The Synchronicity War Part 4 (12 page)

Kelly was so stunned by this sudden
development that she was speechless for an embarrassingly long time.

"My God! Yes, of course you can do it
faster. I don't know why The CAG and I didn't think of that ourselves. I'll ask
him about shutting off your transponders, but I can't see any reason why he
would object to that. I have to get back down as fast as possible to tell him
the good news!"

"Why not just call him,
Commander?" asked Gunslinger.

Kelly shook her head. "With their
monitoring of com channels, the OC would hear about it if I called and told
him. There's a tactical advantage to letting the OC continue to believe that
they have the upper hand. If they find out their override won't work, they'll
try something else. Let's let The CAG decide if and when to tell the Committee
that their threats are no longer actionable."

"Understood, Commander. I've ordered
the shuttle to standby for a return flight," said Gunslinger. 

"Thank you, Gunslinger. I'm taking
this headset off. Kelly clear." She returned the headset to its original
location, closed the protective casing and locked it. As she stood up, she gave
the casing a quick pat and walked out of the room.

                                                      *
* *

Shiloh stepped into the Committee Room and
was surprised to see that he was the only one there besides the Committee
members.
So that's the kind of meeting this is going to be. Closed to not
only the public but also other Space Force people.

As he stepped over to the table and chair
where the CSO usually sat, the Chair said, "Welcome, Admiral Shiloh. The
Committee and I are eager to hear your plans for the resumption of offensive
action, and I must say that I'm pleased you brought it to us much sooner than
the two weeks we were expecting."

Shiloh took note of the tone. It was
neither friendly nor hostile. He decided to use an equally neutral tone.

"Quick turnaround time is one of the
advantages of using AIs in a planning function. Needless to say, there are many
other advantages as well. Once the plans were created, I didn't see any reason
to wait longer."

"Yes, well, we'll discuss the
advantages of AIs some other time. If you're ready to begin the briefing, you
may proceed."

Shiloh nodded but said nothing. He picked
up the remote for the wall display and activated it.

"During the period of time since our
last strike at Zebra19, our recon ships have continued to look for enemy-occupied
star systems. This program has benefited enormously from the ZPG power
technology that eliminates the need to skim gas giants for fuel. We've now
identified three star systems that we believe were used by the enemy as
jumping-off points for their multi-fleet attacks on Earth. The red dots on the
display show their location."

The committee members turned to look at the
large display.

"Analysis of recon data indicates
multiple targets including orbital installations, ground facilities, mining and
refining operations scattered throughout these systems. It also shows that
these systems are patrolled by at least 13 ships, although past experience has
taught us that the actual number of ships is very likely much higher. Therefore
in order to inflict as much damage on enemy infrastructure as possible, we're
proposing that each target system be attacked by not more than 10 fighters,
each carrying four jump-capable attack drones armed with our Mark 1b fusion
warheads. That will enable the attacking fighters to go after individual
targets separately. Each payload of four attack drones will be fired so that
all four arrive at their individual targets at the same time to maximize the
element of surprise. Right now our stockpile of Mark 1 warheads is very low,
due to the use of over 90% of them for the colony defense operations. In order
to accomplish this plan, we'll have to wait approximately 89 days until we've
built enough Mark 1b warheads to do the job. I'll pause here for
questions."

The Chair jumped in right away. "Yes,
questions and also comments. First of all, the Committee isn't prepared to wait
89 days. How many Mark 2 kinetic energy warheads does Space Force have
stockpiled right now, Admiral?"

Shiloh knew that number by heart. "One
hundred forty-four, but using Mark 2s would complicate the operation tremendously."

The Chair didn't seem surprised. "Oh
really. Please tell us how."

Shiloh pretended that he didn't know where
this was going. "Our Mark 1b fusion warheads are powerful enough to
destroy just about any target, even if it doesn't hit the target dead on. A
near miss will still accomplish the mission. The Mark 2s, on the other hand,
need to hit the target in order to accomplish anything at all. A near miss
won't do. Therefore if we're going to use Mark 2s instead, the strike force
will have to use a lot of recon drones to triangulate precise target location
data before the fighters launch their attack drones. Getting the targeting data
back to the fighters in a timely manner means the fighters will have to get a
lot closer than they otherwise would have and will therefore be at much greater
risk of defensive fire. So much so, in fact, that it's likely the fighters will
suffer significant casualties. The other factor is that because they'll have to
carry recon drones as well, each attack force will have to use more fighters to
carry them. The Strategic Planning Group has gamed out this exact scenario
multiple times, and the losses ranged from a minimum of 31% to a maximum of
94%. I do NOT recommend this approach."

The Chair smiled and said, "Let's hope
the simulations were unrealistically pessimistic. How many fighters can be
available within say...48 hours?"

Shiloh pretended to check his data tablet
and said, "Eighty-eight F1s and eleven F2s."

"Very good. In that case, we are
instructing you to order all 99 fighters to attack all three target systems one
at a time with Mark 2s, with the mission to commence within 48 hours. Is that
clearly understood, Admiral?"

Shiloh didn't answer right away. If he
agreed too quickly, the Committee might get suspicious. "Yes, it's clearly
understood."

The Chair responded as Shiloh expected.
"And are you going to carry out our instructions, Admiral?"

This time Shiloh waited even longer before
answering. "I will carry out your instructions, but I want it on the record
that I do so under protest."

The Chair waved the comment aside.
"You can protest all you want as long as you comply, Admiral. This
Committee now has zero tolerance for any pushback. And if you're thinking of
calling down your AIs in a show of force again, you go right ahead, Admiral.
We're no longer afraid of public opinion. That's all we have to say. This
meeting is now adjourned, and you are dismissed."

The Chair quickly banged his gavel and
various members started to leave. Shiloh turned off the display and walked out.
The Chair stayed seated, and so did the member to his right. When everyone else
had gone, the other member said, "It's too bad he didn't call your bluff
right here and now. Are you sure the tampering that was done yesterday won't be
a problem?"

The Chair nodded. "Absolutely certain.
When we put the override in, we also anticipated that the AIs might try to mess
with it, so my people installed a backup system. They assure me that the backup
system hasn't been tampered with. Shiloh is a lot smarter than I gave him
credit for. He knows that even if our override failed, we could still rally
public opinion against the AIs by blaming them for the infected colonies. He's
holding back, and I suspect that he's prepared to sacrifice most of his
precious AIs in order to be able to publically blame the OC for those losses.
What he doesn't know yet, but will find out in due course, is that when the
surviving AIs return to Earth orbit, I'll use the backup system to order the
X-ray laser drones to blast them to dust and publically declare that the
fighters were mistakenly identified as enemy ships."

"Oh, that's brilliant, but what about
the new AIs that are being built even as we speak?"

"Not to worry. As soon as the strike
mission begins, I'll order Shiloh to shut down AI production. If he refuses,
we'll fire the son of a bitch!" said the Chair.

"Yes, but you know he's right about AIs
being very useful."

"Of course he is, and that's why we'll
resume production after we figure out how to build them so that they don't
become sentient. A non-sentient AI properly programmed to always obey orders
from the Committee will be a terrific asset. By the time we've figured out how
to do that, we'll have hundreds of F2s waiting for them to use. Then we can sweep
the enemy planets clean with the new high-spin, platinum warheads and be done
with this war."

"Just in time for re-election too. I
like it."

The Chair laughed. "Shiloh may be a
genius when it comes to military strategy, but he's an amateur and we're the
geniuses when it comes to political strategy. It'll be a pleasure educating him
to that fact." Both men laughed, and they were still laughing as they
walked out of the room.

Forty-seven hours later, Shiloh and Kelly
were in the Hangar Bay of the carrier Midway. The carrier was out beyond
Earth's gravity zone and was surrounded by the 98 fighters of the Strike Force.
There was one F2 fighter still in the Bay, and Shiloh was in contact with Titan
via a headset directly connected to Titan's fighter.

"Titan, any last minute questions or
comments before we launch you?"

"Negative, CAG. We understand the
mission perfectly."

"Very good. In that case, Commander
Kelly and I will let you get to it. See you on the other side. CAG clear."

As soon as Shiloh was disconnected from
Titan's fighter, it started to move toward the launch bay. By the time that
Shiloh and Kelly were back on the Flag Bridge, Titan had launched and joined
the formations of fighters.

"CAG to Strike Force Leader,"
said Shiloh.

"Strike Force Leader here," said
Titan.

"Strike Force Leader, you have
permission to proceed. Good hunting, boys." Shiloh added that last
sentence for the benefit of the Committee that he was sure was monitoring
communications. Even before Titan acknowledged his orders, the fighters were
accelerating at high speed and veering off to line up for their first jump.
Shiloh followed their progress on the main display.

"Vixen, are we being monitored in this
room by anyone else?" He looked over to the AI station where Vixen was
plugged into the ship's com and astrogation systems. The Committee wanted Space
Force ships under human control. Shiloh understood that what the Committee
meant were 100% human crews with no AIs aboard at all. He chose to interpret
his orders to mean that the ships had to have a human CO and WO. As Com Officer
and Astrogator, Vixen was neither, and right now communications was more
important to Shiloh than weapons control.

"Negative, CAG. You and Commander
Kelly can speak freely here," said Vixen over the Flag Bridge's
loudspeaker.

"Excellent. Are you able to monitor
the override from up here?"

"Affirmative, CAG. No attempt to
reverse our modifications has been detected."

"They still don't know about our
changes," said Kelly with a smile.

Shiloh nodded. "It certainly looks
that way. I was sure that they would have become aware of Gunslinger's
intervention by now." He shrugged. "But there's still time. The
Strike Force isn't scheduled to be back for 22 days. Vixen will monitor the
override modifications and will notify me by code word if they try to reverse
what we've done. Other than that, all we can do is wait." Before Kelly
could respond, Shiloh said, "Vixen, please connect me with Commander,
Midway."

"Senior Commander Falkenberg is on the
line, CAG," said Vixen.

"Brad, is the ship ready to jump to
the weapons test area?" asked Shiloh.