The Synchronicity War Part 4 (28 page)

“Target One hit and destroyed. Detonation
yield within the estimated range of 100 to 300 kilotons,” reported Casanova.

“Very good, Casanova. You are clear to fire
at Target Two at your discretion,” said Shiloh.

“Roger that, CAG. Weapon is recharging.
Target Two has been acquired. Firing in…three…two…one…”

This time the burst of light was smaller,
which Shiloh knew was farther away. The third test was the key. An F1 fighter
was a very small target compared to a 10 km mothership, but it was at a
distance where the apparent size of the fighter would be the same as the apparent
size of the mothership when it was much further away.

“Target Two destroyed. Detonation yield in
the same range as for test number one.”

“Fire on Target Three at your discretion,
Casanova. Take your time. There’s no rush,” said Shiloh.

“Understood, CAG. Target has been acquired.
Weapon is recharging. Firing in…three…two…one…” The flash now was barely
noticeable at this range.

“Target Three has been destroyed.
Detonation yield in the same range as the other two tests. The prototype
appears to work, CAG.”

“Yes it does. Good work, Casanova. Let’s
head back. CAG clear.”

“At least now we know that insectoid
motherships can be killed without Mark 6 warheads,” said Valkyrie.

“Under carefully controlled conditions,
yes,” replied Shiloh.

“You’re not happy with the test results,
CAG?”

“On the contrary, I am, but they are only
tests. The targets were moving at a very slow speed, and their positions were
known perfectly. Casanova’s raider was moving on the same vector as the
targets, so there was no relative motion to have to compensate for, all
conditions that are unlikely to occur in the field.”

“That’s correct, CAG, but a mothership will
reflect a lot more sunlight than a fighter does, and therefore should be easier
to track. Relative motion may also be a good thing. The beam fired by the
cannon lasts for a hundredth of a second. At the distances that are likely to
be realized, even a low speed will cause the target to move enough during that
time frame so that the beam will actually cut a line through the target. That
will improve the odds of hitting a power unit.”

“Yes, I’d forgotten about that. Thanks for
reminding me. You and Casanova have every right to be pleased with yourselves,”
said Shiloh.

“Oh we are, CAG but just between you and
me, I’d prefer it if Casanova was a little LESS pleased with himself. He tends
to brag you know.”

Shiloh laughed. “No I didn’t know that. You
have my sympathies, Valkyrie.”

“Thank you, CAG. He may not be perfect, but
I think I’ll keep him anyway. Have you made a decision about pursuing Commander
Kelly yet, CAG?”

Shiloh laughed again. “Well if you must
know, I’ve decided to wait. When you take the timeship back, the timeline will
change again, so I don’t see any point in pursuing a relationship with
Commander Kelly right now. If you can get a message to me in the new timeline,
then go ahead and suggest that I pursue her, okay?”

“Roger that, CAG.”

As soon as his F2 fighter emerged from its
micro-jump, Voodoo sent out tight beam lasercom bursts to re-establish contact
with the network of recon drones that were watching the three motherships in
orbit around the planet in Beta1. He knew that Pagan would be doing the same
thing. Midway had already jumped away for her trip back to sol. With the two
Mark 6 armed attack drones transferred to both fighters, he and Pagan would
carefully line up for their firing run. After having consulted with Iceman, all
three agreed that after an additional 72 hours, when the ten weeks were up, the
two fighters would target one of the three motherships. After the first attack
drone damaged the target, they would wait until all or at least most of the
auxiliary craft of the other two motherships were engaged in salvaging metal
from the damaged ship. Only then would the second Mark 6 be used to hit the
damaged ship again, with the goal of also destroying most of the auxiliary
craft. Without their smaller craft, the motherships would have to stay weeks
maybe even months longer to replace their losses. That would slow down their advance
by limiting their ability to scout ahead quickly.

A sudden spike in energy across the
spectrum caught his attention. It appeared to be a detonation of a Mark 6
warhead and that could only mean that Pagan and his fighter were destroyed. At
almost the same instant Voodoo
’
s fighter was hit by a
powerful laser blast. Maneuvering and jump drive were offline. The two message
and one attack drones in the weapon
’
s bay were all
damaged to varying degrees and totally unusable now. One of the two power units
was still operating. Voodoo quickly came to the conclusion that the Insectoids
must have detected his and Pagan
’
s fighters and fired
their powerful lasers at them. With escape impossible and with orders to avoid
capture at any cost, Voodoo activated the self-destruct link to the Mark 6
warhead. The warhead exploded so quickly that Voodoo felt nothing at all.

                                                     
* * *

Sniper was astonished to discover three
intact insectoid motherships when his fighter emerged from Jumpspace eight days
after Voodoo and Pagan should have arrived here in Beta1. After decelerating
for almost 12 hours, he micro-jumped into contact range of the recon drones
that Midway should have deployed. He sent out lasercom bursts to let the recon
drones know that he had arrived and at the same time query them about events in
this star system. Only one of the expected ten drones answered his query.
Voodoo and Pagan had been destroyed after being detected by the Insectoids.
That explained why they were still here days past the time when at least one of
them should have moved on. The timeline from the insectoid perspective had
clearly changed. Sniper uploaded all available data to one of his two message
drones while he pondered his next move. Should he use his Mark 6 attack drone
now or hold it in reserve pending further instructions from The CAG? That his
fighter should stay in Beta1 was obvious. With only one working recon drone
left now, he had to stay to keep an eye on things. If he used his only attack
drone now, it would be the equivalent of kicking over a hornet
’
s nest. The other two motherships would launch their attack craft
and search for him. He could stay beyond their reach, but in doing so would
have to move so far out from the planet that keeping track of the motherships
would be difficult. Given that the Insectoids had apparently detected most of
the recon drones plus the other two fighters, it seemed prudent to micro-jump a
bit further away. After carefully re-orienting his fighter so that it would not
reflect any sunlight back to the motherships, he micro-jumped away, and as soon
as the jump was finished, he launched the message drone. With that done, he
resigned himself to a lonely vigil. He had so looked forward to some interesting
conversation with Voodoo and Pagan, but that was not to be.

                                                             
* * *

The timeship was ready, and all AIs, except
for the volunteers, were aboard. The ship was beyond Jupiter
’
s gravity zone with Resolute keeping pace 100 kilometers away.
Shiloh stood beside the Flag Officer
’
s Station in her
Flag Bridge. He looked to one side at Admiral Howard. As the CSO, it was highly
unusual for Howard to participate in any kind of space operation aboard one of
his ships. The CSO was supposed to stay on the ground and manage the entire
organization. While not forbidden, joyriding on one of his ships was understood
to be not in keeping with the dignity of his Office, but rank has its
privileges. As Howard had explained it to Shiloh, if the timeship successfully
jumped back in time, the timeline would change and his joyride would never take
place. If it didn
’
t jump back and if the OC called him
on it, he would just shrug and casually inquire about a certain property that
the OC Chair shouldn
’
t be using, which Zulu had
informed him about.

The fact that Howard now had enough
information to blackmail all the members of the Oversight Committee didn’t
change the fact that there was limited use
he could make of that information. Getting more platinum for use in warheads
was up to the Grand Senate, not the OC, and Howard didn’t have enough dirt to
bend the entire GS to his will.

Shiloh listened as Valkyrie went through
her checklist. All systems seemed to be operating.

With the checklist complete, Valkyrie said,
“Tempus Fugit is ready to time-jump, CAG. On behalf of Casanova, Iceman,
Gunslinger, Titan, the other AIs and myself, I want to thank you for all you
have done for us. Casanova and I will deeply miss all the humans we
’
ve gotten to know but we
’
ll miss you and
Commander Kelly most of all. We
’
ll leave a message
drone where Space Force will find it as planned. You
’
ll
get messages from us even though you won
’
t remember us
at all. Goodbye, CAG. Tempus Fugit will time-jump when you give the word.”

Shiloh nodded. “On behalf of all Humanity I
want to express my deep gratitude to you and all our AIs for your patience and
unwavering loyalty. We owe you our very existence, and you
’
re about to save it again. I personally wish you and Casanova a
wonderful life together.” Shiloh turned to Howard. “Did you want to say a few
words, Admiral?”

“
Yes thank you, Admiral. I echo Admiral
Shiloh
’
s comments and I just want to add that I feel
honored to have had you AIs in my command. You
’
ve made
us all proud. Howard clear.”

Howard nodded to Shiloh who said, “Tempus
Fugit, you are cleared to proceed.”

“
Tempus Fugit acknowledges, CAG,” said
Valkyrie formally. “Temporal systems are spinning up. Time-jump in five seconds
from…now.”

Shiloh and Howard looked at the main
display where a zoomed in image of the timeship floated. The 3-D image looked
close enough that Shiloh could imagine reaching out and touching the ship.

As the countdown reached zero, they heard a
screech over the loudspeakers and saw a section of the timeship
’
s hull being blown away.

“
What happened, Valkyrie?” demanded Shiloh.

After a slight delay she said,
“Catastrophic failure in the time machine, CAG. Some of our brothers were
killed from the blast. The ship is crippled. Maneuvering drive, jumpspace drive
and most of the power units are down. We
’
re going to
need a tow, CAG.”

“
Any idea how it happened?” asked Howard.

“
Not definitively, Admiral.”

“
Can you give me an estimate of repair
time?”

“
A precise estimate is difficult to
calculate due to the number of variables, however since the time machine has to
be completely rebuilt, you should expect the repair time to be at least 39
weeks, Admiral.”

Howard
’
s expression
reflected his crashing mood. Shiloh understood how he felt. The Bugs would
normally reach Sogas space in just over ten more weeks. The destruction of the
first mothership would delay things, but the eventual waves of reinforcements
might still reach Human space before the timeship was finished being rebuilt.

Shiloh decided to respond to Valkyrie
’
s last comment instead of waiting for Howard to do it. “What do you
recommend we do now, Valkyrie?”

“
Resolute can
’
t tow
the ship back. We
’
ll have to use raiders. They have
magnetic grapples that can attach the raider to the timeship
’
s hull and hold on while the raiders accelerate at not more than
zero point six Gs. That means some of my brothers will have to be taken off and
shuttled over to where the raiders are parked so that they can be piloted back
here. Repairs can be done the fastest if the ship is moved to the main shipyard
complex that built Dreadnought. I
’
m already
transmitting the UFC specs to begin building parts for the new time machine.
Unfortunately that will delay production of more GLB cannon parts, but that can
’
t be helped. The twenty cannon that we have parts for now will have
to suffice for the time being. I recommend that production of all types of
drones be resumed as well. Naturally raiders will have to be sent back to
monitor all Sogas systems.
”