Synchronicity War Part 1, The (7 page)

“Well, Sir. I just wanted to make an observation about the
destruction of our drones. The aliens didn’t just destroy them. They went out
of their way to destroy them. It was almost as if they were so angry about
being discovered that they lost their temper.”

“What made your think that, Commander?”

“Ah, well, I noticed that the alien ships fired on all of
the drones, even the ones that weren’t close to them, and in some cases they
kept on firing at the same drone even when it had stopped its active scanning.
It reminded me of a berserk person with a gun, shooting their victim again and
again, even after the victim is clearly dead.”

Shiloh and Howard exchanged a look as if to say ‘hmm, that’s
interesting’. Shiloh made a mental note to suggest to the strategic Planning
Group that someone make an attempt to come up with a forensic profile of the
alien race’s psychological traits. If they were predisposed to behaving in a
certain way, Humans might be able to take advantage of that. The rest of the
debriefing went quickly, with nothing coming up that Shiloh didn’t know already.
When the Admiral was satisfied that he had picked their brains clean, he let
them go.

On his way out, Omar came over to Shiloh and said, “Victor,
I’d like to hear a blow by blow account of your battle, but I’m just too tired
to do it now. How about over breakfast?”

Shiloh smiled and said, “Sure. How’s 0730 hrs in the dining
room sound?”

Omar sighed. “Too damn early but yeah, I’ll be there.”

After he left, the Admiral came over to Shiloh and said, “I
take it from your expression that you thought the characterization of the alien
behavior was significant?”

“Yes, Sir. My barbarian horde scenario is looking more and
more likely. If they behave impulsively, we can turn that to our advantage.”

“I concur. Well, I’m off to my office. I’ll be burning the
midnight oil to get ready for the committee meeting. There’ll be a staff car
waiting to pick you up in front of the hotel by 0815 hrs. Good night
Commander.”

“Good night, Admiral.”

The next day started well enough. Shiloh met Cmdr. Omar in
the dining room for breakfast at the appointed time. They talked while eating,
and Shiloh related to Omar what happened, without getting into the
vision-thing. The time went so fast that Shiloh had to wolf down the rest of
his breakfast in order to be finished by the time the staff car was scheduled
to pick him up. Shiloh was the only one of his crew who had not been allowed to
go on leave. But side from a sister and her family, who lived on the other side
of the world and to whom he wasn’t really all that close, he didn’t have family
to visit. Both parents had been killed in an aircraft crash when he was still
at the Space Force Academy. If he had been allowed to leave, he would likely
have gone on a long solitary trip into a wilderness somewhere and camped out
for a week or more. But the prospect of spending his time off on Space Force
business didn’t really bother him. Unlike the normal exploration missions,
which at least had the potential for discovering something interesting, the
anti-piracy/anti-smuggling patrols were excruciatingly boring. Now that
Humanity was in a serious and, to Shiloh’s mind, desperate situation, being a
Space Force Commander was suddenly a whole lot more interesting.

The staff car dropped him at HQ right on time. An aide
showed him to the large room that was set up for committee sessions. Shiloh
took a seat near the front. A few minutes later, Admiral Howard showed up with
his staff in tow. Howard nodded to Shiloh and proceeded to give his staff some
last minutes instructions. With that done, he brought a stack of file folders
to the table in front of the raised dais where the committee members would sit.
After organizing his materials, Howard turned around and leaned close to
Shiloh.

“Glad to see you’re here on time, Commander. Let me brief
you on how this is going to work. The Committee will show up in 15 to 20
minutes or so. They’ll take turns saying a few well-chosen but completely
meaningless words. You have to remember that they are elected politicians. Then
they’ll ask me to give them a verbal report to supplement the written report
that I sent them late last night, and which they haven’t read yet. After that,
they’ll ask me questions. The question period can go for as long as they wish.
The shortest question period I’ve ever experienced was half an hour. The
longest was a whole day and half of the next. Given the nature of what they’re
likely to ask me about, I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re at it all day except
for the occasional break. I’ll need you to be available during the question
period in case I need to check with you about a fact or get your insight on a
question that I’ve been asked. I’m going to ask you to stay in here while I
give my report so that you can understand the context in which the resulting
questions are being asked. If you absolutely have to leave for some reason OR
if you feel that I need to know something that can’t wait until a break, ask
one of my staff to place a note on the table where I’ll see it. That way I
won’t look silly when I turn around to ask you a question and you’re not there.
If you and I need to discuss something, keep your voice down so that only I can
hear you. Got all that?”

“Yes Sir.”

“Any questions, Commander?”

“No Sir.”

“Excellent. Now, let me give you a piece of advice. This
will be your first and, if you’re lucky, only Oversight Committee hearing. I’ve
gone through a few in my time. I’m used to them now. My advice is don’t get
flustered. Keep your cool, and you’ll get through this okay.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, Admiral.”

Howard nodded and turned away.

The committee room gradually filled with people who were
either Committee Members’ staff or Space Force personnel. The Committee Members
themselves began to trickle in at just about the time the Admiral had
predicted. The session started half an hour later and proceeded exactly as the
Admiral had described. When the self-serving opening statements were finished,
the Committee Chair invited Howard to give his opening remarks.

“Thank you, Mr. Chair. Members of the Committee, as you
undoubtedly know by now, the Space Force has lost some of its Brothers and
Sisters. The crews of Exploration Frigates 319, 301 and 299 have apparently
been the victims of an unprovoked attack by multiple armed starships that
belong to an unknown alien race. We strongly suspect that the 233, which went
missing last month, was also attacked, and it is now presumed destroyed. The report
I have filed with the Committee goes into considerable detail about the events
that have occurred in the last week. I will now summarize the major events that
should be taken note of.

“It began with the routine survey of the target star system
by FE 319. As per standard operating procedure, the 319 and the other
exploration frigates of squadron SFE089 were each surveying a different star
system in proximity to the system where the support group – containing tankers,
supply ship and command/support ship – were waiting. When the 319 did not
return from her assigned survey target at the expected time, and in light of
the disappearance of the 233, the rest of the squadron was sent to investigate.
Even though we had not met another alien race up to that point, contingency
plans had been created with that possibility in mind. When the squadron, led by
Commander Torres, arrived at the system where 319 had vanished, she deployed
the squadron according to the approved contingency plans for such a mission.

“One frigate, the 344, was ordered to remain at the edge of
the star system at a fixed location to act as a relay for the remaining members
of the squadron. Those others proceeded to search for the 319 in a widely
dispersed pattern. In order to cover the maximum volume of space in the minimum
amount of time, the searching frigates launched reconnaissance drones. After
some time had passed, the recon drone launched from Squadron Leader Torres’
ship detected a drifting vessel that had the right dimensions to be the missing
319. Now you have to remember at this point that the recon drones were using
passive sensors only, as were the frigates. Passive sensors do not emit any
electro-magnetic radiation that could be traced back to the sender. What the
drone detected was the shifting pattern of reflected sunlight from the 319’s
slowing rotating hull. Squadron Leader Torres changed course to intercept, and
directed the 323 and 299 frigates to rendezvous with the drifting ship as well.
The other four frigates were too far away to get there in a reasonable length
of time, and at this point, since they weren’t sure if the drifting ship was in
fact the 319, Commander Torres decided that the other four frigates would continue
to search their designated areas. When the drone made a flyby, it became clear
that it was indeed the 319, and that she had been the victim of an attack by
some kind of energy weapon. Torres then ordered all frigates, except for the
344, to rendezvous with the 319. While the drone was turning to make a second,
closer flyby pass, Commander Shiloh, who is present here today and who was in
command of the frigate 344 that was performing relay duty at the system’s edge,
took the precaution of launching three recon drones of his own. They orbited
his ship in order to give better sensor coverage of the immediate vicinity.
This proved to be prescient because one of those drones detected an unknown and
stealthy vessel moving towards the 344 from further out in the system. If the
344 had attempted to jump out of that system in order to bring back the
collected data, as per Squadron Leader Torres’ instructions, it was highly
likely that the unknown vessel would have detected the 344’s maneuvers.

“Because the unknown vessel was behaving in a hostile way,
and by that I mean moving closer at slow speed without running lights or other
normal emissions, Commander Shiloh made the decision, which I fully support and
endorse, to open fire pre-emptively. After a short and vicious battle, in which
the 344 suffered considerable damage, the alien vessel was disabled and
presumed destroyed. This was due mainly to the imaginative use of recon drones
as offensive kinetic energy weapons. Shortly after this battle the two frigates
that were close to the 319 were attacked by other alien vessels, which
apparently had been waiting in ambush near the drifting 319. As we learned
later, this second firefight ended badly for our people. None of them was able
to escape. There is evidence that their crews were killed either in the battle
or later, when Acting Squadron Leader Omar made the difficult decision to
destroy the remaining two lifeless hulks that the aliens were trying to use as
bait for another ambush. It was the opinion of Squadron Leader Torres, which I
share, that had it not been for the pre-emptive attack by Commander Shiloh, which
sprang the trap prematurely, all seven frigates would have been ambushed and
very likely destroyed. As bad as our losses were – three frigates and their
brave crews – we should consider this encounter as a victory in the sense that
half the squadron escaped unharmed, and a fifth frigate was able to return with
only a handful of dead or injured crew.”

The Admiral paused and looked at each of the Committee
Members in turn before continuing.

“As important as that is, what is even more important from
the larger perspective of Humanity as a whole is that the surviving ships were
able to bring back valuable data. Imagine for a moment if the ambush had succeeded
as apparently planned. What if all eight frigates had been destroyed? An entire
Squadron would have disappeared into the blackness of empty space, and we would
have had no idea of what had happened to them. More ships would have been sent
to investigate, and they too might have been destroyed. As it is, we have some
very valuable data on these aliens. Enough to give us some idea of their
technological capabilities, weaknesses, and even the way they think to a
limited but important extent. It’s this factor that I’ll discuss first because
I believe that while their technology is important, if we don’t understand how
they think and react, then we’re operating at a severe disadvantage regardless
of any technological edge we may possess.”

Howard stopped to take a quick sip of water from the glass
in front of him.

“I’d like to begin the description of the alien behavioral
profile by pointing out what they didn’t do. They didn’t send out one ship to
explore that system the way we did. They didn’t send out ships that were
designed for exploration. They didn’t attempt, so far as we know, to
communicate with our ships. What they DID do is the following. They apparently
attacked 319 without provocation. I say that because our exploration crews are
under standing orders to attempt to make peaceful contact if they should
encounter another space-faring race. The aliens also had seven ships in that
system, seven ships that we know of. There wasn’t time for them to have called
in reinforcements. Therefore they had to have been there from the very
beginning. Now, as someone who has had military training, I’m here to tell you
that you don’t send out seven or more ships to explore one star system at a
time. It would take far too long to survey any significant volume of space that
way. What the deployment of that many ships at one time tells me is that they
were engaged in what is referred to in military circles as Reconnaissance in
Force. You do that when you know that an enemy is out there somewhere, or if
you suspect that an enemy MAY be out there somewhere. If these same aliens were
responsible for the fate of the missing 233 last month, then they know that we
are out here somewhere, and apparently they consider us the enemy.

“The strategy of setting up an ambush using the 319 as bait
strongly suggests preplanning. The ships that they used to attack us seem to be
very strongly armored with a single, very powerful energy weapon. That is NOT
the kind of design that is optimal for peaceful exploration. It IS the kind of
design that would be suitable for offensive operations. Because of the type of
ships they deployed and the way they used those ships, I can only come to the
conclusion that they weren’t out there to make contact. They were out there
looking for a fight.”

The Admiral paused again to give the Committee Members time
to absorb that final statement.

“Now consider that observation for a moment. What kind of
race decides to act aggressively against an alien race about which they know
almost nothing? That’s taking a huge gamble. The race they’re attacking could
be vastly superior in terms of population, star systems, economic capacity and
military might. We tell our people to try to make peaceful contact on the basis
that we might be the new kid on the block, and we don’t want to piss off an
older and potentially more powerful race if we can help it. For those aliens to
have acted the way they did from the get go strongly indicates that they have a
predisposition towards behaving aggressively. In our own history there have
been people who were more inclined to fight than trade. The barbarian hordes
that eventually overran Rome are a good example of that. I put it to you that
part of the reason Rome fell was that it underestimated the aggressiveness and
the determination of the barbarians. We must not make that same mistake. The
worst thing we could do now is to shrug this battle off as an isolated incident
and continue with business as usual. The SAFE strategy to pursue is to assume
the worst-case scenario and act accordingly. In the worst-case scenario the
very existence of Humanity is at stake. No less than a crash mobilization of
industrial and military resources is required. If, at the end of the day, it
turns out that we overreacted, then I will GLADLY offer my resignation, and
I’ll be able to sleep well at night knowing that my family and all other
families are safe. In my opinion, even if we move now with maximum effort,
victory will not be a sure thing. However, the longer we delay, and the more we
hold back from a full all-out effort, the greater the chances that victory will
slip through our fingers.