Solar Weapon

by David Capps

  “Okay, people, let’s start wrapping this up,” Stafford said. “We have wounded to attend to and pilots downed in the trees. Let’s go!”

  Jake felt the sense of failure and loss sinking deeply into his mind. He stood there, his mind reeling with everything they had gone through: The hopelessness against the solar storm and the lack of the earth’s magnetic shield that Dr. Spencer had explained. By now all seven of the MagGen satellites had been destroyed. These were all forces beyond his human ability to influence or change; the short time left and the great distance between the earth and the sun. He walked outside and looked up at the flickering stars. The sun was so close by comparison, but under the circumstances it may as well be as far away as another star.

  Another star, he thought. Dr. Franklin!

  “Dave!” he shouted. “Dave Smith!”

  “Right here, Agent Hunter.”

  “Can we get computer signals in and out of here?”

  “Sure. We use computers on missions all of the time. The Osprey is equipped with encrypted Wifi. We can connect with satellites or the E-2 Hawkeye Command and Control aircraft circling around us.”

  “Can we get a secure connection to George Washington University?”

  “I’m sure we can. What have you got?”

  “Dr. Franklin at GW University invented a special antenna system. Project HAICS, the Hyper-Accelerated Interstellar Communication System. It’s not on the earth; it’s in orbit, with a clear shot at the sun. We can use it to communicate with the Phoenix Organization satellite. We’re going to need some uninterrupted time to work this out. Can you keep that saucer from coming back?”

  “Those Super Hornets haven’t gone away. They’re being refueled in the air by a KC-130 and are on perimeter patrol against that saucer. I don’t know how much comfort it is to you right now, but you are standing on the most protected piece of land on the planet.”

  “I need to talk with General Davies, right now.”

  Dave pulled his satellite phone off his utility belt and dialed. He handed the phone to Jake.

  “Yes, General, it’s Hunter. I need you to wake up some people, starting with a Dr. Harold Franklin at George Washington University in D.C. Activate Project HAICS, the Hyper Accelerated Interstellar Communications System. Get Dr. Franklin to wherever the control system is for that project and get it active. Time is super critical.” He listened. “Yes, General, every second counts. Thank you, sir.” He handed the phone back to Dave.

  Jake rushed back into the building. “Honi, Stafford, Ken, Andropov and Aaron Smith—I need all of you over here at the computer.”

  “What’s going on?” Honi asked.

  “We have an outside chance of fixing this. But first we need to understand this program that connects to the satellite orbiting the sun.”

  Honi pulled her phone and checked the display. “Five bars. But it won’t connect to the encrypted network.”

  Dave Smith took her phone out of her hand and punched in a sequence of letters, punctuation marks and numbers. “Now it will. Anybody else?”

  Jake, Stafford and Ken handed over their phones.

  “No problem.”

  “Aaron, you said the boxes in the upper left corner of the satellite program were input boxes. Inputs to what?” Jake said.

  “I don’t know. It’s a mathematical formula of some kind.”

  “Let me take a look,” Andropov said. He leaned in toward the screen. “There has to be more to the formula than that.” He tried to expand the size of the boxes, but that didn’t work.

  “Try a right click on the mouse,” Aaron suggested.

  Andropov right-clicked the upper box. A new window opened in the center of the screen with the complete formula displayed. He studied the formula for several seconds.

  “It’s an orbital formula. My guess is that it controls the orbit of the satellite around the sun. The box is labelled R, probably for the Reflector. The other box, the PG, is probably the Electro-Magnetic Pulse Generator. That will be the orbital control for the bomb.”

  “What else is there on this computer?” Jake asked.

  “Wait,” Aaron said. “We will have time for that later. If we close out of this program, we may not be able to get back in to stop the bomb.”

  Jake breathed out heavily. “You’re right. I’m so wound up right now—I’m having trouble thinking clearly.”

  “That happens to everybody who is involved in missions like this. We go through a lot of training to minimize the effect of the stress, but nobody is immune to it. From what I understand at this point, we can’t do anything until we hear back from General Davies. Is that correct?”

  “Yes.”

  “So chill. Go outside and walk around. Let go of some of the stress. We’ll come get you as soon as the General calls—no problem.”

  Jake wasn’t happy about the suggestion, but it did make sense. He walked slowly out the door and nodded to the soldiers on guard. Honi followed him out.

  “So what are you thinking?” she asked.

  He took a deep breath and let it out. “I don’t even know if Dr. Franklin’s system is going to work. I mean, it needs a special antenna in order to function properly. You saw the thing he designed. What do you think?”

  “Well. The transmitting antenna was certainly complex, but the receiving antenna was just a straight length of wire. The Organization’s satellite antenna might be compatible, at least to some degree. I think it has a chance of working.”

  Jake walked slowly over to the damaged saucer and looked in the door. The opening was three feet wide and the ramp was open by eighteen inches.

  “Look at this,” Jake said. “Our gunner poured between three hundred and four hundred thirty-caliber rounds through this opening. There are no holes or dents. Just some copper residue where the bullets bounced off the metal.”

  Honi looked at the marks in the saucer opening. “We’re going to need the academics who worked on this material taken into custody. They can trade knowledge and cooperation in place of prison time.”

  “Yeah. Assuming…”

  Honi poked him in the upper arm softly with her fist. “Hey, come on. Where’s all that optimism and confidence?”

  He placed his hand against the curve of the saucer and looked at her.

  “General Davies on the satellite phone!” Dave yelled from the doorway.

  Jake and Honi rushed back to the computer. Jake grabbed the phone.

  “General? You found Dr. Franklin?”

  “Yes. He’s in the Hat Creek Observatory in northern California. That’s also where his control system is installed. They’re powering up right now. You should have him online in a minute or two. Just let me know what else you need.”

  “Thank you, General,” Jake said, as he handed the satellite phone back to Dave.

  Aaron Smith was setting up a secure computer from the Osprey on the desk to the left of the Organization’s laptop. The communications screen came up quickly.

  “He’ll need the orbital formula for the reflector satellite,” Andropov said. “I can enter that in for you. The math symbols use a specialized code.”

  “Okay, here we go,” Aaron said. “He’s logged in.”

  An image of Dr. Franklin appeared on the screen. Jake moved in closer to the screen.

  “Dr. Franklin, it’s FBI Agent Hunter. You remember me?”

  “Yes. Is Agent Badger there, as well?”

  Honi leaned in so Dr. Franklin could see her. “Right here,” she said as she waved.

  “We need to see if you can locate a satellite in orbit around the sun,” Jake said.

  “Which sun?” Dr. Franklin replied.

  “Ours. We’re sending you the orbital formula now.”

  Andropov sat in front of the screen and typed the formula into the computer. Dr. Franklin looked toward the bottom of his screen.

  “It’s coming in now. Our transmitter has an optical component to it, so we should be able to get a lock on it. Rotating int
o position now.”

  Jake was on edge as he watched Dr. Franklin typing away and glancing at his screen.

  “Oh wow. That’s huge. Any idea where the antenna is on that thing?”

  “You mean you have to have a specific spot to aim your system?” Jake asked.

  “Oh yes. At this close range, it matters very much.”

  “Try dead center,” Andropov said. “Control package should be at the center of the reflector, not near the edge.”

  “Okay. What frequency?”

  “We don’t know,” Andropov said. “The original system was attached to an antenna outside of this building. This is a backup computer, and we need your antenna, not the one here.”

  Radio waves travel at the speed of light, Jake reminded himself. Light from the sun takes eight minutes and twenty-five seconds to get to the earth. “Do you know how long the transit time will be for your signal?” Jake asked.

  “From our satellite to the sun?”

  “Yes,” Jake answered.

  “About half a second, give or take a few milliseconds.”

  “Half a second instead of eight minutes?”

  “Yes. Give or take a little. What does the antenna on the outside of your building look like?”

  “Hold on,” Jake said.

  “There’s a hand-held searchlight in the osprey,” Aaron said. “I’ll be right back.” He ran out the door and returned within two minutes. “The antenna on the outside of the building is a square. Range finder and remote measurement device says it’s 48 inches on each side.”

  “Square?” Dr. Franklin asked.

  “Yes,” Andropov said. “It’s fractal.”

  “Yes. It would have to be. With that size, we have two thousand discrete frequencies to try. What’s our time frame?”

  Jake checked the countdown watch on his wrist and subtracted the 17.6-hour travel time for the CME. “Two hours?” Jake replied cringing.

  Honi leaned over and whispered, “Isn’t it more like five hours?”

  “You want to wait until the last minute?” Jake whispered back. She shook her head.

  “We can do that,” Dr. Franklin said. “If we get a signal back, or something moves, we’ll get confirmation in…eight minutes and twenty-five seconds.”

  “Exactly,” Jake said. “When we run out of time, a nuclear bomb is going to detonate creating the largest CME ever known, unless we succeeded in changing the orbit.”

  The bomb, Jake thought. Andropov gave Dr. Franklin the formula for the Reflector. We’re targeting the wrong satellite.

  “Hold on, Dr. Franklin,” Jake said. “There are two satellites up there. I think we want the other one.”

  Jake looked at the Reflector orbital formula box. “Andropov, you have that formula written down?”

  “Right here.”

  “Open the Pulse Generator box.”

  Andropov right clicked on the PG box. The formula was slightly different.

  Send him the orbital information for the Pulse Generator.”

  “Coming in now,” Dr. Franklin replied. “Retargeting. Got it. Hold on.”

  “What is it?” Jake asked.

  “Well, as I mentioned, our transmitter has an optical component.”

  “Yes?”

  “I can see the receiving antenna on the satellite. It is a fractal antenna. Looks to be the same size as the one you have. That should help us. It’ll pick up more of our signal than an ordinary antenna would.”

  “These satellites are self-correcting, right?” Jake asked. “So if the orbit gets a little off, it corrects with thrusters, or something similar, right?”

  “Yes,” Andropov replied. “It would have to do that.”

  “So what happens if we give the Pulse Generator the same orbital formula as the Reflector?”

  “It would move the bomb into the same place as the reflector,” Andropov said.

  “So let’s do that. Send the orbital formula for the Reflector to the Pulse Generator. That way, when the bomb detonates, it will destroy the Reflector satellite at the same time.”

  “Yes, yes,” Andropov said excitedly as he typed the formula in for Dr. Franklin to transmit.

  “I have it,” Dr. Franklin replied. “Transmitting. Scanning through the frequencies now.”

  “Can you still see the satellite, Dr. Franklin?”

  “Yes, I can.”

  “Wait a minute,” Andropov said. “If Dr. Franklin can see the satellite, he’s seeing it where it was eight minutes and twenty-five seconds ago, not where it is now.”

  “My program takes that into account,” Dr. Franklin said. “Celestial motion is a critical component for interstellar communications.”

  “What about the difference between the shape of your signal, being all stretched out and the fractal antenna?” Jake asked.

  “Fractal is broadband. Probably a good choice. Theoretically, the signal would look different, but it should still respond. The system the satellite uses for communications is probably digital, anyway, which would help us.”

  “So now we wait,” Jake said.

  * * *

  Jake paced around the large room. He tried sitting, but couldn’t sit still, so he paced again. Thirty-six minutes later Dr. Franklin spoke. “It’s not working. We’re missing something.”

  “What if it’s encrypted, just like the Phoenix Organization’s fractal communication system?” Honi asked.

  “Then it would need a server,” Aaron said. “But I didn’t see one in the building.”

  “Where exactly is the antenna connected?” Jake asked.

  Jake, Honi, Stafford and Aaron ran out of the building and looked up.

  “Back corner, opposite the front door,” Stafford shouted.

  The four of them ran around the building to the back. A concrete-block room had been added onto the building. They approached with weapons drawn. No one was there. The addition had two steel doors with deadbolt locks on them. Jake used his lock pick set and opened the first door. The soft blue light greeted him as he cracked the door open.

  “Same kind of electrical power generator as the relay antenna had,” Jake said. He worked on the second door. When the lock turned he opened the door slowly.

  “There’s the server,” Aaron said. “It’s connected to the antenna system through the radio transmitter.”

  * * *

  “The encryption key!” Honi shouted. She ran back into the building and called Brett. Andropov had written the encryption key down in his notes. “Thornton’s computer. Try this as the encryption key.” She read the sequence to him.

  “That’s it!” Brett said. “I’m in the system.”

  “Find the individual frequencies and the code that allows the encryption system to jump to each frequency. Dr. Franklin needs that information right now.”

  “He’ll have it within a few minutes,” Brett said.

  Jake, Stafford and Aaron walked back into the building.

  “What about the server?” Jake asked.

  “We need to get the encryption system out of it first,” Honi said. “Then we can decide whether to leave it up or shut it down.” She leaned in front of the screen so Dr. Franklin could see her. “Dr. Franklin, there’s an encryption system in use for the signal to the satellite. Brett is sending you the details and the code. Can you incorporate the encryption into your transmission system?”

  “Very likely. It’s coming in now. Give me a few minutes to set up the program.”

  “Come on, come on,” Jake whispered to himself as he paced around again.

  Honi intercepted him in his circle around the room. “It’s going to work.”

  “You don’t know that. Nobody knows if it will or if it won’t.”

  “If it doesn’t work, we’ll have time to try something else.”

  “And if that doesn’t work? What then?”

  After eighteen minutes Dr. Franklin spoke. “Encrypted program is being sent. I’ll let you know if it works.” Ten minutes later Dr. Franklin
said, “We have movement! The bomb is changing its orbit. It’s moving toward the Reflector.”

  “I’ll notify General Davies,” Dave said. He slapped Jake on the back twice and shook hands with Honi, Stafford and Ken. “Good Job.”

  “Thank God,” Stafford said. “We stopped the solar storm from being created. We’re safe.”

  The Special Forces soldiers and the members of the President’s Unit applauded. Jake, Honi, Stafford and Ken stood, deeply appreciating the recognition. After the clapping stopped, Jake turned back to Aaron. “What other programs are on the computer?”

  Aaron checked. “That was it. No other programs or files. What were you hoping to see?”

  “Member names, contact information, organizational chart?”

  “Sorry. It appears to be a single purpose backup computer.”

  “Thanks. We’ll take it back to D.C., anyway.”

  “Of course.”

  Jake walked outside and looked at the stars again. A waning gibbous moon was rising in the east. The night was no longer black, so now the forest trees appeared in shades of medium to dark gray. Two Army Special Forces soldiers and a medic emerged from the forest carrying a man on a stretcher. Jake quickly walked over.

  “What happened to him?”

  “He’s a Navy pilot,” the soldier said. “His plane was hit by a blast from the saucer. He had to bail out, but at fourteen hundred miles an hour, ejecting from the cockpit is like being in an explosion. They try to wait until the last minute to eject, but those planes fly so fast it doesn’t make a lot of difference.”

  “Is he going to make it?”

  “This one will,” the soldier said. “But, it’s a race against time. We have to find the others and get them out of the trees before they die.”

  “How do you find them?”

  “Locator beacon on the ejection seat.”

  The soldiers walked over to one of the two functioning Ospreys and went up the ramp.

  My God, Jake thought. These men flew those planes right at that saucer. They had to know they were going to be hit, and they would have to eject at that speed.

  Another team of soldiers came out of the trees carrying a stretcher, but there was no medic with them.

  “How bad is he?”

  The lead soldier just shook his head.