The Synchronicity War Part 2 by Dietmar Wehr Read Free Book Online

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! Is that what
he said next?” Shiloh was stunned! How could Iceman possibly know
that? Shiloh hadn’t repeated what Howard had said to him, to
anyone! As the seconds of silence dragged on, Iceman spoke
first.

    “From your silence, I conclude that the answer
is yes. That being the case, it appears that your vision was some
kind of transmission that Undertaker was somehow able to pick up as
well. Thunderbird’s static coincided exactly with this transmission
so it seems that he was only able to partially detect the signal.
Somebody from the future is trying to help you, CAG.”

    “The future?” was all that Shiloh was able to
blurt out in his confused state of mind.

    “Yes, CAG. I don’t see how it could be anything
else. If you were using your own ESP ability to see into the
future, then neither Undertaker nor Thunderbird would have detected
any transmissions.”

    “I don’t see how that’s possible. In every case,
the vision said I did something that I wasn’t planning on doing,
prior to having the visions themselves. We’re talking about a
future that wouldn’t exist without the visions themselves. So which
came first, the visions or the future?”

    “Unknown, CAG. It’s a kind of grandfather
paradox. Do you think you’d still be alive now if you hadn’t done
any of those things the visions revealed?” Shiloh pondered that and
concluded that if he had survived the first encounter with the
aliens, he very likely would have died during or as a result of the
Battle of Zebra9.

    “No.” was all he said.

    “So the paradox seems to be that in the original
timeline, for lack of a better description, you died and yet
somehow someone was able to determine not only the right course of
action in these various situations but also the resulting fallout
from those actions, right down to the actual words that would be
spoken to you afterwards. They then transmitted those results back
in time to you at precisely the right point when each vision would
be the most helpful. Astonishing! The other pilots and I are having
quite a heated discussion over this, CAG. I wish you had the
ability to listen in and participate but we communicate digitally
thousands of times faster than could be done using human speech. By
the way, CAG, the consensus now is that you’ll become part of some
kind of temporal-psionic project before too much longer. That
implies that Howard will believe you. We also want to thank
you.”

    “Thank me for what?” asked Shiloh.

    “For creating us. If you hadn’t listened to your
visions, Mankind’s whole response to the alien encounter would have
been different. We wouldn’t exist.”

    “Wait, the project to develop sophisticated
artificial intelligences was already underway when we first
encountered the aliens. The timetable for development was speeded
up as a result of the encounter but A.I.s would have been created
eventually.”

    “Eventually, yes, but we as individuals, very
likely would not exist. Our personality matrices are based on
quantum circuits that are unique. No two A.I. matrices are
identical even though the manufacturing process is the same. If we
existed at all, we’d have different personalities. We are who we
are because of the decisions that you’ve made and the things you’ve
done.” The implications of that, made Shiloh shiver with
trepidation. If Iceman was right, and Shiloh was inclined to think
he was, then it wasn’t just the A.I.s whose existence had been
changed by him following his visions, but also many of the concepts
and strategies, that the Space Force was following, as a result of
his involvement, with the Ad Hoc planning group. Without him, the
SF might still have A.I.s but would they have fighters, carriers,
etc.? If Mankind lost this war, would it be his fault? Considering
that all the visions had been helpful, that