Free The Synchronicity War Part 2 by Dietmar Wehr Page B

Bridge revealed that all fighters were back aboard. No sign of
enemy forces. An extended range message drone had been sent back to
Sol and a reply was expected back within 24 hours.

    Those 24 hours seemed to take forever. Defiant
really had no business staying in the Avalon system any longer. Her
fighters were no longer needed there. Her stockpiles of recon and
attack drones were depleted which made the continuation of the
Early Warning Network mission moot. The best use of her right now
was to return to Sol or at least to the Omaha Base where she could
rearm and top up her fighters but that was not up to Shiloh and TF
Leader Sobrist was not prepared to pre-empt HQ’s prerogative to
decide where Defiant should go next. When the reply from Sol did
arrive, Shiloh’s orders were clear and short. Return to Sol
immediately. The abruptness of the order and the lack of any kind
of personal message or congratulations were jarring. Admiral Howard
was clearly not happy with Shiloh. He gave a mental shrug and
ordered the ship to head for home.

Chapter 5 - Time to Face the Music

    The trip back was uneventful. Shiloh used the
time to write a more comprehensive report with lots of
recommendations that he suspected Howard would not be in a mood to
accept. When Defiant arrived at the Sol system and contacted HQ,
she was ordered to enter lunar orbit and Shiloh, Tanaka and
Falkenberg were ordered to come down to Earth. The rest of the crew
were told to stay aboard. Apparently no liberty for anyone this
time around. When Iceman was informed of Shiloh’s orders, he
offered to come along and after some consideration, Shiloh agreed.
Iceman’s quantum brain was transferred to a portable unit that
provided him with power, video and audio pickups, speaker and a
limited ability to move around. As it happened, it was early in the
day when their shuttle touched down at the Geneva Spaceport. A
Space Force bus took the four of them to the HQ building, and
eventually to Howard’s outer office, where they were kept waiting
for over an hour. At least there was coffee and finger foods to
keep them happy. Iceman queried Shiloh and the others on what it
was like to consume hot liquids and solids. When his questions got
to the topic of eliminating bodily wastes, Shiloh changed the
subject.

    Finally a junior officer came to escort Shiloh
to the Admiral’s office. Howard had a serious expression on his
face as he pointed to one of the two chairs in front of his desk.
He said nothing while he waited for Shiloh to sit down. Then he
leaned back in his chair and opened fire.

    “Dammit, Shiloh, I don’t 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!” It was exactly as he
remembered it in the vision. The same words, same tone of voice,
same facial expression and the same hand gestures. His response had
been carefully planned, even rehearsed on the way back.

    “What Cmdr. Tanaka witnessed, was me having a
precognitive vision, of what you’ve just said. From my perspective,
I seemed to be standing over there…” he pointed to a spot about 2
meters away, “where I saw and overheard your comments just now.
I’ve had other precognitive visions that have all come true going
all the way back to the original alien encounter and my hunch to
launch recon drones. Even my refusal to accept command of Sentinel
was driven by a vision of you saying that it was a