The Synchronicity War Part 4 (9 page)

"As you know I've been in favor of
altering the timeline so that this war never happens. If bringing back a dead
Bug can help us achieve that, then I'm all for it. I'll leave the details to
you. Just keep me in the loop. Anything else, Shiloh?"

"No, Sir. That's it."

"Okay then, I won't keep you from what
you have to do."

Shiloh stood up, saluted and left the
office.

Shiloh arrived at the Operations Center
within 15 minutes of Dietrich's call. It was almost dawn, and the Center still
had the skeleton crew typical of the night shift. Shiloh saw Dietrich standing
near one of the manned consoles and walked over to him. Shiloh had expected the
Oversight Committee to test the waters as far as reasserting their authority
over Space Force, but their meeting with Dietrich couldn't have been less
confrontational. Dietrich was 'confirmed' as the Acting Chief of Space
Operations which merely rubberstamped his automatic assumption of the senior
position as Howard's Deputy CSO.

By the time that bit of political theater
was done, Kronos was on his way back to notify the Friendlies that Humans were
willing to play nice. He returned to Sol less than eight days later with a
message that the Friendlies would cooperate by sending a ship with their
temporal scanning device to the outskirts of the Omega77 system on the day the
VLO was due to show up. When the Space Force people had possession of the dead
Bug, they would send out an omni-directional signal, and the Friendly ship
would move into orbit around the colony planet.

When Shiloh reached Dietrich, the ACSO
nodded to him and said, "Something's up with Reforger. No one's answering
the wakeup call. There should be alarms going off all over the ship by now, but
we're not hearing one word from that ship."

Shiloh sighed. Reforger was the first
freighter to return from one of the colonies after Wolfman received his vision.
Dietrich had confirmed Howard's last order to quarantine every returning
freighter in orbit until more than 28 days had passed since the crew's last
contact with a colonist.

"Is this the 28th day since they had
contact with the colony, Admiral?"

Dietrich nodded. "Yup. Right on
schedule if it really is the bio-weapon. A medical team in full bio-gear is on
its way up to the ship as we speak." Turning to the Com technician seated
nearby Dietrich said, "Put Vice-Admiral Shiloh on the connection to that
shuttle, Lieutenant."

Shiloh heard his implant activate with the
faint hiss of static. The main display showed the shuttle's progress as it
approached the orbiting freighter. As the shuttle slowed down in order to dock
with the ship, Shiloh heard the shuttle pilot speak.

"We're approaching the docking
hatch...we've matched velocity with Reforger...contact with the docking hatch
in...three...two... one...contact...magnetic clamps are activated. We have a
tight seal. The team is opening the hatch now. I'm switching the mike pickup to
the Team leader, Ops."

As the Com Technician acknowledged the
pilot's comment, Shiloh leaned over to Dietrich and said, "Is this on an
open frequency?"

Dietrich shook his head.
"Encrypted." It was clear that Dietrich was listening to the audio
transmission as well. They soon heard a new voice that Shiloh assumed was the
leader of the medical team.

"We're inside now. Torres, you check
the Bridge. Frank, you check out Sick Bay. I'll check crew's quarters."

With all three medics operating alone,
there was no one for them to talk to, and all Shiloh and Dietrich heard for the
next half a minute was static.

"Oh shit!" The Team Leader's
voice was clearly agitated. "Ops, I've found a body in bed. Not sure who
it is yet. I'm checking the other cabins."

Five minutes later there was no longer any
doubt. The whole crew was dead and had apparently all died in their sleep.
Dietrich tapped the Com Tech on the shoulder. The man nodded, activated a
switch and nodded again.

"Team Leader, this is Admiral
Dietrich. Leave the bodies as they are for now. They'll be dealt with later.
Get your team back to the shuttle. Keep your bio-suits on. All of you will go
through decontamination when the shuttle lands. Do NOT talk about what you've
found to ANYONE even if they're wearing a Space Force uniform. Is that
understood?"

"Ah…roger that, Admiral."

Dietrich tapped the Com Tech on the
shoulder again and said, "Okay, Admiral Shiloh and I have heard enough.
Thank you, Lieutenant."

"You're welcome, Sir."

Shiloh followed Dietrich to a part of the
large room where they could speak without being overheard.

"There's no way that we can keep this
from the OC indefinitely,” Dietrich began. “They're going to find out
eventually, and if we try to hide it from them, they'll use that fact against
us. I think I should inform them right now. What do you think?" 

"I reluctantly agree, Admiral. The
shit is really going to hit the fan now. I don't envy you your position."

Dietrich shrugged. "I'm not worried
about myself. Howard's going to get the blame. He may end up wishing he hadn't
survived that heart attack. It's the public's reaction that worries me. We were
able to hold a gun to the Committee's head because they knew the public would blame
them for any break with our AIs, but this is different. We can't blame the loss
of colonies on the Committee, but they CAN and will blame Space Force for the
losses. I know those bastards. Behind the public statements of grief and
sympathy, they'll be chomping at the bit to use this against us." He
paused then said, "Are Valkyrie and the others on their way to Site
B?"

"Affirmative. They left two days
ago," said Shiloh.

"Good. That's good. One less thing for
the Committee to complain about." Dietrich looked at the chronometer on
the wall and sighed. "I didn't realize it was so early when I called you,
but I wanted you here when we boarded that ship. Howard told me to trust your
advice."

"Thank you, Admiral. That's good to
know."

Dietrich nodded. "There's nothing more
that you can do here now, so you may as well head back to your quarters and get
some more sleep."

"Sounds good to me, Sir," said
Shiloh.
But if Kelly is still awake, I doubt I'll be getting any more sleep
this morning.

Dietrich watched Shiloh walk away and
wondered why he had that strange grin on his face.

                                                             *
* *

The OC's reaction was carefully calculated.
The freighter crew deaths were released to the public with statements
cautioning the public from overreacting. Howard, now officially retired, stayed
in seclusion and refused to comment.

It was the deaths ten days later of two
other freighter crews within 24 hours of each other that set off the political
storm. The Committee Chair issued a statement saying that the Committee would
investigate this string of infected crews, and that the hearing would be open
to the public and televised. Shiloh attended the hearing but wasn't initially
called upon by the Committee to answer any questions. That was left up to
Dietrich. The Committee was careful not to blame him. All their questions were
phrased in such a way as to insinuate that Dietrich's predecessor was to blame.
They saved their bombshell for after the mid-day recess.

When everyone on the Committee was back and
seated, the Chair banged his gavel and said, "This open hearing is once
again in session. During the break the members of this Committee caucused, and
we are agreed that the apparently successful attacks by the Enemy on at least
four of our colonies with bio-weapons is the result of bad policies and
strategies put into place by Admiral Sam Howard. Since Admiral Dietrich's
appointment as Acting Chief of Space Operations was a temporary one, the
Committee feels that it is now time to appoint a new permanent CSO, someone who
has proven himself to be not only skilled in combat but also willing to engage
the enemy. Therefore I'm pleased to publically announce that Vice-Admiral
Victor Shiloh will be promoted to the 3 star rank of Senior Admiral and will be
the new Chief of Space Operations!"

Shiloh was stunned and must have looked
that way because the Chair looked at him and then quickly looked back at the
media cameras.

"The Committee would ask the media not
to question Admiral Shiloh until he has had a chance to consult with the
Committee about the best way to respond to these new attacks. The members of
this Committee WILL make themselves available to the media for questions
following this hearing. I now declare this hearing adjourned." With that
he banged his gavel, and the room exploded with sound from media people
shouting questions at the Committee and at Shiloh.

Dietrich immediately stood up and started
walking quickly to the doors. He gestured with his head for Shiloh to follow
him. Shiloh took the hint and left the room as fast as possible. He and
Dietrich found the quickest way to get out of sight of the Committee room. When
they were back in that part of the building that was off limits to non-Space
Force personnel, Dietrich said, "So...those sneaky bastards have thrown
the red-hot potato into your lap. I have to hand it to them. They knew exactly
how to get the most political advantage out of this and castrate us at the same
time. By picking you because of your quote 'willingness to engage the Enemy'
unquote, they've essentially put you on notice that Space Force had better go
on the offensive pretty damn quick, or your head will be the next one to
roll."

Shiloh shook his head in confusion. "I
don't understand why they think they have the upper hand again. They have to
know that Space Force is crippled without the cooperation of the AIs, and the AIs
will do what I say regardless of whether I'm the CSO or not."

Dietrich nodded. "I don't understand
this new willingness to push back either. Maybe they think they can bluff us
into backing down. I don't really buy into that theory because it would require
all of them to grow a new set of big, brass balls, and that's unlikely, them
being the political animals that they are. What is more likely is that they've
arranged something behind our backs that allows them to think they can deal
with any potential withdrawal of service by the AIs. Don't ask me what that
might be because I have no idea." He paused, then said, "One thing
though. Having the title of CSO and the rank to go with it now gives you a lot
of flexibility to act. My advice is to use it. Make them react to you, not the
other way around. For their plan to work, they need to let you run with the ball
for a while. So make the most of it...Sir."

Shiloh blinked and was about to say that
Dietrich didn't have to call him 'Sir' when he suddenly realized.
Holy
Mother of God! He does have to call me 'Sir'. Now I'm The Old Man!

It was two hours later as Shiloh was
getting settled in the CSO's office that the Committee Chair arrived for a
chat. When they were both seated, Shiloh realized he felt he was sitting on the
wrong side of the desk. It would take him a while to get used to sitting on
THIS side. The Chair, a pugnacious man who was easy to dislike, leaned forward
and took several cigars from the cigar box on Shiloh's desk without asking
permission.

 After he lit one and had put the rest into
his suit pocket, he said, "It seems that you've gotten over your shock
from earlier this afternoon. That's good. The sooner you and I, as
representative of the Committee, come to an understanding the better. Howard
thought he had the upper hand after that disgusting show of force by the AIs,
but we now have the upper hand. These infected colonies will enrage the public.
They'll demand that we strike back hard and fast."

Before he could say more, Shiloh spoke.
"But that's not the best way to win this war. We have to have an
overwhelming superiority in combat strength so that we can swat aside any
defense they can muster and take control of their home world orbitals. When we
do that, the War will be won." He stopped talking when he saw the Chair
shake his head.