The Synchronicity War Part 3 (2 page)

Iceman reacted faster than Kelly did.

"Very interesting, CAG. Can you tell us exactly what
you saw and heard?"

"Yes. I'm not sure but I think I was on Valiant's
Bridge, just as I am now. On the screen was a tall, humanoid alien with a
friendly demeanor, who spoke in a calm voice." Shiloh went on to relate
exactly what he heard as best he could remember it.

"Valkyrie is insisting that we A.I.s give Commander
Kelly a chance to respond to this new information, CAG. Go ahead,
Commander," said Iceman.

After a couple of seconds, Kelly spoke in a trembling voice
that revealed just how upset she was. "It's out of the question that you
should go to Omega89! That's what we have the Recon Squadron for! CSOs don't go
jumping into combat zones in person! We need you here! I need you here!"

With Kelly on the edge of tears, Shiloh felt he had to take
back control of the discussion. "Every vision, with only one exception,
has turned out to be reliable and beneficial. This vision was clear and the
audio was perfectly in sync with the visual. That means that I'll survive any
recon mission to Omega89. I have to go and I will go but if it makes you feel
any better, I'll take five raiders as an escort for Valiant."

None of the A.I.s said anything, which indicated to Shiloh
that they understood this was something that he and Kelly had to come to grips
with themselves. After five long seconds Kelly said, "Not five
raiders…twenty-five!"

Shiloh was tempted to agree and if they were having this
conversation in private, he might have, if only to calm her down. Since all the
A.I.s were listening in, directly or indirectly, he had to take into
consideration how they would interpret his acquiescence. His hold on them was
based on their respect for him. If he ever lost that, the long-term
consequences could be potentially catastrophic.

"I can't justify taking almost half of our total
military strength and risk leaving you and all of the colonists with what could
be inadequate defenses. That would be irresponsible of me. I'll take eleven,
which will leave 80% of our strength here to stand guard. We'll wait until all
of the recon raiders are back. Valiant isn't ready for a long mission right now
anyway. How long will it take to get her provisioned, Iceman?"

"I need to gather additional information on the
Colony's food stockpile before I can give you an accurate answer, CAG."

Shiloh nodded. With Earth depopulated, the Space Force's
supply of processed, low bulk, long shelf life food, which its ships relied on,
was gone. The colonists had used up most of what they'd brought here while
waiting for the first planted crop to mature. It was being harvested now and no
one was really sure yet if they had enough freshly grown food to last until the
next crop was ready to harvest.

"Understood. Unless anyone has a question about
planning for the mission to Omega89, I intend to adjourn this meeting."

"Will Iceman be piloting Valiant on this mission,
CAG?" asked Valkyrie.

Shiloh frowned. He hadn't considered that when he said he
would take Valiant to Omega89. Iceman was the senior ranked A.I. and was also
his Deputy CSO. His vision hadn't mentioned Iceman or any other A.I. If he was
going, then Iceman should stay here and assume temporary command of Space
Force. Valkyrie was the obvious choice to pilot a light carrier. Since Iceman
was now conning Valiant and she was conning Resolute, the simplest solution was
to take Resolute instead of Valiant.

"No. As Deputy CSO, Iceman needs to stay here. Since
you're already conning Resolute, Valkyrie, I'll use that ship as my flagship.
Any other questions?" There were none and Shiloh was relieved that Kelly
was keeping her thoughts to herself. He was sure he'd be hearing more about
this when he got home. Within a few minutes, he was on a shuttle heading back
to Terra Nova.

Shiloh was still thinking about his wife's reaction as the
shuttle took him back down to the planet. When it landed twenty minutes later,
he was surprised to realize that he had fallen asleep during the flight.
It
would have been nice to just stay on the ship and get some sleep in my old
quarters but Amanda would be furious if I did that,
he thought to himself.
By the time he got home, the sun was just starting to peek over the horizon. As
expected, Kelly was still awake. Shiloh could tell that she'd been crying and
he knew her highly emotional state was the result of the hormonal changes that
all pregnant women go through. She came to him, put her arms around his neck
and pressed her cheek against his.

"I realized after I said it, that I had unintentionally
put you in an awkward position by challenging your authority. You did the right
thing by not giving in and not making a big issue out of it. Even so, I still
cried. I know it's silly but I can't help it," she said in a low, calm
voice.

He carefully hugged her as he said, "And thank YOU for
not making a bigger issue out of it either. Do you understand why I have to
go?"

She nodded and he felt her tears on his cheek. After what
was likely no more than thirty seconds but seemed longer, she pulled back and
looked at him. "I can tell you're tired. Let's go lay on the bed with our
arms around each other. I think I might be able to go back to sleep, too."
Almost as soon as they lay down, Shiloh fell asleep. Eventually Kelly did as
well.

It was later than usual when Shiloh woke up. Kelly was still
sleeping and he succeeded in getting up without waking her. After a quick
shower and change of uniform, he left a note for her and headed back to the
spaceport. Someone had been thoughtful enough to make sure that there were
sandwiches and coffee waiting by the time he got there. Just as he finished
eating his last bite, his implant activated and he heard Iceman's voice.

"Good morning, CAG. We hope Commander Kelly didn't give
you too hard a time when you got back."

Shiloh chuckled. "No she didn't and thanks for asking.
Where do things stand with preparations for the mission?"

"In terms of your question about provisioning Resolute,
the latest estimate is that the harvest will be big enough to last until the
next crop matures. In order to get to the point where the colonists can switch
over from the Space Force dehydrated rations to locally grown food, however,
the estimated remainder would only be enough for a full light carrier crew for
sixty days. That’s more than enough for this contact mission, but future missions
by manned ships will be severely constrained unless we can replenish that
inventory."

Shiloh nodded. It was just as he had suspected. Up until
now, the plans had been to stay in this system until the raider force was much
larger and only then send out manned ships. By that time, the local food supply
would be adequate to get the colonists to the next harvest, and the necessary
equipment to convert locally grown food into dehydrated rations would have been
built.  Because of that time frame, building the parts for that equipment was a
low priority compared to other more urgent needs. But if Space Force was going
to poke its nose out there sooner rather than later, then it had to supplement
its supply of low bulk food that had a long shelf life.

"How long until all recon birds have returned?"
asked Shiloh.

"If they return on schedule, the last one will arrive
in 361 hours, CAG."

"Hm. Fifteen days. If we make food processing equipment
a top priority, how fast can we start to supplement our existing stockpiles of
shipboard rations?"

"The equipment can be ready in six days but the locally
grown food won't be harvested that quickly. In order to do that, the earliest
delivery of new shipboard rations would be three weeks but I should point out,
CAG, if you want that equipment ready in six days, it will interrupt the
production of key raider parts. The production schedule for raiders will hit a
six day delay."

"Understood. Can we have the food processing equipment
ready by the time the first crop is harvested without slowing down delivery of
raiders?"

"Yes, CAG."

"Good! Make the necessary arrangements. I want Resolute
provisioned for fifty days with a full crew by the time the last recon raider
returns. I'd like to leave sooner but we need to make sure we have all the
available recon data before we head out there just in case they've seen
something else that could be important."

"A wise precaution, CAG. I wish I was going out there
with you. Any chance that I could talk you into leaving Valkyrie behind and
letting me pilot your flagship for you?"

Shiloh smiled. While Iceman had matured a lot from the
almost reckless fighter pilot he used to be, there was a tiny bit of the old
Iceman still hungry for action. "Not a chance, Iceman. You're the only one
that I can completely rely on to protect my wife and unborn child if that
should become necessary. I have complete confidence in you to look after the
situation here in my absence."

"Understood, CAG. I'll make sure nothing happens to
them. Valkyrie would never forgive me if I let something happen to Commander
Kelly and her child."

"Now that's what I call motivation. Let's go on to
other business. Any other news since yesterday's update?"

"As a matter of fact there is, CAG. I received a report
several hours ago from the mining operation on the moon. It appears that one of
the boring machines has broken through into a large cavern. The exact
dimensions of it are not yet known but it's substantial. You were still asleep
when the report came in and I decided it could wait. Did I do the right thing,
CAG?"

"Yes you did. Let's find out how big that cavern is and
while we're at it, let's do some seismic surveying to see if there are other
caverns. With a little luck, a cavern may give us quick access to a rich vein
of ore."

"Roger that, CAG. Nothing else to report."

"Very good, Iceman. I'll be spending most of the day
with the Colony administrators if you need me. CAG clear." With the
connection broken, Shiloh leaned back to take stock of the subtle changes in
Iceman's responses. The 'ah' that usually preceded his replies was becoming
less evident all the time. With his personality still evolving, it shouldn't be
a surprise that he was dropping some old habits while picking up new ones.
Iceman's more serious tone reassured Shiloh that making Iceman his Deputy Chief
of Space Operations was the right choice.

The fifteen days went surprisingly quickly. As usual, there
was plenty to do. When the last raider returned from its recon mission, Shiloh
held another strategy session, this time from the spaceport Operations Center.
Other than Gunslinger's jaw-dropping report, none of the other raiders saw
anything unusual. Shiloh stood in front of the small display, with Kelly and
some other senior Space Force people standing nearby.

"Okay, Valkyrie. Show me your proposed mission
profile." The screen displayed a collection of green and red dots with a
blue line connecting a number of them in a somewhat zigzag pattern.

"I started by using the standard route that my recon
team uses, CAG. First jump is to the Haven system, then to Epsilon Eridani,
then to Avalon, Bradley Base and Zebra9. At this point, each recon mission
route becomes unique, so I'm proposing the most direct route through enemy
space which is Omega34, a colony world, then Omega54, their Home world,
Omega77, another colony world and then Omega89, the furthest colony world we've
detected. Each jump would be at 50% of light speed and we would stay in each
star system just long enough to regroup and re-orient the Task Force to the
next target star. Total trip time would be 14 days, 5.26 hours."

Shiloh shook his head in amazement. Such a trip by ships
that needed to refuel would have taken at least four times as long. It used to
take ten days just to get from Earth to the Bradley Base system. The thought of
Earth prompted him to make the decision that he'd been deferring until now.

"I want one change. The rest is fine. Instead of
jumping to Epsilon, we'll go to Sol instead. I think it's time we took a good
long look at Earth to get some idea of how many survivors there might be. While
Resolute and the bulk of the Task Force is in Earth orbit, I want raiders
detached for quick flybys of Earth's moon, the asteroid shipyards and the
refueling base on Europa. I'm not expecting to find any survivors at those
locations but I do want to know how much of the infrastructure is still intact,
if any. From Sol we'll follow the rest of the profile plan with a jump to the
Avalon system."

Before he could say more, Iceman interjected. "So
you're no longer concerned about possible enemy surveillance of Earth then,
CAG?"

Shiloh took his time answering. He was reversing his
previous insistence that any reconnaissance of the Sol system stay a long way
from Earth herself, in case the enemy deployed some of their automated
detection gear on Earth's moon or in Earth orbit. Keeping Site B secret was so
important that it was worth avoiding even remote risks. The trouble with that
was they couldn't tell anything definitive about the situation on Earth from so
far away. The last message drone from Earth had arrived over five months ago.
Shiloh was certain there were some survivors still alive. In fact, it was
highly likely that small, isolated groups were living in remote areas far from
the cities. He and the rest of Space Force owed it to them to eventually rescue
them from a bleak future involving a daily struggle to find food, shelter
against the elements, and possibly even danger from the predatory animals that
would now be thriving without hordes of rifle-equipped hunters chasing after
them.