The Synchronicity War Part 4 (8 page)

"How did they do it?" asked
Shiloh before Howard could say anything.

"We don't know and it doesn't
matter," said Howard. "Now you know why I'm so angry. If the other
colonies aren't already infected, then the enemy has screwed up. I'm going to
assume that they're infected now or will be before we can do anything to help
them. We are going to wrap Earth in a ring of steel. Even if every single
colony is wiped out, we can start over as long as Earth is not infected. We're
still looking for that homeless guy living underground, but we know that we'll
find him eventually. As for the Friendlies' suggestion that we turn the other
cheek and save the Sogas, they can go fuck themselves! WE ARE NOT TURNING THE
OTHER CHEEK!"

Howard's face was red with rage. Opening
his mouth to say something more, he suddenly grimaced in pain, clutched his
chest and fell off his chair to the floor. Shiloh was closest, and as he knelt
down beside him, he heard Kelly call for medics over the intercom.

"Take it easy, Admiral—" Shiloh
started to say, but Howard cut him off.

"Promise me you won't turn the other
cheek! Promise me, God dammit!" said Howard in a voice raspy with pain.

Shiloh hesitated.
He's letting his rage
cloud his judgment. We need to break out of this cycle of fear and hate.

He shook his head and said, "I can't
promise that, Admiral. I don't think it's the best way."

Howard said nothing and looked away. 

Kelly knelt down beside Shiloh and said,
"I'll keep an eye on the Admiral. The medics will be here any second. You
should take over the meeting, Victor."

Shiloh shook his head. "We can't
continue the meeting with Howard laying on the floor for God's sake!"

Kelly gave him a hard look. "I'm not
saying CONTINUE the meeting, just take control of it. You're now the ranking
officer. Everyone is waiting for you to do something, so go do it."

Shiloh took a deep breath. She was right.
There was nothing he could do for Howard, and as the next most senior officer,
he had a duty to take control of the situation. He stood up and walked over to
the end of the table where the other three human members of the SPG were
standing.

Speaking loud enough for the AIs to hear,
he said, "We're going to temporarily stop the meeting until the Admiral
gets medical attention. Kronos, I'd like to talk with you on a private line.
Stand by while I set that up."

"I'm standing by, CAG."

By the time Shiloh had finished speaking
with Kronos, the medics had taken Howard away. Kelly was nowhere in sight. One
of her SPG comrades confirmed that she had gone with the medics. Indicating to
the others to sit, Shiloh sat back down in the same chair as before.

"Obviously I can't make any decisions
about our future strategy. Admiral Dietrich is the Deputy CSO, and he'll take
over temporarily until a permanent replacement can be appointed by the
Oversight Committee."
That should be an interesting meeting,
thought
Shiloh. "What I can do is make recommendations. Kronos has just informed
me that the Friendlies are willing to try to restrain the Sogas if we don't let
the Insectoids conquer them. My understanding of events in the alternate
timeline lead me to believe that we have a lot more to fear from the Insectoids
than from the Sogas. Even if we can sidestep them now, Humanity will have to
face them again at some point. Eliminating the Insectoid threat once and for
all will require Friendly assistance. In order to get that, we need to capture
one of the Bugs, dead or alive, and take it to the Friendlies. Wolfman! Given
what we know of the alternate timeline, what's our best option for capturing a
bug?"

"Data recorded by Valkyrie of the
insectoid attack on the Sogas colony at Omega77 shows that at least one
Insectoid was killed by the defenders. None of the subsequent recordings of
that encounter show that dead Insectoid being recovered before the VLO left. If
we send a ship to arrive there after the VLO leaves, then we may be able to recover
an insectoid body, CAG."

Shiloh nodded. "Yes and when the VLO
arrives at the Sogas home system, we'll be there to take it out with the new
Mark 6 warheads, and we'll help destroy the bug attack ships as well. That
should show the Sogas that they don't have to fear us."

"Not necessarily, CAG. We shouldn't
assume that they’d stop their attacks on us just because we help them with the
Insectoids. We might act that way, but their logic is sufficiently different
from ours that they may continue the war. The Friendlies seem to have some
influence with them. If we let the Friendlies know what our plan is and ask for
their help, they may be able to convince the Sogas to stand down after we save
their home world."

"I hope you're right. I'm going to
recommend to the Acting CSO that we plan to capture a specimen at Omega77 and
stop the VLO when it reaches the Sogas home world, AND that we send Kronos back
to the Friendlies to tell them that and ask for their help. Does anyone object
to that or have a better idea?" No one did. "Okay then. This meeting
is adjourned. Intercom...connect me with Ops.”

"Operations here."

"This is Vice-Admiral Shiloh. Find
Admiral Dietrich and inform him that Admiral Howard has suffered what appears
to be a heart attack and is undergoing medical attention. Advise him that he is
now the Acting CSO, and tell him that I request a meeting with him as soon as
possible. Shiloh clear." 

As he got up to leave, Shiloh said,
"Gentlemen, if anyone is looking for me, I'll be checking on Admiral
Howard."

With the meeting over, he hurried to the
rear entrance of the building where the air ambulance would pick up Howard if
it hadn't already. He got there just in time to see the paramedics put Howard
in the vehicle, which then quickly took off. Kelly was standing there with
tears in her eyes. Shiloh put his arm around her.

"How's he doing?" asked Shiloh.

She shook her head. "Not good. He's
hanging on but just barely. What are we going to do without him, Victor? Who
else has his force of will? The Oversight Committee will start foaming at the
mouth when they hear about this."

Shiloh sighed. "Dietrich will hold the
line. He knows what's at stake." But even as he spoke, he wasn't sure if
it was true. Did Dietrich really have what it took to keep the OC in line? What
might the OC do if they thought they could get away with it? He didn't like the
thought that came to mind. They might try to strike back at the AIs. He had to
prevent that at all costs. Shiloh heard his name called and looked around to
see Dietrich approaching. He and Kelly let go of each other and turned to face
Dietrich.

"What's his condition?" asked
Dietrich. Kelly repeated what she’d told Shiloh. Dietrich nodded. "He's a
tough, old bird. My money's on him pulling through. How did it happen?"

"He had just convened a meeting in the
conference room. He was extremely upset with the response from the Friendlies
in light of Wolfman's latest vision." Shiloh looked around to make sure no
unauthorized ears were nearby. "At least seven colonies have been infected
with the bio-weapon, and there's a distinct possibility that they all
are."

Dietrich’s face turned pale.
"Son-of-a-bitch! No wonder he had heart problems!" Now it was
Dietrich's turn to look around. "I think you and I should go to my office.
I want to be up to speed when the OC calls, as they inevitably will."
Without waiting for Shiloh's response, Dietrich turned and walked quickly away.

Shiloh looked at Kelly who smiled and
nodded to him. He smiled back, gave her shoulder a quick squeeze and turned to
follow Dietrich. Dietrich was already seated behind his desk by the time Shiloh
entered his office.

After Shiloh sat down, Dietrich said,
"Okay, Victor. What do I need to know?"

Shiloh told him what the Friendlies had
told Kronos, what Wolfman's vision said, what Howard said before his heart
attack and what Shiloh had said afterwards.

"Well I can't really fault Howard's
reaction. It does seem just a bit hypocritical of the Friendlies to insist we
help the Sogas while they're doing their very best to wipe us all out,"
said Dietrich.

"The Friendlies don't want anyone
wiped out. Not us and not the Sogas either, but they're in the line of fire of
the Bugs. We have the Mark 6 warhead. They don't. From the Sogas point of view,
it makes perfect sense to secure your rear area, which would be us, before you
turn your attention to the main enemy. From a strictly military point of view,
I understand it. What they're missing are the non-military factors such as
having an ally at your back. It's clear to me that they're not going to be the
ones to break the cycle of strike and counter-strike. That means we have to do
it, and it seems to me that if we're prepared to take out that bug mothership
with a Mark 6 drone anyway, then why not do it before the Sogas home world is
decimated instead of after?"

"And if the Sogas still continue to
come after us, what then?"

Shiloh shrugged. "If they witness a
two hundred and fifty megaton blast and still come after us, then I will not
lose any sleep over dropping a few Mark 6s on their planet. But if we can build
the time machine ship, that all becomes unnecessary. With several hundred
raiders, we can overwhelm their defenses at any of their industrial outposts.
We'll destroy their ability to build more ships, and we’ll monitor them from
orbit until hell freezes over to make sure they don't rebuild their offensive
capability. Nobody gets exterminated, and therefore the Friendlies should be
okay with that. It's the best outcome for everyone. Everything else is just
buying time."

Dietrich shook his head. "I wish I
could see a way for that project to be completed, but I don't see how after
what's happened." When he saw Shiloh's look of confusion, he continued.
"I'm not talking about losing Howard, although that's bad enough. I'm
talking about the colonies becoming infected. That news will get out into the
open sooner or later. The public will demand answers. The Grand Senate will go
into cover-their-ass overdrive, and the Oversight Committee will want a scapegoat.
Howard will be the obvious candidate partly because he won't be able to fight
back and partly because all of this really did happen on his watch. The OC is
going to insist on retaking control, and they’ll have the public backing them.
I don't see how we and the AIs can resist that without a full-blown mutiny, and
that serves no one's purpose. Once they're in control again, they're going to
want us to resume offensive operations, and it's hard to see them pushing for
that at the same time as allowing our one and only battleship to be cut in half
for a project approved by their scapegoat, Howard. Do you?"

Shiloh sighed. "Well, when you put it
that way, I don't see it happening either, Sir." When Dietrich didn't
respond right away, Shiloh added, "If we can't convert Dreadnought to a
timeship, then we'll have to build a new ship from scratch, and it'll have to
be where the OC can't see it."

Dietrich smiled. "Like Site B
perhaps?" he asked.

Shiloh nodded and smiled back.
"Exactly. I'll arrange for a freighter to take the project personnel,
including Valkyrie, to Site B along with all the design data. I think they're
very close to having every part of the time machine coded for production by
UFCs. We'll make sure they have the engineering expertise to design a new ship.
Site B will have to build an orbiting shipyard first, but we already know how
to do that."

"Will that mean pushing back the
completion date?" asked Dietrich.

"Maybe and maybe not. If we're going
to design a new ship, it may end up being a lot less massive than Dreadnought.
No armor and no weapon turrets. It might just turn out to be an overgrown
freighter, and look how fast we build those."

"Let's hope so. Go ahead and get that
moving. Anything else we should discuss?"

"Yes. The Bugs worry me a lot. Even if
we can take care of the one mothership, I'm convinced there will eventually be
more. A working timeship could give us the ability to stop them at the source.
That would not only save us, but a whole bunch of other alien races out there.
The Friendlies would no longer have any reason to start this war to begin with.
The catch is that the Friendlies don't want to see any species wiped out,
including the damn Bugs! But if we can prove that they're not a naturally
occurring life form, in other words that some other agency created them and
then turned them loose, then the Friendlies will not object if we exterminate
them. They might even help us do it. They want to see proof, and the only way
we can give them that proof is to provide a Bug for the Friendlies to scan
temporally. If we send a ship to Omega77 to arrive just after the Bugs have
decimated that colony, I think we can bring back a dead Bug. I don't want to
tell the OC about the how and the why. We'll have to sneak that mission in
under their radar. I'm telling you about it now so that you're aware of what
has to be done, assuming that you buy into the idea of course, Sir."