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Table Top Mountain
Mission Prep and Ops Bunker
February 11, 2049
0710 hours
Major Jurgen Kraft scanned the tasking order he had just received from UNSAC for probably the twentieth time. He shook his head, nervously stroked his Black Forest moustache and tried to ignore the sour bile rising in the back of his throat.
This is lunacy, he told himself. My guys aren’t ready for this. Not that such sentiments really mattered when UNIFORCE issued orders to the Corps. No one ever turned down a mission from Paris. No matter how insane.
And this truly was insane.
Kraft walked quickly across the grassy quadrangle toward the Ops building with a sour set to his face. Must be something in the way the planets are aligned, he muttered to himself. Table Top was especially scenic in the midst of a Rocky Mountain winter, with a light dusting of snow on the northern slopes of Buffalo Ridge, while patches of aspen and birch lent subdued colors to the valley below the hill.
Kraft was carrying a communiqué that UNIFORCE had just been received overnight at its Paris headquarters. It was a message from Red Hammer. The message was an ultimatum.
Kraft clutched the disk in his coat pocket. The wind had picked up across the top of the mountain. Off to his left, a hyperjet roared off down Runway 32 Left, accelerating through bright blue skies for some distant land. It burned in the sky like a meteor in reverse and was gone in seconds, heading for a space-skimming ride to somewhere.
Just after midnight, the duty officer from Ops had awakened him in quarters with flash traffic from UNIFORCE. General Wolfus Linx, Kraft’s immediate boss and CINCQUANT, had ordered him to set up a briefing at 0800 hours local, with vidlinks to Paris and several other places.
“It’s from Red Hammer,” Linx had told him. “An ultimatum…we’ve got to act fast. Get your best people on it and patch me in when you’re set. UNSAC himself may attend too.”
That got Kraft out of his bunk in a hurry. UNSAC was the Security Affairs Commissioner himself, one Jiang Hao Bei. If UNSAC was involved, Kraft knew whatever had happened was serious enough to affect the whole world.
Had Red Hammer somehow finally reconstituted from the Tian Jia disaster? Had Quantum Corps intel missed something?
Kraft made the Ops building and headed for the briefing theater. Halfway there, he ran into Lieutenant Johnny Winger.
“What is it, General?” Winger asked. He fell in alongside Kraft as they took the lift down into the bowels of the mountain, to the secure command post five levels below.
“I got word we have a Code One in the making…”
Kraft nodded tersely. “UNSAC asked for a briefing. It’s Red Hammer. Some kind of message or ultimatum came into Paris overnight and UNIFORCE is in an uproar.”
The briefing theater was a semi-circular facility surrounded by screens and desks. SOFIE ran all the visuals and links; the AI had recently been upgraded to receive inputs directly from ANAD swarms.
Kraft came in and the non-duty personnel came to attention.
“As you were…status of briefing setup?” Kraft took his position in the “bird’s nest” one level above the monitoring stations.
The duty officer in charge reported: “All parties are on line now, sir. Your station is ready to go.”
Kraft acknowledged the faces vidlinked in…from Paris, from Gateway Station in high earth orbit, and elsewhere at Table Top. In addition to those present at the Ops center, General Linx’s hard Teutonic face scowled back at Kraft from one screen. To his right, Galen Bosch, assistant Director-General at UNIFORCE-Paris was blowing his nose on another screen. A third screen displayed an elderly but clear-eyed Japanese national, floating serenely in weightlessness amid spartan, vaguely Shinto surroundings. Kaoru Nakamura was chief of the UNISPACE Surveillance Ops. He was based at Gateway.
Kraft sat down and shuffled through some notes.
“Is it Red Hammer, Kraft?” Linx asked. “That’s all I need to know.”
Kraft swallowed hard. Linx was a gruff, impatient four-star heading up Quantum Corps interests at UNIFORCE’s Paris headquarters. HQ was a real playpen for politicians, a hotbed of intrigue and Kraft figured being gruff and crusty was a career Corpsman’s best defense in a place like that. At least he keeps the pols off our backs, Kraft reasoned.
“We believe it is, sir. Overnight, at 2250 hours your time, UNIFORCE received a rather unusual communication at Paris. The message came in via ground courier, delivered directly at HQ. Intel’s looking at the thing now but the gist of the message is this: Red Hammer seems to be alive and well. Q2’s trying to authenticate the message right now.”
Linx snorted. “I knew it! The bastards are like a disease…stamp them out in one place and they grow like a fungus somewhere else. I knew Copernicus and Tian Jia wouldn’t be the end of them.”
Nakamura’s voice echoed in from a quarter million miles away. “Just how did the message arrive? Who received it?”
“I can answer that.” Galen Bosch’s image was pale and terse. The A-DG had been up all night, mostly in meetings. “The communication was addressed to the Director-General personally. It’s basically an ultimatum from this Red Hammer group.”
Johnny Winger had heard some of the scuttlebutt floating around Table Top. “What kind of ultimatum?”
Kraft scanned several reports. “Q2’s still trying to validate the message but here are the basic details: somehow, some way, the cartel has diverted a long-period asteroid toward Earth…impact in less than twelve months. Is such a thing even possible?”
Linx’s face hardened. “Nakamura…you should know something about all this. Is there such an asteroid…can they do this?”
The distance to Gateway Station, orbiting Earth at the L2 Lagrange point, created a momentary delay. Nakamura was glad of that; he needed time to compose an answer.
“It’s called Hicks-Newman, General. A C1-class carbonaceous chondritic body we located out beyond Mars…about a half mile in diameter. Farside got a SPACETRACK anomaly alert a few days ago. HNRV—the full name is Hicks-Newman-Vargas-Rivera—does seem to be on an intercept path toward this planet. We’re not sure how this happened…maybe some other body struck the asteroid. It may be the Yarkovsky effect—the Sun heats it and thermal emissions are enough to nudge it onto a new trajectory…we’re studying all possibilities.”
Now Linx looked like he was about to cry. “Can this…rock…be stopped? Red Hammer’s already delivered an ultimatum to Paris…if we don’t agree to their conditions, it lands on our heads. Nakamura, does UNISPACE have any answers?”
Kraft could feel the sweat trickling down the back of his neck. “Sir, what kind of conditions?”
Linx perused his copy of the communiqué. “Basically, this is a ransom note, Major. As I read it, Red Hammer is demanding two things: a payoff of 1 trillion UNotes and one other matter—“
“And what is that, sir?”
“That Quantum Corps itself cease operations. Be closed down by UNIFORCE.”
“What!” Kraft was incredulous. “Absurd…even the thought of it is absurd. The Corps is absolutely vital to UNIFORCE…isn’t that so, Director Bosch?”
The A-DG’s hesitation was only momentary, almost imperceptible. But it was there. “Of course, Major. Such a demand is quite impossible. Naturally, this communication must be brought to UNSAC’s attention right away. There will undoubtedly be a meeting of the Security Council, just to discuss these demands and how we should respond. I assume there’s a deadline, General Linx?”
“They’ve given us one month to comply,” Linx went on. “There are also some details on how the ransom is to be paid off…currencies, assets, drop-off points, that sort of thing.” Linx looked like he had indigestion. “Nakamura, there must be something UNISPACE can do.”
The Japanese physicist glared back at them, with the slight delay giving him time to think o
f something to say. “We’ve simulated all kinds of scenarios, General. In fact, there’s even a project—it’s called GreenMars—to divert an asteroid to Mars at some point, to give it water and volatiles and an atmosphere. There are ideas in this proposal that possibly could be used.”
“What kind of ideas?”
Nakamura launched into a detailed explanation. “Over the last two years, we’ve simulated and studied landing and securing to an asteroid’s surface an array of some sixty-four mass-driver impulse motors. These motors would be like industrial dredges with huge electromagnets attached. They chew up surface material and fling it away as reaction mass. Not a lot of thrust, mind you, but over time, it builds up. The effect of the combined array is to very gently perturb the asteroid’s course while it’s inbound from its aphelion point…its farthest point from the sun. Bit by bit, a few hundredths of a meter per second at a time…the impulse motors could alter the trajectory. The proposal’s very careful about this…every eventuality has been calculated and prepared for. We would want to impact Mars at a very specific place at a very specific time, to gain maximum effect. The whole point of this is to bring in a huge spike in water, carbon, hydrogen and other volatiles all at once…in effect to make a phase change in the environment of Mars. Tip the planet into a new state all at once.”
Galen Bosch was intrigued. “I’ve read the theory behind this, Doctor. Just where were you planning to impact this asteroid, assuming you’ve identified one?”
Nakamura fed an impact simulation to all screens. “I can answer your question best with a short video. Watch this,” he said.
An image of Mars blossomed into view. The proposed asteroid soon appeared as a point of light streaking toward the southern hemisphere of the planet. In slow motion, the light grew in size until a discernible potato-shaped object was soon evident, tumbling slowly as it plowed into the upper reaches of the Martian atmosphere.
Friction made the asteroid blaze into a fiery ball as it plummeted toward impact. In the final seconds of the video, the asteroid hurtled deeper into the thin atmosphere surrounded by a halo of incandescent gases, streaming chunks of material as it began to break up.
At impact, a shock wave rippled outward in concentric rings while the half-kilometer wide body excavated a massive boiling crater and the plume of debris, ash and soot rocketed skyward, nearly reaching the edge of space itself.
“Hellas Basin,” Nakamura announced as the video imagery froze in its final frame, the still shot of a hundred-kilometer high plume just visible off the limb of Mars’ southern hemisphere. “Excavated by a similar impact some two billion years ago. Our asteroid would hit in almost the same place…and the result: Mars would have a new ocean and a thicker atmosphere.”
The comm was silent until Galen Bosch offered an opinion. “A new ocean once all the dust settles. How long would that take?”
Nakamura was matter of fact. “We’ve estimated about a year to a year and a half…maybe sixteen Earth months…before enough dust settles out to resume normal operations. Of course, this is just a simulation, supporting a proposal.”
General Linx was sobered by the imagery he had just seen. “Dr. Nakamura, if Red Hammer is somehow able to divert this thing to an Earth-intercept trajectory, are we looking at a similar scenario here?”
Nakamura’s face was impassive. “Pretty much, General. Earth’s thicker atmosphere might cause the Hicks-Newman body to disintegrate earlier, with more pieces falling over a wider area. That could be good or bad, depending on the mechanics of the approach.”
“Then we can’t let that happen.” Linx rubbed his gray moustache wearily. “Nakamura, I’ll set up a set briefing with CINCSPACE. UNSAC will approve this. Get a team together and figure out how to land some of your mass drivers on Hicks. Try and divert that bastard away from Earth. Kraft--?”
“Yes, sir?”
“Get 1st Nano together after this briefing. I want an op plan for an ANAD detachment to travel out to Hicks-Newman, rendezvous with it and use ANAD to chew the blasted thing to pieces. Talk to a Major Duncan Price at Station P…UNISPACE always has plans for things like this. And get that tactical plan and TOE to my desk by 1200 hours today.”
Kraft replied, “Of course, sir…I’ll get right on it.” And we’ll save the merely impossible for tomorrow, he wanted to say but didn’t.
Outside the Ops Center, it was just dawn and the sun was poking above the tops of the Buffalo Range with orange fingers of light. Knots of people from shift change were gathering outside the commissary and the barracks areas, to catch the sight. It was one of the perks of assignment to the Western Command base.
Kraft hiked across the snowy quadrangle toward the Containment complex. Johnny Winger could barely keep up.
“Where are we going, Major?”
The atomgrabber walked briskly along the footpath, ignoring the splendor of an Idaho mountain dawn. Kraft took a moment to answer. “The General wants a tactical op plan in four hours. I’ve got to get my commanders together and work up a sheet. Winger, have you ever been to Mars?”
Before Winger could answer, they had made the Containment center and cycled through Security and the airlocks. Inside, Kraft led them through a maze of corridors thick with piping and heavy doors, to a compartment near the center of the complex.
Moments later, they were at the platoon ready room and surrounded by troopers from 1st Nano.
“Listen up,” Winger announced as he and Kraft came in.
The ready room was packed with troopers sorting through and stowing their gear. Video screens wrapped around, each displaying loops of scenes from around the base, as well as training exercises, parades and combat sims. Colleen “Mighty Mite” Barnes was showing off a new arm tattoo to all who cared to see. Sergeant Nicole Simonet was clicking through some company orders on her commandpad, trying to figure who was supposed to have watch duty today.
Kraft detailed the results of the senior staff briefing he had just come from. “It’s called Hicks-Newman and it’s headed our way. We’ve got maybe a year to divert it.”
The Major activated SOFIE and the AI displayed the situation on a 3-D pedestal, with the new course of the asteroid plotted in. Then he re-played Nakamura’s impact simulation.
There were whistles and throat-clearings all about the ready room.
“The Big Smack,” someone said.
“Yeah, right in my back yard,” added Sheila Reaves. “There goes my beach vacation.”
Kraft went on. “I’m working up an op plan with a Major Price at UNISPACE Station P now. For your information, that P as in Phobos, orbiting Mars. You’ll get the details later…high-level, here are the basics: We’re sending a detachment to Station P. You’ll pick up a few more people and some equipment there. Then you’re off on a speed-run to intercept Hicks-Newman. You’re taking specially optimized ANAD systems with you—I’ve already notified Dr. Frost about upgrades. UNISPACE is sending ahead a series of robotic platforms to the target. They’re going to try and divert Hicks themselves. We’re backup, just in case.”
“But, Major, we’re not trained for deep space ops,” said Mighty Mite Barnes. “That was supposed to be next year.”
Kraft scowled. He’d already fought that battle…and lost. “I know that, Sergeant. It doesn’t matter. Consider this operation your training exercise. If UNISPACE can’t divert Hicks with their little mass drivers, you’ll be using ANAD to chew up the rock yourselves, at least enough so that the mass drivers work. That’s the gist of the plan.”
“Major, what if we can’t divert the asteroid?” That came from Al Glance, one of Winger’s newbies.
Kraft just shook his head. “You saw the vid. Like someone said…a big smack. Let’s just make sure that vid stays a simulation. Look, I know you have about a million questions. I don’t have all the answers. I’ll send you an outline of the op plan in an hour. Winger, get the equipment lists and t
he detachment org squared away. Then start drawing your gear from Stores…hypersuits, HERF, the works. Glance, you work with Containment to get ANAD ready to ship out. I want the latest too…check with Doc Frost on upgrades and changes. Fully capable…ANAD is the key to our part in this whole affair. I don’t want to hear anything about breakdowns, aborts, or balky bots. “
“At once, Major,” Glance said. Silently, he fingered the disk in his pocket, the disk that Wei Ming had given him at the Custer Inn. Her words were still fresh in the back of his mind: Load it into ANAD's kernel. It will weaken ANAD, subtly, a little at a time. This will make it harder for Quantum Corps to counter the Keeper.
“Let’s get to work,” Kraft ordered.
The troopers of 1st Nano scattered to their duties at once.