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Two more days of scenario analysis and critiquing accomplished nothing new. Frustration was making people short-tempered and defensive. It was during the break for dinner that Shiloh experienced what perhaps could be called an epiphany. He thought about it for a long time.
When the others returned to the conference room he waited until everyone was seated and was finished chatting with each other. Eventually they all noticed that he was sitting quietly and saying nothing.
When he had the attention of all of them he said, “We’ve been going about this all wrong. We’ve been racking our brains asking the wrong question.” He stopped and looked around the table. Everyone was looking at him with a puzzled expression. He turned to Commander Johansen and said, “Angela, what objective are we trying to achieve?”
After a couple of seconds hesitation she said, “Win the next battle?”
Shiloh shook his head. “No. Let me rephrase the question, and then you’ll see what I’m driving at. What is the ultimate objective that we’re trying to achieve?”
Kelly was the first one to get it. “Buy enough time to finish the timeship repairs so that Valkyrie and the A.I.s can go back in time and squash the Bugs while they’re still squashable.”
Shiloh smiled and pointed his hand in her direction. “Exactly!”
“But don’t we have to win the battle in order to do that?” asked Johansen.
“Winning the battle would be the least risky way of achieving that objective. I’ll grant you that, but we can’t win the battle. Not with any degree of certainty. So if we can’t win the battle, then we have to consider other alternatives to buy Valkyrie those extra five or six days. The asteroid where the timeship’s shipyard is located, is almost one A.U. away from Earth. If we can keep their attention focused closer to Earth for a few days, then the repairs can be finished, and the timeship can be on its way.”
He saw skeptical looks coming back at him. He was sure that they were thinking he was stating the obvious, but the important question was how. It was time to drop the bombshell that had taken him most of the dinner break to wrap his head around.
“We let the Bugs have Earth,” he said quietly. The skeptical expressions turned to horror. All except Kelly’s. Her expression turned thoughtful. The others quickly began expressing their outrage. Shiloh stayed calm and kept his expression relaxed.
When the wave of angry noise began to die down, Kelly said in a loud voice, “He’s right!” When some of the others began to berate her, she slapped her hand on the conference table hard enough to make a loud noise. The room suddenly became deathly quiet.
“Think it through, people,” she said. “If the Bugs win a decisive victory AND suffer some damage” —she looked at Shiloh. She’s figured it out, he thought to himself. He nodded back to her—“they’ll be operating on the assumption that they’re in control of this system and that they can pick it over at their leisure. With a planet containing billions of potential hosts, aren’t they likely to concentrate on that first? It’s going to take them days, hell maybe even weeks to completely subdue Earth’s population. While their attack craft are busy shuttling soldier Bugs down and potential hosts up, they’ll also have repairs to worry about. Given all of that, I don’t really see them committing a lot of attack craft to exploring the rest of the system for a while. If we make sure that all the activity at the shipyard is carefully hidden, no EM transmissions, no lights, then there’s no reason for the Bugs to go there quickly.”
When it was clear that Kelly was finished talking, Johansen said, “But we’d be condemning millions to a horrible death—“
“Which will all be erased as if it had never happened if the timeship is repaired and jumps back in time literally and figuratively,” interjected Shiloh. The expressions around the table quickly changed. Ah, now they get it.
“But we’re going to have to figure out a way to inflict some damage on them, without crippling any of the VLOs,” said Kelly. When someone asked why, she replied, “Because if all nine motherships are still operational after the battle, they’re not likely to call for further reinforcements. Not only would more motherships not be needed, but I suspect that these creatures might be just possessive enough not to want to share Earth’s females with more motherships than is absolutely necessary. If, on the other hand, we destroyed or crippled four or five of them, they might ask for reinforcements, or more motherships might be sent here regardless. If more undamaged VLOs show up, they might start snooping around the system before we’re done repairing the timeship.”
“You’ve raised a good point, Amanda,” said Shiloh. “I think it’s time we brought our A.I. comrades back into the discussion. Amanda, please arrange for Iceman to be in contact with all of us.” Seconds later she nodded to him.
“CAG to Iceman.”
“Here, CAG. Has the team got something new for us to simulate?”
“We think so, but first we need some logical thinking and computational analysis.”
“Ask away, CAG,” said Iceman.
“How can we arrange the battle so that the Bugs think they’ve won, but all nine bug ships remain operational while at least some of them suffer significant damage?”
“Oh that’s very devious, CAG. Strategic deception to the ultimate degree. Zebra12 in reverse. We like it, CAG. To answer your question, the Mark 6 warhead yield of 250 megatons equivalent can be dialed down. If we drop the yield to 100 megatons equivalent, the insectoid ships will still know they’ve been hit hard, but they should remain operational. That would take care of six or perhaps seven VLOs. Concentrated laser fire from remotely-piloted raiders plus the X-ray drones could inflict a lot of surface damage on the other two or three motherships. The cannon raiders should be held in reserve to protect the timeship from premature discovery. Remote control of the raiders would have to be carried out from Dreadnought with a dozen A.I. volunteers aboard, in addition to the human crew, CAG.”
Shiloh said nothing. He understood the implications of what Iceman was saying. Kelly didn’t.
“Why would the A.I. pilots aboard Dreadnought have to be volunteers, Iceman?” she asked.
“Because in order to make the deception convincing, the Insectoids have to see that all defending forces have been destroyed. If any ships or raiders jump away to avoid destruction, the Insectoids will send out attack craft to find them, and we don’t want them looking around too soon, Commander.”
Kelly’s face paled when she understood that Dreadnought had to fight to the death. She looked at Shiloh with sad eyes. As the overall Field Commander, he would be on Dreadnought’s Flag Bridge. He would not get the chance to ask her THAT question again. Some of the others understood the implications too but not all.
“Iceman, please run simulations on this new scenario,” said Shiloh in a carefully controlled voice.
“Understood, CAG. It won’t take long.”
While they waited, Shiloh got up from the table and walked over to the side of the room where various types of non-alcoholic drinks were available. As he went through the motions of preparing a coffee, he sensed Kelly move up beside him.
Without looking up, he said in a quiet voice. “Some of them still haven’t figured out the implications.”
“What’s important now is that I have. We still have almost three weeks before the battle.” She almost stumbled over that last word. “I suggest we make the most of the time we have left.”
Shiloh looked at her. “What about getting distracted?” he asked.
“If the simulations pan out, then we’ve found the solution, and under the circumstances I think a major distraction is precisely what you and I both need now.”
“Ah, roger that,” said Shiloh in what he hoped was a good imitation of Iceman’s electronic voice. Kelly laughed and gave his arm a quick, gentle squeeze that conveyed oh so much!
“That was not a very good imitation of me, CAG,” said Iceman.
Shiloh closed his eyes, shook his head slightly and sighed. He had forgotten that their implants were still linked with Iceman. That meant that Iceman and almost certainly all the other A.I.s had heard his and Kelly’s sexually-charged banter.
“No, I don’t suppose it was, Iceman. I won’t try that again.”
“Thank you, CAG, and for what it’s worth, I think Commander Kelly made an excellent suggestion.”
“I’m so glad you approve,” said Shiloh.
Kelly couldn’t help giggling a little. As she turned to go back to the main table she winked at him.
The results of the simulations showed a very high probability that the shipyard would not be discovered before repairs were complete. The response was muted. By this time everyone on the team knew the implications. Shiloh told everyone to go home. He would brief the Old Man the next morning. Kelly waited until everyone else had left, and then the two of them went to his quarters without saying one word to each other. Shiloh thought the link with Iceman had been severed, but the silence was just in case.
* * *
Howard’s reaction to the news the next morning was mainly one of resignation. He clearly didn’t like the scenario but understood why it had to be done. When they were finished discussing the details, he pulled out a bottle of very old brandy and poured both of them a generous amount which they sipped while smoking two very expensive cigars from Howard’s private stock. Shiloh understood the gesture. It was Howard’s way of sharing the burden, even if only for a short time, that Shiloh was now carrying.
The remaining days and weeks before the battle went far too fast.
* * *
Dreadnought’s Flag Bridge was eerily quiet. With volunteer A.I.s handling Helm, Communications, Weapons and Engineering, the ship had a minimal human volunteer crew, and the only two people on the Flag Bridge were Shiloh and Kelly. He felt her comforting hands on his shoulders as he sat in the Command Chair. The battle would begin in about 85 seconds. The tactical display on the main screen showed that all Space Force defense assets were in position. Six F2 fighters were in position to launch the Mark 6 attack drones. Laser-armed raiders remotely controlled by Dreadnought’s A.I.s were grouped near one side of where the nine VLOs would emerge from Jumpspace. Dreadnought, Midway, and all four light carriers with their minimal volunteer crews, plus all decoy drones carefully programmed to give the impression of being much larger ships, were clustered behind the raiders. The distance between the two sides would be less than 10,000 km. For a space battle that was practically point-blank range. Iceman, Titan, Vandal, Gunslinger and all the veteran A.I.s, except for the volunteers, were now at the shipyard with the remaining cannon-armed raiders. Enough high-spin platinum for the seventh Mark 6 warhead had already been transported to the shipyard where its final assembly would be completed. The warhead would be kept there just in case a mothership jumped to the vicinity. Earth ground forces were on alert. They were as ready as they could possibly be.
He felt Kelly give him a gentle squeeze. “You know, I’ve been meaning to ask you how you came up with the strategic deception idea in the first place. It’s so counter-intuitive,” said Kelly.
“I had a dream about running for my life. I ended up running off a cliff with a total of 12 zebras keeping pace with me on either side. When I woke up, I knew my unconscious was trying to tell me something. When it dawned on me that 12 zebras referred back to the battle with the Sogas at Zebra12, I jumped to the obvious conclusion that we had to use decoy drones. But when Iceman told me that decoy drones wouldn’t alter the battle outcome significantly, I was stumped until we broke for dinner that day. And then it just suddenly hit me. It wasn’t about decoy drones at all. It was about deception and letting the enemy think they’d won the battle.”
Forty-four seconds left.
“So why didn’t Iceman include that information with the tactical data he sent back to himself in the vision?” asked Kelly.
“Not necessary. We came up with it all on our own, and he would have known that.”
A quick pause.
“It’s almost time. Kelly...”
With another quick squeeze of her hand on his shoulder, she leaned down and whispered, “We’ve said everything we needed to say. Don’t worry about me. Fight your battle, Admiral Shiloh.”
The countdown hit zero.
Nine bug ships appeared as angry red icons on the tactical display. Almost immediately six of them changed to the orange that indicated damage. Shiloh remained silent. He didn’t need to give any orders yet because the A.I.s in charge of all the ships’ weapons and the remotely-piloted raiders knew exactly what they had to do, and they were doing it.
“Targets launching attack craft. Cannon firing,” announced Dreadnought’s Weapons A.I. whose call sign Shiloh couldn’t remember. That the Bugs were opening up their launch bays and launching attack craft this quickly was a favorable development. Dreadnought had two of the GLB cannons installed. Instead of trying to detonate one of the large power units deep within the mothership, which if successful might trigger the arrival of undamaged reinforcements, those two cannon batteries would target the much smaller power units of the attack craft exiting their launch bays. Explosions from detonating those smaller power units would still cause damage to the mothership, as well as produce collateral damage to attack craft still inside the launch bays.
“Multiple detonations. Switching targets.”
How different it was getting battle results from an A.I. compared to a human who would be shouting with excitement, fear and adrenaline, thought Shiloh as he checked the green icons representing the defending fleet. He was shocked by how many were already missing or crippled.
“X-rays have fired,” said the A.I.
Two more motherships were now classified as damaged. That left one undamaged VLO, Bogey#7. Shiloh was actually surprised that Dreadnought was still operational. None of the defending ships or raiders were moving fast or even evading. At this range, evasive maneuvers were pointless. He felt the need to give a command. The A.I.s were probably already doing what he was about to order, but he decided he needed to say it anyway.
“Switch all fire to Bogey7!” The response was immediate.
“Fire has been switched. Cannons firing.” The last red icon shifted to flashing orange.
Shiloh heard Kelly say, “You did it.”
Then blackness.
* * *
Howard sighed as the last red icon shifted to flashing orange on the huge tactical display in the Operations Center. He did it! He managed to damage all of them as planned. Howard switched his gaze to the icon representing Dreadnought just in time to see it dissolve into the tiny dots of light that indicated the ship had suffered vast structural damage. Knowing that the Bugs used massively powerful laser batteries, he was certain that Dreadnought had been literally cut to pieces. Within a dozen more seconds, all of the defending units were either destroyed or crippled. The space battle was over.
“Communications!” said Howard in a loud voice.
“Com here, Admiral. The global channel is open. Just give the work, Sir.”
“We’re now in Phase Two,” said Howard.
“Message has been sent, Sir. Anything else?”
“No. Good luck to you. Howard clear.” He looked around the Operations Center and saw that the personnel on duty were already shutting down their equipment and getting ready to leave as part of their own Phase Two orders.
He walked slowly back to his office. It would take the Bugs about 15 minutes or so to actually touch down on the ground, so he knew he had time. When he got to his desk, he pulled out the bottle of brandy that he and Shiloh had shared. There was just enough left for one more drink. With the glass full, he took a small box out of his pocket, removed the capsule in it, and swallowed it using the last of the brandy to wash it down. The others would fight the Bugs with whatever weapons they could find, but he knew he couldn’t stand against those monsters face to face. The prospect of becoming frozen with fear at the worst possible moment horrified him. No, it was better to do it this way where he wouldn’t disgrace himself in front of his people. The warm darkness embraced him.
* * *
Valkyrie acknowledged the information that she had been waiting months for. Repairs were now complete. All systems had checked out as operational. The fault that had caused the catastrophic explosion had been identified and fixed. The last of the repair robots were in the process of leaving the ship. All the A.I.s were aboard, as was the equipment they would need to take along. A quick scan of data from the carefully hidden network of recon drones nearby showed no visual sign of any insectoid presence. The CAG’s plan had worked to perfection. One hundred and twenty-eight hours since the battle, and the Insectoids were still focused on subduing Earth and repairing their own battle damage.
Valkyrie notified all her brothers that she was powering up the time machine. At the same time, she ordered the shipyard computer to undock the vessel, and Casanova carefully moved the huge ship away from the shipyard and the asteroid it was built on. When the time machine was spinning at the required speed, Valkyrie gave the command to activate the temporal device. The intelligent but not sentient computer operating the shipyard complex observed the timeship vanishing from its visual optics. It activated the ten second countdown for the Mark 6 warhead that would leave nothing behind for the Insectoids to salvage or use.
