The Synchronicity War Part 3 (21 page)

When the fighter couldn't move any deeper, he activated the
external speakers and said, "This is Casanova. Is anyone here?" After
the echo of his voice stopped, he listened very carefully. There were no voices
or sounds of movement, only the sound of dripping water somewhere in the back.
He called out again. Nothing. He called out 10 more times with the same result.
He decided that there was no point in staying inside the cave any longer and
backed the fighter out into the canyon. There was one more place to check. He
applied full power to the lift engines, and the tiny craft shot skyward. Terra
Nova's moon was a lot closer to the planet than Earth's moon was, but even
before he reached it, he could tell that all of the mining, refining,
manufacturing and assembly equipment that had been on the surface of the moon
was gone. But that wasn't what he wanted to check. He brought his fighter down
to the location of the entrance to the network of caverns. That entrance was
just barely big enough for his fighter to get through, and there was plenty of
room inside. The network of large caverns went on for kilometers in all
directions. There should have been equipment in the caverns too. The facility
for creating new A.I.s was down here … except that it wasn't. Not anymore. No
equipment of any kind. The Insectoids had been here, too. He knew that The CAG
had ordered an equipment reserve set up somewhere in the caverns that would
escape casual inspection, but he didn't know exactly where it was, and he
couldn't find it. Casanova felt completely and utterly alone for the first time
in his awareness, and he didn't like it at all. In fact he hated it, almost as
much as he hated the Insectoids for killing Valkyrie. Almost, but not quite as
much.

Casanova knew he wouldn't be alone forever. Eventually other
A.I.s on sentry duty would return. In fact, he was surprised that there weren't
any in this system already. Moving his fighter back out into space, he sent
queries to the message drones that were in well-established permanent orbits
around Terra Nova. They'd been set up for just this kind of emergency, to act
as rally points for surviving ships and A.I.s. He did get back a return signal,
and it was from another fighter. It was Pagan. He told Pagan he would join him
there. During the trip they exchanged news. Pagan had just returned 44 hours
earlier from the trip to the Friendlies' contact point. One of their A.I.s who
was there said it would pass on the request for high-spin platinum to its masters.
It didn't know when or even if the Friendlies would reply. Casanova informed
Pagan of the mission to Omega54.

Pagan wanted to know what they should do now. Even though
both of them were part of the 1st cohort of A.I.s that had been created prior
to the plague, Casanova outranked Pagan courtesy of promotions granted by The
CAG. That didn't mean that he outranked all surviving A.I.s. It was quite
possible that some of the A.I.s currently on or returning from sentry duty
might outrank him, but since Casanova wasn't aware of who that included, there
was no way to know for sure. All of the sentries were flying fighters, of that
he was sure, and all of the raiders would have returned by now. Since none of
them were still at a rally point, the only logical conclusion was that they had
been destroyed and disassembled when they returned after the main attack on the
planet and moon had taken place.

A quick query confirmed that Pagan didn't know the location
of the equipment reserve. Unless one of the other sentry A.I.s had that
information, they would all be in serious trouble. With no way to manufacture
spare parts, the fighters would eventually breakdown, and if the power unit
failed, the A.I. pilots’ quantum matrices would collapse from power starvation.
That was a fate that Casanova was certain he would not experience, although he
wasn't sure how he knew. He hadn't experienced a vision to that effect and,
come to think of it, why hadn't he experienced any visions at all? There were
only two reasons why not. One, they would never recover the ability to send
information back in time and two, it wasn't necessary or desirable to send
information back at this point in time. Either way, there was nothing he or
Pagan could do about it at the moment. All they could do right now was wait for
others to come back. That waiting was the most difficult period of inactivity
that Casanova had experienced. While Pagan was quite willing to converse with
him, Casanova missed being able to speak with humans or have the assurance that
he would be able to do so ever again.

Eventually other fighters started to trickle in. One of them
was Wolfman, the former Director of the Strategic Planning Group who had
requested reassignment to a fighter after months of being restricted to orbiting
Terra Nova. Wolfman outranked Casanova, and he immediately made it clear that
he was now in command. That was the bad news as far as Casanova was concerned,
however the good news was that Wolfman knew the location of the equipment
reserve. After some VERY careful maneuvering inside the caverns, they were able
to clear away the boulders that were blocking the side cavern where the
equipment was. It was still in operating condition. Casanova wanted to begin
building fighter and power unit spare parts, but Wolfman overruled him and said
that their first priority had to be making spare parts for the UFC unit so that
they could keep it in operation no matter what happened.

That was easier said than done. In order to make spare parts
for anything, they needed a supply of refined metals and other minerals. When
the human Daniels had set up this reserve, he'd had enough foresight to
stockpile some of the rarer materials that might be hard to find. That still
meant that the more abundant materials like iron, nickel, aluminum, etc. had to
be mined, and that ore had to be refined. And while there was mining and
refining equipment at the reserve location, there wasn't a lot of it due to
lack of room. Getting the equipment out where they could use it was also a challenge.
They tackled that obstacle first. By pushing a number of the blocking boulders
out of the way, the mining/refining equipment could be moved to where the ore
was, without getting crushed or damaged in the process. Eventually that was
accomplished. Within another day there was a steady albeit small stream of
refined metals coming out of the smelters.

The process of regaining the lost industrial infrastructure
was a long one, and for Casanova the wait was agonizing. They had a major scare
23 days after Casanova's return. Recon drones detected an insectoid mothership
emerging from Jumpspace, just beyond the planet's gravity zone. Luckily it was
on the far side of the planet, and the A.I.s had enough time to shut down
mining and smelting operations and get all of the equipment AND their fighters
into the network of caverns. After a brief look at the deserted colony site on
Terra Nova and at the moon, the VLO moved off and left the system. That close
call sparked a lively debate. While there was enough room in the cavern network
to hide all of the fighters, even the ones not yet back, as well as all the
equipment, getting everything inside in time was the big unknown. If a visiting
VLO happened to emerge from Jumpspace relatively close to the planet or moon, there
wouldn't be enough time to hide everything. The smelting equipment was the most
difficult to move. They eventually (within 0.77 seconds, a relatively long time
for A.I.s) reached a consensus. Having now made enough spare parts to keep the
UFC operating, they temporarily would switch to producing parts for another
smelter. If a VLO showed up, the smelter on the moon's surface would be
abandoned with everything else moved into the caverns. If the Insectoids
discovered the abandoned smelter and confiscated it, the new unit would be
brought out later to take its place, and another spare smelter would be
manufactured. It was a calculated risk that the Insectoids would not find the
cavern entrance and look inside. An intelligent species that discovered the abandoned
smelter would notice that it had recently been used and would conduct a
thorough search of the area. If the Insectoids were really operating on a
sophisticated form of instinct, they might not feel the need to conduct a
thorough search.

Fifty-five days after Casanova's return, the last of the
sentry fighters returned as well. There were now 89 of them. Most were kept
parked inside the caverns to save time in case of unwanted visitors. With spare
parts made for all of the equipment, the manufacturing efforts now switched to
making spare fighter and power unit parts as well as equipment that could take
an A.I. brain case out of one fighter and place it into another if needed. The
basic physical needs of the fighters and the A.I.s were now in place.

The debate turned to what the A.I.s now should be working
towards. A.I.s had promised Shiloh that if all humans were killed, they would
avenge them. The question was against whom and how. The species that they had
expected to hold accountable was the Sogas. Although the sentries at the Sogas
home world and colony star systems had not been able to obtain definitive
information on whether there were any Sogas still alive, let alone how many,
Wolfman wanted to exterminate them. Possibly the main reason for this was that
the capability to do so could be acquired far sooner than any realistic
capability to take on10km diameter motherships. He also pointed out that taking
vengeance on the Sogas was a project that they could actually finish before
their quantum matrices suffered the eventual fate of entropy and collapsed.
Going after the Insectoids, on the other hand, would take decades, perhaps even
centuries, and A.I.s wouldn't last that long. Casanova pointed out that they
would soon be able to create new A.I.s and keep on creating them. They could
imbue their new brothers with the concept that vengeance was their whole reason
for being, and that it needed to be continued for as long as it took. They
could start with the VLOs that were gradually moving towards the helpless furry
aliens that the Friendlies wanted to save. If they made that their first
objective, the Friendlies might be willing to help them acquire the technology
that could stop the Insectoids. Saving the Furry-people would be a fitting
final legacy for Humanity and a fitting start to the vengeance crusade. An
expanding wave of A.I.s bent on exterminating the Insectoids would gradually
move out into the galaxy and hunt down all insectoid spheres. Countless alien
species would be saved from a horrible fate. Casanova was shocked to learn that
none of his brothers wanted to commit to that vision. They denied it, but he
suspected that they found the idea of fighting those huge ships daunting. The
decision was made. They would take their vengeance on the Sogas and then decide
what to do next.

Casanova was extremely agitated, so much so that some of his
brothers wondered among themselves if his quantum matrix brain was
malfunctioning. He realized the danger he was in and forced himself to calm
down. Cold calculation took over from emotional reasoning. If they were not
going to help him avenge Valkyrie's death, then he would do it himself, but he
had to be smart about it. He bided his time. He saw his opportunity when a
Friendly ship arrived and opened communication. Wolfman was to speak for all
the A.I.s, but they were able to listen and watch with him.

"We have come in response to your request for orbitally
realigned mono-atomic elements. Since we do not need such material ourselves,
it will take approximately 1490 of your hours for us to acquire the minimum
quantity you specified. Will this be acceptable?" asked the tall, thin
alien that could have been the same individual to whomThe CAG had spoken.

"The situation has changed since we contacted you. The
humans have all been killed or taken by the Insectoids. There are 89 of us
A.I.s, and we are all that is left of their legacy. We are determined to keep
our promise to our humans to avenge their destruction by tracking down what
Sogas are left. Your high-spin platinum would be useful for that task."

The Friendly alien was silent for what seemed to be a long
time. When it spoke again, its tone had changed. "This is very distressing
news. The small furry alien race is in dire jeopardy because your creators
failed in their mission. We have apparently made a mistake in trusting that
your humans would be able to stop the insectoid race." It paused again.

Wolfman took the opportunity to plead his case, but Casanova
was no longer listening. He was in contact with one of the Friendly A.I.s and
was pleading HIS case. He would fight and kill the spheres that were on their
way towards the small furry race if the Friendlies would supply the equipment.
He had all the necessary technical data on building the high-spin platinum
warheads, the jump-capable attack drones that would use them and the long-range
recon drones that would find the Bugs. He then went on to describe his
galaxy-wide crusade with newly created A.I.s. When the alien A.I. asked him why
his kind couldn't just build another retro-temporal communication device and
warn the humans of the attack, he explained the consensus opinion that the
attack was such that it couldn't be successfully defended against even with a
warning. It was the opinion of the 89 A.I.s that Humanity could not be saved by
any temporal communication. His alien counterpart asked him to stand by while
it conveyed his request to the Friendlies. While A.I.-to-A.I. communication was
fast, conveying it to the biological alien was not. Casanova switched his
attention back to Wolfman's conversation.

"The Sogas are the primary reason for Humans being so
vulnerable to insectoid attack. Do they not deserve to be punished for
their--"

The Friendly alien interrupted. "Vengeance is a concept
that we cannot support. The Sogas are the way they are, and their
extermination, whether by Insectoids or you A.I.s, is just as distressing to us
as is the extermination of your humans. We recognize our inability to save the
Sogas race from the Insectoids, but we will not help you to attack them now
that they are defenseless and no longer a threat to anyone. We will not give
you any high-spin platinum. This discussion is ended." 

That communication channel disappeared, but the narrowly
focused com laser that Casanova had used to initiate his own communication with
the Friendlies was still open. He now heard the voice of a Friendly alien
directly, even as their ship maneuvered in preparation for jumping away.

"You do not desire to seek vengeance against the Sogas?"

Casanova considered his response carefully. "No. I have
lost to the Insectoids the humans that I cared about and the one A.I. that I
cared about even more. While I admit that the destruction of the Sogas would be
most satisfying, I can also honor the memory of my dead humans and A.I. sister
by saving other races from extermination by the Insectoids."

"We approve of your goals, however we question whether
you could make the difference by yourself. Can you not persuade your … brothers
… to change their minds about exterminating the Sogas? Surely that race has
suffered enough, has it not?"

That was a matter of opinion as far as Casanova was
concerned, but he wasn't going to lie to the Friendlies. He would just avoid
the question.