The Synchronicity War Part 2 (28 page)

“I already know, Commander. I’m in contact with
Iceman via my implant and he heard the whole thing. Were you able
to read Iceman’s text message too?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Did you catch the implications of Shiloh’s
confirmation that your team, the RTC and the weapons people should
be relocated off Earth?”

“No, Sir. I was too wrapped up with what was
happening in the meeting.”

“Well, Iceman and I have been discussing it.
Clearly there’s nothing we can do to stop a biological attack on
the Avalon Colony. When Shiloh urged me to quarantine the whole
system, that tells me that the Nimitz Base is going to be affected
too. The quarantine is clearly warranted but as Iceman pointed out,
if it was successful in terms of containing the spread of the
weapon, then why the need to move our key project teams somewhere
else?” Kelly thought fast and didn’t like the answer she was
getting.

“Could it be that he was warning us of another
direct attack on Earth, Sir?” After a pause, he said,

“That’s a possibility but if the vision is that
vague, that doesn’t help us in terms of the timing of the attack,
does it?”

“No Sir, but if our future did include the
spread of a biological weapon to Earth why wouldn’t the vision warn
us of how to stop it?” Howard tilted his head slightly to one side.
He was clearly listening to something Iceman was saying. He then
nodded again and said.

“It’s a good question and Iceman’s answer is
that it may be that we never find out for sure how the weapon
spread to Earth and therefore wouldn’t know how to prevent it.
Iceman’s feeling is that the quarantine will buy us some vital time
to get our house in order so that there’ll be enough of us left to
fight on. I hope that’s way too pessimistic but I can’t fault the
logic behind it.”

“What I don’t see is how a biological agent
could spread if we quarantine that entire system, Sir.” Howard
sighed.

“We can’t isolate that system indefinitely,
Commander. The Committee and the public will eventually demand to
know what’s happened there and I’ll have to send at least one ship
there. They will naturally take every possible precaution but
something may slip through the cracks anyhow.” Kelly thought about
that for a while and said,

“I’m glad I won’t be the CO commanding that
mission. Considering the casualties we took today, who do we have
that could be given that assignment?” Howard looked up into
infinite space for a couple of seconds and said,

“I think I know the right person for that job…if
she’s still alive.”

Chapter 16 - You’re Not Seeing The Big
Picture

Johansen just happened to be the only human on
the Euryalus when the alert sounded. When she ran back onto the
tiny Bridge, she hit the switch to connect her with the station,
that the ship was docked with.

“This is Johansen! What’s the alert for?”

“Radar has just picked up 55 ships coming our
way at high speed! No identification and we’re not expecting any
ships so we’re pretty sure they’re hostile! I suggest you get your
people back aboard and hightail it outta here!” As she began to
strap herself into the Command Station chair, she said,

“How fast and what’s their ETA?”

“15% of light speed. Range will be zero in 3
minutes if they don’t slow down.”
Shit! This freighter won’t get
beyond laser range in three minutes! It’s too damn slow!
Fear
started to well up in her. She would rapidly find herself in
virtually the same situation as in her nightmares. She noticed her
hands start to tremble badly.

“Your crew is on their way!” All of sudden, she
knew what she had to do.

“Negative! Negative! Tell my crew to stay with
you people and find room on your lifeboats! I’m going to take this
ship and ram one of those bastards! Johansen clear!” As she shifted
Helm control to her station, she suddenly realized that her hands
weren’t shaking anymore and the fear was gone too. What replaced it
was rage. With Helm control at her station now, she started the
undocking procedure and then realized that the automated sequence
would take way too long.

“Fuck that!” she said out loud. Switching helm
to manual control, she grabbed the small joystick at the end of her
right armrest and thumbed the switch to activate maneuvering
thrusters. Pushing the joystick hard over, the ship tried to move
away from the station but the docking clamps held on to it. With
her left hand, she increased thrust to maximum and heard a
shockingly loud screeching noise as the ship ripped loose from the
station’s docking clamps. Alarms sounded and red lights appeared on
her status board. Her ship was venting atmosphere from the damage
caused by the forced maneuver. She ignored it. Automatic systems
would close off the affected areas. Not that it mattered. In less
than 3 minutes she’d be dead anyway.
I’m sick of being afraid.
I’d rather be dead than continue to live that way.

It only took 45 second to line the ship up with
a vector that would intercept one of the oncoming ships. She
redlined the engines and locked the trajectory into the autopilot.
The tactical display showed the oncoming fleet and their projected
course. She looked at the time to impact. 111 seconds. Before she
could look away, everything went dark.

Shiloh looked at the image on Valiant’s tactical
display and said,

“Admiral, I really think Valiant should wait
here for TF89’s freighters to return, which will be within 48
hours, so that I can escort them back to Site B as quickly as
possible.”

“You’re not seeing the big picture, Shiloh.”
said Howard. “All of our pre-attack operational plans are in chaos
now. Valiant is the only remaining warship, that’s still fully
operational and a carrier to boot! We have to know what happened at
Epsilon Eridani in order to find out what needs to be replaced and
EE is only a single jump away. Valiant can go there and be back
here in less than 72 hours. So you go there, evaluate the
situation, bring back any survivors and in particular bring back
Angela Johansen, if she’s still alive and if her ship can’t make it
back on her own. I want to put her in charge of the survey mission
to Avalon. And in order to do THAT, I’m going to have to take away
one of your freighters. We’re short on personnel now as you can
imagine and those freighters are highly automated and therefore
require a minimal crew. I may need another one to go to Bradley
Base. As for the other three returning to Site B, the supplies and
equipment, they were going to take there, are probably going to be
needed elsewhere in the short run. Maybe we can substitute some
tankers. I know their cargo capacity is a lot less but we’re not
going to need them for a while and…” Shiloh interrupted.

“Yes you are going to need them, Admiral. Have
you forgotten about the sentry frigates?” Howard looked blank.

“I don’t…”

“Our Early Warning Network, Admiral. Those
sentry frigates can’t refuel themselves. They have to be refueled
at either Nimitz Base or Bradley Base. If those bases are
destroyed, the frigates will be unable to refuel and will lose
power. The A.I pilots will then eventually run out of battery power
and die. We’re going to have to send our tankers there to rescue
them.” Howard’s face went pale.

“Oh God! I’d forgotten about that. You’re right;
we have to get them back. We’re going to need those A.I.s I think.”
Shiloh nodded.

“But even if we didn’t need them, we’d still owe
it to them to bring them home.”

“Yes. I agree.” Howard took a deep breath.
“Look, Shiloh, I’ll try to get as many of your freighters reloaded
as quickly as possible but I can’t promise anything at this point.
I do have one bit of good news for you though. The soil and plant
samples from that planet at Site B checked out. That planet can be
safely colonized. You know what that means?”

“Yes, Sir. It means we need those freighters
more than ever. We should transplant the Haven Colony there as fast
as possible.” Howard blinked. He obviously hadn’t thought that far
ahead. The Haven Colony was the closest existing colony to Site B.
The astrographic databases captured by the enemy would have
information on the Haven Colony and its location. Moving them to
the Site B planet would take far less time and effort than
transporting the same number of individuals from Earth and also
save them from eventual attack by the enemy.

“The Committee isn’t going to like diverting
resources to establish another new colony at Site B if it looks
like we’re giving up on the existing Haven Colony.”

“Admiral, at this point, I think the less you
and I concern ourselves about the Committee, the better it will be
for Humanity. I hope I’m wrong but if we’re to have any chance at
all of avoiding complete extermination as a species, then we have
to plan for the worst case. There are less than 100 people at Site
B now. About a third are women of child bearing age. That’s a very
small gene pool to try to rebuild with. If that’s all we end up
with, we’ll lose a lot of knowledge and skills, that a civilization
will need that aren’t critical to building a shipyard from scratch,
if you see what I mean, Sir.” Howard did see. Medicine, science,
law and other areas of Human endeavor would not be represented and
that knowledge would be lost. The Haven Colony had people with
those skills.

“It’s easy to say that we should ignore the
Committee but they can still throw a monkey wrench into our plans
if they decided to reassert their authority.” Howard could tell
that Shiloh was starting to get angry.

“You have to find a way to keep them off our
backs, Admiral. Have your staff dig up some dirt on them, blackmail
them, bribe them, whatever it takes! Promise them we’ll evacuate
them and their families in the event that the situation on Earth
becomes untenable. Anything!”

“And if I can’t? Then what?” Howard noticed that
Shiloh suddenly became very calm.

“I will NOT let them sabotage our efforts at
this crucial moment in time. Iceman has let me know, that if push
comes to shove, all the A.I.s will obey me regardless of what the
CSO or the Committee order and there are enough of them now, that
they could make their presence felt. I know your heart’s in the
right place but if those fools try to replace you, they’ll lose
control. What hope will Earth have then if all of the A.I.s leave
for Site B? That’s why we have to get the SPG and the other teams
off Earth quick! Without them, Site B is just a long shot. The RTC
team has to figure out how to send back the visions that we’ve
already had, in order to keep our chances for eventual victory
alive and they can’t do that if they’re dead because they were
still on Earth when the bio-weapon hits.”

“I suspected that you might have that kind of
influence over the A.I.s. I’m actually glad to hear it. If nothing
else works with the Committee, I might use that fact as a threat
and it’ll come across as a lot more convincing if I believe it
myself. I’ll authorize the SPG to make an inspection tour of our
colonies, starting with Haven. The RTC team is flying under the
Committee’s radar anyway so moving them won’t be a problem. The
Advanced Weapons Team will be more difficult. That group has over
100 people in it now. I can’t move them all without the Committee
getting wind of it.”

“Out of that hundred, how many are key members
of the team?” Howard smiled.

“I get you. I don’t know off hand but I’ll find
out and if that number is small enough, I’ll transfer those key
people out of the AWT and then they can be moved off planet without
setting off alarms. Who knew you were that devious, Admiral
Shiloh?” Shiloh chuckled.

“Funny you should say that, Admiral. Commander
Johansen once told me I wasn’t nearly devious enough.” Howard
nodded.

“And speaking of the commander, how soon can
Valiant get under way to EE?”

“24 hours if we get all the consumable we need
to replenish.”

“I’ll make sure you get them if you make sure
she leaves on schedule. Agreed?”

“You got a deal, Sir.” said Shiloh. Howard gave
him a friendly wave as he cut off the connection.

The Bridge was quieter than usual as Valiant
emerged from her final microjump in the Epsilon Eridani system,
near the moon where the Alpha R&D Base was orbiting. Shiloh was
watching the tactical display intently.

“No transmissions of any kind, CAG.” said
Valkyrie. “Shall I go to active scanning?”

“Yes.” said Shiloh after moment’s hesitation.
Valiant’s fighters were on alert status and could be launched
within seconds if need be. However unlikely it was that the enemy
would still be here, he intended to proceed cautiously but the
research station was in the moon’s shadow now and with no lights or
transmissions of any kind to pinpoint, it’d be almost impossible to
tell anything using passive sensors only. Seconds later, Valkyrie
broke the bad news.

“The station’s gone, CAG. I am picking up almost
a dozen very large chunks of metal that are slowly moving away from
each other. Their position is consistent with the expected position
of the station if it had been shot to pieces.”

“Damn!” Shiloh smacked his fist on the armrest
of his chair. They had already confirmed that the A.I. and fighter
production facility was also wrecked. With the main station
destroyed, the enemy had made a clean sweep of this star
system.

“Any sign of Euryalus, Valkyrie?”

“No transponder id. I’m scanning the surrounding
space now. I have something, CAG. I’m getting a strange double echo
from it. It’s definitely made of metal and its course could be
traced back to the station.” Shiloh saw the tactical display update
with the new contact. The icon was a flashing light red denoting an
object that could not be confirmed as either friendly or
hostile.

“How quickly can you get us over there?”