Dale Brown - Executive Intent

“And I’ll bet I know who did it,” Faulkner said. She used the commander’s console to zoom the image out until the Chinese flotilla was in sight, then zoomed in. Taken just moments before, the image showed fighters lined up on the catapults waiting to launch and even fighters still on the arresting cables waiting to taxi clear. “Pretty freakin’ incredible,” she said, shaking her head. “First Somalia, and now Yemen?”

“I’ll bet that ship burning in the harbor is a Chinese warship,” Seeker offered, “so this might be retaliation for a suicide attack. The Chinese went after air and coastal defenses and command-and-control centers…”

“Softening them up for another land invasion?”

“That would be my guess, ma’am,” Seeker said. “I’d better make sure SPACECOM and STRATCOM have these images.”

“I need to talk with the boss,” Faulkner said. She donned a headset and entered instructions into her computer to activate an encrypted voice link, then spoke: “Armstrong to Raydon, secure.”

21 ST SPACE OPERATIONS SQUADRON, ONIZUKA AIR FORCE STATION, SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA

THAT SAME TIME

“Raydon here, secure,” Kai answered a few moments later, after being led to a communications room by the senior master sergeant in charge. Raydon, along with Patrick McLanahan and Hunter Noble, was in a secure laboratory at the 21st Space Operations Squadron at Onizuka Air Force Station near San Jose. They had requested access to a secure facility to examine the classified-data downloads from Armstrong Space Station in the hours prior to the destruction of the Kingfisher-8 weapon garage. The Twenty-first, located in the large windowless light blue-colored building near Moffett Federal Airfield known as the “Blue Cube,” maintained the Air Force’s network of satellite control centers and provided satellite communications between both terrestrial and in-orbit users. Originally slated for closure in 2011, Onizuka Air Force Station-named after Lieutenant Colonel Ellison Onizuka, one of the seven crewmembers killed in the Challenger Shuttle disaster in 1986-was kept open to properly service and support the growing U.S. Space Defense Force satellite infrastructure.

“Faulkner, secure.”

“Hi, Gonzo.” Patrick was immediately on alert-Kai’s face told him this was not a routine call. “What’s going on?”

“The Chinese appear to be at it again, sir,” Faulkner said. “This time in Aden, Yemen.”

“What?”

“It’s happening right now, sir. Looks like they launched bombers from their aircraft carrier off the coast of Aden and bombed defensive sites and command-and-control sites around the city. It might be retaliation for an attack on one of their warships in the harbor.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Kai exclaimed. He turned to Patrick. “The Chinese are attacking Aden, Yemen.” Patrick immediately picked up a secure phone. “Everyone’s been notified?”

“Seeker is double-checking that SPACECOM and STRATCOM got the message.”

“Good. Where’s Camerota?”

“He’s down, sir.”

“‘Down’? What do you mean, ‘down’? What happened?”

“Chronic space sickness ever since he got here, apparently passed out with a throatful of vomit,” Faulkner explained. “He’s breathing again but still loopy. Crawford is with him.”

“You take command of the station.”

“Yes, sir.”

“What’s your status?”

“The station is Code One,” she replied. “I haven’t checked all the garages yet.” She scanned her monitors and studied the one Lukas was pointing to. “Seeker just put it up: Three and Seven show some kind of fault.”

“Are you up, Seeker?”

“Yes, sir,” Lukas responded.

“The faults on Three and Seven: Are they similar to what happened to Eight?”

“The safe and continuity circuit faults? Stand by.” She called up a more detailed readout of Kingfisher-3’s fault. “Yes, sir, same fault on Three.”

“We’re looking at data readouts for the Kingfisher constellation for the past few days before the incident on Eight,” Kai said, “and we’re starting to pick up a pattern: The satellites develop an error in the continuity circuits over just about the same location on Earth each time, give or take five hundred miles.”

“That’s almost a pinpoint in orbital terms.”

“Exactly. We notice the failures at different times, and they’re not exactly the same type of fault, but it’s close enough to get our attention. We’re trying to get tasking to set up reconnaissance over Venezuela. The Russians have two signals intelligence sites in Venezuela: Caracas and El Tigre. They’re doing more than just listening at one of those sites.”

“So you think the Russians are using SIGINT sites to hack into the Kingfisher safe and continuity circuits and fault them so we’re forced to shut them down?” Faulkner asked.

“Exactly.”

“Could they have caused Eight to blow itself up?”

“We might have a different reason for that,” Kai said. “Something I remembered about the moments before the accident. Remember that industrial fire we detected right about the same time, Seeker?”

“Yes, sir. We verified it: A Myanmar natural-gas processing facility caught fire. We photographed it afterward.”

“But if you take the typical attack profile of a Chinese DF-21 missile and place the origin of that profile at that spot, the missile would have hit Kingfisher-Eight,” Kai said. “I think the Chinese set an explosion at that natural-gas plant to hide a DF-21 launch.”

“But no other sensors detected a missile launch, sir.”

“No other sensors had the capability,” Kai said. “DSP and SBIRS-High did exactly what they were supposed to do: detect the thermal bloom. On a typical DF-21 attack, the missile rises almost straight up to its intercept point, which means no track develops, or the track was still obscured by the ground fire. Only SBIRS-Low or Kingfisher-Eight could have tracked a DF-21.”

“Still not exactly evidence the Chinese attacked one of our satellites, sir.”

“We found another piece of the puzzle, Seeker,” Kai said. “We assumed that the safe and continuity circuits that McCallum replaced on Eight were faulty and caused a Trinity interceptor to explode. It turns out the safe and continuity circuits were working just fine…because Eight went into self-defense mode almost immediately after we powered it up.”

“What?”

“Kingfisher-Eight had activated its self-defense mode,” Kai said almost breathlessly. “It wasn’t a fault: It was real, because Eight detected the incoming Chinese DF-21 and was trying to reposition itself to launch an interceptor when it was hit. We were looking at the data but coming to completely wrong conclusions. We assumed the satellite was still bad even after Jeffrey changed the boards, but it wasn’t. Eight was trying to protect itself from a Chinese DF-21 attack.”

“That’s unbelievable!” Faulkner exclaimed. “The Russians damage Eight, and the Chinese attack it. Incredible!”

“But we still can’t exactly prove that the Russians attacked it or the Chinese DF-21 hit it, sir,” Seeker said.

“It’s more than enough proof for me, Master Sergeant,” Kai said. “This is starting to look like a Russian-Chinese conspiracy to saturate or shut down the Space Defense Force. Secretary Page is going to set up a meeting with SECDEF and PNSA and present all this information. We might not have proof positive, but it’ll be enough for the White House to stop any plans of shutting down the program or banning antisatellite weapons.”

UNITED NATIONS SECURITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS, NEW YORK CITY

EARLY THE NEXT MORNING

“This emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council will come to order,” the rotating chairman of the council, Ernesto Nascimento, said, tapping a gavel on the stone sound block before him. “The meeting has been called by the request of the delegation from the United States, with Great Britain seconding the request for an emergency meeting. The chair recognizes the ambassador from the United States.”