
drones. Request permission to take Cobra Flight out for that purpose.”

Shiloh wasn’t ready to make that call yet. He needed more
information first.

“I’ll take that under advisement, Iceman. Standby.”

The 90 seconds should be just about up by now
,
thought Shiloh. Sure enough, the data, relayed by Maverick from his drone to
Defiant, showed that the bogey was almost six million kilometers away from the
drone, and due to the geometry of Defiant’s relative position to the drone, the
range to Defiant was just over nine million kilometers. The ship’s tactical
computer took the range data, the drone’s position relative to Defiant, and
displayed the tactical situation on the main display. Shiloh looked at it
carefully. Nine million kilometers sounded like a lot, but compared to the size
of your average star system, it was relatively close. It was the vectors that
were going to complicate things. Defiant was on a vector that would cross the
gas giant’s orbit while at the same time angle up from below the system’s
ecliptic. The bogey was heading ‘downward’ and off to one side of Defiant’s
vector. Defiant had enough speed left over from the jump to make it difficult
to intercept the bogey or even just slide in behind it on a parallel vector. As
Shiloh continued to evaluate his tactical options, he noticed that the contact
status indicator beside the bogey’s icon on the Tactical display changed from
‘constant’ to ‘intermittent’. A beep from his console drew his attention to a
smaller screen where Maverick had transmitted a text message.

[
Sunlight reflection gone. Continuing to track bogey with
laser. Active scanning?]

If the bogey were adjusting its attitude by rotating on its
axis, that would change the angle of the reflected sunlight, and it would
explain the loss of that contact. Maverick was asking for permission to order
the drone to actively scan with radar, which would give them a clear picture of
its course, speed, and any companions but also alert it to the human presence.
Not
yet
, thought Shiloh. He transmitted the negative response to Maverick.

Turning to the Astrogation Station, he said, “Astrogator.
Can you determine what system they’re lining up for, if any?”

The reply came seconds later.

“As far as we can tell with this triangulation, they’re most
likely heading for Green4, Sir.”

Shiloh called up the 3D star charts for the immediate
environment. Green4 had two gas giants, and from there the bogey could pick
from one of two paths containing star systems that formed what looked like
rivers of stars with empty gaps in between. One path led to the Nimitz Base,
which was also in the same star system as the Avalon colony. The other path led
to more heavily populated colony worlds deeper in Human Space.

“I need a projected course change for a jump to Green4. I
also need to see how much fuel we’d have upon arrival for various transit
times.”

“Okay, Sir. I’ll have that for you shortly.”

Why Green4
, Shiloh thought to himself?
It’s not
that far away
. The bogey’s vector seemed to indicate that it was leaving
the vicinity of this system’s gas giant, which suggested that it had refueled
here. Even an Exploration Frigate had enough fuel to jump to Green4 and then
jump again without refueling. Suddenly Shiloh knew the answer. The aliens might
have survey data on all human-explored star systems, but they couldn’t be sure
if they’d encounter any human ships in these systems. So the safe thing to do
would be to make a series of small jumps, refuel whenever possible, and if they
encountered Human ships, they could always jump back the way they came. Far
less risky than making long jumps into enemy held systems and not being able to
refuel or jump away.
So then the next question was, is this just one ship,
which would suggest a recon mission of some kind, or are we seeing just one of
a whole fleet of ships on a strike mission
? The only way to answer that
question without tipping his hand would be to arrive at Green4 first, ring both
gas giants there with recon drones, and see what showed up. He’d have to wait
for the astrogator’s data on the jump to Green4 before he could answer that
question, but there were other questions, too.

He had to get a warning back, but that was easier said than
done, and there were several options. One was to send a message drone back to
Bradley Base. They could then boost another drone to high speed for a direct
jump back to Omaha Base, which was further back and where Shiloh knew that
Admiral Howard was in the process of building up a Task Force of combat
frigates. They were to be used to intercept any mass incursion that the early
warning network might identify. Another option was to send a high speed message
drone directly to Omaha Base from here, or they could send a high speed drone
to Sol. Sending a message drone back to Bradley and from there to Sol, would be
easy but not quick. High speed drones sent to either Sol or Omaha would be
quick IF they could boost the drone fast enough before it entered Jumpspace.
That IF depended on multiple factors that Shiloh couldn’t even begin to
evaluate. Before he could get any further in his thinking, the Astrogator put
the requested data on the main display. Just as Shiloh had suspected. It would
take so much fuel to bring Defiant’s current high speed vector over to the
right heading, that they’d arrive at Green4 with dangerously low fuel reserves
and with a lead time that might or might not let them refuel safely before the
bogey arrived. But if Defiant refueled here, the delay would mean that they’d
never be able to beat the bogey to Green4. He needed to get help in identifying
options.

“Iceman, I’m going to ask the XO and Astrogator to step over
to my station for a strategy conference. I want you to listen in. Feel free to
offer suggestions.”

“Ah, roger that, CAG.”

Both Tanaka and the Astrogator heard him and were already
standing nearby.

“Okay, here’s the problem. Our number one priority is to
track this bogey or bogeys so that we find out where they’re likely to
penetrate our space. Getting to Green4 far enough ahead of them to refuel first
will be highly risky. Refueling here first means there’s a good chance we’ll
lose contact with them by the time we get to Green4. We also have to send a
warning to friendly forces as soon as the situation allows. A high speed,
boosted message drone directly to either Sol or Omaha Base would be ideal, but
would put at risk whatever fighters are tasked with that mission due to potential
fuel exhaustion. I’m looking for options.”

Before either the XO or Astrogator could speak, Iceman
jumped in.

“Green4 has two gas giants which now are almost at right
angles to each other relative to the system’s sun. If we get there first and
station fighter sentries at both giants, they can pinpoint which one the enemy
will use to refuel and Defiant can then refuel at the other one, using
microjumps to get to it. After refueling, the contact fighter can relay the
enemy’s new jump vector, and Defiant will have enough fuel to boost to a high
enough speed to arrive at the next system with plenty of lead time. While
Defiant is boosting away from the Green4 GG, it can deploy a fully fueled
fighter, which will then have enough fuel to send a message drone directly to
Omaha Base and still make it back to the GG to refuel itself. Here’s what that
would look like.”

Shiloh, the XO and the Astrogator turned to looked at the
main display, which now showed a tactical representation of Green4 system with
the projected arrival point for Defiant and two alternate paths to the gas
giants depending on which one the enemy chose to refuel at. Shiloh turned to
his Astrogator.

“What do you think, Martin?”

The Astrogator chuckled. “I think Iceman wants to put me out
of a job! Without checking the numbers, I can’t be sure of course, but it looks
doable, and I’m sure Iceman has calculated it down to the final decimal.”

Before Iceman had a chance to reply, Shiloh said, “XO?”

She sighed. “It sure beats my idea all to hell, Sir.”

It did look good
, thought Shiloh.
Damn good in
fact, and Iceman came up with it FAST! Maybe A.I.s should be used as
Astrogators.

There were still unknowns of course. If there was only one
bogey, then one of the two gas giants would be free for Defiant’s use, but if
there was more than one, and Shiloh was willing to bet there was, then it was
conceivable that the enemy force might split up when it reached Green4 and
refuel at both gas giants. Splitting up your force in potential enemy territory
was not something that Shiloh would have done, but these were aliens after all,
and who knew for certain how they thought? On the other hand, if the enemy
force did split up, then Defiant’s remaining fighters stood a good chance of
kicking the crap out of one group before the other group could come to its aid.
That might convince the other group to abort the mission. They might suspect
that these intervening systems were being monitored. Keeping that fact a
secret, while nice in theory, was not an absolute priority, and an aborted
attack would give Humanity more time to complete the network and beef up
defenses. There was one more problem.