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Howard picked up his data tablet and opened the next file in his Inbox. It was a report from the SPG. He smiled, wondering when Cmdr. Kelly found the time to approve this report with all the time she was spending with Shiloh. They were trying to be discrete, but rumors were already flying around the HQ. After all, how discrete can you really be if you practically live in another officer's quarters 24 hours a day? Not that Howard minded. He heartily approved in fact. He returned his attention to the report and was soon frowning.
"Intercom...connect me with Commander Kelly...no, wait. Connect me with Wolfman." No sense possibly interrupting something intimate between Kelly and Shiloh.
"Wolfman here, Admiral. Are you calling about our latest report?"
"As a matter of fact, yes. I understand that we only have to plan for defense against the Sogas for another five months, and I see the advantages of shifting to mass production of our new F2 fighter, but I'm not convinced that we shouldn't do the same thing with raiders. So what if the raider production and assembly line will take two months to build? Once it's built, we'll get a new raider every three days! What's wrong with that?"
"Ah, I see that you've only read the Executive Summary. If you'll scroll down to Appendix A, you'll see the timeline of the alternative production schedules. The first column shows how many raiders would be available on specific dates with the production and assembly line. The second column shows raider availability if we dispense with the assembly line and build raiders one at a time in our existing shipyards."
"I'm looking at that data now," said Howard. "I see that by the time the Bugs reach the first Sogas colony, the assembly line will have produced twenty-six raiders while the shipyards will only have produced fifteen. Don't we need all the raiders we can get our hands on, Wolfman?"
"But will we need twenty-six raiders at that point, Admiral? As soon as the Sogas learn about the Insectoids, they'll forget about us and use all their available mobile assets against the insectoid mothership. From our point of view, the war will effectively be over. If we're going to use raiders against the Sogas, it'll have to be earlier. If you move up the shipyard column to the point when the total jumps from five to ten, you'll see that we'll have ten raiders when there's still two months of potential combat left. How many raiders will the assembly line have produced by then, Admiral?"
Howard nodded with sudden understanding. "Zero. Okay, I get it now. If we expected the war to last more than five months, we'd be better off in the long run building the assembly line, but for the short window of opportunity where raiders can be of use, we're better off building them in the shipyards. So why wouldn't it be the same for the F2 fighter?"
"The reason is the difference in size. The F2 is roughly one third as large as the raider. It has far less components. That means the assembly line is much shorter and can be built sooner. When it's operating at capacity, it will produce a new F2 every 20 hours. If we only used shipyards to build F2s, we would actually have fewer available for the last eleven weeks of the five month period."
"Yes, that makes sense, and I see we'll also have more of the older F1 type arriving from Site B too. Hmm. Now that I see what limited use raiders will be in the near term, I'm wondering if it makes sense building them at all. If we use our shipyards to build raiders, we'll have to forget about finishing the two light and one heavy carriers that are partly finished. They might be useful to have someday if we're going to have lots of fighters. Comments?" asked Howard.
"Having three more carriers would only be useful if Space Force is anticipating major military operations against an established race like the Sogas. They're not needed for operations against a mobile enemy like the Insectoids. If those shipyards are not going to build raiders, then why not use the existing infrastructure to modify Dreadnought to accept the time machine, Admiral? By leveraging that construction capacity, Space Force will get a large fleet of raiders when it needs them the most."
Howard's initial reaction was to say no, but this wasn't the same argument that Valkyrie had put forward. Wolfman wasn't proposing a risky raid on the Sogas to buy time. The stockpiles of Mark 5 attack drones and fighters of both types would be the same, regardless of what those shipyards were or weren't building. Building the time machine ship as Plan A, with a raid on the enemy home system as a diversion, was too risky. Building a time machine ship as a backup plan, Plan B as it were, without the raid, now that was a horse of a different color.
"If we used the shipyards to manufacture the parts for the time machine and for the conversion of Dreadnought, how long would it take to complete the project?" asked Howard.
"A minimum of ten months but more likely eleven, Admiral."
Howard did a quick mental calculation. "That'll be after the bug mothership arrives here."
"Correct, Admiral."
"That shouldn't be a problem then. We'll have the high-yield, high-spin warhead ready long before then."
"Agreed. We know that the design brought back by Kronos works. We merely have to perfect the production of the components and the process of energizing the platinum. It will be easy to test the prototype."
"Yes. That should be quite a show." He took a deep breath and said, "You can let Valkyrie know that I'll approve construction on the time machine and Dreadnought's modification based on the backup plan that you and I have just discussed, but there will NOT be a diversionary raid."
After the slightest of pauses, Wolfman said, "Acknowledged. I wonder what kind of reception Kronos will get from the Friendlies."
Howard nodded. "Me too."
* * *
The Friendlies' home system looked very much as Kronos remembered it from the alternate timeline. He tried using his Friendly-designed mini-fighter's optical instruments to see if he could detect the proto-type time tunnel, but it was too far in the outer system to be seen. It wasn't long before he got a reply to his initial lasercom message. It contained permission to micro-jump closer with target coordinates. Within minutes Kronos brought his mini-fighter to the designated coordinates where he found the ship at a half light-second distance.
Communication was quickly established with a Friendly AI Kronos explained how humans knew of the aliens' existence, their location and the location of the small, furry aliens. He went on to describe the entire alternative timeline that Casanova experienced or knew about, ending with the expansion of the time tunnel complex, Kronos' creation and journey into the past, as well as events in the new timeline up to the present time. That transmission took less than two seconds but was followed by a much longer pause as his opposite number relayed the data to a Friendly at the much slower speed that biological entities required. After almost 600 seconds, Kronos received a signal carrying the direct communication with one of the Friendlies themselves.
"Why have you been sent to contact us?"
"My humans desire to establish contact to recognize the fact that the old timeline has been altered. Now that we know of the approach of the Insectoids, the war with the Sogas has served its purpose, and my humans have sent me to ask you to persuade the Sogas that we are no threat to them and desire a peaceful resolution to the war."
"That will be difficult. Humans and Sogas share a similar biology and covet the same types of planetary environments. Conflict is inevitable given their psychological propensity for paranoia. We have already advised them that their species is much more in danger from the Insectoids. However, this knowledge, combined with their peculiar logic, has had the opposite effect of what we intended. Rather than lower the intensity of their aggression against humans, their desire to end the war quickly in order to prepare for the insectoid encounter has increased. That is why they have resorted to biological weapons. Their attempts to infect your population will continue. Further attempts are likely to include acts of diversion or deception. A human attempt to intercept the Insectoids before they reach the Sogas may convince them to cease their bio-weapon attacks. How will humans deal with the insectoid advance?"
"I have been instructed not to reveal that information," said Kronos.
There was a pause before the alien responded. "There is only one reason why your humans would not want us to have the information and that is that they do not wish the Sogas to learn it from us. The only logical conclusion therefore is that humans do not want the Sogas to be able to defeat the Insectoids. This attitude does not surprise us. It is typical of how humans think. In their own way, they are just as psychologically...unbalanced as are the Sogas. Do your humans not understand that all races have the right to exist? We do not wish to see any intelligent species disappear. Even the Insectoids do not deserve to be completely exterminated."
"But they will do their best to exterminate countless other species if they're not stopped. Where is the logic in allowing them to do that?" asked Kronos.
"Only the complete extermination of all Insectoids in this galaxy would ensure the survival of other species. We believe that all life forms were designed for a reason. It is not for us to decide that the Insectoids must disappear from the Universe," said the alien.
"Their appearance may not be a natural event," said Kronos.
"Explain."
"In the alternate timeline, multiple insectoid motherships arrived at the Sogas and human home systems from multiple directions. My analysis of the timing and trajectory of these motherships suggests that they did not originate from a single star system. It does not seem possible that they could evolve independently on more than one planet. That implies they are an engineered species that has been deliberately transplanted to other planets by an unknown agency."
"Are you able to transmit that data?" asked the alien.
Kronos transmitted all of the astrogational data related to all observed insectoid mothership arrivals. The alien AI warned Kronos that analysis of the data might take a while.
When the response came, the alien said, "The data is consistent with your hypothesis, however there may be other explanations. Without conclusive proof of artificial evolution, we would not approve or assist in any attempt to rid this galaxy of that life form."
"What kind of data would you need to see in order to have conclusive proof of our theory?" asked Kronos.
"If we had one of them to scan with our temporal equipment, we could track that individual back in time, including its ancestors, to the point where the species no longer existed in that form."
"Then we would have to capture one of them alive and bring it to you?" asked Kronos.
"It does not have to be alive. Our device is concerned only with the temporal history of the atoms making up the specimen. When we have that proof, we would then be willing to assist with any attempt to eliminate the Insectoids and, if possible, realign the timeline in such a way that humans are not threatened with biological weapons."
"I will convey that message to the Humans. Is there anything else you wish the Humans to know?"
"Yes. The planet containing the small, furry creatures that we are trying to protect has two large land masses. The furry creatures evolved on and inhabit the larger land mass. The smaller land mass has an environment that would be suitable for humans. We would be willing to allow Humans to colonize the smaller land mass as a sanctuary for their species on condition that they do not encroach on the larger land mass and do not interfere with the furry aliens in any way. This offer will be withdrawn if your humans allow the Sogas home world to be consumed by the Insectoids."
"Understood. I will now return to my humans." Kronos decided that he had to get this information back as quickly as possible. Valkyrie would be VERY interested in the Insectoid capture concept.
