they’re far more versatile than space-based assets. The space guys watched the incident in the South China Sea, but what could they do about it? Even if they had the Rods from God, or even that big laser they used to have up there, would they have sunk the Chinese carrier in response? The president is making the right decision, Mil.”
“The Air Force undersecretary in charge of space, Ann Page, is really pushing this new Space Defense Force thing,” Turner said. “Now that the Thor’s Hammer project is unclassified and apparently successful, she’ll be pressing a military presence in space even harder.”
“That’s her job,” Carlyle said. “But she was brought into the Pentagon so we could monitor and control her public comments. She can talk all she wants, but she still has to support the president and the administration as long as she’s in that post. If she doesn’t toe the line, we’ll make sure she’s disgraced as well as dismissed. It’s your job to make sure she stays on the right side.”
“I know that, Conrad. I’m just giving you a heads-up. We may be building carriers like crazy, but space is not going away.”
ARMSTRONG SPACE STATION
THE NEXT DAY
“Attention on the station, hostile spacecraft detected, all personnel to emergency posts!” Senior Master Sergeant Valerie Lukas announced on the PA system. “Time to possible collision, seven minutes! All posts, report when configured for station defense and damage control!”
Kai Raydon was on his way from the latrine cubicle when the alert came, and he propelled himself across the large command module faster than he had ever done before. “Why do these things always happen when I’m in the latrine?” he muttered. “Report.”
“Pirinclik has detected liftoff of a large rocket from an unknown launch site in southern Russia, designated E-1,” Lukas said, referring to the U.S. Air Force’s AN/FPS/79 space tracking radar facility in Turkey. “Confirmed by DSP and SBIRS-High. E-1 does not appear to be going into orbit, but is on a very high-altitude, very high-speed ballistic path.”
“Aimed at us?”
“Yes, sir,” Lukas said. “Time to impact, six minutes.”
“No announced launches of any kind?”
“No, sir.”
“Then it’s a bad guy,” Kai said. “Designate E-1 as hostile. Are we tracking it yet?”
“Negative, sir. Our tracking radar and Doppler are off-line.”
“Perfect. Pirinclik still have it?”
“They’ll lose it in ninety seconds,” Lukas responded. “Globus-2 and Diego Garcia aren’t tracking. Shemya might pick it up about sixty seconds before impact.”
“They attacked at the perfect moment-right where our space surveillance coverage is the worst,” Kai said. “Okay, we’re down to our own infrared and optical sensors. Let’s have a look. We’ll have Pirinclik aim the sensors for acquisition.”
The large multifunction display between Raydon and Lukas changed from a radar graphic of the launch to a split-screen view of Earth. The left split showed Earth as a cool gray mass in the background, with flashes of light here and there from lightning and reflected sunlight, which computers were attempting to tune out as much as possible. The right split showed Earth through a telescope, set for wide field of view as it searched for the incoming missile.
“Four minutes to impact,” Lukas reported.
“C’mon, guys, find the sucker,” Raydon said.
“Too much background clutter…”
“Try manually tuning,” Raydon said. “The computers are tuning out the background clutter-tune for the target.”
Lukas switched the infrared sensor’s tuning to manual, and the left side of the monitor flared almost to complete white as the energy being radiated by the Earth washed out the heat-sensitive sensor. Seeker carefully adjusted several controls until the background faded, then began tuning even more carefully. “The sensor slaved to Pirinclik’s radar-it’s gotta be right in front of us, and hotter than hell,” she murmured. “Anything on the camera?”
“Nothing yet.”
“You’ll find it, Seeker,” Raydon said. “Countermeasures?”
“Standing by, sir,” the officer in charge of the station’s active defenses replied. “All systems active.”
“Three minutes. Pirinclik radar lost contact.”
“Seeker?”
“It’s gotta be cooler than I’m expecting,” the Air Force senior master sergeant said. “Unslave the camera and search separately in case I’m way off.”
“You’re not,” Raydon said. “Relax and find it.”
“Damage control parties in position, sir.”
“Copy.” On the stationwide intercom he said, “All personnel, two minutes to-”
“Got it!” Lukas crowed. “It’s cold, not hot-they must’ve figured out a way to cool it off to make it harder to pick up on infrared.” She immediately slaved the camera to the infrared seeker and zoomed in. The visual image showed a simple black bullet-shaped object. “It looks like a payload, not the entire rocket-it must’ve already staged.”
“Countermeasures ready?”
“Defensive systems ready, sir.”
Raydon punched in instructions in his computer keyboard, then opened a red-covered switch and activated it, giving commander’s authority to fire weapons. “Attention on the station, countermeasures under way. Permission to engage, Seeker. Shoot when ready.”
“Radiating now.” Lukas entered commands into her computer, activated her own authorization switch, and hit a keyboard button. Moments later, an alert flashed on the monitors. “Automatic tracking failed,” she announced. She grasped a joystick handle on the right side of her console and squeezed the slewing lever, which brought up a set of crosshairs on her camera monitor. Adjusting the field of view with her left hand while watching the monitor, she carefully placed the crosshairs on the target and squeezed a trigger. “Targeting lasers firing…COIL activating.”
Mounted below the pressurized modules of Armstrong Space Station, in the place where the controversial Skybolt magnetohy-drodynamic antiballistic-missile laser had been mounted, was a simple boxlike structure with several articulating turrets around it. Small targeting lasers shot from the turrets began tracking the incoming target, precisely measuring distance and bearing.
When the object was in range-about two hundred miles, or just forty seconds to impact-the main weapon activated. The structure contained the Hydra, a five-hundred-kilowatt Chemical-Oxygen-Iodine Laser, or COIL, a smaller version of the two megawatt COIL aboard the YAL-1 Airborne Laser and the AL-52 Dragon antiballistic- missile laser aircraft. Chlorine and hydrogen peroxide were mixed under high pressure, instantly producing highly energetic oxygen, which was compressed by nitrogen and mixed with iodine, creating laser light. The light was amplified by mirrors and optics into a beam and sent to a beam director and through an adaptive-optics focusing mirror, which sent a nickelsize spot of intense laser light on the target.
As soon as Lukas pulled the trigger to activate the COIL, they could see tiny sparkles of light around the target-but it wasn’t from the laser. “Maneuvering thrusters-the sucker’s maneuvering,” Lukas said.
“Stay with it, Seeker,” Raydon urged her. “Nail that sucker.”
“I’m not sure if I have a coherent beam without auto tracking-”
“The targeting lasers didn’t malfunction, only the main turret,” Raydon said. “You’re the tracker now. Get it!”
Lukas released the trigger when the computer told her the laser volley had ended; she had to wait ten precious seconds until she could fire the next volley. “Sure would like to have another COIL up here,” she said.
“We’re lucky to have the one,” Raydon said. “Get ready for a second shot. All personnel, brace for impact and report any damage to me immediately.”
As soon as the computer said she could fire again, she pulled the trigger and sent another burst at the target. “It has a pattern,” she said. “I’ve got you now, sucker.” Carefully matching the target’s gyrations, she was able to
