by Larry Bond
Jenny selected the broadcast and saw Markin’s now-familiar face. Behind him was a commercial-satellite image of the destroyed gun. Markin was excited, almost frantic.
“This is CNN reporter Mark Markin with breaking news! Only a short time ago, a confidential source revealed the destruction of the Gongga Shan Dragon Gun by the United States Spaceship Defender. Also destroyed was another Tien Lung orbital-kill vehicle aimed at a GPS satellite. The Chinese attempted to shoot down the American spacecraft, using a second Tien Lung ASAT vehicle, but, according to my source, were unsuccessful after an extended battle.”
“Extended battle?” Jenny wondered aloud.
“Well, it was extended, in orbital terms.” The admiral’s smile widened.
“You’re his ‘confidential source’?” Jenny asked, almost shouting, and then controlling her voice.
“This time, yes. I felt bad about bamboozling him earlier this morning. There’s no more need for secrecy, and I figured the best way for the media to get it straight was to get it straight from me.”
They watched Markin’s piece together for a few more minutes, as he detailed the engagements in space and the damage to the Chinese installations. Finally, he started to repeat himself, and Jenny checked the status board. Defender was now in blackout, and would be until she finished reentry.
The admiral watched her for a moment, then said, “Congratulations, Jenny. You made it happen.”
“Congratulations to all of us, Admiral. We all did it.”
“We all believed we could make it work, Jenny, and busted our butts to prove it to the rest of the world. But you and Chris Brown saved the mission. Chris is a civilian, and he’ll get a commendation for his civil service file. I’m recommending you for a Silver Star. Nobody fired a shot in your direction, but you were in the fight as much as anyone. Your quick thinking saved Defender and won the battle.”
Jenny felt herself flush, and she automatically came to attention. “Thank you, sir!” Then she wavered. “But what about Defender’s crew…”
Schultz waved a hand, cutting off her protests. “Oh, yes, there’ll be medals and parades and all the glory a grateful nation can provide. They’ve earned all of it.”
“Do you think Ray will be able to get a little free time, sir?” she asked quietly.
Epilogue
Lancaster, CA
March 15, 2018
Ray was organizing electrical cords in the second bedroom when Jim Naguchi called out from the living room, “It’s all connected.” Ray arrived in time to see his giant flat-screen display, eight by sixteen feet and covering one whole wall, come to life. The new “McConnell Digital Wall” was up and running.
At first, it showed a desert scene, magnified fourfold and almost dizzyingly large, then four identical scenes, then a nighttime star field so vivid and crisp Ray had to look outside to remind himself that it was still morning. “Nicely done, Jim!”
“I just followed your directions, Ray.” Naguchi waved a sheet of paper over his head. Jim had been in charge of transporting Ray’s extensive electronics from San Diego to Lancaster and had then managed the setup.
Jenny came down the hall. “Everything is up in the master bedroom,” she announced triumphantly. “And guess what they’re showing on channel ninety-three?”
“Ooh, wait! Wait!” Naguchi said as he typed quickly on a tablet PC. A window appeared on the video wall, as large as a conventional flat-screen television, with an image of officials gathered around a podium.
The banner scrolling across the bottom read, “U.S. Space Force Base Dedication—Edwards Home to Newest Armed Service.”
“Gah! Not again!” Ray moaned. Still, he didn’t ask Jim to turn it off. The news cameras had a much better view of it than he’d had as a participant.
Admiral Schultz was at the microphone, and as Naguchi increased the volume, they heard the admiral say, “… best to add to the illustrious history of what is now Edwards Space Force Base. Glen Edwards, combat and test pilot, represents exactly the type of individual we will need to face the dual challenges of technology and human conflict…”
Others heard the sound and came into the living room, standing where they could in the clutter of boxes and packing material. Ray negotiated his way to where Jenny was standing and slipped an arm around her waist. She leaned against him, just a little, as they watched the ceremony.
Secretary Peck and Hugh Dawson from Lockheed Martin stood next to Admiral Schultz on either side of the podium. Ray and Biff were both visible in the second row, if you knew where to look.
Jack Garber, from the San Diego contingent, asked, “They’re still running that? That was two days ago!” Sue Tillman argued, “You should have been in front, Ray!”
“I thought it was nice of General Warner to come out for the dedication,” Jenny remarked.
“Yeah,” Ray answered, laughing. “He had the same smile on his face all morning. Maybe it was glued on.”
“He was trying to be civilized about it,” she insisted. “He didn’t have to be there. He could have left the transfer to the base commander.”
“You’re right, of course,” Ray conceded.
Biff Barnes said brightly, “Look, it’s almost time for Rutledge’s speech.”
“Mute it! Quick!” Shouts from across the room were accompanied by pieces of cardboard thrown in Naguchi’s direction. Luckily, cardboard exhibits poor aerodynamic properties. The impromptu assembly broke up and resumed their earlier tasks.
“I liked it better when he was trying to shut us down,” Barnes said. “We didn’t have to listen to him as much.”
Jenny answered, “We would have had a lot harder time in the hearings without his support. Before we launched, he was leading the opposition, and when he suddenly reversed course, they didn’t know what to do and just imploded.”
Biff nodded. “You’re right, but having to listen to him again may be too high a price…”
Ray cut in. “As far as I know, the last of the electronics is hooked up. With the important stuff out of the way, now we can bring in the rest of the boxes and the furniture.”
“Don’t worry,” Jenny said, squeezing his arm. “With so many helpers, it will all be in by lunchtime.”
“And I’d better get going. I have to organize a meal…”
Jenny held up a hand to stop him. “Geoff Lewes already offered to set up a buffet in the front yard. He left with a few others an hour ago to prepare.”
“And how much will that cost?” Ray asked, but she waved the question away.
“With luck, maybe we’ll get to meet some of the neighbors,” she answered.
Brad Tillman came in the front door with a large box. “This one’s just labeled WEDDING GIFTS. Where should I put it?”
Ray tried to remember the box’s contents but drew a blank and just stared at it; Jenny looked over and spoke up. “I packed that one. It has the kitchen gifts we got.” She pointed toward the appropriate door, then smiled. “We’re lucky we got that stuff,” she told Ray. “How could you not have a toaster?”
He shrugged. “I never needed one.”
Shaking her head, she followed Brad Tillman into the kitchen to begin unpacking. Helen Baker said, “Let me help,” and joined her.
Jim Naguchi was still fiddling with the display. There were almost a dozen subwindows covering the wall now, including three or four news channels, the basketball-tournament rankings, and a local map centered on their new house.
Two of the news channels were showing pictures of Defender and the dedication ceremony. The other two were covering the ongoing Chinese withdrawal from Vietnam. With the Dragon Gun destroyed, and the U.S. blockade cutting off virtually all sea trade, Beijing had seen no profit and great loss from her military campaign.
Pundits were coining terms like “the GPS gambit” for China’s failed strategy. On one cable show, two experts were trying to guess how badly the Chinese economy would suffer in the next year. Their only disagreement was what pe
rcentage reduction best described “really bad.”
And the media had been covering a lot of changes in the Chinese leadership, with many senior officials suddenly leaving, all at the same time, “for health reasons.”
“Ray, don’t get sucked in!” Jenny called from the kitchen.
“Right,” he answered, tearing himself from the screen. He had to move, anyway. They were bringing in the couch.
In the end, they finished bringing everything in by lunchtime. Aside from the electronics, Ray’s possessions had fit in a medium-sized trailer. Jenny didn’t have much more, and with friends from both San Diego and Edwards helping out, it only took a few hours after lunch to put most of it away and clear out the trash.
Finally, the San Diego SPAWAR contingent had to leave for the long drive back, and the move party began to break up. Jim Naguchi and the others from SPAWAR were careful to get photos with Ray, Biff, and the other Defender crew members before they left, and most asked for autographs. Ray laughed inside at his new celebrity. If that was the price for so many helpers on moving day, he was more than happy to pay it.
The people from Edwards didn’t have far to go at all, but they left, too, with calls of, “See you at our base tomorrow!”
Ray and Jenny strolled through their new home, suddenly empty of all the bustle and laughter. It was just a ranch house, with the obligatory red tile roof. One wall of the living room was glass, and sliding doors led out to the patio and the also-obligatory pool. Jenny had insisted on the pool. “It’s good exercise, and now that you’re in shape, I want you to stay that way,” she said, poking him in the side.
“I’m sorry it was such a short honeymoon,” Ray said, a note of disappointment in his voice. “A weekend in Sequoia National Park wasn’t remotely long enough.”
“Don’t think that!” she argued. “The timing on the house was too good to ignore, and you’ve got that meeting with Hugh on the new Defender follow-on in two days…”
“But it’s our honeymoon, Jenny!”
She smiled. “Who said the honeymoon’s ended?”
Kelly Johnson’s Rules and Practices
1. The Skunk Works manager must be delegated practically complete control of his program in all aspects. He should report to a division president or higher.
2. Strong but small project offices must be provided both by the military and industry.
3. The number of people having any connection with the project must be restricted in an almost vicious manner. Use a small number of good people (10% to 25% compared to the so-called normal systems).
4. A very simple drawing and drawing-release system with great flexibility for making changes must be provided.
5. There must be a minimum number of reports required, but important work must be recorded thoroughly.
6. There must be a monthly cost review covering not only what has been spent and committed but also projected costs to the conclusion of the program.
7. The contractor must be delegated and must assume more than normal responsibility to get good vendor bids for subcontracts on the project. Commercial bid procedures are very often better than military ones.
8. The inspection system as currently used by the Skunk Works, which has been approved by both the Air Force and Navy, meets the intent of existing military requirements and should be used on new projects. Push more basic inspection responsibility back to subcontractors and vendors. Don’t duplicate so much inspection.
9. The contractor must be delegated the authority to test his final product in flight. He can and must test it in the initial stages. If he doesn’t, he rapidly loses his competency to design other vehicles.
10. The specifications applying to the hardware must be agreed to well in advance of contracting. The Skunk Works practice of having a specification section stating clearly which important military specification items will not knowingly be complied with and reasons therefore is highly recommended.
11. Funding a program must be timely so that the contractor doesn’t have to keep running to the bank to support government projects.
12. There must be mutual trust between the military project organization and the contractor; very close cooperation and liaison on a day-to-day basis. This cuts down misunderstanding and correspondence to an absolute minimum.
13. Access by outsiders to the project and its personnel must be strictly controlled by appropriate security measures.
14. Because only a few people will be used in engineering and most other areas, ways must be provided to reward good performance by pay, not based on the number of personnel supervised.
Afterword
This story first appeared as a novella in the anthology Combat edited by Stephen Coonts and published in hardback in 2001. I enjoyed writing the story, but there were entire plotlines that had to be ignored given the limitations of a forty-thousand-word format.
This novel has been updated and fills out those missing plotlines. The story was originally set in 2010—i.e., then ten years in the future. As we write this (in 2013), we do have tablet PCs, but they’re still working on the Silver line to Dulles.
Chris and I hope you enjoy it.
Glossary
AA: Anti-aircraft
ABL: Airborne laser
ACES: Advanced crew escape suit
ADO: Aerospace Defense Organization
ADP: Advanced Development Programs
AESA: Active Electronically Scanned Aray
Aerospike: An advanced-design rocket engine that can compensate for altitude, making it burn fuel more efficiently as the air gets thinner.
ASAP: As soon as possible
ASAT: Anti-satellite
AWOL: Absent without leave
Beidou: A Chinese satellite navigation system similar to GPS but limited in coverage to Aisa and the Western Pacific. A system with global coverage, called COMPASS, is planned to be operational in 2020.
BMC: Battle management center
BOQ: Bachelor officer quarters
C3: Command, control, communications
CAD: Computer-aided design
CEC: Cooperative engagement capability
CIC: Combat information center
CJCS: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
CMC: Central Military Commission
CNO: Chief of Naval Operations
DCIS: Defense Criminal Investigative Service
DoD; Department of Defense
DSP: Defense Support Program. A reconnaissance satellite system designed to provide early warning of intercontinental ballistic missile launches.
EVA: Extra-vehicular activity
ECM: Electronic countermeasures
EO: Electro-optical
EW: Electronic warfare
FAA: Federal Aviation Administration
FBI: Federal Bureau of Investigation
FEMA: Federal Emergency Management Agency
HMMWV: High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle, acronym pronounced as “Humvee”
Galileo: A European satellite navigation system similar to GPS, funded by the European Union.
GLONASS: Global Navigation Satellite System. Russia’s equivalent to the U.S. Navstar GPS.
GPS: Global Positioning System. A navigation system that uses a constellation of 24 satellites that sends precise timing signals to receivers on Earth. By comparing the time differences, the receiver can find its location. The constellation’s orbits a arranged so that several are above the horizon at any given time. The more satellites that are visible to the receiver, the more precise the navigation fix. GPS is funded and run by the U.S. Government.
IP: Initial point
IR: Infrared
IT: Information Technology
JCS: Joint Chiefs of Staff
LED: Light-Emitting Diode
MoD: Ministry of Defence
MP: Military police
MSS: Ministry of State Security
NSA: National Security Agency
NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administ
ration
NAVAIR: Naval Air [Systems Command]
NIOC: Navy Information Operations Command
NMCC: National Military Command Center
NNSOC: Naval Network and Space Operations Command
NORAD: North American Aerospace Defense [Command]
PLA: People’s Liberation Army
PT: Physical training
R&D: Research and development
SAM: Surface to air missile
SATCOM: Satellite communications
SCIF: Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility
SECDEF: Secretary of Defense
SIPRNET: Secret Internet Protocol Router Network
SPAWAR: Space and Naval Warfare [Systems Command]
SRB: Solid-rocket booster
STRATCOM: Strategic Command
Supergun: An extremely large-bore artillery piece. The technology for superguns was a specialty of Dr. Gerald Bull, a Canadian-born engineer who advocated their use for space launches, as well as military applications.
SVN: Space Vehicle Number
TAO: Tactical action officer
TDRS: Tracking and Data Relay Satellite
TEL: Transporter-erector-launcher
UON: Urgent operational need
About the Author
Larry Bond is the author of numerous New York Times bestselling thrillers, including Cold Choices, Vortex, Cauldron, and The Enemy Within. A former naval intelligence officer, warfare analyst, and antisubmarine technology expert, he makes his home in Springfield, Virginia. You can sign up for email updates here.
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