Three hours later, Jim and I had discovered why our system wasn't as accurate as our counterpart's missile. During our tests of the warp fields, we could never get the mathematical models to converge to a solution that would match the experimental data. This was because there was another source somewhere else being operated at the same times that we operated our tests. Johnny must have been slipping our schedule to his contacts all along. The effects of the other warp field on the other side of the planet, although a couple orders of magnitude smaller due to distance, put a gravitational pole out at infinity (mathematically speaking) and our feedback calculations never could account for it. I never thought that there should be a pole there because it didn't fit the physical model I understood for the world. But it was experimental data and if something is there, it is there. The theory is just not right. I had always attributed our problem with some frame dragging effect or some other General Relativity phenomena that wasn't well understood. Incomplete theory was the problem, or so I thought. As soon as Jim and I thought to add a second warped field to our model and ran the calculation in the computer, the model converged to a solution! We had precise navigation licked. We also knew how to find other warp generators being tested. The field coils for any missile would have to be experimentally aligned. It's during that procedure that we would detect them as poles in our system and measure precisely where they were to within a few meters.
Anne Marie poked her head in the conference room. 'Anson, Mom would like to see you and Jim. How's it going?' she asked.
'Great! Jim deserves a Nobel Prize,' I said.
'Mom always said that he was the real brains of this outfit.' Anne Marie laughed.
Annie led us to a hallway and handed us off to two armed guards. 'See ya in a bit.'
At the end of the hallway one of the guards handed me a clipboard and said, 'Gentlemen if you will please sign in.'
Jim and I signed the paperwork as the other guard worked a combination on the door. Jim handed the first guard the clipboard back and he handed us each a visitor's badge that said 'Escort Not Required.' Jim and I entered the room to find Colonel Ames in full dress uniform and talking to a large flat-panel screen. I felt a little underdressed. I'm not sure Jim cared.
'Mr. President, we're fairly certain that this was the only system in orbit at this time. The electromagnetic pulse created just before impact was detected by our early warning and nuclear detonation satellite system, which accurately measured it. The early detection satellite measurements allowed us data enough to determine the size of the warp missile. It was basically a carbon copy of the unit known as Zephram—the brief you have already seen.' Tabitha stopped for air and turned to introduce us.
'Mr. President, you already have met Dr. Anson Clemons and this is his associate Dr. Jim Daniels.' She paused.
'Hello Mr. President,' I said. Jim just nodded.
The President began speaking, 'This is a fine damn mess you've caused, fellows! There are over fifty million people that are estimated dead and what am I to tell the public?'
Tabitha started to speak but I stepped in.
'Tell them it was another meteor, a bigger one. Only a handful of people know otherwise, unless the Chinese have made some ultimatum we're unaware of. We have figured out how to detect them. It's just a matter of time before we can counter them.'
'Counter them! Are you suggesting we get into some sort of all-out secret war? Congress would never go for that. Besides, in this day and age war would be hard to cover up, especially given large numbers of casualties.'
'Mr. President, these missiles are undetectable by anybody on the planet except for the people in this room and the people in a room similar to this in China. Looking at what has happened thus far, I would venture to guess that our opponents plan to play this one out to the end. We can gather intelligence on them. Determine how far along they are with more of these weapons and slow them down until we can catch up and take them out. And when we do take them out, we will take out their entire government and infrastructure. We will remove their capability to make war at all, in one complete and precise strike. Then we can offer to go in and help them rebuild their government and infrastructure, but this time it will be a capitalist system that is completely allied with us, or else.'
'Jesus, son. I'm glad you are on our side,' the President said.
'Thank you, Mr. President. I have no sympathy for a people that will let their government kill millions of people in an unprovoked attack. They should get what they deserve.' I grinded my teeth a bit and I guess I should've tried to hide my anger better.
'Okay, what if they have one of these things ready to go now?' he asked.
'Can't we just shoot it down? I mean rockets blow up all the time,' Jim interjected.
'Good idea, Jim. Wouldn't the National Missile Defense System be able to shoot down something as slow and big as a manned rocket?' I asked.
'Of course it could. We simply need to modify some trajectory calculations and adjust the Kalman filtering sequence,' Tabitha assured us. 'Mr. President. We need resources and we need people. And until we know exactly what is going on I think you're in danger.'
'Son,' he pointed at me, 'you started this mess. You better by God get us through it. We're counting on you.
'Yes sir. Thank you Mr. President.' Tabitha squirmed a bit uncharacteristically.
Jim and I nodded and then were asked to leave. So we did.
A few hours later the President was on television issuing a statement to the public. 'Hello America. I speak to you tonight with a grave heart. We have experienced the greatest disaster in human history,' he began. 'Scientists have assured me that indeed Colorado was struck by a meteor of a scale only slightly smaller than the one that destroyed the dinosaurs. It is likely our national and maybe even global weather patterns will be erratic and cooler than normal in the near future. Unlike the dinosaurs however, we're intelligent and will overcome this obstacle.
'As of now, we have no way of discerning the total amount of damage that has occurred, but we will not stop until we have combed all of Colorado for survivors. We're keeping a vigil watch on the climate surrounding the impact. As soon as the strong weather patterns and the firestorms have subsided, we will begin rescue effort deployment. FEMA and other volunteer emergency professionals are standing by until that time.
