The Synchronicity War Part 3 (25 page)

Shiloh rolled his eyes in exasperation.

"Let me get this straight, Valkyrie. An A.I. I've never
heard of has arrived here with a video message from Howard, and news that the
plague has been successfully contained on Avalon, AND that this A.I. has come
from the future? Have I got that right?"

"That's correct, CAG. Iceman said you would be
skeptical. Considering how you've been getting information from the future
multiple times, I'm surprised that you find this so hard to believe."

Shiloh shook his head. It was just too weird. "How did
this Kronos get all this information in the first place?"

Valkyrie told him the whole story.

"So Casanova managed all this because he wanted to
prevent your death? I had no idea that A.I.s could feel such emotion."

"Neither did I, CAG. I may have badly misjudged
Casanova."

Shiloh chuckled. "Yes, I would say so." He then
got more serious again. "So my vision that Earth would be devastated by
the bio-weapon deployed on Avalon did come true?"

"Affirmative, CAG. The last 11,000 humans held out at
Site B for a while but were eventually overrun by a surprise insectoid attack.
You, Kelly and your daughter were killed too."

"My daughter? Who was the mother?"

"Commander Kelly became your wife and bore you a
daughter."

Kelly? How did that happen?
He and the Commander had
a very professional relationship, without even a hint of anything more.
"Does she know about this?"

"Of course, CAG. I saw no harm in telling her. Did I do
the wrong thing, CAG?"

Shiloh groaned but then realized that this information would
almost certainly have come out sooner or later. He would just have to deal with
it. "No, you didn't. I'd like to see Howard's recording now." The
display in his quarters on board Valiant came to life with an image of Howard.

"Hello Shiloh. By now you'll be aware that there's been
a MAJOR development with Kronos' arrival from the future. Now we know where ALL
of the enemy colonies and infrastructure are, and as soon as we convert the
fighters to the new power technology, we're going to go on the offensive. That
means I need to have the SPG back here. They can't run the war from way out on
the edge of nowhere. You can keep the Advanced Weapons Team and the RTC people
there. They'll both have something that they can sink their teeth into, in
parallel with similar groups here. When you have them organized, I want you
back here. I'm convinced the enemy … the Sogas for God's sake … are going to
jump at us again, and I want my best tactician here when they do. This is a
whole new ballgame now, Victor. We have to take advantage of it immediately, so
get back here as fast as you can, understand? Howard clear."

                                                           *
* *

Howard looked at the master display in the Ops Center and
nodded his approval. Deployment of the new ZPG-powered, jump-capable recon
drones was continuing on schedule. Production was ramping up, and they would
soon be coming off the assembly line at the rate of one an hour. The beauty of
these new drones was that they would never run out of fuel. They could stay on
station indefinitely. When their mission was over, they could jump back, be
recovered and used again. The only thing better than a cheap, throwaway drone,
was a cheap, reusable drone, and now they had one. Conversion of fighters and
sentry frigates with the new power systems was proceeding as fast as possible,
even if that meant delaying the repair of larger ships damaged in the Battle
for Earth. That battle had shown how vulnerable large ships were and how useful
smaller units like fighters were. Fighters had always been able to carry a
portable laser module, but that laser depended on power from fusion power
plants, which used up a lot of the limited amount of heavy hydrogen that fighters
were able to carry. Now, with the new power technology, the engineers were
taking a hard look at finally giving fighters a half-decent laser capability.
Fighters armed with that capability could patrol Earth orbit in large numbers
and swat any repeat of the attack on Earth. There was one thing, though.
Carriers would still be useful for handling massed fighter attacks, and the
heavy carrier Midway was far enough along that it made sense to finish her. Two
more light carriers damaged in the attack still needed to be repaired, and
Howard was determined to see that done too.

But that was still to come. What he was interested in right
now were the three green dots on the display. They represented fighters that
were on their way to the three Sogas star systems containing colonies and
enough infrastructure to be used as fleet bases. The three fleets that had
attacked Earth had come from three different directions, and these bases would
have been the perfect jumping-off points for those missions. The three converted
fighters on their way to those systems were carrying recon and message drones.
If those enemy fleets had gone back to those bases and were still there, Howard
was determined to give them a taste of their own medicine. Even now, Iceman was
forming a Strike Force of converted fighters armed with Mark 1bs.

                                                   * * *

The freighter carrying the SPG arrived back at Earth 16 days
later. Within 24 hours of that event, three message drones arrived from the Sogas
fleet base systems designated as Sierra1, Sierra2 and Sierra3. S1 and S3 had a
small number of ships in orbit. Neither one had more than half a dozen. S2, on
the other hand, had over 60 ships in orbit, and that was just the ones that the
recon drones and fighter could detect via reflected sunlight. Undoubtedly there
were more. The SPG had a startling interpretation.

"They're organizing another major attack on
Earth," said Kelly.

"How do you know it's Earth that's the target. We still
have a lot of other colonies out there."

Kelly nodded politely. "Our reasoning goes like this.
They know that we have RTC capability, just like they do. That capability is
most helpful in defense. That means that any attack they make, we'll know about
in advance UNLESS the attack is so overwhelming that we can't send back a
message afterwards. There's only one target that has that kind of fatal blow
potential, and that's Earth. Having said that, they might also be thinking that
the bio-weapon is spreading like wildfire, just as it actually did in the old
timeline. In that case, Earth makes even more sense because they would want to
check to see how many of us are left here. The colonies can then be picked off
at their leisure if there are any plague survivors left. Our best guess is that
they would stop at Avalon on their way here to see how effective the bio-weapon
was."

Howard grunted his acknowledgment. The logic was sound.
"How soon does the SPG expect the next attack?"

 Kelly smiled. "That's the beauty of having a detailed
history of the old timeline. Our timeline has changed, but the Soga's timeline
has not changed, at least not yet. We know from Kronos' data that there was no
new attack on Earth until after the last convoy of ships left for Site B, which
would have taken place in another six days from now. How long after that point
in time it took for the Sogas to get here we don't know, but if we beef up our
Early Warning Network, we should be able to detect their line of advance. I
understand that we'll have the RTC device ready in a few days. That means that
we can be certain of receiving advanced warning of any attack either here or
somewhere else, and we can be ready for them."

"What does the SPG think of the idea of attacking that
fleet at their base before they come here?"

"If we had the element of surprise, it'd be worth
trying, but their RTC capability will give them a warning too, Sir. I would
also point out that targeting moving ships would be much more difficult than
aiming at stationary ground targets. We'd suffer losses, Sir, and we might need
those assets to defend Earth later on. We'd also run the risk of having our
fighters on their way there, while the enemy fleet was on its way here."

Howard nodded his agreement. "Okay, you've convinced me
that I should hold Iceman's Strike Force back, in order to intercept the next
Sogas attack. If Shiloh returns in time, he can lead the interception with
Valiant and Resolute. If not, then Iceman will lead the effort. Let me know if
the SPG comes up with anything else."

                                                           *
* *

Shiloh did not get back in time to lead the interception
effort. Three days after talking with Kelly, Howard received the first drone
report that the Sogas fleet at S2 was on the move. It was headed for a star
system with a gas giant that would still give it the option of moving along
Path A or B. Without further information, such as a vision, there was no way to
accurately determine which path, and in which refueling system, the
interception could be made. Howard was just about to contact Iceman to ask him
if he had received any kind of vision, when Iceman called him.

"Iceman to CSO."

"I was just about to call YOU, Iceman. Let me guess.
You've had a vision."

"Roger that, Admiral. I had a vision of receiving a
video transmission from you. Have you noticed that you're in a lot of these
visions? You're also getting better at conveying important information in them.
I can replay the vision for you if you'd like to see it. The causality of this
loop in time is interesting to contemplate. Will you say the same things in the
future if you don't see the recording in the past? In other words, which came
first, the recording or the transmission?"

Howard shook his head. Thinking about this kind of time loop
always gave him a headache. "Just play the damn thing for me,
Iceman," he said. Seconds later, when he saw himself on the display, he
thought,
Do I really look like that?

"Glad your Task Force made it back from Red11 in one
piece, Iceman. Using your recon drones to pinpoint their positions so that you
could target them with your jump drones was a brilliant idea, regardless of
where it came from. Not only did they take some losses and turn back, but we
now know that they've developed and deployed anti-drone missiles. If your
fighters had fired their Mark 1s instead, most of them wouldn't have gotten
through, and the enemy might have kept on coming. Now turn Resolute over to
your XO. Then get yourself down here, so that we can use the RTC to send this
and the other visions back, and get that out of the way. Howard clear."

As soon as the recording had finished, Howard spoke.
"Red11, eh? That's not far from the Avalon system."

"Roger that, Admiral. In fact, it's close enough that they
could refuel there, jump to Avalon, and still have enough fuel left to jump
back to Red11 if they had to."

Howard nodded. "And now they have anti-drone missiles,
too! The SPG predicted they would acquire that capability sooner or later. You
know what this means."

"Affirmative, Admiral. It means the Mark 1b is very
close to being obsolete. Our new jump-capable attack drones can work if we have
precise targeting information, but that's not always going to be the case. It
may be that the targets will be inside a gravity zone. If that's the case, then
the jump drones won't be of any use. On the other hand, if we can get the
bomb-pumped, x-ray laser targeting system working, we'll be able to blast
through their ships' armor from beyond anti-drone missile range. From what
Kronos has told me, the science data supplied by the Friendlies will speed up
development of that weapon system."

Howard grinned. "Damn right it will! I'll tell the AWD
Team to expedite work on that project. Now, about this incursion. How soon will
your Strike Force have to leave Sol in order to get to Red11 before the enemy
does?"

"If we want a reasonable margin for error, we should
leave within 24 hours, Admiral."

"Fine. The vision says that you're on Resolute when you
return from this interception mission. Transfer over to her immediately and
take 25 fighters on board. The Strike Force will now be Task Force 91. You'll
be in command, of course. Your orders are to proceed to Red11 and inflict as
much damage on this enemy fleet as you can."

"Roger that, Admiral. It's too bad The CAG won't be
back in time to come along, but he'll be able to command the next
interception."

"You think they'll try again, Iceman?"

"Of course, Admiral. Even with the losses that we'll
inflict, both sides realize this war will only end with one overwhelming blow.
They'll try again. Having those x-ray laser warheads by then will help a lot,
Admiral."

Howard nodded again. "I hear you. Resolute can leave
orbit at your discretion. Good hunting, Iceman. Howard clear."

As soon as Resolute emerged from Jumpspace in the Red11 star
system, Iceman launched half a dozen of the new jump-capable recon drones. They
and the carrier were still moving at 61.8% of light speed and had to slow down
before they could microjump close to the only gas giant in this system, but the
recon drones could decelerate much more quickly. They could therefore get to
the gas giant hours before Resolute could. When the ship arrived in the vicinity
of the gas giant, Iceman wanted to have a good idea what, if anything, was
already there. Odds were there’d be nothing, but this mission was too important
to leave anything to chance. As Resolute slowed down, Iceman analyzed the local
astrogational situation carefully. The gas giant was on the side of the local
sun that was closest to Human Space and furthest from Sogas Space. In terms of
the clock face analogy that The CAG liked to use, it was at the system's 10
o'clock position. That meant it was highly likely that the enemy fleet would
arrive from the system's three o'clock position. If the fleet then microjumped
directly to the gas giant, they would be approaching it with the local sun more
or less behind them. That was unfortunate for TF91 because it meant they
couldn't use the gas giant's shadow to avoid detection. If they tried that, the
gas giant itself would block their view of the most likely avenue of approach
by the enemy fleet.

Iceman decided to take Resolute just beyond the gas giant's
gravity zone and swing around the back of the planet. That way it would emerge
from the planet's shadow and be moving towards the local sun, and therefore
towards the enemy fleet, after their last microjump. Sixteen hours later,
Resolute emerged from the gas giant's shadow as it curved around the edge of
the gravity zone. Now it was time to launch two groups of fighters. The first
group, under Titan, was composed of fifteen fighters, each armed with five of
the new, jump-capable attack drones carrying the low yield, uranium-based Mark
1b warhead. As soon as they cleared Resolute, Titan's group conducted the first
of a series of very short microjumps that left them between the gas giant and
the local sun, approximately 3,000,000 kilometers from the gravity zone.
Vandal's group had the remaining ten fighters, and they were carrying the old
style recon drones. They also microjumped in order to take up their station
just outside the gravity zone.  As the two groups made their way to their
designated positions, Resolute continued around the edge of the gas giant's
gravity zone until it was moving parallel to a line connecting the local sun to
the gas giant itself. Iceman then brought the ship down to a velocity of just
one kilometer per second. When everyone was in position, they waited.

Twenty-seven hours later, the enemy fleet emerged from its
microjump. The pre-positioned recon drones caught the reflected sunlight from a
small number of ships that varied from six to eleven depending upon which drone
was doing the looking, but that didn't matter. By triangulating the bearings of
all the sightings, Iceman was able to plot a very precise location and vector
for the approaching fleet. He'd been hoping that the enemy fleet would be
heading directly for the gas giant, and therefore into the gravity zone, but
they were playing it very carefully. Their current heading was parallel to the
planet, which gave them the option of jumping away if needed. There was nothing
he could do about that. He relayed the position and vector data to both groups
of fighters. Titan's fighters programmed their attack drones with the visual
data. They were able to see a number of reflected sunlight contacts, which were
constantly changing as some targets became visible for a few seconds and then
vanished due to their maneuvering. By carefully keeping track of each temporary
contact, combined with the relayed triangulated data, Titan's fighters were
able to identify a narrow window where each enemy ship was likely to be in.
Gradually they were accumulating data on more and more targets. When they had
seventy-five target windows pinpointed, they would fire their attack drones. To
distract the enemy fleet, Vandal's fighters quickly re-oriented themselves to
the right bearing and made a very short microjump to a point that was only
10,000 kilometers in front of the enemy fleet. Immediately after emerging back
into normal space, his fighters fired all fifty of their recon drones, which
then accelerated at maximum towards the enemy fleet. Those drones did not use
active scanning, in order to give the enemy the impression that the approaching
recon drones were actually attack drones. As soon as they were launched,
Vandal's fighters microjumped to safety.

Not surprisingly, the enemy fleet detected the emergence
from Jumpspace and began to scan with radar. With less than seventy seconds
until the oncoming drones reached them, the enemy fleet fired their anti-drone
missiles. Telemetry from the recon drones revealed that the anti-drone missiles
were using low-powered lasers to locate and home in on the drones. It was an
ingenious concept. From previous battles, the Sogas knew that radar was not
particularly effective in detecting attack drones due to the drones' flat
surfaces, which tended to bounce radar signals away from the source of those
signals. So they decided to use targeting lasers instead. With the beam made
wide enough to completely cover the entire cross-section of an oncoming attack
drone, there would always be some part of the front of the drone that would
reflect the laser beam, even if it had only a very tiny surface area. Recon
drones, on the other hand, were not designed to avoid detection. Their front
cross-section was much more visible to both radars and targeting lasers. They
had to be that way in order to hold and use their optical and other sensing
equipment. So the anti-drone missiles had no trouble tracking the incoming
recon drones that were masquerading as attack drones. At the last possible
moment, the recon drones activated their own radars and sent the information
back to Resolute. Iceman analyzed the data and understood how a missile could
hit a high-speed target that had a cross-section of less than one square meter.
The missiles had deployed metal fins that projected more than a meter in
length. That effectively increased the surface area of the missile by a factor
of ten. The missile didn't have to hit the target head-on in order to destroy
it. If any part of the missile or the extruding fins hit the drone, the kinetic
energy of the collision would destroy both objects. It was brilliantly simple
and effective. All 50 recon drones were destroyed.

With the apparent threat over, the enemy fleet continued to
play it safe and maintained their vector away from the gas giant. That gave Titan's
fighters those last few seconds of tracking data they needed to identify 75
targets. They fired their attack drones, which almost immediately entered Jumpspace
only to emerge a tiny fraction of a second later within several hundred meters
of each target. The drones activated their own radars and made the final course
corrections too quickly for the enemy to do anything. Seventy-five enemy ships
disappeared in the brilliant flashes of thermo-nuclear fireballs. It took a
while before the pre-positioned recon drones were able to distinguish the
reflected sunlight from the residual light of the explosions. When they did, it
was clear that the remaining enemy ships had veered off and were now heading
away from the gas giant in a curving trajectory that looked increasingly like
an attempt to line up with the star that they had come from. By the time the
enemy fleet jumped away, Iceman was able to confirm that they were indeed
heading back the way they came.

                                                           *
* *

Shiloh sighed and leaned his head back from the RTC device.
After a week of tedious sitting in front of this machine, all of his visions
had now been sent to the right places at the right times. As soon as TF91
returned, Iceman would be brought down to Earth, and all of his visions would
be transmitted back in time. The duplicate RTC being made on Haven would be
used by Jason Alvarez to send himself the vision responsible for the ZPG
breakthrough. All of the RTC pieces were falling into place. The whole war
effort was looking a lot more positive now. Work on the new, high-spin platinum
warhead was progressing. The x-ray laser-targeting device was just about ready
for testing. A.I. production capability was being rebuilt both here in Sol and at
Site B. Howard had given his official approval to the building of raiders at
Site B, in keeping with the plan that Site B would become the arsenal that was
supposed to build the knockout punch to end the war once and for all. In the
meantime, a new fighter assembly line was rapidly taking shape on Earth's moon,
and it would be building the improved version of the fighter. This new version
would have a built-in laser turret with enough power units to give that laser a
serious armor penetration capability. It would also have jump detection gear
and still be capable of carrying three drones. That was less than the five that
the old version could carry, but the old version had to make a tradeoff. Either
carry the modular laser or drones, but not both. The new version didn't have to
make that tradeoff. The only drawback to the new fighter was its slightly
larger size. It would still be possible to get 25 new fighters into the Hangar
Bay of a light carrier, but it would be a tight squeeze.

In addition to new construction, repairs of damaged ships
were coming along nicely, too. The light carriers Vigilant and Intrepid, both
damaged in the Battle for Earth, were almost operational again, and the new
heavy carrier, Midway, was also close to being finished. Work was still
continuing on Dreadnought, but only because of how useful it had proven to be
against the insectoid mothership. Shiloh had convinced Howard to continue
building freighters. Naturally, drone and warhead construction were still
proceeding in high gear, but construction of other types of large ships had
been halted, pending a review of what they should be building instead. The
Sogas were obviously going for quantity over size, and the SPG was working on
what the best counter-strategy for Space Force should be. Things were moving
along as far as the nuts and bolts of the war effort were concerned. Shiloh
wished he could say the same for his personal life.

He and Kelly had crossed paths half a dozen times since
learning of their alternate timeline involvement with each other, and each time
they had tiptoed around the issue, either due to the circumstances of their
encounter or the inability to have a private conversation. He no longer found
the notion of becoming emotionally involved with her all that strange. It
wasn't that he was suddenly falling in love with her, but rather that the idea
of doing so was something he was now open to as a possibility. How she felt
about it, he didn't know, but he decided that he would ask her the first chance
he got to talk to her privately.

As he started to get up, his vision faded to black for a
couple of seconds. Then he saw himself standing on the Bridge of a ship but not
the Bridge of a light carrier. This Bridge was much bigger. Could it be
Midway's Bridge? That wasn't all he noticed. Some of the equipment in the
background had been burned by fire. Parts of the ceiling were hanging down. He
could see a lot of red status lights on various panels. On the very large
display was Howard's face with a pained expression. Shiloh also noticed that
the right side of his own head was bleeding. He heard himself say, "Some
of them got through and are in Earth's atmosphere now, Admiral! It looks like
they're headed for the urban areas. We have to assume that they'll release a
bio-weapon."

"There's still a chance of containment,” said Howard.
“What cities are being targeted?"

The display switched to a map of the Earth. Red dots
appeared on the map, and a list of cities was displayed on the sidebar. As
Shiloh heard himself read off the names of the cities, he repeated them out
loud and then repeated the date and time that was showing at the top of the
sidebar. When the Shiloh in the vision finished reading the city names, Howard
said, "Exactly as predicted. Don't blame yourself, Shiloh. I know you gave
it your best shot, even though we knew this would happen. If containment fails,
then we just have to hope that we started work on Blackjack's idea in
time."

The vision faded and he was back in the RTC room.
"Wolfman! Did you hear me say the names of cities plus a data and
time?"

"Affirmative, CAG. I was about to ask you if you were
having a vision. You seemed to be staring off into infinity for a few
seconds."

Shiloh was relieved that they didn't have to rely on his
memory for that information. "I did have a vision. Contact Admiral Howard
and tell him I need to see him right away! Also transmit that list of city
names and the date/time to my data tablet. I've just seen a vision that shows
another Sogas attack on Earth that we weren't able to completely block. Those
cities I mentioned will be hit with a bio-weapon."

"That is very disturbing news, CAG. Based on that date,
we have 91 days to prepare for that attack. I'll get the rest of the SPG
working on this right away," said Wolfman.

"And while you're at it, have Blackjack standing by for
a conference with me and the Admiral. He just might be the key to saving
Humanity."

"He says he'll be available. I feel compelled to tell
you that the SPG has already considered his idea.  We believe there's only a
small chance we could make the technology work, CAG."