“If I didn’t know you better, I’d say you were going to shed a tear for those rodents,” Olga said, a note of condescension in her voice.
“It was the humane thing to do, Olya. Don’t start with me today. We have work to do.”
“I tested the internal radio system. You’re cleared to use the open mike on the arm console instead of the handheld,” she said.
“Good, molodyets,” he said, smiling now. “I’ll need both hands to manipulate the arm on the front side. It’s bad enough to be working blind, but to have to use a hand for push to talk, that would be unacceptable,” Yuri said, relieved that she had wired the frequency into his robotic console.
“Every nail has its hammer,” Olga shot back, using an old Siberian saying from the early twentieth century, floating by Yuri and allowing him access to the robotic console. She would allow him to check it. “Veri no proveri, trust but verify, was an even older Russian saying. Yuri would triple check the radio and make sure it was working properly, obeying his voice commands, before utilizing it with his comrades working right next to the arm.
The Americans will never see this coming, Yuri thought, quickly dismissing the melancholy from the earlier activities. Time to look forward . . . literally. Yuri smiled.
13 Planning
People’s Republic Space Command
Outside of Beijing, China
In the near future, Day 20
* * *
The connection dropped without warning, and Hun looked at several other monitors in the room. Most were still displaying properly, but a select few were showing only static.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
Lin looked at her readout and then checked the back of the monitor. “No idea, sir, the connection terminated. Maybe at the source. Our systems look fine from here.”
“Chon, you’re our signals tech. Can you look into this?” Hun asked.
Chon nodded and then headed over to the communications room to check the servers and verify that all their local equipment was working properly. The link with their chief engineer, Chang, at the rocket construction site had been lost in midstream. Hun had a very bad feeling about this.
“Want me to ask the general’s office?” Lin asked, looking at the doorway that led to the militarized part of the office complex.
“No, send a priority report coded ‘unusual,’ letting them know we have a disruption, but I want to keep this low key on our end.”
Lin nodded and then walked over to her desk, sitting down and starting the unusual occurrence report that would be sent to the general’s office. Hun would follow protocol, but he wasn’t about to raise any eyebrows with the event and he had been hearing rumors. Not every soldier was so quiet when it came to clandestine operations, and bits and pieces were heard since they worked with each other in close proximity. Let the general figure it out. He had a job to do.
It took less than half an hour before Chon returned, and Lin had sent her report within ten minutes. “All servers appear to be working just fine,” Chon said.
“I’ll add this to the report as an addendum and update,” Lin said, returning to her desk.
“So what now?” Chon asked.
“If we can reestablish communications, then we’ll get confirmation that they’ve finished the lander and we’re ready to launch,” Hun said.
“What about the docking idea and two rockets?” Chon asked.
“I was saving that part for last, after Chong finished his report. The general shot that idea down and has decided to abort any plans for a lunar orbiter or reconnaissance mission. We’re to prepare for a direct manned landing.” Hun looked at Chon.
Lin walked back over, hearing the last line Hun said. “Can we do that?”
“We don’t have a choice,” Hun said, rubbing the stubble on his head. He remembered years ago when he had a full head of hair, but now, just stubble. It was better this way, kept out the grey strands.
“We have no astronauts,” Lin replied, undeterred. “Who will they send?”
“My guess would be military types. Perhaps pilots or ship commanders?” Chon speculated.
Lin punched in some commands on her laptop. The written schematics Chang had transmitted were clearly readable, and the lone command chair indicated the general’s new plan. Chang was taking orders directly from the military and working with Hun’s group on the logistics after the fact. Not a wise way to conduct business, thought Hun, but it kept the military in charge. “Looks like a mission of only one astronaut.”
Chon looked pale. “That sounds more like suicide than a mission.”
“Yes, but there will be no lack of volunteers, and the level of automation that’s in this schematic clearly shows they won’t need someone who is familiar with piloting anything, much less a spaceship,” Lin said.
Hun knew she was right. “Yes, it looks like our Long Reach rocket just doesn’t have the boost necessary to carry much more than a few tons to the moon. This entire schematic looks cramped. Less than three square meters of habitable space. That is claustrophobic for anyone, much less someone flying a quarter million miles to the moon. Did we get the entire file before the connection was lost?”
“Yes, sir,” Lin said, moving her laptop so he could see it better, and Chon looked over her shoulder at the display. “The systems check out. They used my numbers for minimal life support as well as proper systems integration of all critical components. They even placed a couple of systems on double redundancy, but not all of them.”
“Which ones did they leave out?” Chon asked, looking at Lin.
Lin grabbed her notes, leaving the laptop so all could still view the interior schematic of the lunar lander. “Every RF scanner sensor as well as the cooling system and the navigation computer.”
“Is that wise?” Chon asked.
“Of course not,” Hun said, “but they are following our recommendations, don’t you see?”
“No, boss, how so?” Chon asked, a bit more informal with Hun than Lin since they had a much longer history together. Considering the culture, this was significant.
“We’ve submitted a detailed list of all critical systems in order to accomplish the mission. The scanners were at the bottom of the list; we can pick up those RF signals from here. The nav computer was higher up, but it had a caveat. If the module had a piloting facet to it, then the navigation computer was less critical. We can relay telemetry data directly to the craft using our ground-based radar as long as the communications systems were triple redundant.”
“They made those double only,” Lin said, looking at her notes to confirm what she already knew.
“What about the cooling system? That seems more than critical to me,” Chon asked.
“You know, they don’t have more than minimal radiation shielding either,” Lin added.
Hun scratched the stubble on his chin now, the extremely short goatee matching the stubble on his head. “Let me think for a second.” His two team members waited patiently, looking over the schematic and the data on the lander. There were several questions they wanted to ask Chang, but that would have to wait.
“What is this?” Hun asked, pointing to the top of the drawing on Lin’s laptop.
Lin peered closer, squinting. “That looks like a return vehicle.”
“The entire lander is supposed to return, isn’t it?” Chon asked.
“Yes,” Hun said. “This looks like a secondary return vehicle, except much smaller.”
Now it was Chon’s turn to look closer at the schematic. “Can you zoom in on that top array?” he asked Lin.
Lin moved the laptop and scrolled to the percent bar, enlarging the drawing by fifty percent, and then moved the screen to the top half of the lander.
“It does look like a return craft, and this would be what Chang was referring to before we lost him,” Chon said, pointing to the top of the landing craft and then tracing a line that looked like a conduit from the top of the lander down to the side and finally endi
ng just above the landing shield near a foot strut.
“Wait a second, I see what’s going on here,” Hun said, comprehension on his face. “The secondary lift vehicle is in case the lander is disabled. The pilot will be able to launch it into orbit with a small payload.”
“You mean the device?” Lin looked at Hun, her face conveying a look of surprise.
“Yes, Lin,” Hun said. “The exhaust from the secondary vehicle would render the first inoperable.”
“That would make it a one-way trip,” Chon said, wiping his brow with his shirt sleeve.
“The entire secondary vehicle is mechanical. Look here,” Lin pointed out. “The systems are not integrated with the navigation computer. Instead they have only one flight profile, lunar orbit.”
“What does it do when it reaches orbit? If it reaches orbit?” Chon asked.
“That part is unknown, but the military would have to have a plan to retrieve it before the Americans or Russians,” Hun said, looking sideways at both his team members.
“Any news on what they’re doing?” Lin asked.
“None,” Hun said. “You know as well as I do the military won’t share that kind of data with us.”
“Yeah, but we hear things,” Chon said, almost whispering now.
“Whispering won’t help.” Lin elbowed Chon. “If they are listening, then it won’t matter.”
“True, but I don’t care about that. I do care that we succeed.” Hun smiled. “Now let’s get the last systems checks done so we can support whomever the general selects to pilot the craft. Oh, and let’s see if we can’t raise Chang by some other means. Did you try calling?”
“First thing I did while checking the servers,” Chon said. “Telephone lines are down as well.”
“They were?” Lin asked, her face contorting a bit as she thought something through.
“Yes, why?” Chon asked.
“Wenchang comms are satellite based only; they never had any cables laid to the island.” Lin smiled.
Hun realized his systems technician was right. “Yes, that means we lost the communications satellite. Raising Chang will be difficult until the government routes communications through another device or mode.”
“That’s one way to slow our mission,” Chon said.
“Right, this has to be from one of the two.” Hun did not name the countries involved. It was obvious. “Lin, go down to the general’s office and inquire about the communications.” Hun waved her objections down. “I know we just sent the unusual occurrence report, but this is different. We need access to Chang and the lander in order to modify the systems and give us the best chance for success. Just do it, Lin, and report back when you’re done. I’d go myself, but I have an idea I want to prepare for the general first and time is short.”
“Understood. I’ll go now,” Lin said.
“Thank you, Lin,” Hun said, watching her pull her papers together and then leave the room.
“You want me to run another systems check on the communication servers?” Chon asked.
“No, stay here with me. I have an idea, but I need your help. Like I said, we don’t have much time.” Hun placed a hand on Chon’s shoulder and smiled. Chon nodded and then pulled up a chair. It would be a frantic day.
NASA Space Center
Houston, Texas
In the near future, Day 27
* * *
Marge sat with Rock and Jack at a smaller table near the window, watching the sun set. His team had been working well over sixteen hours a day, and burn out was evident. Rock wanted to call for a break if he could get Mr. Smith to agree. His team would be no good anymore if they started to make mistakes or worse, miscalculate due to sleep deprivation.
“So what’s so important to call an emergency meeting?” Rock asked, drinking coffee again. It was a necessity now despite the evening hours. They would work well past midnight and then return in the morning before the sun came up.
“We have a hypothesis, but it’s iffy and we have a problem,” Marge said.
“Well, I’ll take any one of your iffies any day,” Rock said. “What news?”
“The alien signals have remained the same; they cover the entire RF spectrum as well as the usual gamma and x-rays. We approached the problem from the perspective of what could knock out a rover and lander,” Marge said.
Rock nodded. “Go on.”
“Electromagnetic pulse,” Jack said, a smile crossing his face as he enjoyed the look of confusion on Rock’s.
“EMP?” Rock asked. “Come on, we ruled that out on day two.”
“Marge, do you mind?” Jack asked. Rock knew that Marge was more eloquent when it came to explaining things, especially those of a scientific nature, not to mention being more cultured in her word choices when compared to the signals engineer, so Rock took all this in stride.
“Richard,” Marge began, and Rock knew he was going to get one of those type of speeches from his second in command. “We ruled out the radioactive pulse because it has a much longer range and we would have detected it here, planet-side. The electric pulse was ruled out because the shorter range would not have been able to reach the orbiter without us being able to detect it.”
“So? What are you trying to say?” Rock asked, not seeing any progress.
“What if there was an EMP-type pulse that had the range of the radioactive pulse but the potency of the electric?” Marge asked.
“We’re talking impossible here. Not within the laws of physics,” Rock retorted, noticing the arrival of Tom who was bringing a pot of coffee.
“Mind if I join you?” Tom asked.
Rock was thinking this would be harder with Tom around, but relented. The man had fresh coffee. Who could object? “Pull up a seat, Tom,” Rock said, motioning to one of the free chairs and handing out his cup for a refill.
“What’s up, Doc?” Tom asked Marge, filling first Rock’s cup and then his own. Marge wasn’t drinking coffee, and Jack had placed his hand over his half full cup. Before sitting down, Tom reached into his large, voluminous white lab coat pocket. He fished around a bit and pulled out a handful of sugar packets and a couple of small cream containers. “Cream, sugar?”
“One of each, thanks,” Rock said.
“Don’t let me interrupt,” Tom said.
Rock let it go and stifled a chuckle when Tom grinned at him. Marge seemed patient enough. “Go on, Marge, finish what you were saying,” Rock said.
“I was venturing a hypothesis about the root cause of the Chinese equipment failure,” Marge said, looking at Tom. Marge continued after Tom nodded. “If the EMP was a hybrid, then it could have blown the electronics out of their equipment. We didn’t detect the pulse because it was of low enough intensity to not be detectable from earth but strong enough to reach the orbiter.”
“So their orbiter is about what? Sixty or seventy miles above the surface?” Rock ventured.
“Sixty-eight point three parked in a frozen orbit,” Marge said. “That’s why it hasn’t decayed yet.”
Rock knew that there were only four orbits at various degrees that could sustain a satellite or orbiter so that it could stay in place almost indefinitely, and the Chinese had used the highest one. “So their rover approached the object when the orbiter cleared the horizon, using the highest orbit that would give them the maximum time for line of sight between rover and orbiter.”
“Correct,” Marge said.
“The rover touches or probes the device and it triggers some sort of EMP, disabling their equipment.” Marge and Jack both nodded. “This EMP is propagated, using some sort of alien technology, enough so that it can reach the orbiter yet remain undetected from earth. Finally, you’re saying that this entire hypothesis of yours basically violates what we know about physics and pretty much all wave technology. Do I have it correct?” Rock asked.
“That’s pretty much it, Rock, but there’s one more detail that affects the entire mission,” Marge said.
“Pray tell, what would
that be?” Rock asked.
“Show him, Jack,” Marge said, motioning with her head.
Jack pulled out a large map of the lunar surface with concentric circles. “These are the estimated levels of radiation and electromagnetic energy emanating from the device based on our hypotheses. The levels near the device would be lethal to almost any shielding.”
“My God!” Rock said, realizing the implication. “We’d be sending Craig and Julie to their deaths.”
“Yup,” Jack said, frowning at Rock.
There was a moment of silence before Tom spoke. “What are you going to do, Rock?”
“Time to change our plans. We’ve just wasted two weeks of planning. I think Mr. Smith should know about this now.”
“Well, that’s just great,” Tom said, setting his coffee cup down. “And if the spook doesn’t believe Marge?”
“Then we kill two of our own.” Rock sighed.
14 Change of Plans
NASA Space Center
Houston, Texas
In the near future, Day 24
* * *
It took just over an hour to convene the emergency meeting. Mr. Smith was livid and insisted on notifying the executive branch immediately. Whatever was happening, Rock soon learned that the president and her staff had been alerted and gathered in the White House Situation Room. Rock and his team had been working on a solution for an hour straight, and luckily Marge and Jack had an idea already on the planning board when they broke the news to him.
Rogue Stars Page 202
