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The Bridge was very quiet now with only the occasional murmur as someone responded to another part of the ship. Everyone was speaking in hushed voices. Iceman and his strike force had launched almost half an hour ago after Defiant made a very careful microjump to a point, two light minutes from Green4A. That was the position that Iceman had determined would avoid detection by the alien ships IF they were on the exact opposite side of the gas giant as expected. Since they hadn’t undergone an attack by 55 alien ships, it appeared that the ship’s microjump had not been detected. It hadn’t taken long to re-establish com laser link to the two sentry fighters whose drones were still trying to passively detect the enemy ships. There was a limit to how long they could wait for passive detection before Iceman’s Strike Force entered the gas giant’s atmosphere and lost contact with the ship. Iceman had already determined, and Shiloh had approved the idea, that it was pointless for the Strike Force to wander around inside the gas giant’s atmosphere if they didn’t know where the enemy ships were, so the recon drones would resort to active scanning at the last possible moment while the Strike Force could still receive data. Active scanning would alert the enemy to a Human presence and they might abort their refueling operation. Iceman would have to adjust the attack plans quickly enough to compensate for any enemy action. This was the kind of lightning fast tactical ability that only an Artificial Intelligence could display. It occurred to Shiloh that A.I.s were way too valuable as tactical commanders to continue to be used solely as fighter pilots. He was certain that it’d be tough to convince Admiral Howard of that. But something told him that A.I.s would be the key to winning this war.
A glance at the chronometer showed that they had less than 14 minutes left for passive detection by the drones. Shiloh looked over to Tanaka, who was conning the ship from the Helm Station. She must have felt his stare because she turned around to look at him and gave him a slight nod of acknowledgement. He nodded back and smiled. He’d been lucky to have good people serving under him and Sumi Tanaka was no exception. What she lacked in experience, she made up for with focus and energy. He wondered how long the Space Force would let him keep her as his Executive Officer. Probably not long. That was the price COs paid when the Space Force was expanding as fast as it was now. Good people got shoved upward as fast as possible. Shiloh suddenly realized that he was hungry. He was about to contact the Galley to order sandwiches and coffee brought up to the Bridge for everyone when his Command Station console beeped softly. Another text message from Valkyrie had arrived.
[Turbulence wakes detected in upper atmosphere. Minimum of 14 enemy vessels are now refueling. 31 enemy vessels detected in low orbit via silhouette against planetary background. 10 vessels unaccounted for. Recon drones being maneuvered closer. Trajectory data follows. End message.]
Before Shiloh could ask, the Astrogator was already anticipating his next order.
“We’re relaying the drones’ sensor data to the Strike Force now, Commander.” Shiloh nodded his approval. So, Iceman would get his critical data in time. He would project the enemy fleet’s orbit and time his Strike Force’s interception so that his 19 fighters would sneak up on them from below and behind. It sounded good but Shiloh couldn’t help wondering where those missing 10 bogeys were. He checked the incoming sensor data parameters. The drones were far enough away from the gas giant that it was possible, and even easy, to observe the wakes caused by ships plowing through the upper atmosphere. However the attempt to detect the black silhouette of ships in low orbit against the planet’s lighter background was pushing the optical sensors to their limits. It could very well be that the other 10 bogeys were in fact also in low orbit but the drones’ sensors hadn’t detected them yet. The other possibility was that the missing ships were also refueling but were underneath the 14 ships whose wakes were visible. The turbulence wakes of the ships higher up might be hiding the wakes from the ships below.
With the distance between Defiant and the Strike Force, Shiloh knew that they wouldn’t get Iceman’s acknowledgement of the drone data for another 4 minutes and reports of the actual attack and its results would take two minutes to reach the ship too. Shiloh looked at the chronometer again. 8 minutes 20 seconds until communication with the Strike Force would be lost due to atmospheric distortion of the laser beam, and approximately another 23 minutes until the Strike Force was in position to attack. Add another 2 minutes for news of the attack results to reach Defiant and with over half an hour to go with nothing to do but sit and wait, Shiloh called the Galley and ordered the food and coffee for the Bridge crew.
With just under twenty minutes left before Defiant expected to hear the attack results from the Strike Force, Shiloh decided that this was as good a time as any to practice one of the Academy leadership techniques called ‘Leadership by walking around’. He remembered his Instructor telling the class that Julius Caesar had allegedly practiced this technique one night before a major battle. He had walked around his army’s camp, going from campfire to campfire, with a pickle in his hand that he had used to graphically enhance the telling of several obscene jokes that made his soldiers roar with laughter. There’s never a pickle around when you need one, Shiloh thought to himself with amusement. He got up and strolled around the Bridge, chatting for a few seconds with each of the Bridge personnel in a low voice that made each conversation seem more personal and confidential. He found that the mood of the Bridge crew was good. No one exhibited excessive fear and a couple of them were downright eager for the ship to exchange laser volleys with the enemy. Shiloh only smiled when he heard that. Defiant class light carriers were not meant to slug it out toe-to-toe with the enemy although they could defend themselves if they had to. Her most powerful weapon was the squadron of fighters that could pack a hell of a punch and launch that punch at long ranges. When he had finished speaking with all of the enlisted Bridge crew and was about to chat with the Astrogator, the tactical display pinged for attention. A quick glance at the chronometer showed that there was still almost 8 minutes left before the planned interception of the enemy force by Iceman’s group. Looking back at the tactical display, Shiloh saw another text message from Valkyrie scroll across the bottom of the view screen.
[Enemy ships in orbit have begun active scanning. All recon drones have been detected and destroyed by enemy laser fire. Contact with enemy force lost. No contact with Strike Force. Sentry fighters have not been detected. Request instructions. End message]
Shiloh heard someone say ‘damn’ and then realized that he had said it.
He rushed over to his Command Station, switched the open channel to Valkyrie over to his implanted com device frequency and said. “CAG to Valkyrie. Maintain current vector. More instructions to follow.” With the message recorded, he touched the Command Screen button to transmit it in a short laser microburst. As he sat back down in the chair, he gestured for the XO and Astrogator to step over to his Station. Both of them had grim expressions on their faces. Shiloh tried to project an expression of serene confidence as he looked at them.
“So they obviously know now that they’ve been under surveillance. I doubt very much that they’ll still be in the same orbit by the time the Strike Force gets there. If either of you have any suggestions now’s the time to offer them.”
There was silence for about five seconds.
“Can the sentry fighters launch more recon drones?” asked Tanaka.
Shiloh shook his head. “Both of them launched all their recon drones in order to make the initial contact. They still have a few message drones and one attack drone, both totally unsuited for regaining contact.”
After a short pause, the Astrogator said, “If our number one priority now is to figure out where this enemy force is headed next, I think I may have a way to do it.”
“You’re right. That IS our number one priority at the moment. Go on,” said Shiloh.
The Astrogator took a deep breath before continuing. “Well ... assuming that they intend to penetrate deeper into our inhabited space, there are only two paths they can follow from here that make any kind of sense and a limited number of star systems that have gas giants that they can reach from Green4. So we calculate the trajectories that this enemy force would have to take to reach those systems and, we deploy a net of recon drones across both trajectories. The drones will use intermittent active scanning with evasive maneuvers between scans. That will reduce the chance of being hit by laser fire unless the enemy ships get close. To prevent that, the drones will be accelerating in the same general direction as the enemy fleet. In fact, I would even recommend having more than one net of drones. If the first net is destroyed, the second net can continue to track them and if necessary a third net as well. If we manage it right, the third net can last until the enemy actually jumps away.”
“Which won’t do us any good,” said Tanaka immediately.
“Why not?” asked Shiloh.
“If I were the alien commander and I saw wave after wave of enemy recon drones retreating in front of me while bombarding me with radar, it’d be obvious to me that the enemy was trying to figure out where I intended to jump to next. So this is what I would do. I’d change the heading to aim at a completely neutral destination, jump a couple of light years out of this star system, and then reorient the fleet to my real destination.”
The Astrogator nodded.
“Yes, I agree. That would be the logical thing to do,” he said.
“I’m still waiting for a USEFUL suggestion,” said Shiloh. Neither of the other two responded. Shiloh leaned back and looked at the ceiling for a few seconds, then said.
“Let’s assume that they weren’t finished refueling when they detected and destroyed the sentry fighters’ recon drones. They could have easily changed direction and resumed refueling. If that’s the case, then we may have enough time for Iceman’s Strike Force to be redirected to engage in a stern chase and maybe catch up to them before they break out past the gravity zone boundary.”
The XO and the Astrogator looked at each other and then back at Shiloh.
“What if the enemy fleet scans behind them as they accelerate away from Green4A?” asked Tanaka.
“Would you give yourself away by doing that after going to all the trouble of destroying the enemy’s recon drones in order to disrupt enemy surveillance efforts?” asked Shiloh.
“Well, when you put it that way, I’d have to say no, but the Strike Force has to find them in order to be able to attack them. How do we do that?”
“Good ques—” Before he could finish his response, Shiloh’s vision went black and his hearing went silent, all for about a second and a half. The blackness was replaced with a familiar scene of him standing in front of Admiral Howard’s desk. This time he could hear Howard clearly.
“Dammit, Shiloh, I don’t know whether to court martial you or give you a medal! Dangling one light carrier as bait in front of 55 alien ships? Yes, you got away with it and took out enough enemy ships to enable us to stop the rest of them from attacking the Avalon Colony. But I have to seriously question your judgment, especially in light of Commander Tanaka’s report about your momentary paralysis, or whatever that was, just before you announced your plan to put Defiant in harm’s way. What the Hell is wrong with you, Shiloh? You’ve got 30 seconds to convince me that I shouldn’t relieve you of your command and have you certified as a Class A nutcase!”
The scene dissolved and he was back on Defiant’s Bridge with both the XO and Astrogator looking at him strangely.
“Are you okay, Sir? You seemed to enter some kind of hypnotic state or something for a few seconds. You didn’t respond to our voices, and you didn’t even notice when I waved my hand in front of your face a couple of times.”
Tanaka’s voice conveyed serious concern. Shiloh knew that she would report this incident when they got back, but there was nothing he could do about that.
“I’m fine now, XO. I guess I must have blacked out there but I’m fine now. Let’s get our attention back to the situation. You asked me how Iceman’s Strike Force could find the enemy fleet in a stern chase without using active scanning. I know how we can do it. Astro, use my console to add the trajectories that the enemy would need to follow if they wanted to jump to the next logical refueling stop for both paths, up on the tactical display.”
The Astrogator waited a couple of seconds before responding. It didn’t take long for two red lines to appear on the display. Both started at the same point in orbit around the Green4A gas giant with the lines gradually diverging as they got further away from the planet. Shiloh nodded his approval.
“Okay, now add the gravity zone and highlight Defiant’s current position for me.”
When that was done, Shiloh got up from his chair and walked calmly over to the large display.
As he pointed to it, he said, “Here’s what we do. Defiant will microjump to this area, just outside the gravity zone and more or less between the two trajectories. When we arrive, we launch recon drones that will head back down towards Green4A, and then we follow them in. They’ll be actively scanning as they go. When the Strike Force is back in contact with us, they’ll be ordered to accelerate along a vector that’s between these two trajectories. The enemy will detect our emergence from jump space, but since they’re still in the gravity zone, they can’t microjump close to us. They can’t ignore us either, since we’ll be coming down their throats as it were. So I’m counting on them coming straight for us in the belief that they can destroy us and then re-align themselves to their next destination. So, while they move towards Defiant this way”—he pointed with his right hand index finger—“our recon drones will eventually detect them and we relay that data to the Strike Force. At the same time, we turn around and make it look like we’re running for our lives. Meanwhile, the Strike Force is catching up due to their superior acceleration. If Defiant plays its cards right, the enemy will be too focused on us to watch their backs, and the Strike Force will launch their attack drones from the rear at close range. All we have to do is stay far enough away from them to make their laser fire ineffective.”
There was a stunned silence. Finally, the XO spoke. “Well, Sir, if you’d like my opinion—”
Shiloh cut her off. “Not this time, Sumi. I’ve made up my mind. We’re doing this, end of discussion. I want you to get a message drone ready to send back to Bradley Base. I’ll record a message to be added to our data logs. Martin, I want you to get busy figuring the instructions for the Strike Force, the microjump, and drone deployment, in that order. Got that?”
The Astrogator took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.
“Yes, Sir. I’ll have something for you to review and approve in a few minutes.”
“Very good.”
After the Astrogator returned to his station, Tanaka leaned closer to Shiloh and said in an apologetic voice. “I’m sorry, Sir, but I’m going to have to mention your hypnotic trance in my After-Action report.”
Shiloh was seriously tempted to try to talk her out of it but decided that THAT too was part of the vision and all of the clear visions had worked out well so far.
“I have no problem with that, Sumi. You do what you think is best and we’ll let the chips fall where they may.”
While he waited for the new tactical plan, Shiloh recorded his own text message to Admiral Howard.
[55 enemy ships detected in Green4. Our attempted ambush during enemy refueling was not successful and contact was lost. Defiant is now attempting to regain contact with enemy force in order to confirm my suspicion that enemy fleet plans to attack our Avalon Colony. I strongly recommend deploying all available forces there. In light of this incursion, Defiant will proceed to the Avalon Colony system, as soon as possible, to assist with its defense. I have a strong hunch about this, Admiral. Message ends.]
Satisfied with his message, he sent it to the message drone and ordered it launched. When Shiloh reviewed the plan a few minutes later, he was pleased to see that the Astrogator had taken into consideration a new location for Valkyrie and Skywalker, so that Defiant and the Strike Force would both be within line-of-sight of the sentries, during the lead up to the battle. The two fighters could then relay information back and forth between the ship and the fighter group without fear of the enemy listening in. After approving the new orders for the Strike Force and sentry fighters, he ordered them sent to Valkyrie right away. Then they could be relayed to Iceman’s group as soon as communications between the Strike Force and sentries was re-established. The planned deployment of Defiant’s recon drones needed tweaking and Shiloh, Tanaka and the Astrogator were still working on that when a new text message from Valkyrie was received.
[Contact re-established with Strike Force. New orders transmitted and acknowledged. Valkyrie and Skywalker are now moving to new relay positions. Message relayed from Iceman as follows: A very gutsy plan, CAG! You should have been a fighter pilot like us! Message ends.]
Shiloh laughed and then noticed that no one else was laughing. They’re afraid this plan won’t work. I’d be afraid too if I hadn’t had the vision. Out loud he said, “I guess that means that he likes the plan.”
Neither Tanaka nor the Astrogator responded. Shiloh brought their focus back to the recon deployment and within a couple more minutes, they had a plan that he liked. With the ship ready for the microjump, Shiloh activated ship-wide intercom.
“This is Shiloh. We’ve lost contact with the enemy fleet. Unless we get it back, we won’t know whether this fleet intends to attack the Avalon Colony or take a different route deeper into our Space. Re-establishing contact will be risky. In a moment, we’ll microjump to a point that the enemy can’t help but detect. We’ll then move towards where we think they’ll be coming from. The idea is to get them focused on us, so that our recon drones can pinpoint their location and our Strike Force will then try to catch up and attack them by surprise from their rear. It’s not my intention to let the enemy get close enough to be a serious threat but we have to be prepared for that possibility. A message drone with a warning about this enemy fleet is on its way back to Bradley Base. Regardless of what happens here, HQ will be warned and can make preparations. After we microjump, we’ll stay at Battle Stations. I’m confident that we’ll make this work. Stay sharp and we’ll get through this. That is all.” With that out of the way, he nodded to Tanaka, who was once again manning the Helm station. As Defiant got ready to microjump, it notified Valkyrie of the planned jump.