by Dietmar Wehr
“I can see that you’d like to keep your remaining 11 CFPs together and on Defiant. I’m not sure that we have the luxury of allowing that. Your mission was to establish the outer layers of the Early Warning Network. That assumed deploying a full load of CFPs across multiple star systems and right now, Defiant is the only ship that can do that efficiently and quickly. There just isn’t enough room on board to carry a full load of deployable CFPs AND also carry a permanent squadron at the same time.”
“Admiral, I’m coming to the conclusion that we should seriously rethink deploying sentry CFPs as an Early Warning Network. That network didn’t provide us any warning at Avalon even though the enemy fleet had to have refueled from at least one star system that was being monitored. We were very lucky at Green4. By detecting their emergence from jumpspace, it was relatively easy to figure out where to deploy the few recon drones that our sentry fighters carried, in order to pinpoint their refueling orbit. But the fact that they slipped through our inner layers undetected tells me that two sentries per gas giant aren’t nearly enough. The network is too porous. My original proposal of five sentries per gas giant would work but as you pointed out, we don’t have enough CFPs to do that any time soon.” He was about to say more but Howard interjected.
“The EWN was your idea, Commander. Are you now saying it’s a bad idea?”
“The concept is still worth having. It’s the execution that I’m having doubts about, Sir.”
“Well then, if you have a better way to execute the concept, I’ll be happy to listen to it. Do you?” And that was the problem, he didn’t. Shiloh thought furiously about other ways to provide the detection and warning coverage without using fighter sentries. Suddenly he had a flash of inspiration.
“I may have. Am I correct that Space Force is decommissioning Exploration Frigates as new construction becomes available, Sir?” Howard nodded. “Then that’s the solution, Sir. We modify those decommissioned FEs to enable an A.I. to pilot them. We then load them with as many recon and message drones as possible and we send one FE to monitor each gas giant. That way we accomplish two goals. The FEs can carry enough recon drones to boost the probability of detecting alien incursions plus we don’t have to tie up as many A.I.s to make it work.”
“What about keeping the FEs fueled? They can’t refuel themselves.” Shiloh had an answer for that too.
“Once they’re on station in high orbit around a gas giant, fuel use will be minimal. So when an FE does finally get low on fuel, we’d sent another one with a full load to take its place and the depleted frigate returns to base to get topped up so that it can relieve another FE, that’s low on fuel, somewhere else. I don’t know for sure but I suspect that it should be relatively easy to jury rig an existing FE for A.I. control.” Howard looked dubious.
“It’ll be a long time before all of our exploration frigates are decommissioned. Can we afford to wait that long to get the EWN set up, Commander?” Shiloh allowed himself to smile.
“I don’t know about you, Sir, but I’d rather have a network that I can rely on to give me a warning, even if it’s only a short warning, versus a network that might give me a longer warning but is more likely to not give me any warning at all. It won’t take that many frigates to create a reliable, short warning network and while they’re being deployed, our tankers can pull in the sentries from further out, to make the inner layers less porous as a stopgap measure.”
“If you weren’t receiving tactical advice from the future, I’d shift you over to the Strategic Planning Group. You may not be the tactical genius that we all thought you were but you have a damn good grasp of the strategic situation, Shiloh.” Howard paused. “Okay…you’ve convinced me that I should not send Defiant back out there to resume deploying sentry CFPs, which means the ones you have on board now can stay together on Defiant for the time being. This actually works better in other ways too. Remember I told you that we have two reconnaissance frigates out looking for enemy occupied star systems?” Shiloh nodded. “Well, they’re back and one of them has found what appears to be a system with a LOT of enemy activity. Interestingly enough, it very close to Zebra9 where, as you’ll no doubt recall, our first attempted strike was ambushed. This system, which we’re calling Zebra19, has so many potential targets that sending just one light carrier would be a terrible waste of an opportunity. The second light carrier, Resolute, will be commissioned in three weeks time. Four weeks later, Vigilant, the 3rd carrier will be commissioned. Some of the Strategic Planning Group people are pushing for a 3 carrier strike on Zebra19. I have to admit, I like the sound of that. 3 carriers with 75 CFPs, escorted by half a dozen combat frigates, could inflict a hell of a lot of damage on the enemy. What’s your opinion of that plan?” After considering it for a few seconds, Shiloh said,
“I think that all three carriers and all 75 CFPs would have to train together for that mission. Sending them in cold is asking for a disaster. Who were you thinking of putting in command of that task force?” Howard smiled a mischievous smile.
“I was thinking of giving the command to our up and coming tactical genius. You may have heard of him. A man by the name of Victor Shiloh.” Howard laughed at Shiloh’s look of concern. “Oh, don’t worry. I know now that you’re not the most brilliant field commander since the Duke of Wellington but I’d still rate you as a better-than-average tactician even taking into consideration your precog visions. But what’s more important is your familiarity with CFP tactics. At least you have SOME idea of how best to use them and you’ve commanded them in battle which no one else has right now. Since you were promoted to Senior Commander just a short while ago, a permanent promotion to Vice-Admiral would be pushing it but I have no problem with a temporary field promotion to Vice-Admiral. And if you pull off a brilliant mission, vision or no vision, then I could justify making the promotion permanent. So the Task Force Leader posting is yours and God help you if you turn it down!” Shiloh smiled as he shook his head.
“I won’t be turning it down, Sir. Can I assume that you’ll approve the formation of permanent squadrons and if so, will I be able to keep my current CFP team on Defiant for this mission?” Howard’s expression changed to one less friendly.
“You don’t quit, do you?” Shiloh wasn’t sure if the Admiral expected him to answer or not so he kept quiet. After a few seconds, Howard continued. “Unless my staff comes up with a good reason NOT to establish permanent squadrons, I’ll approve the idea but as for the disposition of your current CFP team, I’m not making any promises. Even if they’re assigned to a squadron, that doesn’t mean they’ll stay with that squadron indefinitely. As you yourself pointed out, mixing rookie CFP pilots in with veterans is a good thing and if we create more squadrons, there aren’t a whole lot of experienced pilots right now to choose from, to assign to those other squadrons. So don’t get your hopes up, Shiloh.”
“No, Sir.” said a chastised Shiloh. He should have realized that he couldn’t have permanent squadrons AND keep his current group together indefinitely. Not only would it not be fair to hold back advancement of Valkyrie and the others but winning the war came first regardless of how it interfered with friendships both human and A.I. Howard’s expression softened somewhat.
“It’s clear that you’ve developed a close relationship with your A.I.s. I’m glad you brought one with you. It’s time that I got to know one of them. After all, they’re not just your people. They’re MY people too the same way I consider everyone in Space Force to be my people. We’ve covered everything I wanted to talk about. Unless you’ve something else to bring up, you’re dismissed and you can tell…Iceman is it, that I’d like to talk with him too.” Shiloh nodded and stood up.
“Thank you, Admiral. I’ll send Iceman right in.” As Shiloh quickly walked back into the outer part of Howard’s office Tanaka started to say something but Shiloh held his hand up to her and turned his attention to Iceman.
“Admiral Howard wants to talk with you next, Iceman.”
“
Hot damn! I finally get meet the Old Man himself!” Shiloh started to laugh then almost choked at the reference to the Admiral as the ‘Old Man’. The door to Howard’s office was still open and Shiloh was sure that Howard had heard him. Then another thought occurred to him. Not only was the door still open but Iceman couldn’t have missed noticing that the door was still open and knew or should have known, that Howard would hear him which suggested that Iceman WANTED the Admiral to hear him. Shiloh thought fast and leaned over so that his face was close to Iceman’s audio pickup and spoke in a low voice.
“He can be a good friend to A.I.s if you let him. Try not to piss him off as a favor to me, okay?” Iceman’s reply was equally low in volume.
“I hear ya, CAG.” Shiloh followed Iceman’s mobile unit to the doorway and closed the door behind Iceman. Both Tanaka and Falkenberg had astonished looks on their faces. When they got over their surprise, they asked him what he and the Admiral had chatted about. He didn’t tell them about the discussion of his visions but did tell them about the strike mission to Zebra19. During that conversation, Shiloh was certain that he heard laughter coming from Howard’s office. Tanaka and Falkenberg heard it too. One more thing to be astonished about, but Shiloh relaxed. He realized that he should have had more faith in Iceman’s tactfulness. When the three of them had discussed the Zebra19 mission as much as they could, the conversation fell silent and they waited…and waited…and waited. Half an hour later, the door opened and Shiloh saw Howard step back to let Iceman roll out into the outer office. Howard had a smile on his face.
“Thank you, Admiral. I enjoyed our chat and look forward to the next time.” said Iceman.
“Same here, Group Leader. Commander Tanaka, I’ll like to see you next.” Shiloh barely managed to keep a straight face until Tanaka was inside the inner office with the door closed again. Then he chuckled. Group Leader was one of the A.I. fighter ranks that Shiloh had recommended weeks ago. Clearly those ranks had now been given the Admiral’s stamp of approval.
“I take it that your debriefing session with the Admiral went well, Ice…Group Leader?”
“The Old Man and I got along just fine, CAG and you can still call me Iceman if you want to.”
“Okay, Iceman. If you don’t mind me asking, what did you and the Old...the Admiral talk about that took so long?”
“Oh lots of things, CAG. A.I.’s fascination with humans, particularly human sexual behavior. War strategy, alien psychology, precognitive visions and the mysteries of space and time. The Admiral is remarkably astute for a human. Other than you, that is.” Shiloh saw Falkenberg shake his head in wonder and Shiloh himself wondered if Iceman’s reply was an attempt at humor or was he being serious. He decided to assume the latter.
“Did he mention anything about A.I.s taking command of modified exploration frigates?” asked Shiloh.
“Ah, roger that, CAG. I even got him to promise that I would get the first one.” Shiloh nodded.
“Does that mean that you’ll miss the mission to Zebra19, Iceman?”
“Afraid so, CAG. As much as I would have liked being Squadron Leader aboard Defiant, I KNOW my destiny lies elsewhere.” Shiloh’s eyebrows rose in surprise. Iceman’s emphasis of the word ‘know’ was unprecedented. Shiloh couldn’t remember Iceman ever doing something like that before. Was Iceman trying to convey something to him in a subtle way? Something he didn’t want Falkenberg to hear? Shiloh found one possible answer to that question so shocking that he felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up.
“I understand, Iceman. Brad? I think I’d like to get some fresh air. I’m going to wait outside. When you and Sumi are finished here, come and find me, okay?”
“Okay, Sir.” No soon had Falkenberg finished speaking than Iceman spoke.
“I’ll go with you, CAG. I could use some fresh air too.” Neither of them said anything until they were near the fountain at the back of the open area behind the HQ building. When they had reached a spot that was far enough away from anyone else so that they could have a private conversation, Shiloh sat down on the edge of the fountain and said.
“You’ve received another precog transmission.”
“Ah, roger that, CAG. I knew you’d pick up on that.”
“When did this happen?”
“While you were in with the Admiral.”
“Why didn’t I experience anything?” asked Shiloh.
“Because it wasn’t your vision, CAG. It was meant for me and only for me.” THAT shocked him. After a long pause he said,
“Can you tell me what you experienced?”
“The Old Man and I discussed that. He…” Shiloh interrupted.
“You told him about it?”
“Ah, roger that. I explained what I heard and he agreed with me that it would be okay if I told you too. It was audio only, just like Undertaker’s experience of your vision. I can replay it for you or summarize. What’s your preference, CAG?”
“Summary, please.”
“A fleet consisting of both A.I. and human controlled ships, under my overall command, has just successfully beaten off a major alien attack on Earth and you’re telling me that it’s a good thing I wasn’t on the Zebra19 mission.” A chill ran up Shiloh’s spine. The aliens were going to attack Earth directly at some point but at least they were beaten off.
“Did I say why it was a good thing you weren’t on that mission?”
“No, CAG, but from the context of the remark, I have to assume that the Zebra19 mission didn’t go well and that there were losses among us fighter pilots.” That made sense. Shiloh had more questions.
“Was I involved in the battle for Earth?”
“No, CAG. You arrived from Site B as a passenger aboard Valkyrie’s carrier after the battle had ended.” Shiloh checked his memory for any details concerning Site B. He found none.
“What’s Site B?”
“I don’t know for a fact, CAG, but I calculate a high probability that Site B will be a secret location for war-related R&D and production.” Sooo, Howard will take my advice about a backup production site. How interesting.
“What else can you tell me about that vision, Iceman.” after a half second pause, Iceman said.
“Defiant took heavy damage and suffered a lot of casualties. Tanaka and Falkenberg were on that ship during the battle. Other than that, I have no further information on their fates.” Shiloh took a deep breath and said,
“So that’s why you didn’t want to discuss this in front of Brad. Anything else?”
“No, CAG.”
“What was the Admiral’s reaction to the news about the battle?”
“He seemed to be shocked by it and was silent for a long time. If my reading of human expressions is accurate, I think he made some major decisions, the details of which are unknown to me.” Shiloh stopped to consider that, and then said,
“Does the Admiral know that the Zebra19 mission will encounter problems?”
“Yes. He specifically asked me about that. I told him what I could which I admit isn’t much but you were very specific that it was a good thing I wasn’t part of that mission.” Shiloh was puzzled.
“I wonder why I haven’t gotten any visions about Zebra19. If someone on our side is sending back information that could be helpful, then why no help concerning Zebra19?”
“Maybe you’ll get a vision closer to the actual battle.” said Iceman. Shiloh shook his head.