Synchronicity War Part 1, The (2 page)

After pondering this situation for a few minutes, he took a
deep breath and said, “Intercom … Bridge.”

The XO responded almost immediately. “Bridge here.”

Shiloh said nothing for a few seconds, and then said, “Angela,
how many recon drones are we carrying this trip?”

There was a slight pause as the XO checked. “We have four
type seven drones, Skipper.”

Shiloh said nothing while he pondered whether to follow his
vision.

“Was there something else, Sir?” Johansen asked with a
puzzled tone to her voice.

Shiloh came to a decision. “XO, I want you to program two
recon drones for a circular track around the ship at a range of … 100,000 klicks,
with minimal overlapping coverage. What's the maximum duration we can get with
that?"

He waited while she asked the computer for the answer.

“Approximately 48 hours, which means the drones will
complete three trips around the ship. If you were thinking of extending our
sensor coverage, then I would recommend using three drones with circular tracks
in three dimensions, with one complete circle every eight hours. That would mean
the drones would exhaust their power supply in twelve hours, but if we recover
them prior to shutdown, we can recharge them. With four drones, we can have
three on the go all the time if we launch one every four hours.”

Shiloh shook his head. “But that would mean only partial
coverage for the first eight hours, correct?”

“Affirmative.”

“No good. I want complete coverage from the get go.”

The XO pondered that requirement. “Okay. Here’s how we do it.
We launch three drones now, then retrieve and refuel one every four hours when
we’ve replaced it with a fresh one."

“Okay. That works for me. Implement it right away and
maintain until further notice.“

“Aye, aye, Sir. Anything else, Sir?”

“No that’s it. Shiloh clear.”

Shiloh felt better for having taken that action, even as he
wondered how he would justify it in his log. Somehow he didn’t think the brass
back at HQ would think much of his admission to having a ‘vision’. Senior
Officers tended to get nervous when the Commander of a 20,000-ton Frigate
started ‘seeing things’. Shiloh decided not to mention his vision in his log. He
went back to his cabin and sat down to go over the daily reports and the other administrative
tasks that a Commanding Officer regularly needed to attend to during his free
time between duty shifts. Halfway through the pile of paperwork, the Bridge
called.

“Bridge to Shiloh.”

“Shiloh here.”

“Skipper, we just received the video feed from the drone’s
second pass. The level of detail is much higher. Maybe I’m just being paranoid,
but the hull damage looks like what you would expect from laser fire. Torres
hasn’t expressed an opinion, but if you ask me it’s obvious as hell.”

Shiloh felt a shiver go down his spine. “Based on what I saw
from the first flyby, that doesn’t surprise me.” He pondered the situation for
a few seconds before adding, “Okay, I’m coming to the Bridge. End message.”

When Shiloh got to the Bridge, the XO started to get up from
the Command Station, but Shiloh waived her back down. “Just pretend I’m not
here,” he told her.

Johansen just snorted in reply as Shiloh went to the Com
Station and asked the Com Tech to replay the drone’s second flyby video. The XO
hadn’t exaggerated. The video feed clearly showed a deep, straight gash with
blistering around the edges. Laser fire was the only possible explanation.

“Com. Is a message drone being updated with the data from
the Squadron?”

“Affirmative Sir.”

“Intercom … ship-wide … Attention all hands, this is the CO.
I’ve just seen evidence from the 301’s recon drone flyby that our sister ship,
the 319, was attacked by unknown forces. The 301 will be sending over a
boarding party to search for survivors. As soon as I hear what they find, I’ll
pass it along. In the meantime, we have to be vigilant for whoever did this. If
we need to go to General Quarters, you have to be ready to act instantly. If
you hear the GQ alarm, it’ll be the real thing. I’m suspending drills for the
duration of this mission. That is all for now. End message.”

Shiloh was just about to walk away from the Com Station when
the Com Tech turned to him and said, “Skipper, there’s a message for you from
Cmdr Torres.”

With the 9-minute time lag, it was going to be a one-way
message.

“Okay. Replay it from the beginning, Chen.”

“Aye, aye, Sir. Switching now.”

One of the screens at the Com Station suddenly showed the face
of Commander Juanita Torres, who began speaking immediately.

“Shiloh, by now you’ve probably seen the evidence that 319
was attacked. The chances of finding survivors seem slim based on the exterior
damage that we can see from here. 323 and 299 will be rendezvousing with us
soon. I have a nagging suspicion that 319 is being used as bait. If that’s
correct, then we may also be attacked at any moment. If you haven’t already
done so, I want you to launch a message drone with all of the data collected so
far. If my hunch is correct and we are attacked, you are ordered to immediately,
repeat immediately jump back to our staging point and make sure the Base knows
what happened. Do NOT under any circumstances come to our aide. I’m instructing
the remainder of the Squadron to come together and join us asap. It’s my
intention to leave this system as soon as we’ve finished recovering survivors,
if any, and have downloaded 319’s datalogs. Your primary mission is to get word
back to Base. If you’re attacked, you have permission to jump out of here as
quickly as you can. Good luck to us all. Torres out.”

Shiloh didn’t hesitate. “Com. Launch the message drone now
and acknowledge the SL’s message.”

The response was immediate. “Message drone launched, Sir, Squadron
Leader’s message has been acknowledged.”

“Understood.”

He walked over to the Command Station and met the XO’s gaze.
“You heard?”

She nodded and was just about to say something when they
heard the phrase that Shiloh had been dreading.

“Sensor contact bearing 089 by 022!”

Johansen switched one of her Command Station screens to the
same display as the sensor tech was watching.

“Can you determine distance, course and speed?” asked the XO.

“Not yet, Sir. Only one of our recon drones has detected a
faint reflection of sunlight off a metallic surface, and we’d need at least two
drones to triangulate an approximate distance, course and speed. The other two
drones are scanning the general direction of the reflection. We may have a
better fix momentarily, Sir.”

Johansen looked at her Boss. “Skipper, I recommend we go to
General Quarters,” she said quietly.

He didn’t hesitate before nodding. After the XO sent the
ship to General Quarters, Shiloh said, “XO, I’ll take the Con.”

As she turned to get up, she said for the benefit of the
Bridge crew, “Skipper has the Con!”

When Shiloh sat down in the Command Chair, he took the
precaution to strap himself in, just in case the ship had to maneuver more
violently than the inertial compensators could handle. He took a good look at
the screen displaying the sensor contact. It showed the three recon drones –
one in the center and the other two in the upper and lower right corners, a
green triangle that was equidistant from the three drones representing the 344,
and a red flashing line extending from one drone to the upper left side of the
screen. The alien vessel was somewhere along that line. If one of the other two
drones could also detect a reflection, the screen would show a second line from
that other drone, and the intersection of the two lines would indicate the
position of the alien vessel. Without that approximate position, there was
nothing that 344 could do. The screen also showed the message drone gradually
moving away from the ship on a course that could take it dangerously close to
the alien vessel, depending on where that ship might be. If the alien detected
the message drone and tracked its course backwards, it would have a pretty good
idea that another ship was lurking in the vicinity. While he was waiting for a
second drone to get a fix on the alien, Shiloh realized that he should inform
Squadron Leader Torres of their situation.

“Com, I’m recording a message for SL Torres and the
Squadron. Transmit it as soon as I’m done.”

“Aye, aye, Sir.”

“Commander Torres, we have detected an unknown and
presumably hostile vessel. The bogey’s range, course and speed have not yet
been determined. I don’t believe that we’ve been spotted yet. It’s my intention
to attack the bogey as soon as we have a better fix on its position. A message
drone has been launched but may be detected, which is why I’m going to distract
the bogey with our own attack. 344 may have to maneuver without warning. I
recommend that the rest of the Squadron establish a new com link with you,
using your recon drone near the 319 as a temporary relay. If my attack is
successful, I will follow your previous instructions and head back to our
staging point without further delay. End message.”

There was still no second sighting. Shiloh wished he could
attack now with the 344’s lasers, but the faintness of the reflection was too
imprecise to allow for much chance of a direct hit. A near miss would only
alert the enemy vessel to 344’s presence. He had to have at least two sensor
sightings to have a realistic chance for a laser hit. Three sightings would
improve the odds even more. The fact that neither the 344 nor the other two
drones had seen any reflection suggested that the alien vessel’s hull was at an
angle relative to the sun such that no reflections were being bounced in the
general direction of the other drones or the frigate. That implied that the
alien wasn’t maneuvering and therefore hadn’t detected them. If it detected
something, it might change its course and/or speed and perhaps even its
orientation relative to the sun.

Shiloh suddenly had an idea. He decided to take over direct
control of the recon drone that was farthest from the bogey. He ordered its
onboard A.I. pilot to broadcast an omni-directional signal lasting a fraction
of a second, hoping it would be just enough to get the alien’s attention and cause
it to begin maneuvering. The ploy worked. No sooner had the drone transmitted
the signal than the bogey began to maneuver AND rotate its hull orientation.
Its hull’s irregular surfaces caused sunlight to bounce in new directions, and
both the frigate and one of the other drones caught the reflection. Sensor data
was quickly analyzed by the tactical A.I. The range to the bogey was now
determined to be 144,000 klicks away. Speed was only about 13 kilometers per
second, but it was accelerating at a very respectable 1.1 kps squared in the
direction of the signal from the drone. Shiloh glanced at the screen showing
the Tactical Officer’s primary display. The Tactical A.I. was projecting a
laser hit probability of 61.8% but as more sensor data came in, the hit probability
was getting better. At the rate it was changing, it would reach 90% in a few
seconds. Shiloh had another idea. He asked the Tactical A.I. to plot possible
intercept courses for the recon drones versus the bogey. Only two of the drones
were close enough AND fast enough to intercept the alien ship if it maintained
its present course and acceleration. One of the two drones had been the one
that sent the signal. Shiloh ordered all three drones to attempt to intercept
and ram the alien ship. Even though the third drone would not be able to catch
up to the alien ship if it continued its acceleration, it provided insurance
against the chance of the bogey reducing its speed. Shiloh looked at the hit
probability display. It was approaching 90%, but the rate of increase was
slowing as the law of diminishing marginal returns kicked in. Theoretically it
would eventually hit 100% if enough sensor data was accumulated or the target
got close enough, but at this distance, the best probability that Shiloh could
hope for in a reasonable length of time was in the low 90’s. 344 had two
standard laser turrets, designed primarily for use against unarmored pirate and
smuggler vessels. If that alien ship had any kind of hull armor, his lasers
might need multiple hits to penetrate it. That was another good reason to try
to ram the bastard. Even hull armor would have difficulty in mitigating the
damage caused by the kinetic energy from a collision at the kind of speeds that
both the bogey and the drones would be traveling. The effect would be similar
to what happened when tanks fired armor-piercing, kinetic energy shells at
other tanks. The kinetic energy at the point of impact was so great that the
impacting metal rod instantly turned to a jet of super hot gases that punched
through even the densest armor like a hot knife through butter. If 344’s lasers
didn’t cripple that ship, then Shiloh hoped the ramming drones would.

Without turning his head, Shiloh called to his Weapons
Officer. “Weapons!”

“Sir?” replied the officer with a tense voice.

“When I give you the word to open fire, I want you to keep
firing until I order you to stop or until the target is destroyed. “

“Understood, Sir!”