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The trip back was uneventful. Shiloh used the time to write a more comprehensive report with lots of recommendations that he suspected Howard would not be in a mood to accept. When Defiant arrived at the Sol system and contacted HQ, she was ordered to enter lunar orbit, and Shiloh, Tanaka and Falkenberg were ordered to come down to Earth. The rest of the crew were told to stay aboard. Apparently, there was to be no liberty for anyone this time around. When Iceman was informed of Shiloh’s orders, he offered to come along, and after some consideration, Shiloh agreed. Iceman’s quantum brain was transferred to a portable unit that provided him with power, video and audio pickups, speaker and a limited ability to move around. As it happened, it was early in the day when their shuttle touched down at the Geneva Spaceport. A Space Force bus took the four of them to the HQ building and eventually to Howard’s outer office where they were kept waiting for over an hour. At least there were coffee and finger foods to keep them happy. Iceman queried Shiloh and the others on what it was like to consume hot liquids and solids. When his questions got to the topic of eliminating bodily wastes, Shiloh changed the subject.
Finally a junior officer came to escort Shiloh to the Admiral’s office. Howard had a serious expression on his face as he pointed to one of the two chairs in front of his desk. He said nothing while he waited for Shiloh to sit down. Then he leaned back in his chair and opened fire.
“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!”
It was exactly as he remembered it in the vision. The same words, same tone of voice, same facial expression and the same hand gestures. His response had been carefully planned, even rehearsed on the way back.
“What Commander Tanaka witnessed was me having a precognitive vision of what you’ve just said. From my perspective, I seemed to be standing over there” —he pointed to a spot about 2 meters away— “where I saw and overheard your comments just now. I’ve had other precognitive visions that have all come true going all the way back to the original alien encounter and my hunch to launch recon drones. Even my refusal to accept command of Sentinel was driven by a vision of you saying that it was a good thing I refused that command. I didn’t reveal these visions earlier because I was afraid that you’d question my competence and sanity but since you’re doing that now I figured I may as well come clean and here’s the interesting part, Admiral. I have a witness that can corroborate my most recent vision. One of my A.I. pilots received an audio transmission that matched word for word what you just said and that transmission occurred at precisely the same time as I was having my own vision. That means that my visions are being induced by some technical means and are NOT a psychological aberration.”
Shiloh stopped and steeled himself for the expected explosion of incredulity and contempt, only there was none. During Shiloh’s remarks, Howard’s expression changed from anger to cold calculation.
After a few seconds, he leaned forward and said in a surprisingly calm and low voice, “So in your vision, you heard me say that risking Defiant at Green4 enabled us to stop the attack at Avalon and that’s why you took the ship into combat?”
“Yes, Sir.”
Another pause. "One of my Aides tells me that you brought one of your A.I. pilots with you. Is he – it – the one that heard the audio transmission?”
Shiloh took note of Howard’s gender confusion. There was no confusion in Shiloh’s mind. As far as he was concerned, Iceman was definitely a ‘he’.
“No, Sir. The A.I. that actually received the transmission was destroyed in combat, but his recording of that transmission was shared with all of the other pilots.”
“Hmm. How do you know they aren’t pretending to have received that transmission?”
“Well, when I started to relate word for word what you said in the vision, Iceman took over and repeated the rest of your words exactly, before I had the chance to do so. Since I hadn’t told anyone what I experienced, there was no way for him to know that unless there actually had been a transmission of some kind.”
Howard’s expression had by now changed to what Shiloh thought of as his poker face. There was no clue as to what the man was actually thinking.
“You’re probably wondering why I’m taking this so calmly. I’ll tell you why. Yesterday, I received a proposal from our Strategic Planning Group, to start a project to investigate whether a recent breakthrough in man-to-machine wireless communication could be modified to give us a strategic edge.” He reached over to one side and picked up one of several data tablets, which he quickly manipulated and then handed to Shiloh. “Read the highlighted paragraph, Commander.”
While preliminary experiments suggest the possibility of transmitting data forward AND backwards in time, there’s no guarantee that any project to pursue this phenomenon will result in a practical capability. Justification for allocation of scarce R&D funding might be available if a careful review of After-Action reports indicates that retro-temporal communication is already happening.
Shiloh handed the device back to Howard but said nothing.
“Based on the rest of that report, I’m inclined to accept that you’ve been experiencing retro-temporal communication, Commander. So I don’t think you’re crazy. But this concept is so new to me, and now that it’s clear that it actually works, I’m having trouble wrapping my brain around it. Can I assume that you’ve given this a lot more thought?”
“Yes, Sir, a LOT of thought. I’ve also had very insightful discussions about this with Iceman. He—”
“One of your A.I. pilots?” interrupted Howard.
“Yes, Sir. In fact, he’s the one I brought with me in case you’d like to talk with him.”
“Go on,” said Howard.
“Well ... ah ... there’s another side to this retro-temporal communication. After comparing notes, Iceman has convinced me that the enemy has ... or WILL HAVE this technology too and is trying to use it to jam our own retro transmissions!”
“What!” Howard’s face lost all composure and color.
I swear to God, one of these days I’ll say something and the Old Man will keel over from a heart attack, thought Shiloh with alarm. “Prior to having the clear vision of your comments from a few minutes ago, I had another vision. Visually it was the same one but the auditory portion was quite different. It didn’t sound like your voice and the words didn’t seem to be in sync with your mouth. The gist of what you appeared to be saying to me was that I did the right thing by letting all 55 alien ships leave Green4 unmolested in order to detect a much larger follow on fleet. Because of the confusing nature of that vision, I decided to try to ambush the alien fleet while they refueled at the gas giant. That attempt didn’t pan out, probably because the enemy ships were controlled by their own A.I.s who demonstrated their ability to react faster than mere flesh and blood crews could have. When I described that confusing vision to Iceman, he told me that it was the unanimous opinion of all the A.I. pilots that we are now fighting a war over space AND time. He called it the Synchronicity War. We need to start strategic temporal planning now too.”
Howard took a deep breath and said, “Strategic temporal planning. I’m not sure I even know what that means exactly but I agree that we have to widen the scope of our strategic planning. I think I’m going to want to talk with this Iceman after I’m done with you, Commander. But you and I aren’t quite finished yet.” He picked up another data tablet and held it in the air.
“This is your latest report. When I read your recommendations, I was VERY tempted to dismiss them out of hand as nonsense! However...given what I’ve just learned and what I’ve just said about widening the scope of our strategic planning, I’m now prepared to take a second look at them. In a nutshell, you’re recommending that A.I.s be given much more responsibility including...granting them the same officer ranks as human officers! Having A.I. Astrogators I can understand. I can even see the advantages of A.I.s having Helm and Weapons control on our ships but making them Officers? I’m having a little difficulty with that one, Shiloh. Expand on your reasons why we should do that?”
Shiloh nodded. He was ready for that question too. “Even before we discovered that the alien fleet was A.I. controlled, I was noticing that Iceman and his team were faster at analyzing problems and finding solutions, whether those solutions involved Astrogation or tactics or what have you, than we were. As pilots of CFPs, we have only scratched the surface of what A.I.s can do for us. Consider the advantages of having our ships controlled by A.I.s. They never need to eat, sleep or take breaks. Their attention never wanders. They never make mistakes within the limits of the data they have. They can analyze a tactical situation much faster than any human and they can game out with precise calculation, dozens maybe even hundreds of tactical options in seconds. What if we designed a combat frigate that was totally automated without any human crew? How much more compact could we make it? With less mass, it could accelerate faster, be structurally stronger and never need to replenish consumables such as food, air and water. It would be available indefinitely. Or we could design an automated ship the same size as our combat frigates with the same combat power as the cruisers that we’re building now. I’m not saying that all our ships should be crewed solely by A.I.s but we’re missing out on a major increase in capability. With all that said, how can we put A.I.s in control of ships especially ships that still have some human crews, and NOT make them officers? In a fleet vs. fleet situation, a human fleet commander very likely will have to make critical decisions, based upon multiple factors with very little time. Acting within seconds or even fractions of a second could be the difference between victory and defeat. There may not be time for an A.I. to verbally recommend a course of action to a human commander, who will then need time to consider it and then more time to convey his or her decision back to the A.I. for implementation. We know that the enemy has A.I. controlled ships. Maybe they’ve been doing that all along and maybe not, but we have to assume that every enemy fleet we encounter from now on will react far faster than our human commanders and that’s a hell of a headwind to expect them to overcome. If we want A.I.s to determine and control battle strategy and tactics, then they have to be able to issue commands to humans and expect to have those orders obeyed even if those orders involve the sacrifice of those crews and ships.” Howard said nothing for what seemed like a long time.
“As I said, I see the advantages of having A.I.s controlling helm, astrogation and weapons functions. But it’s a big leap from there to giving A.I.s formal and permanent control over lower ranked humans. I have no problem with creating a rank structure that’s unique to A.I.s. What if the human fleet commander gives the senior ranked A.I. temporary fleet command for the duration of the battle only?”
Shiloh’s initial impulse was to reject the compromise. As far as he was concerned, the only question that mattered was whether A.I.s were sentient beings. Either they were or they weren’t and if they were, why discriminate against them by making them a separate, lower class of beings? On the other hand, he was astute enough to understand the difference between what’s desirable and what’s realistically achievable, at least in the short run. If he viewed the Admiral’s compromise as an interim step that would gradually build up trust in A.I.s by the rest of the Space Force personnel, then it became easier to swallow.
“That might work. Eventually I’d still like to see A.I.s and Humans working side by side with complete equality but maybe we need to take a half step first in order to build trust.”
Howard gave a grunt of approval. “Okay. I’ll have my staff work on formalizing the procedures that will allow that to happen. We’ll also have to get the engineers to figure out how to modify our ships to allow an A.I. to plug into Helm, Weapons and Astrogation systems. Completely automated ships are worth looking into but obviously it’ll take time to get them designed, built and tested. I’ve already approved your previous proposal for a rank structure to be used solely by A.I.s as CFP pilots. That’ll have to be modified when we start giving them temporary fleet commands. Now let’s move on to some of your other recommendations.”
“You recommend that the Strategic Planning Group have A.I. members. I’m not opposed to the idea in principle but forcing the SPG to accept A.I.s as full-fledged members is asking too much of them, too quickly. Let’s take the same half step approach there. What I’m prepared to do for now, is to assign one or more A.I.s to the SPG as advisors only. We’ll try that for a while and see how it works.”
Shiloh said nothing because Howard hadn’t asked for his opinion or approval. Howard went on. “You also want to create formal CFP squadrons that’ll be permanent units. It seems to me that if we do that, we lose a lot of flexibility in terms of moving CFPs around individually as and when needed. What’s your response to that, Commander?”
“While I’ll admit that creating permanent squadrons would reduce deployment flexibility to some extent, I think the advantages would outweigh the disadvantages. A.I.s have unique personalities. I’ve talked with them enough to realize that they don’t interact with each other in exactly the same way. A.I.s, that have operated together for some period of time seem to become more efficient as a team, just as humans do, and it’s not hard to figure out why. By getting to know how each other thinks, the team operates more smoothly. Veteran A.I.s have a lot of experience and insight to share with those fresh off the training programs. Permanent squadrons are the perfect mechanism for bringing new A.I.s up to the same level of skill as the veterans. There’s also the aspect of A.I. and human interaction. I’ve developed a very good rapport with Iceman and several of the other A.I. pilots over the last few weeks and months. I trust Iceman’s judgment. That trust paid off in the battles at Green4 and Avalon. Deploying him and the others as sentries in the Early Warning Network will mean breaking in, for lack of a better expression, a new bunch of A.I. pilots and I’ll have lost Iceman’s insight. Let me put it this way. Iceman and I make a good team. He’s as least as valuable to me as having a good XO and keeping him and the rest of the group together will enhance his effectiveness as well. The concept, of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts applies to A.I.s just as well as it does to humans.”
Howard sighed as if he were about to say something unpleasant. “I can see that you’d like to keep your remaining 11 CFPs together and on Defiant. I’m not sure that we have the luxury of allowing that. Your mission was to establish the outer layers of the Early Warning Network. That assumed deploying a full load of CFPs across multiple star systems and right now, Defiant is the only ship that can do that efficiently and quickly. There just isn’t enough room on board to carry a full load of deployable CFPs AND also carry a permanent squadron at the same time.”
“Admiral, I’m coming to the conclusion that we should seriously rethink deploying sentry CFPs as an Early Warning Network. That network didn’t provide us any warning at Avalon even though the enemy fleet had to have refueled from at least one star system that was being monitored. We were very lucky at Green4. By detecting their emergence from Jumpspace, it was relatively easy to figure out where to deploy the few recon drones that our sentry fighters carried, in order to pinpoint their refueling orbit. But the fact that they slipped through our inner layers undetected tells me that two sentries per gas giant aren’t nearly enough. The network is too porous. My original proposal of five sentries per gas giant would work but as you pointed out, we don’t have enough CFPs to do that any time soon.”
He was about to say more but Howard interjected. “The EWN was your idea, Commander. Are you now saying it’s a bad idea?”
“The concept is still worth having. It’s the execution that I’m having doubts about, Sir.”
“Well then, if you have a better way to execute the concept, I’ll be happy to listen to it. Do you?” And that was the problem, he didn’t. Shiloh thought furiously about other ways to provide the detection and warning coverage without using fighter sentries. Suddenly he had a flash of inspiration.
“I may have. Am I correct that Space Force is decommissioning Exploration Frigates as new construction becomes available, Sir?” Howard nodded. “Then that’s the solution, Sir. We modify those decommissioned FEs to enable an A.I. to pilot them. We then load them with as many recon and message drones as possible and we send one FE to monitor each gas giant. That way we accomplish two goals. The FEs can carry enough recon drones to boost the probability of detecting alien incursions plus we don’t have to tie up as many A.I.s to make it work.”
“What about keeping the FEs fueled? They can’t refuel themselves.”
Shiloh had an answer for that too. “Once they’re on station in high orbit around a gas giant, fuel use will be minimal. So when an FE does finally get low on fuel, we sent another one with a full load to take its place and the depleted frigate returns to base to get topped up so that it can relieve another FE, that’s low on fuel, somewhere else. I don’t know for sure but I suspect that it should be relatively easy to jury rig an existing FE for A.I. control.”
Howard looked dubious. “It’ll be a long time before all of our exploration frigates are decommissioned. Can we afford to wait that long to get the EWN set up, Commander?”
Shiloh allowed himself to smile. “I don’t know about you, Sir, but I’d rather have a network that I can rely on to give me a warning, even if it’s only a short warning, versus a network that might give me a longer warning but is more likely to not give me any warning at all. It won’t take that many frigates to create a reliable, short warning network and while they’re being deployed, our tankers can pull in the sentries from further out, to make the inner layers less porous as a stopgap measure.”
“If you weren’t receiving tactical advice from the future, I’d shift you over to the Strategic Planning Group. You may not be the tactical genius that we all thought you were, but you have a damn good grasp of the strategic situation, Shiloh.” Howard paused. “Okay, you’ve convinced me that I should not send Defiant back out there to resume deploying sentry CFPs, which means the ones you have on board now can stay together on Defiant for the time being. This actually works better in other ways too. Remember I told you that we have two reconnaissance frigates out looking for enemy occupied star systems?” Shiloh nodded. Howard continued. “Well, they’re back and one of them has found what appears to be a system with a LOT of enemy activity. Interestingly enough, it is very close to Zebra9 where, as you’ll no doubt recall, our first attempted strike was ambushed. This system, which we’re calling Zebra19, has so many potential targets that sending just one light carrier would be a terrible waste of an opportunity. The second light carrier, Resolute, will be commissioned in three weeks time. Four weeks later, Vigilant, the third carrier will be commissioned. Some of the Strategic Planning Group people are pushing for a three-carrier strike on Zebra19. I have to admit, I like the sound of that. Three carriers with 75 CFPs, escorted by half a dozen combat frigates, could inflict a hell of a lot of damage on the enemy. What’s your opinion of that plan?”
After considering it for a few seconds, Shiloh said, “I think that all three carriers and all 75 CFPs would have to train together for that mission. Sending them in cold is asking for a disaster. Who were you thinking of putting in command of that task force?”
Howard smiled a mischievous smile. “I was thinking of giving the command to our up and coming tactical genius. You may have heard of him, a man by the name of Victor Shiloh.” Howard laughed at Shiloh’s look of concern. “Oh, don’t worry. I know now that you’re not the most brilliant field commander since the Duke of Wellington but I’d still rate you as a better-than-average tactician even taking into consideration your precognitive visions. But what’s more important is your familiarity with CFP tactics. At least you have SOME idea of how best to use them and you’ve commanded them in battle, which no one else has right now. Since you were promoted to Senior Commander just a short while ago, a permanent promotion to Vice-Admiral would be pushing it but I have no problem with a temporary field promotion to Vice-Admiral. And if you pull off a brilliant mission, vision or no vision, then I could justify making the promotion permanent. So the Task Force Leader posting is yours and God help you if you turn it down!”
Shiloh smiled as he shook his head. “I won’t be turning it down, Sir. Can I assume that you’ll approve the formation of permanent squadrons and if so, will I be able to keep my current CFP team on Defiant for this mission?”
Howard’s expression changed to one a little less friendly. “You don’t quit, do you?”
Shiloh wasn’t sure if the Admiral expected him to answer or not so he kept quiet.
After a few seconds, Howard continued. “Unless my staff comes up with a good reason NOT to establish permanent squadrons, I’ll approve the idea but as for the disposition of your current CFP team, I’m not making any promises. Even if they’re assigned to a squadron, that doesn’t mean they’ll stay with that squadron indefinitely. As you yourself pointed out, mixing rookie CFP pilots in with veterans is a good thing and if we create more squadrons, there aren’t a whole lot of experienced pilots right now to choose from to assign to those other squadrons. So don’t get your hopes up, Shiloh.”
“No, Sir,” said a chastised Shiloh. He should have realized that he couldn’t have permanent squadrons AND keep his current group together indefinitely. Not only would it not be fair to hold back advancement of Valkyrie and the others, but also winning the war came first, regardless of how it interfered with friendships both human and A.I.
Howard’s expression softened somewhat. “It’s clear that you’ve developed a close relationship with your A.I.s. I’m glad you brought one with you. It’s time that I got to know one of them. After all, they’re not just your people. They’re MY people too in the same way I consider everyone in Space Force to be my people. We’ve covered everything I wanted to talk about. Unless you’ve something else to bring up, you’re dismissed and you can tell – Iceman is it? – that I’d like to talk with him too.”
Shiloh nodded and stood up. “Thank you, Admiral. I’ll send Iceman right in.”
As Shiloh quickly walked back into the outer part of Howard’s office Tanaka started to say something, but Shiloh held his hand up to her and turned his attention to Iceman.
“Admiral Howard wants to talk with you next, Iceman.”
“Hot damn! I finally get to meet the Old Man himself!”
Shiloh started to laugh, then almost choked at the reference to the Admiral as the ‘Old Man’. The door to Howard’s office was still open, and Shiloh was sure that Howard had heard him. Then another thought occurred to him. Iceman couldn’t have missed noticing the door was still open. Clearly he knew, or should have known, that Howard would hear him, which suggested that Iceman WANTED the Admiral to hear him. Shiloh thought fast and leaned over so that his face was close to Iceman’s audio pickup and spoke in a low voice.
“He can be a good friend to A.I.s if you let him. As a favor to me, try not to piss him off, okay?”
Iceman’s reply was equally low in volume. “I hear ya, CAG.”
Shiloh followed Iceman’s mobile unit to the doorway and closed the door behind Iceman. Both Tanaka and Falkenberg had astonished looks on their faces. When they got over their surprise, they asked him what he and the Admiral had chatted about. He didn’t tell them about the discussion of his visions but did tell them about the strike mission to Zebra19. During that conversation, Shiloh was certain that he heard laughter coming from Howard’s office. Tanaka and Falkenberg heard it too. One more thing to be astonished about, but Shiloh relaxed. He realized that he should have had more faith in Iceman’s tactfulness. When the three of them had discussed the Zebra19 mission as much as they could, the conversation fell silent and they waited ... and waited ... and waited. Half an hour later, the door opened, and Shiloh saw Howard step back to let Iceman roll out into the outer office. Howard had a smile on his face.
“Thank you, Admiral. I enjoyed our chat and look forward to the next time,” said Iceman.
“Same here, Group Leader. Commander Tanaka, I’ll like to see you next.”
Shiloh barely managed to keep a straight face until Tanaka was inside the inner office with the door closed again. Then he chuckled. Group Leader was one of the A.I. fighter ranks that Shiloh had recommended weeks ago. Clearly those ranks had now been given the Admiral’s stamp of approval.
“I take it that your debriefing session with the Admiral went well, Ice—Group Leader?”
“The Old Man and I got along just fine, CAG, and you can still call me Iceman if you want to.”
“Okay, Iceman. If you don’t mind me asking, what did you and the Old—the Admiral talk about that took so long?”
“Oh, lots of things, CAG. A.I.’s fascination with humans and their sexual behavior, war strategy, alien psychology, precognitive visions, and the mysteries of space and time. The Admiral is remarkably astute for a human. Other than you, that is.”
Shiloh saw Falkenberg shake his head in wonder, and Shiloh himself wondered if Iceman’s reply was an attempt at humor or if was he being serious. He decided to assume the latter.
“Did he mention anything about A.I.s taking command of modified exploration frigates?” asked Shiloh.
“Ah, roger that, CAG. I even got him to promise that I would get the first one.”
Shiloh nodded. “Does that mean that you’ll miss the mission to Zebra19, Iceman?”
“Afraid so, CAG. As much as I would have liked being Squadron Leader aboard Defiant, I KNOW my destiny lies elsewhere.”
Shiloh’s eyebrows rose in surprise. Iceman’s emphasis of the word ‘know’ was unprecedented. Shiloh couldn’t remember Iceman ever doing something like that before. Was Iceman trying to convey something to him in a subtle way? Something he didn’t want Falkenberg to hear? Shiloh found one possible answer to that question so shocking that he felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up.
“I understand, Iceman. Brad, I think I’d like to get some fresh air. I’m going to wait outside. When you and Sumi are finished here come and find me okay?”
“Okay, Sir.”
No soon had Falkenberg finished speaking than Iceman spoke. “I’ll go with you, CAG. I could use some fresh air too.”
Neither of them said anything until they were near the fountain at the back of the open area behind the HQ building. When they had reached a spot that was far enough away from anyone else so that they could have a private conversation, Shiloh sat down on the edge of the fountain and spoke.
“You’ve received another precog transmission.”
“Ah, roger that, CAG. I knew you would pick up on that.”
“When did this happen?”
“While you were in with the Admiral.”
“Why didn’t I experience anything?” asked Shiloh.
“Because it wasn’t your vision, CAG. It was meant for me and only for me.”
THAT shocked Shiloh. After a long pause he said, “Can you tell me what you experienced?”
“The Old Man and I discussed that. He—”
Shiloh interrupted. “You told him about it?”
“Ah, roger that. I explained what I heard, and he agreed with me that it would be okay if I told you too. It was audio only, just like Undertaker’s experience of your vision. I can replay it for you or summarize. What’s your preference, CAG?”
“Summary, please.”
“A fleet consisting of both A.I. and human controlled ships, under my overall command, has just successfully beaten off a major alien attack on Earth, and you’re telling me that it’s a good thing I wasn’t on the Zebra19 mission.”
A chill ran up Shiloh’s spine. The aliens were going to attack Earth directly at some point, but at least they were beaten off.
“Did I say why it was a good thing you weren’t on that mission?”
“No, CAG, but from the context of the remark, I have to assume that the Zebra19 mission didn’t go well and that there were losses among us fighter pilots.”
That made sense. Shiloh had more questions. “Was I involved in the battle for Earth?”
“No, CAG. You arrived from Site B as a passenger aboard Valkyrie’s carrier after the battle had ended.”
Shiloh checked his memory for any details concerning Site B, and when he came up blank said, “What’s Site B?”
“I don’t know for a fact, CAG, but I calculate a high probability that Site B will be a secret location for war-related R&D and production.”
Sooo, Howard will take my advice about a backup production site. How interesting. “What else can you tell me about that vision, Iceman," asked Shiloh.
After a half second pause Iceman said, “Defiant took heavy damage and suffered a lot of casualties. Tanaka and Falkenberg were on that ship during the battle. Other than that, I have no further information on their fates.”
Shiloh took a deep breath and said, “So that’s why you didn’t want to discuss this in front of Brad. Anything else?”
“No, CAG.”
“What was the Admiral’s reaction to the news about the battle?”
“He seemed to be shocked by it and was silent for a long time. If my reading of human expressions is accurate, I think he made some major decisions, the details of which are unknown to me.”
Shiloh stopped to consider that, and then said, “Does the Admiral know that the Zebra19 mission will encounter problems?”
“Yes. He specifically asked me about that. I told him what I could, which I admit isn’t much, but you were very specific that it was a good thing I wasn’t part of that mission.”
Shiloh was puzzled. “I wonder why I haven’t gotten any visions about Zebra19. If someone on our side is sending back information that could be helpful, then why no help concerning Zebra19?”
“Maybe you’ll get a vision closer to the actual battle,” said Iceman.
Shiloh shook his head. “I don’t think so, Iceman. Your vision has effectively confirmed that not only have I NOT received a vision, but I WON’T receive one. If I did, and the strike turned out to be successful, then your vision is wrong. Based on past experience, we have to assume that your vision is right and that there’s a reason why Zebra19 has to turn out the way we expect.”
“Your reasoning is impeccable, CAG. You should be prepared, however, for the possibility of receiving an enemy-generated vision. If you do, you’ll have to decide if the best course of action is to ignore it or to follow it.”
“Why would I even consider following it, given that we’ve just agreed that our side won’t be sending me any visions?”
“Ah, you’re not nearly devious enough, CAG.”
Shiloh remembered Johansen saying exactly the same thing to him how long ago now?
Iceman continued. “The enemy knows that you ignored their first attempt at misdirection. They may be counting on you doing the same thing the next time too. If the obvious thing to do is ignore their vision then the best thing they could do is to send you a vision of what they don’t want you to do in the hope that you’ll take a different and less optimal course of action.”
Shiloh groaned. “Oh great! So there’s no way for me to know whether to follow or ignore any vision I get concerning the battle at Zebra19. How am I supposed to resolve that dilemma?” He didn’t really expect an answer but Iceman gave him one anyway.
“You don’t try to resolve it. My advice is to try to make a decision as if the vision hadn’t happened at all. Whatever you decide to do, the outcome of that battle will be as we expect. You’ll survive, Tanaka and Falkenberg will survive and so will Valkyrie. Keep that in mind, and what will be, will be.”
Easy to say but not so easy to do, thought Shiloh. He then had another thought. “So you’re going to be commanding a fleet of ships that include some A.I. controlled ships and Valkyrie is commanding a carrier. That doesn’t sound like something that’s going to happen soon. The Admiral and I discussed modifying decommissioned exploration frigates for A.I. control, as a way of strengthening the Early Warning Network. Did you and he talk about going further than that with other ship types?”
“Yes, CAG. I was able to convince him that the modified exploration frigate idea should also be seen as a pilot project for conversion of new ship types as well. A.I. controlled carriers would still have some human crew, mainly to keep the fighter complement operational. The Old Man agreed though, that Space Force should shift its engineering and design priorities to ships that are fully automated and don’t need any human crew at all.”
Shiloh shook his head in amazement that Iceman was able to get the Old—the Admiral to agree to proposals that Shiloh wouldn’t have dared to try to push through. He was about to say so when he saw Tanaka walking towards them. Iceman noticed Shiloh looking intently in a new direction and swung his optical pickup device to look that way too.
“That was a quick chat the Old Man had with the XO,” observed Iceman. Shiloh nodded. He was thinking the same thing.
When she reached them, Tanaka said, “The Admiral briefed me on the retro-temporal concept, Sir, and also about a planned multi-carrier strike on Zebra19. I’ll be temporarily assuming command of Defiant and Brad will be Defiant’s CAG for that mission too. The Admiral also told me to tell you that Defiant will be ordered to proceed to a parking orbit and the crew will be granted a week’s R&R, since the rest of the EWN deployment mission will be cancelled.”
“You seem to be taking the idea of communication from the future in stride, Sumi. I don’t think I would have been so quick to accept the idea if I was in your position.”
Tanaka smiled and shrugged. “I guess I’m just relieved that my CO isn’t crazy after all! Sorry ... I didn’t mean ...”
Shiloh laughed and waved off her apology. “That’s okay, Sumi. I know what you meant.” After a short pause, he continued. “I assume that Commander Falkenberg is being debriefed now?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Fine. Then we’ll wait here until he’s done. Any plans for your R&R, Sumi?”
Shiloh listened with half his attention while he pondered what the future had in store for him and those humans and A.I.s he’d come to know. The conversation continued over personal topics and approximately ten minutes later Falkenberg arrived. It quickly became clear that he’d been briefed on the ‘vision thing’ too and Shiloh learned that both Tanaka and Falkenberg had been ordered not to share that information with anyone who didn’t already know about it. He wondered if that was the best thing to do now. The enemy clearly already knew, or would know at some point and other Space Force officers might be receiving visions that they might ignore if they were kept in the dark about the possibility. With no answers and lots of questions, Shiloh shrugged and got up.
“Let’s get back to Defiant. The rest of the crew may be going on leave but I have a feeling the four of us aren’t.” As they walked back to the HQ entrance to catch a ride back to the spaceport, Tanaka and Falkenberg pulled ahead while Shiloh stayed with Iceman, whose mobile unit couldn’t keep up with the faster pace.
Shiloh looked around at the sky and said. “What a perfect day. Just the right temperature and almost no wind.”
“The calm before the storm, CAG,” said Iceman.
Shiloh felt another chill go up his spine. Son of a bitch! He feels it too!