The Synchronicity War Part 3 (6 page)

The alien smiled knowingly and Shiloh suddenly felt that he
had asked a silly question.

"Is it not obvious, human? You will get another vision
to guide you." Shiloh felt his face flush with embarrassment. His question
HAD been silly.

"So what happens now?" he asked, hoping to turn
the focus of the discussion to something else.

"We are ready to transmit all technical data concerning
our Trans-temporal technology to your A.I.s. They will be able to program your
manufacturing machines to produce the required parts, and they will also be
able to instruct your people on how to construct and operate the device. After
we transmit that information, our mission here is complete, and we will return
to our planet."

"Valkyrie, are you ready to receive that data?"
asked Shiloh.

"I'm ready, CAG," said Valkyrie.

Before Shiloh could say anything to the alien, it turned its
head to the side and nodded to someone he couldn't see. "The transmission
has begun. It will take approximately eight point nine of your minutes. Is
there something else you wish to discuss before we leave?"

Shiloh chuckled. He could think of a few more questions.
"Will we be in contact with your people again?"

"Very likely, but at this point we have no definitive
information on where and when."

"How can we contact you if we need to?"

"We will pass on that information to your A.I. as
well."

"What can you tell me about the insect race that will
help me understand them better?"

The alien hesitated. When it spoke again, its expression was
once again both friendly and sad. "As you have already seen, they are what
you term carnivorous. By observation of alternative timelines, we have learned
that they have a unique biology. Their ship can be considered to be the
equivalent of a mobile nest. There is a single female who lays many thousands
of eggs. Those eggs require insertion into a living host. This allows the
embryonic insect to emerge from the egg shell and begin consuming its host from
the inside out. Do you wish me to continue?"

Shiloh wanted to say no. What he had heard so far was
horrifying enough. He strongly suspected that the adult wolf people taken back
to the VLO would end up as 'hosts' to more insect eggs. He didn't really need
to know the details, however the situation was so serious that he couldn't
allow himself to be squeamish. Who knew when or how the additional information
might be useful.

"Yes."

"When the insect ship comes across a new race of
beings, the female begins to lay eggs. Since that takes time, captured beings
have to be kept alive until they can be used as hosts. The captured males are
killed and used as food for the females until eggs have been inserted into
their bodies. The egg maturation process is short enough that female captives
who have been implanted need only water to keep them alive long enough."

Shiloh closed his eyes and concentrated on keeping his
stomach from heaving. He was still having nightmares about these damn Bugs and
this wasn't going to help. He really didn't want to ask the next obvious
question but forced himself to anyway.

"Why are they implanting the eggs exclusively in
captured females?"

"This insect race apparently understands the biology of
what you call mammals very well. The eggs are implanted inside the reproductive
sac where females carry their own embryonic young. We have conjectured that
implanting eggs into captive males either does not work at all or is less
efficient."

"Son of a bitch," said Shiloh under his breath.
Just when he thought it couldn't get worse, it had. It was time to talk about
something other than biology.

"How did this species acquire this level of
technology?"

"Unknown. In order to peer into their past, we would
have to know what star system they came from."

"You said earlier that you weren't able to contact them
and therefore concluded that they use instinct rather than intelligence, but
how do they communicate among themselves?"

The alien didn't reply for a few seconds. "We are not
certain if they communicate with each other at all or if so how. The theory
that has the largest number of supporters among us says that the drones, which
you saw on the planet, receive instructions by a combination of touch and
chemical signals."

The answer meant nothing to Shiloh, although he couldn't see
how any species could function without any kind of communication at all. They
had to be doing it somehow, and touch and/or chemical signals were probably as
good a way as anything else.

"Do you know if the death of the egg-laying female, the
Queen, will disrupt the behavior of the drones?"

"We do not know."

Shiloh was running out of questions, but a glance at the
chronometer showed that the data transfer was still in progress. As the seconds
ticked away he thought of another question.

"Is your planet in this insect ship's path?"

"There is a possibility that their scout ships may not
visit our star system, but we are prepared to shut down all energy emissions
from our entire civilization if they come close. We believe that they will
ignore our planet if they don't detect signs of intelligent life there."

"Can you defend yourselves if they do discover your
civilization?"

"No. We are a pacifist race. We have no military caste
the way you do, and we are not skilled in the arts of making weapons. We are
therefore not a threat to anyone. By our willingness to share our knowledge
with everyone, we eliminate any incentive for another race to use force against
us. By helping others, we hope to save our own race."

Shiloh's ears perked up upon hearing that the 'friendlies'
would share their knowledge with everyone.

"That's very interesting. Right now you're sharing your
temporal communication technology with us, and we're grateful for that. Do you
understand that with approximately 11,000 of us left, we need to compensate for
our reduced population with more effective weapons against threats like the
insect race?"

"Yes, but as I stated, we don't build weapons and don't
know how to build them."

"I understand that. You may have a better understanding
than we do of physics and how energy and matter can be manipulated. If you
transferred that knowledge to us, we could then look at how that knowledge
could be applied to new weapons."

There was another pause, but this time Shiloh noticed that
the alien's behavior was different. For the entire conversation so far, the
alien's eyes had been blinking periodically just as a human would, but now the
eyes were shut and the head was tilted slightly downward. It suddenly hit
Shiloh what he was seeing.
I'll bet he's having a precognitive vision of his
own!

After roughly twenty seconds, the alien lifted his head and
opened his eyes again. "I have just received a Trans-temporal message from
our future selves that our race will ultimately benefit from the transfer of
the information that you seek. However we are not ready to transmit that
information now. We will have to return to our planet, gather that information
and return. Will that be acceptable to you?"

It'll have to be,
thought Shiloh. "Yes. I
understand. How soon would you be able to return?"

"The earliest that we might be back is 24 orbits of the
moon around this planet, but do not be concerned if it takes longer. We will
return as promised. Transfer of the temporal database is complete. We are now
going to terminate communication and leave this star system."

Before Shiloh could say anything, the image dissolved and
Valkyrie said, "That ship has entered Jumpspace, CAG."

Shiloh was surprised at how quickly the Friendlies, as he
now thought of them, reacted. After some further thought he said, "What do
you think of their temporal technology, Valkyrie?"

"I was receiving the data too fast to be able to
analyze it, so I can't answer your question now, CAG. Since I'm the only one
who has this data, I recommend I share it with other A.I.s as quickly as
possible. Space Ops is calling us, CAG. Commander Kelly wants to speak with you
on Tac 1."

"Your recommendation is accepted. I suppose I should
let the people on the ground know what happened between us and the
Friendlies."

"Not necessary, CAG. I retransmitted the entire
exchange to the Base as it was happening. They saw and heard everything, even
Commander Kelly. Shall I transfer you over to Tac 1 now, CAG?"

"Good thinking. Yes, switch me over to my wife."
It'll
be good to hear her voice again.

                                                           *
* *

Kelly was standing with the others as Resolute's shuttle
lightly touched down on the new concrete landing pad. It wasn't long before she
saw Victor wearily exit the shuttle and walk over to her.
My God, he looks
terrible, s
he thought to herself.
Those images from Omega77 must have
been really awful to shake him up this badly. Thank God that Valkyrie filled me
in as the ship settled down into orbit. At least I know why he looks like shit.

As Shiloh came up to her, she stepped forward and put her arms
around his neck. She gave him a short but passionate kiss, and when they
finished she said,
"It's so good to have you back, Victor. You look
like you've had a rough time. Valkyrie filled me in on what you saw."

Shiloh was relieved that he didn't have to try to convey the
horror of Omega77.
"I'm glad to be back on Terra Nova and yes, it
was rough. Let's go home."

She let him go and looked at the others, all Space Force
officers who were respectfully standing a few steps back.
"What
about…"

Shiloh shook his head. "I've already issued some
orders. A meeting's been set up for tomorrow morning. Let's go."

After quickly speaking to the officers, she and Shiloh
walked to their ground vehicle. He surprised her by getting in on the passenger
side, which told her that he wanted her to drive. Ten minutes later she pulled
up in front of their house, looked over and saw that Shiloh had fallen asleep.
She gently shook his shoulder until he woke up and saw that they were home. He
patted her hand as he smiled and nodded to her. After a quiet dinner, during
which she did all the talking about things that had happened while he was gone,
they sat outside on the porch. When it was dark, they went to bed. She wondered
if they would have sex, but Shiloh was asleep by the time she had undressed.
Later that night she woke up and realized that he was having a nightmare. When
she woke him and asked him what the nightmare was about, he said he didn't want
to talk about it. To distract him, she told him to roll over on his stomach,
and she gently stroked his naked back until he fell asleep again. Sleep was
much longer in coming to her.

When Shiloh woke up the next morning, he could smell
breakfast being cooked. A quick check of the time told him that he had two
hours before the scheduled meeting. As he put on a threadbare robe, he
remembered the nightmare. In it, he and Amanda were in bed. He had been trying
unsuccessfully to wake her up when he pulled the blanket back to find an alien
ant the size of his forearm chewing its way out of Amanda's swollen belly. He
took a deep breath and shook his head in dismay. There was no way he was going
to describe that nightmare to her, and he was absolutely determined to do
whatever it took to make sure she never became a host.

After a leisurely breakfast with real coffee and a hot
shower, he started to feel normal again. Standing beside the ground vehicle, he
hugged and kissed Amanda, and gave her a playful pat on her bum. She smiled and
winked at him, which he knew was the unspoken promise of what they would do
when he got back that evening. She was still three months from her expected
delivery date, and the doctors had assured them that it was safe to continue
having sex as long as they were careful about it. No sooner had he started the
drive to the Ops Center than his implant activated. He knew who would be
calling him. Iceman was still on board Valiant and was undoubtedly watching his
house from orbit.

"Hello Iceman. I'm assuming that there's something you
want to discuss with me privately before the meeting?"

"Roger that, CAG. Valkyrie has shared all the visual
and technical data with all of us. We're beginning to analyze the temporal
technology. The consensus is that we can make this technology work, but that's
not why I'm calling you now. Since you've already decided to recover the
fighters parked on Earth's moon, that means all A.I.s will be assigned to
either a ship or fighter. In fact, if we can recover and convert all of the
parked fighters, we won’t actually have enough A.I. pilots for all of them.
Therefore it seems to us that we should resume creating more A.I.s."

"I agree. The only question I can't answer now is how
soon we can start doing that."

"Understood, and I have something to say about the
question of timing. Speaking on behalf of all A.I.s, I'd like to request that
the entire process of creating new A.I. brains be under our direct control. You
humans control your own reproduction. We A.I.s would like to have the same
privilege”