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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.
