The Synchronicity War Part 4 (20 page)

"Can the shipyard be moved out of
orbit?" asked Kelly.

"Yes, but not quickly."

"Can the refining and manufacturing be
moved into the cavern complex and still keep operating?"

"Ah, I see what you're thinking,
Amanda. If we move the shipyard far enough out where the Insectoids are
unlikely to look, and move everything else from the moon's surface underground,
then there's nothing for the Insectoids to detect, and they will move on."

"Precisely, and while you're waiting
for them to pass by, you'll continue to manufacture parts for both the ship and
the time machine. Once they've passed by, you bring the shipyard back into
orbit around this moon and resume construction."

"You do realize, Amanda, that this
will delay final completion by several more weeks?" asked Valkyrie.

"Yes, of course, but if the ship is
completed and the time machine works, then it won't matter. What concerns me
more is figuring out how to know when the Bugs have passed by."

"That should not be a problem if
enough recon and message drones are positioned in Sol and in each star system
where there was a human colony. When the mothership leaves Sol, a sufficient
number of recon drones should be able to triangulate its heading with enough
accuracy to predict where it's going. If it heads to one of our former colony
systems, we should be able to track it as well. When it no longer shows up in
any system between Site B and Sol, then we can be certain that it's gone
past."

"Very good, Valkyrie. I'll make
certain that The CAG issues the necessary orders for that kind of drone
deployment. Is there anything else you wish me to pass on to him?"

"Yes. Tell him that I miss him. I will
miss you too, Amanda."

Again, Kelly was so touched that she felt
tears roll down her cheeks. She was sure that her voice would betray her
emotional state but didn't care.

"I'll pass that along, and I can speak
for The CAG when I say that he misses you too, and I will miss you. This may be
the last time we're in the same system before the Bugs reach Earth. You've been
a wonderful friend to The CAG and me, Valkyrie. We both have complete
confidence in you."

"I and the other AIs will not rest
until Humanity is safe from the Sogas and the Insectoids, and if Humanity
should fall, we will avenge you. I see that your ship is ready to enter
Jumpspace again, Amanda. We have said what we needed to say. Go now, and let's
both pray that we meet again. Valkyrie clear."

                                                             *
* *

By the time Kelly's freighter returned to
Earth orbit, it was clear that the strike mission to Omega54 had failed. The
fighters were now a week overdue, and no message drone had been received. That
lack of information suggested that the mothership was still there, which
corresponded to recon data received in the old timeline.

Shiloh approved Valkyrie's plan for in
depth coverage of Sol and intervening star systems via recon drones. Kelly
waited until she and Shiloh were alone in his quarters before she passed on
Valkyrie's personal message. This time she let the tears flow freely, and she
could tell by the way Shiloh held her that he was choked up too.

The next day both of them got back to work.
The plan to man the fleet with female crews and hide out was starting to ramp
up. It now had a codename: Operation Shell Game. Kelly would be given a field
promotion to Vice-Admiral. She would fly her flag on Midway. Angela Johansen
would command Dreadnought. Svetlana Chenko would be Midway's CO. When Kelly
queried Shiloh over his reasons for wanting her on Midway instead of
Dreadnought as would normally be the case in a Fleet action, he explained it in
terms of expendability. Dreadnought was built for combat, not for cargo
capacity. If the Fleet was discovered, Dreadnought might have to play the role of
Rear Guard, while the rest of the Fleet made a run for it. As Fleet Commander,
Kelly had to stay with the Fleet, and that meant Midway. It was at that point
that Kelly realized the magnitude of the responsibility she would be taking on.
She had never commanded a ship in combat or even been on a ship in combat. Both
Johansen and Chenko had.

When she asked Shiloh the obvious question
of why her, he said, "Because you know the whole situation and what's at
stake, and because I don't want your fate to be in someone else's hands."

"But I don't have any combat
experience or expertise," she said quietly.

"Which means you won't go looking for
a fight, which is exactly what's needed in a situation like this. I don't want
you being aggressive. I want you to be ultra-cautious. If there's any fighting
to be done, let Johansen do it. I think she has the instinct for it, but keep
her on a short leash. As far as I'm concerned, a successful mission is one
where there's no fighting at all."

"You could take over command of the
fleet." Her tone showed that she didn't really expect him to agree. It was
a final desperate attempt to save his life too.

Now it was Shiloh's turn to speak quietly.
"You know I can't agree to that, and you also know why. It has to be done
this way. How can I ask anyone else to sacrifice themselves if I'm not willing
to do it myself?"

"I know, but I had to ask," said
Kelly.

"I know," was all the Shiloh
would say.

Later that day, he met with Committee Chair
Rachel. She was clearly expecting to hear good news about the strike mission to
the Sogas home world.

"What's the news about the strike
mission results, Admiral?"

Shiloh cleared his throat to give himself a
little more time to organize his thoughts.

"I'm sorry to say that there is no news,
Rachel. We haven't heard back from the fighters we sent to Omega54."

"But I thought they should have
returned by now." Her expression was rapidly changing from upbeat to
somber.

"They should have, but they haven't.
Under the circumstances I have to interpret it as bad news. That means we don't
know if the Insectoid mothership has been destroyed. There is now a possibility
that it will reach us here."

"Oh my God," she said quietly.
"Are you still confident that Space Force can stop it here?"

"I'm not going to lie to you, Rachel.
I honestly don't know what our chances of stopping this thing are now."

Rachel was quiet for a while and then said,
"I almost wish you had lied to me. If I didn't know the truth, I'd at
least be able to sleep at night. Now...I don't know. This scares me silly! I
don't know what to do. Any suggestions, Admiral?"

"Yes. First of all, keep this to
yourself. Do NOT tell ANYONE, and that includes spouse, children and other
relatives. We can't let this get out and cause a panic. Secondly, plan a trip
with your family to a remote spot a few days before the mothership is due to
arrive here. Tell them it's a vacation. Make the plans now, but don't inform
them about it until the last possible moment."

She nodded. "Is that what you're going
to do?" she asked.

"No. I'll be in the Ops Center when
the mothership arrives. There's no way I'm missing THAT battle!" He tried
to make it sound like a big adventure. Rachel wasn't fooled.

"You'll be there because your sense of
duty demands it. I've always admired people who are like that. Good for you,
Victor. What about Amanda?"

Shiloh smiled grimly. "Vice-Admiral
Kelly" —Rachel's eyebrows rose when she heard that— "will be
commanding all our ships in Operation Shell Game." Shiloh went on to
describe the plan, and to his surprise Rachel’s reaction was quite muted. She
nodded slowly and then reached out to lay her hand over his on the table
between them. With a gentle squeeze she signaled her approval, then silently
got up and walked out.

Shiloh was worried. The damn Bugs were
late! It was now seven days past the time when they should have arrived at
Earth according to Kronos's old timeline. Space Force was on constant alert,
and the strain was beginning to show up in careless mistakes, irritability,
physical symptoms and dropping morale. He himself was feeling the tension. He
was sleeping in an unused office near the Ops Center and not very well ever
since he sent Kelly to take up her position as Fleet Commander. Operation Shell
Game was now being executed. The Ops people were feeling it the worst. When
they were on duty, they had to be alert every second for hours at a time. He
had changed the usual 8 hours on, 16 hours off to 4 and 8 in order to give his
people more frequent breaks.

He realized that he was staring at the main
display without really seeing it. At least they were as ready as they were
going to be. There were now 155 X-ray laser drones in orbit along with 101 F1
fighters, 34 F2 fighters and 15 raiders. Each of the raiders was armed with a
Mark 6 high-spin warhead drone. The fighters had two Mark 1B fusion drones plus
3 recon drones, and all the drones had jump capability. The plan was for the
raiders to launch two Mark 6s at the mothership. In case that didn't work for
some reason, the fighters would launch their recon drones to jam bug radar, and
their attack drones would be aimed at the space in front of the mothership's
launch bays so that its attack craft would have to run a gauntlet of
thermonuclear explosions. The X-ray laser drones would be kept in reserve to
deal with any bug attack craft that made it through the first line of defense.
That was the plan. Titan and his boys had engaged in over a hundred simulated
attacks. The plan would definitely work against one or two motherships and
would most likely stop three of them. More than that and Earth would be in
trouble.

He wondered for the nth time what might
have changed in the timeline. The latest message drone from Omega54 had
confirmed that the mothership had stayed there as long as expected and then
headed for the next Sogas colony world, also as expected, and it had left
behind six small proto-motherships, which was also the same as in the old
timeline. But between the time the mothership had left the Sogas home world and
now, something had changed, and that had to be bad news. He felt an urge to
relieve his frustration by throwing something but restrained himself. The Chief
of Space Operations didn't do that kind of thing, at least not when others
could see it. He felt a chill go up his spine. A quick glance at the display
showed no change, but he was now certain that something was about to happen.

"Titan, I have this very strong
feeling that something—"

The changed status ping cut him off. It was
so loud that he jumped with surprise. Five flashing red icons appeared at the
edge of Earth's gravity zone. FIVE motherships! They were evenly spaced around
the planet and moving VERY fast on headings that would take them deeper into
the gravity zone, thereby making them safe from attack by jump-capable drones.

"Com—"

Titan's reply was cut off so quickly that
Shiloh at first thought it was either a communications malfunction or bug
jamming. Then he saw 15 growing spheres on the display representing the
expanding concussion waves from nuclear explosions. He realized with horror
that all 15 raiders had blown up, along with most of the fighters that were
flying in formation with them. A quick glance at the sidebar showed that
Titan's raider was now listed as destroyed.

"Who's next in command!" he
shouted. After half a second he was about to ask the question again when he saw
a text message scroll quickly across the bottom of the display.

[Gunslinger has assumed command of
defense forces. Too busy to convert message to voice transmission. All 15 Mark
5 warheads detonated simultaneously, apparently due to some kind of enemy
transmission. They must have done the same thing to Strike Force at Omega54. If
the Sogas had tried using a high-spin warhead at Omega77, Insectoids may have
captured and analyzed it. Not enough attack drones left to inflict significant
losses on enemy landing craft. We stand ready to ram motherships at your
command, CAG. Decide fast. We're losing fighters due to enemy laser fire]