The Synchronicity War Part 4

by Dietmar Wehr

  Shiloh nodded. "Yes and when the VLO arrives at the Sogas home system, we'll be there to take it out with the new Mark 6 warheads, and we'll help destroy the bug attack ships as well. That should show the Sogas that they don't have to fear us."

  "Not necessarily, CAG. We shouldn't assume that they’d stop their attacks on us just because we help them with the Insectoids. We might act that way, but their logic is sufficiently different from ours that they may continue the war. The Friendlies seem to have some influence with them. If we let the Friendlies know what our plan is and ask for their help, they may be able to convince the Sogas to stand down after we save their home world."

  "I hope you're right. I'm going to recommend to the Acting CSO that we plan to capture a specimen at Omega77 and stop the VLO when it reaches the Sogas home world, AND that we send Kronos back to the Friendlies to tell them that and ask for their help. Does anyone object to that or have a better idea?" No one did. "Okay then. This meeting is adjourned. Intercom...connect me with Ops.”

  "Operations here."

  "This is Vice-Admiral Shiloh. Find Admiral Dietrich and inform him that Admiral Howard has suffered what appears to be a heart attack and is undergoing medical attention. Advise him that he is now the Acting CSO, and tell him that I request a meeting with him as soon as possible. Shiloh clear."

  As he got up to leave, Shiloh said, "Gentlemen, if anyone is looking for me, I'll be checking on Admiral Howard."

  With the meeting over, he hurried to the rear entrance of the building where the air ambulance would pick up Howard if it hadn't already. He got there just in time to see the paramedics put Howard in the vehicle, which then quickly took off. Kelly was standing there with tears in her eyes. Shiloh put his arm around her.

  "How's he doing?" asked Shiloh.

  She shook her head. "Not good. He's hanging on but just barely. What are we going to do without him, Victor? Who else has his force of will? The Oversight Committee will start foaming at the mouth when they hear about this."

  Shiloh sighed. "Dietrich will hold the line. He knows what's at stake." But even as he spoke, he wasn't sure if it was true. Did Dietrich really have what it took to keep the OC in line? What might the OC do if they thought they could get away with it? He didn't like the thought that came to mind. They might try to strike back at the AIs. He had to prevent that at all costs. Shiloh heard his name called and looked around to see Dietrich approaching. He and Kelly let go of each other and turned to face Dietrich.

  "What's his condition?" asked Dietrich. Kelly repeated what she’d told Shiloh. Dietrich nodded. "He's a tough, old bird. My money's on him pulling through. How did it happen?"

  "He had just convened a meeting in the conference room. He was extremely upset with the response from the Friendlies in light of Wolfman's latest vision." Shiloh looked around to make sure no unauthorized ears were nearby. "At least seven colonies have been infected with the bio-weapon, and there's a distinct possibility that they all are."

  Dietrich’s face turned pale. "Son-of-a-bitch! No wonder he had heart problems!" Now it was Dietrich's turn to look around. "I think you and I should go to my office. I want to be up to speed when the OC calls, as they inevitably will." Without waiting for Shiloh's response, Dietrich turned and walked quickly away.

  Shiloh looked at Kelly who smiled and nodded to him. He smiled back, gave her shoulder a quick squeeze and turned to follow Dietrich. Dietrich was already seated behind his desk by the time Shiloh entered his office.

  After Shiloh sat down, Dietrich said, "Okay, Victor. What do I need to know?"

  Shiloh told him what the Friendlies had told Kronos, what Wolfman's vision said, what Howard said before his heart attack and what Shiloh had said afterwards.

  "Well I can't really fault Howard's reaction. It does seem just a bit hypocritical of the Friendlies to insist we help the Sogas while they're doing their very best to wipe us all out," said Dietrich.

  "The Friendlies don't want anyone wiped out. Not us and not the Sogas either, but they're in the line of fire of the Bugs. We have the Mark 6 warhead. They don't. From the Sogas point of view, it makes perfect sense to secure your rear area, which would be us, before you turn your attention to the main enemy. From a strictly military point of view, I understand it. What they're missing are the non-military factors such as having an ally at your back. It's clear to me that they're not going to be the ones to break the cycle of strike and counter-strike. That means we have to do it, and it seems to me that if we're prepared to take out that bug mothership with a Mark 6 drone anyway, then why not do it before the Sogas home world is decimated instead of after?"

  "And if the Sogas still continue to come after us, what then?"

  Shiloh shrugged. "If they witness a two hundred and fifty megaton blast and still come after us, then I will not lose any sleep over dropping a few Mark 6s on their planet. But if we can build the time machine ship, that all becomes unnecessary. With several hundred raiders, we can overwhelm their defenses at any of their industrial outposts. We'll destroy their ability to build more ships, and we’ll monitor them from orbit until hell freezes over to make sure they don't rebuild their offensive capability. Nobody gets exterminated, and therefore the Friendlies should be okay with that. It's the best outcome for everyone. Everything else is just buying time."

  Dietrich shook his head. "I wish I could see a way for that project to be completed, but I don't see how after what's happened." When he saw Shiloh's look of confusion, he continued. "I'm not talking about losing Howard, although that's bad enough. I'm talking about the colonies becoming infected. That news will get out into the open sooner or later. The public will demand answers. The Grand Senate will go into cover-their-ass overdrive, and the Oversight Committee will want a scapegoat. Howard will be the obvious candidate partly because he won't be able to fight back and partly because all of this really did happen on his watch. The OC is going to insist on retaking control, and they’ll have the public backing them. I don't see how we and the AIs can resist that without a full-blown mutiny, and that serves no one's purpose. Once they're in control again, they're going to want us to resume offensive operations, and it's hard to see them pushing for that at the same time as allowing our one and only battleship to be cut in half for a project approved by their scapegoat, Howard. Do you?"

  Shiloh sighed. "Well, when you put it that way, I don't see it happening either, Sir." When Dietrich didn't respond right away, Shiloh added, "If we can't convert Dreadnought to a timeship, then we'll have to build a new ship from scratch, and it'll have to be where the OC can't see it."

  Dietrich smiled. "Like Site B perhaps?" he asked.

  Shiloh nodded and smiled back. "Exactly. I'll arrange for a freighter to take the project personnel, including Valkyrie, to Site B along with all the design data. I think they're very close to having every part of the time machine coded for production by UFCs. We'll make sure they have the engineering expertise to design a new ship. Site B will have to build an orbiting shipyard first, but we already know how to do that."

  "Will that mean pushing back the completion date?" asked Dietrich.

  "Maybe and maybe not. If we're going to design a new ship, it may end up being a lot less massive than Dreadnought. No armor and no weapon turrets. It might just turn out to be an overgrown freighter, and look how fast we build those."

  "Let's hope so. Go ahead and get that moving. Anything else we should discuss?"

  "Yes. The Bugs worry me a lot. Even if we can take care of the one mothership, I'm convinced there will eventually be more. A working timeship could give us the ability to stop them at the source. That would not only save us, but a whole bunch of other alien races out there. The Friendlies would no longer have any reason to start this war to begin with. The catch is that the Friendlies don't want to see any species wiped out, including the damn Bugs! But if we can prove that they're not a naturally occurring life form, in other words that some other agency created them and then turned them loose, then th
e Friendlies will not object if we exterminate them. They might even help us do it. They want to see proof, and the only way we can give them that proof is to provide a Bug for the Friendlies to scan temporally. If we send a ship to Omega77 to arrive just after the Bugs have decimated that colony, I think we can bring back a dead Bug. I don't want to tell the OC about the how and the why. We'll have to sneak that mission in under their radar. I'm telling you about it now so that you're aware of what has to be done, assuming that you buy into the idea of course, Sir."

  "As you know I've been in favor of altering the timeline so that this war never happens. If bringing back a dead Bug can help us achieve that, then I'm all for it. I'll leave the details to you. Just keep me in the loop. Anything else, Shiloh?"

  "No, Sir. That's it."

  "Okay then, I won't keep you from what you have to do."

  Shiloh stood up, saluted and left the office.

  Chapter 6

  Shiloh arrived at the Operations Center within 15 minutes of Dietrich's call. It was almost dawn, and the Center still had the skeleton crew typical of the night shift. Shiloh saw Dietrich standing near one of the manned consoles and walked over to him. Shiloh had expected the Oversight Committee to test the waters as far as reasserting their authority over Space Force, but their meeting with Dietrich couldn't have been less confrontational. Dietrich was 'confirmed' as the Acting Chief of Space Operations which merely rubberstamped his automatic assumption of the senior position as Howard's Deputy CSO.

  By the time that bit of political theater was done, Kronos was on his way back to notify the Friendlies that Humans were willing to play nice. He returned to Sol less than eight days later with a message that the Friendlies would cooperate by sending a ship with their temporal scanning device to the outskirts of the Omega77 system on the day the VLO was due to show up. When the Space Force people had possession of the dead Bug, they would send out an omni-directional signal, and the Friendly ship would move into orbit around the colony planet.

  When Shiloh reached Dietrich, the ACSO nodded to him and said, "Something's up with Reforger. No one's answering the wakeup call. There should be alarms going off all over the ship by now, but we're not hearing one word from that ship."

  Shiloh sighed. Reforger was the first freighter to return from one of the colonies after Wolfman received his vision. Dietrich had confirmed Howard's last order to quarantine every returning freighter in orbit until more than 28 days had passed since the crew's last contact with a colonist.

  "Is this the 28th day since they had contact with the colony, Admiral?"

  Dietrich nodded. "Yup. Right on schedule if it really is the bio-weapon. A medical team in full bio-gear is on its way up to the ship as we speak." Turning to the Com technician seated nearby Dietrich said, "Put Vice-Admiral Shiloh on the connection to that shuttle, Lieutenant."

  Shiloh heard his implant activate with the faint hiss of static. The main display showed the shuttle's progress as it approached the orbiting freighter. As the shuttle slowed down in order to dock with the ship, Shiloh heard the shuttle pilot speak.

  "We're approaching the docking hatch...we've matched velocity with Reforger...contact with the docking hatch in...three...two... one...contact...magnetic clamps are activated. We have a tight seal. The team is opening the hatch now. I'm switching the mike pickup to the Team leader, Ops."

  As the Com Technician acknowledged the pilot's comment, Shiloh leaned over to Dietrich and said, "Is this on an open frequency?"

  Dietrich shook his head. "Encrypted." It was clear that Dietrich was listening to the audio transmission as well. They soon heard a new voice that Shiloh assumed was the leader of the medical team.

  "We're inside now. Torres, you check the Bridge. Frank, you check out Sick Bay. I'll check crew's quarters."

  With all three medics operating alone, there was no one for them to talk to, and all Shiloh and Dietrich heard for the next half a minute was static.

  "Oh shit!" The Team Leader's voice was clearly agitated. "Ops, I've found a body in bed. Not sure who it is yet. I'm checking the other cabins."

  Five minutes later there was no longer any doubt. The whole crew was dead and had apparently all died in their sleep. Dietrich tapped the Com Tech on the shoulder. The man nodded, activated a switch and nodded again.

  "Team Leader, this is Admiral Dietrich. Leave the bodies as they are for now. They'll be dealt with later. Get your team back to the shuttle. Keep your bio-suits on. All of you will go through decontamination when the shuttle lands. Do NOT talk about what you've found to ANYONE even if they're wearing a Space Force uniform. Is that understood?"

  "Ah…roger that, Admiral."

  Dietrich tapped the Com Tech on the shoulder again and said, "Okay, Admiral Shiloh and I have heard enough. Thank you, Lieutenant."

  "You're welcome, Sir."

  Shiloh followed Dietrich to a part of the large room where they could speak without being overheard.

  "There's no way that we can keep this from the OC indefinitely,” Dietrich began. “They're going to find out eventually, and if we try to hide it from them, they'll use that fact against us. I think I should inform them right now. What do you think?"

  "I reluctantly agree, Admiral. The shit is really going to hit the fan now. I don't envy you your position."

  Dietrich shrugged. "I'm not worried about myself. Howard's going to get the blame. He may end up wishing he hadn't survived that heart attack. It's the public's reaction that worries me. We were able to hold a gun to the Committee's head because they knew the public would blame them for any break with our AIs, but this is different. We can't blame the loss of colonies on the Committee, but they CAN and will blame Space Force for the losses. I know those bastards. Behind the public statements of grief and sympathy, they'll be chomping at the bit to use this against us." He paused then said, "Are Valkyrie and the others on their way to Site B?"

  "Affirmative. They left two days ago," said Shiloh.

  "Good. That's good. One less thing for the Committee to complain about." Dietrich looked at the chronometer on the wall and sighed. "I didn't realize it was so early when I called you, but I wanted you here when we boarded that ship. Howard told me to trust your advice."

  "Thank you, Admiral. That's good to know."

  Dietrich nodded. "There's nothing more that you can do here now, so you may as well head back to your quarters and get some more sleep."

  "Sounds good to me, Sir," said Shiloh. But if Kelly is still awake, I doubt I'll be getting any more sleep this morning.

  Dietrich watched Shiloh walk away and wondered why he had that strange grin on his face.

  * * *

  The OC's reaction was carefully calculated. The freighter crew deaths were released to the public with statements cautioning the public from overreacting. Howard, now officially retired, stayed in seclusion and refused to comment.

  It was the deaths ten days later of two other freighter crews within 24 hours of each other that set off the political storm. The Committee Chair issued a statement saying that the Committee would investigate this string of infected crews, and that the hearing would be open to the public and televised. Shiloh attended the hearing but wasn't initially called upon by the Committee to answer any questions. That was left up to Dietrich. The Committee was careful not to blame him. All their questions were phrased in such a way as to insinuate that Dietrich's predecessor was to blame. They saved their bombshell for after the mid-day recess.

  When everyone on the Committee was back and seated, the Chair banged his gavel and said, "This open hearing is once again in session. During the break the members of this Committee caucused, and we are agreed that the apparently successful attacks by the Enemy on at least four of our colonies with bio-weapons is the result of bad policies and strategies put into place by Admiral Sam Howard. Since Admiral Dietrich's appointment as Acting Chief of Space Operations was a temporary one, the Committee feels that it is now time to appoint a new permanent CSO, someone who has p
roven himself to be not only skilled in combat but also willing to engage the enemy. Therefore I'm pleased to publically announce that Vice-Admiral Victor Shiloh will be promoted to the 3 star rank of Senior Admiral and will be the new Chief of Space Operations!"

  Shiloh was stunned and must have looked that way because the Chair looked at him and then quickly looked back at the media cameras.

  "The Committee would ask the media not to question Admiral Shiloh until he has had a chance to consult with the Committee about the best way to respond to these new attacks. The members of this Committee WILL make themselves available to the media for questions following this hearing. I now declare this hearing adjourned." With that he banged his gavel, and the room exploded with sound from media people shouting questions at the Committee and at Shiloh.