Pusko nodded. “There are others, but the other two are not giving off any electromagnetic signals. We assume they are relays for other satellites since no signals are being beamed back to earth. If the one spy satellite is removed, we get an advantage. Most of our satellites are not in orbit. We send them over twice a day and they return the images. The two we have to send photos in a stationary orbit send in their images three times a day. That is enough to know where they are,” Pusko reassured him.
“Then it is time we took our war to space,” said Borodin. “Destroy the spy satellite. Once that is done, take out the other two as well. Let them know we mean business.”
“It will violate the treaty,” reminded Pusko.
Borodin chuckled. “War is a violation of treaty, General. Send the satellite killers up.”
“We have a launch,” reported one of the operators at her console. “Single launch. Following the trajectory,” she announced.
After a few minutes she began to breathe a little easier. “It appears to be a satellite launch. It looks like to may come near our KH-14 over Europe,” she said.
The supervisor was now looking over her shoulder at her console. “I hate it when they launch things. You almost can’t be sure it’s not aimed for us,” he said. He saw her nod without taking her eyes off her instruments.
“I agree. But at least this one will stay in orbit for a while. It has a trajectory taking it within about 100 kilometers of the KH-14,” she said.
“Can’t expect them not to try and gather intelligence during a war. Unfortunately we signed a treaty keeping us from shooting those things down,” he mentioned.
The satellite began slowing and coming to the same altitude of the American spy satellite. Suddenly the Russian changed course and sped up. This time it was aimed directly at the large KH-14 over Europe.
“Get it out of the way!” screamed the supervisor. At one of the consoles an older man began issuing orders to the satellite. But it was too late. The Russian exploded not 100 meters from the KH-14 sending its shrapnel to shred the American to bits. The input from the KH-14 abruptly ended.
In a corner of the room a lone figure sat back in his seat. “Ladies and gentlemen it appears the Russians have taken the next step. I have already spoken to the President. If this happened, he authorized ‘Wet Blanket.’ Initiate the Star Wars system and fully protect our space assets,” he said.
One of the operators turned to his console and engaged an older start up code. It had begun in the Reagan Administration and had been updated periodically, but until now, no one had realized that the much touted ‘Star Wars’ system had actually been deployed. Within seconds, a code was sent to the satellites. Huge solar arrays began to open up to give the onboard weapons their power. In a little over fifteen minutes, a signal appeared on the operator’s screen. The system was up and running.
Thirty minutes later two more rockets lifted off from Yasny Cosmodrome. Their trajectories showed them headed toward the Eyeball satellites over Europe. The information was automatically passed to the Brilliant Pebbles satellite nearby. Its laser slewed toward the incoming targets. For the first time in nearly twenty years, the laser powered up. When within 1000 miles, it fired. The Russian intercept missile began glowing red hot. Its outer casing began flaking away until the inner workings were exposed, then they too began to melt away. The warhead didn’t detonate. Instead, the now inert projectile sped past Eyeball some 100 miles away and began its slow decay back to earth. The second missile was just three minutes behind the first. Once again, the laser fired. This time, the laser burned away the outer skin further back along the projectile. The vessel containing the warhead melted away as well. The laser detonated the explosives within, sending shrapnel out into space nowhere near the Americans, but striking a Korean communications satellite some five hundred miles away. With no other targets, Brilliant Pebbles reset itself to standby and waited as it had for over twenty years.
USS Lincoln sat in the middle of the bay like some beached whale. There were lights around the ship, but she was sitting at an unnatural angle and low in the water. From the day she had been sunk there had been barges and teams of people diving around the ship, but nothing had changed.
Late in the evening three weeks later a barge was towed into the bay. It looked like one of the oil exploration barges commonly seen in the Persian Gulf. There was a crane, some sort of gantry along one side and other structures. The tug eased the barge up against the side of the stricken carrier and tied it off. No one on shore even noticed as the lights suddenly came on aboard the barge and people seemed to appear all along its decks. The gantry eased out until it almost touched the side of the carrier. On the carrier men and women began coming out to see what was going on. The one thing they noticed was a small weathered sign along one of the steel bulkheads that read ‘Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company.’ The other thing they noticed was a stack of steel plate neatly placed on her deck along with a long row of diving helmets.
Chapter 11
Change of Direction
“We must do something they do not expect,” insisted General Ivan Morchenko, the new leader of the Russian attack force. “We made the mistake of allowing our lines to become static. We must do like the American General Patton and make sweeping movements which keep our enemy off balance and allow maximum advances. This means we must utilize our mechanization to the fullest. Our troops don’t walk, they ride. Our tanks continue moving all the time, only stopping when a replacement unit relieves the first. Once relieved, they return to an area nearby to refuel and rest before going back to the front. This also means our air forces must continually support our tanks and troops. There will be none of the daylight only efforts. We must all be available twenty four hours a day. We will need this since I propose we sweep down through Slovakia to this point and then continue westward. They will not be expecting this. It means traveling rapidly through these mountains, but if we do this right, we can come up here and completely surprise our enemy by attacking his flank. This will allow the forces along the front to renew their advance, join up and then sweep west. The allies will not be able to counter this kind of move. They are too heavily concentrated along the current front. With your approval, I begin moving men and equipment under cover of darkness tomorrow night. The trains and trucks are ready to move,” Morchenko concluded.
“What do you think?” asked Borodin as he turned toward Pusko.
Pusko was nodding his head. It was a daring plan, and if it worked, they would be able to move even more rapidly across the continent. The schedule could be reestablished and time made up. “I recommend approval, Comrade President. General Morchenko has thought this through well. It will allow us to make up for a number of things including the shortages of materials inflicted on us by the American missiles. More importantly, we will return to our planned timetable for the completion of the operation,” he said emphatically.
Borodin nodded. “Then it is approved. It is vitally important that you are successful, General. To fail might mean ruin for us all,” he said.
“The tanks and people will begin almost immediately, Mister President,” he said as he saluted and began gathering his briefing papers.
Borodin took Pusko’s arm and led him out of the room. “What of the protests we have begun to see?” he asked in a low voice.