LEVIN: Anna? I’m surprised you’ve let her live.
HAROLD: Excuse me?
LEVIN: Just a slip of the tongue, I’m afraid, and in poor taste.
HAROLD: We work for the President.
MCGRAW: David Sims will recover. I answer directly to him.
LEVIN: We all work for the President. I salute his health.
HAROLD: We wish him a quick recovery.
(The members pause for a moment of silence.)
LEVIN: I’ll admit you’ve made me curious, Director. Yes, we’re at an impasse, as you say. America cannot allow Chinese armies in Mexico. Yet we can’t go in and defeat them… well, the cost in blood would be too high to go in with millions of US soldiers. You’re hoping to use Russia and India to start a ground war in Asia, which would no doubt pull the PAA troops out of Mexico. I’m wondering if we have more than THOR missiles to offer our allies. (Looks at McGraw.) A minute ago, you were talking about taking over orbital space.
MCGRAW: Suppose the Indian League drove into Southeast Asia. They’re building up to do that. They have enough infantry, but lack the armor. What could we offer the Indians short of massive reinforcements? Some of my experts looked back to Afghanistan for the answer, to the time we invaded in the 1990s. There, a handful of elite Special Forces, on the ground, called down Air Force smart bombs. Those bombs fell on the enemy’s head, driving them out of their defenses and back onto the road as they fled. That let the Northern Alliance soldiers defeat them.
LEVIN: I’m not sure I understand. You plan to put Special Forces on the ground in China?
MCGRAW: Yes and no.
LEVIN: That doesn’t make sense.
MCGRAW: Yes, they’ll be on the ground in Southeast Asia. No, they won’t be Special Forces.
LEVIN: What will they be?
MCGRAW: Powered armored Marines.
LEVIN: Is this a joke?
MCGRAW: I assure you, this is reality.
LEVIN: But we don’t have powered armored Marines, whatever they are.
MCGRAW: Not yet, we don’t. We’re working on it even now.
LEVIN: What does powered armored Marine even mean?
MCGRAW: Men in special battlesuits able to deploy directly from space to anywhere on Earth—we’re hoping to have them within a year.
LEVIN: From space?
MCGRAW: From near orbital space, that is correct.
LEVIN: How do they help us exactly?
MCGRAW: Admittedly, we’re developing and manufacturing the prototype armor suits as we speak. Most of the design features already work. The tactical nuclear weapons are proving the most difficult.
LEVIN: I envision problems with your plan.
HAROLD: (Clears his throat.) That’s one of the reasons I requested your presence, Doctor. We want to hear your objections.
LEVIN: Well, you haven’t said how you’re going to put these Marines into orbit in any kind of meaningful numbers.
HAROLD: Have you ever heard about Project Orion?
LEVIN: No.
HAROLD: General, if you would be so kind…
MCGRAW: The Air Force worked on the basic concept and design from 1957 to 1965.
LEVIN: This is old technology then?
MCGRAW: In one sense, you’re right. What we’re suggesting is off the shelf technology, although we can do it better than what the scientists conceived in 1957 could do. By 1965, they were making feasibility studies for a trip to Mars.
LEVIN: Project Orion concerns building a spaceship?
MCGRAW: Back in the 1950s, there were all kinds of ideas about exploring the Solar System. The trouble was their engines and propellants. Chemical rockets need vast size to loft tiny payloads into orbit. Our ICBMs are an example of that. If we used chemical rockets, we could only lift a handful of Marines into orbit. For useful combat purposes, we need at least a battalion, over one thousand men. Luckily for us, Project Orion involved lifting tons instead of mere pounds into space.
LEVIN: I get the feeling I’m not going to like your answer.
MCGRAW: Some might consider it extreme, but it is scientifically feasible. The answer is a lift vehicle powered by nuclear bombs.
LEVIN: Bombs?
MCGRAW: They will be the propellant.
LEVIN: You’re serious?
MCGRAW: As I said, this was a feasible project with 1950’s technology. We will construct the Orion ship to absorb the tremendous blasts. The power of the bombs gives the vessel incredible liftoff capability. By building several such Orion ships, we will be able by next year to put a battalion of powered armored Marines into orbit. From there, they could reach anywhere in the world.
LEVIN: A thousand men… you’d need big haulers.
MCGRAW: Each Orion ship—what we can put in orbit—will roughly be the size of a five-story hotel.
LEVIN: That big? I don’t see how one bomb gives it enough boost to get into orbit.
MCGRAW: One bomb can’t.
LEVIN: Then—
MCGRAW: Every few seconds, a bomb drops into the blast bay, explodes and accelerates the massive ship higher. It will take many bombs per ship.
LEVIN: You say “many.” You’re talking about thermonuclear explosions. That means in order to lift our ships we will be bombing ourselves.
MCGRAW: In an empty, already damaged part of the country, yes, that’s true.
LEVIN: This is too farfetched to believe.
HAROLD: I assure you it is not. Project Orion was always feasible. America lost her will in 1965, and shelved the idea. Now the will has returned, out of desperation.
MCGRAW: That isn’t entirely true—I mean about shelving the idea. NASA kept blueprints and specs in case they needed to build an Orion ship fast.
LEVIN: For what possible reason?
MCGRAW: In case a killer asteroid headed toward Earth. They would quickly build an Orion ship and send it out to deflect the world destroyer.
LEVIN: You can’t be serious.
MCGRAW: It’s in the history books, Doctor, although it isn’t a well-known fact.
LEVIN: Hmm… I’m beginning to see. The THOR missiles give us tremendous advantages. Orbital space is a new battleground. High technology combined with elite soldiers—your plan sounds insane, and yet, I can see how it could work with Indian allies.
HAROLD: It isn’t our only solution. Reviving the Grain Union could help us leverage others. If we can get India or Russia to attack China, Hong will have to withdraw his forces from Mexico.
LEVIN: If we see that, others will too.
HAROLD: Which is why we need Argentina and Australia. If we can corner the food market in a starving world…
LEVIN: You have ambitious plans.
HAROLD: We are Americans. What we need from you, sir, is help with Premier Konev.
LEVIN: Yes, I can see that. Well, first, let me suggest…
Master Sergeant Paul Kavanagh felt nauseous as the stratospheric balloon continued to ascend at one thousand feet per minute. The back of his throat burned, and it felt as if his stomach would erupt. He hadn’t taken his anti-nausea pill earlier, and now he realized that had been a mistake.
He and four fellow powered armor Marine trainees waited in pressure suits, although they had yet to don their helmets. They sat inside a special capsule that dangled from the polyethylene balloon. This was to be their latest free fall drop, the first one from the stratosphere and the first one from a balloon-carried capsule.
Paul checked the monitor. The five of them faced inward, staring at a tri-screen. Their great enemy had been wind earlier. It could have literally torn the balloon apart. The worst time had been during their ascent through the troposphere—30,000 to 60,000 feet—where turbulence was common.
At the secret launch site in Montana, the helium inflatable had been tall and thin, stretching fifty-five stories high. As the giant balloon rose, it slowly filled out, and would reach an almost completely round shape at 120,000 feet, or twenty-three miles from sea level, their destination.