The Synchronicity War Part 2

by Dietmar Wehr

  The Synchronicity War Part 2

  By Dietmar Arthur Wehr

  Smashwords Edition

  Copyright 2013 by Dietmar Arthur Wehr

  http://www.dwehrsfwriter.com/

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  Author’s comment: If you haven’t read Part 1, you’ll find Part 2 confusing. Therefore I don’t recommend buying Part 2 until you’ve read Part 1. Part 1 ended with a cliffhanger (start of a space battle) on the last page. Some readers don’t like that while other readers expect it. Part 2 does not end with the opening stages of a space battle but does drop a bombshell in terms of new information that could lead to more battles. It’s not a cliffhanger in the conventional sense of the word. If you like cliffhangers, don’t say I didn’t warn you. When you read this novel, you’ll come across this word ‘shi’, pronounced ‘sheye’. It’s not a typo. It’s my attempt to add a new word to the English language and it is a short way of saying she/he/it for a 3rd person reference to an entity whose gender is not known. If you like it, feel free to use it. If you happen to be an H. Beam Piper fan, check out my website.

  Chapter 0 - Time to Roll the Dice (from Part 1)

  That extra speed enabled Defiant to emerge 22 hours later into the Green4 star system 3 hours ahead of the bogey. Time enough to deploy recon drones and a pair of jump detection equipped fighters around each of the two gas giants while remaining more or less equidistant from both. The drones would passively search for reflected sunlight contacts while the fighters would attempt to pinpoint the exact location (and number) of ships emerging from jumpspace. Deploying only two fighters near each gas giant was a calculated risk. A single fighter’s detection gear could only cover a limited area and if the bogey(s) happened to emerge from jumpspace outside that detection range, the equipment wouldn’t see them and the space around each gas giant was so large, that even if Shiloh had deployed all of his fighters among the two gas giants, that still wouldn’t have guaranteed detection and recovering his fighters from both planets would have prevented Defiant from being able to jump ahead of the bogeys to their next destination. The time to the bogey’s expected arrival in Green4 came and went. Because Defiant’s distance from either gas giant was measured in millions of kilometers, ordinary light speed communication by tight beam laser was too slow. The only way for a sentry fighter to get word to Defiant quickly enough, was to launch a message drone that would microjump to the area where Defiant drifted and less than a minute after the arrival time, the ship picked up a text message from a message drone sent from one of the fighters monitoring the gas giant that Shiloh had designated as Green4A.

  [55 ships detected emerging from jumpspace. No visual contact yet]

  The text message was followed by a data stream containing the precise coordinates. Shiloh was stunned. Fifty-five ships! This was no recon mission. It was clearly a major attack. The lack of reflected sunlight contact was very bad news. Without some idea of where at least one of those ships was, the recon drones would have no way of knowing where to point their laser rangefinders and therefore couldn’t determine where those ships were heading or how fast they were going, without using active radar scanning that would tip the aliens off to the fact that Humans were aware of their presence. At least the lack of contact reports of any kind from Green4B suggested (but did not prove) that the aliens were not intending to use it to refuel. Whatever else Defiant might do, it had to refuel from Green4B as quickly as possible otherwise its options would be severely limited. Shiloh was about to order Tanaka to microjump the ship to Green4B to refuel, when the Bridge faded from his field of vision and he saw himself standing in front of Admiral Howard but this vision was different. Instead of the usual crystal clear image, this image was blurry, almost as if he were looking at the scene thru distorted lens. Howard’s voice sounded strange too. The pitch was not quite right and the words didn’t seem to be synchronized with Howard’s mouth.

  {I congratulate you on your decision to remain at the star system where you detected the enemy fleet. If you had continued to track them, you would not have been able to detect the much larger force that was following in their wake and we wouldn’t have been able to gather enough strength in time to stop it. For your brilliant strategy, I’m promoting you to the next higher level of rank.} As Shiloh listened to Howard’s words, which were said in a calm, almost monotone voice, he noticed that Howard was repeatedly jabbing his pointed right hand in Shiloh’s direction and the expression on Howard’s face did not look particularly pleased. If he’d been watching this scene without any sound at all, he would have interpreted Howard’s body language as indicating anger. The dissonance between the visual and auditory impressions was striking. What is going on, he asked himself. He looked around to see if anyone was looking at him. No one was. Tanaka was conning the ship from the Helm Station again. Falkenberg was down in the Hangar Bay supervising the fighters and their support teams. There was something not right about this vision but Shiloh couldn’t put his finger on it and he didn’t have time to analyze it further. Decisions had to be made. The fighter at Green4A would be following previously given instructions and maneuvering his drones under the assumption that the fleet would head for the nearest gas giant. Even if the drones didn’t detect any reflected sunlight from any of the alien ships before they reached the gas giant, those ships would agitate the planet’s atmosphere enough with friction and turbulence that their presence would be detected if the drones were close enough. The drones would then attempt to pinpoint the enemy’s exact locations and vectors using the range finding lasers as the ships emerged from the planet’s atmosphere. In theory it should work but it had never been tried before so no one really knew.

  What Shiloh had to decide now was whether Defiant would proceed as planned to Green4B to refuel so that it could boost a high speed message drone and also beat the enemy fleet to their next destination. But if the vision was correct about an even larger follow-on fleet, then staying right where they were would be the best option. On the other hand, if the vision was wrong somehow, then perhaps there was a third option that he hadn’t considered yet. His visions so far had all involved a change of plans from what he otherwise would have done without them. If he applied that parameter to this situation, he would proceed to refuel at Green4B. The mere fact that he was having some kind of vision to begin with, strongly suggested that refueling to boost to the next destination was NOT the optimal strategy but staying in Green4 and doing nothing just didn’t sit well with him. The only other strategy he could think of was to attack that fleet before they could jump away. He needed to confer with his senior officers and to his mind that included Iceman as well. Falkenberg could join the discussion by video intercom as could Iceman. Tanaka and Rodriguez could step over to his station as they had done before. When all four were present either electronically or physically, Shiloh said.

  “Valkyrie had detected 55 ships emerging from jumpspace near Green4A. He’ll try to pick up their precise locations and vectors as they refuel. I now have to decide what our response will be. For reasons that I do not want to go into now, I’ll having doubts that our plan to refuel at Green4B and then jump ahead of the enemy fleet is still our best option. I want to hear assessments from all of you on an alternative strateg
y to attack the fleet here in this system and if you have a completely different idea, I’d like to hear that too. You first, Brad.” The Deputy CAG took a deep breath and said,

  “Well, we have 19 fighters still aboard and we have enough attack drones to give them 5 each which should be plenty but the challenge will be to get targeting lasers on each enemy ship unless we want to use active scanning. Without one or the other, the attack drones won’t know where to aim for. Right now, Valkyrie doesn’t have enough recon drones to target more than half a dozen ships at one time, assuming that they can find their targets to begin with. If they are in fact intending to refuel at Green4A, then the ideal time to hit them would be while they’re still deep in the gas giant’s atmosphere. Their ability to see us will be limited but we’d have to get drones and/or fighters in close to be able to precisely locate their ships from the wakes they leave behind as they plow through the gas.” Shiloh nodded and turned from the video screen with Falkenberg’s image to his Astrogator.

  “Can we get our fighters that close before the enemy re-emerges from the atmosphere, Astrogator?”

  “There’s no way to know for certain. We don’t have any data on how fast they can refuel, Sir. But if their refueling time is similar to ours, then the answer is yes. Defiant would have to jump as close as possible to the opposite side of the gas giant to where the enemy fleet is, so that their jump detection gear won’t pick us up. We then launch our fighters which will accelerate at maximum in order to make a close, high speed pass and fire their attack drones when they have visual contact with the enemy ships.” He was about to say more when Tanaka interrupted.

  “What if they keep some of their fleet in orbit to stand guard while the rest refuel? If I was their fleet commander, I wouldn’t risk exactly that kind of ambush by refueling all ships at the same time. How would we deal with that?” There was a short pause, and then Iceman spoke.

  “We launch our fighters and use the gas giant’s atmosphere against them. Our recon drones will monitor their position and speed as they refuel. The fighters will enter the atmosphere far enough away so that they won’t be spotted by the enemy. When the distance has dropped to less than 100 kilometers, our fighters will swing around so that they’re behind the alien ships still refueling and then move back up to the edge of the atmosphere. The enemy won’t be looking down at the planet for signs of human activity. They’ll be watching the space around and above them. When all 55 ships have finished refueling, our recon drones will relay that data to our fighters, which will emerge from the atmosphere, stay behind the enemy fleet at close range and launch attack drones. At precisely that same time, our recon drones will go to active scanning, use that data to triangulate each enemy ship’s exact position and relay that data to our attack drones. The enemy will react to the radar scanning from above, fire at our recon drones while our attack drones get within one kilometer of their targets. They then use their own radars for terminal guidance and that fraction of a second before impact won’t be enough time for the enemy to retarget their lasers.” No one said anything for almost five seconds. Finally Shiloh said.

  “That plan will require split second coordination to work but other than that, I don’t see any flaws with it. Does anyone else?” The responses were uniformly ‘no’.

  “Iceman, have you calculated all of the vectors and signal times needed to make this work?”

  “Ah, roger that, CAG.” was the immediate response. Shiloh took note of the fact that Iceman referred to him as the CAG and not as the ship’s CO.

  “Very good. In that case I want Iceman to coordinate this attack. He will issue the necessary orders to Defiant’s Helm, all the fighters involved as well as monitor the attack as it proceeds and react as needed if things don’t go as planned. Iceman, make sure you keep the Defiant’s tactical computer updated on all vector changes and transmissions. XO? You’ll monitor but not interfere with Iceman’s Helm directives.” As Tanaka nodded, Shiloh continued. “Iceman, how soon do we need to begin the attack plan?”

  “The longer we wait the less chance of pulling this off, CAG. I would not recommend waiting more than five more minutes. The sooner, the better.”

  “Understood. Does anyone have any questions?” No one spoke up. “In that case, return to your stations.” When everyone was back at their assigned stations, Shiloh took a deep breath. I hope I’m doing the right thing, he thought to himself.

  “Okay, Iceman. The mission objectives are the total destruction of that alien fleet. With that as your goal, you have my permission to commence that attack plan.”

  “I won’t let you down, CAG.” Almost immediately, Defiant’s engines started pushing her onto a new vector. The main display showed a countdown to a microjump. Shiloh’s station started showing increased activity in the Hangar Bay as the support teams began to load more attack drones onto each fighter. The moment that Shiloh had been dreading, being in command of a major battle WITHOUT any reliable vision to guide him, was now upon him. If this plan went wrong, and he survived the battle, Howard would be within his rights to court martial Shiloh. It was time to roll the dice.

  PART 2

  Chapter 1 - There’s Never A Pickle Around When You Need One

  The Bridge was very quiet now. Only the occasional murmur as someone responded to another part of the ship but everyone was speaking in hushed voices. Iceman and his strike force had launched almost half an hour ago after Defiant made a very careful microjump to a point, two light minutes from Green4A, that Iceman had determined would avoid detection by the alien ships IF they were on the exact opposite side of the gas giant as expected. Since they hadn’t undergone an attack by 55 alien ships, it appeared that the ship’s microjump had not been detected. It hadn’t taken long to re-establish com laser link to both sentry fighters, whose drones were still trying to detect the enemy ships passively. There was a limit to how long they could wait for passive detection before Iceman’s Strike Force entered the gas giant’s atmosphere and lost contact with the ship. Iceman had already determined, and Shiloh had approved the idea, that it was pointless for the Strike Force to wander around inside the gas giant’s atmosphere if they didn’t know where the enemy ships were, so the recon drones would resort to active scanning at the last possible moment when that data could still be received by the Strike Force. Active scanning would alert the enemy to a Human presence and they might abort their refueling operation. Iceman would have to adjust the attack plans quickly enough to compensate for any enemy action. This was the kind of lightning fast tactical ability that only an Artificial Intelligence could display. It occurred to Shiloh that A.I.s were way too valuable as tactical commanders to continue to be used solely as fighter pilots. He was certain that it’d be tough to convince Admiral Howard of that. But something told him that A.I.s would be the key to winning this war.

  A glance at the chronometer showed that they had less than 14 minutes left for passive detection by the drones. Shiloh looked over to Tanaka, who was conning the ship from the Helm Station. She must have felt his stare because she turned around to look at him and gave him a slight nod of acknowledgement. He nodded back and smiled. He’d been lucky to have good people serving under him and Sumi Tanaka was no exception. What she lacked in experience, she made up for with focus and energy. He wondered how long the Space Force would let him keep her as his Executive Officer. Probably not long. That was the price COs paid when the Space Force was expanding as fast as it was now. Good people got shoved upward as fast as possible. Shiloh suddenly realized that he was hungry. He was about to contact the Galley to order sandwiches and coffee brought up to the Bridge for everyone when his Command Station console beeped softly. Another text message from Valkyrie.

  [Turbulence wakes detected in upper atmosphere. Minimum of 14 enemy vessels now refueling. 31 enemy vessels detected in low orbit via silhouette against planetary background. 10 vessels unaccounted for. Recon drones being maneuvered closer. Trajectory data follows. End message.]

  Bef
ore Shiloh could ask, the Astrogator was already anticipating his next order.

  “We’re relaying the drones’ sensor data to the Strike Force now, Commander.” Shiloh nodded his approval. So Iceman would get his critical data in time. He would project the enemy fleet’s orbit and time his Strike Force’s interception so that his 19 fighters would sneak up on them from below and behind. It sounded good but Shiloh couldn’t help wondering where those missing 10 bogeys were. He checked the incoming sensor data parameters. The drones were far enough away from the gas giant that, while it was possible and even easy to observe the wakes, caused by ships plowing through the upper atmosphere, the attempt to detect the black silhouette of ships in low orbit against the planet’s lighter background was pushing the optical sensors to their limits. It could very well be that the other 10 bogeys were in fact also in low orbit but the drones’ sensors hadn’t detected them yet. The other possibility was that the missing ships were also refueling but were underneath the 14 ships whose wakes were visible. The turbulence wakes of the ships higher up might be hiding the wakes from the ships below.