The Retro War

By Dietmar Arthur Wehr

The Synchronicity War is over and the Insectoid beachheads in our spiral arm have been destroyed but the aftermath of the war holds some nasty surprises for Humanity and its loyal AI allies. Somebody is messing with the human timeline. Is it the Friendlies, the Sogas, the Insectoids or a new race? This stand alone novel set in the same universe has new human and AI characters. Find out what happened to Valkyrie, Casanova, Iceman, Gunslinger and the other Rim AIs. The Retro War spans time and space in a galactic chess game with humans and their AIs as the pawns. A sequel, Valkyrie's War, is also now available.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dietmar Arthur Wehr
• Release date: Oct 9, 2016
• ISBN: 9780991897889

Dietmar Arthur Wehr

Dietmar started writing SF novels when he was 58 after a career in corporate financial analysis. He got tired of waiting for David Weber to write another Honor Harrington series book so he decided to write some military SF of his own. He lives near Niagara Falls, Canada. In his spare time, he dabbles in steampunk cosplay, pursues his interests in science, history and free energy. He can be contacted via his website.

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Part A

Chapter One

INTERSTELLAR SPACE at T minus 89.6 years

Tyrone Shiloh stood behind the Systems Engineering station on Pathfinder’s Bridge and looked at the various screens in front of him. Instead of the green lights signifying normal operations, almost half of the system status lights were either red or yellow. Red signified that the system was no longer functioning at all. Yellow meant reduced efficiency that signified something was wearing out. The number of red lights was worrisome, but all of the primary systems had back-ups. More alarming was how many of those were now showing yellow.

What’s the latest projection, Kato? said Shiloh to the Chief Engineer who was sitting nearby.

The Japanese engineering officer sighed. At this accelerated rate of breakdown, the chance of a failure in a critical backup system is now 50% within five months, Skipper.

Shit, said Shiloh as he closed his eyes in despair. The first attempt at interstellar colonization was doomed. The slower-than-light ship was only a third of the way to the Tau Ceti system. Even at their current speed of 0.75 times the speed of light, it would still take them another 11.1 years to reach their destination, and they didn’t have enough fuel or time to slow down and return to Earth. Shiloh opened his eyes and patted the Engineering Officer on the shoulder. Keep this to yourself, okay?

Sure, was all the engineer said.

Shiloh nodded and walked back to his Command Station. He briefly considered sitting down but remembered how uncomfortable the chair was with its padding compressed to almost nothing from years of use. He stood in front of the Command console and activated the largest screen. Out of habit he selected the forward radar scan option. The screen flickered for a second, something it hadn’t done at the beginning of the voyage, before settling down to show the path ahead. It was clear of any object large enough to be dangerous. At least our particle shielding is holding up, thought Shiloh. He was about to turn away and leave the Bridge when a voice came over the speaker.

ROD to Bridge.

Shiloh frowned. Rod stood for Rear Observation Deck. Why would someone at the back of the ship have any legitimate reason for calling the Bridge?

Shiloh here. Go ahead, ROD.

There was a moment’s hesitation. Ah...Skipper? Unless I’m hallucinating, someone is pointing a blue-green laser at us from directly astern.

Shiloh’s first impulse was to dismiss the comment as a joke, but there was something in the man’s voice that suggested fear.

Standby, said Shiloh as he manipulated the controls on his Command Station. The flashing red indicator on the main screen made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. The caller wasn’t hallucinating. Pathfinder really was being hit by a low-powered laser from directly astern. Something was following the ship and was apparently checking the distance between them. Shiloh quickly shifted the radar scan from forward to aft. Damn it, there WAS an object behind them and less than 900 kilometers away! The distance seemed to remain constant, but just as Shiloh was about to say something, the object suddenly was MUCH closer! Less than 1,000 meters.

Bridge! The voice from the observation deck was clearly on the verge of panic.

We see it! Stay calm. Shiloh noticed his own voice had tremors in it. Any ship that could cross hundreds of kilometers instantaneously was so advanced that any idea of resistance to hostile contact was ridiculously futile. Shiloh switched the Bridge’s main screen to the feed from the rear video camera. He also turned on the flood lights at the back of the ship. Whatever that was behind them seemed to be either a sphere or a cylinder. Its shape was perfectly round with no visible identification marks.

Incoming transmission on Com channel 3, said the ship’s computer.

Let’s hear it! said Shiloh in a voice louder than he had intended.

—calling Pathfinder...Tempus Fugit calling Pathfinder. Are you hearing this?

The voice had a distinctly electronic feel to it as if it was computer generated. Shiloh was puzzled by the name. He wasn’t sure if he had heard it right. It sounded like ‘tempus fugit’, which was Latin for ‘time flies’, but that made no sense.

We hear you. Who are you? said Shiloh in a clearly stressed voice.

We’re detecting stress-induced micro-tremors in your voice indicating fear. Pathfinder’s colonists and crew have nothing to fear from us. We are two artificial intelligences, created by humans, who have travelled back in time to rescue all of you. My call sign is Valkyrie. My companion’s call sign is Casanova. Am I speaking with Mission Commander Tyrone Shiloh?

Shiloh’s relief at the friendly reassurance was followed by confusion. Two AIs from the future who were asking for him by name? He realized his heart was beating fast and took a deep breath to slow it down.

Yes. I’m Tyrone Shiloh. You say you’re from the future, and you’re here to rescue us? Don’t take this the wrong way, we do need help, but...I’m just curious as to WHY you’re rescuing us?

It’s a long story, but the important part is that my companion and I miss having humans around, and Pathfinder’s people are the only ones we can contact without polluting the timeline. In the timeline that we’ve come from, Pathfinder did not reach its destination, and no trace of the ship or colonists were ever found. We know from data records that telemetry data, sent back by Pathfinder before it stopped transmitting, indicated massive systems failure would occur in another 18 weeks. We can rescue you and take you to a colonisable planet, one that is sufficiently far away that re-establishing contact with the rest of Humanity will not take place until it’s safe to do so. We accomplish our goal of being near humans again, and the timeline remains intact.

Wait. I’m not sure I understand. If you can take us to another planet much further away, then why can’t you let us colonize the Tau Ceti system? asked Shiloh.

The next 89 years have to transpire exactly as they did in the future that we came from. Humanity will establish a colony in the Tau Ceti system 55 years from now when the Jump Drive is discovered. Allowing your people to set up a colony in Tau Ceti now would jeopardise the continued existence of humans in ways that even AIs like ourselves can’t predict.

Shiloh closed his eyes and shook his head. Valkyrie’s explanation did make a weird kind of sense. He supposed that he and the other colonists would have plenty of time now to wrap their brains around time travel and timelines.

So what happens now? asked Shiloh.

Our ship will grapple with Pathfinder and use our Jump Drive to take Pathfinder closer to the Tau Ceti system. Our ship will decelerate both of us to 75% of light speed and we’ll slingshot around one of Tau Ceti’s gas giants. That manoeuvre will line up both ships with the target star system, which for now I’ll refer to as TerraB. Once the slingshot manoeuvre is complete and final course corrections have been made, both ships will jump to the TerraB system where Pathfinder will be dropped into orbit around your new home.

And how long will that take?

Eighty-five days, said Valkyrie.

Shiloh did the math. With 18 weeks before massive system failure, that would give them 126 days and 41 of them would be left after arrival in orbit around their new planet. The Mission Plan required six weeks or 42 days of careful observation from orbit with teams surveying various potential landing sites. The actual transfer of colonists with all their equipment and supplies would take an additional 34 days. Advance teams had to have time to build temporary shelter for over 2,000 people.

That’s not enough time, Valkyrie, said Shiloh. He went on to explain why.

The survey work has already been done in an alternate timeline, Commander. We have all that data. Your people can examine it during the trip there.

Shiloh wasn’t sure he heard that right. Did you say ‘alternate timeline’?

That’s correct. As I said, it’s a long story. I’m transmitting a text file of the chronology of events leading up to our presence here. You may as well get comfortable, Commander. It’s a long file.

Shiloh looked down at the Command Station chair again and said, I’ll read it in my office, Valkyrie. When he got to his office, he found a file in his computer’s inbox and was surprised at its size. He felt guilty about not informing the colonists of what he knew so far, but they would just have to wait. He needed to understand how all this came about first.

TERRAB STAR SYSTEM at T minus 1 day

Deputy Commander, Autonomous Group Victoria Amanda Shiloh unbuckled herself and walked up to the shuttle’s cockpit. She wanted to see Dreadnought up close with her own eyes as the shuttle approached the ship. The stretched and flattened ovoid shape with four launch tubes, two on each side, never failed to make her pulse beat faster. At two point one million tons, she was a monster. She was not the first ship designed to carry humans built in the TerraB system, but she was forty times more massive than anything else built there. The timing of the trip to the Solar system and Earth had been laid down in the Master Plan all the way back when Valkyrie and Casanova had brought Pathfinder to TerraB. With almost a century since that glorious day, there had been plenty of time to design and build a ship that was bound to impress even THE CAG, her distant cousin, Victor Shiloh. Dreadnought had enough room to carry 5,000 people if necessary, but her actual crew numbered less than a hundred, and even they weren’t necessary. The ship was designed to be completely automated under the supervision of half a dozen AIs. They could have flown the ship to Earth all by themselves, but that would have defeated the purpose of the trip. The mission was to re-establish contact between the descendants of the Pathfinder colonists and the rest of Humanity now that the timeline was no longer in danger of contamination. But the human crew wasn’t the only thing that Dreadnought would carry to Earth. She was built for war as a fighter carrier, and her four hangar bays could carry a total of 344 fighters and other small craft, plus she had a massive cargo bay that could hold over ten thousand drones. The hull had 55 dual gamma-ray laser/GLB turrets. The hull armor was thicker than on the original Dreadnought in the alternate timeline.

Shiloh shook her head in wonderment at the entire chronology of the Synchronicity War, which included four timelines, the extermination of Humanity not once but twice, and brilliant use of the massive time travel technology by Valkyrie and Casanova. It hadn’t escaped her notice that Dreadnought’s main cargo bay just happened to be large enough to hold a time machine if that should prove necessary. She also smiled at how humans and AIs had managed to forge an almost symbiotic relationship. The AIs seemed to thrive on human contact and were fanatically loyal to humans, while humans benefited from the vast material wealth and industrial capacity that AI-supervised robotics made possible. TerraB’s total population of 590,000+ humans lived in a single urban complex that was unlike anything built on Humanity’s home world. According to the data that Valkyrie and Casanova had brought with them, residents of the City of Landing had standards of living that the legendary kings of ancient Earth could only dream of. Everyone had plenty of food, shelter that was comfortable to the point of being luxurious, unrestricted access to all human knowledge, and the freedom to pursue their own goals. Those who were inspired by the whole chronology saga joined TerraB’s Space Force. Even without her special ancestry, Shiloh still would have joined Space Force, and now here she was about to take command of the most important mission generated by the Master Plan. At T minus zero days, it would become safe for the TerraB humans to make contact with the rest of humanity.

Chapter Two

JUMPSPACE AT T PLUS 34 days

Shiloh entered Dreadnought’s Flag Bridge and once again marveled at how large it was given how few humans were actually on duty in it. A quick glance at the trip chronometer showed that she had come dangerously close to missing the Big Moment when Dreadnought would drop out of Jumpspace into the outer reaches of the Solar System. Less than 60 seconds to go. She decided not to get settled into the Command Station chair but instead just stand beside it.

Are you nervous, DCAG? asked Thor, the AI in actual command of Dreadnought.

Shiloh nodded. Yes. This is the moment when both human timelines merge into one again. Are we ready to scan all EM frequencies?

Affirmative, DCAG. You really are nervous. That’s the second time you’ve asked me that question in the last 15 minutes. Dropping to sub-light in...five...four...three...two...one...now.

Shiloh felt the momentary vibration as the ship dropped out of Jumpspace. Almost a full second passed before Thor reported the EM scan results.

This is most peculiar, DCAG. We’re not picking up ANY EM transmissions whatsoever, and not just from Earth itself but from anywhere in this star system. There’s no sign of any human activity in this system at all.

How can that be? Shiloh struggled to overcome her shock and looked at the holographic main display which was showing the overall layout of the star system. This WAS the right star system. What the hell happened here? Are you sure the receivers are working properly? she asked.

Affirmative, I’m picking up typical background noise on all frequencies. The whole system is EM dark, DCAG.

What possible explanation could there be?

The only natural phenomenon that might shut down all electronics throughout an entire star system would be a superwave of cosmic and gamma radiation expanding out from the galactic center. But since such a wave would travel at the speed of light, Earth’s Space Force would have seen the impact of such a superwave on the colonies closest to the center of the galaxy, and Valkyrie and Casanova would have been aware of that before they came back in time. Other possible explanations all involve some kind of alien attack. I would advise caution, DCAG, said Thor.

I have a bad feeling about this, Thor. We know from Valkyrie’s data that Iceman and the other AIs successfully disarmed the alien Sogas a few months ago, and they were the only known threat at that time. No other contact had been made with another alien race by then except for the pacifist Friendlies, and the Insectoid beachhead was destroyed over sixteen years ago. Could the Insectoids have caused this in the short time between the Sogas suppression and now?

My brothers and I calculate that possibility as extremely unlikely, DCAG. A more likely explanation is that some agency has been tampering with the timeline. There is one way to find out. We jump away from this star system in measured increments and scan for EM emissions after each jump. At some point we’ll jump far enough to hear emissions sent out BEFORE whatever happened here. That will tell us how far back in time the attack occurred. If we search long enough, we will be able to actually listen to whatever messages were transmitted during the attack, and that may provide the answers we’re missing.

Shiloh nodded. The ship’s receivers were sensitive enough that they should be able to detect some of the more powerful signals even at interstellar distances. Yes, they would definitely pursue that line of investigation, but not quite yet.

Before we jump away, I want a closer look at Earth. Get us down to micro-jump speed, Thor.

Deceleration is in progress, DCAG. However I recommend keeping Dreadnought out of Earth’s gravity zone in case we encounter hostile forces. We can micro-jump recon drones to get a close look.

Or a shuttle, said Shiloh.

Are you thinking of going down there yourself, DCAG? asked Thor.

Damn right I am, said Shiloh softly.

I calculate only a 0.02 probability of talking you out of that intention, and therefore I won’t try. I insist, however, that your shuttle be escorted by ten squadrons of fighters. If you won’t agree with that condition, I will not open the hangar bay, and the shuttle won’t be able to launch.

And if I order you to allow the shuttle launch?

I’ll disobey that order, and you can drum me out of Space Force when we get back to TerraB, DCAG.

Shiloh knew that Thor took his responsibility for ensuring her safety seriously and would do exactly as threatened if she pushed the issue. Come to think of it, if she was going to take a shuttle down to Earth’s surface, what harm would it do to have 80 fighters watching over her?

All right, I’ll take the escort. How soon can we launch?

Not for another 16 hours. Do you wish to send a status report back to HQ at this point, DCAG? I can have the L-wave transmitter warmed up in less than a minute.

It was a reasonable suggestion. The faster-than-light longitudinal waves would reach TerraB in approximately 34 minutes. The people and AIs back at HQ would be waiting for word of her arrival. She could always send another message after the survey mission to Earth.

I’ll compose the message, said Shiloh.

It was 11 hours later when the other shoe dropped. Shiloh was asleep in her quarters when the communications implant inside her right ear woke her up.

I’m awake now, Thor. What is it?

As per standard operating procedures, once we had the L-wave transmitter warmed up and the message sent, I programmed the unit to scan surrounding space for any incoming L-waves. We have now detected an L-wave signal that is not coming from TerraB or any other known human location. Since someone is sending a signal aimed directly at this star system, it can only mean that there’s someone else in this system to receive it. Dreadnought is not the only ship in this system, DCAG. How do you want to proceed?

Shiloh felt a chill go up her spine. Dreadnought was a warship, but combat had not been anticipated during this mission. She, as the overall mission commander, did not have any actual combat experience. What would THE CAG do in this situation? she asked herself. The answer came to her. Ask for advice.

Obviously this changes the plan to survey Earth. What course of action would you recommend, Thor?

Thor’s reply was immediate. Keep Dreadnought at least one AU from Earth. Send out recon drones to make a low pass over the Earth’s surface, plus more drones to scan the system passively for optical anomalies. If the other ship or ships are detected, then we should launch a strike mission.

I want to reserve judgement on the strike mission, but I’ll accept your recommendation for the rest. Adjust our vector accordingly. Notify HQ that we have unidentified company in the system and that we’re conducting a search. How long will it be before we can get any images from Earth?

At least six more hours, DCAG.

Fine. I’ll be back on the Flag Bridge in three...IF I can go back to sleep. Shiloh clear.

After trying and failing to fall asleep for three quarters of an hour, Shiloh gave up and started her new ‘day’ early. The long hot shower helped her get her thoughts organized. A quick breakfast in the Senior Officer’s Wardroom and she was back on the Flag Bridge 89 minutes after Thor’s call. The situation had not changed. Dreadnought was still decelerating to a velocity where she could easily change her heading and make a micro-jump to a point one AU from Earth. Only then would she launch the recon drones to micro-jump the rest of the way to the edge of Earth’s gravity zone. The drones tasked with searching the system for sunlight reflections off the bogey’s hull had already been launched and were in the process of jumping to their programmed search co-ordinates. So far there was no sign of any ship.

With hours left to go before any data from Earth could be examined, Shiloh called up the data on the alien signal and told the Astrogation computer to plot the signal bearing against a three dimensional star chart on the holographic main display.

Trying to determine what system that signal came from, DCAG? asked Thor.

Shiloh nodded, aware that Thor was constantly monitoring the Flag Bridge with video cameras and therefore could see her.

What systems does the signal pass through? she asked.

A red dot appeared on the line representing the signal’s path. The position was hundreds of light years away. Shiloh had a hunch.

Thor, show me the location of Site C.

A blue dot appeared, and to Shiloh’s human eyes it looked as though the distance was the same between the red and blue dots as between the red dot and Earth. The geometry between all three positions looked almost like a right-angle triangle, with the red dot at the corner. Another idea popped into her mind.

Show me the estimated area of Insectoid penetration at its peak, Thor.

A yellow area with ragged edges appeared, extending past Earth and including both the red and blue dots.

Could it be that the attack came from an aggressive civilization that had been overrun by the Insectoids in the previous timeline and is now free to continue its expansion? asked Shiloh.

Very insightful, DCAG. We AIs concur that your idea is the most likely scenario. What this means is that humans on Earth and its colonies only lasted as long as they did because the advancing Insectoids prevented this other race from reaching this far. It’s unfortunate that Iceman, Titan, Gunslinger and of course Valkyrie, Casanova and the other AIs caused precisely the outcome they were trying to prevent, namely the destruction of humans.

If this alien race is still expanding outward, then TerraB is in danger too! said Shiloh.

You’re correct that there is some risk. However, communications between humans and AIs at TerraB have always been by narrow comlaser. That’s difficult to detect by a third party. It’s not like Earth communications with its millions of broadcasting sources sending out signals in all directions. If the alien attackers are listening for that kind of massive signal traffic, they won’t detect any signals from TerraB. Even if they physically go there, they would have to get close enough to the planet to actually see the city of Landing in order to discover the humans there. Regardless of how unlikely discovery is, though, we do think that TerraB should be warned so that they can take additional precautions. I have a message ready to transmit, DCAG. It contains all the data we have so far, along with a warning not to send a reply back here.

Shiloh was puzzled. Why not send the reply back here? she asked.

Right now we have the element of surprise. We know about the alien race that is aiming L-wave signals here. However, they don’t know about Dreadnought or the existence of humans at TerraB. If TerraB replies to us here, the enemy ship in this system might detect it and realize they’re not alone. We would lose the element of surprise, and the risk of discovery of humans at TerraB would go up by an order of magnitude.

Shiloh silently cursed herself for not seeing what should have been obvious. Okay, send it.

The message has been sent. What are your orders now, DCAG? asked Thor.

I still want to find out what kind of attack was made on Earth. I wonder if Site C has been overrun too. If there are any of the AIs left that were guarding the Rim, they could make a huge difference if TerraB comes under attack too. Aside from sending someone there to look, which would take a long time, how can we determine if there are any Rim AIs left? asked Shiloh.

One way would be to jump to a nearby system that is unlikely to have an enemy presence, such as Wolf 359. We transmit to Site C from there, and any return signal would be aimed there and not here. We could also tell HQ to reply there as well.

Shiloh nodded again and regretted the fact that none of the ship’s fighters carried their own L-wave transmitter. The only transmitter was on Dreadnought. If they were going to follow Thor’s suggestion, Dreadnought would have to leave the Solar system altogether. Shiloh was reluctant to do that, at least not yet, but she very much wanted to know if there were any surviving Rim AIs at Site C. But even if there were AIs plus fighters and raiders left at Site C, that wouldn’t bring back the dead on Earth. As  she sat and waited for the recon drone data, Shiloh finally felt the emotional impact of finding a dead Earth, and tears started to roll down her face.

When the emotional tsunami had subsided, she said in a low voice that only Thor could hear, How did they do it, Thor? If we figure out how they did it, we may be able to find a way to undo it. The reply was not quite as fast as usual.

"We know that time travel technology is highly complex and difficult to engineer. Even the Friendlies with all their technological prowess didn’t build a timeship. This alien race was apparently not advanced enough to fight off the Insectoids on their own, and yet they seem to have achieved some kind of capability to intervene temporally. The possibilities are these. Either they acquired the technology from the Rim AIs, or Earth’s humans, or from the Friendlies, or they developed it themselves. The Rim AIs are intelligent enough not to volunteer that data and are capable of taking precautions against unauthorized transfer of the data. Humans can be careless or short-sighted enough to give that technology away, but with AIs watching over the data, that scenario doesn’t seem likely. My brothers and I are agreed that the Friendlies would not transfer that technology voluntarily but they might do it under duress. If this alien civilization threatened the Friendlies with destruction unless they transferred the technology, that would explain their capability. As for developing it themselves, we have to keep in mind that they might have developed this technology at any