by Dietmar Wehr
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.”
Shiloh heard Howard groan. Revving the production capability back up again when the war was supposedly over would not go unnoticed, and the CSO was not looking forward to trying to explain it without blowing the whole situation wide open.
“Understood. I’ll arrange for shuttles to pick up your raider pilots. We’ll get your ship to the shipyard as quickly as possible.” Valkyrie’s response surprised and frightened him.
“Do it fast, CAG. I’m not exaggerating when I say that our calculations indicate that every second counts.”
* * *
Shiloh waited outside the Oversight Committee conference room. Howard was inside meeting with the OC in closed session to brief them on the bug threat and the reasons why disclosing the information to anyone else by any member would lead to leaks that would ruin all of them. With the Committee in Howard’s back pocket, he’d be able to restart drone, AI and warhead production without needing anyone else’s approval. Not forever but maybe for long enough. The room was soundproof, so when the doors suddenly flew open, Shiloh jumped in surprise. Howard strode out with a look of triumph on his face. At the back of the room stood the Chair, with his back to Shiloh, having an animated discussion with two members who looked very uncomfortable. The Chair’s voice was low enough that Shiloh only caught four words which were ‘…keep your mouths shut…”
As Howard came up to him he said, “I know that look, Shiloh. What’s the bad news?”
Howard continued walking and Shiloh fell in beside him. With other people in the corridor, Shiloh waited until they were more or less alone at the side entrance of the Grand Senate building.
“Message drone from Beta1. The Bugs have learned they’ve been under surveillance by a space-faring race. All three motherships are still intact. Their timeline has changed, Admiral. We have no idea what will happen now.”
Howard took a deep breath. “Why didn’t we get a vision warning about this?”
“RTC warning is only useful if there’s a workable alternative. Sniper’s message says he has no data on how they discovered the surveillance. Without knowing how to prevent discovery, the only other option would be to discontinue the recon mission altogether. If we did that, we’d be back to where we started with the lone mothership bearing down on the Sogas and eventual bug reinforcements showing up in our own front yard.”
Howard nodded. “Got it. Where are the three bug ships now as far as we know?”
“Under the old timeline, they should have split up and moved on by the time Sniper got there. Voodoo and Pagan were supposed to destroy one just before they were scheduled to leave that system. The idea was to keep the other two plus any reinforcements focused on Beta1. At least that part of the plan has worked. All three motherships were still in Beta1 when the message drone left. They have to be scouting nearby systems with their attack ships. Sniper is smart enough to stay there and report any new developments, but he’s only got one more message drone left. We have to get more assets there asap. Iceman has already worked up a response plan, and preparations are underway pending your approval of the operation.”
When it was clear that Shiloh wasn’t going to say more, Howard said, “Okay tell me.” Shiloh looked around and back at Howard. Howard nodded. “You’re right. This is not the place to continue this discussion.” He turned and walked out of the building and over to the Space Force limo flying the flag of a 3 star Admiral.
When they were in the limo and on their way back to HQ, Shiloh continued. “Fighters are being dispatched to all Sogas colony and home world systems to notify our monitoring raiders of the new situation. Twenty recon and thirty message drones are being loaded on a raider which will get to Beta1 as fast as we think is safe to try. Before it leaves we need to include instructions for Sniper as to what to do with his Mark 6, which he said he was holding in reserve. We’ll have another Mark 6 drone ready in 96 hours. What do we do with it? Hold it back or stick to the original plan of deploying it at Beta1 against bug reinforcements?”
Before Shiloh could continue, Howard interjected. “What about deploying fighters in the intervening systems between Beta1 and Omega89 as an early warning network?”
Shiloh shook his head. “There are far too many systems to watch them all. We’d have to use almost all our raiders too, and that would leave us with practically no reserve force.”
“Okay. How many raiders have the new cannon installed?” asked Howard.
“Three,” was the reply.
“Iceman’s not recommending sending them to Beta1?”
“No, Sir. The tactical simulations show that at odds of less than five raiders to one mothership, the raiders will suffer heavy losses. Three versus three, if that’s what they find when they got there, would very likely mean all three raiders lost and no bug ships destroyed.”
“Hmm. I wish we had a vision or two to fall back on. Why don’t we have a vision to handle this situation?”
It was a good question, thought Shiloh. Since visions co
uld be sent back to any point in the past, there wasn’t a good reason not to send a vision back to here and now instead of later. If they hadn’t gotten one by now, that strongly suggested that they wouldn’t get one. Having heard about how two previous timelines had ended in disaster without help from any visions, Shiloh was painfully aware that one possible reason was because their situation was hopeless. He decided to offer a more positive one.
“I’d like to think that we’re just not in a position to take advantage of one yet, Admiral.” Shiloh could tell from Howard’s expression that The Old Man was aware of the other reason too.
“Well, let’s get into a position where we can take advantage of one,” said Howard.
“Roger that, Sir.”
Chapter 22
Was this how humans felt when they sighed, wondered Sniper as it became clear that another mothership was accelerating out of orbit from the habitable planet. His frustration at the situation was very annoying. The first mothership had left 55.5 hours earlier, and Sniper had used his last message drone to notify The CAG of that event and of the estimated destination system. Now another one was in the process of leaving, and Sniper had no way of notifying anyone other than to carry the message himself, which would leave Beta1 unmonitored. Both alternatives were unacceptable. What made it worse was that there was now no way to determine which of the three motherships was the one that would end up in Sogas space. At least if he knew the answer to that question, he could have used his Mark 6 drone to cripple it. He didn’t think it was the first one. The estimated destination didn’t match the atomic tracing from the dead Insectoid. That wasn’t conclusive proof however. It could still have been the same mothership that was now taking a different route and might or might not arrive at Omega89 at some point. But based on the information he did have, the probabilities were that one of the remaining two was that particular mothership. If he used his drone now on the one that was in the process of leaving, he had a 50:50 chance of taking out the right one. He decided to go for it.
Having watched the insectoid ships for hundreds of hours, Sniper had already planned for this eventuality and was in position to fire. He programmed the attack drone and launched it. It would use a tight beam lasercom burst to stay in contact with him during the pre-jump acceleration. He watched it maneuver until it was directly behind the accelerating insectoid ship. The drone then went to maximum power for 13.1 seconds and jumped. The micro-jump covered the remaining 3.9 million kilometers in a fraction of a second, emerging from Jumpspace within the mothership’s gravity zone at a distance of 169 meters from the target. It was too close for the ship to detect the drone and still be able to do anything about it. The drone hit its target almost dead center and detonated. It was hard to tell from optical instruments how much damage had been inflicted, but it was clear that the insectoid vessel was no longer accelerating. The reaction of the remaining mothership was almost instantaneous. It began to accelerate in a gentle curve that delayed recognition of its intended destination for several hours and also made another similar attack more difficult. When Sniper had enough data from his own opticals and from the sole remaining recon drone to calculate where this third ship was headed, he was surprised to see that it appeared to be headed to the same star system that the atomic tracing had revealed to be the next destination on the road to the Sogas and to Humanity.
He now had a new dilemma, or rather the same dilemma but with different parameters. Should he stay and watch for reinforcements, or should he follow bogey #3, or should he head straight for Sol to inform The CAG? All three options had their own pros and cons. Staying would enable him to gather information that might be crucial to the longer term chances of a successful defense. AI reinforcements would show up soon, and they would bring more message drones with them. They could then send a steady stream of message drones back informing The CAG of every new insectoid ship arrival and departure, including destinations and estimated arrival times. Leaving Beta1 now would leave a gap in coverage. Motherships could arrive and leave again during the gap, and The CAG would have no way of knowing about them. Heading back to Sol would have short term benefits but nothing else. Following this third mothership to the next destination and the ones after that could give The CAG some warning if this ship did eventually head for Omega89 or another Sogas star system, but again nothing else. His inclination, which matched his call sign, was to stalk his prey even if he couldn’t fire on it, but Iceman had been clear. Personal preferences had to take a lower priority versus protecting the humans. He made the decision to wait and keep watch.
* * *
Howard read the latest progress report on the timeship repair and shook his head in dismay. Six weeks after the aborted time-jump attempt and they STILL weren’t finished clearing away the damaged sections, never mind starting construction of the new time machine! He knew the human shipyard workers were working extra shifts and that the number of robotic workers was increasing day by day, but the news was still depressing. He had to remember how BIG the timeship really was. In terms of internal space, it was 55% bigger than Dreadnought.
He dropped the tablet onto his desk top with a sigh and looked up at the strategic status display on his wall. Raiders were now monitoring every Sogas star system again. Additional raiders were on station or enroute to the star systems identified by the atomic tracing, although it was too early to hear anything back from them.
He focused on the flashing red dot at Beta1. Sniper’s message drone had arrived the previous day. One of the three motherships was now on the move but apparently not towards Sogas/Human space. In terms of the old timeline, the other two were now weeks past their departure date, and that was just fine by him, but Valkyrie, her AIs and Humanity now needed a LOT more time. How long could they keep the Bugs chasing their tails around Beta1? That was the question.
* * *
Shiloh was floating in water in a completely black environment. The water was the same temperature as his skin. He felt completely calm. Only the sound of the water lapping up against his body and head told him that he wasn’t floating weightless in empty space. He began to hear a voice that started out very faint but quickly got louder.
“—wake up, CAG. You’re dreaming. Wake up, CAG.”
The peaceful, warm blackness evaporated away, and he realized he was in bed. His implant was activated. Iceman was calling him.
“I’m awake now, Iceman. What is it?”
“Message drone from Sniper. VLO number two has been crippled by his Mark 6. Number three immediately accelerated and jumped towards the next destination identified by the atomic tracing. Assuming the same transit time as in the old timeline, number three could arrive at Omega89 in 287 hours. If it stays in that system for more than a few hours, we may be able to get an F2 with another Mark 6 there in time to attack it, but that decision has to be made right now, CAG. Any further delay and the F2 may arrive too late.”
Shiloh sighed. “Well there goes the plan to keep them focused on Beta1.”
“Not necessarily, CAG. I have an idea. Number three may be attempting to locate the source of the attack on number two. If it doesn’t find a spacefaring race within a certain radius of searching, it may go back to Beta1 or perhaps veer off to search another section of space.”
“That’s all nice and fine, Iceman, but if it gets to Omega89, it will find a small colony of intelligent aliens that will clearly have been brought there by spaceships. There’s your spacefaring race. Never mind that it’s not the right one. The mere possibility that it might be the right one will pull the Bugs forward from Beta1.”
“Not if we make the colony at Omega89 look like a pre-spaceflight tech level, CAG,” said Iceman.
“And how would we do that?” asked Shiloh.
“Bombardment with Mark 2 kinetic energy penetrators plus laser strikes as needed. At sufficiently high speed, the concussion from impact will obliterate anything that looks advanced enough to be of interest. When the VLO gets there, it will see the ruins o
f a small settlement with a few survivors but no sign of any technology. It may not even bother going there if the scouts don’t detect any signs of technology such as radio or radar emissions.”
“That means we’d have to get there before the Bugs do. Can we?”
“If the F2 doesn’t have to wait for the next Mark 6 to be completed, it can leave within the hour and arrive one, maybe two days before the ESTIMATED time of insectoid arrival. I emphasize the word ‘estimated’, CAG. I can’t guarantee when the third VLO will get there IF in fact it’s going there at all. It may not you know. Just sayin.”
“Understood. Okay, let’s do this. Make the necessary preparations, and send that bird on its way.”
“Roger that, CAG. I’ll also send instructions to the monitoring raiders there to take whatever steps are necessary to avoid detection by insectoid scouts.”
