Read Online Synchronicity War Part 1, The by Dietmar Wehr - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Dietmar Wehr
Tags: Science-Fiction, adventure, Space Opera, Military, Time travel, Science Fiction & Fantasy, alien invasion, Galactic Empire, Space Fleet
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I’m going to ask Commander Omar to describe the
sequence of events of your return to the battle system. If any of you feel that
you have something useful to bring forward, and by that I don’t mean jokes,
good humored insults or other gratuitous comments, then signal me in a
non-verbal manner, and I’ll make sure that you get the opportunity to express
yourself. If this goes on for more than an hour, we’ll take a short break.
“Now, unless there are any questions, we’ll begin.”
There were no questions. As Omar began to relate the
sequence of events, Shiloh listened with half an ear and used the rest of his
attention to watch the other officers. Gaspar, the Support Group Leader, was
listening intently. The other officers seemed to be less interested, probably because
of the obvious fatigue that Shiloh could see in their faces. When Omar got to
the part where the recon drones started using active scanning to search the
target and the aliens destroyed them, one of the XO’s signaled that he had
something to add. Howard signaled Omar to pause and gave the XO the nod to
speak up.
“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.”
Chapter 4 The Voters
Will Never Believe This
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
sequence of events of your return to the battle system. If any of you feel that
you have something useful to bring forward, and by that I don’t mean jokes,
good humored insults or other gratuitous comments, then signal me in a
non-verbal manner, and I’ll make sure that you get the opportunity to express
yourself. If this goes on for more than an hour, we’ll take a short break.
“Now, unless there are any questions, we’ll begin.”
There were no questions. As Omar began to relate the
sequence of events, Shiloh listened with half an ear and used the rest of his
attention to watch the other officers. Gaspar, the Support Group Leader, was
listening intently. The other officers seemed to be less interested, probably because
of the obvious fatigue that Shiloh could see in their faces. When Omar got to
the part where the recon drones started using active scanning to search the
target and the aliens destroyed them, one of the XO’s signaled that he had
something to add. Howard signaled Omar to pause and gave the XO the nod to
speak up.
“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.”
Chapter 4 The Voters
Will Never Believe This
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
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