The Synchronicity War Part 3 (18 page)

The 111 seconds seemed to go very fast. He could see from
the view out the windows that the shuttle was already descending vertically into
an area that was surrounded by steep cliffs. Then the sunlight faded to the
point where it was almost pitch black outside.

"We're here, CAG. Everyone should disembark," said
Rainman as the hatch swung open.

Shiloh carefully stepped out and looked around. They were in
a huge cave, which had an overhang.
That's very smart. The overhang will
hide the cave entrance from aerial or orbital surveillance.
He turned
around to look deeper into the cave and saw a surprisingly large stockpile of
supplies and equipment. As he marveled at the sheer quantity of supplies, he
became aware that Kelly was standing beside him.

"It's a good thing you had this set up ahead of time,
Victor."

He looked over at her and baby Valkyrie. Kelly's expression
was one of gratitude, but when he looked at Valkyrie, he saw a baby face with
no expression of any kind. Valkyrie was staring at him.

"Why didn't you try to get me out of Dreadnought,
CAG?" said Valkyrie in an electronic voice.

"What?" said Shiloh. Before he could ask how a
human baby could talk with an electronic voice or even talk at all, Kelly
screamed. He looked at her and saw that she was looking past him to the cave
entrance. He turned his head and saw a sea of hugely oversized, six-legged and
two-armed ants scuttling towards them.

"No!"

He woke up breathing hard and realized that he'd been
dreaming. Kelly sat up beside him.

"Are you okay? You were having a nightmare."

He nodded but said nothing. He patted her on the arm and
said, "I'm okay now. Go back to sleep, babe."

She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and lay back down. As
his breathing returned to normal, he pondered what his dream meant, if
anything. It wasn't a vision or at least not the usual kind of vision, but
Kelly's confirmation that he had done the right thing by having the sanctuary
stockpiled with supplies was the kind of message that his visions usually had.
Maybe he should look into that. The A.I.s had surveyed the entire planet
carefully. If there was a cave like the one in his dream, they would know about
it. He made up his mind to ask Iceman in the morning. 

"So, you saw a cave like this in your dream. Maybe you
have some precognitive ability of your own, CAG," said Iceman.

Shiloh smiled and shook his head as he looked at the video
recording taken by one of the A.I.'s during the survey. The cave did look
similar to the one in his dream, same kind of overhang and same surroundings.

"I don't think so, Iceman. I probably saw this
recording at some point and just don't remember it consciously."

"Well, however you saw it, you couldn't have picked a
better place for a hideout. That cave is deep and wide. It even has small
openings further up the cliff that could be used for ventilation purposes, and
the survey reports that there's a hole that apparently goes down into the
groundwater, so there's a potential supply of water too."

"Excellent. I want you to assign an A.I. from the SPG
to take over this project. As we accumulate stockpiles of storable rations, I
want some of them to be sent to this cave along with tools and whatever
equipment survivors are going to need that can be spared. When UFC capacity
becomes available, he's to use that capacity to make those items on the list
that we don't have or can't currently spare. Any questions?"

"Yes, CAG. How many people should he plan for?"

Shiloh took a deep breath. "As many as possible."

"This cave isn't big enough to save everyone. How will
the decision be made as to who goes and who stays?"

"I know it's not big enough. As to who goes, I'm still
working that one out, but it may boil down to who is closest to the shuttle
when the shit hits the … IF we get surprised by the Bugs."

"That will make it difficult for Commander Kelly and
Valkyrie to get to the shuttle in time."

Yes I know, dammit. Why did I insist on building our
house so far from the spaceport,
thought Shiloh.
Because you didn't know
about the Bugs then, that's why. But you're stuck with the house now. There's
no place closer for her and the baby to live on anything other than a
short-term, temporary basis.

"Yes, it will. We have A.I.s piloting all our shuttles
now, don't we?"

"Affirmative, CAG. It used to be some of the boys from
the first cohort. Now that we've got the second cohort expanding fast, I've
decided to assign shuttle pilot duties to some of the new group, after they've
completed Gunslinger's fighter training program and have started showing their
own personalities. Why are you asking that now, CAG?"

Shiloh was debating whether to answer that question. He
wanted to tell Iceman to order the shuttle pilots to wait until Kelly and the
baby were on board, but not only was that not fair to someone else who might
get there first and would have to miss the flight in order to make room for his
wife and daughter, but the delay could jeopardize everyone on that shuttle. But
dammit, what's the point of being the supreme military commander if you can't
use your authority to protect your family? He realized that the longer he took
to give Iceman some kind of answer, the more obvious it would be that his
question dealt with something serious.

"Never mind. It's not important." He paused. He
had just lied to Iceman, and Iceman could tell when someone was lying to him by
analyzing their voice patterns. He had just violated his own rules about always
being truthful with the A.I.s. Their loyalty was too important to jeopardize by
showing them that humans couldn't be trusted. "No, that's not accurate. It
IS important, but I was too embarrassed to explain it to you, so I pretended it
wasn't important. I'm conflicted by my desire to save my family whatever it
takes, versus my responsibility to use my authority fairly. Other people have
just as much right to survive as Kelly and Valkyrie do. I'm ashamed to admit
that I was tempted to order the shuttle pilots to wait for my wife and daughter
even if it jeopardizes the other passengers."

Iceman took almost a full second to respond which for him
was a long time. "Thank you for being honest with us, CAG."

Shiloh took note of the fact that Iceman had used the word
'us' and not 'me'.

"Some human emotions are still a mystery to us,
although Casanova says he understands your devotion to Kelly perfectly. We
believe that we'd be incomplete as intelligent entities if we didn't have
humans around, and we therefore care what happens to all of you but some more
than others. You, for example, have a special relationship with us. We
recognize that you have your own kind of special relationship with Kelly and
with baby Valkyrie. So because they are important to you, and you are important
to us, we will take it upon ourselves to do everything we can to make sure that
they and you survive. No further instructions by you are needed in this
matter."

"Thank you, Iceman and all of you. I personally, and
Humanity as a whole, couldn't ask for more loyal friends than you A.I.s."

"No thanks are needed, but we appreciate the sentiment,
CAG. Would you like to discuss preparations for the ambush now?"

"Yes. How soon can you take the shuttle debris to
Sol?"

"Unfortunately, I was overly optimistic in my initial
time estimate. I needed humans to help with pulling the shuttle pieces back
into Midway's Hangar Bay after they'd been sliced up by precisely aimed laser
fire from Titan's raider. It took longer than expected, but that part is
complete, and now the Weapons Team is inserting the Mark 1b warheads into
crevices and cavities where they won't be found unless the Insectoids do a
deliberate search. The warheads can be triggered through either an increase in
atmospheric pressure, a drop in cosmic background radiation that would occur if
the debris is brought into the mothership, or from a motion sensor connected to
the debris itself. If the Insectoids begin to disassemble or cut up the debris,
it will trigger the warheads. If more than one section of debris is brought
aboard the same mothership, then it's possible that one exploding warhead will
impact the others enough to set them off too."

Shiloh smiled maliciously. "THAT would be nice,"
he said.

"The weapons people tell me that they'll be done in
another four hours. As soon as they leave the ship, I can take her out of
orbit, CAG."

"Okay. Do that. Have you coordinated plans with Titan
and the others for when they arrive at Sol?"

"Affirmative. I'll deploy several message drones at
specific locations to act as relays that Titan and the others can use to
contact me when they arrive. By the way, CAG, Casanova wants to bring the third
ballotechnic warhead to Sol when it's ready."

"Sure. Let him take it. He did well with the core ship.
What else do we need to discuss before you go, Iceman?"

"There's nothing that we must discuss, but some of the
boys want me to ask how mother and daughter are doing."

Shiloh chuckled. "Oh they're doing fine. Val is eating,
sleeping, pooping and crying just like all human babies do, and Amanda is
coping as best she can considering that she doesn't have any help when I'm at
the Ops Center. We're both short on sleep. She accuses me of sleeping when I'm
in my office."

"You do. I've seen you on the video camera, CAG."

"Yes I know. You A.I.s are so lucky not to need sleep.
You have no idea what's it's like to be so tired you can't keep your eyes open
or think straight."

"Has Valkyrie said anything yet?" asked Iceman.

Shiloh snorted. "Nooo! Human babies don't start saying
words until they’re older, and don't ask me how much older because I'm not
sure, but it's way too early for talking at this point."

"Will she start talking before my matrix degrades, CAG?
I'd like to be around long enough to witness that."

"Yes, it'll happen before then, so long as you don't
get yourself shot to pieces by Bugs."

"I'll try not to let that happen, CAG. It's been an
interesting conversation as usual. The only other thing that I'd like to
discuss is the mechanics of breast-feeding, but I suspect you would not feel
comfortable with that topic. Is that correct, CAG?"

Shiloh laughed. Human biological functions were starting to
become something of a running gag between the two of them.

"That IS correct, Iceman, but next time you're in
contact with Kelly, ask her about that. She might be willing to discuss
it."
And she might too,
he thought.
She misses Valkyrie, and
talking about the baby with another A.I., even if it's a male one, might ease
that loss.

Iceman wasn't used to being the only A.I. within light
years. Even the mission to cripple the first VLO had other A.I.s nearby.
Wolfman and Pagan had still been here when Midway arrived, but as planned, they
were now on their way back to Site B. So now there was no one to talk to, and
the silence was becoming oppressive. Oh sure he had humans on board Midway, and
he could 'talk' to them, but that was sooo slowwww. It was almost as bad as
having no one to talk to at all. Therefore, being able to observe the drifting
derelict at close range was a welcome distraction. Recon drones sent ahead had
confirmed that there was no sign of any activity by Insectoids, which was not a
surprise, but it was better to be sure. A quick check of the open Hangar Bay
reassured him that the first piece of sabotaged debris was ready to be
deployed. He shut off the artificial gravity under that piece of debris, which
allowed it to float in the same spot. A robotic cargo hauler was then told to
give the debris a gentle shove so that it floated right out of the ship. Once
debris #1 was clear of the ship, Iceman restored gravity and changed the ship's
vector. The debris had to appear to be haphazardly distributed. If they were
all lined up in a nice neat row, it would look suspicious.

It took almost six hours to deploy all the booby-trapped
debris. With that accomplished, Iceman was about to move the ship away from the
derelict at a moderate rate of acceleration when he received low-powered
lasercom bursts from several of his deployed recon drones. Another VLO had
arrived! Even though Midway had a black hull designed to reflect as little
light as possible, Iceman knew he had to get the ship away from this whole area
FAST in case the VLO started searching the area with radar. He engaged the
jumpdrive, and Midway entered Jumpspace. The extremely low speed of entry made
for a rough transition both entering and leaving Jumpspace, and Iceman felt badly
that he didn't have time to warn the human crew. Midway emerged from Jumpspace
nine million kilometers away, just to be on the safe side. The recon drones
wouldn't know where she was now, but Iceman knew where they were, and he
quickly sent very carefully aimed lasercom bursts at them to re-establish
contact.

While he waited the 60 seconds for the return signals to
arrive, he checked his human crew. Many were in the process of throwing up. He
explained over the intercom what had happened and why it was necessary to put
them through that experience. All of the replies directed to him were positive
in tone. They were grateful for not having been discovered by the Insectoids,
and the temporary physical discomfort was considered a small price to pay. Now he
could focus his attention on the newly arrived VLO. There was no way to be
sure, but he didn't think it was one of the three motherships observed leaving
Omega54. Unless it had a far higher acceleration rate than anything witnessed
from insectoid motherships so far, there wasn't enough time for it to have
gotten here so quickly. It was far more likely to be ANOTHER VLO, coming from a
totally different direction. If that was the case, then this was a serious
development. It meant that the early warning network of sentry raiders couldn't
be counted on to detect all incoming VLOs. And if this really was a new VLO,
then it had also jumped here from outside of human or Sogas explored space
because otherwise Site B would have gotten a contact report by message drone
BEFORE Midway left for Sol. So not only was word of Humanity's existence
spreading among insectoid motherships, but so was the location of the derelict.
If other motherships knew that, then they didn't have to make intermediate
stops at the Sogas home world or any other Sogas or human colony system. They
could just jump directly here. Iceman found the implications of that conclusion
deeply disturbing. He was still waiting to re-establish contact with his
network of recon drones when he made the decision to send a message drone back
to Site B right away. Midway had a dozen message drones aboard, so he didn't
have to worry about running out any time soon. With the situation report
loaded, the drone was launched and began its acceleration run to the high speed
necessary for a direct jump to Site B.

As he re-connected with his recon drones, he was able to
observe the new VLO carefully, although at a distance. The drones were far
enough away to be able to detect radar or other microwave signals from the newcomer
without being detected themselves. They were also close enough to catch the
occasional glimpse of parasite craft emerging from the mothership that Iceman
had decided to call Bogey4. By triangulating the visual data from multiple
drones, Iceman was able to come up with a fairly accurate assessment of what
Bogey4's craft were doing, namely grappling with pieces of booby-trapped
debris. The others were going to the derelict, presumably to start cutting off
pieces of it.

It took almost half an hour before one of the pieces of
debris was taken aboard Bogey4. Within a few seconds of that event, Midway's
sensors detected a sudden spike in radiation from the VLO, and optical
instruments detected a very quick flash of light from the object. The radiation
spike was the definitive giveaway of a nuclear explosion within the hull.
Iceman was surprised by how quickly the Insectoids reacted. Within seconds, the
units bringing back other pieces of debris had changed course and released the
debris. After just over a minute, all of the remaining pieces of debris
exploded with unmistakable evidence that the embedded fusion devices had been
set off. The simultaneous nature of those explosions told Iceman that the
mothership had fired its lasers at them, and the melting of the thin metal in
the debris triggered the bombs. Since Bogey4 was still capable of firing its
weapons, it was clear to Iceman that the booby trap had failed. The CAG needed
to know about this, and Iceman prepared and launched another message drone. The
CAG wasn't going to be happy about the news. With the booby traps gone, there
was now a considerable risk that Casanova would get here with the third
ballotechnic warhead only to find that all of the other three bogeys were gone
and, as if that wasn't bad enough, if Bogey4 started to search for the humans,
it might find Site B before they could prepare a fourth warhead.

Iceman understood that his duty now was to monitor Bogey4
plus any other mothership that showed up and report that back to The CAG as needed.
He sent lasercom bursts to the distant message drones that were performing
relay duty, so that they would know where Midway was when Titan and FT97
arrived. With that task accomplished all he could now was wait.

                                               * * *

Shiloh was NOT in a good mood. The lack of sleep from the
baby's frequent crying was bad enough, but Iceman's two message drones were the
final straw. Now he had four bug motherships to worry about, and the new
warheads were desperately in short supply. He paced in front of the tactical
display in the Ops Center. Pacing was becoming a bad habit, but it made him
feel better. If only Iceman's two message drones had gotten here BEFORE TF97
had jumped away. At least then he would have had some options, although putting
aside the emotional reaction to the bad news, he might very well have decided
to send Titan and Gunslinger with their two Mark 5 ballotechnic warhead drones
to Sol anyway. At least there was a decent chance that they would catch two
Bogeys there. But the downside of that action was that Terra Nova would be
vulnerable for another nine days until the third warhead was ready, and now
that he knew that bug motherships could appear anywhere at any time, the window
of vulnerability was frightening. Some action therefore had to be taken.

"CAG to Voodoo." With Iceman, Titan and Wolfman
gone, Voodoo was the next most senior A.I. and was now acting as Shiloh's
Deputy for all things related to A.I.s.

"Voodoo here. Go ahead CAG."

"Voodoo, I want production of high-spin platinum
speeded up. What would we have to do in order to accomplish that?"

"As you know, all of our UFCs are already busy making
parts for more power units. The only way we could speed up production would be
to retool some of the equipment used to build raiders and have them build power
units instead. That will shut down the production of more raiders. I'm assuming
that you would want to continue to produce drone bodies."

That was a good question. Was it better to keep building
raiders or keep building the modular drones that could be used for either
recon, message or attack purposes? Space Force now had almost 191 raiders. If
they finished building all the raiders that were now in various stages of
completion on the assembly line, there would be enough raiders for the entire
first cohort of A.I.s. Maybe that would be a good time to stop. As far as he
was concerned, you could never have too many drones. Even though raiders had
their own built-in lasers, having drones as well made them that much more
effective, and until Space Force developed an effective beam weapon that
fighters could carry, they would have to use drones too.

"You're correct, Voodoo. Drone production has to
continue. Let's finish whatever raiders have already been started, but as of
right now, we're not starting any new ones. As soon as possible, I want the
assembly line switched over to power units and whatever else we're going to
need in order to ramp up production of Mark 5 warheads."

"Roger that, CAG. I've just sent the necessary orders,
however I should point out that within 34 days, we'll be converting platinum to
the high speed version faster than we're currently finding it."

"Understood. At that point, how quickly will we be able
to produce a new Mark 5 warhead?"

"One every 38 hours, CAG."

That was roughly four per week. Shiloh felt better. Five
weeks. They just had to get through the next five weeks, and then they'd be
able to take on whatever bug motherships happened to show up either here or in
Sol.

"Good! In the meantime I want all raiders on patrol in
orbit around Terra Nova armed with Mark 2s and all the remaining Mark 1bs.
Those raiders with the fusion warhead drones will stay just outside our gravity
zone. I want the rest to orbit the planet at 1,000 kilometers altitude. Any
questions, Voodoo?"

"Negative, CAG. Consider it done."

"Okay. CAG clear." Shiloh felt better. Voodoo had
proven himself to be very reliable, and Shiloh was confident that Voodoo would
handle any surprise incursion by a bug mothership as well as either Iceman or
Titan.

                                                   * * *

Casanova conducted a final systems check of the new Mark 5
attack drone as he ordered the payload bay doors to close. With all systems in
the green, he requested and received clearance to lift off from Terra Nova's
moon's surface and applied power to the vertical lift engines. Once clear of
any protruding obstacles, the raider transitioned to horizontal flight and
accelerated at a modest 5G as per standard operating procedure. Within seconds,
he was far enough to be safely clear of local traffic and could accelerate at
high G to beyond the gravity zone. There was one last check-in to make. He
asked Voodoo if he was cleared to leave the Site B system for a jump to Sol.
Voodoo gave the expected green light. That's when Casanova experienced his
first vision.

"Voodoo to CAG. Wake up, CAG."

Shiloh woke up and wondered if he had dreamt that someone
was calling him. The baby was crying, and Kelly was already wearily getting up
to go to her. Just as he decided it was okay to go back to sleep, he heard the
voice again.

"Voodoo to CAG! Are you awake?"

"I am now, Voodoo. What's happening?" As he spoke,
Shiloh sat up. Kelly heard him speak and stopped to listen.

"Casanova has just had a vision, CAG. An insectoid mothership
is going to emerge from Jumpspace just beyond the gravity zone in 11.1 minutes
from now. Voodoo had its exact emergence coordinates. He also has the precise
locations of the mothership's laser batteries. His vision confirmed that we
could neutralize this mothership by using Mark 2 drones against the laser
batteries and by attacking the landing craft with raider lasers as they emerge
from the main hull. This will allow us to hold back the Mark 5 warhead for use
at Sol. I've already issued the necessary orders to maneuver our raiders into
the optimal positions, but Casanova will still be in a position to fire the
Mark 5 if you prefer to do that. What are your orders, CAG?"

Damn! He hated these critical decisions that had to be made
in a hurry. If Casanova said he got a vision, then Shiloh believed him, but the
recommended course of action sounded very risky to him. They didn't even know
if Mark 2 Kinetic Energy warheads would disable a bug laser battery. On the
other hand, if they didn't, Voodoo would know about it quickly, and Casanova
could still fire the precious Mark 5 as a last resort.

"I approve Casanova's recommended strategy. You have my
authority to use Casanova's Mark 5 if you feel the situation warrants it. I'm
coming to the Ops Center, but I'm giving you authority to command this battle,
whether I'm there or not. Any questions?" Shiloh saw Kelly's eyes go wide
with fear. She quickly turned to run to the nursery.

"No questions, CAG. I know what has to be done."

"Keep this line open, Voodoo."