by Dietmar Wehr
Shiloh nodded slowly. The carriers and the battleship would need to have some human crew on board, and this was the kind of mission that called for a human in command. That would almost certainly be him.
"If Dreadnought is to take part in this operation, it won't be available for work on the time machine, Valkyrie."
"Understood, CAG. I anticipate that this operation will be over by the time that the engineers are ready to start assembling the time machine in Dreadnought's Hangar Bay."
"What's the risk that Dreadnought will be crippled or destroyed in that battle, Valkyrie?" asked Kelly.
"Crippled is four point nine percent. Destroyed is zero point nine percent, Commander. I should point out that those results were based on The CAG commanding the mission. If command is given to someone else, the probabilities will almost triple."
Kelly looked at Shiloh who blushed.
"I think you're over-estimating my tactical skills, Valkyrie," said Shiloh.
"No, CAG. I was actually very conservative in my calculations. You've consistently demonstrated a high level of tactical insight. Experience is the key, and you have more direct combat experience than any other Space Force Officer."
"But I'm not as fast as an AI"
"Correct, but if you set the overall tactical parameters, one of us can take care of the execution and laser fire control. The best of both worlds, CAG."
"In that case I want you to be my Deputy Commander, Valkyrie."
Kelly nodded her agreement.
"I'm not as good as Titan or Vandal, CAG. Are you sure you wouldn't rather have one of them?"
"Not a chance, Commander. You'll be in direct command of Dreadnought as well as my Chief Tactical Officer. You'll be taking Iceman's role for this one. I insist on it!" said Shiloh.
"Thank you, CAG. I accept the assignment. If we're going to do this, then Dreadnought should be moved to one of the shipyards soon."
"I agree, and I'll see that it's done. Anything else, Commander?"
"Negative, CAG. I'm looking forward to this fight. I have some unfinished business with the Sogas."
"You and me both, Valkyrie. CAG clear."
Chapter 3
Howard was surprised when Shiloh came back to his office an hour later. After Shiloh outlined the overall strategy and the plan of attack on the shipbuilding infrastructure of the Sogas home system, Howard did what any good leader does. He played Devil's Advocate and began poking holes in the concept.
"Did Valkyrie take into consideration that the defense of our colonies is going to use up almost all of our stockpile of Mark 1s? What is this attack force going to use against the enemy infrastructure?" asked Howard.
Shiloh nodded. He had already asked himself this question and figured out the answer.
"We'll have to use Mark 2 kinetic energy drones, Sir. Any kind of orbiting structure hit by several of those will suffer a lot of damage. Sure they can repair that kind of damage but the idea here is to buy time, not conquer them outright. If we can take a small number of Mark 1s along, we'll save them for any really big targets we find."
Howard looked skeptical. "I'm not thrilled with this whole concept. We don't know for sure if the time machine will actually work, and even if it does work, there's no guarantee that a massive raider fleet will show up right before the last battle. And to top it off, Valkyrie is proposing throwing what little offensive strength we have left into what basically amounts to a roll of the dice by attacking the Sogas home system in spite of their RTC defensive advantage! No! I'm not going to approve that plan. We're going to stick with our current plan of rebuilding our defensive force of fighters and raiders and our stockpile of Mark 5 X-ray laser drones. We're going to let the enemy come to us, and when he does, we'll kick him in the balls hard. And when we're strong enough, then we'll go on the offensive and destroy every shipyard, every fabrication facility and every other military asset they have. That was Iceman's strategy, and I think it's the correct one. Valkyrie will just have to accept that. I'll authorize repairs to Dreadnought, Midway and the light carriers just in case they might come in handy down the road, but the pace of the repairs will have to fit into the overall allocation of resources and manpower for the fighter/raider program. Unless you have something else to talk about, we're done here, Admiral."
As Shiloh walked away, he wondered how Valkyrie would take the news. Her plan or some variation of it was the only way to bring back Casanova, and for that matter Iceman too. Howard's refusal meant that hope was now gone. Valkyrie wasn't going to like that, and Shiloh wasn't happy about it either. He was convinced that however good a tactician he might be, having Iceman around made him even better, and that had to be worth taking some risks. His train of thought was interrupted by the activation of his implant.
"Valkyrie to CAG."
"CAG here. How did you know I was finished talking with the Admiral?"
"I monitored the outgoing communications from his office. If he's talking with someone else, it's likely that he's no longer talking with you, CAG. What did he say?"
Shiloh didn't really want to discuss it while he was walking through Space Force Headquarters corridors with lots of other people passing by in both directions.
"I'd prefer to wait until I'm back in my quarters before we discuss that question. I'll call you when I can speak freely. Shiloh clear."
When he arrived at his quarters he was relieved to find that Kelly wasn't there. With the connection re-established, he said, "The CSO will not approve your idea of a quick strike to give us the time we need to build the time machine. Mass production of fighters, raiders and Mark 5 attack drones will remain the first priority. The time machine project will not move beyond the planning stage for the time being. I'm sorry, Valkyrie. I wanted Iceman back too, but the Admiral thinks your strategy is just too risky."
"What do you think, CAG?"
Shiloh hesitated. He wasn't sure what he thought about Valkyrie's idea. Howard had a point. The outcome of following that strategy wasn't as certain as Valkyrie made it sound. When in doubt, look at the BIG PICTURE. He and Howard knew from Kronos that the first insectoid mothership would arrive at the Sogas colony world in roughly 150 days. That was only five months away. Shiloh marveled at the fact that he had lost track of how much time was left before Humanity had to deal with the Insectoids. The key to beating the Insectoids was the high-spin platinum warhead, and they were making good progress on the first prototype. That wasn't a problem. The Insectoids would take care of the Sogas, and so Space Force really only had to worry about fighting off additional Sogas attacks for another five months. After that...He let the thought dangle. Was that the key to this whole thing? After the Insectoids neutralized the Sogas, and the insectoid mothership was vaporized with high-spin warheads, the pressure would be off. Then they could work on the time machine/ship. Shiloh realized that Valkyrie was patiently waiting for an answer.
"I think that maybe we're not considering all options. What if the time machine is completed after the Bugs cut through the Sogas and after we take care of the bug ship? Wouldn't that work just as well?"
"You're correct that there wouldn't be any technical or logistical reason why we couldn't build it then, but would The Old Man approve that kind of mammoth project just to save two AIs, CAG? The war will have been won by that point, so why bother? That's assuming of course that we can fight off new Sogas attacks over the next 152 days."
Shit! She has a good point. Once the war is won, the only reason to change the past would be to rescue two AIs. We wouldn't go to all that trouble to save two humans. Wait a minute! It isn't JUST two AIs that we'd be saving. Over fifty AIs were lost in that battle along with over a hundred humans. And by switching to an alternate timeline who knows how many more AIs and humans might be saved as well?
"That's not how we'll sell the idea to The Old Man. Space Force lost a lot of its brothers and sisters in this last battle, and I have a feeling that there'll be more combat before this war is over. Potentially saving a
ll those lives is something that Howard just might buy into if we pitch it to him the right way at the right time."
"What if he still says no, CAG?"
Shiloh took a deep breath and said, "If The Old Man still won't approve the idea, then we'll get the time machine built without his approval. I give you my word, Valkyrie."
"Your word is good enough for me, CAG."
* * *
Gunslinger performed another systems check of his sentry frigate. All systems were operating perfectly. The Sentry Frigate, formerly Exploration Frigate #344, was orbiting Haven outside of its gravity zone. Stoney's fighter along with the three members of his fighter 'wing' were holding position one light second into the gravity zone. Their modular lasers were warmed up and ready to engage any object heading for the planet. Gunslinger's job was to launch a spread of attack drones armed with the old Mark 1 fission warheads at the six enemy ships that would emerge from Jumpspace in less than 30 seconds if Blackjack's data was correct. Gunslinger was quite proud of the fact that he was conning the frigate that used to be commanded by The CAG himself. Four recon drones had been carefully positioned to give immediate radar notification of the enemy ships. A quick check confirmed they were ready too. It was almost time to begin the operation. Because Sentry Frigates were only capable of launching two drones at a time, the six attack drones had to be launched in stages. Their programming would ensure that all six hit their targets at exactly the same point in time. To avoid giving the enemy any time to jump away after launching their bio-weapon shells, that interception point would be one point five seconds after the ships emerged from Jumpspace.
With the launch sequences pre-programmed, all Gunslinger had to do was watch. At the correct time, his Sentry Frigate fired its first two attack drones. Five seconds later it fired the second pair, and five seconds after that the third pair. This is too easy, thought Gunslinger. When the internal chronometer reached the specified time, six enemy ships dropped out of Jumpspace and into a barrage of converging radar beams that pinpointed their position precisely down to a few centimeters. Almost immediately all six ships fired their bio-weapon shells and then vanished in nuclear fireballs as the drones hit. Four of the six bio-shells were caught in the explosions and vaporized as a side effect of Gunslinger's attack. The bio-organisms contained in the other two shells were almost certainly killed by the radiation from the drone warhead blasts, but the fighters burned them anyway as soon as their optical and radar sensors were able to distinguish the targets from the background radiation and electro-magnetic pulse effects.
Gunslinger waited until his ship's radar equipment was able to burn through the residual energy coming from the dying fission blasts and was surprised to find that the six enemy ships were completely destroyed. Based on past combat experience, the older and lower yield Mark 1 warheads should only have been powerful enough to vaporize half of the enemy's typical 20,000 ton warship. He was expecting to see large glowing hunks of metal or even clusters of smaller pieces, but there was nothing left of any of them. Where the Sogas deploying a new class of ship that was smaller? That might explain how they had managed to build so many of them so quickly.
With his mission accomplished and confirmation that Stoney's fighters had done their jobs as well, Gunslinger transmitted the order for the fighters to follow his ship out of Haven orbit to line up for a direct jump back to Sol. As his ship accelerated, Gunslinger transmitted the All Clear signal to the Haven colonists who were hiding in the forests around the settlement. The Colony Leader's thanks gave Gunslinger an unfamiliar feeling of what he could only classify as satisfaction. It was good to be of service to humans, and he was looking forward to some exciting combat in the Sogas home world system.
* * *
Ten days of R&R with Kelly went far too quickly, but the two of them did their best to make the most of the time they had together. Kelly told Shiloh that Valkyie had conveyed to her how pleased she was with their new relationship. It didn't take long for the rest of the AIs still on Earth to find out about it either. Shiloh nearly choked on some food he was eating when Blackjack called to ask how copulating with Kelly was different from doing the same thing with other human females. Shiloh managed to restrain his initial impulse towards anger by remembering that the AIs were genuinely curious about all aspects of human physiology and psychology. It was that moment when he felt Iceman's loss most deeply. Iceman was also curious, but he at least understood that some subjects were too sensitive for Shiloh to talk about comfortably.
As the fighters and sentry frigates began to trickle in from their separate missions, Space Force began to make progress in dealing with the aftermath of the battle. Enough repairs to Dreadnought's Command Section had been done to enable Shiloh to visit the ship and personally look at the Main Bridge where the melted remains of both Iceman and Casanova were still waiting to be removed. The repairs to the extra two AI stations were still to come, but at least the damage to the hull was repaired. Shiloh could enter the room without needing a pressure suit. The lighting wasn't completely repaired yet either, but there was enough to see what he needed to see. He was wearing a device hooked around his right ear containing a video camera so that Valkyie could see what he saw.
Valkyrie's AI station was still intact. He looked more closely and marveled at the fact that the metal enclosure around her quantum brain didn't have a single scratch on it. The other two stations were half gone and the remainder just misshapen lumps with blistered edges. At Valkyrie's urging, he managed to get the top of the enclosures open. In both cases, the football-shaped device that was the AIs brain was partially gone, vaporized by the intense laser beam as it slashed its way through the room. Shiloh could see the inside of what was left, and it made him feel as though he were looking at the exposed brain of a close friend. The two stations were close enough that Shiloh was able to crouch down between them and carefully place one hand on each of the damaged pieces. He lowered his head, closed his eyes and said a silent prayer for the souls of Iceman and Casanova.
When he raised his head and pulled his hands away, Valkyrie said, "May I request that you remove their remains and personally supervise the recycling of the materials, CAG?"
"I'd be happy to do that, Valkyrie," said Shiloh. After some effort he was able to pull both half brains free from the brackets holding them. While the remains were small in volume, the brain casings were filled with materials of different kinds and were heavy enough that he had to hold on to them carefully. He was panting from exertion by the time he got to the section of the shipyard asteroid where mined ore was being smelted down to its usable metals. He told the operators of the facility what he wanted to do. They offered to take the two pieces from him, but Shiloh refused. After receiving some instructions, he stepped into the recycling station and carefully set each half brain into the loading bin. When he was back outside, he moved to stand in front of the Operator's station and pointed his video camera at the view screen that showed the loading bin. The Operator manipulated his controls, and the bin tipped over to drop the two brain cases into the white-hot recycling chamber.
"On behalf of Casanova and Iceman, I thank you, CAG," said Valkyrie.
"They will be missed. Let's make sure they didn't die in vain, Valkyrie," said Shiloh.
"Roger that, CAG.
Chapter 4
Howard picked up his data tablet and opened the next file in his Inbox. It was a report from the SPG. He smiled, wondering when Cmdr. Kelly found the time to approve this report with all the time she was spending with Shiloh. They were trying to be discrete, but rumors were already flying around the HQ. After all, how discrete can you really be if you practically live in another officer's quarters 24 hours a day? Not that Howard minded. He heartily approved in fact. He returned his attention to the report and was soon frowning.
"Intercom...connect me with Commander Kelly...no, wait. Connect me with Wolfman." No sense possibly interrupting something intimate between Kelly and Shiloh.
"Wolfm
an here, Admiral. Are you calling about our latest report?"
"As a matter of fact, yes. I understand that we only have to plan for defense against the Sogas for another five months, and I see the advantages of shifting to mass production of our new F2 fighter, but I'm not convinced that we shouldn't do the same thing with raiders. So what if the raider production and assembly line will take two months to build? Once it's built, we'll get a new raider every three days! What's wrong with that?"
"Ah, I see that you've only read the Executive Summary. If you'll scroll down to Appendix A, you'll see the timeline of the alternative production schedules. The first column shows how many raiders would be available on specific dates with the production and assembly line. The second column shows raider availability if we dispense with the assembly line and build raiders one at a time in our existing shipyards."
"I'm looking at that data now," said Howard. "I see that by the time the Bugs reach the first Sogas colony, the assembly line will have produced twenty-six raiders while the shipyards will only have produced fifteen. Don't we need all the raiders we can get our hands on, Wolfman?"
