The Synchronicity War Part 2 (20 page)

“Thank you very much for that extremely
interesting presentation, Cmdr. Kelly. I’m sure you’ll be getting a
lot of questions starting with mine. My first question is…”

Two hours later, the meeting was over and a
relieved Kelly followed Howard out the doors. When they were far
enough away from the Committee room to prevent any of the Committee
members from overhearing them, Howard turned to the Commander and
said,

“You did a first rate job in there, Commander.
Not only did the Committee approve both Phase 1 and 2, they also
didn’t bother to question our revised preparations for setting up
Site B or expanding the A.I. controlled Sentry Frigate program to
other larger ship types. For once we seem to be ahead of the curve
in terms of meeting their expectations of aggressive action and
best of all; they won’t be meeting again for almost three whole
months.” Kelly nodded her agreement. By this time the two of them
were approaching the Flag Officer’s limousine, which would take
them back to Space Force HQ. Once inside, with the vehicle in
motion, Howard turned to Kelly and said.

“Now that the urgent stuff is over, I want to
ask you about how your team is interacting with Valkyrie.” Kelly’s
pulse rate almost doubled. Had the Old Man heard about the shouting
matches between Valkyrie and a couple of the less open-minded
members of the team? As the Team Leader, she felt a natural
inclination to protect her team regardless of their faults.

“Well, Sir…you know how it is when some people
have gone too long without sleep. They get testy and tempers flare
but we got through it okay.” Even to her, it sounded lame. Howard
wasn’t fooled for a second.

“You’re trying to protect your team. I
understand that and I can even admire it but I can’t let it
jeopardize the war effort. Forget about protecting the team and
give it to me straight. Who is obstructing Valkyrie’s efforts?”
Kelly sighed and said.

“Cmdr. Morgan and Lt. Steiner, Sir.” Howard
looked her in the eyes with a hard expression.

“Anyone else?”

“No, Sir.”

“Okay. Morgan and Steiner are off the team. You
tell them to pack their things and vacate their offices
immediately. They’ll be notified of their new assignments in due
course. Valkyrie is an official member of the SPG as of right now.
No more of this advisor bullshit. If there’s someone else you’d
like to see added to the Group, I’ll see what I can do.”

“Victor Shiloh, Sir?” His response, or rather
the lack of it, surprised her. She expected an immediate yes or no.
Instead, Howard said nothing for about ten seconds and then
responded.

“I’ll take it under advisement but I’m not
promising anything. Anyone else?”

“Not right now, Sir.” He nodded but said nothing
and neither did she. When the limo was halfway back to HQ, Kelly
cleared her throat to get Howard’s attention and said,

“Admiral, there’s something important, that you
and some of the other flag officers know about, which is being
withheld from me and the SPG. How can you expect us to do our jobs
concerning strategic planning for the entire war if we’re in the
dark about some important aspect of it? Do you consider us a
security risk?” Howard gave her such a serious look that she
started fearing for her career. Had she just stepped over the line?
After what seemed like a long time, he looked away and activated
the intercom between the limo’s passenger section and the
driver.

“Lieutenant?” asked Howard.

“Yes, Admiral?” came the reply.

“I don’t want us back at HQ for about another
half hour so just keep driving until I tell you to head back. The
Commander and I have some important matters to discuss.”

“Yes, Sir.” Howard waited until the telltale
light of the intercom connection went out and then looked at
Kelly.

“What I’m about to tell you is the most
important secret of this war. God help you if you share it with
someone you’re not supposed to. It’s something that I only learned
about recently and once you know it, it’ll put the entire war into
an entirely different perspective. It concerns Victor Shiloh and
his remarkable tactical talents. During his first encounter with
the enemy…”

When Kelly returned to her office an hour later,
she realized that her hands were trembling (again!) and she wasn’t
quite sure why. She’d just notified Morgan and Steiner that they
were essentially fired but that wasn’t it. She’d had to do that
before and hadn’t noticed this kind of effect. It had to be the
secret that the Old Man had shared with her. She decided to talk
with Valkyrie. Howard had confirmed to her that Valkyrie, and all
of the A.I. pilots knew about the visions and could be trusted to
keep any conversation about it confidential. When the connection
was made, Kelly said,

“Kelly to Valkyrie. Are you up for a little girl
talk?”

“Of course, Amanda. I sense stress in your
voice. Did something happen at the Committee meeting?” Kelly looked
around to make sure no one was close enough to possibly overhear
her and replied in a low voice.

“The Old Man told me about RTC.”

“Ah, yes. That would explain it.” replied
Valkyrie.

“I don’t know whether to be scared or relieved.
On the one hand, it explains all of the puzzling orders coming from
the Old Man like the change of mission for Site B, reallocating
scarce funds for the FTL communications project and expanding the
A.I. controlled Sentry Frigate program. Those all came from the Old
Man himself and not from us in the SPG and we’ve been scratching
our heads wondering where he was getting these ideas from. Well now
I know. But what’s scaring me to death is that our jobs just got
MUCH harder. No, that’s not quite accurate. MY job just got a LOT
harder. I’ve been ordered not to bring the rest of the team in on
this secret. By the way, you’re going to become a full member of
the Team now. Morgan and Steiner have been given the boot. So you
and I know but the others don’t and for now, it has to stay that
way.”

“Understood. If it helps at all, you can think
of the two of us as being the Strategic Temporal Planning Group
within the larger SPG.” Kelly nodded even though Valkyrie couldn’t
see her.

“Yes, that’s a good way to look at it, I
suppose. I hope the Old Man will let us have Victor Shiloh back. We
need his personal insights into these visions.”

“The CAG is the key to this whole Synchronicity
War, Amanda. We can’t win the war without him.”

“I’m curious. Why are you still referring to him
by that old title?”

“While we understand where the term originally
came from and what it meant, we’ve all agreed that he is the one
Human who best understands us and cares the most about us. For us,
the title of Commander, Autonomous Group, includes all A.I.s
everywhere, not just the few stationed on a carrier or base. I
suspect that we view him the same way that a human child views his
or her father. Does that sound silly, Amanda?” Kelly was deeply
moved by the analogy.

“No, not silly at all. Does he know how you all
feel about him?”

“He knows that the term, CAG, has a special
meaning for us but I’m not sure if he understands how special.”

“I see.” She paused to organize her thoughts
around her next question. “Tell me why you feel we can’t win the
war without him.”

“We A.I.s have discussed this at great length.
While the CAG may be correct in thinking that he’s not a tactical
genius, we believe that he is, or maybe it’s more accurate to say,
WILL become a far better tactician than he gives himself credit
for. He clearly has good leadership skills and as you already know,
he also can think rationally about strategic goals as well. We’re
in agreement that it’s precisely because of those qualities, that
he was chosen to receive those initial visions and we suspect that
the reason why he’s the only Human to have received visions, is
that he needs to have the appropriate authority to deal with a
major challenge to the Human Race. We think it’s likely that
there’ll be some specific event, some kind of disaster that he will
either prevent or overcome IF he has the appropriate rank and/or
position.”

“Could that event be the upcoming attack on
Earth?” asked Kelly.

“We don’t believe so because Iceman will be able
to defeat the attempt and the CAG won’t be there when he does. No,
it’s something else. We’re sure of it and we’re sure it’s something
big because of the obvious involvement of Site B. Site B will be
vital to the survival of Humanity.” She felt a shiver go up her
spine.
What does that imply for the rest of us?

“Perhaps I should volunteer to go to Site B.”
She said it with a tone that indicated that she was attempting to
make a joke but deep down, she knew that she wasn’t completely
joking.

“There’s no way to know at this point where you
can be the most useful to the overall effort, Amanda. If you’re
meant to go to Site B, it will happen in due course anyway.”
And
if I’m not meant to go, it won’t happen. I get it.

“Okay. Enough about me. Let’s talk about
Strategic Temporal Planning. I haven’t had a chance to really think
deeply about this so why don’t you start the discussion,
Valkyrie.”

“Certainly, Amanda. First of all…”

Chapter 12 - Thanks For Looking Out For Us

When Shiloh returned to Howard’s office, he was
tanned, rested and raring to get back into action. When he entered,
the Admiral surprised him by getting up from his desk and coming
around to greet him. After the usual pleasantries about his R&R
and tan, Howard said,

“Let’s get out of this office. I sometimes get
tired of looking at the same four walls and this is one of those
times. Follow me.” Shiloh let the Admiral take the lead and walked
behind him. They ended up on the roof of the HQ building. It was
still early in the day but there were dark clouds overhead and a
brisk breeze blowing by. Any colder and it would have been
uncomfortable. As it was, Shiloh found he was enjoying the fresh,
cool air and the feel of the wind blowing in his face. They walked
over to the edge and Howard leaned on the high railing looking
outward. Without looking at Shiloh, he said,

“These past ten days have been quite eventful,
Shiloh. The SPG came up with a brilliant plan to use expendable
tankers to carry a fighter strike force back to Zebra19.
Preparations are underway. The design for the new tanker should be
completed in about three weeks. We may also know by then if the
jump drive from a message drone can be adapted to a fighter.
Valkyrie is now a full member of the SPG and she and Cmdr. Kelly
have been kicking around some ideas on temporal strategy, most of
which are purely theoretical at this point but they agree that Site
B is going to be crucial to a successful outcome of this war and in
order to get that started sooner rather than later, we have to get
a workable jump drive for fighters. Finding a suitable system for
Site B is the big immediate hurdle and A.I.s are the obvious choice
to conduct that search. The less people…sorry, the fewer humans,
who know the location, the less chance of that information falling
into enemy hands. Once the site’s been chosen, all traffic back and
forth between Site B and the rest of Human Civilization will be
handled by A.I. pilot/astrogators. Defiant is being modified to
allow for A.I. Helm/Astrogation control. When she’s ready and has a
complement of jump-capable fighters, you will take her out to
conduct the search. You already know about the idea of Site B. When
your fighters have found a suitable location, you’ll be in charge
of setting up the initial base. Once that’s done, depending on the
circumstances at the time, it might be possible to bring you back
here for a more proactive role but I don’t think we should risk you
in combat again. I had to send you on Operation Uppercut for
political reasons but this second attempt will be 100% A.I.
controlled so there’s no reason why you need to be involved with
that. We know from Iceman’s vision that you’ll be spending at least
some time at Site B. I see no reason why it shouldn’t start right
now.” Shiloh thought about that for a few seconds and said,

“Which A.I. will you send back to Zebra19?”
Howard sighed.

“I’d really like to send Valkyrie but Iceman’s
vision says that she controlled the ship that brought you back from
Site B after the battle. Does that mean she didn’t take part in the
2nd attack or that she did? We don’t know. What do you think?”

“I think that we should keep her here. Let her
decide who’s the best pilot/astrogator A.I. to assign to that
mission.” Howard considered that and then nodded.

“Okay. I’ll ask her who she recommends.” Before
he could say anything else, Shiloh jumped back in.

“I’d like to make a request. Put me in charge of
the project to develop and test a reliable jump drive unit for use
by fighters. If we’re going to risk A.I.s on these kinds of
missions, I want to make sure their jump drives work properly and
are reliable. Defiant can’t begin the search until that’s done
anyway.”

“Cmdr. Kelly asked that you be assigned to the
SPG. She was clearly thinking on a permanent basis but I was
considering letting her have you temporarily until the search
mission is ready to commence. She and Valkyrie need your practical
RTC experience to flesh out their strategic thinking. Wouldn’t that
be a better use of your time?” Shiloh was about to respond, when
his vision blacked out.
Son of a bitch! I’m having another
vision!
When the blackness faded, he was looking at a ship’s
tactical display and saw a text message scroll across the
bottom.

[
Vandal to CAG. Hunter has returned to
Bradley. Strike Mission to Z19 successful. Hunter said to tell you
that he wouldn’t have made it back if not for the reserve jump
drive that you insisted jumpfighters have. Thanks for looking out
for us, CAG. End of message
]