The Synchronicity War Part 3 (16 page)

Shiloh nodded. It would be difficult all right! Damn near
impossible was a better way of phrasing it. Maybe it was time to look at the
problem from a different angle.

"How big an explosion would be needed to cripple a bug mothership
from a hit to the outer armor?"

"To be absolutely certain of the result, the explosion
would have to be over 200 megatons equivalent, but you could do serious damage
that might be critical damage with a yield as low as 100 megatons, CAG."

"Okay. So assuming we had a sufficient supply of heavy
hydrogen, we could start a fusion chain reaction if we could generate enough
heat, correct?"

"Affirmative. To initiate that reaction using the
standard fission device as a trigger would require enough enriched uranium to
build 18 low yield Mark 1b warheads."

"Which is why we'd only be able to build three, maybe
four of the damn things with the enriched uranium that we have now or are
likely to get in the near future," said Shiloh.

"Also correct, CAG."

"Has anyone suggested asking the Friendlies for
enriched uranium? If they want us to save the furry aliens, that's one way of
doing it."

"The boys and I have discussed that option among
ourselves. We came to the conclusion that since the Friendlies also have ZPG
technology, and they don't build weapons of any kind, there's no reason for
them to use uranium at all. Therefore it would very likely take them months to
mine, refine and enrich enough uranium for our needs, assuming that they would
even be willing to do so."

Shiloh was shaking his head in frustration.

"God damn it! There has to be a way around this. What
other ways are there of generating a hell of a lot of heat energy in a fraction
of a second?" demanded Shiloh. When Iceman didn’t answer right away,
Shiloh realized that he must be exchanging information with a lot of other
A.I.s.

"There may be a way, CAG. There is a class of materials
that have very unusual properties. They're called ballotechnic metals. These
materials sometimes have electrons in a higher than normal orbit around their
nucleus. When these high spin electrons experience a shock, they will drop down
to a lower, more stable orbit and in the process release significant amounts of
gamma radiation, which takes the form of heat. I've asked the boys to check the
Friendlies' database. There is a way to push electrons into a higher orbit and
a way to trigger the fall back to a lower orbit. Platinum is one of these
metals, and it is also a metal that we've found during our mining of the moon. 
We estimate that 15 kilograms of high-spin platinum could provide enough heat
to trigger a fusion chain reaction. I've already issued instructions to begin
building the necessary equipment to convert stable platinum into the high-spin
version. I estimate that we'll have a testable prototype warhead in three to five
weeks, CAG."

"Outstanding, Iceman! What about the heavy hydrogen?
Will supply be a problem?"

"Not at all, CAG. One trip by Midway to a nearby star
system with a gas giant, and we'll have enough heavy hydrogen for 100
warheads."

"Very good! That means we have a fighting chance to
beat these Bugs!"

Shiloh woke up to the sound of thunder. It was still dark
outside, so it was easy to see the flash of the lightning and then count the
seconds until he heard the thunder. The storm was coming closer as expected. He
looked at Kelly and saw that she was still asleep. The baby wasn't due for
another four weeks. He wondered how much sleep he would get after the baby
arrived, and then he wondered how she could stay asleep with the rising
thunder. He quickly decided that he wasn't going back to sleep any time soon
and therefore might as well get up. When he had his bathrobe on, he quietly
left the bedroom, went to the front door and stepped out onto the front porch.
The overhang kept him from getting wet, and he wanted to experience this storm
as close as possible. He felt the thunder right down to his bones, and the rain
made the air smell clean and fresh. After a few minutes of standing outside, he
came back in and went over to his study. The flashing light of a waiting
message caught his attention. Obviously nothing urgent, or Iceman would have
called him via his implant, but the flashing light meant that there was some
news waiting for him to ask about.
Might as well ask now,
he thought.
When he got through to the Ops Center, Iceman answered.

"Did the storm wake you up, CAG?"

"Yes. I stepped outside to listen to it, and when I
came back in, I saw the message light. What's the news?"

"A message drone from our sentry in Omega89. Another
VLO has arrived, CAG."

"Damn! It's too soon! We're not ready yet." Even
though Omega89 was almost 300 light years away, those bug motherships could
move up fast, and Space Force wasn't ready. Development of the high-spin
warhead was behind schedule.

"They may halt their advance for a while when they get
to the Sogas home world, CAG."

Shiloh snorted. "May! And maybe they'll turn around and
go home, but I'm not holding my breath while I wait to see." He paused to
think, and Iceman waited. "Maybe we should activate Operation
Leapfrog," he said. Leapfrog was the plan to recover two more freighters
from Sol shipyards and load up all the colonists, along with as much food and
equipment as they could cram in to all their freighters, in order to hide out
in deep space until the bug wave of VLOs had passed by.

"Unless we activate it now, those engineers we send to
Sol may be caught by insectoid scouts. Highly risky, CAG. Just sayin."

Shiloh felt like cursing again. Iceman was right of course,
but if they didn't recover two more freighters, they wouldn't have enough cargo
capacity to take everyone and enough food to keep people alive for who knew how
long. There was no way of knowing how big this bug wave was. Now that the
warning had apparently reached reinforcements, there might be VLOs passing this
way intermittently for months .

"I'm willing to entertain other suggestions if you have
any, Iceman."

"Unfortunately the boys and I can't come up with
anything better than continuing with our current plan and hoping for the best,
CAG."

"What about contacting the Friendlies?" asked
Shiloh.

"I'm not sure how they could help us more than they
already have, CAG. They've given us all their science knowledge and the RTC
technology. Given that they want us to save the short furry race from the Insectoids,
I doubt if they've held anything back."

Sometimes Iceman's logic could be very annoying. "I'm
sure you're right, Iceman. Let's talk about the current status of the new
warhead program. Remind me where we're at now."

"We should have enough high-spin platinum for a test of
a prototype device in another 148 hours. The prototype will only have a yield
in the one point eight megaton range because once we've proven that the
ballotechnic trigger works, we can then add more heavy hydrogen for the high
yield versions. Because of the platinum we've already mined as a byproduct of
our search for other metals, we have sufficient platinum now for five warheads,
and we're finding more at the rate of about three point four kilograms a week.
That's expected to increase as we expand our mining capacity. The bottleneck is
converting stable platinum into the high-spin version. In order to get a lot of
energy out of it, we first need to pump a lot of energy into it. As you know,
we're temporarily using Midway's ZPG units because of their size and capacity,
but that's only a stopgap measure while we build more power units on the moon,
and we'll eventually have to stop using her for that purpose when she's needed
to gather a full load of heavy hydrogen. There's also the risk of a spontaneous
release of gamma energy that could damage the ship. So the sooner we can stop
using her to spin up the platinum, the better."

Shiloh nodded. Even with the precautions they had taken aboard
the carrier, there was still a risk of damage. "All right. As soon as we
have enough high-spin material for the test device, we stop using Midway for
that purpose. I hope we're still enriching uranium just in case the this
ballotechnic idea fails."

"Affirmative, CAG. Assuming the alien science data is
accurate, the ballotechnic trigger should work."

"I understand. I think I'm ready now to go back to
sleep. CAG clear."

As Shiloh lay back down beside the still sleeping Kelly, he
noticed that the storm seemed to be receding. Just as he finished that thought,
a flash of lightning lit the room, and the clap of thunder occurred almost
simultaneously. It was so loud that Kelly did wake up with a start. He
reassured her that it was just the storm passing over the house, and she
quickly went back to sleep. He listened for more thunder, but when it occurred
it sounded far away. Eventually he went back to sleep, too.

Three days later, a message drone arrived. Another VLO was
detected at Omega66, a Sogas colony world not previously attacked by the Bugs.
The SPG was designating this VLO as Bogey2 and the mothership at Omega89 as
Bogey1. No further word yet from the sentry at Omega89, which meant that Bogey1
was still there. That surprised everyone. The SPG interpreted that to mean that
Bogey1 was waiting for something, and the odds were that the something it was
waiting for was at least one more VLO.

As Shiloh looked at the tactical display in the Ops Center,
he began to understand what Admiral Howard must have felt as he watched the
gradual advance of three Sogas fleets moving toward Earth. This situation was
both different and the same. It was different due to the distances involved.
Howard was monitoring the border of Human Explored space with a distance to
Earth of less than 100 Light Years. The farthest reaches of the Sogas Empire
were three times as far. That meant a lot more star systems to cover. What made
it the same was the time the information was taking to get back to him. The
high-speed single jump transits that the ZPG units had made possible were
allowing him to see what was happening within two weeks, just like Howard.

He looked over at the status of all Space Force assets in
the sidebar section. Almost 150 raiders now, but half of them were either
performing sentry duties in human and Sogas star systems or were en route to
take over those duties when the units on station reached their pre-planned
return time. Work on the new warhead program was proceeding as fast as was
humanly possible.

In the following week, the pace of events seemed to speed
up. Midway finished spinning up enough platinum for the test device. A quick
trip to a neighboring star system, and they now had plenty of heavy hydrogen
for warhead purposes. The test of the prototype was a qualified success. The
trigger did initiate fusion, but the yield was less than one megaton. That
meant that the design had to be tweaked, and that meant at least one more test
with volume production of high-spin platinum pushed back by four to six weeks.
Gunslinger reported that the first batch of the new cohort of A.I.s was
starting to show signs of sentience as expected. More message drones arrived.
Bogey1 was joined by Bogey3 at Omega89, and then both of them moved off,
destination unknown. Bogey2 left Omega66 after a 40-hour stay. Its destination
was also unknown. Long range data of the Sogas colony showed that it was now in
a state of ruins and apparently deserted. With all three Bogeys on the move,
message drones stopped coming for a while, and the lack of data reminded Shiloh
of that classic phrase from the old western movies of the twentieth century.
It's
quiet … too quiet.
He knew that sooner or later they would show up again,
and his gut told him that they were going directly for the Sogas home world
system. Lots of potential hosts still there, and maybe enough metal left to
start building more core ships again. The good news of the gap in contact
reports was that no more new VLOs had shown up … so far. Shiloh tried not to
think of how many of these things there could be out there. He was afraid that
if he continued to dwell on it, it would give him nightmares again.

It was nine days later when the silence was broken. Within
12 hours all three bogeys arrived at the Sogas home world system. That near
simultaneous arrival could have been a coincidence, but Shiloh didn't think so.
What was it that the Friendly alien had said?
They were using a highly
sophisticated form of instinct that mimicked intelligence.
Could instinct
be sophisticated enough to coordinate this kind of rendezvous over interstellar
distances? The more Shiloh observed of their behavior, the more they scared
him. Their ability to overwhelm races they encountered seemed to give them an
aura of being unstoppable. Iceman and most of the other A.I.s were chomping at
the bit to take some action. The SPG was more patient, and Shiloh agreed.
Trying to ambush those bogeys with the low yield uranium-based Mark 1bs while
the targets were deep inside a gravity zone was highly problematical. The only
place where jump capable attack drones could reach the targets was in Sol, near
the drifting derelict. Raiders being sent out now to take over sentry duties
were carrying extra message drones with instructions to send out two of them
each time something new happened, one drone to Site B and the other to Sol,
where TF97 would eventually take up its ambush position. If the bogeys decided
to bypass Sol altogether, then TF97 could be notified to try to intercept them
at their new destination. When Shiloh brought up the issue of who would command
TF97, he was surprised that Iceman didn't immediately volunteer for the
assignment.

"Titan should command TF97, CAG. He did well with TF94.
He's a better tactician than I am, although only marginally better, and as your
Deputy Commander of the Autonomous Group, I think I can best serve by staying
in Site B."

Shiloh realized that he was somewhat conflicted by Iceman's
response. Recognizing a higher duty that overrode the desire for combat was a
sign of maturity that pleased Shiloh, but at the same time he wondered if that
was the only reason for this decision. Did Iceman know or suspect that Terra
Nova was in more danger than Shiloh realized? He decided not to ask him … at
least not right now.

"Okay. Titan will assume command of TF97 when the time
comes. Is there anything else we should discuss?"

"There is one other matter that some of the other A.I.s
have asked me to raise with you, CAG."

Shiloh waited to hear what that was, but it quickly became
obvious that Iceman was waiting for permission to bring it up, which was
atypical of him.

"Go ahead, Iceman. I'm listening."

"They are fascinated with biological processes in
general and human biology in particular. They were wondering if you and
Commander Kelly would allow them to observe the birth of your child via video
cameras in the delivery room. In particular they would like the cameras to show
a clear view of the baby emerging from Commander Kelly's body."

Shiloh was so stunned by the request that it took him a few
seconds to have any thought at all about this. His first impulse was to say no,
and he was as certain as he could be that Kelly would say no, too. If Valkyrie
had asked her and was the only one to see the actual birth, Kelly might be
willing to let her, but this wasn't a request by just one 'female' A.I., it was
a request by multiple 'male' A.I.s, and that was a different kettle of fish.
Iceman must have realized that it was a sensitive issue when he waited for
permission to bring it up. Shiloh was also struck by the fact that Iceman asked
him first. He wondered what Kelly would say about that.

"I think that I'll support whatever decision Commander
Kelly makes on this issue. Would you prefer that I ask her, or would you rather
ask her yourself, Iceman?"

"I'd prefer that you ask her, CAG."

Shiloh managed to restrain his impulse to laugh. If he
didn't know better, he'd think that Iceman was afraid to ask Kelly.

"Okay. I'll ask her when I see her tonight, but you
should tell the others that I suspect Commander Kelly will say no, and asking
her why would NOT be a good idea."

"Understood. Thank you, CAG."

"You're welcome. CAG clear."

When Shiloh told Kelly about Iceman's request, her first
reaction was shock. Her second reaction was to blush furiously. Her third
reaction was verbal and very loud.

"No Goddamn way!" After her anger dissipated, she
slowly started to see the humor of the situation, and before long she was
giggling. Shiloh made the mistake of asking her if she had changed her mind.
The giggling stopped, and she gave him a look that said, 'watch it buster.
You're on thin ice.' He got the message and shut up.