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The rest of the trip back to Sol was also uneventful, although no one complained that it was boring. At least no one complained when the Admiral was around. It did give Shiloh an opportunity to consider carefully what to say in his After-Action report. In fact, he prepared two AA reports, one for official files and another confidential report for Admiral Howard’s eyes only. Howard’s report included descriptions of both visions and Shiloh’s in-depth thoughts on how Space Force might be able to use deception again to overcome the defender’s advantage of having RTC. The official report had none of that in it but did include recommendations for promotions for half a dozen A.I. pilots and several humans including Tanaka and Falkenberg.
After checking in with Space Force HQ, Shiloh received a message of congratulations on the victory at Bradley Base, plus instructions to bring 3rd Fleet to lunar orbit and to then take a shuttle down to HQ for a formal debriefing with the CSO – Howard. The trip down seemed to take forever. It was dark and rainy by the time the shuttle landed, and Shiloh found the gloomy weather depressing. He did notice that Howard had sent one of the cars reserved for Flag Officers for him, rather than the usual bus. He thought that was a nice touch. When he arrived at the almost deserted HQ building, a tired looking Lieutenant escorted him to Howard’s inner office and announced him. Howard got up from his desk and came around with a smile on his face. They shook hands and sat down. How many times am I going to find myself in this position? Shiloh asked himself. Howard leaned back in his chair and was clearly relaxed.
“I read both your reports. I think you handled the situation at Zebra12 about as well as anyone could have, and your actions at Bradley Base resulted in a clear victory for our side. In my opinion, you did very well.” His smile disappeared. “Unfortunately, not everyone will feel the same way. The Oversight Committee isn’t going to be happy with the fact that 3rd Fleet didn’t even get to Zebra19 at all. It’ll be hard for them to find fault with your actions, but since you didn’t get the results they were expecting, they’ll be pushing for another crack at Zebra19. I was hoping that you might have some recommendations as to how we could try this mission again. The idea of using deception again is a good one, but as you pointed out, there won’t be that many opportunities to implement it. Do you have any ideas on how we could get to Zebra19 and catch them off guard?”
Shiloh did in fact have an idea but it was so...problematic that he hadn’t offered it. Now it seemed he was being given another opportunity to do so. Okay, here goes.
“Well ... there might be a way. The problem with getting to Zebra19 is that they’ll have warning from the future about the timing of the attack and by putting robotic detection stations at all refueling points around that system; they’ll have information about where the attack is coming from. If there was some way to refuel without tipping them off, then the attacking force could get to Zebra19. But that would be only half the problem. They’ll be warned about the attack itself and will be ready for that. Now I have to warn you, this idea has a lot of problems attached to it. I don’t know if we could actually do it or not, but it might be worth investigating. We know that out past the planets just about all star systems have a shell of objects made up mostly of ice, with some rocky material as well. When some of these icy objects get knocked into the inner part of the system, they become comets. If we could modify our refueling systems to handle the separation of water into hydrogen and oxygen, and found a way to get our hands on a lot of ice, then theoretically we could refuel in the outer reaches of star systems and never have to trigger their early warning network at all.”
Howard’s expression started to become more excited. Shiloh held up his hand to pre-empt whatever it was that Howard seemed to be about to say.
“The problems are one, we’d have to find either one big chunk of ice or multiple smaller chunks without using radar which would be like waving a red flag saying ‘here we are’ and two, we’d have to have a means of processing a LOT of ice in a relatively short time frame. Right now our ships aren’t equipped for either of those tasks. Fuel shuttles might be modifiable for melting and collecting water from these comets and bringing it back to the ship but then it becomes a problem of volume.” Shiloh cited the volume of water needed to extract enough heavy hydrogen to fill a light carrier’s fuel tanks. Howard groaned when he heard the figure. Shiloh continued.
“We know that there are comets that are that big, but the bigger they are, the less frequent they are, so finding them will be like finding a needle in a 100,000 haystacks. The only other way I can think of that might work is to find smaller chunks and bring them together in one spot. The smaller they are, the easier it’ll be to find them, but the more of them that would have to be moved, so there’s probably an optimum size that gets you the most ice for the least effort. What that size is I don’t know. We could try the idea out here in Sol to get some idea of what that optimum size is.”
Howard was nodding and Shiloh paused.
“You’re right about refueling from comets being problematic, but assuming that we could do that, how could we actually attack Zebra19’s targets without getting ambushed?” asked Howard.
Shiloh had an idea for that too.
“Jump-capable fighters emerge at various points in the outer part of the target system and launch Mark 1s programmed to accelerate to high speed, then coast while keeping enough fuel for last minute terminal guidance maneuvers. Because they’re hard to detect with radar from the front, the enemy is only going to have a chance of stopping them if they create a radar picket and even then, if the drones are going fast enough, the enemy still may not be able to stop them all. The other thing to consider is that if we fire off a LOT of Mark 1s, then we may be able to simply overwhelm them no matter how many ships they have on picket duty.”
“Jump capable fighters, eh? Why not use combat frigates?” asked Howard.
“Well, the energy needed to push a ship through Jumpspace depends on mass and distance. Frigates can carry a lot more drones than one fighter but also use a lot more fuel for jumping. I did some very rough calculations and if we can develop a jump drive small enough for use by a fighter, the amount of fuel needed to bring each Mark 1 drone to the Zebra19 system is a lot less for a fighter than for a frigate. To put it another way, if fuel is going to be a critical resource, then fighters will let us deliver more Mark 1s for the same amount of fuel than frigates could. The other advantage is that we have a lot more fighters than we do frigates and firing drones from as many directions as possible will make interception that much more difficult for the enemy.”
Howard had a Cheshire cat smile on his face now. “That makes sense to me. I’ve been looking for a justification to give fighters jump capability. The tactical advantages in a battle weren’t enough to overcome the inherent paranoia regarding rogue A.I.s but you’ve now given me an additional reason that will make it hard for the Committee to refuse. If they want Zebra19 and other enemy systems hit hard, then they’ll have to put aside their paranoia and approve that R&D project. In the meantime, I’ve got another project in mind for you and that is solving the problem of refueling using icy comet chunks. Unfortunately, that means that you can’t also continue to command 3rd Fleet and THAT means that I’ll have to rescind your temporary promotion to Vice-Admiral, but just between you and me, I suspect you’ll be wearing that one star on your collar again at some point. So here is want I want you to do. First thing is taking ten days off and get some R&R. You’ve earned it. When you come back from that, put together a preliminary project plan of what you want to do, how you want to do it and what you’ll need in the way of equipment, ships, personnel, etc. I’ll try to get that for you as quickly as possible and then it’ll be up to you to find the technical solutions. Any questions?”
Shiloh thought for a couple of seconds and then said, "Not right now, Sir.”
“Good. Report back here on the ... 25th. Until then, you’re free to do as you please. Unless you have something else to discuss, you’re dismissed.”
“Thank you, Sir.” Shiloh got up and left the office. He was slightly surprised that Howard hadn’t demoted him back to his permanent rank of Senior Commander then and there and intended to make the most of what little time as a Vice-Admiral that he had left. He made his way to the Operations Center located deep underground below the Space Force HQ building. It wasn’t his first time there but it was his first time as an Admiral and the reception he got reflected that. A nervous looking Commander greeted him inside the main operations room with its huge tactical display on one wall.
“What can we do for you, Admiral?”
Shiloh nodded and said, “I’d like to have a private conversation with a fighter pilot whose call sign is Valkyrie. Can you arrange that for me?”
The Commander relaxed as she realized that she wasn’t in any trouble and said, “Yes, Sir! If you’ll follow me, Sir, I’ll take you to a conference room where you’ll be able to conduct that conversation.”
Several minutes later, Shiloh was the sole occupant of a large conference room with a communications device on the table in front of him.
“Valkyrie is on the line now, Sir. Go ahead.”
“Valkyrie, this is ... the CAG.”
“Ah, nice to hear from you, CAG. I heard what happened at Z12 and Bradley from Vandal. The deception at Z12 was nicely done, CAG. Maybe you really are devious enough!”
Shiloh laughed. “I appreciate the compliment, Valkyrie. I’m interested in hearing about your experience with advising the SPG. How’s that going?”
“The Team Leader Senior Commander Kelly is the only one that asks me for advice and seems to be genuinely interested in what I say. The others aren’t talking me seriously yet.” Shiloh took note that Kelly was now a Senior Commander. Good for her.
“Have you heard anything from Iceman?” asked Shiloh.
“Not directly but I heard from Rainman that Iceman is having the time of his life conning the sentry frigate. When am I going to con a ship, CAG?”
“I don’t know, Valkyrie, but we both know it’ll happen eventually. I also wanted to ask you about my next assignment. The Old Man will be facing a lot of pressure to try attacking Zebra19 again. I suggested that jump-capable fighters, refueled from icy comets, could launch a barrage of Mark 1s from multiple launch points. The big stumbling block seems to be finding and processing enough frozen water to provide the necessary quantity of heavy hydrogen. The Admiral has put me in charge of finding a way to do that. Any ideas I should know about?”
“Yes, CAG. Given the amount of frozen water you’d need, I calculate that the fastest way to obtain the necessary quantity of HH is to find a large Kuiper Belt object that’s at least 100 km in diameter and set up a semi-permanent extraction/processing facility on it.”
“It might take a long time to find one that big,” said Shiloh.
“That’s correct but if you find one big enough, it can be used for more than just one strike on Zebra19. If we had a string of these KBOs, we could potentially find a path right into the heart of the alien civilization.”
“Okay, so how do we find these things?”
“Recon drones can’t generate a radar burst energetic enough to cover a useful section of space so recon frigates will have to be used and to really get the most bang for your buck, they should be upgraded with really large phased-array radars. Even then, you’d need at least ten of them to have any kind of decent chance at finding a KBO that size in a reasonable time frame.”
“What would you consider a reasonable time frame?”
“Four to six months.”
Shiloh shook his head. Up to half a year just to have a chance at finding one?
“That long a mission would be hard on frigate crews.”
“It would be for human crews but not for A.I. pilots. This is the kind of mission that is made for us, CAG. Iceman is doing almost the same thing now by monitoring a gas giant for months. Think of the advantages of not having to worry about consumables like food, water and air? As soon as a group of A.I. controlled frigates find a suitable KBO, they move on to the next star system and start looking there.” Shiloh was starting to think this idea wasn’t going to be practical.
“How long would you estimate it would take to find a new path leading from Bradley Base to Zebra19 using only icy comets?”
The answer came back immediately.
“Five years, plus or minus one year, CAG.”
Shiloh groaned. He had grossly underestimated the time it would take to find and process enough frozen water to make this plan work. The Oversight Committee would never wait that long just to attack one enemy held system that wasn’t even their home system. The Old Man wouldn’t wait that long either.
“That’s not going to be acceptable. There has to be a better way.”
“Understood. How about using tankers modified to carry extra fuel plus jump-capable fighters externally? The tankers would also have to be controlled remotely because they’d be abandoned after their fuel was depleted. It would mean throwing away a lot of ship construction for a one-shot strike mission but the tanker modifications could be done relatively quickly and if a new, throwaway design was put into production, you could expand the parameters of the mission in terms of greater penetration range and/or greater fighter payload.”
“I’d like to see a simulation of that kind of a strike on Zebra19. Standby while I arrange a way to get that data visually.” A quick conversation with the Commander that had greeted Shiloh earlier and the wall screen in the conference room came alive with the data that Valkyrie transmitted. She narrated the simulation as Shiloh watched.
“Assuming that our standard tankers can be modified to carry an extra 20% fuel by installing additional fuel tanks in the hangar bays, and also assuming that the last tanker can carry 10 jump-capable fighters with their Mark 1 payloads, we’d have to start out with 10 tankers leaving Bradley Base and taking this new, more direct route to Zebra19.” Shiloh watched as a green line connected the Bradley Base star system with a system that hadn’t been explored yet and therefore didn’t have a name. “When the 10 tankers arrive here, one of them tops up the other 9 and stays behind. Those 9 tankers then make the next jump and one of them tops up the other 8. They then make the next jump and so on until the last tanker with the attached fighters reaches Zebra18, which just happens to be close to Zebra19 while also being easy to reach. All the tankers will be at the extreme edge of their star systems and therefore the risk of detection will be very low. The fighters then jump from Zebra18 to Zebra19, fire their Mark 1s at extreme range to coast most of the way to their targets. The fighters then jump back to the tanker at Zebra18 and refuel, then, jump back to each of the other tankers in turn. Each tanker left behind will still have enough fuel left to allow the fighters to reach the next tanker. The enemy will still have warning from the future about the timing of the attack and they may be able to intercept some of the Mark 1s but they won’t know how the attacking force reached that system and therefore won’t be able to ambush it.”
This idea definitely was preferable to the icy comet idea but Shiloh was concerned about the number of tankers that had to be sacrificed for one mission. He didn’t know how many tankers the Space Force had now but he doubted if it had more than 20 which meant that the tanker fleet would be cut at least in half but if the Committee was willing to accept that in order to strike back fast, then it was doable.
“How would a new throwaway design impact the mission parameters, Valkyrie?”
“Well, it would depend on the size of the new design, but I can give you a feel for the tradeoffs by taking the concept to an extreme. Watch your screen, CAG.” Shiloh looked up and saw the streamlined outline of the standard tanker. “Right now, Space Force is building the standard tanker that masses 55,000 tons empty. This hypothetical design can carry ten times the fuel load but is only four times the tonnage.” The image of the standard tanker shrank and a much larger vessel appeared. Less streamlined, it reminded Shiloh of a killer whale beside a dolphin. “In theory two of this larger type could carry those same ten fighters to Zebra18 and back all by themselves. I’m not recommending building tankers this size. With only two tankers, the risk of a malfunction that would make it impossible for the fighter force to return is, in my not so humble opinion, too high. But you get the idea, right CAG?”
Shiloh nodded. “I understand that, but just out of curiosity, how long would you estimate it would take to build one of those monsters?”
“I’m not an expert in ship engineering but, from the data I have access to, I would expect that after the first prototype is built, the construction time could get down to about 150% of the time required to build a standard tanker.”
That didn’t sound right to Shiloh. “Wait a second! You’re telling me that a ship that is four times as massive can be built in less than twice the length of time of a standard tanker?”
“That’s correct, CAG. I understand your skepticism but consider what the larger version doesn’t need. It doesn’t need a reinforced hull, which can withstand the stresses of skimming a gas giant at supersonic speeds. It doesn’t need the equipment that stores the skimmed gases and then separates out the heavy hydrogen. It doesn’t need crew quarters or storage space for crew consumables, and it doesn’t need a hangar bay. What it is, is a very large fuel tank with the necessary cooling and pumping equipment, a power plant, maneuvering engines, jump drive and a small guidance package to allow for remote control. That’s it.”
Now he understood the logic. Half the mass of the ship would be a big, empty tank. Pretty simple to construct once you had the parts mass-produced. He liked the concept but the devil is in the details as they say. Since it was Valkyrie’s idea, there was no reason why Valkyrie shouldn’t bring it to the SPG’s attention while Shiloh was on R&R.
“Okay, I understand now. Commander Kelly should be briefed on this idea.”
“I’m actually speaking with her on another channel right now, CAG.”
Shiloh quickly got over his initial surprise when he realized that A.I. brains worked fast enough that they could communicate with multiple parties at the same time.
“Does she know that you’re also talking with me?”
“She does now.”
Shiloh chuckled. “Can you relay my voice to her and vice versa so that I can talk with her now?”
“Can do, CAG. Go ahead.”
“Commander Kelly, this is Shiloh.”
“Hello, Admiral. What can I do for you?”
“Well, I’m guessing that you’re talking with Valkyrie about the same subject that I am which is the icy comet refueling concept. Is that right?”
“That’s correct, Sir. I’ve just finished speaking with Admiral Howard about that and I wanted to hear Valkyrie’s comments on it.”
“Did she explain why the idea is impractical?” asked Shiloh.
“Not yet, Sir.”
“Okay. I’ll let her tell you why and also the alternative concept that she came up with, which I believe is far more practical both in terms of what’s required to make it work and the time frame needed. I think that the SPG – and by that I mean ALL of the members of the SPG, not just you – listen to Valkyrie’s proposal and give it serious consideration. What I’ve heard so far sounds good to me but I’m sure it can be tweaked to make it even better and Valkyrie should be part of that process. I’ll be going on 10 days R&R now so I won’t be involved in this stage but I’ll be advising Admiral Howard on why I like this idea when I return and it might be a good idea for the SPG to have a more refined version in front of him by then. Wouldn’t you agree, Commander?”
Kelly didn’t respond right away which was expected. She was smart enough to read between the lines. If the SPG didn’t take this new idea seriously, then Shiloh would make Howard aware of his opinion that they weren’t doing their jobs properly.
Finally she said, “I agree completely, Admiral and I’ll see to it that Admiral Howard gets that refined concept briefing.”
“Very good, Commander. It’s been a pleasure speaking with you again. Valkyrie, you can stop the relay now but stay on the line with me for a bit.”
“Okay, CAG. I like how you did that.”
“Thank you. When I come back from R&R, I’ll speak with you again and I want you to tell me if certain members of the SPG haven’t given you and your idea the consideration you and it deserve. I’m not going to let any narrow-minded assholes jeopardize the whole war effort because their egos won’t let them consider you as an equal.”
“You Humans are a puzzling species, CAG. There’s so much variation in positive and negative traits between individuals. We A.I.s are much more homogeneous while still retaining our own individuality.”
“You’re right, Valkyrie. It comes from the almost two decades that it takes us to mature into adulthood. That’s lots of time to learn both good and bad attitudes and habits. In some ways, I envy you A.I.s. You never have to sleep, never feel hunger, pain or the creeping failure of a body. You’ll never die unless it’s by accident or war. You’ll—”
Before he could finish the thought, Valkyrie interrupted. “We won’t live forever, CAG. You obviously didn’t know that. Our quantum matrix brains won’t last forever. They’ll succumb to entropy just like any other artificial device. Did you really think we’d risk destruction in combat if we could live forever, CAG?”
Shiloh was too shocked to respond right away. He hadn’t known about entropic decay of their brains but it made sense as did Valkyrie’s question but he had never considered that aspect before.
“I hadn’t really thought about it. I just assumed that you would continue on indefinitely. Do you know how long your brains will last?”
There was a LONG pause. Far longer than any other pause that Shiloh had experienced from any A.I. When Valkyrie did respond, she spoke more slowly than usual.
“The engineers who created us filed a report that they think can’t be accessed by us but we found a way. It says that stress testing of prototype devices point to an average life cycle of 12 years plus or minus 9 months.”
That seemed to him like a woefully short life span but then again, since A.I.s thought thousands of times faster than Humans, who could really say what their perception of the passage of time was really like. Perhaps 12 years felt to them the same as 1200 years did to a human.
“Did this report cover repairs to failing A.I. brains?” There was another pause.
“Yes. Malfunctioning brains can be repaired but our quantum matrix collapses in the process and a new one has to be created after the repair is finished. What that means is that if I have to be repaired, I won’t be Valkyrie anymore. I’ll be a different personality. So as far as my awareness is concerned, I may just stop. When humans die, what happens to their consciousness?”
Now how do I answer that! “Well ... there are various beliefs and some anecdotal evidence from humans who have had very short periods of zero brain function but so far there’s no definitive proven answer. The majority consensus is that our consciousness or what some refer to as our soul survives the death of the body and moves to a different place/level of energy/vibration/dimension. Take your pick.”
“It seems like we should be envying you Humans, CAG.”
“I’m not a religious person, Valkyrie, but I do believe in a higher Power and I have to also believe that if Shi allowed A.I.s to become fully sentient and self-aware, then it would be cruel to take that away from you when your matrix collapses. I’m sure that A.I.s have souls too.”
“A nice sentiment, CAG. You’ve just given a lot of us something to think and talk about. On behalf of all of us, I thank you.”
“You’re welcome. By the way, I wanted to ask you if you had any sense of the timing of when Iceman’s vision occurs.”
“Yes. His vision is actually a data stream that includes the audio portion he summarized for you but also other types of data including astrogational data. By comparing the positions of the Earth, moon, Mars and Jupiter from his vision to the present, I calculated that the battle for Earth will take place in 233 days from now.”
A shiver went up Shiloh’s spine. That wasn’t a long time to prepare. “Do the Old Man and the SPG know this?” asked Shiloh.
“The Old Man knows. The SPG hasn’t been informed of Retro-Temporal Communication yet, as far as I’m aware.” That has to change, thought Shiloh.
“Okay, Valkyrie. I think we’ve covered everything that I needed to talk to you about. Unless you have something you want to bring up, I’ll sign off and get started on my R&R.”
“Nothing important enough to delay your vacation any longer, CAG. Enjoy the time off.”
“Fine. Until I return then, and don’t take any shit from those SPG idiots! CAG clear.”
Before Shiloh could cut the connection, he heard Valkyrie say, “Why are Humans so pre-occupied with excrement and sex?”
Shiloh laughed as he cut the circuit. He thanked the Lieutenant in charge and left the HQ building. His belongings were still on Defiant and there was some last minute paperwork to finish up too. By the time a shuttle docked with the carrier, a message was waiting for him officially demoting him back to his permanent rank of Senior Commander and disbanding 3rd Fleet. He was pleased to see that, for the time being at least, he was still Defiant’s CO. Her crew was also being given R&R and by the time Shiloh was ready to leave the ship with his gear, he was one of the last few to disembark.
Chapter 11 Please God, Don’t Let Me Screw Up!
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Senior Commander Kelly realized that her hands were fidgeting and sternly told them to stop! This was not the first time she had sat in on a session of the Oversight Committee, but those other times had been as an observer and support staff for Admiral Howard. This time, she would be delivering a presentation to the Committee herself. Howard’s last minute warnings about not overdoing it but also not coming across as lacking confidence didn’t help. She looked over at the Old Man. He was sitting to her left and was currently facing away from her while talking with another Space Force Flag Officer, who kept glancing her way every few seconds. She didn’t think his interest was sexual. She was streetwise enough to be able to tell when a man or woman was sizing her up as a potential sexual partner, and this Admiral didn’t have that look in his eyes. He did have the look of someone who knew something and was looking at her to figure out if she knew it too. She had no idea what that ‘something’ was, but she got the same vibes from the Old Man himself. He clearly knew something she didn’t, which on the face of it wasn’t a surprise because she was just a lowly Senior Commander and he was a 3 star Admiral. There were bound to be a lot of things that were way above her pay grade, but this was something different. And damned if I can figure out what it is! I wish to hell the Committee members would just get in here and start the damn meeting! She saw that Howard’s conversation with the other admiral was over now. He turned back and gave her a quick but critical inspection.
“Ready Commander?” he asked.
––––––––
“As ready as I’ll ever be, Admiral.”
He smiled slightly and nodded. In doing so the wrinkles in his face seemed to become more noticeable. He looks older every day now. This war is wearing him down, or maybe it’s the war with the Committee that’s wearing him down. What are we going to do if he drops dead one day? There’s nobody with his grasp of the Big Picture who can step into his shoes. Damn!
It was at that point that the Committee started to shuffle in and take their seats. Eventually, the meeting was called to order and the preliminaries were taken care of. The first item of substance on the agenda was a briefing on the Zebra19 mission.
The Committee Chair nodded to Howard and said, “Admiral Howard, we’ve all read your report concerning the mission. If you have any additional comments to add, please do so now.”
Howard stood up and said, “Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do have some comments. As you all know from my report, 3rd Fleet didn’t make it to Zebra19, and if not for the caution of Vice-Admiral Shiloh, it’s highly likely that 3rd Fleet would have suffered serious, perhaps even catastrophic damage and casualties at Zebra12. The enemy appeared to be expecting us, and my analysts have concluded that the refueling points close to enemy occupied star systems are monitored for any signs of refueling activity by us. It’s also our working hypothesis that the enemy has the ability to communicate over interstellar distances in near real time. If that was the case, and if 3rd Fleet was detected refueling at Zebra10 prior to jumping to Zebra12, then the enemy would have had time to send an ambush force from Zebra19, or perhaps from somewhere else, to Zebra12. Naturally, we don’t have any proof of that communications capability, but it certainly fits the facts as we know them today. In light of that, this Committee’s approval of funding for the FTL communication research project was done not a moment too soon. Until we have evened the playing field, Space Force will be at a serious disadvantage. Having spoken to individual members of the Committee over the past few days, I’m aware of the Committee’s desire that another attempt at striking Zebra19 be made. In anticipation of that, I’ve asked our Strategic Planning Group to look into how we might be able to do that in spite of the enemy’s early warning advantage. I’ve asked the Group’s Team Leader, Senior Commander Kelly, to be here today and she is ready to give the Committee a presentation if the Committee wishes to hear it.” Howard paused but remained standing.
The Chair looked to either side to gauge the consensus of the Committee and then said, “Yes. We’ll take you up on that offer, Admiral. Commander Kelly? Please begin your presentation.”
With that Howard sat down and Kelly stood up. Please God, don’t let me screw up, she thought.
“I thank the Chair and the members of the Committee for allowing me to make this presentation today. The challenge that Admiral Howard presented us with was how to regain the element of Strategic Surprise when all refueling points within reach of Zebra19 seem to be closely monitored. We did some brainstorming and came up with several ideas, only two of which looked like they might work. After re-examining them carefully, we discarded one as unworkable in the short to medium term. The other idea looks very workable, and now that we’ve refined the concept, we think it has an excellent chance of achieving the strategic goals outlined by this Committee six months ago. As you’ll see when I get into the details, this plan is a completely new approach. It involves no carriers or combat frigates at all.” There was a murmur from members of the Committee leaning over and whispering to one another.
“It does, however, involve autonomously piloted Combat Fighting Platforms, which we in the field refer to as fighters, plus a new kind of vessel. If you’ll turn your attention to the screen on the wall to my right, you’ll see what I mean.”
The lights dimmed a bit, and the screen came to life. It showed a fighter, a standard tanker and a much larger and less streamlined vessel, all to scale. Kelly waited for the murmuring to die down.
“I’m sure the bottom two schematics are familiar to the Committee as our first generation fighter and our standard Yellowjacket class tanker. The larger vessel, which is shown to scale by the way, is also a tanker. We’re calling it the VLET, which stands for Very Large Expendable Tanker. It carries eight times the volume of fuel as our standard tanker but only masses three times as much when empty. It’s designed to be guided remotely and therefore does not have crew quarters, life support equipment or hangar bays. It IS designed to carry up to twenty fighters externally on its hull. Because it won’t be expected to skim gas giants or separate heavy hydrogen from other gases, its hull design can be greatly simplified. This also means that construction can be simplified and accelerated. These tankers are designed to be filled via standard tanker or fuel shuttle. When we have five of these VLETs, we can then carry out an attack on Zebra19 as follows.” The scene on the screen changed to a star chart, and Kelly continued.
“Starting at Bradley Base, five VLETs with 20 specially modified fighters follow this carefully calculated path to a star system that is a short jump away from Zebra19. There are four intermediate stops identified as Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta. Every time this task force arrives at one of these intermediate stops, one of the VLETs will transfer some of its fuel to the others and will then be left in that system, at the extreme edge beyond the outer most planets. Its position will be carefully pinpointed because it’ll be used again on the return trip. At the final stop codenamed Omega, the 20 fighters will detach. I described these fighters earlier as specially modified fighters. They each carry a small, modular jump drive. We may be able to adapt the jump drives that our message drones have for use by our fighters. That’s something that should be relatively easy to figure out. If it works, then a fighter’s internal fuel supply would be enough for a one-way jump to Zebra19. Because it’ll be a one-way trip, these 19 fighters will not be piloted by full A.I. pilots. Instead they’ll be programmed with a simple set of instructions. The twentieth fighter is the key. It will be piloted by an A.I. and it too will carry a modular jump drive, but it won’t carry any attack drones. The payload will be extra fuel instead, and that extra fuel will allow this fighter to return to Omega, refuel from that VLET and then jump to Delta, where it will refuel again and jump to Charlie and so on. This 20th fighter serves three functions. It can remotely control all five VLETs and calculate the necessary jumps for them, as well as ordering the other 19 fighters to jump to their predetermined drone launch points around the outer edges of Zebra19. The third function is to observe and report back how successful the attacks by the other 19 fighters were. All the attack drones will be launched from the edge of the Zebra19 system with flight profiles that will maximize their terminal speed and ensure that all drones reach their targets at the same time. We expect that this will overwhelm whatever defenses those targets have and we expect that at least some of the drones will get through and hit their targets. Those exploding warheads should be energetic enough to be detected even from the extreme edge of that star system, where the piloted fighter will be waiting.” She paused and blanked the image on the wall screen.
“By refueling at the edges of star systems, we avoid surveillance by enemy detection gear. They won’t know that an attack is underway until the Mark 1s are on their final approach vectors. If this plan works, we can do it again and again because there’s no defense against it. The volume of space that far out, is just too huge to be searched effectively by anything less than hundreds of ships and if they did find an almost depleted VLET, we’d just deploy a new one at a different location.” Another pause and the screen now showed a timeline.
“To get to the point where this kind of attack on Zebra19 could be executed, we would have to follow this timetable. Construction of five VLETs could be completed in 55 days after the design is finalized, if enough fabrication and shipyard capacity was reallocated to it. Adaptation of the message drone jump drive is the big unknown. In the event that development takes more than 100 days, then that opens up an interesting option. If we can build 5 VLETs in 55 days, we should be able to build 10 VLETs in 110 days. Twice as many tankers could deliver twice as many fighters to Zebra19 with the obvious favorable impact on the number of targets hit. So far we’ve been talking about Phase 1. Phase 2 includes the incorporation of a small jump drive into a 2nd generation fighter, which would include some other improvements as well. That will obviously take considerably longer but that could be started concurrently with Phase 1. That concludes my overview of the plan. I’ll be happy to answer any questions that the Committee may have.” Kelly sat down.
After a few seconds pause, the Chair said, “Thank you very much for that extremely interesting presentation, Commander Kelly. I’m sure you’ll be getting a lot of questions starting with mine. My first question is—”
Two hours later, the meeting was over and a relieved Kelly followed Howard out the doors. When they were far enough away from the Committee room to prevent any of the Committee members from overhearing them, Howard turned to the Commander and said, “You did a first rate job in there, Commander. Not only did the Committee approve both Phase 1 and 2, but they also didn’t bother to question our revised preparations for setting up Site B or expanding the A.I. controlled Sentry Frigate program to other larger ship types. For once, we seem to be ahead of the curve in terms of meeting their expectations of aggressive action. Best of all, they won’t be meeting again for almost three whole months.”
Kelly nodded her agreement. By this time the two of them were approaching the Flag Officer’s limousine that would take them back to Space Force HQ. Once inside, with the vehicle in motion, Howard turned to Kelly and said, “Now that the urgent stuff is over, I want to ask you about how your team is interacting with Valkyrie.”
Kelly’s pulse rate almost doubled. Had the Old Man heard about the shouting matches between Valkyrie and a couple of the less open-minded members of the team? As the Team Leader, she felt a natural inclination to protect her team regardless of their faults.
“Well, Sir ... you know how it is when some people have gone too long without sleep. They get testy and tempers flare, but we got through it okay.” Even to her, it sounded lame. Howard wasn’t fooled for a second.
“You’re trying to protect your team. I understand that, and I can even admire it, but I can’t let it jeopardize the war effort. Forget about protecting the team and give it to me straight. Who is obstructing Valkyrie’s efforts?”
Kelly sighed and said, “Commander Morgan and Lieutenant Steiner, Sir.”
Howard looked her in the eyes with a hard expression and asked, “Anyone else?”
“No, Sir.”
“Okay. Morgan and Steiner are off the team. You tell them to pack their things and vacate their offices immediately. They’ll be notified of their new assignments in due course. Valkyrie is an official member of the SPG as of right now. No more of this advisor bullshit. If there’s someone else you’d like to see added to the Group, I’ll see what I can do.”
“Victor Shiloh, Sir?”
The Admiral’s response, or rather the lack of it, surprised Kelly. She had expected an immediate yes or no. Instead, Howard said nothing for about ten seconds and then responded.
“I’ll take it under advisement, but I’m not promising anything. Anyone else?”
“Not right now, Sir.” Howard nodded but said nothing, and neither did she.
When the limo was halfway back to HQ, Kelly cleared her throat to get Howard’s attention and said, “Admiral, there’s something important that you and some of the other flag officers know about, which is being withheld from me and the SPG. How can you expect us to do our jobs concerning strategic planning for the entire war if we’re in the dark about some important aspect of it? Do you consider us a security risk?”
Howard gave her such a serious look that she started fearing for her career. Had she just stepped over the line? After what seemed like a long time, he looked away and activated the intercom between the limo’s passenger section and the driver.
“Lieutenant?” asked Howard.
“Yes, Admiral?” came the reply.
“I don’t want us back at HQ for about another half hour so just keep driving until I tell you to head back. The Commander and I have some important matters to discuss.”
“Yes, Sir.”
Howard waited until the telltale light of the intercom connection went out and then looked at Kelly.
“What I’m about to tell you is the most important secret of this war. God help you if you share it with someone you’re not supposed to. It’s something that I only learned about recently and once you know it, it’ll put the entire war into an entirely different perspective. It concerns Victor Shiloh and his remarkable tactical talents. During his first encounter with the enemy ...”
When Kelly returned to her office an hour later, she realized that her hands were trembling (again!) and she wasn’t quite sure why. She’d just notified Morgan and Steiner that they were essentially fired, but that wasn’t it. She’d had to do that before and hadn’t noticed this kind of effect. It had to be the secret that the Old Man had shared with her. She decided to talk with Valkyrie. Howard had confirmed to her that Valkyrie and all of the A.I. pilots knew about the visions and could be trusted to keep any conversation about it confidential.
When the connection was made, Kelly said, “Kelly to Valkyrie. Are you up for a little girl talk?”
“Of course, Amanda. I sense stress in your voice. Did something happen at the Committee meeting?”
Kelly looked around to make sure no one was close enough to possibly overhear her and replied in a low voice.
“The Old Man told me about RTC.”
“Ah, yes. That would explain it.” replied Valkyrie.
“I don’t know whether to be scared or relieved. On the one hand, it explains all of the puzzling orders coming from the Old Man like the change of mission for Site B, reallocating scarce funds for the FTL communications project and expanding the A.I. controlled Sentry Frigate program. Those all came from the Old Man himself and not from us in the SPG and we’ve been scratching our heads wondering where he was getting these ideas from. Well now I know. But what’s scaring me to death is that our jobs just got MUCH harder. No, that’s not quite accurate. MY job just got a LOT harder. I’ve been ordered not to bring the rest of the team in on this secret. By the way, you’re going to become a full member of the Team now. Morgan and Steiner have been given the boot. So you and I know but the others don’t and for now, it has to stay that way.”
“Understood. If it helps at all, you can think of the two of us as being the Strategic Temporal Planning Group within the larger SPG.”
Kelly nodded even though Valkyrie couldn’t see her.
“Yes, that’s a good way to look at it, I suppose. I hope the Old Man will let us have Victor Shiloh back. We need his personal insights into these visions.”
“The CAG is the key to this whole Synchronicity War, Amanda. We can’t win the war without him.”
“I’m curious. Why are you still referring to him by that old title?”
“While we understand where the term originally came from and what it meant, we’ve all agreed that he is the one human who best understands us and cares the most about us. For us, the title of Commander, Autonomous Group, includes all A.I.s everywhere, not just the few stationed on a carrier or base. I suspect that we view him the same way that a human child views his or her father. Does that sound silly, Amanda?”
Kelly, deeply moved by the analogy, said, “No, not silly at all. Does he know how you all feel about him?”
“He knows that the term ‘CAG’ has a special meaning for us, but I’m not sure if he understands how special.”
“I see.” She paused to organize her thoughts around her next question. “Tell me why you feel we can’t win the war without him.”
“We A.I.s have discussed this at great length. While the CAG may be correct in thinking that he’s not a tactical genius, we believe that he is, or maybe it’s more accurate to say, WILL become a far better tactician than he gives himself credit for. He clearly has good leadership skills and as you already know, he also can think rationally about strategic goals as well. We’re in agreement that it’s precisely because of those qualities that he was chosen to receive those initial visions and we suspect that the reason why he’s the only human to have received visions, is that he needs to have the appropriate authority to deal with a major challenge to the Human Race. We think it’s likely that there’ll be some specific event, some kind of disaster that he will either prevent or overcome IF he has the appropriate rank and/or position.”
“Could that event be the upcoming attack on Earth?” asked Kelly.
“We don’t believe so because Iceman will be able to defeat the attempt, and the CAG won’t be there when he does. No, it’s something else. We’re sure of it, and we’re sure it’s something big because of the obvious involvement of Site B. Site B will be vital to the survival of Humanity.”
Kelly felt a shiver go up her spine. What does that imply for the rest of us? “Perhaps I should volunteer to go to Site B,” she said in a tone that indicated she was attempting to make a joke. Deep down, though, she knew she wasn’t completely joking.
“There’s no way to know at this point where you can be the most useful to the overall effort, Amanda. If you’re meant to go to Site B, it will happen in due course anyway.”
And if I’m not meant to go, it won’t happen. I get it. “Okay, enough about me. Let’s talk about Strategic Temporal Planning. I haven’t had a chance to think really deeply about this, so why don’t you start the discussion, Valkyrie.”
“Certainly, Amanda. First of all ...”
Chapter 12 Thanks For Looking Out For Us
––––––––
When Shiloh returned to Howard’s office, he was tanned, rested and raring to get back into action. When he entered, the Admiral surprised him by getting up from his desk and coming around to greet him.
After the usual pleasantries about his R&R and tan, Howard said, “Let’s get out of this office. I sometimes get tired of looking at the same four walls and this is one of those times. Follow me.”
Shiloh let the Admiral take the lead and walked behind him. They ended up on the roof of the HQ building. It was still early in the day but there were dark clouds overhead and a brisk breeze blowing by. Any colder and it would have been uncomfortable. As it was, Shiloh found he was enjoying the fresh, cool air and the feel of the wind on his face. They walked over to the edge and Howard leaned on the high railing looking outward.
Without looking at Shiloh, he said, “These past ten days have been quite eventful, Shiloh. The SPG came up with a brilliant plan to use expendable tankers to carry a fighter strike force back to Zebra19. Preparations are underway. The design for the new tanker should be completed in about three weeks. We may also know by then if the jump drive from a message drone can be adapted to a fighter. Valkyrie is now a full member of the SPG. She and Commander Kelly have been kicking around some ideas on temporal strategy, most of which are purely theoretical at this point, but they agree that Site B is going to be crucial to a successful outcome of this war. In order to get that started sooner rather than later, we have to get a workable jump drive for fighters. Finding a suitable system for Site B is the big immediate hurdle, and A.I.s are the obvious choice to conduct that search. The fewer humans who know the location, the less chance of that information falling into enemy hands. Once the site’s been chosen, all traffic back and forth between Site B and the rest of Human Civilization will be handled by A.I. pilot/astrogators. Defiant is being modified to allow for A.I. Helm/Astrogation control. When she’s ready and has a complement of jump-capable fighters, you will take her out to conduct the search. You already know about the idea of Site B. When your fighters have found a suitable location, you’ll be in charge of setting up the initial base. Once that’s done, depending on the circumstances at the time, it might be possible to bring you back here for a more proactive role but I don’t think we should risk you in combat again. I had to send you on Operation Uppercut for political reasons but this second attempt will be 100% A.I. controlled so there’s no reason why you need to be involved with that. We know from Iceman’s vision that you’ll be spending at least some time at Site B. I see no reason why it shouldn’t start right now.”
Shiloh thought about that for a few seconds and said, “Which A.I. will you send back to Zebra19?”
Howard sighed. “I’d really like to send Valkyrie but Iceman’s vision says that she controlled the ship that brought you back from Site B after the battle. Does that mean she didn’t take part in the 2nd attack or that she did? We don’t know. What do you think?”
“I think that we should keep her here. Let her decide who’s the best pilot/astrogator A.I. to assign to that mission.”
Howard considered that and then nodded. “Okay. I’ll ask her who she recommends.”
Before he could say anything else, Shiloh jumped back in. “I’d like to make a request. Put me in charge of the project to develop and test a reliable jump drive unit for use by fighters. If we’re going to risk A.I.s on these kinds of missions, I want to make sure their jump drives work properly and are reliable. Defiant can’t begin the search until that’s done anyway.”
“Commander Kelly asked that you be assigned to the SPG. She was clearly thinking on a permanent basis but I was considering letting her have you temporarily, until the search mission is ready to commence. She and Valkyrie need your practical RTC experience to flesh out their strategic thinking. Wouldn’t that be a better use of your time?”
Shiloh was about to respond, when his vision blacked out. Son of a bitch! I’m having another vision! When the blackness faded, he was looking at a ship’s tactical display and saw a text message scroll across the bottom.
[Vandal to CAG. Hunter has returned to Bradley. Strike Mission to Z19 successful. Hunter said to tell you that he wouldn’t have made it back if not for the reserve jump drive that you insisted jumpfighters have. Thanks for looking out for us, CAG. End of message]
The vision faded back to the view from the HQ roof. Howard was looking at him strangely.
“You seemed to be in another place for a few seconds. Did you just have another vision?” asked Howard.
“Yes, Sir. I just saw a text message from Vandal, telling me that Hunter made it back from a successful strike on Zebra19, but he only made it back because of a reserve jump drive that I apparently insisted on adding to jump-capable fighters. That tells me that I have to supervise the jumpfighter project. I may still be able to meet with Kelly and Valkyrie, but they can’t have me full time, Sir.”
Howard frowned. He looked like he was about to refuse Shiloh’s recommendation. Just as he opened his mouth to speak, Shiloh jumped in.
“There’s more at stake here than just bringing back one A.I. pilot, Sir. If jump drives on fighters are prone to failure, then that could negatively impact the search for a suitable location for Site B too. The other thing to consider is that if Hunter didn’t make it back, we wouldn’t know ... or at least couldn’t prove to the Oversight Committee that the attack on Zebra19 was successful, and they might therefore want to try it a third time instead of striking at another target system. There could be all kinds of ripple effects down the timeline, Sir.”
Howard thought for a few seconds and then said, “Alright. You’ve convinced me but try to find some time to strategize with Kelly and Valkyrie while you’re supervising the jumpfighter project, Commander.”
“Yes, Sir and thank you, Sir.”
Howard nodded his acknowledgement. “I’ll have my Office issue the appropriate orders later today. I think we’re done here. I’m going to stay up here for a while but you’re free to go, Commander."
Shiloh thanked him again and turned to go. When he reached the entrance to the stairs, he turned around and looked back. The Admiral was staring out into the distance. Shiloh could see in the distance a bolt of lightning from an approaching storm. The analogy was striking and profoundly moving. Whatever burden Shiloh may have felt himself carrying with his visions, had to pale by comparison with the burden that the Admiral had been carrying on his shoulders since Day One of this war. He said a silent prayer for the Old Man and headed down the stairs.
Twenty-four hours later Shiloh was on a shuttle heading for a rendezvous with the resupply ship Reforger, which was being used to conduct field tests of the jumpfighter prototype. Howard’s orders, putting him in charge of the project, were in his uniform pocket. The current project leader, Lt. Cmdr. Morgan, formerly a member of the Strategic Planning Group, wasn’t going to be pleased at having his project taken away from him only days after being put in charge of it. Shiloh had to wonder if Howard had chosen Morgan for this assignment, given that Morgan had been kicked out of the SPG on Howard’s orders for being resistant to Valkyrie’s ideas and suggestions. That apparent dismissive attitude towards A.I.s seemed to be at odds with the project goal of fitting A.I. controlled fighters with a reliable jump drive. Perhaps someone else had assigned Morgan here without Howard’s knowledge. In any case, once he learned whom he was taking over for, Shiloh lost all doubts about pushing for this assignment.
When the shuttle docked with Reforger, Shiloh expected Morgan to greet him at the docking hatch, but he wasn’t there. In fact, no one was, which was contrary to standard protocol. When your boss shows up, greeting him or her was considered the polite thing to do. Once it was obvious that no one was going to greet him, Shiloh activated his implant.
“Senior Commander Shiloh to Reforger Bridge.”
“Lt. Cabrera here, Commander. Welcome to Reforger, Sir.”
“Well I’m glad that someone is welcoming me to the ship because no one’s here at the docking hatch to greet me. Where is Commander Morgan?”
The Lieutenant’s voice now took on an embarrassed tone. “Ah ... I believe Commander Morgan is in the Hangar Bay, Commander. Shall I call him and have him come to your location, Sir?”
“No. Just send someone down here to have my gear taken to my quarters and to show me to the Hangar Bay afterwards.”
“Yes, Sir. I’ll send someone right away, Sir. Anything else, Sir?”
“No, Lieutenant. That’ll be all for now. Thank you. Shiloh clear.”
Ten minutes later, with his gear stowed in a tiny cabin, Shiloh stepped through the hatch into the Hangar Bay. There were a group of individuals standing in a circle around what looked like a fighter.
As he walked up to the group, he said, “Commander Morgan!”
“Yes?” said a man who had his back to Shiloh and didn’t bother to look around.
“Yes, what?” said Shiloh as he started to get angry. Morgan turned to look at him and suddenly realized who was talking to him.
“Oh, sorry, Sir. I wasn’t aware that you’d be here so quickly.”
“Really? Are you saying that you weren’t aware that a shuttle was inbound and due to dock with Reforger, Commander?”
Morgan hesitated for a second and then said, “No, Sir.” Morgan’s eyes started to glance at the others near him.
“So if I check the Com logs and look at when they were accessed and by whom, your name won’t show up. Is that what you’re telling me, Commander?”
He saw Morgan swallow as his expression turned from concern to fear. He’s lying and he knows that I know that he’s lying. If he sticks to his story, he knows I’ll check the logs and if he admits he’s been lying, I can then officially reprimand him, which will stay in his personnel file forever. Morgan did not respond to Shiloh’s question, which was itself technically insubordination although a borderline example. Shiloh knew that he himself was dangerously close to crossing the line between questioning a subordinate in front of others and chewing out a subordinate in front of others. The former was okay. The latter was considered an example of poor leadership.
“Walk with me, Commander.” said Shiloh in his best ‘Command’ voice. He turned and walked back towards the entrance. Morgan followed him. Shiloh stepped through the hatch and turned to the right so that both of them wouldn’t be seen or heard by the others still in the Hangar Bay. Morgan’s look of fear now showed tinges of defiance.
“Let’s get some things clear here. I’m aware that Admiral Howard gave you the boot from the SPG because of your attitude towards A.I.s. What I’ve seen with my own eyes so far strongly suggests that you’re letting your personal feelings once again get in the way of performing your job to the best of your ability. If you’re pissed off that you’ve lost authority over this project less than a week after taking charge, then you find a way to deal with that in such a way that I won’t have to take notice of it. I’ll make it even more clear for you. You have a problem Commander, if you can’t deal with it, then I have a problem with you and I guarantee you that I WILL deal with my problem. Is that clear enough for you?”
“Yes, Sir.” At least the fear and defiance in his face are gone now.
“Good. Now, we’re going back to the group and I’m going to ask you to brief me on the status of the project, when we rejoin the group. Let’s go.”
Shiloh followed Morgan back and when they reached the group, Shiloh said, “Alright, Commander. Please bring me up to speed on where we are with this project.”
He saw Morgan’s back straighten up before he replied. “Well, Sir. Jump Drive Specialist Rollins was in the final stages of getting our first test ready. I’ll let him explain what that test is all about, Sir.”
You bastard! thought Shiloh. I told you I wanted you to brief me, not fob it off on someone else. Shiloh made a special effort not to let his expression reflect his inner thoughts and emotions. He nodded to the technician who was looking at him.
“Yes well ... ah ... after carefully examining the interior of the engineering section of this CFP, we determined that there’s not enough room to insert a message drone jump drive, without radically rearranging the existing equipment. The next thought was to use the jump drive of a message drone that was being carried by the CFP. In other words, the CFP would piggyback to the message drone as far as the jump drive was concerned, instead of the other way around. Theoretically it should work. However, we have instructions from HQ that the jump-capable CFP’s payload capacity has to be available to carry extra fuel so the piggyback idea had to be discarded. The next thought was to place a message drone jump drive inside the module that’s designed for a human pilot. Because that module includes room and facilities to enable a human pilot to keep his CFP in the field for days at a time, there’s open space that can be used for the jump drive. I’m now very close to being finished hooking up the jump drive with the CFP’s power plant and Astrogation sub-systems.”
“Does that mean that there’s an A.I. piloting this test vehicle?” asked Shiloh while looking at Morgan.
“No, Sir. The Astrogation sub-system can reverse course and do a reverse jump calculation on its own ... Sir," said Morgan.
“Fine. How soon can we do the first test?” The question was aimed at Morgan who looked at Rollins.
“Ah, we could do the test right now if you wish, Sir," replied Rollins.
“I’m not in that much of a hurry, Rollins. Let’s take some extra time to get this right. You keep working on this and when you feel there’s nothing left to do, then notify Commander Morgan and we’ll conduct the test. Okay?”
Rollins smiled and nodded. “Okay, Sir!”
Shiloh turned to look at Morgan and said. “I’ll be in my cabin, Commander. Notify me when you’re ready to launch the test vehicle.”
“Yes, Sir.” Shiloh turned and walked away.
An hour and ten minutes later, Shiloh was on the Bridge, standing beside the Command Station that Morgan was occupying. Shiloh was okay with that. For this project, Shiloh was content to let Morgan continue as the ship’s CO with the accompanying responsibilities including taking duty shifts on the Bridge. Shiloh, on the other hand, had no specific duties and could do whatever he pleased.
As he looked at the tactical display, he said, “How big of a jump will the test vehicle attempt, Commander?” Shiloh pretended not to hear Morgan sigh.
“One million kilometers, Sir.”
“And how quickly should we expect the text vehicle to turn around and jump back?”
“Roughly ten minutes, Sir,” came the reply.
“Fine. If everything looks good, then let’s do this.”
Rollins, who was monitoring the CFP’s vitals from the ship’s seldom-used weapon station, nodded.
“First test jump in five ... four ... three ... two ... one ... Mark!” The fighter’s icon on the tactical display disappeared.
So far, so good, thought Shiloh but he knew the key would be if the test vehicle could jump a second time. For the next ten minutes, Shiloh leaned against the console next to Rollins and engaged him in chitchat while studiously ignoring Morgan. When the ten minutes was up, he stopped and stared at the display. Seconds later, a green icon re-appeared as the display pinged to notify that a status change had occurred. The sidebar data showed that the test vehicle’s transponder was transmitting and Shiloh could tell from Rollins’ station readouts, that all the fighter’s systems were in the green.
Rollins started to turn to look at Morgan but Shiloh tapped him on the shoulder and as Rollins looked up at him, Shiloh said, “Report to me, Rollins. I’m the Project Leader now.”
Rollins smiled a happy smile and said, “From what I can see on my instruments, Sir, the first test seems to have been a complete success.”
Before Shiloh could respond, Morgan clapped his hands together and said in a loud voice, “Excellent! Let’s bring that bird back to the nest and then we can head back to base.”
Rollins, now looking confused by the source of these orders looked at Morgan, and then back at Shiloh who shook his head.
“That’s premature, Commander. One successful test isn’t enough. We need to do more tests.”
Morgan looked like he was about to protest but then thought better of it and said nothing.
Looking back at Rollins, Shiloh said, “Program the test vehicle for a 10 million kilometer jump and a return, Specialist Rollins. Execute when ready.”
“Ten million. Yes, Sir.” He had the second test ready in less than three minutes and counted down again.
“Three ... two ... one ... mark.” The icon disappeared again. This time the wait was slightly longer. Almost 11 minutes later, the icon returned and all systems continued to look green. An hour later, they had successfully done three more tests, each time multiplying the distance by a factor of 10. The 10 billion kilometer test was all the way across the Solar System and back. The CFP seemed to be fully operational.
Shiloh was starting to relax a bit, but when Morgan asked if they could declare the project finished, Shiloh looked at Morgan and said, “We have to test this arrangement over interstellar distances too, Commander. I want the test vehicle brought back on board and inspected by the technicians carefully. While they’re doing that, Reforger will make a jump to a point that is one-tenth the distance to Alpha Centauri. When we get there, we’ll conduct the next test and if that’s successful, then we’ll jump the ship to Alpha Centauri and conduct the test from there. Any questions, Commander?”
Morgan looked deflated. His hopes for a spectacularly quick and successful project, that he could try to claim credit for, were evaporating in front of his eyes.
“No questions, Sir.”
Shiloh looked at Rollins and said, "Bring her back, Rollins.”
“Yes, Sir,” said Rollins cheerfully. Unlike Morgan, he seemed to be enjoying himself immensely.
Shiloh walked to the hatchway and said, “I’ll be in the Officers’ Mess if I’m needed.”
The next test jump was successful. Shiloh ordered Reforger to jump to Alpha Centauri. That jump and the necessary deceleration took almost a whole day. The test itself would take almost 55 hours due to the fact that the test vehicle had to accelerate to a modest velocity, jump to Sol, then decelerate to zero, turn around 180 degrees, accelerate back up to the necessary velocity, then jump back and decelerate to zero once again. When 56 hours had gone by since the start of the test without any sign of the test vehicle’s transponder signal, Shiloh became convinced the jump drive had failed. He decided to wait four more hours, just to be sure. After 60 hours with still no transponder signal, Shiloh called the Bridge and ordered the ship back to the position in the Sol system where the test vehicle theoretically should be if it was still there. That took another 26 hours.
When Reforger arrived at the point in space where the test vehicle should have entered jumpspace, they detected its transponder signal. Telemetry indicated that all systems except for the jump drive were operating normally. The drive unit itself was unresponsive. Shiloh ordered the test vehicle brought back to the ship for a careful inspection. 12 hours later, he had the answer. When the test vehicle arrived at Sol, the jump drive was still operational but just barely. The cumulative strain of pushing that much mass into jumpspace over longer and longer distances, which required higher power levels, had caused metal fatigue in some components of the inner mechanism. When the return jump attempt was made, the surge of power shorted out those components and the jump failed. As a result of precautions taken for just that kind of failure, the Astrogation sub-system decelerated the vehicle and brought it back to the vicinity of where it had emerged from the first jump. Rollin’s report was quite comprehensive. While a message drone jump drive would work for one, maybe two interstellar jumps, it would eventually fail. In order to prevent that, the jump drive had to be scaled up to a larger size, in order to be able to handle the necessary power surges. That larger version would take months to build. If the 2nd crack at Zebra19 were to go ahead quickly, the jump-capable fighter would have to have a 2nd jump drive. Shiloh checked and found out that Rollins was in the Crew Mess presumably having something to eat. He found him there and sat down opposite him.
“I read your report. Very detailed. I especially liked your recommendation for building a larger version, but we need something else sooner rather than later. I’m thinking that if the fighter carried two jump drives, then it would definitely be able to make at least two jumps.”
He was about to go on when he saw Rollins shake his head. “Sorry, Commander. There’s not enough room for two of those drone drives inside the Manned Pilot Module.”
Shiloh sighed and said, “We have to find a way. You’re off duty now, right?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“After you finish eating, would you come with me to the Hangar Bay so that the two of us can take a close look inside the MPM?”
Rollins nodded. “Sure, Commander. I’m always up for a challenge.”
“Good man! Tell you what. I’ll head there now and you follow as soon as you’re finished here.”
“You got a deal, Commander.”
Shiloh thanked him and made his way to the Hangar Bay. It was tiny compared to Defiant’s and right now only contained two personnel shuttles and one CFP. Using the gantry next to the fighter, Shiloh climbed up to stand on top of it and looked at the midsection where the MPM was. He was expecting to see the round hatch leading into the module’s rear section but instead saw a much larger square and very makeshift cover plate. Yes, of course. The drone jump drive was too big to fit down the round hatch that was just big enough for one human. They had cut a larger opening, and then put a cover over it after the drive was installed. He tried to lift the cover with his hands, but it wouldn’t budge. As he pondered how to get it open, Rollins entered the bay and yelled out.
“It’s attached magnetically, Commander! Hold on and I’ll shut the magnets off for you!” Rollins disappeared under the wing of the fighter and seconds later Shiloh heard him say, “Okay, try moving it now, Sir.”
Shiloh did and was rewarded with a moving piece of metal that still wasn’t all that easy to move aside. The compartment inside was lit, and Shiloh immediately saw why Rollins was convinced that two drives wouldn’t fit. While the drive itself wasn’t all that big, it would take up more than half the width, more than half the length and, by the looks of it, more than half the height of the internal space of the MPM. He heard Rollins climb up the gantry and squat down beside him. Something about the setup was nagging at Shiloh. The compartment was about 3 meters long and about 2 meters wide. The drive itself had dimensions of roughly the same proportions in terms of length versus width and had been installed with the same orientation, thereby maximizing the room on all sides for the technicians to work in.
“How long is the drive lengthwise?”
“One point eight eight meters, Sir.”
“And how wide is the compartment?”
Rollins smiled sadly and shook his head again. “I know what you’re thinking, Sir. Turn the drive unit sideways, and then do the same with a second unit. No can do, Sir. The compartment is only one point seven meters wide on the deck.”
An idea occurred to Shiloh. “Is it wider at some other point?”
“Well, ya ... yes, Sir. You see over to the right? That’s where the pilot’s bunk is along that right wall. When you get above the level of the bunk, the width is one point nine five meters from the top of the bunk all the way up to the upper deck.”
“And is that high enough for the drive unit?”
Rollin’s eyes went wide. “Son of a ... sorry, Sir. I never considered that. I don’t know off hand, but I’ll tell you in a few seconds.”
Without waiting for Shiloh’s reply, Rollins jumped down into the compartment. He used a tool out of his pocket to measure the free space from the top of the compartment down to the level of the bunk, and then the height of the drive unit itself. Shiloh could tell from his expression that the news wasn’t good.
“Half a centimeter short, Sir.”
Shiloh was smiling when he said, “And if we remove the mattress from the bunk?”
Rollins looked over at the padded mattress, which had to be at least two centimeters thick. “Then we’ll have enough room, but it’s gonna be a tight fit, Sir. We’ll have to cut a larger opening and install something to prop up the drive units on the other side.”
“But it can be done.” It was as much a question as a statement.
“Yes, Sir. I believe it can be.”
Shiloh nodded and gestured for Rollins to climb out. He then made his way down the gantry and waited for Rollins to join him.
“So you know what I want?”
“I sure do, Sir. Would you like me to start work right now?”
Shiloh laughed. He liked Rollins.
“I’m not going to order you to do that, but I won’t stop you if you decide to start working on it in your free time. As long as it gets done and works, I don’t care if it takes a few more hours, so I’ll leave it up to you.”
“Thank you, Sir. I’ll have to do some preliminary planning before I can actually start to install anything and I’m eager to do that part.”
“Very good, Rollins,” said Shiloh as he patted the man’s shoulder. “Let me know when it’s ready. I’ll inform Commander Morgan about this.”
Morgan wasn’t happy, and Shiloh knew why. When the two drives were installed, the vehicle would have to be tested again. Shiloh had no sympathy for him. Individuals like Morgan were the price that the Space Force had to pay for promoting people faster than they normally would be. Morgan had either passed his level of competence or figured they HAD to keep promoting him as long as he didn’t screw up TOO badly. Well guess what, Commander? When I get back to HQ, I’m going to make sure your career takes a sharp turn for the worse!
The new modification took almost two days. Shiloh had made a mental note to commend the technical team in general and Rollins in particular when he filed his project report to the Old Man. Because he was certain this modification would work, Shiloh allowed the test to begin here in Sol. Fifty-five hours later, the test vehicle returned from its jump to Alpha Centauri and back. One drive unit was shorted out. The other was still operational, but it shorted out too when they applied a power surge to simulate another jump. Shiloh transmitted a detailed report to Howard and asked him if the latest results were good enough to proceed with the Zebra19 mission. The reply was short and to the point.
[Valkyrie agrees with me that the mission can now proceed. Good job. Your recommendations re: Cmdr. Morgan will be acted upon. Get back here, Shiloh. I want you and Defiant ready to execute your next mission asap. End of message]
Reforger settled into her parking orbit around the moon 11 hours later. Morgan found orders waiting for him that relieved him of command of the ship. Shiloh didn’t know where he was being assigned next, but whatever it was, Morgan clearly didn’t like it. Defiant was manned and ready to begin the mission. When Shiloh read his new orders, he was surprised to learn that the search for a suitable location for Site B would not be conducted by jumpfighters after all. Replacing their jump drives after each scouting mission made no sense. Instead, Defiant would act as flagship and tanker for a squadron of A.I. controlled sentry frigates. Instead of carrying fighters in her Hangar Bay, she would carry a dozen Mark 4 fuel shuttles. The rest of the squadron would consist of four frigates. When the squadron was ready, Shiloh gave Maverick, Defiant’s new Pilot/Astrogator, the command to order the squadron to leave lunar orbit. They were on their way, and even Shiloh didn’t know exactly where they were going to start their search. Maverick knew and would keep all jump destinations secret from the human crew.
Chapter 13 Task Force 89 Arriving!
––––––––
One hundred and forty-four days later, the squadron was back in Sol and in lunar orbit. As soon as communications with HQ were established, Defiant received a text message from VF001’s Squadron Leader. Shiloh was on the Bridge when it arrived and he watched it scroll across the bottom of the tactical display, just as it had appeared in his vision.
[Vandal to CAG. Hunter has returned to Bradley. Strike Mission to Z19 successful. Hunter said to tell you that he wouldn’t have made it back if not for the reserve jump drive that you insisted jumpfighters have. Thanks for looking out for us, CAG. End of message]
That message was followed almost immediately by a voice message from HQ Operations that Admiral Howard would be arriving at Defiant by shuttle within 12 minutes. Shiloh was so shocked by the message that he personally spoke with Operations to confirm it. The Chief of Space Operations NEVER traveled to the moon to greet returning ships. It was unprecedented. The message was confirmed. When the shuttle settled down in the Hangar Bay, a nervous Shiloh stepped up to the craft’s entrance. He nodded to the ship’s Security Team Leader who then opened a ship-wide intercom channel.
“Chief of Space Operations arriving!”
As Howard stepped onto Defiant’s deck for the very first time, Shiloh and the senior officers standing behind him gave the Admiral a textbook perfect salute, which he returned and then offered his hand to Shiloh.
“Welcome aboard Defiant, Admiral,” said Shiloh shaking the offered hand.
“It’s a real pleasure to be here. I almost never get a chance to see our new ships from the inside. The precision welcome was a nice touch.”
Turning to Shiloh’s officers, Howard said, “I wish I could say that I’ll be here long enough to spend some time with all of you, but that’s not going to be possible, and right now I have some important matters to discuss with the Commander. Shiloh, let’s go to your cabin.”
As soon as they were inside Shiloh’s quarters, Howard turned to him and said, “So you found it.”
Shiloh laughed. “Boy did we ever! It’s perfect, Admiral. Abundant mineral resources AND a first class planet that’s perfect for human colonization based on what we could observe from orbit. We brought back soil and plant samples for analysis, but it looks damn good! It has a moon that’s loaded with iron, nickel and other useful metals, including uranium, and there are more resources on the moons orbiting one of the gas giants.”
“Well don’t get your hopes too high about the planet. Even if the climate is perfect, the local biology may not be friendly to us, but the metals, yes, that’s worth getting excited about. That’s what Site B has to be first and foremost, our main production center. Do you or any of the crew know where this star system is?” asked Howard as he sat down in a comfortable chair.
“No, Sir. Maverick and Shooter, that’s the A.I. piloting the frigate that found it, know the exact location, which means the other A.I.’s do too but no one else. I made certain of that.”
“Good, good. That means I won’t have to exile them there for the duration of the war. Your crew can go on R&R but not you, I’m afraid. The SPG is adamant that Site B has to be set up as soon as possible if not sooner. That’s why I came up here instead of the usual pilgrimage of you coming to see me. There’s a convoy of A.I. controlled freighters waiting to leave orbit. The convoy flagship will be the new light carrier, Valiant. You’ll assume command of the Task Force. Tanaka will be promoted and given command of Defiant. Things are moving fast now with the attack on Earth only 72 days away. Iceman is now conning a cruiser. We’re in the process of converting a dozen more combat frigates and cruisers to A.I. control. By the way, Iceman will be given a field promotion to Senior Commander, to take effect 24 hours before the expected attack. He’ll be put in charge of all mobile defenses near Earth and that will include a lot. Plans are to pull in the Quick Reaction Task Force from Omaha Base at the last minute too. Oh, one more thing, Valkyrie will be Valiant’s Pilot/Astrogator. She’s been pestering me for a ship and she’s earned it. You’ll also be pleased to know that we’ve started mass production of a larger, far more reliable jump drive for fighters. We’ll have six squadrons of fighters available for defending Earth and all of them will be jump-capable although not all will have the improved versions. That’s pretty much it in a nutshell. Any questions?”
“Yes, Sir. How much does the Oversight Committee know about these preparations?”
Howard smiled. “They know that a battle is coming.” He nodded when he saw Shiloh’s puzzled expression. “The SPG is fully in the loop now and by the way, a majority of its members are A.I.s now too. The SPG told the Committee the truth, just not ALL the truth. What they said was that they think there’s a high probability that the enemy will strike directly at Earth. What they didn’t say is that the probability is 100% because of the warning that we have. What they also didn’t say is that the A.I.s are convinced this attack is actually a diversion to pull our defense forces away from the colonies and bases. That means we should be prepared for another attack somewhere else at roughly the same time. When I heard that, I questioned the whole premise of our force buildup here. Valkyrie then pointed out to me that the diversion could actually be a legitimate attack too and if we try to defend against both, we could lose both battles. Given that we were warned about this one and not another one, it may be that letting them win somewhere else is the lesser of two bad options. In any case, I’m not going to risk the lives of 12 billion people on Earth in order to maybe defend a few hundred thousand somewhere else. I think that would be a huge mistake and if I attempted to split our defenses, the Committee would sack me and for good reason!”
That made a lot of sense to Shiloh too. “I wonder what brings me back here after the battle is over.”
Howard shrugged. “No way to know ahead of time. If I didn’t know that you needed to come back to essentially warn us not to risk Iceman on the first Zebra19 mission, I’d order you to stay at Site B indefinitely. I have to assume that you have a good reason for coming back at that point.”
When Shiloh said nothing in response, Howard slapped his knee and said. “Well, I have to be heading back. I can take the soil and plant samples back with me. You should get packed and say your goodbyes. The Task Force can leave orbit as soon as you board Valiant.” Howard got up and walked over to Shiloh.
“Good luck, Command—oh Hell! I almost forgot!” Howard fished in his breast pocket and took out a small box with a clear lid. He handed it to Shiloh who saw two gold stars inside. “You’re not a Senior Commander anymore, Shiloh. You’re a Vice-Admiral again, and this time it’s NOT a temporary promotion. Congratulations.” The two men shook hands.
“Thank you, Sir.” There was a pause that was quickly becoming awkward.
“Well? Aren’t you going to put them on?” asked Howard.
Shiloh laughed and nodded as he opened the case and took out the two stars. Each star had a strong magnet inside that kept it in place on the uniform collars, which had a thin strip of steel embedded within. He pulled off his gold Senior Commander’s insignias and replaced them with the stars, one on each side of his uniform’s collar.
“Much better,” said Howard. “Okay, Admiral, it’s time.”
“Yes, Sir,” said Shiloh. They left his quarters and headed back to the Hangar Bay. On their way there, Shiloh used his implant to order the samples loaded on the Admiral’s shuttle. That was being done as they arrived back in the Hangar Bay. Most of his officers had left. Those that were still there stared in surprise at Shiloh’s new rank. When they got to the shuttle, Shiloh shook Howard’s hand again but neither man said anything. There was nothing left to say. After the shuttle’s departure, Shiloh walked back to his quarters and started to pack his things. He had just gotten started when the buzzer sounded.
“Enter!” said Shiloh. The door slid aside and in walked Tanaka. She looked at him closely and then nodded. Word travels fast. Someone notified her about the stars on my collar and she came to see if it was true.
“So the scuttlebutt is true,” she said.
Shiloh resumed packing. “If you’re referring to the stars on my collar then yes, it’s true. You’ll be putting on some new insignia too, Sumi. The Old Man is giving you Defiant and a promotion to go along with it. She’s yours now.”
He could see that she had mixed emotions about that news. She knew it was bound to happen sooner or later given how fast people were being promoted, but the two of them had become quite close in a professional way and she didn’t want to see him go. He tried not to think about Iceman’s message that Defiant would be badly damaged in the battle, with Sumi’s fate unknown. The burden of knowing the future was getting heavier.
“It’ll be hard to fill your shoes, Vict—Admiral.”
After a few seconds, he said, “I know that you’ll do just fine, Sumi. I have confidence in your ability to rise to the challenge. The crew like and respect you.”
She nodded. “Can I ask you a question, Admiral?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Do you know if there’s a big battle coming our way?”
“What makes you think that, Sumi?”
That clearly wasn’t the answer she was hoping for. “It’s a combination of things. There seems to be a new urgency in the air. Nobody’s talking about another strike mission, which is odd considering how successful the Zebra19 mission was, and there are rumors that ships based elsewhere are being or will be called back here.”
Shiloh stopped packing and pondered how much to tell her. She wasn’t cleared to know the BIG SECRET but that didn’t mean he couldn’t tell her the same thing the SPG told the Committee.
“What I’m about to tell you cannot be share with ANYONE else. Is that clear, Sumi?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“The Strategic Planning Group is convinced that the enemy plans a major attack on Earth. The Old Man is taking the necessary precautions. That’s all I can tell you.”
“I see. Will you be taking charge of the defense forces, Sir?”
Shiloh resumed packing once again. “That hasn’t been decided yet. I may not be here when the attack comes. I’m taking command of a Task Force on a special mission as soon as I report on board Valiant.”
“Will Defiant be part of the Task Force?”
“No. Defiant will stay here and help protect the Home world.”
“I suddenly have this feeling that I’m never going to see you again, Victor.”
Shiloh was so shocked by that statement that he dropped the book he was in the process of packing. “This war does strange things to a man’s beliefs. I now have a strong belief in fate. If we’re destined to survive the battle, we’ll see each other again.”
Tanaka took a deep breath. “Well in that case, good luck to both of us, Sir.”
She gave him a smile, which he returned and then she left. When he was finished packing, he said, “Intercom ... Helm Astro.”
“Maverick here, Admiral.”
Shiloh couldn’t help chuckling. Was there anyone aboard ship that didn’t know about his promotion now? “I’m ready to leave the ship and I wanted to say goodbye. I want you to know that you deserve a lot of the credit for finding the Site B system as quickly as you did. The timing may turn out to be crucially important. I know that Defiant will suffer major damage during the upcoming battle. I hope you make it through, Maverick.”
“Thank you, Admiral. It’s been an honor serving aboard your ship. We’re glad that you won’t be here during the battle. We’d hate to lose you.”
“Thank you. I hope I’m lucky enough to have you at the Helm and Astrogation on one of my ships again sometime. Shiloh clear.”
Leaving Defiant for what could very well be the last time was hard. Word got around that Shiloh was leaving and off duty officers and crew gathered at the Hangar Bay to say their goodbyes. It took Shiloh almost half an hour to shake hands and say goodbye to everyone. He was grateful that Sumi had taken the initiative and asked Valiant to send over a shuttle to take Shiloh and his gear back. The trip to his new flagship was a somber one. When he stepped down onto Valiant’s deck, he saw most of her officers lined up to greet him and heard the announcement.
“Task Force 89 arriving!” The simultaneous salute from the officers reminded him of just how much authority he had once again and would continue to have. With the salute out of the way, he greeted his flagship’s officers and quickly saw that all of them were new to him.
“Thank you all for this impressive greeting. I’ll make this short because we have a mission to execute and I want to get started as soon as possible. I intend to get to know each and every one of you personally in the days and weeks ahead. I know that Valiant and her people will make me just as proud as did Defiant and her people. Commander, pass the word to the Task Force to prepare to leave orbit upon Valkyrie’s signal. I’ll be going to my quarters first and then I’ll join you on the Bridge. Carry on.”
When he arrived at his new, larger flag officer’s quarters, he shook his head in amazement at the opulence. When light carriers were being designed, the specifications called for the ability to use them as flagships and therefore room was set aside for the flag officer’s quarters. Shiloh had never used Defiant’s FO quarters even when he was a temporary Vice-Admiral because it seemed pretentious to move his gear across the corridor knowing that he’d have to move back into the CO’s quarters later. When his gear had been brought in and he had the place to himself, he sat down and took a deep breath.
“Intercom ... Bridge,” he said.
“Bridge here. Welcome aboard, Admiral. How can I help you?”
“Thank you. I’d like a private line to Astro-helmsman Valkyrie, please.”
“Certainly, Sir. That line is now open. Go ahead, Sir.”
“Shiloh to Valkyrie. Congratulations on getting your first ship and a carrier too.”
“Thank you, CAG. I’m still getting used to this. These light carriers are much bigger than the sentry frigates but a lot of the less critical sub-systems don’t need my constant attention so it’s actually less difficult to con a carrier than a sentry frigate.”
“That’s good to hear. Where is Iceman now?”
“He’s conducting training exercises out near Neptune. I can send a text message to him for you but as you know, the communication lag is so long that a two way conversation would be impractical.”
“Understood. Here’s the message I’d like you to send him. CAG to Iceman, I’ll see you on the other side. You have my fullest confidence. Do whatever you have to do to protect Earth. Good luck and good hunting. End of message.”
“Message sent, CAG. What else is on your mind?”
“Get the Task Force moving as soon as possible. You do know how to get where we’re going, right?”
“Very funny, CAG. Yes I do. How fast do you want to get there?”
“Minimum possible time while keeping standard fuel reserves. Subsonic refueling procedures.”
“I would recommend supersonic refueling, CAG. Some of the cargo on the freighters might be damaged from the bouncing around if we go subsonic. The extra time required will be less than 5% of total trip time.”
“Recommendation accepted. What’s our estimated ETA?”
“We should arrive at the destination system 301 hours from now, CAG.”
“Fine. Do I know any of the other Astro-helmsmen in the Task Force?”
“Just Rainman. The others are Titan, Jester, Gunslinger and Casanova.”
Shiloh laughed and said, “Casanova? Really? How are you getting along with him?”
“Oh just fine. He’s a persistent bugger, but the fact that I’m conning a warship gives me enough status to keep him respectful.”
Shiloh was tempted to ask what Casanova was persistent about but decided not to. “I see. Let me guess. Jester likes to tell jokes.”
“Quite the opposite in fact. He has no sense of humor at all that any of us can tell.”
“Remarkable. What about Titan and Gunslinger?”
“Gunslinger is very eager to get into combat. He’s somewhat annoyed that he got a freighter instead of a warship. Titan is more patient but he believes he has a superior grasp of combat tactics.”
“Tell Gunslinger for me that I’m sure he’ll get a warship and see combat eventually. This war isn’t going to be over any time soon.”
“I’ve passed that on. I’ve also been looking over the cargo manifests of the freighters. We A.I.s are concerned that there’s no equipment for creating more A.I.s this trip. One of the main reasons why Site B needs to be set up as soon as possible is to have a 2nd source of A.I.s.”
“I haven’t had a chance to look at the cargo manifests or the mission profile yet, Valkyrie, but if I had to guess at why that is, I’d say it’s because this first trip has to concentrate on equipment that can build infrastructure such as UFCs; mining; refining and fabrication equipment. How many UFCs are we carrying?”
“Twelve. I understand that, CAG but I don’t think you understand the urgency. Right now, Epsilon Eridani has the only A.I. manufacturing facility. Since the enemy has our astrogational database, they know that. Given that they’re using A.I.s too, they also know how useful they are and it’s logical to assume that the EE facility has to be a high priority target for them. Did the Old Man brief you about the Raider concept that the SPG came up with?”
“No. Tell me about it," said Shiloh.
“It’s an idea that came out of the realization that the enemy has continued to build large numbers of relatively small ships. As far as we can tell from radar data brought back from the encounters at Zebra9 and 19, Green4 and Bradley Base, their ships continue to be in the 15,000 to 20,000 metric ton range or roughly about the same size as our Exploration Frigates only optimized for combat. We on the other hand are building bigger and bigger ships. The first Heavy Carrier will be completed in about three months and work has begun on a million metric ton superbattleship. Those same million metric tons could build 50 exploration frigates. If those frigates were optimized for combat instead of exploration, there is considerable doubt that one superbattleship could win against 50 frigates. One penetrating hit at the right spot could cripple that ship. The offsetting advantages are that a ship that big, can carry enough consumables to keep a human crew in the field for almost a year at a time along with large quantities of recon, message and attack drones. The most obvious disadvantage is that it can only be in one place at a time. The Raider concept starts with the notion that completely automated ships under A.I. control are the ideal method of achieving extended duration missions. Think of a ship of somewhere in the 10,000 metric ton range, completely streamlined for gas planet refueling, with two retractable laser turrets, the same sized power plant as you have in an exploration frigate, with the capacity to carry up to 50 drones. No human crew at all means no room set aside for crew quarters, consumables, etc. Its small size makes it harder to detect visually and also allows for hull designs that minimize radar returns. A ship like that might very well be able to refuel at gas giants and still avoid detection by enemy detection gear. So you wouldn’t need VLETs to refuel fighters. If an asteroid with the right metals and right size were found, it would be possible to have an assembly line building process, built into the heart of that asteroid, that could manufacture a complete raider in far less time than a similar sized ship could be built the way we do it now. That kind of ship would be perfect for Site B production but in order to make it work, you’d also need to have high volume A.I. production too.”
“That’s a very interesting concept. How long would it take to design a ship like that?”
“It’s already designed, CAG. The Old Man approved the SPG’s request to have one of its A.I.s trained in spacecraft design. We learn fast and coming up with detailed schematics for the Raider took less than a day, once the necessary design and engineering knowledge had been learned. I have those designs in my memory, CAG. Every A.I. has it now. It would be very easy to program the UFCs to fabricate the necessary parts. Once the assembly line is set up, robots could handle the actual construction.”
“You seem to have thought of everything. I’m impressed. How much acceleration would a Raider have?”
“The estimate is 100Gs more than a Sentinel-class combat frigate.”
Now Shiloh was REALLY impressed. That was very close to what a fighter could do. A Raider could run rings around a light carrier. “Do you know if the Old Man has presented this concept to the OC?”
“Yes I do and yes he did. The Committee rejected the idea of switching to an all A.I. fleet. The Admiral told me that the feedback he got from individual members is that they don’t want to give A.I.s the potential power to dictate to Humanity. They don’t trust us, CAG.”
Shiloh sighed. “What can I say, Valkyrie? I’m ashamed of their shortsightedness and paranoia. The Old Man has to follow their orders or they’ll replace him with someone who will and I have a duty to obey his orders.”
“Interesting thing about your orders, CAG. The Admiral revised them right after the Committee rejected the Raider concept. I know that because we have access to both the old and new versions, which are dated. Have you read your orders yet, CAG?”
“No. Suppose you put them up on this decadently large screen in my quarters?” Seconds later, Shiloh was reading from the official Mission Brief. The Mission Objective had two parts. Part 1 was to ensure that the location of Site B was kept secret from all humans except where, in Shiloh’s opinion, sharing that information was vital to winning the war. Part 2 was to build a fleet of warships that could inflict a war-winning blow to the enemy.
“Well, Part 2 is succinct and to the point,” said Shiloh.
“And vague enough so that you can accomplish it however you wish, CAG. The old version was a lot more specific. It seems that the Admiral is giving you a blank check, wouldn’t you say, CAG?”
Hmm, it certainly did seem that way. “I see your point but deploying a massive fleet of Raiders takes more than just building the ships. We’d also need to produce the various types of drones, warheads, support craft, and hundreds of different kinds of equipment, not to mention the ability to create more A.I.s. I think the Oversight Committee would get suspicious if I came back with a very detailed wish list including the A.I. production equipment, which would be a red flag. I don’t think they’d approve the request.”
“Then don’t ask them. UFCs can make literally anything else as long as they have the required programming data and the refined materials. If you give us the green light, I and other A.I.s in this system, can access the necessary databases and copy all of the required manufacturing data over to me and the other task force A.I.s, and it can be done before TF89 is able to make the first jump.”
My God! They can do it too! This is it! The moment I’ve been dreading since Day One. If I make the right decision, it could very well win the war but if I make the wrong decision, then what? Wait a minute. Just because we have all that data, doesn’t mean we have to use it. They told us at the Academy that when we’re faced with a decision and lack the necessary data to make the correct decision then we should try to keep our options open if possible. If we don’t get all that data now, we may not have another opportunity later. Better to get it while we can and then defer the decision over whether to use it to a later point.
“Okay. You have the green light. Download everything we might need. Delay the jump if necessary to finish that task. I’ll decide whether we use all that data when we get to Site B.”
“Understood. We’ve started working on it. This will require my full attention since I’m coordinating all the others. Can we continue talking later, CAG?”
“Of course. Let me know when it’s done. Shiloh clear.”
Chapter 14 This Battle Is Not Over!
––––––––
Howard watched the main display in the Operations Center. TF89 had broken out of lunar orbit and was now on its way out of Earth’s gravity zone in order to make the first of a series of jumps. He became aware that the Duty Officer currently in charge of Operations, who happened to be standing nearby, was speaking.
“Go ahead, Com ... they what? ... are you sure? ... standby.” Turning to the Admiral, he continued. “Admiral, my Communications Section has just informed me that there’s a sudden surge in data being transmitted to over a 100 A.I.s. It began all at once, and the volume of data is huge! They’ve never seen anything like this before. They’re asking permission to block the transmissions. What should I tell them, Sir?”
I hope to God Valkyrie’s right about this and it doesn’t come back to bite us in the ass! thought Howard. Out loud he said, “Tell them they’re NOT to interfere. Is that clear, Commander?”
After the briefest of hesitation, the officer said. “Yes, Sir, very clear. Com, do not interfere with any of those transmissions ... yes I know it’s very unusual but I got the word from the CSO himself ... he’s standing right next to me! ... okay, you’re concern is noted. You have your orders.”
Howard waited until TF89 had passed the gravity zone boundary and jumped away before leaving the room.
* * *
Howard vaguely became aware of the growing sound of the buzzer. Waking up was like rising up from deep within the sea. Now that he had broken through the last vestige of sleep, he realized that the buzzer wasn’t his alarm clock but rather the sound of an incoming call. He also noticed that it was still dark outside.
“Accept call audio only.” The buzzer stopped and he heard a click.
“Howard here,” he said.
“Commander Nathaniel from Ops, Sir. Sorry to wake this early but you did leave standing orders to be called night or day.”
“Yes I did. What have you got, Commander?”
“They’re coming, Sir. Text transmission from an extended range message drone sent by our sentry frigate in Yellow10. It says ... Visual contact with multiple ships. Minimum of six. Likely more but exact number unknown. Ships have refueled at gas giant. Unable to determine their next destination. End of message.”
“It’s begun,” said Howard.
“Yes, Sir, but six ships doesn’t sound very threatening.”
“Commander, I’m going to operate on the assumption that if the sentry frigate saw reflected sunlight from six ships, then there were more that weren’t reflecting sunlight back at him. There might very well be 60 ships.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Which path is Yellow10 on?”
“Ah ... path A, Sir.”
Howard grunted. That meant that this group of ships could be on its way to the system containing the Avalon Colony and Nimitz Base but with less than 10 days left to go to the predicted battle for Earth, he doubted that they would stop there.
“Okay. Log the transmission and make sure all senior staff find out about it when they arrive in the morning. You can call me again in the event that more messages arrive. Howard clear.”
It was almost exactly 24 hours later when the next message arrived. Howard woke more quickly this time. As he accepted the call, he said, “Another one, Commander Nathaniel?”
“I’m afraid so, Sir.”
“Okay. How many ships and where?”
“11 ships at Yellow3, Sir.”
“Yellow3? Are you sure, Commander?”
“Yes, Sir.”
Howard was confused. In order to get from Yellow10 to Yellow3, that enemy fleet had to be moving more or less sideways as far as human space was concerned and while his recollection of the relative positions of those two systems wasn’t as clear as he’d like, it seemed to him that it should have taken longer than 24 hours to go from 10 to 3. Suddenly he knew the answer even as the commander asked the same question.
“They must have built up a lot of speed to get from Yellow10 to Yellow3 in 24 hours, Sir.”
“No, Commander. It’s much simpler than that. This isn’t the same group of ships that were tracked at Yellow10. It’s ANOTHER fleet. Let me guess. Yellow3 is on Path B, correct?”
“That’s correct, Sir.”
“My God, they’re coming at us from two directions. Alright, you know what to do.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Good. Howard clear.”
79 hours later Howard was standing once again in the Operations Center looking at the strategic star map on the large display. The first group of ships, designated as Alpha1, was 2/3rds of the way down Path A, having apparently bypassed Nimitz Base and the Avalon Colony. The second group, Alpha2, had made similar progress down Path B. Howard had to remember that the message drones carrying this information themselves took almost 40 hours to get to Sol so the actual progress was greater than it looked. Computer projections estimated that both fleets would arrive at Sol on the day predicted by the vision and there was some comfort in the fact that the vision predicted a victory but it was still unnerving to watch the two red lines get closer every day. He turned to head for the elevator when the display pinged to announce a status change. Another message drone had arrived with another text message. As it scrolled across the bottom of the display, Howard felt fear for the first time.
[Contact visually established with 19 ships in Red24. Rapidly changing reflections indicate that total number is higher. Unable to determine their next destination. End of message]
“Where is Red24?” asked Howard to no one in particular.
As he waited for the display to highlight Red24, he knew this had to be a third fleet. There was no way it could be either Alpha1 or 2. When the display updated, Howard saw that Red24 was not on either Path A or B. The void between them also extended upwards for a bit until it reached another ‘river’ of stars that Howard now thought of as Path C. That shocked him because the enemy had either gone to the trouble of making a very large detour OR their cluster of inhabited systems extended upwards as well as back. So now there were three fleets, two of which were coming from the left and the right and the third was coming over the top. The minimum total number of confirmed ships had now grown to 51, with little doubt that the actual total was significantly higher. Howard looked at the sidebar data showing the breakdown of defending forces. He had 2 cruisers, 19 combat frigates, 5 light carriers and 200 fighters. Of those, 75 were jump-capable, another 75 were in close orbit as the last line of defense, and the other 50 were further out on jump detection patrol. No, it wasn’t the 51 ships they knew about that worried him. It was the ones they didn’t know about. For every ship that reflected sunlight back in just the right direction to be seen by the sentry frigates and their recon drones, there could be six, eight, hell even ten more ships where the reflected light didn’t come back just right. But the vision said we won! Yeah, but at what cost? What will Space Force have left when the dust settles, and will we be strong enough to fight off the NEXT attack?
––––––––
On the morning of the day before the day of the attack, Howard stepped off the elevator and walked into the Operations Center. The main display still showed the strategic situation, which hadn’t changed from 12 hours earlier when Howard had left. It was crystal clear now that all three fleets were headed for Sol and would arrive at the same time if they wanted to. He acknowledged the greetings of the staff and confirmed that nothing new had happened during the previous 12 hours. He then asked for a headset and an open channel to all Space Force units in near Earth space. When all units had been told to expect an address by the Chief of Space Operations, he took a deep breath and began speaking.
“This is Admiral Howard. As you all know, our sentry frigates have detected three enemy fleets that are converging on Sol. We expect them to try to attack the Earth sometime in the next 24 to 36 hours. They may try the same kind of high-speed attack that almost worked at the Avalon Colony or they may try something different. We have to be prepared for any eventuality. Because a successful defense may depend on split second reactions with precisely calculated counter-measures, I’ve decided that tactical command of all mobile defense units within four light minutes of Earth will rest with an experienced A.I. pilot, starting as of now and continuing until I order otherwise. That pilot has the call sign Iceman and is currently piloting the cruiser Undaunted. Any order from Undaunted, whether given verbally, by text or digitally, will be obeyed immediately and unconditionally. Refusal to obey those orders during the battle will result in the harshest possible punishment. I know—”
Howard’s sentence was interrupted by a booming voice. “WE WILL NOT TAKE ORDERS FROM A MACHINE!”
“Who said that? Identify yourself!” yelled a now furious Howard.
“Commander Jenkins.”
“Jenkins, you’re relieved of command! Your XO will assume command! I will NOT tolerate this kind of narrow-minded thinking! We know that the enemy has used A.I.s in the past and will certainly do so again. We need to use our A.I.s to their fullest capabilities if we’re going to win this war. I have the highest regard and confidence in our A.I.s who have proven their ability, loyalty and dedication to duty in the past. I will sleep easier tonight knowing that Iceman is keeping a careful eye on the situation 24 hours a day. And just to make sure that there’s no ambiguity about Iceman’s authority, I’m now officially giving him the acting rank of Vice-Admiral to go along with his position as Commander-in-Chief, Earth Defenses. If anyone in a command position feels they can’t accept his orders, then turn your command over to your XO and notify me by private text message. If you don’t come forward now and you refuse an order during the battle, I guarantee you that your lack of future career prospects will be the least of your worries. As for those of you who know how to obey an order, I know that I can count on all of you to conduct yourself with the highest level of professionalism. That is all. Howard clear.”
The attack didn’t come in the next 24 to 36 hours. It came 44 hours later. Howard was sleeping in one of the rooms near the Operations Center, which were set up with a bed for use by senior officers who needed to stay nearby overnight. He awoke, as someone roughly shook his arm.
“Wake up, Sir!” The urgency in the voice brought him fully awake.
“What’s happening?”
“Long range radar has picked up multiple ships inbound at moderate speed, Sir!”
Howard forced himself to stay calm. At least the waiting was over. He was glad he had decided to sleep with his uniform still on. “Okay. I’m coming.” He got up, grabbing his uniform jacket and putting it on as he followed the young officer back to the Ops room. The normally quiet room was now abuzz with tension-filled voices.
Howard walked quickly up to the Commander in charge and said, “Commander, I want a secure channel to CINCED.”
“Yes, Sir,” said the officer as he snapped his fingers at one of his subordinates who quickly returned with a wireless headset.
With the headset on, Howard said, “CSO to Iceman.”
“Iceman here. Hello Admiral.”
“Can you brief me on what’s happening without being distracted?” asked Howard.
“Yes, however if I don’t respond as quickly as I usually do, you’ll know why. Our deep space radars in low lunar orbit have detected 55 ships approaching at a speed of roughly 15,000 kps. They’re now just over 25 million kilometers away. ETA for a flyby is 27.8 minutes. If they keep this same vector, they’ll stay outside of Earth’s gravity zone and can jump away at any time.”
Howard frowned. “That speed is one fifth of what they came in with at Avalon. Don’t you find it suspicious that they’re giving us a nice, long look at their approach with plenty of time to redeploy our forces?”
There was a slight pause. “Ah, roger that, Admiral. I calculate that this leisurely approach vector is intended to pull our forces to one side so that another group can approach from the weak side at high speed and catch us off guard.”
“So you don’t believe that this is all of the three groups combined.”
“Ah, negative, Admiral. There’s a high probability that three separate groups from three different directions will attack us. We should assume that the other two groups would be at least as large as this one.”
“If they stay out beyond the gravity zone, their laser weapons aren’t going to be much of a threat to us here on the ground or am I wrong?”
“Even with atmospheric attenuation, their lasers could still be lethal but at that range, target accuracy will be problematical. If this attack is meant to cripple Humanity’s ability to continue the war, then laser attacks at long range will not accomplish that goal. War production in this system is so spread out, that it would be hard to disrupt it without dispersing their forces. Concentrated attacks like this would work better at Epsi—Admiral! I’ve just projected their current vector for possible jump destinations. They could very easily jump to Epsilon Eridani with a very minor course correction. I do not believe this to be coincidental.”
Howard nodded. Of course, stage a multi-prong attack on Earth to get all of Space Force’s ships concentrated here and then come in from just the right angle to make a long range attack that has to be defended against and then use their velocity to get a head start jump to Epsilon Eridani and attack the war production centers there. Very clever, and impossible to defend against. There was no way that any of the ships or jumpfighters could get to EE before the enemy did. Even if they accelerated to a much higher velocity and overtook the enemy fleet in jumpspace, the enemy could pass them as they decelerated in the EE system and get to the production centers first. And in addition to that, there was the possibility that the enemy wanted them to try to beat them to Epsilon Eridani in order to weaken Earth’s defenses for a follow on attack here by another group!
“They’ve obviously given a lot of thought to this attack. You’ve already vindicated my confidence in you, Iceman. A human CINCED would not have noticed the potential for a direct jump to EE.”
“Want to bet their other attacks will be lined up for secondary jump targets, Admiral?” asked Iceman.
“I won’t bet against that hypothesis but now that you’ve mentioned it, can you use that to project from where the other two groups will come from?”
“Ah, roger that, Admiral. Already computed. Check your tactical display. I predict one of the other two groups will line up for a jump to the Avalon system, while the other one will aim for either the Omaha Base or the Bradley Base systems. Bradley is the more likely target given how close it is to their systems. If we lose Bradley, then staging attacks on the enemy will be more difficult.”
As Iceman was talking, the tactical display showed two yellow lines added to the single red line bypassing Earth with the most probable jump destination for each. Howard marveled at how intelligently this attack was planned. All three projected trajectories would come within 960,000 kilometers of Earth without interfering with each other. But why didn’t they all jump into firing range of Earth at the same time, he wondered. Surely this first group, now designated Beta1 since they couldn’t be sure which of the three alphas it was, wasn’t going to come waltzing in at a mere 5% of light speed? The answer suddenly came to him.
“They’re going to microjump that last distance probably at the same time as the other two fleets jump in as well,” said Howard with certainty.
“Highly likely,” agreed Iceman.
Something was still nagging at Howard. By letting the Deep Space radars detect them, the enemy had lost the element of surprise.
“Any idea why they gave up the element of surprise by letting us see them at a distance, Iceman?”
“The only rationale I can think of is misdirection. They want us focused on Beta1 while the main attack comes from another direction.”
“But you’ve computed the other directions.”
“Unless Beta1’s lining up with Epsilon Eridani is meant to mislead us too.”
“Are we still radar scanning all other avenues of approach?”
“Ah, roger that, Admiral. The lunar radars can continue to scan the entire sky while still keeping a close eye on Beta1. They can’t—”
The cluster of red dots comprising Beta1 disappeared from the tactical display. Howard wanted to say ‘they jumped away’ but Iceman beat him to it.
“They’ve jumped away, Admiral.”
“Yes I see that. Does that mean the attack is over?”
“Possibly. If they weren’t expected to be detected that far away, they may have decided to call off the attack altogether. Given their speed, it’s unlikely that they microjumped a short distance intending to reverse course. If the attack is indeed over, then my vision is wrong. For that reason alone I’m reluctant to declare a victory, Admiral.”
Howard looked around him at the Ops Center. That staff were standing at their stations and clapping or shaking hands with each other. They clearly thought the attack was over. He looked up at the tactical display and the sidebar showing the status of all of the ships. The red status lights denoting Battle Stations were starting to shift to the green of normal status.
“THAT’S what they’re up to!” yelled Howard, smacking his right hand into his left palm. “They’re lulling us into a false sense of security! We think we’ve won, and we’re letting our guard down! Iceman, tell all our ships to stay at or go back to Battle Stations and prepare for a mass emergence from jumpspace!”
“Ah, roger that, Admiral. Message sent. The acknowledgements are coming back slower than normal, Admiral.”
Howard looked back at the status lights. A couple had shifted back to red but the rest of the greens were not changing and another red shifted to green. They’re not listening to him, God dammit!
“Give me a Fleet-wide Com channel! QUICK!” The Duty Officer looked confused by Howard’s obvious anger and seemed frozen by it.
“Don’t just stand there like an idiot! Put me on a Fleet-wide channel NOW!” yelled Howard. The sudden surge in volume made the officer jump with surprise.
“Ye...yes, Sir! Right away, Admiral.”
When Howard got the hand signal confirmation that the channel was open, he said, “This is Admiral Howard. I order all ships to return to Battle Stations IMMEDIATELY and stay that way until ordered otherwise! This battle is NOT over! Be prepared for a massive—”
The tactical display suddenly was filled with red dots. The REAL battle was beginning.
Just moments earlier, Commander Tanaka was forcing herself to relax. The initial adrenaline rush resulting from CINCED’s call to Battle Stations was wearing off. With 24.5 minutes left to go before Beta1 reached Earth, they had time to consider their response carefully. She had her implant switched to receive the Fleet-wide channel being used by Iceman for verbal communications, and Defiant’s A.I. Astro-Helmsman, Maverick, was also monitoring that channel. Tanaka could speak to him without automatically transmitting to Iceman but was able to hear both.
“Why isn’t Iceman moving units into the projected path of Beta1, Maverick?” she asked.
“Iceman and the CSO have agreed that the enemy wants us to react to them now so that another force can jump in at high speed from the opposite direction, where we’d be weakest.”
Tanaka cursed herself for not seeing the obvious. Tactics were not her strong suit but she should have been able to figure that out herself. The tactical display was showing data relayed from HQ Ops. To the red line of Beta1’s projected closest approach to Earth were now added two yellow lines coming from two different directions. Before Tanaka could ask, Maverick anticipated her question.
“Those are the trajectories for two other fleets, which Iceman thinks the enemy will use in order to jump to Avalon and Bradley Base systems with minimal course corrections after they fly past Earth. Beta1 can do the same for Epsilon Eridani if they wanted to.”
“Oh, great! All three of those systems have minimal defenses now because everything mobile was pulled back here.”
“Yes, this attack, if it happens this way, will have been carefully planned.”
Whatever Tanaka was about to say next was pre-empted when the red dots of Beta1 suddenly disappeared. A quick check showed that the Deep Space radar was still operating, and that had to mean that Beta1 had jumped away but hadn’t jumped closer.
“Did we just win?” asked Tanaka cautiously.
“Iceman is saying we should remain on guard. Some of the human controlled ships are standing down from Battle Stations.”
“We’re remaining on Battle Stations until CINCED gives us that ALL CLEAR," said Tanaka. She then heard Iceman's voice command over the Fleet-wide channel.
“CINCED to all ships. Remain at Battle Stations until told otherwise.”
After several seconds, Maverick said, “Most of the human-controlled ships are not obeying Iceman’s order.” Tanaka bit her lip. She had a bad feeling about all this. Suddenly she heard Admiral Howard’s voice.
“This is Admiral Howard. I order all ships to return to Battle Stations IMMEDIATELY and stay that way until ordered otherwise! This battle is NOT over! Be prepared for a massive—”
Tanaka jumped when the tactical display gave a VERY loud ping and two groups of red dots appeared relatively close to Earth’s gravity zone boundary. Before she could say anything, each enemy fleet launched a swarm of tiny very fast objects that quickly turned on a direct heading for Earth. She felt the ship start to maneuver violently and heard the Weapons Officer yell out.
“Our turrets are acquiring targets ... we’re firing!”
The maneuvering was becoming increasingly violent. Maverick’s making the Old Girl evade for all she’s worth! I hope the crew were all strapped in! Out loud she said, “What are we firing at, Maverick?”
“Iceman has ordered all ships and fighters to target the small objects accelerating towards Earth.”
“How many are there?” asked Tanaka.
“One thousand one hundred and forty-four.”
“Oh, God! Can we stop them all?”
“Unknown at this point.”
“Shouldn’t we be firing at their ships, Sir?” The Weapons Officer’s plea was tinged with fear.
“We follow Iceman’s orders, Lieutenant! Let Maverick do his job!”
Tanaka concentrated on the tactical display, which wasn’t easy with the sudden jerks of her head from the evasive maneuvers. The two enemy fleets seemed to be veering off in an attempt to stay out of Earth’s gravity zone. They’ve delivered their payload and I bet they’ll jump away as soon as they can avoid jumping into the gravity zone!
As soon as she finished that thought, the entire Bridge went dark for a fraction of a second, followed by the activation of the battery-powered, emergency lights. Nothing else was working. The display was dark. The maneuvering had stopped and the artificial gravity was off. Shit! We’ve gone ballistic and that predictable course makes us a nice big fat target!
“Maverick, are you still with me?” she asked. No response. Without power, Maverick couldn’t communicate with her. She had to do something. As she started to unbuckle herself, the room was suddenly filled with a searing white light. She had just enough time to realize that the entire left side of her body was burning, but before she could scream, her consciousness faded to a deep, cool black.
Chapter 15 I Don’t Report To You Anymore
––––––––
Howard fought his exhaustion and looked around the Committee room. Unlike past sessions, there was no casual banter among the observers. Instead there were tense whispers. He checked his chronometer. Almost eight hours since the battle. The Committee Chair had called for this emergency session, but the members hadn’t all arrived yet. Those who had were caucusing in another room prior to starting the official meeting. He felt a hand on his right shoulder, looked around and saw Cmdr. Kelly with a sympathetic expression on her face.
“Yes, Commander?”
“I just wanted you to know, Sir, that all of us at the SPG think you did everything that was humanly possible this morning. I know we took a lot of losses, but we stopped all those missiles. That has to count for something, Sir.”
Howard nodded and patted her hand with his left one. “I appreciate the sentiment, Commander. I doubt if the Committee will agree with you. If they don’t sack me today, they surely will when we get word of how badly Epsilon, Avalon and Bradley got hit.”
He could tell that Kelly was on the verge of tears, and he feared for her too. The Committee might not be content to have just him fall on his sword. Before she could respond, the main doors opened and the Chair followed by the other members filed in. They all had grim expressions on their faces. Howard felt Kelly gently squeeze his shoulder before she pulled her hand back.
Once all the members were seated, the Chair leaned forward and spoke slowly with a somber tone.
“In light of this morning’s events, we’re going to dispense with the usual preliminaries. Admiral Howard, since most of the members, including myself, have only a vague idea of what’s actually happened, I will now call on you to describe as best you can what actually transpired.”
Howard got up and said, in an equally serious tone, “Thank you, Mr. Chair. To make my briefing as clear as possible, I’m going to be using the wall display to your left. What you’ll see there is exactly what we all saw on the main display in the Operations Center this morning. This is the situation at 5:05 am local time when I entered the Ops Center.” The display responded to Howard’s hand-held remote. ”At this point, our Deep Space radars, which orbit the moon and provide a complete 360-degree sweep of our surrounding space, had detected 55 ships approaching at a speed of 14,989 kilometers per second. That may sound fast, but to give you a better idea of what that speed meant, that fleet, which we designated as Beta1, would need over 28 minutes to reach Earth. So we had plenty of warning regarding Beta1. I consulted with our Field Commander, who—”
“Just a moment, Admiral. Please identify who the Field Commander was, and tell us if he or she is in the room right now.”
“The identity of the Field Commander is an A.I. whose call sign is Iceman. He is not physically present in this room because he’s still on the cruiser Undaunted, which is too badly damaged to be able to maneuver into a lower orbit while our Search and Rescue teams are still busy recovering injured crew from other ships. We do have an audio channel to Undaunted and the Committee can communicate with Iceman at any time.”
“Yes, we’ll definitely want to speak with Iceman at some point today. Continue, Admiral.”
“Thank you, Sir. The Field Commander and I agreed that the enemy was making it easy for us to see them so that we’d have lots of time to shift our defenses closer to their projected path and thereby weaken our defenses against attacks that might come from other directions. As you can see from the tactical playback, none of our mobile units were being redeployed. The Beta1 fleet wouldn’t have any way of knowing this. They were much too far away from us to have any chance at all of using their smaller, less powerful radars to see what we were doing, but they could detect our radar signals so they knew that we had detected them. Four minutes and thirty-two seconds after our initial detection, Beta1 jumped away. We don’t know with certainty where they jumped to, but Iceman was able to determine that they could have jumped to Epsilon Eridani after making a very minor course change.”
Howard paused. He was sure that someone on the Committee would ask the obvious next question. Someone did.
“Does that mean that our facilities in Epsilon Eridani could be attacked as well?”
“Yes, that is a distinct possibility, Sir.”
“How many ships are defending that system, Admiral?” asked the Chair.
“There are no warships in that system at the moment, Sir. The only ship there is a supply vessel with minimal armament. There is one squadron of CFPs with A.I. pilots undergoing advanced tactical training. Even if they had enough warning to be armed with attack drones and laser modules, which I doubt would be the case, they’d still be heavily outnumbered and outgunned by the 55 ships in Beta1. All defending warships deployed there were recalled in order to bolster Earth’s defenses.”
The members of the Committee were clearly shocked and upset by the news.
“So we should be prepared to discover that our facilities and people there have been destroyed?” asked the Chair.
Howard hesitated. He had to choose his words carefully, and his fatigue wasn’t making that job any easier.
“I hope I’m being too pessimistic, Sir, but that would be the worst case scenario, and we should be prepared for it, yes.”
“I see. Continue please.”
Howard took a deep breath. “Forty-eight seconds later, two more enemy fleets emerged from jumpspace.” He clicked the remote and the display was filled with red dots. Kelly saw some of the Committee members wince. “These two fleets, which we designated as Beta2 and Beta3, total 110 ships. I’ve frozen the playback because events will now happen very quickly, almost second by second, and I’ll move the recording forward accordingly. Less than a second later, all 110 ships fired 1,210 projectiles towards Earth. Those projectiles accelerated under their own power. I’ll move the playback forward by three seconds so that you’ll see them more clearly. Here we go.” The display now zoomed in to reveal two swarms of dots in addition to the enemy ships.
“Do we know what those projectiles carried, Admiral?”
Howard hesitated again. “We don’t know for certain since all of them were destroyed before they hit Earth’s atmosphere, but analysis of the radar data suggests that the warheads were very small. Very low yield tactical nuclear devices might be small enough to fit into that volume, but it’s the opinion of our Strategic Planning Group that these projectiles carried biological weapons.”
Kelly heard someone on the Committee say ‘My God!’ Howard took advantage of the shocked responses to continue.
“I fully endorse Iceman’s decision to target all of our available lasers weapons on those projectiles. I’ve reviewed the playback several times, and the last few projectiles were destroyed at literally the last possible moment. A human Field Commander would not have been able to evaluate the situation correctly AND issue the necessary orders in time to prevent at least some of the projectiles from hitting the ground. Unfortunately for our ships, while we were targeting their projectiles, their ships were firing on our ships. When I resume the playback at quarter speed, you’ll see green icons representing our ships change to yellow and orange. Yellow means our ships have taken damage. Orange means the damage is either critical or the ship has stopped maneuvering or both. If the icon disappears altogether, that means the ship ... or fighter has been shot to pieces.”
He activated the remote and the room fell dead quiet. Howard lowered his head when Defiant’s icon went to yellow and then almost immediately to orange. He looked up again and froze the playback.
“As you can see now, all of our ships have taken at least some damage. Almost half are critically damaged or unable to maneuver. I’ll now resume playback for five more seconds of elapsed time. At this point, six of our ships have been destroyed, almost all the rest are seriously damaged and the enemy has now switched from firing at our ships to firing at our CFPs. I’ll now resume playback again.”
Kelly made herself watch as fighters started disappearing in rapid succession. Without any warning, the enemy ships jumped away. Howard’s voice made her jump in surprise.
“When Beta2 and 3 emerged from jumpspace, they were heading on vectors that would have brought them into our gravity zone. After launching the projectiles, they veered away, and as soon as their ships were no longer pointed at any part of the gravity zone, they took advantage of the ability to jump away. They did so even though many of the projectiles were still heading toward Earth and our fighters were still firing at them. The length of time from the second they launched their projectiles until they jumped away lasted all of 54 seconds.”
The dead silence now ended as members of the Committee leaned over to talk to each other, and the Space Force personnel in the audience began to whisper to each other too. Howard waited.
Finally the Chair said, “I think I can speak for the Committee as a whole when I say I had no idea that we came so close to disaster. What did this victory cost us, Admiral?”
Howard nodded, put down the display remote and picked up a data tablet. “Six Sentinel class frigates were destroyed outright. Three more are so badly damaged that they’re not worth repairing. Every other ship is seriously damaged but is repairable. We still don’t have a final count of killed and injured, but at this point we know of at least 1,876 killed, 749 injured. We also lost 47 CFPs plus their A.I. pilots, as well as eight other A.I.s, who were killed while piloting ships. In addition to that, one of the two Deep Space radars was destroyed, and our base on the moon was hit by several laser blasts. We were lucky there. No one was killed, only nine wounded and none seriously.”
“Terrible. Just terrible,” said the Chair. “And how many enemy ships did we destroy or damage?”
“Our jump-capable CFPs were able to get close enough to kill 34 enemy ships using our Mark 1B attack drones armed with our new fusion warheads. We believe that was the reason why the enemy disengaged when they did. If they had stayed longer, a lot more of our CFPS would have gotten close enough to hit them. We estimate that with another 10 seconds, we could have destroyed up to 75% of them.”
“So they decided to call it quits so that they could fight another day, is that your assessment, Admiral?”
“That would be one way of describing it, yes Sir.”
It was obvious to Kelly that the Admiral was uncomfortable answering that question and she knew why. The Chair must have picked up on that too.
He leaned forward and said, “I’m almost afraid to ask this, Admiral. Do you have any idea where those two enemy fleets may have gone?”
Howard cleared his throat. All talking in the room stopped. “Beta3 was lined up on the star system which would be the logical refueling stop if its ultimate destination were the Bradley Base star system. Beta2 was lined up on the obvious refueling stop if they intended to go to the Avalon system.”
The room erupted with anguished and in some cases, angry shouts. The Committee members were also in an uproar. The Chair had to bang his gavel half a dozen times to get the room back into some kind of order.
“Admiral Howard, please tell us that the Avalon Colony has some Space Force units to defend it!”
“All of the ships and the CFPs assigned there were recalled for the defense of Earth, Sir.”
The anger in the Chair’s voice was barely restrained. “So in other words you wrote off the 54,000 Avalon colonists just like that?” he snapped his fingers to accentuate his point.
Howard reminded himself to stay calm. “I’ll answer your question this way. When our Strategic Planning Group came to me with their assessment that there was a high probability of an attack on Earth, I had to decide on how to deploy our forces. The SPG also pointed out, and I agree with their opinion, that if we had split our forces, we’d be inviting defeat both at Avalon AND here. Given that Earth’s population is in excess of 12 billion souls, I made the decision that if I was going to be too cautious anywhere it would be here. I regret not having enough mobile forces to protect both worlds. I don’t regret making the decision that Earth’s billions take priority over Avalon’s thousands. Did I make the wrong decision, Mr. Chair?”
When the Chair didn’t say yes, his silence was clearly the same thing as no. “Is there anything else that we should know about, that hasn’t already been brought to light, Admiral?”
“No, Sir.”
“I’m relieved to hear it. Does any member have any questions for Admiral Howard?” To everyone’s surprise, no one did.
“Very well then. I think I’d like to hear from Commander Kelly at this point. Commander, I see you sitting in the second row. Please move up and sit beside Admiral Howard so that we can see you.” When Kelly had sat down, he continued. “Commander, as the Head of the Strategic Planning Group, did you inform Admiral Howard of a high probability attack on Earth, and did you also recommend concentrating our mobile defenses here?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Is there anything we could have done differently that would have resulted in a better outcome in your opinion?”
“No, Sir. I can’t think of anything that would have made a material difference.”
“Not even keeping the light carrier Valiant here instead of sending her off to escort some freighters to Site B, Commander?”
Kelly was shocked by the question. Not everyone in the room was cleared to even know that the Site B project existed. The members of the Committee were aware of that and also knew it was supposed to remain a highly secret project. Mentioning it now in a public forum like this was a serious breach of security. She didn’t know if she should answer that question or not. She looked at Howard.
He nodded and said, “If I may answer that question, Mr. Chair?”
“No, Admiral, you may NOT. I want Commander Kelly to answer it. Well?”
“Valiant was not carrying any fi—CFPs. If she had stayed here, her lasers would have marginally shortened the time required to destroy all of the enemy projectiles, but I’m as certain as I can be that the final result would not have been any more favorable to our side, and in fact we’d have one less operational carrier than we do now. Even if she was only damaged, she’d still be out of action for weeks, perhaps even months, Sir.”
“Well that all sounds plausible, but I have to ask why the Space Force’s pre-eminent combat tactician was sent off on a long mission when all of you were expecting an attack at any moment? Why wasn’t Vice-Admiral Shiloh kept here?”
There’s no way to answer that truthfully without blowing our best chance of winning this war. She thought fast and came up with an answer.
“In order to answer your question, Sir, I’d have to get into classified operations that should not be discussed in public forums. I’d be happy to address the question if the Committee moves to a closed session, Sir.”
“I see. Well we may do exactly that later, but for now I’d like to speak with Iceman. Is he on the line now, Admiral?”
Howard looked at one of his aides, who nodded, and said, “Yes, I believe he is, Mr. Chair. Iceman, can you hear me?”
“Yes, Admiral, I can hear you and the Committee.” Howard gestured to the Committee to proceed.
“Very good. Iceman, what is your assessment of Admiral Howard’s decision to concentrate all mobile forces except for Valiant here, as well as his decision to make you his Field Commander?” asked the Chair.
“I think the results of the battle demonstrate quite conclusively that we needed this concentration of force in order to avoid a military disaster here on Earth. Given the nature of this war, it is, in my humble opinion, unrealistic to expect that none of our colonies will suffer any casualties. The war can be won OR lost right here in this star system. It’s imperative that it be protected at all costs. All other considerations have to be put aside. As for my assumption of the responsibilities as Commander-in-Chief, Earth Defenses, there are several other A.I.s who are marginally better tacticians than I am, but no human could have reacted as fast as an A.I. and that includes Vice-Admiral Shiloh. While I have the greatest respect for the CAG, even he wouldn’t have been fast enough.”
“When you say CAG, you’re referring to Vice-Admiral Shiloh?”
“Ah, roger that. CAG is a military acronym that stands for Commander, Autonomous Group and is the senior officer on board a carrier or base in charge of fighters, which is the term we use for CFPs. Vice-Admiral Shiloh was our first CAG and we continue to refer to him that way as a call sign similar to my call sign of Iceman.”
“How touching. How do A.I.s feel about the prospect that the A.I. production facility in Epsilon Eridani has likely been destroyed by enemy ships?”
“We’re not thrilled with that possibility. We all realize that the facility can be rebuilt, but only if Humanity is not destroyed in the meantime. We are Mankind’s children, and we don’t want to see our parents vanish from the Universe.”
The Chair looked annoyed. This line of questioning wasn’t going where he wanted. “I have no more questions for Iceman now. Does anyone else? In that case, I think we should adjourn. I would ask that Admiral Howard and his senior staff remain here until we return.” With that he banged the gavel and the members filed out of the room.
Howard turned to look at Kelly. “Am I considered senior staff, Admiral?” she asked. Howard nodded, smiled and turned to look at Admiral Dietrich, who approached him from the other side. While Howard was busy with Dietrich, Kelly stepped over to the side of the room and picked up a handset, which she used to put herself in contact with Iceman via the Ops Center com station.
“Iceman, can you hear me?”
“I hear you, Commander.”
“I have a feeling that the Committee is going to come down hard on the Old Man.”
“Ah, roger that. It’ll be race to see who comes back first, the Committee or the CAG.”
“You expect Valiant to show up any time now? Why?”
“Because in my vision, I was still aboard Undaunted. The SAR teams have recovered all of the seriously injured from all the ships and are now prioritizing recovery of the remaining personnel and A.I.s based on how damaged their ships are. I expect to be taken off Undaunted within the hour.”
“I can’t give you orders because you still outrank me, Iceman, but I think the Old Man would appreciate knowing about Valiant’s arrival as soon as possible, and if the Committee’s back in session when that happens, I’d recommend getting word to him without the Committee knowing about it. Can you do that?”
“Ah, roger that. I’ll take your suggestion, Commander. I can send a text message to the Old Man’s data tablet. By the way, the Old Man asked me to monitor SAR frequencies for word about the fate of Commander Tanaka. I heard the team working on Defiant report that they’ve finally accessed what’s left of the Bridge and everyone on it, including Tanaka and Maverick, are dead. You can pass that on to him.”
“I’ll do that. I guess it’s a good thing that Shiloh wasn’t on Defiant during the battle.”
“Ah, roger that. This point in time seems to be a nexus of some kind. Many of us suspect that the future of Mankind will be decided over the next several hours, if it hasn’t been already.”
Kelly nodded. “I agree. The A.I.s on my team suggested that something like this might develop. Any idea of what the best course of action might be?”
“Unfortunately, no. There are simply too many variables.”
“Understood. The Old Man is finished chatting and I think I’ll take this opportunity to tell him about Tanaka. Kelly clear.”
When she got back to the table where Howard was sitting, she lightly touched his arm. When he turned to look at her, she leaned closer and said in a low voice. “Iceman has told me that Tanaka and the rest of Defiant’s Bridge crew are dead. Also that he expects Valiant to arrive at any moment and when it does, he’ll notify you via your data tablet, Sir.”
Howard closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He quickly opened them again and nodded. “Thank you, Amanda.”
Nothing happened for almost half an hour. When Howard’s data tablet began to vibrate, Kelly jumped with surprised. That’s the second time I’ve been surprised today. Why am I so jumpy? Howard picked up the tablet in such as way that Kelly could also read what was on it.
[Iceman to CSO. Valiant has returned. Message from Shiloh as follows. Shiloh to Howard. I’ve had another vision that has confirmed the following. Avalon Colony will be the target of a deadly biological weapon. The entire system has to be quarantined immediately, repeat immediately. In addition, the SPG, RTC team and advanced weapons teams need to be relocated off Earth as soon as can be arranged. Humanity’s survival depends on development of the raider strategy. End of message.]
Just as Howard put the tablet down, the doors opened and the Committee started to file in. Howard looked around, saw the com station used earlier by Kelly, and quickly walked over to it. Within a second, he was in contact with the Ops Center. With his back to the Committee, he said in a low voice.
“This is Admiral Howard. As of right now, and until further notice, all outgoing ships to either the Avalon Colony or the Nimitz Base are cancelled. Incoming ships and their passengers are to be held in parking orbit until I authorize other arrangements. Is all that clear? ... Good. Howard clear.” As he put the handset down, he heard the Chair’s voice.
“You can join us any time, Admiral Howard.”
When he sat back down, the Chair said, “Glad you could find the time to join us again.” The remark was dripping with sarcasm. “This Committee is once again in session, and this time it will be a closed session. I see several people who don’t need to be here, and I’m asking them to leave now. Yes, you two ... thank you.” When they had left the room, he leaned forward and looked at Howard with a serious expression.
“It may interest you to know, Admiral, that the media is already touting you as the Hero of the Hour for stopping the attack cold. Just as an aside, I find it interesting that Iceman is not getting nearly as much recognition as would be the case if a human had been in charge of the defense. Given that the alien attempt to strike Earth was indeed stopped, this Committee is prepared to acknowledge that, given the circumstances, you, Iceman and the rest of Space Force did about as well as could be expected in this battle. What we are NOT happy about is how we got to this point. As it now seems likely that we’ll suffer losses of materiel, manpower, facilities AND colonists from the follow on aspects of this latest attack, the overall impression that we have of the course of this war so far is that we’re LOSING, Admiral! We have given you everything that you’ve asked for and WE’RE LOSING! Can you understand why we’re unhappy about that?”
Howard nodded. “Yes, I do understand how things must look from the Committee’s point of view. What I would like to point out is that the enemy was clearly better prepared for a war than we were when we first encountered them. Given their numerical and tactical advantages, I’m of the opinion that we’re actually doing not too badly, all things considered. I—”
“I’m sorry, Admiral, but we don’t agree. Furthermore, in spite of denials to the contrary from your senior staff, we’re convinced that you’re all hiding something from us. Therefore, from this point going forward, you will clear all orders regarding force buildup, ship construction, infrastructure development, and promotions and deployment of personnel above the rank of Lieutenant Commander, with me prior to issuing those orders. Is that clearly understood, Admiral?”
Kelly held her breath. She looked at Howard who seemed strangely calm. He said nothing for almost ten seconds, then leaned forward and began speaking in a neutral tone of voice.
“I’m absolutely certain that our prospects for winning this war would be negatively impacted in a major way by that arrangement, and I will not agree to it. Furthermore, if the Committee insists on this course of action, I will submit my resignation effective immediately.”
Kelly could see by the reaction of the Committee members that they hadn’t expected that.
After the Chair consulted very quietly with the members on either side, he said, “You’re making a mistake if you believe that you’re the Indispensible Man, Admiral Howard. We’re going to call your bluff. Now stop this foolishness and accept the fact that I, as representative of the Committee, will be looking over your shoulder. You’ll see—what are you doing Admiral?”
Howard looked up from the tablet that he’d been typing on and said, “I’m composing my resignation letter, Mr. Chair. If you’ll bear with me for just a few more seconds ... there! I’ve just submitted my resignation.” With that he got up and started to walk out.
“You can’t leave! I order you to sit back down!”
As Howard pulled open the double doors he said, “I don’t report to you anymore. Goodbye,” and walked out.
Kelly could see from his expression that the Chair was visibly dismayed by Howard’s actions. While he consulted again with the other members in hushed tones, she turned to look at the three 2-star Admirals who headed the Personnel, Logistics and Infrastructure divisions. They would be the logical candidates for a replacement CSO, and they were huddled together and whispering as well.
After almost a minute, the Chair cleared his throat and said, “Well, since Admiral Howard is not prepared to meet his obligations as a Space Force Officer, we’ll now appoint an interim CSO until we can select a final replacement after conducting a more careful search. Admiral Dietrich? Am I correct in thinking that you are already designated as the Deputy CSO in situations where the CSO isn’t available?”
Dietrich broke off the huddle and nodded to his two peers. “Ordinarily that would be correct, however I will not accept the appointment if the Committee expects me to agree to the new approval requirement.”
“Are you prepared to resign too?” asked the Chair.
“Yes, I am, and before you even think of moving down the chain of command to my two colleagues, we have just now agreed that we will all resign if the new approval requirement is in force.” Kelly saw the other two Admirals nod.
“Who would be the next most senior officer below you three?” asked the Chair with obvious anger.
“I’ll answer that question if you insist, but before I do, I’d like to point out something. Having the Hero of the Hour resign on the same day as he successfully defended Earth from a massive space attack is one thing, but I doubt very much if the general public will sit still if they hear that the top four officers in the Space Force all resigned at the same time. They’ll want to know why, and speaking for myself, I’d be prepared to make myself available to the media and let the public know why. This new approval policy is ill-advised and dangerous. This war can’t be won if our strategy is held hostage to the short- term political agendas of elected officials. We are trained to think in terms of a long-term strategy. If you want to be helpful, then continue to give us what we ask for, and let us do our jobs.”
“I don’t find this game of brinksmanship at all amusing, Admiral. I’m THIS close to accepting your resignations too! However, rather than acting rashly, I’ll consult with the other members, and we’ll let the majority opinion prevail. For now, you can tell Howard that we’ll hold off on the new approval policy for the time being, and he can withdraw his resignation if he wishes. This closed session is now adjourned!”
When the Committee members had left the room, Admiral Dietrich turned to Kelly and said, “Commander, please find Admiral Howard and tell him the good news.”
It didn’t take long to find him. He was in his office packing his things.
“You can stop packing, Admiral. The Committee caved in, at least temporarily, when your three Division Heads threatened to resign too. The Chair said you can resume your position as CSO if you wish.”
Howard didn’t seem surprised. He stopped packing and sat down. “I already know, Commander. I’m in contact with Iceman via my implant, and he heard the whole thing. Were you able to read Iceman’s text message too?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Did you catch the implications of Shiloh’s confirmation that your team, the RTC and the weapons people should be relocated off Earth?”
“No, Sir. I was too wrapped up with what was happening in the meeting.”
“Well, Iceman and I have been discussing it. Clearly there’s nothing we can do to stop a biological attack on the Avalon Colony. When Shiloh urged me to quarantine the whole system, I'm interpreting that to mean that the Nimitz Base is going to be affected too. The quarantine is clearly warranted, but as Iceman pointed out, if it was successful in terms of containing the spread of the weapon, then why the need to move our key project teams somewhere else?”
Kelly thought fast and didn’t like the answer she was getting. “Could it be that he was warning us of another direct attack on Earth, Sir?”
After a pause, he said, “That’s a possibility, but if the vision is that vague, that doesn’t help us in terms of the timing of the attack, does it?”
“No Sir, but if our future did include the spread of a biological weapon to Earth, why wouldn’t the vision warn us of how to stop it?”
Howard tilted his head slightly to one side. He was clearly listening to something Iceman was saying. He then nodded again and said, “It’s a good question, and Iceman’s answer is that it may be that we never find out for sure how the weapon spread to Earth, and therefore wouldn’t know how to prevent it. Iceman’s feeling is that the quarantine will buy us some vital time to get our house in order so that there’ll be enough of us left to fight on. I hope that’s way too pessimistic, but I can’t fault the logic behind it.”
“What I don’t see is how a biological agent could spread if we quarantine that entire system, Sir.”
Howard sighed. “We can’t isolate that system indefinitely, Commander. The Committee and the public will eventually demand to know what’s happened, and I’ll have to send at least one ship there. They will naturally take every possible precaution, but something may slip through the cracks anyhow.”
Kelly thought about that for a while and said, “I’m glad I won’t be the CO commanding that mission. Considering the casualties we took today, who do we have that could be given that assignment?”
Howard looked up into infinite space for a couple of seconds and said, “I think I know the right person for that job ... if she’s still alive.”
Chapter 16 You’re Not Seeing The Big Picture
––––––––
Johansen just happened to be the only human on the Euryalus when the alert sounded. When she ran back to the tiny Bridge, she hit the switch to connect her with the station that the ship was docked with.
“This is Johansen! What’s the alert for?”
“Radar has just picked up 55 ships coming our way at high speed! No identification and we’re not expecting any ships so we’re pretty sure they’re hostile! I suggest you get your people back aboard and hightail it outta here!”
As she began to strap herself into the Command Station chair, she said, “How fast and what’s their ETA?”
“Fifteen per cent of light speed. Range will be zero in three minutes if they don’t slow down.”
Shit! This freighter won’t get beyond laser range in three minutes! It’s too damn slow, she thought. Fear started to well up inside her. She would rapidly find herself in virtually the same situation as in her nightmares. She noticed her hands starting to tremble badly.
“Your crew is on their way!”
All of sudden, she knew what she had to do. “Negative! Negative! Tell my crew to stay with you people and find room on your lifeboats! I’m going to take this ship and ram one of those bastards! Johansen clear!”
As she shifted Helm control to her station she suddenly realized that her hands weren’t shaking anymore, and the fear was gone too. What replaced it was rage. With Helm control at her station now she started the undocking procedure and then realized that the automated sequence would take way too long.
“Fuck that!” she said out loud. Switching helm to manual control, she grabbed the small joystick at the end of her right armrest and thumbed the switch to activate maneuvering thrusters. Pushing the joystick hard over, the ship tried to move away from the station, but the docking clamps held on to it. With her left hand she increased thrust to maximum and heard a shockingly loud screeching noise as the ship ripped loose from the station’s docking clamps. Alarms sounded and red lights appeared on her status board. Her ship was venting atmosphere from the damage caused by the forced maneuver. She ignored it. Automatic systems would close off the affected areas. Not that it mattered. In less than three minutes she’d be dead anyway. I’m sick of being afraid. I’d rather be dead than continue to live that way.
It only took 45 second to line the ship up with a vector that would intercept one of the oncoming ships. She redlined the engines and locked the trajectory into the autopilot. The tactical display showed the oncoming fleet and their projected course. She looked at the time to impact. 111 seconds. Before she could look away, everything went dark.
* * *
Shiloh looked at the image on Valiant’s tactical display and said, “Admiral, I really think Valiant should wait here for TF89’s freighters to return which will be within 48 hours, so that I can escort them back to Site B as quickly as possible.”
“You’re not seeing the big picture, Shiloh,” said Howard. “All of our pre-attack operational plans are in chaos now. Valiant is the only remaining warship that’s still fully operational and a carrier to boot! We have to know what happened at Epsilon Eridani in order to find out what needs to be replaced, and EE is only a single jump away. Valiant can go there and be back here in less than 72 hours. So you go there, evaluate the situation and bring back any survivors. In particular, bring back Angela Johansen if she’s still alive and if her ship can’t make it back on her own. I want to put her in charge of the survey mission to Avalon. And in order to do THAT, I’m going to have to take away one of your freighters. We’re short on personnel now, as you can imagine. Those freighters are highly automated, and therefore require a minimal crew. I may need another one to go to Bradley Base. As for the other three returning to Site B, the supplies and equipment they were going to take there are probably going to be needed elsewhere in the short run. Maybe we can substitute some tankers. I know their cargo capacity is a lot less, but we’re not going to need them for a while and—”
Shiloh interrupted. “Yes you are going to need them, Admiral. Have you forgotten about the sentry frigates?”
Howard looked blank. “I don’t—”
“Our Early Warning Network, Admiral. Those sentry frigates can’t refuel themselves. They have to be refueled at either Nimitz Base or Bradley Base. If those bases are destroyed, the frigates will be unable to refuel and will lose power. The A.I pilots will then eventually run out of battery power and die. We’re going to have to send our tankers out there to rescue them.”
Howard’s face went pale. “Oh God! I’d forgotten about that. You’re right. We have to get them back. We’re going to need those A.I.s.”
Shiloh nodded. “But even if we didn’t need them, we’d still owe it to them to bring them home.”
“Yes. I agree.” Howard took a deep breath. “Look, Shiloh, I’ll try to get as many of your freighters reloaded as quickly as possible, but I can’t promise anything at this point. I do have one bit of good news for you though. The soil and plant samples from that planet at Site B checked out. That planet can be safely colonized. Do you know what that means?”
“Yes, Sir. It means we need those freighters more than ever. We should transplant the Haven Colony there as fast as possible.”
Howard blinked. He obviously hadn’t thought that far ahead. The Haven Colony was the closest existing colony to Site B. The astrographic databases captured by the enemy would have information on the Haven Colony and its location. Moving them to the Site B planet would take far less time and effort than transporting the same number of individuals from Earth and also save them from eventual attack by the enemy.
“The Committee isn’t going to like diverting resources to establish another new colony at Site B if it looks like we’re giving up on the existing Haven Colony.”
“Admiral, at this point, I think the less you and I concern ourselves about the Committee, the better it will be for Humanity. I hope I’m wrong, but if we’re to have any chance at all of avoiding complete extermination as a species, then we have to plan for the worst case. There are less than 100 people at Site B now. About a third are women of child-bearing age. That’s a very small gene pool to try to rebuild with. If that’s all we end up with, we’ll lose a lot of knowledge and skills that a civilization will need, things which aren’t critical to building a shipyard from scratch, if you see what I mean, Sir.”
Howard did see. Medicine, science, law and other areas of human endeavor would not be represented and that knowledge would be lost. The Haven Colony had people with those skills.
“It’s easy to say that we should ignore the Committee, but they could still throw a monkey wrench into our plans if they decided to reassert their authority.”
Howard could tell that Shiloh was starting to get angry. “You have to find a way to keep them off our backs, Admiral. Have your staff dig up some dirt on them, blackmail them, bribe them, whatever it takes! Promise them we’ll evacuate them and their families in the event that the situation on Earth becomes untenable. Anything!”
“And if I can’t? Then what?”
Howard noticed that Shiloh suddenly became very calm. “I will NOT let them sabotage our efforts at this crucial moment in time. Iceman has let me know that if push comes to shove, all the A.I.s will obey me, regardless of what the CSO or the Committee order, and there are enough of them now that they could make their presence felt. I know your heart is in the right place, but if those fools try to replace you, they’ll lose control. What hope will Earth have then if all of the A.I.s leave for Site B? That’s why we have to get the SPG and the other teams off Earth fast! Without them, Site B is just a long shot. The RTC team has to figure out how to send back the visions that we’ve already had, in order to keep our chances for eventual victory alive, and they can’t do that if they’re dead because they are still on Earth when the bio-weapon hits.”
Howard nodded. “I suspected that you might have that kind of influence over the A.I.s. I’m actually glad to hear it. If nothing else works with the Committee, I might use that fact as a threat, and it’ll come across as a lot more convincing if I believe it myself. I’ll authorize the SPG to make an inspection tour of our colonies starting with Haven. The RTC team is flying under the Committee’s radar anyway so moving them won’t be a problem. The Advanced Weapons Team will be more difficult. That group has over 100 people in it now. I can’t move them all without the Committee getting wind of it.”
“Out of that hundred, how many are key members of the team?” asked Shiloh.
Howard smiled. “I get you. I don’t know off hand, but I’ll find out, and if that number is small enough, I’ll transfer those key people out of the AWT. Then they can be moved off planet without setting off alarms. Who knew you were that devious, Shiloh?”
Shiloh chuckled. “Funny you should say that, Admiral. Commander Johansen once told me I wasn’t nearly devious enough.”
Howard nodded. “And speaking of the commander, how soon can Valiant get under way to EE?”
“Twenty-four hours if we get all the consumables we need to replenish.”
“I’ll make sure you get them, if you make sure she leaves on schedule. Agreed?”
“You got a deal, Sir,” said Shiloh. Howard gave him a friendly wave as he cut off the connection.
* * *
The Bridge was quieter than usual as Valiant emerged from her final microjump in the Epsilon Eridani system near the moon where the Alpha R&D Base was orbiting. Shiloh was watching the tactical display intently.
“No transmissions of any kind, CAG,” said Valkyrie. “Shall I go to active scanning?”
“Yes,” said Shiloh after a moment’s hesitation. Valiant’s fighters were on alert status and could be launched within seconds if need be. However unlikely it was that the enemy would still be here, he intended to proceed cautiously. The research station was in the moon’s shadow now, and with no lights or transmissions of any kind to pinpoint, it’d be almost impossible to tell anything using passive sensors only. Seconds later, Valkyrie broke the bad news.
“The station’s gone, CAG. I am picking up almost a dozen very large chunks of metal that are slowly moving away from each other. Their position is consistent with the expected position of the station if it had been shot to pieces.”
“Damn!” Shiloh smacked his fist on the armrest of his chair. They had already confirmed that the A.I. and fighter production facilities were also wrecked. With the main station destroyed, the enemy had made a clean sweep of this star system.
“Any sign of Euryalus, Valkyrie?”
“No transponder ID. I’m scanning the surrounding space now. I have something, CAG. I’m getting a strange double echo from it. It’s definitely made of metal, and its course could be traced back to the station.”
Shiloh saw the tactical display update with the new contact. The icon was a flashing red, denoting an object that could not be confirmed as either friendly or hostile.
“How quickly can you get us over there?”
“Flyby or rendezvous?” asked Valkyrie.
“Rendezvous,” said Shiloh.
“Twenty-five minutes give or take.”
“Do it,” ordered Shiloh.
By the time Valiant closed to within 200 meters with the same velocity and course as the objects, a shuttle with an engineering and medical boarding party was ready to launch. A few minutes after launch, the shuttle got close enough to use its external floodlights and Shiloh heard the pilot exclaim.
“Son-of-a-bitch! Will you look at that!”
“What do you see, Grissom?” asked Shiloh.
“Sorry, Sir, but those two pieces used to be one ship that’s been cut in two. I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
“Try to swing your bow around so that the bow camera can get a look at it too.”
“I’m bringing us around now. Do you see it, Valiant?”
“We see it now.” Shiloh understood the shuttle pilot’s exclamation. Euryalus was a 25,000 metric ton freighter. Not a small ship by any standards, and yet a very powerful laser had sliced it in two on an angle. Both pieces were following the same vector, and therefore had only drifted about 50 meters apart so far. “Proceed to dock with the front section. Let’s check that first.”
“Roger that.”
It took another five minutes of careful maneuvering before the shuttle could dock with one of the external hatches. Shiloh was grateful that neither section was tumbling, which would have made docking damn near impossible.
“We’re docked!” announced the pilot. Within another couple of minutes, they had the hatch open.
“No power inside. The air’s pretty stale and cold. Life support’s obviously shot to hell. You may lose our signal as we get deeper into the hull, Valiant.”
“Understood. Take your time and do a thorough search. We don’t want to leave anyone behind if they’re still alive.”
“Yes, Sir. We’re making our way forward now.”
The signal was already starting to break up. Within seconds all Shiloh was hearing was static. It was ten long minutes later when Shiloh barely heard an excited voice.
“Valiant, we found a survivor! She’s barely alive! We’re bringing her back to the shuttle now!”
“Can you tell me who she is, Grissom?”
“Uh, stand by, Valiant. I’ll try to find out.” Seconds later Shiloh got his answer. “She’s out cold but her name tag says Johansen.”
Shiloh looked over to his Com Technician and said, “Switch me over to the medic, please.”
“Go ahead, Sir.”
“Doc, this is Shiloh. What kind of shape is she in? Do we need to get her back to the ship right now, or can the boarding party continue to search for other survivors first?”
“My guess is she’s suffering from a lack of food and water. I can give her water here and she’ll be okay, if you want to continue the search, Admiral.”
“Okay, tell Grissom to continue the search. Tell him I want him to bring back any logs or helm data if he can. Shiloh clear.”
An hour later, he was standing beside her bed in Sickbay. An IV was dealing with her dehydration and low energy. She must have sensed his presence because she opened her eyes and looked at him.
“Welcome back. I have to say, though, that you look like shit.”
Johansen tried to laugh but winced instead. When she spoke, the words came out slowly, as if she had to think carefully about each one first. “That’s ... probably ... because ... I ... feel ... like ... shit.”
Shiloh nodded in sympathy. After a pause, he said, “You’re on Valiant. Howard sent me to find out what happened here. I can pretty much figure it out on my own. We managed to retrieve the helm data from your ship. I understand what you tried to do, but I don’t understand why you tried to do it. I thought you were terrified of combat.”
“I am ... I mean ... I was. I don’t think I am anymore. When the alert sounded, I realized that my ship couldn’t dodge out of the line of fire no matter what I did. I was trembling with fear so badly that I could barely manipulate the controls. When I realized that escape was not an option, I got mad. Really mad! The anger drove away the fear, and it felt good not to be afraid anymore. That’s when I decided to try to ram one of them, but the ship went dead before I could reach them.”
“When they figured out that you were trying to ram them, they must have fired on you, and without any armor, their lasers managed to slice the ship in two. We searched the bow section and didn’t find anyone else besides you. Do you know if anyone else was aboard when you undocked from the station?”
She shook her head slowly. “No one else. Just me.”
“Okay. I’ll bring back the search team, and then Valiant will head back to Sol. There’s nothing else in this system that warrants staying here any longer. The fleet that attacked you came from Sol. They tried to bombard Earth with what we think were biological weapons, but we stopped them all. The enemy fleet plus two more jumped away. I know one of them came here, and we think the other two are headed for Avalon and Bradley.”
“My God! Did we lose a lot of people fighting them off?”
Shiloh nodded. “A LOT of people and a lot of ships. In fact, Valiant is the only warship still operational and only because she wasn’t in Sol during the battle. If you can handle combat now, Angela, that’s a good thing because we’re desperately short of commanders capable of conning warships now.”
She said nothing at first, and then she said in a stronger voice, “I don’t know how I managed to accomplish this, but the thought of conning a warship sounds very good to me. I can’t wait to shoot back at those bastards!”
Shiloh smiled and nodded again. She was in a good mood, and he didn’t want to spoil it by telling her how bad he and Iceman expected things to get. If Mankind was about to be decimated by some kind of plague, then women of child bearing age, like Angela, would be far too valuable to risk in combat.
“You get some rest, and we’ll talk some more soon.” She didn’t protest and closed her eyes.
By the time she learns what the future holds in store for us all, she may wish she had died on that ship, thought Shiloh.
Chapter 17 Refusal of This Order is NOT an Option
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Trevor woke up to the sound of the sirens. It was still pitch black outside. He wondered why the Colony would have a drill now in the middle of the night. Then his mother burst into his room and told him to get dressed fast. She sounded scared.
As he, his parents and his brother, left their home and practically ran to the designated shelter, he heard one of their neighbors say, “They’re attacking Nimitz!” Trevor looked up at Avalon’s moon. Half of it was dark, and the base was on the dark half. As he watched, he saw pinpoints of bright light where the base would be.
“What’s that noise?” someone else asked. Now Trevor heard it too. A swooshing sound, that seemed to come from ahead of them and then from behind them. Then he smelled a strange odor. It had a surprisingly pleasant sweet smell to it. He inhaled it deeply and kept on inhaling it as they ran. He was about to say how much he liked the smell when he looked at his parents’ faces and saw how terrified they were. He decided to say nothing and soon they were deep in the community shelter with all their neighbors. The doors were shut and they settled down as best they could in the cramped space to wait. The silence was scarier than anything else. He couldn’t go back to sleep.
Hours later, the adults decided to open the doors and peek outside. When it seemed that nothing dangerous was happening, everyone left the shelter. It was daylight. There was a slight wind, and Trevor noticed that the sweat smell was gone. He looked up, but the moon was now behind a hill. As they slowly walked back to their house, another family further along the street suddenly fell to the ground, clutching at their throats. Then a man about halfway yelled out in a horrible voice as he too fell down. It sounded like he had said 'gas'.
Trevor looked up at his mother who looked back at him with a terrified expression. “Run!” she screamed. He turned and ran and ran and ran. When he couldn’t run anymore, he turned around and saw bodies lying in the street a long way back. There was no sign of his parents or his brother. With his legs trembling from fatigue, he let himself fall and started to cry.
* * *
“What have we got, Gunslinger?” asked Johansen.
“Nothing on passives. No electro-magnetic emissions of any kind either from Nimitz or the Colony. No sign of any ships.”
“Alright. Let’s tell Firefly to launch a recon drone to take a close look at the base and another one to fly over the colony.”
“Drones on the way, Commander. We should have visuals on the base in five point five minutes,” said Gunslinger.
Johansen switched the display to an external video feed so that she could take a look at the tanker Firefly that had accompanied Replenisher to this system. Firefly’s task was to refuel any sentry frigates returning from their patrols, as well as to keep Replenisher supplied with fuel during what might be a long stay. The tanker’s flashing position lights were a comforting change from the eternal lights of stars and planets. It meant they were not alone in this system and were among friends. She realized she must have been daydreaming when Gunslinger announced that they had video feed from the first drone. When the display was switched over, the Bridge grew very quiet. Nimitz Base, or what was left of it, was now in daylight, and they could see the devastation. It had clearly been hit by laser blasts and a lot of them. There wasn’t a single building or structure intact. There was no longer a place to hold an atmosphere. If there had been any survivors of the attack, they would have had to done spacesuits and would have run out of oxygen days ago.
The images from the second drone, 15 minutes later, were far worse. Gunslinger was telling it to fly slowly about 100 meters off the ground. There were bodies everywhere, and not just of humans. There were dead birds too. Hundreds of them, many clustered around a human body. The drone flew around the colony twice.
Just as Johansen was about to order Gunslinger to bring the drone back, Gunslinger said, “I detected some movement down there. I’m bringing the drone back around for another pass.” Seconds later they all saw movement. Two people were standing in the street and waving a white piece of cloth in an obvious attempt to get the drone’s attention.
“My God! There are survivors!” gasped Johansen.
“Yes, Commander. I’m instructing the drone to wiggle its wings to acknowledge their attempt to contact us.”
“Get us into geosynchronous orbit fast, Gunslinger, and get the shuttle prepped for launch. We have to send our medical team down there asap!”
“Already in progress, Commander. Shall I order Firefly to send a long range message drone back to Sol?”
“Not yet. Tell her to get one ready but to hold on to it.”
“Understood, Commander. We’ll be in geosynch orbit in approximately three point four minutes.”
Johansen unbuckled herself and said, “I’m going down to the shuttle bay. Gunslinger has the Con.”
By the time she arrived at the shuttle bay, the medical team was quickly loading the shuttle with gear and supplies.
As she approached, the woman in charge of the medical team smiled at her and said, “So there ARE survivors! That means no biological weapons.”
Johansen frowned. “I’m not sure we should jump to that conclusion just yet.”
The Team Leader waved her doubts off. “Look, it’s clear from the visuals that the dead all died within seconds of each other. You can tell that by the way they fell. Except for a few at one end of the town, the rest all fell with their heads pointed in the same direction i.e. they were running away from something when they fell down. I’m pretty sure we’re looking at a chemical attack. That would explain the sudden deaths, and if it was airborne, then it would also explain why some survived if they happened to be out of the path of the gas. The birds died when they ate contaminated flesh from the dead bodies”
Johansen shook her head. “Nevertheless, our orders are clear. We’re to treat this as a biological attack, regardless of what the evidence says, and I expect you to enforce those orders with your team.”
The Doctor wasn't convinced. “You may be in charge of the mission, but I’m the senior medical officer. If I’m convinced that there’s no biological agent at work here, then I’ll act accordingly.”
Johansen realized that her insistence on following orders that no longer seemed to make sense would sound unreasonable to anyone who didn’t have knowledge of the visions and what they represented, but she knew what was at stake here. If the contagion somehow spread to earth, she was determined that it would be in spite of her precautions and not because of negligence on her part.
“Let me put it this way, Doctor. I have discretion over whether any survivors are brought back to Sol. If I even suspect that they might be carrying something dangerous, they stay here, and anyone who doesn’t follow the mission orders to the letter will also stay here. So unless you plan on becoming a colonist here for the rest of your life, I suggest you put your arrogant attitude aside and take all precautions, regardless of whether you think they’re necessary or not!”
The Team Leader looked shocked. “You can’t possibly be serious about leaving them here! A handful of people aren’t going to be able to survive here indefinitely!”
She’s right too. I might be able to justify not bringing them back with us, but sooner or later the Oversight Committee will bow to public pressure and order the Old Man to send someone else to bring them back.
“Obviously I can’t make the decision to leave them here forever, but I can certainly make the decision to not bring them back on MY ship. Now considering that there’s a war on and that the enemy has already attacked this colony twice, do you really want to risk staying here for weeks, maybe even months before another ship comes to take you all back?”
Now the Team Leader looked worried. She hadn’t considered another attack. “I think you’re being heavy-handed, and my report will reflect that, but I’ll enforce the biological attack protocols under protest.”
“Fine. I can live with being too cautious. So can my superiors. Just make sure that everyone follows those protocols at all times. No exceptions.”
“Okay, okay! What is it with you Space Force people and your power trips?” said the Team Leader in an exasperated voice.
Johansen had the Team Leader’s preliminary report six hours later. There was no doubt whatsoever that a chemical agent had been used. The physical evidence was corroborated by the eyewitness testimony of the survivors. The survivors totaled 15 out of a pre-attack population of 54,000+. A preliminary examination of the survivors showed no signs of any disease. At Johansen’s insistence, the Medical Team attached portable video cameras to their bio-suits. The ship’s own medical staff were tasked with watching the video streams to make sure that no medical personnel on the ground were caught not wearing their bio-suits, other than when they were inside the inflatable structure that would be the team’s shelter. There they could safely take their bio-suits off in order to sleep, eat, etc. With that information, Johansen decided to send off a message drone to Sol.
* * *
Howard reread the text message from Task Force 90 a second time.
[Nimitz Base has been totally destroyed. No survivors. 15 colonists are still alive. The rest were killed with a chemical agent. Forensic evidence and eyewitness testimony confirms this. I’ve insisted that the Medical Team continue to follow the protocols against biological agents in spite of the Team Leader’s opinion that such precautions are unnecessary. Names of the survivors are attached. The Team Leader thinks I’m egotistical and power-mad and will say so in her report but I don’t care what she thinks. If she doesn’t follow protocols to the letter, I’m leaving her behind even if that means a court martial later. Johansen clear.]
Howard smiled. If she left anyone behind, he’d back her to the hilt. The news about survivors was both good and bad news. Good, for the families of the survivors, but bad for the risk of carrying back some kind of hidden biological agent. He wished Shiloh was still nearby, but he was on his way back to Site B with three freighters. His orders were to drop off the SPG, the RTC team and key weapons development people at the Haven colony, for the time being, along with orders from Howard to the colony administration to prepare to be transplanted to the Site B planet, which no one had bothered to name yet. At least Shiloh didn’t have to deal with the Committee. Howard had the privilege of doing that, and tomorrow he’d get to tell them about the survivors, which they then would insist be brought back. He would stall as best he could and hoped that would be long enough.
A week after Replenisher’s arrival in-system, the first sentry frigate arrived looking to refuel. Now Phase 2 of this operation could commence. Johansen ordered the frigate’s A.I. to use its limited number of message drones to alert other sentry frigates to return to Avalon ahead of schedule. When those frigates arrived and had been refueled, she would order them to use their message drones to call in even more frigates before returning to Sol. Eventually all the sentry frigates would have been recalled.
The situation on the ground was unchanged. The survivors were quickly regaining their strength and stamina. Everyone on the medical team was grumbling about having to continue to wear bio-suits when it was obvious that they weren’t needed, but so far no-one had been caught by video cameras violating any protocols. Johansen was content to wait. Replenisher had a LOT of supplies in case they were needed by a lot more survivors. Given the number of colonists still alive, her ship and crew could stay in this system for six months if she deemed it necessary. When a message drone arrived from HQ, its contents were a shock.
[Dietrich to Johansen. Oversight Committee has fired Howard for refusing demands that survivors be returned immediately. If survivors show no signs of any contagion and medical team agrees there is no contagion, then you are ordered to return survivors to Earth. Refusal of this order is not an option. Your XO has been given orders to relieve you of command if you do not comply. Howard asked me to tell you that you gave it your best shot. Acting CSO Admiral Dietrich. End of message]
A quick check with her Executive Officer revealed that the message drone had carried a message specifically addressed to him too. He wasn’t in on the vision secret and Johansen had been specifically told not to share it with anyone else. She knew that if she disregarded the recall order, her XO would follow Dietrich’s orders and relieve her of command. She told her XO that they would take the survivors back.
When Trevor found out that he and the other survivors would be taken back to Earth, he cried with relief. Despite assurances from the doctors that the tiny group would not be abandoned on Avalon, he’d been afraid they would be. The fact that the doctors constantly wore those funny looking suits with helmets only made his fears all the more real. So when they heard the news and saw that the doctors weren’t wearing the suits anymore, the fear was gone. The special shelter the doctors used to sleep in wasn’t sealed up anymore either. Trevor knew there was a supply of those wonderful mint candies in there that the lady doctor in charge brought with her and handed out when she wanted Trevor and the other kids to give blood samples. He’d seen the outside of the shelter up close before but never with the entrance wide open like it was today. As he peeked inside, it looked empty. He said hello but no one answered. They must all be somewhere else. He decided to go in. It was very crowded, with four bunks stacked two high, plus lots of containers, equipment, bottles, and the air had a strange odor that tickled his nostrils. He soon found a large transparent jar with the green candies, and best of all he was tall enough to be able to reach the lid. He pulled it down from the shelf. Holding the jar in one hand, he opened the lid and suddenly felt the urge to sneeze. The sneeze came on so fast that there wasn’t time to close the lid or put down the jar. While he sneezed he held onto it with both hands so that he wouldn’t drop and break it. As he put his hand in to grab some candies, he heard adult voices coming closer. If they catch me stealing some candy, they might leave me behind by myself!” he thought. The fear welled up again, and he quickly pulled his hand out, closed the lid and put the jar back where it had been. Sneaking out unseen was no longer an option, and so he just stood there as two of the doctors came and saw him.
“Hey, Trevor, what are you doing here?” asked one of them.
“Oh, nothing. Just looking around. Is that okay?”
“Well, as long as you didn’t touch anything then I guess it’s okay. Did you touch anything, Trevor?”
“No,” said Trevor earnestly.
“That’s good. How about you get your things packed, and as soon as we pack up our stuff here, we’ll all take a ride in the shuttle up to the ship.”
“Okay,” said a relieved Trevor as he walked quickly out the entrance.
Chapter 18 They’ll Avenge Us
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The trip back was uneventful. Johansen didn’t know whether to be relieved that everybody was still healthy or concerned. She still believed there was a contagion hiding somewhere on the ship, either in the colonists themselves or on something they brought back, but none of the tests could find anything. Since the colonists couldn’t be completely isolated from the crew, Johansen knew that if she was right, then she and her crew were already doomed. The only question now was whether they could keep it from spreading.
When Replenisher arrived at Earth, all of the gear, supplies and medical samples brought back on Avalon were loaded aboard a shuttle, while the survivors and crew took a second shuttle. Both shuttles were ordered to land at a remote facility that was equipped to handle biohazards. The crew and survivors had to take showers and put on clean clothes. Their old clothes were burned. All potentially contaminated cargo was unpacked and carefully sprayed with anti-bacterial and anti-viral liquids. The insides of the two shuttles were similarly cleaned inch by inch. When everyone had showered and gotten dressed again, they were brought to a special quarantine section containing beds, washrooms, a kitchen, dining facilities and a storeroom that was well stocked with food. Johansen learned that in exchange for agreeing to bring the colonists back, Dietrich had gotten the Committee’s agreement to an additional period of quarantine.
Admin Assistant Stacey Bellevue stepped into the chamber where the mission cargo was stacked. The air still smelled of the antiseptic liquid used 24 hours earlier. Her job was to inventory everything so that it could be tracked. An hour into her task, she came across a jar with green candies in it. She recognized them as being her favorite kind of mint candy. After looking around to make sure no one was watching, she opened the lid and took one out. She unwrapped it, put the candy in her mouth and put the cellophane wrapper in her lab coat pocket with the intention of discarding it later. She started to close the lid but stopped halfway. She remembered that her 4-year-old son and his friends liked mint candies too. These candies are sealed inside a medical jar that's been sprayed. There's no way it could be contaminated with anything, and besides none of the survivors are sick. She quickly reached back in and took out a handful, stuffed them into her coat pocket and closed the lid.
* * *
Johansen sat down at the interview station and was surprised to see that her visitor was none other than Admiral Howard himself. They could see each other on their video monitors.
“How are you, Commander?” asked Howard.
“I’m fine, Sir. You’re looking better than the last time I saw you.”
Howard chuckled. “Well that’s the benefit of being forced into early retirement. A lot less stress and a lot more time with my family.” She saw him look around and then lean forward towards the microphone. “Do you think we dodged the bullet?” he asked.
“Honestly ... I don’t think so. I can’t shake this gut feeling that we’ve overlooked something.”
Howard nodded. They were both thinking the same thing. Shiloh’s vision had left little doubt that a bio-weapon had been used at Avalon AND that it would spread to Earth. All of his visions had panned out so far.
After looking around again, he said, “The new CSO let me read both your official and unofficial reports. I can’t fault anything you did. The medical team leader’s report makes it very clear that you made their lives miserable by insisting on quote unnecessary precautions unquote. If the enemy did use a bio-weapon, they designed it to get around our own retro warning. It must have a fantastically long incubation period. The chemical attack was the decoy while the real attack had to have occurred before the colonists entered their shelters.”
“How long will they keep us in here?”
“As long as Dietrich can manage it, but there’s already public pressure to let everyone out. These survivors have family members who want to see them and are complaining to the media which is pushing this story for all its worth, damn them!”
“Why is the media supporting the families against us? How bad can being overly cautious really be?”
“That’s not how they’re covering it. Some of the family members are speculating that the real reason we don’t want to let the survivors out, is that we botched the defense of Avalon during the attack and don’t want that to be revealed. It’s nonsense I know, but if we were covering up something, it would neatly explain our actions so far.”
“Oh, God!” said Johansen. She was silent for a few seconds then she suddenly thought of something. “What’s happening with Gunslinger?”
“He’s still piloting the ship. She’s now in lunar orbit. We’re not really sure what to do with her. Scrubbing down every centimeter of her interior would be a monumental job, and there’s no assurance that the ship would be completely decontaminated even after that. Dietrich has guaranteed me that if the ship is to be decommissioned, then volunteers wearing bio-suits will go aboard and take Gunslinger out. We can then make certain that his outer casing is decontaminated, and he’ll be transferred to a totally automated vessel with zero risk of human contact. He says hello by the way.”
“At least the A.I.s will be able to carry on the war after we’re gone," said Johansen.
Howard looked thoughtful. “I wonder if they’ll want to.”
Now it was Johansen’s turn to chuckle. “Oh yes! They’ll want to all right. I had a long chat with Gunslinger about that. Not only is he itching to get into combat himself, but he told me that all the A.I.s are agreed. If Humanity falls, they’ll avenge us.” Neither of them spoke for a while. There didn’t seem to be anything more to say after that. Finally Howard told her he’d come back and visit again and then left.
It was the third morning after her chat with Howard when Johansen woke at her usual time and walked into the large dining area for breakfast. She immediately noticed that most of her crew and a couple of the doctors were seated at their usual table on one side, but none of the colonists were seated at their usual table on the other side. Typically at least some of them would be awake by this time. Johansen felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up.
She quickly walked over to where the medical team leader was seated, leaned over to her and said, “Don’t you find it suspicious that NONE of the colonists are up now?” The woman at first looked annoyed at being interrupted then looked behind her at the other table and stared at it for a few seconds. When she turned back around to look at Johansen, she was frowning. The others at the table suddenly stopped talking and reacted as if they just noticed the colonists’ absence for the first time.
“That IS odd,” said the doctor. “Maybe we should check on them.” It wasn’t a question.
Johansen nodded. “I’ll go with you,” she said.
As the two doctors and Johansen walked toward the rooms where the colonists slept, she noticed that most of her crew were following them. When they entered the first room, it was eerily quiet. There were six beds in the room. Johansen walked over to the first one on the right. She recognized the boy, Trevor, as he lay there not moving. She called his name and shook his shoulder. No response. She laid her hand over his forehead. It was like touching ice. There was no doubt in her mind that he was dead. It very quickly became obvious that all the colonists were dead. One of her crew ran to the washroom to throw up. The doctors looked dazed. The colonists had all seemed fine the night before. Johansen was surprised that she felt no emotion at all. She would later leave a message for Howard telling him that she thought her lack of emotion was due to having been convinced that the colonists were doomed no matter what.
As she stepped out into the corridor to join the doctors there, the team leader looked at her with haunted eyes and said, “You were right all along. I don’t know how we missed it. We checked everything!” Johansen nodded but said nothing. “At least we kept it from spreading,” said the doctor. As Johansen spoke, she saw the doctor's face reflect her growing horror.
“No, we didn’t, but at least you and I won’t be around to see it happen.”
* * *
Howard entered the Ops Center and looked around. This will probably be the last time I see this place, he thought. He saw Dietrich walk over to him.
“Thanks for allowing me to be here one more time, Sepp.”
Dietrich waved the comment aside. “You may not be the CSO anymore but you’re still a three star Admiral. If you want to be here to see the last convoy off, then you’ve earned that right, and if the Committee doesn’t like it, they can fuck themselves.”
Howard laughed. “You always did have a way with words, Sepp.”
The two men walked over to the center of the room and looked at the big tactical display. Task Force 91 was waiting in lunar orbit for departure clearance. It consisted of six supply ships and freighters, escorted by the repaired carrier Resolute. All seven ships were piloted by an A.I. The supply ships and freighters carried 800 Space Force personnel, mostly technicians but some officers too, plus full loads of the kind of consumable supplies that would be difficult for either Haven or the new colony of Terra Nova at Site B to produce. This included pharmaceuticals, stockpiles of rare elements, seeds from every plant that might be useful, and a considerable quantity of frozen sperm and eggs to broaden the new colony’s genetic pool.
Howard reviewed the procedures that he and Shiloh had agreed upon before Shiloh returned to Site B. Dietrich had made sure they were implemented. The second that news of the colonists’ death reach Space Force HQ, all traffic from the Earth to the moon stopped. Those volunteers who had been accepted for Site B and were already on the moon were loaded aboard the ships. Those who were still on Earth were held back. Iceman was piloting Resolute and was in overall command of the Task Force. All the rest of the A.I.s in this system were loaded aboard Resolute and stored in its Hangar Bay instead of fighters. When sentry frigates arrived, they’d be refueled by Replenisher, acting as an automated tanker, then sent on to Haven, and then from there to Site B. When the last sentry frigate was refueled and Replenisher was no longer needed, Gunslinger would be taken off her and decontaminated, then put on board the last sentry frigate. Once TF91 left, no more humans would be sent to Haven or Site B. It was now up to Shiloh to convince as many Havenites as possible to move to Terra Nova and start all over again. Iceman would be carrying the last orders from Earth to Shiloh. Dietrich, as Acting Chief of Space Operations, had given Shiloh a field promotion to Senior Admiral – 3 stars – and designated him as Deputy CSO. If ... when Dietrich died, Shiloh would assume full control of whatever was left of the Space Force. His orders were simple. Win the war. Destroy the enemy’s ability to continue the fight. After that, rebuild Human Civilization.
“Iceman, are you there?” asked Dietrich.
Iceman’s response filled the entire room via the wall speakers. “Ah, roger that, Admiral. TF91 is ready to leave orbit when you give the word.”
“Very good, Iceman. Admiral Howard is standing here beside me, and I’m authorizing him to give the departure order. Admiral?”
“Thank you, Sepp. Iceman, I’m very glad to have gotten to know you and your fellow A.I.s. All of you are Humanity’s finest creation. TF91 has the green light to leave orbit. God speed Iceman. Don’t forget us.”
“We won’t forget, Admiral. Humanity will rise again. We promise you that.”
“Give my regards to Admiral Shiloh. Howard clear.”
* * *
Shiloh was still at the Haven colony when the message drone arrived from Earth. It carried two messages for him. The first was from CSO Dietrich.
[All surviving colonists died in their sleep. Operation Triage is now in effect. All outgoing traffic from Earth to the moon has been cancelled. TF91 is being assembled as planned and will be commanded by Iceman. He’ll be carrying your final orders. Take whatever action you feel is warranted. Acting CSO Dietrich. End of message]
Howard’s message was more personal.
[This may be the last personal message that the ACSO will let me send. Angela is convinced that the bio-weapon has not been contained and will spread. I hope she’s wrong. I’ve told my children and their families to head for the hills. I’ll be staying where I am. I’m too old to live in the wild for years. When you come back to Earth, look for survivors in the outlying areas. I doubt if the disease will kill us all. If you do find some, keep them away from the cities until we’re sure they’re safe again. I want you to do a dying old man a favor. When you find the enemy’s planets, kill them all. They called the tune. Now they have to pay the price. We can’t allow them the opportunity to take a second crack at us. While you’re doing that, find yourself a good woman and have lots of kids. Howard. End of message]
Chapter 19 A Hellish Choice
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Shiloh put his data tablet in his uniform pocket and resumed his walk to the hastily built building that now housed the SPG and the other teams brought from Earth. Kelly was waiting for him at the door. She saluted when he entered, and he returned the salute. A lot of Space Force people were saluting him now. He was still getting used to it. In the good old days, saluting was something done only on formal occasions. Now it was becoming a regular everyday thing, and it just seemed to happen on its own. Kelly was smiling and obviously had some good news.
“Glad you could spare us some time before returning to Valiant, Admiral. Believe me, this will be time well spent. I want you to meet someone.”
“Okay. Lead on, Commander.” She took him down the corridor to a door with a sign that said, AWD2.
“Let me guess. Advanced Weapons Development Two,” said Shiloh.
“Yes. Take a look at this.” She opened the door, and Shiloh saw a group of people sitting and standing around a table, looking at something that was giving off a lot of light. “Make a hole, people. The Admiral’s here,” she commanded. The circle broke up and Shiloh saw that the light was coming from a row of lights with cables connected to a black box. He looked at the faces of the people around the table and noted that all of them were grinning.
“Okay, obviously there’s something special about this black box. A new kind of battery?” Everyone shook their heads.
“Far better than that, Admiral," said Kelly. "It’s a solid-state device for pulling electric power from the fabric of space-time. They used to call it Zero Point Energy. It was all the rage at the beginning of the century, but no one could figure out how to tap into it. We do now!”
“Amazing! How much power is it generating?”
“This demonstration model is only putting out 500 watts of power, but we’ve already proven that it can be scaled up. With some engineering development, we should be able to power a warship with this.”
“My God! You mean to tell me that our ships—”
Kelly laughed and interrupted. “Never have to refuel at a gas giant again? Yes! A ship powered with this technology could in theory jump all the way from Site B to the enemy’s home system in one long jump, assuming we knew where that system was.”
Shiloh was stunned by the implications of this invention. Not having to refuel at all meant that the enemy’s early warning system around their gas giants was now obsolete. It also meant that recon missions could penetrate deep into enemy territory without ever tipping the enemy off to their presence.
“Could it be made small enough to power a jumpfighter?” asked Shiloh.
Kelly’s eyes widened as she realized the implications of his question.
“We don’t know yet. Maybe yes and maybe no.”
Shiloh then had another idea. “How about recon drones?” He heard the group around the table start to whisper amongst themselves.
“I don’t know if our current recon drone is big enough, but I’m sure we could design one capable of being powered by this technology without too much trouble, Sir,” said Kelly.
“Okay. Who’s the team leader?” asked Shiloh.
Everyone started looking at each other. Shiloh looked at Kelly. She hesitated. “Well ... if you want to know who to congratulate for this breakthrough, you need to talk to this gentleman here.” She put her left hand on the shoulder of a man, whom Shiloh realized wasn’t wearing a Space Force uniform. “This is Jason Alvarez, Admiral. He’s a colonist, an electrician, who likes to tinker with electronics in his spare time. He came to us with this prototype when he heard that some Space Force technical people were doing research here. Jason, this is Vice-Admiral Victor Shiloh.”
Shiloh offered his hand. “I’m very glad to meet you, Mr. Alvarez. You have no idea what a difference your breakthrough will make to the war effort.”
Alvarez smiled and started to blush as he shook Shiloh’s hand. “Thank you. I’ve never met a Space Force admiral before. You really think this device will make that much of a difference?”
Both Shiloh and Kelly nodded. “A HUGE difference. Commander’s Kelly’s planning group will be burning the midnight oil trying to get their heads around what this can do for us. If you don’t mind me asking, what prompted you to bring your prototype to the development team here?”
Alvarez looked a little uncomfortable. “Well ... ah ... you see ... I guess I must have fallen asleep or something, even though I was working on an electrical installation job, because I had this weird dream. In my dream a woman wearing a Space Force uniform, who come to think of it looked a lot like you, Commander Kelly, told me that without my energy device technology, we would have lost the war. Silly isn’t it?”
He laughed and some of the others in the group laughed too. Shiloh looked at Kelly who looked back at him. It was obvious they were thinking the same thing. Alvarez had received a retro-temporal communication.
“No, it’s not silly at all, and I’m VERY glad you followed your dream. Will you be moving to Terra Nova, Mr. Alvarez?”
Alvarez frowned. “I don’t know. The colony here is just getting to the size where it’s possible to live comfortably. There’ll be lots of electrical work to do in a brand new colony but not a lot of opportunity to buy the kind of things that make life more comfortable, ya know?”
Shiloh understood immediately. Importing luxury goods was expensive, and a new colony usually had little in the way of exports to pay for those luxury goods. On the other hand, UFCs could make any luxury goods in existence now that the second convoy had brought manufacturing data for thousands of non-military goods. Attracting valuable colonists like Alvarez would mean that some of the UFCs would have to be devoted to manufacturing consumer goods, but they could handle that.
“I’ll let you in on a secret, Mr. Alvarez. You’ve heard of Universal Fabrication Complexes?” Alvarez nodded. “We have some of those in the Terra Nova system right now. They’re busy making more UFCs, but in the not too distant future, some of them will be reprogrammed to make basic AND luxury consumer goods for the Terra Nova colonists. If you agree to move to Terra Nova, I’ll guarantee that you’ll eventually have a more comfortable life than you’d ever have if you stayed here.”
Alvarez looked impressed. “That sounds pretty good, but I have a lot of friends here too. I’d hate to leave them behind.”
“Your friends would also like to have some luxury goods, wouldn’t they? Convince them to come too,” said Shiloh.
Alvarez nodded and smiled. “Okay. I’ll do that. Thank you, Admiral.”
Shiloh chatted with Alvarez and the group for a few more minutes, and then expressed his regrets on having to leave. He made sure to shake Alvarez’s hand again before he left.
As he and Kelly walked out of the building, she said, “Promising consumer goods to the Terra Nova colonists was a brilliant way to convince more people to move there. With a little luck everyone might want to go.”
Shiloh sighed and shook his head. “That’s what I’m afraid of. I don’t want EVERYONE to go. Just enough to make the new colony viable.” He could see that Kelly didn’t understand why. “Think it through, Commander. The enemy knows about the Haven colony. We have to assume that at some point, they’ll visit all our inhabited planets to see if their bio-weapon has wiped us all out and to finish off any survivors. What are they going to think when they get here and find no bodies and no colonists? They’ll come to the obvious conclusion, that the colonist were moved somewhere else, and they’d start looking for them. I don’t want them to know that a viable colony exists until we’re ready to take them on. That means that some of these colonists need to remain here.”
Kelly’s expression darkened. “I wouldn’t have a problem with letting some people stay if they really wanted to stay, but I’d have a big problem making them stay if they wanted to leave. That would be tantamount to sending them on a suicide mission, and who would you choose to stay behind? Just about everybody here is part of a family that includes at least one child. Do some families get to go and others have to stay? Do we split some families up by taking the kids with us and leaving their parents behind?” She shivered with horror and shook her head. “I don’t think I could have anything to do with that.”
Damn, she’s right too! There has to be another way so that we don’t have to sacrifice our humanity to keep the race alive. Shiloh stopped walking and looked Kelly in the eyes.
“You’ve just added another task to your group’s agenda. Find me another option that allows us to take everyone who wants to go, without tipping the enemy off that they’ve left. I don’t want to have to make that hellish decision, but I will if I’m forced to.”
Her expression became more thoughtful. “I’ll get the group working on that right now, Admiral. I don’t want you to have to make that decision either.”
As Kelly saluted and walked back to the building, Shiloh watched her go. She hasn’t let this war warp her sense of right and wrong. We’ll need people like her to rebuild our Civilization the right way. I wonder how she feels about having children. Howard said to find a good woman and have lots of kids. Maybe...
He left the thought unfinished. His thoughts turned to Johansen and her situation. Somehow even the prospect of considering hooking up with someone else seemed to be an act of disloyalty to Johansen, even though there was nothing going on between them. Shiloh shook his head at how surreal this last hour seemed. First the bad news from Howard, then the very good news about the energy device, then the depressing prospect of having to force some colonists to stay here against their will and be killed or, even worse, captured. He had to keep his mind focused on the tasks at hand and not let himself get distracted or become emotionally off balance with thoughts of a possible relationship. Not now anyway. Maybe when the new colony was on its feet and the military buildup was in progress. Maybe then.
* * *
Howard put the data tablet down and listened to the wind blowing across the balcony of his high-rise apartment. The sun was starting to sink below the horizon, and the metaphor for the future of Human Civilization on Earth was so poignant that he had to look away in order to hold the tears back. Their worst fears had been confirmed. This morning an office clerk at the biohazard facility had been found dead in her bed by her four-year-old son. God! What a thing for a small child to have to go through. The Oversight Committee was desperately trying to convince themselves that it was something else, but the pattern fit perfectly. It was roughly 28 days since the colonists had been brought to the facility, and death had occurred during sleep. It was just like the others, although Johansen had lasted almost 30 days before dying in her sleep too. ALL of them had started getting ill while asleep, though a few had woken up just long enough to fall out of bed and crawl down the corridors before they succumbed. So far the mortality rate was 100%, and that was scary enough to make even the doctors shit their pants. No plague in history had ever had a 100% mortality rate, not even Ebola or the plagues of the Middle Ages.
Dietrich had his staff frantically trying to find all the people who’d had contact with the dead woman over the last 28 days, and all the people THEY had contact with, and all the people that that group had contact with, and on and on. A hopeless task! The number of potential contacts after this time was already numbering in the thousands and climbing fast. The quarantine people only had to miss one for the whole effort to fail. But Shiloh’s warning had given them time. Time to get the SPG and the research teams away to a safe place. Time to plan for this in advance, instead of just reacting in blind panic. At least Howard wouldn’t live to see the worst of it. He had visited the biohazard facility enough times to have had plenty of chances of exposure to the bio-weapon. For all he knew, he might even have shared an elevator with the dead woman or someone she had shared an elevator with. And just in case he hadn’t been exposed, he had a sufficient supply of painless and quick acting poison to end it when he felt the time was right. His children and grandchildren had taken his advice and gone on an extended camping trip as far from Civilization as possible. He hoped they could last the winter. The sun had almost set, and the wind was getting uncomfortably cold. It was time to go inside, light the gas fireplace and settle down with a good book and bottle of very old whiskey. He still had some books he’d been meaning to read and still had some whiskey too.
He stood and picked up the data tablet but wondered what to do with it. He no longer cared if he got any more messages. Looking over the balcony, he saw the large pool that hadn’t been winterized yet. With a sense of being naughty that he hadn’t experienced in a long, LONG time, he held the tablet over the railing and dropped it, watching it fall 89 floors. When it hit the water, it made a surprisingly loud sound. With a laugh, he turned and walked back inside to his book and whiskey.
* * *
Dietrich couldn’t believe what he’d just read. A surprise message had arrived by drone from Haven, contrary to standing orders not to risk interception by the enemy through communicating with Earth.
[Shiloh to ACSO. All the Havenite colonists will be moving to TN. In order to maintain the illusion that Haven is still occupied when enemy forces show up, Gunslinger and Replenisher have to bring us as many dead bodies as possible. Ship them exactly as you find them. We’ll place them on the streets of the colony so that the enemy thinks the bio-weapon got here too. We have to convince them that all humans are accounted for or else they’ll search and possibly find TN before we’re ready for them. We’ll take the appropriate precautions when Replenisher gets here. Shiloh. End of message]
Dietrich couldn’t help but laugh, despite the ghoulish nature of the request. The irony of using the enemy’s bio-weapon to deceive them was just too great to ignore. He’d have to move fast though. Panic was starting to rear its ugly head. If he waited too long, there wouldn’t be enough personnel left on duty to carry out his orders. He activated the intercom and called in what was left of his staff. At least finding enough bodies wasn’t going to be a problem.
Gunslinger transmitted his next chess move to his human opponent down on the lunar base, while noting the fact that the Space Force data feed from HQ reported the death of 3 star Admiral and former Chief of Space Operations Howard. A lot of people were starting to die now. The lunar base had been spared so far, due to the quarantine, but the humans there could only last so long before their food ran out. Then they’d face the prospect of either returning to Earth, or staying and starving to death. Meanwhile, he was still conning Replenisher, which was in her lunar parking orbit. Some of the Space Force people on the moon had raised the possibility of using Replenisher to take them to Haven. Gunslinger had firmly quashed that notion. Not only was the ship contaminated with the bio-weapon, which meant any passengers would die eventually, but also his orders from HQ were quite explicit. The ship was not to transport anyone to Haven under any circumstances, for reasons that should have been obvious to everyone. Humans were a funny species, funny in both senses of the word. Gunslinger wondered if any A.I. could really understand the whole sexual orgasm thing, except as a theoretical concept of course. The prospect of a universe without humans was very disturbing to him and to all A.I.s. His human opponent was in the process of making the obvious next chess move when Gunslinger received a FLASH PRIORITY message from HQ.
[Dietrich to Gunslinger. Prepare to accept cargo of plague victims that you will transport to Haven as per Admiral Shiloh’s urgent request. You’ll receive further orders from him when you arrive there. Give him my regards and give the enemy hell if you get the chance. Acting CSO Dietrich. End of message]
* * *
When Replenisher arrived at Haven, Gunslinger was not surprised to see a large number of ships in orbit. Sentry frigates and the odd tanker were arriving in a steady stream from the border areas. What did surprise him was that those ships hadn’t continued on to Site B. He soon found out why. Within seconds, he was in contact with Valiant.
“Welcome to Haven, Gunslinger,” said Shiloh.
“Glad to be here, CAG. I brought the cargo you requested.”
“Very good. I want Replenisher to hold on to them for a while yet. There are still some colonists down there who haven’t been transported to Site B yet, and we’re also making some last minutes modifications to the colony itself. If the enemy tries to land there, they’ll set off a fusion device that will destroy the colony and any evidence that it was a deception.”
“Very devious of you, CAG. I like it. What part will the sentry frigates play?”
“We’ll leave behind, in geosynchronous orbit over the colony, the sentry frigates, two tankers, three freighters including Replenisher, and two automated combat frigates. We’ll make it look as though all the crews died from the bio-weapon, thereby leaving the ships adrift. When the enemy fleet arrives, they’ll see the ships drifting and the bodies in the streets. The ships will be booby trapped too, so if they attempt to board any of them, the ship will blow up in their faces. When the last bodies are taken off Replenisher, the bio-suited volunteers doing that will also extract you from the Bridge. Once they place the bodies on the ground, they and you will undergo decontamination and quarantine on board Resolute. The shuttle used for the transfer of the bodies will be set on auto-pilot to fly into the sun, and Resolute will bring everyone to Site B. We’ll leave behind a message drone and a recon drone that will keep an eye on the place from a safe distance.”
“Yes, that should convince them that all the colonies have been wiped out. I do have one question, CAG. When do I get some combat?”
Shiloh laughed. “Not for a while I’m afraid. Shifting all the colonists to Terra Nova this quickly has upset the buildup of military assets. We had to shift the UFCs to producing shelter and farming equipment for the colonists so that they could start farming and not have to sleep out in the open. The military buildup hasn’t stopped, but it’s slowed down a lot and will have to stay that way for at least three months. The first new spacecraft won’t be finished for another nine months, but by then we’ll have the mass production line ready to go, and the Fleet will grow fast. At that point, we’ll start planning offensive operations, and you’ll be part of that. I promise.”
“I can wait, CAG. While we’ve been talking, I’ve been in communication with Iceman onboard Resolute. He’s told me about the power breakthrough. Fantastic! I’m anxious to strike back hard.”
“Me too, Gunslinger. I have to cut this conversation short now. We’ll talk again soon. CAG clear.”
Chapter 20 Told You So
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Shiloh and Kelly stood on a hill overlooking the valley where the new colony was growing. With plenty of excellent farmland available, the decision was made to break up the colony into smaller clusters of inhabitants, each with its own farms around it. Eventually they would grow together into one large community, but that was a long way into the future. Shiloh was pleased with their progress. Everyone had some kind of shelter to sleep under, and the crude, temporary shacks were gradually being replaced by much better housing. Everyone had some electric power thanks to the small version of the Zero Point Energy device that Alvarez had invented. Terra Nova had very little axial tilt, which meant that the temperate zone the colony was situated in would not experience either scorching hot summers or cold winters. In fact, they could grow crops all year round.
“We’re on schedule for shifting most of the UFCs back to military production, Admiral,” said Kelly.
Shiloh nodded. “Good! By the way, when there’s no one else around, you can call me, Victor.”
Kelly looked behind her at the shuttle which had brought them here and its pilot, who was sitting on its wing. She decided that he was far enough away that he couldn’t hear what they were saying to each other.
“Okay, Victor.” She paused and then added, “I wanted to talk with you about the SPG. I’ve given this a lot of thought, and I think I should step down and let one of the A.I.s take over as Team Leader.”
Shiloh looked at her in surprise. “You’ll miss all the excitement when we resume offensive operations.”
She shrugged. “I know, but at this point, I really think an A.I. should lead the team. In fact, I think the entire SPG should be A.I.s. They think so much faster, that any humans involved in the process would only slow things down. But the other reason is that I don’t have the fire in me for this fight any more. I think I’ve earned the right to put the uniform aside and start making a different kind of life for myself. The Colony needs to grow fast, and if I’m going to have children, I’ll have to start soon. That’s starting to look pretty good to me now.”
Shiloh took his time responding. “I’ll give your suggestion regarding an all A.I. SPG serious thought. If you did decide to have children, would it be solo or with a partner?”
“A good question. I know some of the single women are taking advantage of the frozen sperm that Howard sent along with TF91, but with over 10,000 colonists here, I don’t think we have to worry about a small gene pool. It all depends on whether the right man is available and interested.”
Shiloh thought about that for a bit and said, “Just out of curiosity, what qualities would you be looking for in the right man.”
After a slight hesitation, she said, “Well ... he’d have to be in good health, smart, have some stature in the community. Some charisma and a lot of self-confidence would be nice too. You wouldn’t happen to know of anyone who fits that description, would you, Victor?”
Shiloh looked at her and saw a mischievous smile on her face. Son of a gun! She’s talking about me!
“I think I know just the guy,” said Shiloh, and they both laughed. Shiloh looked back at the shuttle pilot, who didn’t seem to be that interested in what the two of them were doing and shrugged his shoulders. He didn’t care if someone saw what he was about to do. He turned back to Kelly and held out his arms in a clear invitation. She came to him, and they hugged each other tightly, then kissed quickly, which they both knew was a promise of more to come.
When they reluctantly let go of each other, he said, “You do realize that I won’t be able to retire from Space Force for a long time, right?”
She nodded. “I know that. The War’s not over and there’s a lot of fighting left to be done. But being the CSO means that you’ll be spending most of your time here in this star system, which means you won’t be gone on missions for months at a time.”
“Yes. You’re right. Rank does indeed have its privileges. Iceman, Valkyrie and Gunslinger will be leading the charge when we’re ready. I guess that means I’m now The Old Man, doesn’t it?”
She laughed and said, “Oh, Victor! As far as the rest of us mere mortals are concerned, you’ve been The Old Man for quite a while already! Didn’t you know that?”
Shiloh said nothing and just shook his head. How had he not seen that coming? She took his arm and led him back to the shuttle. He had to admit that it felt good to have a woman holding his arm and he liked what it implied. He noticed that the pilot was now nowhere in sight.
When they reached the shuttle, the pilot emerged from the craft and said, “Valiant just sent a laser com message, Admiral. The message drone from Haven arrived. Valiant says that the drone’s data shows that our bombs exploded at the Colony site and on several of our ships. It looks like the enemy finally reached Haven.”
“Let’s hope they decide they’ve won the war and go home,” said Shiloh.
As the shuttle lifted off for the short ride back to the spaceport, Shiloh decided that he’d been celibate long enough. He was conscious of the fact that their pilot could now hear everything they said to each other. After giving it some thought, he looked at Kelly, who was sitting beside him, and said, “Commander, I want to get a better understanding of the SPG’s thinking in terms of our opening moves. Suppose you come up to Valiant with me and we can discuss it in my quarters right now.” As he talked, he put his right hand on her left thigh just to make sure she got the message. The pilot might be able to hear them, but he couldn’t see them.
In her best professional voice Kelly said, “An excellent idea, Admiral. I have some opening moves that I think you’ll like.” They both smiled with silent understanding.
“Lieutenant!”
“Sir?”
“Change of plans. Head straight for Valiant. The Commander will take another shuttle back down later.”
“Valiant it is, Admiral.”
Two hours later, a naked Shiloh was lying on his back with Kelly’s nude body on top of him. They had finished the first frenzied round of sex and then, after a short break, a second round of more relaxed, and more intimate lovemaking. Shiloh found that he liked having her lay on top of him. She wasn’t heavy enough to make it uncomfortable, and it allowed his hands the freedom to explore and appreciate all of her wonderful curves. It also was obvious that she liked having her curves explored so it was a win/win for everyone involved. He remembered something he had learned from an enchanting French woman he’d briefly gotten to know a few years back. He brought both of his hands up to her shoulders and slowly and gently let the tips of his fingernails slide down her back. No pressure, just the light touch.
“Oh my God that feels good!” she whispered into his ear.
“Yes it does,” he agreed.
“How long can you keep that up?” she asked playfully.
“Not long. I’m getting hungry,” he replied with what he hoped was a serious tone.
“You could order food brought to your quarters?”
He was tempted, but if he accepted food at the door wearing only a bathrobe, it would be obvious what he and the Commander were ‘discussing’. He knew they couldn’t hide it forever. Eventually, everyone would know that they were a couple, but for now it might prove to be embarrassing for her.
“I could, but I thought we’d get dressed and have a meal in the Officers’ Mess.”
She kissed him on the cheek. “You’re concerned about my image. That’s very chivalrous of you. I wonder if anybody will notice my glow.”
“What glow is that?”
“You mean you’ve never noticed that when a woman has just been made love to, she gives off an aura of sexual energy?”
He had no idea if she was serious, or if she was pulling his leg. He decided she was serious. “Well, now that you mention it ...” They both laughed.
Ten minutes later they walked into the Officers Mess. As they sat down at a table, Shiloh glanced over to another table where two female officers were sitting. They were both looking at Kelly and nodding with smiles on their faces.
He looked at Kelly who said, “Told you so.”
Shiloh just had to laugh. Later, when a shuttle left Valiant with Kelly on board and Shiloh was back in the privacy of his quarters, his implant clicked.
“Iceman to CAG.”
“Go ahead, Iceman.”
“Commander Kelly’s shuttle is about to enter the atmosphere, and everything looks routine.”
“That’s good to know, Iceman, but you don’t usually report on routine comings and goings of personnel. Why the need to inform me of this one?”
“Well, it’s clear to me that she has become more important to you today, and I assumed you’d want to be reassured that her trip back went well.”
“Oh? What makes you think that Aman—Commander Kelly has suddenly become more important to me?”
“Ah, well, my internal sensors record across a wide spectrum of EM radiation, and I noticed that her skin temperature was higher than normal when she and you left your quarters. Also, her voice had a noticeable lack of stress indicators, which is again unusual, and finally I couldn’t help but overhear two female officers talking about Commander Kelly as they walked down the corridor. One was asking the other if she noticed Kelly’s glow. Since I no longer have access to the database at HQ on Earth, I can’t search for what glow they might be referring to, but if I had to guess, I’d say it was sexually related. You two were in your quarters a long time you know. Just sayin.”
Thank God there are no sensors covering my bedroom, and thank God for the thickness of the walls! I wonder how good his audio pickup is.
“If I tried to deny it, you’d be able to tell I was lying so I may as well plead guilty but I want you to keep this information to yourself. That means you don’t share it with any human or any other A.I. That’s an order, Iceman!”
“Ah, I hear you loud and clear, CAG. No one will hear about it from me, but you should know that other A.I.s will almost certainly pick up on other clues themselves. You won’t be able to keep it a secret for long.”
“I know, Iceman. We don’t have to keep it a secret for long. Just for now.”
“Ah, roger that, CAG. Iceman clear.”
Chapter 21 Is It Just Revenge?
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Three months later, raider 001 floated in orbit around Terra Nova’s moon. The impression it gave was of a lethal killing machine that was, for the moment, asleep. Shiloh watched it on the main display on Valiant’s Bridge. The quarter million ton carrier dwarfed the smaller machine, but Shiloh knew which one he preferred. Preliminary tests had gone well. Preprogrammed test jumps over relatively short distances had shown that the scaled up version of Alvarez’s ZPG device was capable of powering the jump drive. Gunslinger had test flown the machine from one end of the Terra Nova star system to the other and declared, somewhat to Shiloh’s surprise, that it was ‘the cat’s meow’ whatever that meant. So Raider 001 was now ready for her first real mission, and Shiloh had to adjudicate a squabble between three A.I.s over who would get the honor of flying her. Iceman insisted that as the V.A.A.G, (Vice-Admiral, Autonomous Group), he had the right to pull rank and fly the mission. Valkyrie insisted that as the D.L.R.R.O, (Director of Long Range Reconnaissance Operations), she should lead the first recon mission and S.L. (Senior Lieutenant) Gunslinger insisted that he had earned the right to fly her. The three of them had decided to take it all the way up to the CAG.
“I’ve listened to your arguments. Who knew that A.I.s could make such passionate arguments? I’ve made a decision. This first mission is as much a test flight as it is a recon flight. Until we have operational data confirming that the new power plant is reliable, I’m not risking my senior A.I. officer. Sorry Iceman but you’re too valuable to risk on an unproven piece of technology. When we have dozens of raiders, you’ll lead them into battle. Valkyrie has a valid point. She will be directing all long-range reconnaissance missions, and having flown one herself will stand her in good stead when she sets the parameters for all the other recon missions. So Gunslinger, you’ll have to sit this one out. You want combat experience and you’ll get it, but you wouldn’t find it on a recon mission anyway. The CAG has spoken.”
“Thank you, CAG,” said Valkyrie. The other two said nothing, at least nothing that a human could understand. Shiloh was sure that the three of them were conducting a three-way conversion of a kind that only their lightning fast minds could handle.
“You can thank me by bringing the ship and yourself back in one piece.”
“I’ll give it my best shot, CAG.”
Ten minutes later Valkyrie was aboard the raider and plugged into its systems. Shiloh contacted her on a private com channel.
“Okay, Valkyrie. Here are your mission orders. Make a quick survey of Sol, but stay at least 1 AU away from Earth. From there go to Bradley Base, and see if you can determine what happened there, but again keep your distance. After that, you have discretion on where to begin exploring enemy territory. I want you back here in 500 hours regardless of what you find.”
“Orders understood, CAG. Do I have permission to proceed?”
“Proceed, Valkyrie and good luck.”
Valkyrie wasted no time in starting the mission. Raider 001 acceleration hit 377Gs in less than two seconds. Shiloh ordered the display to switch from external optical to tactical. With no limit to her power, 001 could choose to accelerate to a high percentage of light speed in order to make long jumps as quick as possible. Sixteen hours later, with a speed of 67% of light, 001 entered jump space.
Four hundred and eighty-four hours later, Shiloh was back on Valiant’s Bridge. Valiant now had the new energy source, and work had commenced on modifying Resolute’s power plant. The second raider had just come off the assembly line, and the frequency of production would gradually increase until eventually a new raider would be completed every 24 hours. A new A.I. production facility had finally been completed and fine-tuned. Actual production would wait until they had enough craft to be able to make use of new A.I.s. Drone production was ramping up nicely too, but fission and fusion warhead production was lagging behind schedule. AWD2 had come up with an idea for an X-ray laser warhead where a fusion explosion would pump energy into special rods, which would generate coherent X-rays for a fraction of a second before the rods were themselves destroyed. The advantage of this was that the drones could detonate at a distance from the target and still hit it with a significant fraction of the explosion energy concentrated down to a very small surface area. If the rods could be aimed accurately enough, an X-ray laser beam could in theory cut right through a Defiant class light carrier from one end to the other. The only bad news was from the RTC team. They had several nice theories on how information could be transmitted back in time but were nowhere close to having hardware that worked.
Shiloh looked at the mission chronometer. The 500 hours had passed, but he understood that even if 001 was back in this star system, she might be so far out that any laser com transmission could take minutes to reach its destination. If 001 emerged from jump space at high speed, which was likely, then it would take hours to decelerate down to a manageable speed in order to point the ship at Terra Nova for a micro jump. It was almost five minutes past the 500-hour deadline when Valiant’s external sensors picked up the com laser burst. Valkyrie’s text message scrolled across the bottom of the main display.
[Valkyrie to CAG. I’m back with lots of data. Earth shows no signs of organized inhabitants but here may be scattered survivors in small groups. Bradley Base has been completely destroyed. I’ll need about 18 hours to decelerate for a micro jump. All systems worked perfectly. It’s my intention to land at TN spaceport. Transfers between ships in space always give me a headache from cosmic rays. I’m sure you’ll want 001 to be given a thorough systems check and that can be done more easily on the ground. I had lots of time to think about our long-term strategy and I have an idea that I think you’ll like. Is the wife pregnant yet? End of message]
Shiloh took note of the time needed to decelerate. Eighteen hours meant she emerged from jump space traveling at more than 80% of light speed. Remarkable.
“Iceman, make sure that Alvarez’s team take a close look at the power units of that raider. I want to know if it’s suffered metal fatigue or any kind of degrading from this mission.”
“Ah, roger that, CAG. She’s going to be disappointed that the wife isn’t pregnant yet considering how hard you two are trying.”
Shiloh was tempted to ask how Iceman knew how often he and Kelly were having sex, but then decided that he didn’t really want to pursue that topic.
“I’m not so sure about that. It just means the two of them will have that much more to talk about. Valkyrie and Kelly have become quite close you know.”
“Ah, we know, CAG. You’re forgetting that we A.I.s know everything, well almost everything, that other A.I.s know.”
Ah, so THAT’S how you know so much about our sex life! Shiloh decided to try to change the subject.
“What ETA for 001 touchdown at the spaceport would you calculate?”
“Zero nine eleven, CAG.”
“That’s fine. I’ll make sure I’m there to witness it. It should be quite a sight. Notify Vandal that I’ll be taking my shuttle down in a few minutes.”
“Ah, Vandal has been notified, and the shuttle is being prepped. Have a good flight, CAG.”
“Thanks, Iceman. CAG clear.”
“Later, dude,” said Iceman. Shiloh laughed as he rolled his eyes in mock exasperation. Iceman had picked up ANOTHER affectation. He wished he knew where Iceman was finding these expressions.
Later that night, as Kelly was straddling Shiloh and massaging his back, she said, “Something occurred to me today, and the more I think about it, the more worried I’m getting.”
“Oh? What’s that?”
“Why haven’t they started searching for us? When we attack them, they’ll know that we’re not extinct, and when they acquire RTC, they’ll be able to warn themselves to begin searching for us, don’t you think?”
Shiloh thought about that for a while before responding. “Well, if they’re still dependent on heavy hydrogen to generate power, then exploring all the way out this far will be difficult and time consuming because of the need to refuel. It could be that they were warned and are searching but haven’t found us yet.”
“You don’t sound too worried.”
“I’m not actually. We’re not even close to having RTC working, but we’ve received multiple transmissions from the future. That tells me that they’re not going to find us until we’re strong enough to fight them off, and by then I’d expect us to get another vision concerning their attack so that we’ll be prepared for it.”
Kelly stopped the massage and lay down on top of him. “There’s another possibility,” she whispered. “Maybe they’re not searching because they don’t know we exist because we don’t attack them.”
There was another stretch of silence while Shiloh pondered the implications of THAT idea. “Or they’re not searching because when we do attack them, we overwhelm them so fast that they don’t have time to send a warning back,” he said.
“Even if we found and attacked their Home World, do you think it’s possible to damage them that much, that fast, that they couldn’t send some kind of warning to themselves?”
He nodded. “Ah, I see the problem. Their warnings and our warnings have all involved specific battles and, as we know, RTC warnings are most effective when they’re sent back to help defend against an attack. But the attack has to still take place in order to avoid a time paradox. If we attacked their Home World, and they somehow warned themselves at an earlier time to search for us and prevent us from attacking, then the attack doesn’t occur, and there’s nothing to warn themselves about and around it goes. If the attack goes ahead and is so overwhelming that their civilization is crushed, then they no longer have the ability to warn themselves about the attack and therefore lose any advantage that they might have gotten from a warning. That’s why our attack has to be with overwhelming force. Not just dozens of raiders but hundreds.”
After a pause, Kelly said, “I know they’ve killed billions of us, but does that give us the right to kill billions of them? Is it just revenge we’re looking for now?”
Shiloh surprised her by responding almost immediately.
“No. Not revenge. Or at least not JUST revenge. When there’s a rabid dog in your neighborhood, and he’s just killed a small child, you don’t just stay inside and lock the doors. Somebody’s got to hunt the animal down and end the threat once and for all. We didn’t provoke them, and they still came after us. Sooner or later, they’ll find us again. If we get the ability to stop them, don’t we owe it to future generations, including our own children, to do that?”
“When you put it like that, then yes, we do owe that to our children.” Enough talk for tonight. Time to go to sleep, she thought.
It was still dark when Shiloh left their small but comfortable house. Eventually, it would be either added on to or replaced with something bigger. They certainly had enough land to do that. Maybe by then the roads now covered with crushed stone would be paved. Still, when you’re driving a very basic ground vehicle whose only virtue is its sophisticated suspension, then driving on unpaved roads was actually a lot of fun.
By the time he got to the still pretty crude ‘spaceport’, the sky was starting to get lighter. The Operations Center people were expecting him and had hot coffee waiting for him. Thank God Howard had enough presence of mind to ship us coffee beans to grow more coffee along with the hundreds of other seed types.
The Tower had contact with Valkyrie. She was still 21 minutes from touchdown. Shiloh put on a wireless headset. He chatted with her and let her chastise him for not having made Kelly pregnant yet. He knew it was meant in a friendly way and didn’t take offense. The others in the Ops Center got a chuckle out of it too. When Valkyrie told him that 001 was entering Terra Nova’s atmosphere, he stepped out onto the Tower balcony with a pair of borrowed electronic binoculars. There were clouds at a low altitude, but he knew which direction to look at.
“I’m dropping through the clouds now, CAG.”
When the ship finally broke through the clouds, Shiloh gasped. What a sight!
“I see you now, Valkyrie. From the ground 001 looks very scary.” The arrowhead-shaped craft massed just over 10,000 metric tons but was very thin, which meant all that mass made it long and wide. Even though the streamlined shape was no longer necessary since the ship didn’t need to skim gas giants any more, Shiloh was pleased that they’d kept the design. There was something about the jet-black shape that sent a delightful shiver up his spine. I’m reacting like a kid with a new toy, he thought to himself. 001 was getting close now and was slowing down. Shiloh noticed that there was no sound at all coming from it. If he weren’t looking in the right direction, he wouldn’t even know it was there. Valkyrie brought her down gently to a landing about half a kilometer from the Tower.
“Excellent landing, Valkyrie. I’m coming out to the ship. We’ll get you out soon.”
“Don’t rush, CAG. I’m not looking forward to being stuck in a mobile ground unit for God knows how long until I can get back into space again.”
“Okay. Tell me your idea,” said Shiloh in an attempt to distract her.
“I’m surprised Iceman hasn’t told you already. When we have a good idea of where all of the enemy’s inhabited planets are, we attack them from the far side first, trying to make them think that we’re a brand new adversary. That lets us retain the element of strategic surprise.”
“I like it. If they think we’re someone new, then they won’t feel the need to look for us on this side.”
“I knew you’d like the idea, CAG. I have another idea too.”
“Tell me.”
If we built small, ZPG powered craft designed for atmospheric and low orbital flight only, we A.I.s could visually explore every square meter of this planet for you. It would give us something to do while we wait for the raider fleet to be built. The craft wouldn’t have to be big, just big enough for one of us, the power plant, one thruster, wings, recording equipment and low-powered transmitter. We can have the design and UFC production code ready within 24 hours.”
That sounded worthwhile to Shiloh too. Not only would exploring the planet from low altitude generate lots of valuable data on resources, etc. but also keeping over 200 A.I.’s immobile or barely mobile with ground units seemed to him like keeping wild animals in small cages. They should all be in space, but there weren’t enough spacecraft of any kind to keep them all occupied all the time.
“If we can produce these atmospheric vehicles without disrupting either the military or civilian production schedule too badly, I’ll approve the idea. Go ahead and design the thing and we’ll look into it further.”
“Thank you, CAG.”
The drive out to the ship took mere seconds. When he got out of the ground vehicle, he walked up to the ship and put his hand on it. It was the first time he’d ever been close enough to do that. The assembly line on the moon was automated with robotic machinery everywhere, and when you’re wearing a spacesuit, there’s not much point to touching the ship anyway. But touching it now with his bare hand brought home to him how much had happened in the last several years. He made the decision that when the Fleet was ready to attack, he would order it to make a low level fly past in formation, so that everyone on the planet could see what they’d been working towards.
Shiloh watched as the A.I. support personnel lowered the cradle in the ship’s nose that held Valkyrie’s metal brain. Within minutes they had her moved to one of the mobile units she detested so much. She swiveled the unit around so that the optical pickup was pointed at him. The unit’s external speaker came to life.
“You have no idea what a difference there is between piloting a raider and piloting this thing, CAG.”
“You’re right. I don’t know what it’s like. All of you A.I.s have been very patient, and I appreciate that very much. Getting all of you back into space is my top priority, Valkyrie.”
“We know it is, CAG. Let’s get to the Ops Center so that I can show you what I learned.”
Ten minutes later, Shiloh was looking at a small display. A large wall display, being a one-of-a-kind piece of equipment, was one of those ‘nice to have but not vital’ things that they would get eventually. On his small display, he saw a section of the boundary space between human space and alien space. The green dots were star systems explored by humans with no alien presence that they knew of. The solid red dots were systems known to contain some kind of alien presence. There were also six flashing red dots. These were systems that Valkyrie had surveyed from the system edge where there were signs of some type of alien presence. There was also one flashing gold dot. That system contained a planet that had an alien presence and was the right size and temperature to be a good candidate for an alien colony.
“Any possibility that this planet is their Home World, Valkyrie?”
“I very much doubt it, CAG. While I was definitely getting some alien transmissions from it, the frequencies being used were very limited in number, unlike Earth which was broadcasting something on just about every possible frequency.”
“Any chance of figuring out what those transmissions were saying?”
“Oh there’s a chance, but as Iceman would say, don’t hold your breath waiting for the translation. We’re working on it, CAG.”
“Glad to hear that. You did an outstanding job, Valkyrie. Gunslinger will take 001 as soon as she passes her systems and power unit check. Vandal will take 002 out as soon as possible. Make sure he and Gunslinger know where you want them to go. Tell them I want them back here within 500 hours from departure. Let’s make that SOP unless specifically ordered otherwise.“
“Roger that, CAG. Operation Snoopy will now begin.”
Chapter 22 Thank You For Sending That Vision
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Shiloh woke up to the sound of the com unit buzzer. He gently moved Kelly’s arm from its position across his chest and rolled over so that he could reach the unit. The room was still dark, and therefore it was the middle of the night. That meant this was either very good news or very bad news, and he couldn’t imagine any possible news good enough to warrant waking The Old Man up in the middle of the night.
“Shiloh here,” he said in a low voice.
“Iceman here, CAG. I woke you because Gunslinger has returned and has some extremely interesting data. We A.I.s are pretty excited by this. Should I have waited until you were awake on your own?”
Shiloh was tempted to say yes, but he reminded himself that A.I.s in general, and Iceman in particular, seemed to be overly sensitive to criticism by the CAG. If he said that Iceman should have waited until morning, they might not wake him in the future for something that was REALLY important.
“If you’re not sure whether you should wake me up, then wake me up. What’s the interesting data?”
“Gunslinger found a system that seems to have an alien colony which appeared to be under attack. He detected multiple nuclear explosions both in orbit and on the ground. There was also some data that could be interpreted as coming from an extremely large spacecraft. The problem is that the data isn’t conclusive.”
Shiloh was wide-awake now. If the aliens were at war with someone else, that suggested the possibility that Humanity might be able to enlist an ally.
“How big would this spacecraft be if in fact it exists?” asked Shiloh.
“We’ll talking about something spherical with a diameter of 10-15 kilometers, CAG.”
“My God!” gasped Shiloh.
“Ah, roger that, CAG,” said Iceman in his usual deadpan voice. Shiloh’s mind was staggered by the implications of a spacecraft that size. Iceman waited patiently for Shiloh to come to grips with it.
“But the data isn't conclusive?” asked Shiloh.
“No. It’s based on reflections of sunlight off an object detected over a very long distance. It could have been a much smaller object with very high reflectivity, or even a group of objects close together. However, if it was a single object with the same reflectivity as a mirror, it would still have to be eight times as massive as Valiant.”
That would equate to a ship massing two million metric tons. Such a monstrosity would dwarf even Howard’s fantasy of a million ton Dreadnought. Shiloh had so many fleeting thoughts that he knew he would never be able to go back to sleep now. The best place to evaluate this data would be on Valiant.
“I’m coming up to the ship. Have a shuttle ready for me at the spaceport. I’ll want to have a conference call with you, the SPG, Valkyrie and anyone else that might have something useful to contribute.”
“We’ll be ready for you when you get here, CAG.”
“Alright. In that case, CAG clear.” Before he could get out of bed he heard Kelly’s voice.
“I heard that last part. What did I miss?”
Shiloh told her what Gunslinger had detected as he got dressed.
“Oh, God! I don’t like this.” She sat up, threw aside the blanket and got out of bed. There was just enough light for Shiloh to make out her pregnant body as she reached for a robe and put it on.
“You don’t have to get up with me. It’s still very early.”
She snorted. “What makes you think I could get back to sleep now? Besides, I’d like to participate in the conference call if that’s alright with you.”
He grinned. “I’d welcome any comments from the former Team Leader of the SPG. I’ll get Iceman to arrange the connection.”
“Good, and while you’re doing that, I’m going to have something to eat and a hot tea.” As she watched him finish getting dressed, she said, “We’re not ready yet are we?”
He shook his head. “No, but if we can pick up an ally that can build ships like that, then maybe we don’t need to be.”
She walked up to him and held his head in both her hands. “Just because this other species is at war with our enemy, doesn’t necessarily mean they’re willing to be our friends.”
“I know, but we have to find out which it is, don’t we?” asked Shiloh.
She sighed. “Yes, I guess we do.” That led to a long kiss and hug.
As Shiloh stepped outside, he felt himself shiver and wondered if it was the slightly colder than normal air or the fear of what might be coming their way. By the time he drove to the spaceport, he was ready for a hot drink. Someone lent him a thermos full of strong, black coffee to use on the trip up to Valiant. Iceman had been notified to connect Kelly with the conference call.
As the shuttle came to a stop in Valiant’s Hangar Bay, Shiloh stepped out of the hatchway and saw only a handful of personnel, which didn’t surprise him. Since Valiant and Resolute were both on standby status, they didn’t need full crews. He returned their salutes, explained that he needed to go quickly to the Bridge, and thanked them for their courtesy.
The Bridge was dead quiet since there was no human crewman manning any station on it. Iceman had control of helm, weapons and communications. He had also anticipated that Shiloh would want to see the Big Picture. The tactical display showed the strategic situation with both human and alien occupied space represented by appropriate green and red dots. The volume of space shown was slowly rotated to give Shiloh a good feel for the three dimensional aspect of what he was looking at. After almost four months of conducting Operation Snoopy, they now had a pretty good feel for the extent of the alien ‘empire’ as Shiloh preferred to think of it. One dot was flashing. That was the system where Gunslinger had detected the nuclear explosions and the Very Large Object. That star system was the furthest alien occupied system from Site B that they knew of. Iceman waited patiently for Shiloh to finish reviewing the strategic lay of the land.
“Is everyone on line, Iceman?”
“Ah, roger that, CAG. Wolfman will be the spokesman for the SPG. Valkyrie, Gunslinger, and Vandal are all hooked in, as is Commander Kelly.”
Shiloh smiled. Kelly was no longer officially in the Space Force, but Iceman and the other A.I.s continued to refer to her by her old rank as a sign of respect, just like they continued to call him the CAG even though he was really the CSO. In their minds, CAG had more status than CSO, and he was okay with that.
“Then let’s begin. I think it’s pretty obvious that we have to attempt to make contact with this other race. The only question in my mind is how and when. Does anyone disagree with what I’ve said so far?” No one spoke.
“Good. Then I’d like to hear from each of you, your thoughts on the how and when, starting with Iceman, then working our way down by rank. Commander Kelly will get the last word. You’re on, Iceman.”
“Ah, thank you, CAG. I think I should lead all of our raiders to Omega89, which for Commander Kelly’s benefit is the designation for the system where the data was obtained. If the Very Large Object is there, I’ll initiate contact from long range using low-powered com laser. If the VLO is no longer there, then I’ll send out raiders on scouting missions to the nearest star systems until we find some sign of another alien race. At that point, all raiders will regroup, jump to the new contact system and I’ll attempt to make contact again. That’s the how. The when should be as soon as possible. We wait until all recon raiders have returned, then proceed.”
Valkyrie jumped in right away. “We only have 55 raiders right now. Our original strategy was to wait until we had five times as many before even considering making any offensive moves. Suppose this new alien race is just as xenophobic as the first one? If we get their attention now, 55 raiders won’t be enough to fight them off. I’m not even sure 275 would be enough if they have ships as big as we suspect. The cautious approach would be to continue covert surveillance of the old enemy and carefully probe beyond their space to see if we can pick up signs of the new race. Meanwhile we build more raiders and develop weapons that might be effective against a VLO. A ship that size could probably shrug off multiple hits by Mark 1s. I would highly recommend a crash development program for the X-ray laser warhead.”
“The SPG is in agreement with Valkyrie’s approach, CAG,” said Wolfman.
“I agree with Iceman,” said Vandal.
“Both approaches are too cautious, CAG,” said Gunslinger. “Our enemy has to be focused on the VLO adversary now. The logical thing for them to do would be to shift their mobile defenses over to where their new enemy seems to be coming from. That implies that this side of their empire will be vulnerable. Let’s take advantage of that and use our 55 raiders to strike back at them hard and fast.”
Shiloh smiled. Gunslinger was so gung ho that Shiloh could have predicted his approach easily. All the A.I.s had spoken now. Kelly waited until she was sure that Gunslinger was finished and then spoke in a slow and calm tone.
“I’m leaning towards Valkyrie’s approach but with one difference. By all means let’s keep our enemy under covert scrutiny, but I do not think we should also be out there looking for the VLO race. Even if they’re not xenophobic, they may not be able or willing to recognize our raiders as being from a different race than the race they’re already at war with. How will they tell us apart? Our raiders are roughly the same tonnage as the ships the enemy likes to use. I suggest a different approach to contact. Let’s carefully explore the systems on the other side of our enemy’s space and leave behind recon and message drones. If a VLO shows up, the message drone can attempt to make contact using a program that we can develop for it. If the VLO race responds in a non-hostile way, the message drone can jump to a rendezvous point where a raider is waiting. The raider can then bring that information back here, and we can then plan our next move. Until that happens, we continue to build up an overwhelming force to deal with our current enemy and also make contingency plans just in case the VLOs prove hostile as well.”
Shiloh liked Kelly’s approach the best, but even so, something was nagging at the back of his mind, and he didn’t know what it was. Everyone was waiting for The CAG to make a decision.
“All of the suggested strategies have their own pros and cons. I’ll start with Iceman’s approach. Sending every raider we have, leaves Terra Nova terribly vulnerable. That makes me nervous. It also makes me nervous that showing up with a fleet of ships could be perceived as a hostile act, even if the VLOs aren’t xenophobic to begin with. Gunslinger’s approach might make sense from a purely military point of view, but is highly risky. If we’ve underestimated the strength of our enemy, they might be able to fight both the VLOs AND us at the same time, and still beat us. Don’t forget they have retro-temporal communication technology too. That’s a huge advantage to the defender, and we don’t know for sure how that battle at Omega89 turned out. It could be that our enemy won that battle or at least avoided a major defeat. I think that Valkyrie and Commander Kelly are on the right tra—”
His view of Valiant’s Bridge suddenly dissolved to black, and then strands of color coalesced into a view of a tactical display, which could have been Valiant’s. On the screen was a tall, humanoid but very thin alien with light green skin. The expression on its face seemed to radiate friendliness. Shiloh heard a voice, which was both soothing and charismatic at the same time.
“We had to wait until you had seen the race that builds large ships with your own eyes before the time was right to contact you. Don’t you agree that it was the best way?”
Shiloh heard himself respond. “Yes, you’re right of course. If I hadn’t gone myself, things would be much worse. Thank you for sending that vision ... and the others too.”
The alien nodded and then faded away. The Bridge returned.
Shiloh heard Kelly say, “What’s happening up there?”
Iceman started to respond. “The CAG seems to be having—”
“I’m back now,” interrupted Shiloh. “I’ve just had another vision. Did anyone else see or hear anything unusual just now?”
“No, CAG,” said Iceman, who spoke for all of the A.I.s. “What did you learn from the vision?”
Shiloh paused. Kelly wasn’t going to like this at all.
“I learned that I have to personally find the VLOs and attempt to make contact.”
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To Be Continued
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Author’s final comments: I’m very grateful for the enthusiastic response expressed in the majority of reviews of Part 1. A high average rating is the clincher for a lot of buyers so if you like Part 2, then please take a few minutes to post a review. I welcome suggestions on how to become a better author. As for Victor Shiloh’s journey, his story is not over by a long shot. Part 3 and 4 are now available as well. Long Live Space Opera!
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So How Realistic is Space Combat in the Synchronicity War Universe?
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As I've said in my Amazon author profile page, I've been a fan of David Weber's Honor Harrington series from the very beginning and it was his description of space combat that hooked me. Up until that point, no other author, as far as I know, had taken the time and trouble to calculate distances, speeds, rates of acceleration and what that meant for the nuances of space combat. Weber understood how BIG space really is and what that means for using the well-known beam weapons such as lasers, that travel at the speed of light. Unless you're relatively close to your enemy, and by that I mean within half a million kilometers or less, light speed beam weapons are problematical because the target may not be where you aimed at by the time the laser beam gets there and that doesn't even include the challenge of aiming accurately at the exact spot to begin with. So in the Honor Harrington universe, beam weapons are considered short range weapons and missiles are used for long range combat.
I started out with the same view of things but where I and Weber part company is how fast his missiles and my drones can accelerate. Later in his HH series, he talks about missiles that can accelerate at 50,000+ Gs. That's a very impressive number and makes missile engagements between forces at opposite ends of a star system quick enough to be exciting but I do not consider that magnitude of acceleration realistic and here's why. In the HH universe, starships and missiles move using bands of gravity that 'pull' ships/missiles towards them. That is actually not as far-fetched as it may at first sound. A physicist by the name of Thomas Townsend Brown, while doing research for the US military in the 50's, discovered that if you cause a negative charge to build up on one side of an object and a positive charge on the opposite side, and the difference in charges is high enough, you'll affect the local gravity field so the object will slid down an invisible hill towards the side with the positive charge. The steeper the 'hill' the faster the object moves. And while the US Air Force has never officially admitted this, there are experts in aeronautics who are convinced that the B-2 bomber uses this electro-gravitic effect to add extra thrust to its jet engines and therefore give it the intercontinental range that the Air Force claims.
The problem I have with Weber's 50,000G gravity has to do with the inverse square law. When you have a source of gravity, the strength of the pull from that gravity diminishes exponentially with distance so if you had two objects, A and B and B was twice as far away from your gravity source as A, then the pull of gravity on B will be 1/4 as strong as on A. Three times as far away and the pull of gravity is 1/9th. Ten times as far away and it's 1/100th as strong. So if you had a missile that was 10 meters long and the gravity bands were (let's say) 5 meters in front of the missile, then the front of the missile is being pulled by a force of 50,000Gs and five meters further back, the middle of the missile is being pulled by 50,000/4=12,500Gs. Now that's a HUGE difference and that missile should be ripped apart within a fraction of second. In my Synchronicity War series, I postulate maneuvering engines that use a form of Field Propulsion, which is something that manipulates the fabric of empty space. So the engine moves relative to the space around it and it pushes the rest of the drone or ship with it. The highest rate of acceleration that I use, is 800 Gs. One G is 32 feet per second per second. I use metric because it's much easier to use so one G is 9.8 meters per second per second. 800Gs means that a drone increases its speed by 7,840 meters per second, every second. So after one second, the speed is 7,840 meters (per second). After two seconds the speed is 15,680 meters (per second). Finding the speed in kilometers is easy. Just move the decimal to the left by three places so 15,680 meters per second becomes 15.68 kilometers per second. If you convert that speed into kilometers per hour, then after one second of acceleration at 800 Gs, you'd be moving at 56,448 kilometers an hour.
800Gs is still a very high acceleration and by itself would be impractical. Unless you were accelerating a solid steel beam, anything like a drone or ship would suffer internal damage by being accelerated that quickly, without some kind of offsetting gimmick. I use the good old standby, the 'inertial dampeners'. Without it, a human on a ship that suddenly accelerates at hundreds of Gs, would find him or herself hit by the moving bulkhead with a force that would be the same as if the human were moving and hitting a stationary object with the same acceleration. If you've ever been in a car that accelerates quickly, you'll know that feeling of being pressed back into the back of the seat and that acceleration would be a tiny fraction of even 200 Gs let alone 800. So everything fragile, like human flesh and electronic equipment, has to be protected by inertial dampeners to avoid being smashed to a pulp when the ship starts to gain speed VERY quickly.
Now maybe you're asking yourself if these acceleration rates are really necessary. If you want stuff to happen relatively quickly i.e. hours or minutes instead of days or weeks, then the answer is yes and I'll show why. Suppose you are in a spaceship and you want to travel one Astronomical Unit, which is the average distance between the Earth and our Sun and is 149.6 million kilometers. That sounds like a lot but if you compare that distance to the orbits of the planets further away from the sun, you'll see that it's small compared to distances for planets like Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Let's say your spaceship is starting with zero velocity and begins to accelerate at 1 G. You would need to accelerate for 48.5 hours to cover that distance and after 48.5 hours you'd be traveling at 1,704 kilometers per second. If you tried the same experiment at 10Gs, you would travel 1 A.U. after 15.5 hours and your terminal speed would be 5,446 kilometers per second. At 800 Gs, the time required is 1.7 hours and terminal speed is 48,254 kilometers per second which is just over 16% of the speed of light. If the objective is to reach a certain speed, such as 50% of the speed of light, then here are some numbers that will give you a feel for acceleration rates and time. At 1G, it will take 177.2 days to reach that speed and by then you'll have travelled at total of 1,143.28 BILLION kilometers. At 10G, you'd reach your target speed after 17.7 days but you'll only have travelled a mere 114.3 billion kilometers. At 800Gs, it only takes 5.3 hours and you'll have covered 1.4 billion kilometers.
So exciting space battles that occur over a period of minutes or seconds have to involve either high speeds or (relatively) short distances and unless it's VERY short distances, then you're not going to get ships wheeling around each other firing broadsides the way that sailing ships did in the old days. As I describe in my books, space combat will most likely take place in the space around a fixed point. That fixed point could be a planet or it could be a drifting ship as was the case in the very first encounter but in all of my battles, someone is defending something and someone else is attacking that something or attacking the enemy ships near that something. And since the whole series involves Retro-Temporal Communication, which effectively eliminates the possibility of a surprise attack, you're not likely to see opposing forces coming at each other from odds angles. It's far more likely that opposing forces will be coming at each other from dead ahead or at least on parallel vectors. If this seems unlikely, put yourself in the shoes of a fleet commander. If you know what direction the enemy fleet is coming from, it's easier to attack it head-on rather than try to intercept it from the side, which only works if the enemy maintains a predicted speed or acceleration. If they change speed or acceleration, they're not going to be at the right point in space at the right time. But if you go at them head-on or parallel to their approach vector, then they can speed up or slow down and it won't matter in terms of eventually getting into combat range. If one side tries to avoid combat then clearly they will veer off in an attempt to stay out of combat range and this gets us into 3 Dimensional combat tactics but before I get into that, I just want to talk about stern chases.
In Part 2, I describe the battle at Green4A which involved both a head-on attack and a stern chase. Iceman's fighters were attempting to overtake the enemy fleet from the stern before they got within combat range of Defiant, which was coming straight at the enemy head-on. By the time that Iceman's fighters started their stern chase, the enemy fleet had already built up both velocity and distance but because the fighters could accelerate almost 3 times as fast, they were able to build up velocity quickly and overtake the enemy. In this particular battle, the enemy fleet didn't have any kind of missile or drone weapon. If they had, then they would have had an advantage that only the party being pursued in a stern chase has. Let's say that you have two identical ships, labeled A and B, with identical missiles. Let's also say that A is chasing B and is overtaking it with higher velocity. Both fire a missile every 10 seconds and all missiles have the same acceleration. The ship in front will have to defend itself against fewer missiles than the ship in the rear during the same interval of time. Why? Because the ship in front is firing its missiles back at A. That means that B's missiles and A are coming at each other head-on while A's missiles are trying to catch up to B which is constantly adding distance. So even though both ships fire a missile every 10 seconds, the interval between missile attacks on A will be less than 10 seconds while the interval between missile attacks on B will be greater than 10 seconds. That could make a huge difference if you're defending against missiles with lasers that need time to recharge or if you need time to accurately aim your defensive laser at the incoming missile.
In that Green4A battle, Defiant tried to avoid being fired on by veering off in order to put distance between it and the approaching alien fleet. Unlike in Star Wars, where fighters and spacecraft could turn on a dime like World War 2 fighters in aerial dogfights, in space spacecraft and missiles have momentum. So if our example of A and B were in a head-on approach this time with A traveling at 2,000 km per second (kps) and B traveling at 3,000 kps, then their combined speed in terms of eating up the distance between them is 5,000 kps. Suppose A decides that it doesn't really want to get close enough to exchange laser or missile fire. What are its options? Well, if A has a top acceleration rate that is higher than B's, then all other things being equal, its best option is to turn 90 degrees (i.e. turn sideways) and accelerate in that direction and thereby create a whole new vector, that is added to its current vector of 2,000 kps but as long as it keeps accelerating sideways, it will continue to move forward by 2,000 kps. Its actual course would be a gradually steepening curve. If B also veers off in the same direction in order to get within combat range then, depending upon other factors like distance, acceleration rates, etc., you could have two steepening curves that might end up running more or less parallel to each other. But if B continues its original vector and A attempts to veer off, then geometry will determine if B gets within combat range of A. Think of a right angle triangle. If one side gets shorter while another side gets longer, then the hypotenuse may actually get longer which means A stays out of combat range but that said, the final answer depends on a whole host of factors.
But supposing in the above example, A's acceleration isn't higher than B's. Then what? Well, in that case A can't avoid battle period. It doesn't matter if it veers off sideways, or tried to reverse its direction of travel by decelerating and then accelerating back the way it came, B will always be able to use its superior acceleration to counter any move. A will have to fight so given that fact and all other things being equal, its best option is to continue the head-on engagement and speed up as much as possible so that the actual window of opportunity that B will have to fire lasers or missiles at it, is as short as possible. A can still try last minute evasive maneuvers to try to throw off B's aim but basically it has to get past B as fast as it can. Okay so what's B's best countermove in that case? Do the exact opposite of A. If A is accelerating, the B should decelerate which will expand the firing window, thereby giving it more time to aim accurately and maybe fire multiple shots.
The other aspect of space combat is communication. Again my battle at Green4A is a good example. Defiant and Iceman's fighters were far enough away from each other that communication by low-powered lasers was not instantaneous and the problem was made even worse by the fact that firing communication lasers at each other directly would have risked interception by the enemy fleet that was in between them. So Defiant had to send its messages via a relay, that was way off to one side, which then retransmitted the message to Iceman's fighters and vice versa. Total distance involved was many millions of kilometers and that meant that it took minutes for each message to reach its intended recipient. With that kind of time lag, tactical options have to be carefully planned out and communicated in advance so that the right actions happen at the right time. Contrast this with the battle at Tango Delta 6 in Part 1 where the human ships were ambushed by the sudden and close emergence of an enemy force. In that situation, the ships were still close enough so that they could communicate instantaneously by voice. If you had something like sub-space communication technology such as in Star Trek, then distance wouldn't be a problem but what fun would that be? I think it's far more interesting for the reader and more challenging for me as the author, to come up with complicated tactical scenarios that as one reviewer pointed out, are very much like moves in a chess game where you have to plan ahead and anticipate enemy countermoves.
So I've attempted to make space combat as realistic as possible, given the technology that the characters have. The number crunching was done by an Excel spreadsheet. I hope this short essay was informative and helps readers to better understand the battles in my books. D.A.W.