The Synchronicity War Part 2 Read Free

sensor data parameters. The
drones were far enough away from the gas giant that, while it was
possible and even easy to observe the wakes, caused by ships
plowing through the upper atmosphere, the attempt to detect the
black silhouette of ships in low orbit against the planet’s lighter
background was pushing the optical sensors to their limits. It
could very well be that the other 10 bogeys were in fact also in
low orbit but the drones’ sensors hadn’t detected them yet. The
other possibility was that the missing ships were also refueling
but were underneath the 14 ships whose wakes were visible. The
turbulence wakes of the ships higher up might be hiding the wakes
from the ships below.

    With the distance between Defiant and the Strike
Force, Shiloh knew that they wouldn’t get Iceman’s acknowledgement
of the drone data for another 4 minutes and reports of the actual
attack and its results would take two minutes to reach the ship
too. Shiloh looked at the chronometer again. 8 and 1/3rd minutes
until communication with the Strike Force would be lost due to
atmospheric distortion of the laser beam, another approximately 23
minutes until the Strike Force was in position to attack, then
another 2 minutes for news of the attack results to reach Defiant.
With over half an hour to go with nothing to do but sit and wait,
Shiloh called the Galley and ordered the food and coffee for the
Bridge crew.

    With just under twenty minutes left before
Defiant expected to hear the attack results from the Strike Force,
Shiloh decided that this was as good a time as any, to practice a
leadership technique, taught at the Academy, called ‘Leadership by
walking around’. He remembered his Instructor telling the class
that Julius Caesar had allegedly practiced this technique one night
before a major battle, by walking around his army’s camp, going
from campfire to campfire with a pickle in his hand, which he used
to graphically enhance the telling of several obscene jokes that
made his soldiers roar with laughter. There’s never a pickle
around when you need one , he thought to himself with amusement.
He got up and strolled around the Bridge, chatting for a few
seconds with each of the Bridge personnel in a low voice that made
each conversation seem more personal and confidential. He found
that the mood of the Bridge crew was good. No one exhibited
excessive fear and a couple of them were downright eager for the
ship to exchange laser volleys with the enemy. Shiloh only smiled
when he heard that. Defiant class light carriers were not meant to
slug it out toe-to-toe with the enemy although they could defend
themselves if they had to. Her most powerful weapon was the
squadron of fighters that could pack a hell of a punch and launch
that punch at long ranges. When he had finished speaking with all
of the enlisted Bridge crew and was about to chat with the
Astrogator, the tactical display pinged for attention. A quick
glance at the chronometer showed that there was still almost 8
minutes left before the planned interception of the enemy force by
Iceman’s group. Looking back at the tactical display, Shiloh saw
another text message from Valkyrie scroll across the bottom of the
view screen.

    [ Enemy ships in orbit have begun active
scanning. All recon drones have been detected and destroyed by
enemy laser fire. Contact with enemy force lost. No contact with
Strike Force. Sentry fighters have not been detected. Request
instructions. End message ]

    Shiloh heard someone say ‘damn’ with feeling,
then realized that he had said it. He rushed over to his Command
Station, switched the open channel to Valkyrie over to his
implanted com device frequency and said.

    “CAG to Valkyrie. Maintain current vector. More
instructions to follow.” With the message recorded, he touched the
Command Screen button to transmit it in a short laser micro-burst.
As he sat back down in the chair, he gestured for the XO and
Astrogator to step over to his