The Synchronicity War Part 3 (4 page)

Resolute emerged from Jumpspace at the outer edge of
Omega89. The display was showing the tactical situation in nearby space using
passive sensors. Having just emerged from a jump, Resolute had to coast while
it attempted to find the rest of TF92 using flashing position lights that could
only be seen from further out in the system. The main drawback to really long
jumps occurred when two or more ships were jumping together. Transiting Jumpspace
involved a vector that depended upon the direction the ship was moving towards
in normal space. Two or more ships flying in formation had to be moving in
precisely the same direction, down to ten decimal places, in order to be in any
kind of proximity to each other after traveling dozens of light years in Jumpspace.
The need to re-assemble the formation periodically was why TF92's trip time
from Site B to Omega89 was longer than Gunslinger's transit the other way using
a single jump. The temporary stops at the enemy home world system and the other
colony system, while necessary, did not provide any useful information about
those systems that the A.I.s didn't already know. Both systems had planets that
were the source of radio and other EM transmissions, the sheer volume of which
was the tipoff on whether that planet was the home world or not. Even after all
this time, the A.I.s still hadn't been able to make any kind of sense of the
alien transmissions.

Now here they were on the outer edge of Omega89. Gunslinger
had been closer to the center when he detected the Very Large Object or VLO as
it was now being called. The plan was for TF92 also to micro-jump closer when
they were back together again and traveling at a moderate speed. As he watched
the display, a green triangle appeared with the designation of 007. According
to the sidebar information, Raider 007 was piloted by Rainman. As more and more
raiders re-established contact via low-power, tight beam com lasers, more icons
appeared on the display around the flagship. Based on past experience, they
should be back in formation in less than 20 minutes. Decelerating enough to
maneuver for a micro-jump would take a while longer. Shiloh had been hoping
that they could detect the VLO even from this far out, but Valkyrie had
analyzed the faint light from the alien colony planet carefully. No sign of a
VLO or anything else for that matter.

"We're not picking up any transmissions from the enemy
colony, CAG. Gunslinger was able to pick up some transmissions this far out.
That's how he knew to jump closer for a better look."

Shiloh didn't like the sound of that. Had the enemy received
a warning from their future selves about TF92's mission and decided to shut
down their transmitters? Or was the explanation simply that they had lost the
battle with the VLO, and there was no one left to transmit anything?

"Scan the rest of the system for any sign of the
VLO," ordered Shiloh. 

After a longer than normal interval, Valkyrie said,
"I've detected an object that appears to be moving away from the enemy
colony planet. Since I can't determine the distance from this single light
source, I'm not able to say with certainty if this is the VLO that Gunslinger
observed, but it could be the same object."

Shiloh nodded. With only one bearing, there was no way to
tell distance. They would need at least two bearings from different locations
to have any idea of distance, speed and vector. TF92 was still moving very fast
and still pointed in a direction that would take it along the outer edge of
this star system. He could order one or more of the raiders to micro-jump to a
different part of the system in order to get another angle on the VLO, but
getting that raider back to the Task Force would be tricky and time consuming.
If the VLO was about to enter Jumpspace, then letting them have a good head
start would complicate things. On the other hand, if he didn't get a better
idea of where they were going before they jumped away, that would complicate
things as well. He was hoping that he might get another vision, but so far
there’d been nothing, and he felt it was time to make a decision.
"Okay. Order Titan to detach one raider with instructions to micro-jump in
order to get a second bearing on the bogey. You and Titan figure out the
quickest way that the raider can rejoin the Task Force, given that I want to
take a closer look at the alien colony planet. Any questions?"

"Negative, CAG. I understand what you want. Titan and I
have already figured out how to do this. Rainman has jumped and will be
rejoining us in approximately 8.9 hours. The plan is that he'll slingshot
around the colony planet to catch up to us from the rear."

 Before she could say more, Shiloh interrupted. "Wait a
minute! If there are enemy aliens still on that planet, they might detect
Rainman. His raider will be easier to detect than recon drones."

"Your concern is understood, CAG. We compute that the
likelihood of him being observed is small and even if they see him, how will
they know that they're seeing a Space Force ship? It would be far more likely
that they'd assume it belonged to the race that built the VLO. We are, after
all, on the opposite side from Human Space."

Shiloh relaxed. "Yes, that makes sense. Now since
there's nothing nearby that could threaten us, and we've got a few hours before
anything happens, I'm going to retire to my quarters for a meal and some sleep.
I know that I don't have to tell you to wake me when we get close enough to
observe the planet's surface or when Rainman contacts us with his sighting
report."

"You're correct, CAG. You don't have to tell me that,
and yet you just did. You Humans are funny, CAG."

Shiloh was still chuckling over Valkyrie's response when he
left the Bridge.

As it turned out, Shiloh was back on the Bridge just in time
to watch the video transmission from a recon drone that was approaching the
planet. Rainman was still too far away to ensure that any laser com burst could
be aimed accurately at Resolute. The departing object had vanished and was
assumed to have entered Jumpspace.

"Your sense of timing is impressive, CAG," said
Valkyrie.

Shiloh smiled. It was just dumb luck, but he had no
intention of telling her that. "Something I've developed from my many
years in Space Force, Valkyrie. I take it we have images from our drone?"

"I'm establishing the com link now, CAG." The main
display switched from tactical to the video feed. This planet did not have a
dust-filled atmosphere. It had less water than Earth and more desert. Only the
top and bottom third, as defined by its axis of rotation, showed any green.

"Anything in orbit, Commander?" asked Shiloh.

"Negative, CAG. Orbital space is clear. Still no
transmissions and the drone would be close enough now to detect heat signatures
if there were any, but there aren’t.  No signs of intelligent life at this point,"
said Valkyrie.

"Do we know where the alien colony--" 

Before Shiloh could finish the question, Valkyrie
interrupted. "Colony site has been detected, CAG. I've ordered the drone
to zoom in on that location. We'll see it momentarily."

Shiloh waited. As the image on the display shimmered, it
zoomed in so quickly that he experienced a momentary feeling of falling. Now
the image on the display was of a fairly large area full of ruins. That was the
only word Shiloh could think of to describe it. There wasn't a single building
that looked intact. Walls, made of something that looked like cement, were
partially knocked down. No building had an undamaged roof. Chunks of building
material lay scattered in random directions. Something about this scene bothered
Shiloh. As he continued to watch the image, he suddenly figured out what it
was. The reason this colony site looked like ancient ruins was because there
was nothing made of metal. No machines. No vehicles. No metal beams. No metal
roofing material. Not a single piece of metal anywhere that could be seen from
this angle. He thought back to the scene of the abandoned colony on Haven when
Humans pulled out for the last time. Even then, there were still pieces of farm
equipment, vehicles and other objects that were clearly made of metal. Not so
here.

"The VLO took all their metal," he said out loud,
still not really believing it himself.

"Roger that, CAG. They might have needed it to repair
any damage to their spherical ship inflicted during the battle that Gunslinger
witnessed. He did report nuclear explosions. It stands to reason a ship that
large might well have the necessary equipment to repair or replace any part of
the ship needing it, including the hull. So finding a source of refined metal
might be just as valuable to them as finding gas giants for refueling was to us
before we discovered ZPG energy. But that's not all they took."

"What do you mean?" asked Shiloh.

"They also appear to have taken the alien colonists
themselves and any animals those colonists used as food supplies. See those
enclosed areas on the edge of the ruins, CAG? Don’t they look like corrals of
the kind that human farmers use for cattle, pigs, sheep and other domesticated
animals? Only there are no animals in them or anywhere near them."

Shiloh had a bad feeling about this. The metal he could
understand, but taking living creatures, the animals and the colonists
themselves? That made no sense unless . . .  He pushed the thought away. It was
too horrifying to contemplate. They must have taken the colonists as slaves
except that building robots to do the menial work was much more efficient and
less troublesome than housing, feeding and supervising thousands or even tens
of thousands of slaves. What if the slaves revolted? What if they all died from
some kind of alien virus or bacteria? In fact, why would a ship's crew risk
becoming infected themselves by bringing alien creatures aboard to begin with?

"I wonder if it could be a kind of ark picking up small
numbers of a variety of alien species to protect them against some kind of
looming catastrophe?" asked Shiloh.

"Alien psychology by definition would be different from
ours, but it's difficult to understand a culture that would seek to save
another species by force. Gunslinger did report that the defending forces were
taking losses. Whatever the motivation of the race that built the VLO might
have been, they clearly forced themselves on the colonists of this
planet," said Valkyrie.

"We have to find out more about these VLOs. When do you
expect to be in contact with Rainman?" asked Shiloh.

"Not for another 35 minutes at least, CAG. Since both
Rainman and TF92 were decelerating from very high speeds, there's no way for us
to be sure where his raider is, and the opposite is true for him as well."

"But we could send out a wide-beam laser burst to cover
the area of sky where Rainman has to be. We've always had that capability, but
we didn't use it because of the risk of having the signal received by our
enemy. Now as far as we can tell, this system is devoid of that alien life
form, correct?"

"That is correct, CAG. I have the Com laser ready.
Shall I transmit a signal to Rainman instructing him to respond back with the
data on the departing object?" asked Valkyrie.

"Yes. Send the signal. Let me know as soon as you
receive his reply."

Less than four minutes later, they had the additional data
and knew where the departing object was headed. Its destination was the Omega77
star system containing the next nearest alien colony. Pre-jump speed was low
enough that TF92 wouldn't have any trouble getting there first, but that begged
the question of what they would do when they got there. There was another
question that couldn't be answered.

"How did they know where the nearest colony was?"
asked Shiloh.

"I've discussed this question with Titan and the
others, CAG. The consensus is that a ship that large could easily carry smaller
vessels that could accelerate to much faster speeds and could therefore be used
as scouts to survey nearby star systems."

"I shudder to think what 'smaller' means in the context
of a mothership that is at least 10 kilometers in diameter. For all we know,
their scouts could be as massive as our partially completed battleship back in
Sol," said Shiloh.

"Possible, but not very practical. If all you wanted to
do was determine if a star system was inhabited, you wouldn't need scouts that
massive. On the other hand, you might want defensive vessels that massive to
help you defend the mothership," said Valkyrie.

"Oh shit," said Shiloh in a low tone.

"Why do Humans speak of excrement with the same
reverence that they use when they invoke the name of God, CAG?"

Good question,
thought Shiloh. He had never
considered it before and didn't have a good answer. Time to change the subject.

"Bring the Task Force around to a heading for Omega77.
Accelerate at a rate that will allow Rainman to catch up before we jump. I want
TF92 to get there at least several days ahead of the VLO. Any questions
Commander?"

"Negative, CAG. Vector change has been calculated and
is being implemented. Rainman will rejoin TF92 in 53.2 minutes. ETA at Omega77
is 39 hours from now."

The trouble with implanted com units is that someone can
call you at any time.
The thought came to Shiloh as his implant clicked to
notify him of an incoming call while he was in the shower.

"What is it, Commander?" asked Shiloh before
Valkyrie could say anything.

"The VLO has arrived, CAG. We now have bearings from
all our recon drones in addition to our own. The VLO emerged approximately
where we expected, just over 300 million kilometers from the planet and just
under 224 million km from us. They're traveling at 2,988 km per second and
changing direction. The vector change is consistent with what they would need
in order to make a micro-jump directly towards the colony planet. I estimate
they'll be lined up for the micro-jump in 33.6 minutes, CAG," said
Valkyrie.

"Has there been enough time for the colonists to see
them?"

"Not yet, CAG. They'll see them in another two point
three minutes, but we won't see the colonists' reaction for eleven point one
more minutes after that."

"Is the contact drone ready?" asked Shiloh.

"That's affirmative, CAG. Just give the word."

Shiloh chuckled. Valkyrie was even more eager than usual.
"Not yet. If we send the signal now, before they jump closer to the
planet, they'll be able to figure out how close we had to be in order to see
them and send a signal back. I don't want them having that much information.
We'll wait until they finish the micro-jump plus enough additional time to
complicate any attempt at triangulation they might make before we send the
signal. That's plenty of time. I also want to see how the enemy reacts. I'll be
on the Bridge in about thirty minutes or so. CAG clear."

Shiloh finished his shower and reviewed the situation for
the nth time. Resolute had arrived here in Omega77 almost five days ago, in
plenty of time to launch a swarm of recon drones towards the colony planet and
to position the carrier at just the right point. As he had done so often, he
imagined the tactical layout in terms of a clock. If the VLO was assumed to be
coming from the planet's three o'clock position, then Resolute was at the five
o'clock position. It was also closer to the planet than the VLO, but that was
just a relative comparison. The actual distance between planet and TF92 was
still almost 200 million kilometers. If the VLO didn't jump closer, it would
take over a day for them to reach the planet. With the right micro-jump, that
huge ship could be in orbit around the planet within forty-five more minutes.
That would still give TF92 enough time to see the post-jump position, send the
contact message and get a response before the VLO reached the planet. The
message drone was far enough away from TF92 that giving away its own position
would not help the newcomers in finding the Task Force's location.

As he got dressed, he gave himself a mental pat on the back
for insisting on getting here so early. Those five days had also enabled his
recon drones to very carefully maneuver close enough to the planet to get a
good look at what the enemy aliens actually looked like. With the drone in a
low orbit, they were able to see the aliens walking around the colony.
Technically they were humanoid, but a better description would be wolf-like
creatures walking upright on their hind legs. Their fur-covered heads were
distinctly canine in appearance with a very noticeable snout. Clothing was
apparently limited to the torso. Arms and legs were bare but also covered with
fur. It was easy to rationalize their aggressive behavior with their
carnivorous appearance. What was more difficult for Shiloh was resisting the
impulse to waver on his resolve to exterminate this race when he saw images of
their young. They didn't look menacing at all. In fact, he was certain that
Kelly would have described those children as cute in a puppy dog kind of way.
His doubts became so strong that Shiloh ordered the images off the screen.
Human children were cute too. That hadn't stopped the wolf race from killing
billions of them. He had had to keep reminding himself that his unborn child
deserved to grow up safe from these predators. With the cute puppy dog images
gone, the doubts dissolved away too.

He entered the Bridge twenty-nine minutes later after a
leisurely breakfast including a single cup of black coffee, no sugar that
represented half of his weekly coffee ration. With milk and sugar both in very
short supply since the move to Terra Nova, he had gotten used to drinking
coffee black. At least the cattle brought to TN seemed to be thriving, although
expanding the herd was going to be a long-term project. He wouldn’t be eating a
steak anytime soon.

Valkyrie spoke before he even reached the Flag Officer's
Station. "They're just about lined up for the micro-jump, CAG. I expect to
see it any second now."

Shiloh nodded. The light now arriving at TF92 reflected the
position of the VLO as of 12.4 minutes ago. It had already jumped, and what
Valkyrie really meant was the light from the new position would reach them any
second now. The tactical display pinged to announce an update. As expected, the
new position was just over 45 million kilometers from the planet, which would allow
the VLO to decelerate at 1Gs and drop into orbit around the planet in 8.5
hours. Valkyrie hadn't detected any noticeable response from the colonists yet,
but that was based on the VLO's pre-microjump position. The half dozen ships in
orbit around the planet had not yet reacted, and Shiloh didn't expect them to.
They, and he, were waiting for the other shoe to drop. It wasn't long in
coming.

"VLO has launched parasite craft, CAG. Minimum of
twenty-one but there's a high probability of a lot more. They're accelerating
at 121Gs and they'll reach the planet in 14.6 minutes if they don't jump
closer."

But they would. Shiloh was certain of that. "Can we
estimate the tonnage of those craft yet?" he asked.

"I can give you a range, but it's quite wide. Minimum of
8400 metric tons. Maximum of 25,500 metric tons. As I gather more observational
data, I'll be able to refine that range estimate."

"At least they're not battleship size. How soon did we
estimate that we could safely transmit the contact signal?"

"Not for another twelve minutes," said Valkyrie.

Shiloh realized he was drumming his fingers on the armrest
of his chair, an obvious sign of impatience.
Why not transmit now? So what
if they know the bearing the signal originated from. They won't know the precise
distance, only the maximum distance it could be, given the reaction times. The
volume of space that we could be in would be in the trillions of cubic km. I
want to know what their reaction will be, dammit!

"Order the contact drone to transmit now,
Commander."

After the barest hint of hesitation, Valkyrie responded.
"I've sent the order, CAG. I'm ordering Resolute to go on High
Alert."

"Do you really think they'll--"

"Parasite craft have micro-jumped, CAG!"
interrupted Valkyrie.

Her sudden announcement was so unexpected that Shiloh jumped
with surprise. As he looked at the display, the swarm of smaller craft was now
much closer to the planet. Just outside its gravity zone to be exact. So he was
right about the secondary micro-jump. Those craft would now reach the planet
within a few minutes. With two recon drones now drifting in low orbit around
the planet, he expected to get a bird's eye view of what was about to happen.
He heard the display ping for attention and saw that the defending ships were
accelerating out of orbit towards the incoming swarm. The space combat lasted
only seconds. It was obvious which defending ships were badly damaged when
their acceleration suddenly dropped to zero. None of the visible attacking
ships lost acceleration. So either their damaged ships weren't reflecting
sunlight in the right directions to be seen, or none of the attacking ships
suffered enough damage to affect their acceleration. Within a few seconds, all
the defending ships were coasting, and from the shifting intensity of their
reflected light, were also tumbling. When all the reflections from the
attacking craft disappeared, it became obvious that they were landing. Shiloh
was impressed. Even at the minimum tonnage, an 8400 metric ton ship was big enough
to make landing on a planet tricky but not for this race apparently. With the
recon drones preprogrammed to direct their video cameras at any ascending or
descending craft, it was only seconds before Shiloh saw the zoomed in video
feed on the main display. One of the craft was about to touch down near the
edge of the alien colony. Its configuration was a streamlined shape with stubby
wings and a thick hull. As soon as it touched down, mammoth doors swung open at
the front end and black dots emerged. That put the size of the craft in
perspective. After a few seconds, the drone adjusted the zoom and Shiloh was
suddenly a lot closer.

"My God, they're ants!" exclaimed Shiloh.

"Not exactly, CAG. While there are similarities in
overall body structure such as their segmented bodies and multiple appendages,
the resemblance is superficial. The main difference is size. These aliens are
approximately four meters long and over one meter in height. The other obvious
difference is that ants have six legs while these creatures have six legs plus
two arms. If you look carefully, you can see that all of them are carrying what
appear to be weapons."

Shiloh's stomach was threatening to heave. He could easily
image the horror of seeing hundreds of these ant-like things, which were waist
high and long as a car, coming towards him. They might not be ants, but they
still looked like Bugs, and they scared the hell out of him! He heard a sound
from the Com Tech behind him and looked around. The man had his hand over his
mouth and was doubled over while he was clearly trying his best not to throw
up. As Shiloh looked back at the display, the image split into two. The new
image was from the other drone. Its view was of the colony as a whole, and
Shiloh could clearly see that the colony itself was surrounded by landing craft
with thousands of ant-things moving rapidly towards the colony.

"The defenders have opened fire," said Valkyrie.

At first Shiloh couldn't see anything that confirmed her
assertion, but then he saw one of the ant-things suddenly knocked backwards and
fall flat on the ground. It didn't move. On the other image with the wider
field of view, he saw what had to have been mortar or artillery shells
exploding among the emerging horde. Then he noticed shadows moving quickly over
the colony. Seconds later several more landing craft dropped down into view but
stayed in the air. White light streaked down from the airborne craft at several
targets within the colony and the artillery fire stopped.
Laser fire used
for tactical ground support. These Bugs don't miss a trick.

The ground battle petered out quickly. With the last of the
ant-things now out of the landing craft, the first drone shifted its camera to
follow the Bugs into the colony itself. The wolf people were being rounded up
into multiple groups. Shiloh was able to catch a glimpse of the body of a local
being carried by one of the ant-things away from the buildings out into an open
field. The body wasn't moving. With so much movement, the unsophisticated
computer controlling the first drone became confused about what it should be
focusing on and the camera stopped moving. When it became obvious that drone #1
was not going to be of any further use, Valkyrie dropped that image and let the
image of the whole colony take over the entire display. The field of view was
so wide that individual wolf people and ant-things were just tiny dots. While
he waited for the apparent chaos to turn into something meaningful, he looked
at the sidebar time display.

"How long until the VLO receives our signal?"
asked Shiloh in a voice hoarse with stress.

"Ninety-six seconds until they receive it. Fourteen
minutes before we could expect to get any reply back."

Shiloh looked around again at the Com Tech who was sitting
with his back to the main display and no longer on the verge of throwing up. A
quick glance at the other two crewmen showed that they were again focused on
their duties, but the occasional glance at the screen revealed expressions that
were clearly unnerved. Shiloh forced himself to look back at the screen. He
began to notice that three groups of dots were starting to emerge from the
settlement. Their directions were such that the spaces in between were three
equal sections. Each group appeared to be heading for one or two of the landing
craft. No … wait. One group stopped in the middle of the open field between the
settlement and the landing craft.

"Valkyrie, can you analyze the video data and see if
you can pick up any insight into this activity?" asked Shiloh.

After several seconds, she replied. "Based on a pixel
enhancement algorithm, I've been able to determine that the group heading to
the upper right is composed of female colonists with VLA guards."

"VLA?"

"Very Large Ants," answered Valkyrie.

If the situation hadn't been so serious, Shiloh would have
laughed. "Continue," he said.

"The group to the lower right seems to be composed of
male colonists plus more guards."

Shiloh waited but Valkyrie stayed silent. "What about
the group in the field, to the left of the screen?" asked Shiloh.