The Synchronicity War Part 2 Read Free Page B

know whether to court
martial you or give you a medal! Dangling one light carrier as bait
in front of 55 alien ships? Despite the fact that you got away with
it, and took out enough enemy ships to just barely enable us to
stop the rest of them from attacking the Avalon Colony, I have to
seriously question your judgment, especially in light of Cmdr.
Tanaka’s report about your momentary paralysis, or whatever that
was, just before you announced your plan to put Defiant in Harm’s
Way. What the Hell is wrong with you, Shiloh? You got 30 seconds to
convince me that I shouldn’t relieve you of your command and have
you certified as a Class A nutcase!” The scene dissolved and he was
back on Defiant’s Bridge with both the XO and Astrogator looking at
him strangely.

    “Are you okay, Sir? You seemed to enter some
kind of hypnotic state or something for a few seconds. You didn’t
respond to our voices and you didn’t even notice when I waived my
hand in front of your face a couple of times.” Tanaka’s voice
conveyed serious concern. Shiloh now knew that she would report
this incident when they got back but there was nothing he could do
about that.

    “I’m fine now, XO. I guess I must have blacked
out there but I’m fine now. Let’s get our attention back to the
situation. You asked me how Iceman’s Strike Force can find the
enemy fleet in a stern chase without using active scanning. I know
how we can do it. Astro…use my console to add the trajectories that
the enemy would need to follow if they wanted to jump to the next
logical refueling stop for both paths, up on the tactical display.”
The Astrogator waited a couple of seconds before responding. It
didn’t take long for two red lines to appear on the display. Both
started at the same point in orbit around the Green4A gas giant and
the lines gradually diverged as they got further away from the
planet. Shiloh nodded his approval.

    “Okay, now add the gravity zone and highlight
Defiant’s current position for me.” When that was done, Shiloh got
up from his chair and walked calmly over to the large display. As
he pointed to it, he said.

    “Here’s what we do. Defiant will microjump to
this area, just outside the gravity zone and more or less between
the two trajectories. When we arrive, we launch recon drones that
will head back down towards Green4A and then we follow them in.
They’ll be actively scanning as they go. When the Strike Force is
back in contact, they’ll be ordered to accelerate along a vector
that’s between these two trajectories. Our emergence from jumpspace
will be detected by the enemy but since they’re still in the
gravity zone, they can’t microjump close to us. They also can’t
ignore us either since we’ll be coming down their throats as it
were. So I’m counting on them coming straight for us in the belief
that they can re-align themselves with their next target star after
they destroy us. So…while they move towards Defiant this way…” he
pointed with his right hand index finger. “..our recon drones will
eventually detect them and we relay that data to the Strike Force.
At the same time, we turn around and make it look like we’re
running for our lives. Meanwhile, the Strike Force is catching up
due to their superior acceleration. If Defiant plays its cards
right, the enemy will be too focused on us, to watch their backs
and the Strike Force will launch their attack drones from the rear
at close range. All we have to do is stay far enough away from them
to make their laser fire ineffective.” He was met with stunned
silence. Finally, the XO spoke.

    “Well, Sir…if you’d like my opinion…” Shiloh cut
her off.

    “Not this time, Sumi. I’ve made up my mind.
We’re doing this. End of discussion. I want you to get a message
drone ready to send back to Bradley Base. I’ll record a message to
be added to our data logs. Martin, I want you to get busy figuring
the instructions for the Strike Force, the