The Synchronicity War Part 4 (10 page)

"That may be the best way militarily,
but it's not the most politically expedient way. Right now the politically
expedient way also has the most popular support. You will conduct this war the
way WE want, OR we'll replace you after the next enemy attack. Is that
understood, Admiral?"

After a short pause Shiloh said,
"Aren't you forgetting something?"

The man across from him chuckled. "The
AIs? We're no longer afraid of your AIs, Admiral. If you want to play that
card, you go right ahead."

His tone of voice was one of supreme
confidence.
He actually WANTS me to arrange for another show of force! What
has he got up his sleeve? I have to find out somehow.
"So what exactly
do you want me to do?" asked Shiloh.

"Here's what we want done." The
Chair held up his hand and used his fingers to count off the points. "First,
no raiders. Tell the shipyards to cease working on them and resume work on
building more combat frigates and heavy cruisers. Second, stop taking armor off
the battleship. Why Howard ordered that I don't know, but we need that ship, so
the armor goes back on. Third, all ships, including carriers and the
battleship, will henceforth be operated and commanded solely by humans. No AIs.
Fourth, we want a series of attacks on Enemy colonies as soon as they can be
identified."

It took Shiloh a couple of seconds to
realize that the Committee STILL didn't know that Space Force now knew where
all Sogas planets were.

"Fifth, we want all personnel brought
back from Site B. That was Howard's pet project, and it's so far away that we
can't monitor what's going on there. So whatever it is that's really going on
there, we want it stopped."

Shiloh felt his anger rising.
I have to
keep calm. Letting him goad me into responding rashly will only play into his
hands.
"We're building more F1 fighters at Site B, as well as new AIs
to pilot them," he said.

"Not anymore. Why build more F1s at
all when we're now building F2s and more AIs here? We are becoming way too
reliant on AIs to fight this war. The AI and F1 production facilities at Site B
are to be shut down as soon as is humanly possible. The personnel there will be
brought back as soon as transportation can be arranged. I want your
confirmation that you'll execute those instructions, Shiloh."

Shiloh looked carefully at the Chair's
expression. He looked like a man who has just drawn a line in the sand, and he
was daring Shiloh to stop over it. Shiloh really didn't want to give in. Site B
was now the only place where a new timeship could be built, but were humans
really necessary to build it? Maybe Valkyrie and her AIs assistants could use
the F1 assembly line robots to do the actual construction work. He needed time
to investigate whether that was possible. One way to get the time was to appear
to cooperate with the OC.

"I will order the immediate halt to F1
and AI production at Site B and the repatriation of our people from there as
soon as we can find the transport capacity," said Shiloh.

"Very good. See, that wasn't so hard,
was it? If you play ball with us, we'll cut you some slack in terms of your
military priorities. How soon can your people plan for a fighter strike on an enemy
colony, Admiral?"

Shiloh decided he would try to buy more
time. "Well, I'd want our light carriers fully repaired before we
undertake an operation like—"

"Forget the carriers. Our fighters can
conduct a raid all on their own. They've proven it can be done, so let them do
it. How soon?"

"Two weeks minimum."

The Chair looked like he wanted to reject
that as too long but then apparently changed his mind. "Okay. I did say
we'd cut you some slack, so you've got your two weeks to come up with an attack
plan. In the meantime, we expect to see my five points being acted upon. I
think that'll do for a start, so I'll leave you to it." Without another
word the Chair got up and walked out.

After the man had exited the outer office,
the CSO's Aide, a nervous looking Lieutenant, appeared in the doorway with a
folded piece of paper in his hand.

"Excuse me, Sir. Admiral Dietrich
stopped by while you were talking with the Chair. He gave me this to give to
you." He handed the paper to Shiloh.

The message was short.

 [
The internal communications system has
been compromised by the OC. Watch what you say and to whom you say it. SD.]

Shiloh thanked the Lieutenant and leaned
back in his chair. Somehow he would have to keep the OC happy for the 131 days
until they could attempt to recover a dead Bug from Omega77 and the additional
32 days until they could try to intercept the VLO when it arrived at the Sogas
home system. In the meantime, he would have to find a way to appease the OC
with regards to their desire for raids on enemy colonies without suffering a
lot of casualties among the AIs. That, Shiloh was certain, was the OC's real
objective.

One thing had to be done right away. Kronos
had to be sent back to the Friendlies. Shiloh couldn't use his implant or the
HQ com system to call him without risking interception. Kelly would have to go
off planet and deliver the message directly. Any future communications of a
sensitive nature between him and his AIs would also have to be carried up to
orbit by Kelly. It would be a pain in the ass, but it was the only way to be
sure that the Committee didn't hear something they shouldn't hear.

On the day after his appointment as the new
CSO, Shiloh decided that he should make the rounds of the Headquarters building
and introduce himself to the people working there. It was mid-day when he
arrived at the Operations Center. After briefly chatting with the officer in
charge, Shiloh went from station to station to chat with each of the personnel
on duty. All the personnel seemed pleased by the attention from the new CSO and
were willing to talk, except for the Senior Lieutenant at the Orbital Defense
Weapons Station. As Shiloh made the rounds, he had noticed him watching, and
the young officer's expression was one of concern. When it was his turn with
the CSO, he seemed nervous and clearly did not want to look Shiloh in the eye.
His answers were terse, almost to the point of being rude.

During a pause in the conversation Shiloh
took a close look at the console in front of the Officer. He recognized the
weapons systems controlled from this station as being the growing clusters of
Mark 5 X-ray laser drones in Earth orbit. There were already over a hundred in
orbit now, with more being deployed almost every day. This was the key station
that would repel another sogas or insectoid attack. As Shiloh looked at the
three small screens facing the Officer, a part of one display caught his eye.

[AI TARGETING STATUS - - - ON STANDBY

 O.C. COMMAND OVERRIDE STATUS - - OFF]

Shiloh had enough presence of mind to keep
his face from showing his shock. The Committee had secretly installed a command
override that allowed them to aim all the Mark 5 X-ray laser warheads at all
the AIs that were in or near Earth orbit. THAT was why the Chair was
practically begging Shiloh to order the AIs to execute another show of force.
If they did, the Committee would fire the Mark 5 warheads in a surprise attack
and destroy any AI within range! They would then claim that the AIs had gone
rogue and that the Committee had no choice but to defend the planet! Shiloh
managed to exchange a few more pleasantries with the sullen Officer and then
walked away. Outwardly he appeared calm, but inside he was boiling with rage.
Those stupid bastards! If Humanity turned on its AIs, they would lose their
loyalty forever and deservedly so!

By the time Shiloh calmed down, he realized
that he was on the roof of the building, just like that day when Howard brought
him up here to chat. The brisk breeze felt good on his face, and he decided
that this was as good a place as any to think about what to do next. He had to
pretend that he didn't know about this betrayal, otherwise the OC might just go
ahead and use it without provocation. He had to find a way to either disable
the override or the targeting system without compromising the use of the drones
against legitimate targets, but he had no idea of how to do that. That meant he
had to find someone who did know AND was willing to technically commit
sabotage, which under Space Force regulations was a very serious offense. Kelly
was back from her mission to brief Kronos about his return flight to the
Friendlies. He needed to brief her on this new development, and it had to be
someplace where there was no chance of the OC listening in, so his and her
quarters were out. It didn't take long to come up with the idea of the two of
them having dinner at one of the out-of-the-way restaurants in the city. A
nice, quiet booth at the back should be pretty safe. He went back to his
office, gave his Aide some instructions and spent the rest of the working day
reading reports and dictating memos.

The sun was just starting to set when
Shiloh and Kelly, now wearing civilian clothes, rendezvoused at the street
level in front of the main entrance to the HQ. They briefly kissed. It was
obvious by now that EVERYONE knew about their romance, and while a relationship
between a subordinate and her superior was frowned upon, there wasn't an actual
regulation against it. Still, by mutual consent, they tried not to flaunt it.

Half an hour later, they were seated in a
comfortable booth at the back of a small restaurant with dim lighting. Shiloh's
Aide had done some research and claimed the establishment was highly
recommended. It was one of the few restaurants that still hired human waiters
to serve customers instead of automated bars and robotic food carts.

With the drinks and meal ordered, Kelly
leaned over and said in a low voice. "Something's bothering you. I can
tell."

Shiloh nodded. "You're right. I made a
discovery today that makes me want to strangle those OC bastards." Even
though he spoke in an equally low tone, Kelly could hear the rage threatening
to break through.

"What did they do now?"

"They've added a backdoor override on
the orbital defenses to allow them to fire on all AIs within range."

Kelly looked so shocked that Shiloh was
afraid she wouldn't believe him.

"My God! That's monstrous! Do the AIs
know?"

Shiloh shook his head. "Not yet, and
we have to be careful about how we tell them. We can't risk using the HQ Com
System. One of us, and I think it'll have to be you to avoid suspicion, will
have to go to one of the carriers, talk privately to whichever AI is in command,
and advise him to use the lasercom system to pass the information on to the
others."

Kelly took a deep breath and nodded.
"I can take a shuttle up as soon as we're finished here." She looked
surprised when Shiloh shook his head.

"No. If the OC is monitoring our
movements, and we have to assume that they are, that'll look suspicious.
They're so goddamned paranoid now that if they suspect we know, they may use
the override right then and there. Wait until tomorrow. Catch a ride on a
scheduled shuttle flight to one of the carriers. It doesn't matter which one. 
Tell the AI in Command that the OC is looking for an excuse to use the
override, and therefore our best counter-strategy is to not give them any
excuse while I look for a way to covertly neutralize the threat. You should
also tell them not to react in any way that would arouse suspicion. Tell them
I'm working on a plan to find an excuse to move them out beyond the effective
range of the Mark 5 warheads. If the Committee wants to see plans for a fighter
strike on enemy planets, then I'll accommodate them. We're not going to wait
two weeks to present the attack plans. I want the SPG to come up with a strike
plan within 48 hours that uses all available fighters."

Kelly reacted as expected. "But we don't
want to send our fighters on strike missions because the enemy would be warned
and our fighters could be heading into an ambush!"

Shiloh smiled. "The OC wants our
fighters sent on strike missions hoping they'll suffer losses from enemy
action. What they will see is lots of fighters heading out, away from the Mark
5 warheads by the way, and at the appropriate time a much smaller number of
fighters returning without any unused attack drones. They will assume that the
attacks actually took place and we'll confirm that assumption with After-Action
reports that describe fierce battles and heroic action on the part of our AIs.
What they won't know is that the attacks never actually took place and that the
destroyed fighters are actually holding station a long way out beyond Pluto
with all of the Mission's attack drones, just in case we need them to defend
Earth against a Sogas attack."