Connor's Gambit

by Z Gottlieb

  “I can’t lie. I’m definitely impressed with your programming and controlling both of the two vehicles, in addition, to the well-executed aerial maneuver.” Shinny folded her arms across her chest, “However, I’m still trying to formulate a response that would express my fury and frustration without tearing your head off. As far as I know, it’s probably a first for the Fleet. I don’t believe even Connor has ever attempted doing anything that daring. But I am still pissed with you pulling me into this stunt without any warning. I’m far from ready to pat you on your back, forgiving you for this stunt, just because it was performed almost flawlessly.

  Brad cringed as an image of Shinny doing exactly that ran through his head at that moment. “I’m sorry. I deserved that.” He flew by the bridge, tipping the vehicles’ wing simultaneously with Deznoic’s vehicle saluting Connor and Griken. He could see the staff on duty standing and clapping at the performance. Before he could apologize further, Shinny ran her command link through his vehicle’s communications system. He heard Griken congratulating Deznoic on the successful maneuver and ordered the commander to report to Connor’s conference room after he docked his vehicle.

  “What link are you connecting to?” Brad asked.

  “I’m running the commanders’ private link through the vehicle’s comms.”

  “Major N’Klaftin, pass my compliments to Pilot Johnson, and let him know I am looking forward to hearing that Operation P’Nic is equally successful.”

  “Yes, Admiral,” responded Shinny through the ship’s communication system. She gestured to cut the communications and took in a deep breath before she continued, “I’m exasperated that Connor, Griken, Colonel T’Lentic, as well as you knew about Operation P’Nic and none of you bothered to share details with me so I can understand my operational obligations and plan for the mission. Whose bright idea was this to keep me in the dark?”

  Brad nodded in response but remained silent as he flew, knowing he still needed to explain the reason for the air show. He flew toward a brightly lit platter positioned near the Omega transit gate thirty minutes in front of them. “Shinny, I know, I owe you an apology and an explanation. I’m sorry; it wasn’t my idea to withhold your orders from you. Your boss, who, by the way, is an ass, thought it had been awhile since you were activated, and he thought you needed to be tested with a real live operational exercise with no warning to prove your combat worthiness.”

  Reminded of her boss, Shinny looked irritated. “Welcome to my life. I’m not sure there’s a bigger ass in the universe. Unfortunately, we—not Earth—get to claim him.”

  Brad burst into a loud laughter. “Sorry to hear that; score one for Earth.” He relaxed a little and continued with his explanation. “Had we been talking, I would have dropped hints over the past few days. I should have apologized sooner, but as time ran out, I tried to time it so you would at least be close to the vehicle. Forgive me for the inelegant apology.”

  “I’ll think about it.” Shinny stared at the starscape in front of them. She sighed, “You know I won’t think about it too long, but I’m not ready to give you an answer, now.”

  “I’ll take that, for now, considering I’ve been a jerk.” Brad sighed.

  “I won’t fight you on that,” Shinny agreed, deliberately thinking about the past thirty minutes. “You still haven’t explained the why. I’m waiting.”

  “I know; I owe you an explanation. As I went through training, I wanted to understand more about the roots of the conflict. I looked at the historical records of the space and planet battles between CIG’s Fleet and the Aneplé over the centuries. It looked like little has changed since the first armed conflict. The tactics used in the skirmishes haven’t changed much over time, which struck me as strange. And, sadly, the Aneplé have gradually been creeping into CIG territories and growing. From my perspective, it seemed really odd, because CIG has all of the advantages — technical, social, territory and population. But it is slowly changing. Logically, CIG should have been able to limit them to a few planetary systems over a hundred and fifty years ago. However, not only have the Aneplé been able to increase their territory,” Brad watched Shinny’s reflection frown and quickly corrected himself, “Sorry, I meant area of influence, since they now have control over critical trade gates, it looks like there needs to be a more aggressive stance taken by the Fleet to push them back. If you look at the trend over time, the more risk adverse CIG became, the more likely territories and planets would be lost. Connor made progress in changing the trend once he was in charge. It looked like Connor’s history of successes was due to his willingness to take risks. I have some thoughts about why, but he probably understands his reasons more than anyone else. Anyway, I looked at trying different, more aggressive strategies and tactics and whether they would be more successful, taking into account that CIG has managed to neuter the Fleet.”

  “What do you mean ‘neuter the Fleet’?” Shinny asked hesitantly. She had talked about something similar with Connor, but she was curious to hear what Brad meant.

  “From my perspective, two issues have had a negative effect on the Fleet’s performance. The Fleet has both strategic and tactical issues that need to be overhauled. The strategic issues will require the Flag Officers to convince the CIG to loosen some of the constraints affecting Fleet maneuvers. At times, it looks like CIG rules and regulations are as destructive to the Fleet as the Aneplé. Strategically, CIG has officially limited the hostile conflict areas to planetary systems on the outer edges of the CIG territories nearest to the Aneplé. Meanwhile the CIG has lost full control of a number of transit gates including the five gates leading toward Earth. CIG expects the Fleet to gain the gates back by battling for the planets instead of actively defending the gate systems. Strategically, it’s a non sequitur and makes no sense. CIG makes our Congress look rational and even brilliant and that’s not saying a lot. Anyway, the more immediate issue for the Fleet is to win the armed engagements with reduced armaments. The only way it will happen is to push the envelope with our tactics.’’ Brad paused, glancing quickly at Shinny’s reflection to see if she had a reaction to his comment on changing tactics. Not seeing a reaction, he wondered what her thoughts were on his statements. He knew it was going to be an uphill climb to convince most of the Fleet to make the changes necessary, but he had both Connor’s and Griken’s support and that might make the difference. “I understand Admiral Griken is currently leading a pre-deployment training operation and theoretically live munitions wouldn’t be needed. However, the current munitions load on the battle cruiser is below fifteen percent. The reasoning explained to me was it was necessary to ensure that the limited resources were made available for forces currently assigned to conflict areas and to avoid accidents with live munitions. On the surface that might seem to make sense, and many of my squadron mates believe the reason given to be true. But when I studied the records and gave it some thought, it really didn’t make sense. Although it would take considerably longer, the Zuonopy could recharge the laser and impulse weapons near a star without affecting CIG’s resources, if in fact CIG has a funding issue. Frankly, looking around the battle cruiser I’m finding it hard to believe there is a genuine lack of funds. Trying to avoid accidents by not supplying live munitions is fatuous. There are safeguards layered on safeguards. The real risk of a munitions accident is less than one tenth of a percent. Either the CIG bureaucracy has developed virtually no tolerance for risk or there is an insider threat at the highest level, purposely creating barriers.”

  “I’m not sure how to respond. Connor and I have viewed CIG incompetent on many occasions, but it never occurred to us that insider threats could exist within the highest level of CIG itself. But then again, before a few weeks ago, it would have been unthinkable for an Aneplé spy to be assigned to a planet under observation. Those assignments were strictly controlled.” Shinny paused, as if she was collecting her thoughts, “I’m finding that the possibility of compromise at the senior levels painfully uncomforta
ble. It’s pointing me towards questioning CIG’s overall security structure. Have you discussed this with Connor?”

  “No, you’re the first. The possibility literally just popped into my head. I’m not happy with the precarious position we left our son in. Connor, Nan and you, may feel confident our children were safe stored on the bottom of Earth’s ocean, but I have wondered if the children could be used against us. Overall, the CIG does not come off being a nefarious organization, but I am still worried about individuals. Individuals such as the pilot, may be able to infiltrate CIG at the highest level with a cadre of support personnel.”

  Shinny relaxed and unfolded her arms, “I’m not discounting what you just explained to me. Your assumption might be accurate when it comes to CIG, but without definitive proof, I’m certain the idea would not be received well. I recommend that you not repeat that for now. CIG has a way of making life difficult for people at times. As for Dane, the hibernation centers have never been an issue. I’m not ignoring your concerns. But, once again without proof, there isn’t anything anyone can do to implement change if it’s needed. But granted you have a point and I will think twice before placing Dane in hibernation in the future.”

  “Thank you.” Brad replied quietly before he continued. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to digress from the point I was trying to make. Because of a lack of availability of munitions during training, there is an excessive reliance on simulators. The simulations will take the Fleet only so far. I enjoy working with my training AI, but where is it now? People need to work more with the real equipment if they are going to truly understand how to fully use the equipment and armament. Even if live ammo is not available, the Fleet should be using, at a minimum, dummy ammo. My squadron flies in formation to a training sector. We push a button—sorry, I meant gesture—and then return. I have no idea if a target was actually hit, since we rely on a computer feedback of a simulated target. It’s no different than the training modules. Looking at past battles, it appears as if training on the simulators alone wasn’t effective. Which has led me to wonder if there is an issue with the simulators. The other tactical issue is that it seems like squadrons are being sent out to confront the Aneplé with less than 50% of the armament needed. Those squadrons are being overwhelmed by sheer numbers of Aneplé deployed to confront them, but not because the Aneplé have a technological advantage. The Aneplé are using CIG assets, spoils from their victories, and not their own home grown technology.” Brad glanced at Shinny quietly staring ahead and again wondered what she was thinking. He continued with his analysis of the situation. “I was trying to demonstrate that it was possible to change the way the Aneplé are confronted in space.”

  “Brad, I’m not following you. You haven’t explained the proximity demo.”

  “If I didn’t know any better, the Aneplé look like they are distant relatives of the British redcoats from the colonial war. They fly out in formation and fire and keep moving in and firing again, and they keep repeating this tactic until they need to return to rearm or they will attempt to force the CIG vehicles to eject the pilots. The records show the Aneplé are not very creative in their tactics and they have been fighting like this for centuries. There’s no indication of them changing. The Fleet’s response is more effective when they have the armament. Right now they are losing battles because of low munitions and the Aneplé’s overwhelming force. I’m proposing to change tactics and disarm the Aneplé pilots by forcing them out their vehicles through similar maneuvers when traditional weapons are exhausted. The purpose of the demo was to show that it’s possible to fly close air combat without the risk of ejection on the CIG vehicles. The maneuver will trigger a safety response on the Aneplé vehicles, ejecting the Aneplé pilots. Once the pilots are ejected, their vehicles will shut down and discontinue functioning. The Fleet can then sweep up the vehicles and pilots as the Aneplé have done in the past. The difference is that CIG pilots will no longer risk losing their vehicles.”

  “You’re not serious, are you? What you are proposing is insane. Don’t you think they will catch on and respond with counter evasive movements?”

  “It’s possible they may try, but I’d be surprised if they did and if they did, it’s likely to fail for several generations, maybe even centuries, as long as certain secrets are maintained.”

  “Okay, what has the Fleet done to Brad Johnson and where did they hide him? It sounds too conceited for you. Why do you think they will not develop counter measures?” Shinny asked. “You may be brilliant even by Earth’s standards but if your assumptions are correct, then it could result in placing you in a position working with the Fleet’s leaders in developing tactics. Would you be content returning to your sleepy backwater planet after obtaining that level of recognition?”

  Brad blushed from Shinny’s praise of him, “What do you mean? It’s still me, Shinny. Yes, I do want to return to my sleepy backwater planet.” Although Brad had explained the theory numerous times to the senior officers, the remainder of his tour would probably entail him repeating it to everyone he met. Having Shinny as a sounding board would help him polish his explanation. “The demo was successful because I was able to reprogram the safety parameters of the acceptable distance between the vehicles. Had Deznoic’s vehicle not had the safety parameters reprogrammed it would have automatically ejected him even though impact was not inevitable. Normally, our vehicles sense another vehicle is crossing the safety boundaries and assume a vehicle impact is inevitable, ejecting the pilots. However, the opposing pilot and vehicle would not know that the security parameters had been reduced to avoiding ejection or impact on the CIG vehicles. CIG could begin recovering the Aneplé vehicles without risk of ejection. It was simply common sense from my perspective.”

  “Why do you think they would not be able to develop counter measures?”

  “Their vehicles are captured CIG vehicles, with CIG programming. They would need to be able to break the encryption and reprogram the safety parameters, and then reprogram it on the fly to account for variances. Breaking the encryption is nearly impossible since each vehicle has a separate encryption key. Even if they break the code on one, it would not help them in breaking the encryption on the second vehicle. I’m also banking on the lack of flying skills on their part. They don’t seem proficient at flying the vehicles. It’s as if a ten-year-old was learning to drive on a Formula One race car. The vehicles are capable of fancy extreme movements and neither CIG nor the Aneplé take advantage of the capabilities. There are occasions where the CIG pilots will push the vehicles near the limits to get out of harm’s way, but that’s rare.”

  “How were you able to reprogram? From what you have explained to me, it sounds too simple of a solution to be effective.

  “Once I was able to use my chip to read the programming documentation on the vehicles, I recognized a pattern and was able to discuss the reprogramming details with one of the original programmers on the team.”

  “The original programmer was on the ship? Was it an AI?” Shinny asked in a surprised voice.

  Brad laughed at her question. But he was equally surprised she didn’t know. “No, it wasn’t an AI, but it shouldn’t take you long to figure it out yourself.”

  “Who?” asked Shinny, but Brad had more or less told her with his statement. Her expression on the windshield reflected her understanding. “It has to be Connor. Much of the vehicle programing was done before I was born, but he doesn’t tell me anything. It’s a case of if I don’t ask, he doesn’t volunteer anything to me. At times, much of what my father has accomplished is still a mystery to me,” she stated with a hurt sound to her voice. Brad had inadvertently touched on an area of sensitivity for her.

  “Don’t take it personally. I don’t think your father intentionally hides information from you. It’s more like you stated, if you don’t ask, you don’t get answers. I believe a part of it is Connor’s reluctance to pound his chest and brag when his accomplishments become known. When I recognized his programming fingerpri
nts, I asked.”

  Shinny sat quietly. “Although I’ve had my own accomplishments over the years, it seems I will always live under my father’s shadow trying to prove something searching for my own path. I don’t think my father sought the extra attention nor did he intentionally walk all over me, but it has always been this way for me. It’s my weakness, I need to learn to disassociate my father’s professional career from our relationship. Connor is over a century older than me and there would always be something new. I know I need to let the hurt go,” she sighed. Shinny turned to Brad “What’s next?”

  Brad recognized her discomfort of learning something new about her father from him. It was similar to what he had been experiencing. They both needed to approach it from a different perspective. It would be something for them to discuss at another time. One issue at a time, for now, he reminded himself. “We can talk about your father another time. We have other issues to focus on. What do you mean what’s next? Are you referring to the demo or us?”

  “Both.”

  “As far as the change in tactics I demonstrated, I don’t know. Deznoic was called to Connor’s conference room; I assume the next steps will be discussed with the senior officers on the Zuonopy. I left Deznoic a white paper, a brief for seniors and a training plan to present to the other commanders.” Looking forward, he saw them approaching the transfer vehicle on his orders. “As far as you and me, we are heading toward a transfer vehicle, the most under-utilized vehicle in the Fleet, for us to complete Operation P’Nic, a highly classified operation.” He laughed.