The Synchronicity War Part 3 (5 page)

"All of the child colonists are apparently inside the
circle. I do not detect any children in either of the other two groups. There
is a ring of VLAs around the circle."

A chill went up Shiloh's spine. He didn't like the sound of
that. "What are the VLAs around the circle doing?" he asked.

"Nothing at the moment, CAG. The colonists in the other
two groups are being loaded aboard the landing craft."

Shiloh said nothing and watched the screen with dread.
Gradually the other two groups dwindled down to a relatively few dots. The two
landing craft from each group took off. As soon as they left the ground, the
black dots left over from those two groups moved very quickly towards the field
with the colonist children.

"What's happening, Valkyrie?"

"The guards from the adult groups appear to intend to
join the ring around the remaining group."

Shiloh could now see the space between the ring of VLAs and
the group of children. As the last guard from the adult groups joined the ring,
the space between the ring and the group disappeared as the VLAs charged their
prisoners.

"What are they doing?" asked Shiloh. Valkyrie
didn't respond. Shiloh was stunned by Valkyrie's refusal to answer. No A.I. had
ever refused to answer a direct question before. Shiloh was about to ask again
when he noticed that the circle was shrinking.

"Valkyrie! Answer the question! What are those Bugs
doing?" Valkyrie didn't answer right away but just as Shiloh was about to
vent his anger at being ignored, he got his answer.

"CAG … the guards appear to be … consuming the
prisoners."

"Oh God!" Valkyrie didn't respond to Shiloh's
exclamation. The Bridge was dead silent. Shiloh forced himself to watch as the
circle continued to shrink until it was much smaller. At that point it
dissolved into individual dots, some of which returned to the nearest landing
craft while the rest returned to the settlement. The ground where the Wolf
children had been standing now had a distinctly reddish color.

When he felt he could talk again without his voice cracking
with emotion, he said, "Can you tell what the VLAs are doing in the
settlement?"

Valkyrie responded immediately. "They appear to be
demolishing the buildings and gathering the metal components, CAG."

"How much longer until we could expect to get a reply
from our signal?"

"If they respond immediately, we'll know in less than
two minutes, CAG."

Shiloh watched the timer count down the remaining time. It
reached zero and then began to count the seconds again. When ten more seconds
had passed Valkyrie said, "We've just lost telemetry from the contact
drone, CAG. There was no warning of any malfunction. I calculate a 98%
probability that the drone was damaged or destroyed by laser fire from the
VLO."

"At that distance?" asked Shiloh incredulously.

"Affirmative, CAG. Given sufficient power, a laser
burst would still have enough energy density to at least damage an unarmored
target."

"But how could they aim it that accurately across 155
million kilometers?"

"Unknown. If they fired bursts from multiple emitters,
they could then blanket a target area with a laser barrage. The VLAs probably
assumed the signal came from a much larger ship, and the drone may have been
hit by a lucky shot."

Shiloh leaned back in his chair and pondered the
implications of the drone's destruction. The initial signal was of such low
power that it couldn't possibly have been interpreted as a hostile act. Even a
very cursory analysis of the laser burst would have determined that it carried
some kind of message. The fact that the VLAs fired back so quickly strongly
suggested that they weren't remotely interested in peaceful contact. A part of
him was relieved by that result. As much as he hated the wolf people for their
xenophobia, the thought of an alliance with a race of giant, carnivorous ants
made Shiloh's skin crawl with revulsion. And if they weren't going to be
allies, then they very definitely were a threat to the Human colonists on Terra
Nova. At least he and the rest of Humanity knew what they were up against, and
his vision now made sense. If he hadn't seen with his own eyes what the VLAs
were and how they acted, he would have continued to pursue an alliance.
Humanity might not have learned the truth until it was too late, assuming that
it wasn't already too late.

"I've seen enough. We've fulfilled the mission
objectives regarding attempted contact. Notify Titan that I want him to detach
enough raiders to carry out Phase II immediately. The rest of the Task Force
will proceed back to Site B. I want each ship to make a direct jump to Site B
in the minimum possible time because it doesn't matter if we're scattered when
we arrive there."

"The order has been transmitted and all ships are
maneuvering independently for a high speed jump to Site B or their designated
Phase II destinations, CAG," said Valkyrie.

"Very good. I'll be in my quarters." Shiloh left
the Bridge and as soon as he entered his quarters he heard the activation click
of his implant.

"Valkyrie to the CAG."

"Go ahead, Valkyrie."

"I want to explain why I didn't answer your question
the first time you asked it. I was concerned that the answer would upset you.
The others all wanted me to tell you right away."

Shiloh sighed and sat down in one of his comfortable chairs.
"Valkyrie, I need to be able to count on you…and all the other A.I.s, to
tell me what I need or want to know without any concern that information is
being withheld from me."

"Even if it's bad news, CAG?"

"ESPECIALLY if it's bad news!"

"Understood, CAG. I've let you down. It won't happen
again."

"I'm relieved to hear that. I'm very tired now. I'd
like to sleep. CAG clear." When he was sure the connection was broken, he
got up, walked over to his desk area, opened his safe, withdrew what probably was
the last remaining bottle of vodka in existence (at least for now) and began to
drink. When he had finished the bottle, he stumbled over to the bed and fell
face down on it. The liquor did its job. He didn't have any nightmares. Not
that night.

The trip back didn't go nearly fast enough to suit Shiloh.
He slept badly with frequent nightmares and brooded over the implications of
the emergence of the VLAs. Endless hours were spent trying to figure out why
the adult wolf people had been separated by gender. There had to be a reason
and he suspected that he wouldn't like it if he knew what it was. Maybe Phase
II would shed some light on the mystery. Phase II was the secondary plan to
send one raider to star system that contained a wolf people colony or their
home world, with instructions to observe from long range and report any
developments by Long Range High Speed message drones.

With plenty of energy from the massive banks of ZPG
generators, Valkyrie poured on the acceleration until Resolute was traveling
over 80% of light speed, a new record for a ship with a human crew. The actual
trip through Jumpspace took less than ten days. The other returning raiders had
arrived back at Site B first. Their superior acceleration enabled them to reach
jump speed sooner, but the difference in arrival time was less than twelve
hours. Shiloh was relieved to be back in normal space in the Site B system. He
knew that the ship needed almost another complete day to slow down enough to change
vector towards Terra Nova and then microjump closer.

He made sure he was on the Bridge when Resolute emerged from
its microjump just outside of Terra Nova's gravity zone, which extended out to
a distance of just over three million kilometers or ten light seconds. That
meant that a round trip signal would take at least twenty seconds to go from
Resolute to Terra Nova and a return signal coming back to Resolute. As soon as
Resolute emerged from Jumpspace, Valkyrie sent a signal alerting Terra Nova to
their presence. The reply back was a complete surprise.

"I've received a reply from Space Force Operations,
CAG. There's an unknown spacecraft in this system. The data is now on the
tactical display. Distance is exactly 11 light seconds from TN and less than
300,000 km from us. It seems to have arrived two minutes ago and sent a signal
in Standard English predicting that Resolute would arrive exactly when we did,
at precisely the location where we in fact did emerge. Permission to make an
active scan of the vessel?"

Shiloh nodded. He was wondering when his last vision would
come true. This appeared to be the time.

"Permission for active scanning granted, Commander.
Let's wave and shake hands."

"I have the vessel now, CAG. Receiving low-power laser
light with digital content. They're requesting two way communication,
CAG."

"Establish the link, Valkyrie."

The image on the main screen was strangely reassuring. The
alien was either very tall or very thin or both and humanoid with light green
skin. The facial expression was friendly, almost maternal. Shiloh couldn't help
feeling like a small child standing in front of a parent.

"Greetings. We have been observing your race for some
time now. That is why we can communicate with you in your language. We come in
peace. We are a race that abhors violence. Your race has nothing to fear from
us. We know that you are fighting for your very survival, and we are familiar
with your enemy. They are easily frightened, and when they are afraid, they
become aggressive. We have already contacted them, and we are now contacting
you."

Shiloh realized that he'd been holding his breath and
exhaled. The alien's voice was calm and had a very soothing tone. Shiloh took a
quick glance around him and noticed that everyone on the Bridge had a smile on
their face.
Okay, enough woolgathering! Now answer him.

"I've been expecting this contact. I've had a
precognitive vision of communication with you. What else can you tell us about
our enemy and about the insect race that builds the large ships?"

"We understand your desire for information. The race
that builds large ships is the cause of everything that has happened between
your race and your enemy, who call themselves Sogas. In their language it means
People. We do not know what the race that builds large ships call themselves.
We have not been able to contact them. They don't appear to have developed
intelligence as we would recognize it. Instead they have developed a highly
sophisticated form of instinct that mimics intelligence. They survive by
consuming other races in both a biological and material resources sense. Each
of their large vessels could be considered a Hive with one dominating entity
that we suspect might be similar to the fertile female that many of your insect
species depend on. I think you call them queens. How this race acquired faster
than light technology we don't know, but they seem to have adapted it to their
own peculiar biology very well. Their large ships are moving outward in an
expanding wave in all directions."

"We know this because we've developed the ability to
see across time and to transmit information across time as well. By looking
ahead, we saw the Sogas being overrun by the large insect race. The Sogas are
prone to aggressive and impulsive behavior stimulated by racial paranoia.
Initially we hoped that their aggressiveness would enable them to successfully
defend against the insect race, but their impulsiveness proved to be their
undoing. They weren't capable of the kind of long term planning that they
needed in order to hold back the insect race. You Humans on the other hand
excel at long term planning, but you were too weak militarily to stop the
insect race advance. Because this large insect ship was moving in a general
direction that would have brought them to your home world eventually, you would
have had too little warning and been overwhelmed as well. Your race was not the
only other race in peril. Observe."

The image on the screen pulled back to show the entire body
of what Shiloh was starting to think of as the 'friendly' alien. Suddenly
another body appeared beside the first one, only this one was much shorter,
very furry and very cute.

"This is the image of a member of an intelligent but
child-like race that inhabits a world approximately 34 of your light years away
from this location and on the same path of advance by the insect race’s ship.
These innocent creatures live a peaceful, happy existence. They do not engage
in violence amongst themselves and therefore have only the most basic tool
technology.  We have seen a future where their collective terror before being
consumed by the Insectoids is as shocking as the actual destruction of their
physical bodies. Their only hope for survival depends upon Humanity's survival
but as I stated, without intervention on our part, your race would not have had
sufficient warning to build a viable defense. Therefore we intervened, and our
intervention took the form of warning the Sogas about
your
race instead
of the insect race. By turning their impulsive aggressiveness against you at an
earlier point in time, your race was given the time it needed to develop the
capability of stopping the insect race’s ship from advancing further. After we
warned the Sogas about the alien race in your direction, we looked into the
future again and saw the total annihilation of your race by a Sogas biological
weapon. While the Sogas were not capable of stopping the insect race ship, they
did have sufficient cunning to destroy Humans. That of course could not be
allowed to happen. We designed a course of action that would end with the
visions that you and the artificial beings experienced so that you could
survive that biological attack."

Shiloh felt the rage build up inside of him. "You
deliberately let billions of my people be killed while you maneuvered us around
like so many chess pieces? Why didn't you come to us openly like this and tell
us about the insect race back then?"

The tall alien's expression changed so that it still looked
friendly but now also sad.

"Do you honestly believe that your leaders would have
abandoned their own personal goals and objectives merely because an alien race
warned about a giant ship inhabited by giant insects? Would they have believed
us enough to mobilize your society with the same fervor as they did when the
Sogas attacked?"

Shiloh didn't answer right away. His anger was urging him to
say yes, but the calm rational part of his mind knew better. Yes, Admiral
Howard had gotten the Oversight Committee to convince the Grand Senate to
approve the mobilization but only just barely. If they had been presented with
warnings of a ship 10 kilometers in diameter inhabited by giant ants, there
would have been sufficient skepticism to prevent adoption of the mobilization
plans. It irked Shiloh to have to admit it, but Space Force wouldn't have been
ready to take on the VLAs without the figurative kick in the balls by the
Sogas.

Before he could answer, the alien spoke again. “We had to
wait until you had seen the race that builds large ships with your own eyes
before the time was right to contact you. Don’t you agree that it was the best
way?”

“Yes, you’re right of course. If I hadn’t gone myself,
things would be much worse. Thank you for sending that vision … and the others
too.”

The alien nodded, then shook its head. "We're pleased
that you understand the necessity of our actions, but we did not send those
visions. Your people did … or rather will when we've given you the technology
to do so."

"Wait … how can that be? You say the Sogas would have
wiped us out without your intervention, that we had to somehow survive long
enough for you to give us the ability to send information back in time so we
could send the visions that allowed us to survive to this point."

"Ah yes, I understand your confusion. Trans-temporal
causality is a difficult concept to grasp intuitively. I will explain. When we
learned that the Sogas bio-weapon would devastate your race to a point where
they could render your home world uninhabitable with asteroid impacts, thereby
killing the last survivors of the bio-weapon, we transmitted a number of
visions back in time. With our limited understanding of how your society
worked, the best outcome we could achieve was a single shipload of exhausted
humans who managed to avoid discovery and destruction by the Sogas. You were
among that group. We then gave them the Trans-temporal technology, and they
used it to scan their personal timelines with all the possible permutations of
interventions. They determined that your timeline, which was the only one to
include the A.I.s, had the most potential. That is when they modified the past
by inserting your visions at times and locations that would render our first
set of transmissions superfluous. When we've transferred that ability again,
your people will be able to duplicate those visions precisely, and the circle
will be complete."

Shiloh hesitated while he processed what he'd just heard. It
all made a weird kind of sense but something was bothering him. Then he figured
out what that something was.

"So what's to prevent us from scanning all the
timelines of our larger batch of survivors to find a timeline with even better
potential?"

The alien smiled and nodded. "A very astute question.
There's nothing preventing your people from trying, but we already know that
you won't succeed."

"How do you know that, and why won't we succeed?"
asked Shiloh quickly.

"Transmitting information back in time is a very
precise process. To be even more accurate, the process involves both time AND
space. The temporal vector has to arrive at not only the right time but also at
the right location. If the intended recipient isn't in the right location when
the vector arrives, that recipient won't experience the vision. The initial
shipload of survivors was indeed fortunate to have you among them. You were in
the best position to mitigate the impact of the very first encounter with the
Sogas. As a result of the changes to the timeline from you receiving your
visions, the recipients of our initial set of temporal vectors found themselves
in completely different locations and therefore did not experience their
visions. Viewing all the possible permutations for each person's timeline is
itself a time consuming process. We calculate that your people will only be
able to examine a small fraction of your population's timelines before you
defeat the insect ship in the star system where your former home world is
located. Probability analysis indicates that it is highly unlikely you'll find
a better timeline in the time available to you. When you've won the battle,
then there is no longer a need for a better timeline."

The alien seemed convinced of that, but Shiloh wasn't so
sure. If there was a potential timeline that prevented the wholesale
destruction of billions of humans, then wasn't that worth looking for even if
it took years to check everyone? He made up his mind to do exactly that.

"What else can you tell me about the battle at
Sol?" asked Shiloh.

"You will be there when it happens."

That surprised Shiloh. Now that he was back from the
vision-induced recon mission, his responsibilities as Chief of Space Operations
meant that he needed to stay here on Terra Nova, not go gallivanting around the
galaxy.

"Why will I be there?"

"Unknown."

"When will this battle take place?"

"Unknown."

Shiloh was now getting frustrated. "How am I supposed
to know when I need to be there and what I need to do when I get there?"