He opened his eyes. Seedeck and the second X-ray laser satellite were gone.
"Atlantis, this is Bates Nothing. Only a hiss. He found it hard to breathe. The pressure wasn't hurting him, only squeezing him tight-like a strong hug…
"Atlantis…?"
"Seedeck. Rich, answer. "It was Woods. The hiss had subsided, replaced by Admiral Woods on the command radio.
"Atlantis, this is Bates. What's wrong?What-?"
An even brighter flash of light, a massive globe of redorange light that seemed to dull even the brilliant glow of the Earth itself. Bates opened his eyes, and a cry forced itself to his lips.
A brilliant shaft of light a dozen feet in diameter appeared from nowhere. It was as if someone had drawn a thick line of light from Earth across to Ice Fortress. The silvery surface of Ice Fortress' armor seemed to take on the same weird redorange glow, then the beam of light disappeared.
A split-second later a terrific explosion erupted from the open end of the launch cylinder aboard Ice Fortress. A tongue of fire several yards long spit from the earthward side of the station. Sparks and arcs of electricity sputtered from one of the spindly sides, and Ice Fortress started a slow, lazy roll backward, sending showers of sparks and debris flying in all directions. Bates ducked as the cable connecting Atlantis to the space station snapped back and hit the forward bulkhead of the Al cargo bay Bates' voice was a scream. "Commander Seedeck. Oh, Bates heard Admiral Woods report. "We have lost Ice Fortress. Repeat, we have lost Ice Fortress. Bright orange light, then massive explosion.
One crewman missing.
" This is Bates. What's-T' "Bates, this is Admiral Woods. Where are you?You all right?"
Bates reached up with his left hand for one of the handholds on the forward bulkhead, found that the pressure was all but gone.
"I fell into the cargo bay. I'm okay-" Just then a sword of pain stabbed into his skull and he cried out into the open communications panel.
"Bates… T' Bates looked down. The lower part of his left leg was sticking out at a peculiar angle from his body.
"Oh God… I think I broke my leg.
"Can you make it to the airlock?"
"Admiral, this is Connors. I can suit up and-" God… " "Mission Control, this is Atlantis "Not if you haven't been pre-breathing," Woods told him.
"Everyone, make a fast station check, report any damage, then get on the cameras. Find Seedeck. Connors, Matsumo, get a POS and start pre-breathing. Bates, can you make it back to the airlock?" Bates grabbed the handhold. He expected a tough time hauling himself upright but suddenly found he had to keep from flinging himself up out of the cargo bay in his weightless condition. Slowly, he began to haul himself back toward the airlock hatch.
"Bates, what happened out there?"
"God, it looked like… like one of the damn projectiles laser satellites had numerous safety devices to prevent an detonated, " Bates said as he crawled for the airlock. The X-ray accidental nuclear detonation, but the reaction chamber needed a big explosion to start the atomic chain reaction, and those explosives had no safety devices.
Something, some massive burst of energy, had set off the five hundred pounds of high explosives in the satellite's reaction chamber.
Just as he safely reached the airlock, Bates looked back to Ice Fortress. It took him a moment to spot it again, several hundred yards from where it had been a few moments before.
It was lazily, almost playfully spinning away, its radars and antennas and electronic eyes and spindly arms flopping about as if it was waving goodbye. Occasionally a shower of sparks erupted from its surface.
And a trail of debris hovered in its wake, as if it were dropping crumbs on the trail to help find its way back…
Commander Richard Seedeck left nothing. Nothing was left of him.
WASHINGTON, D.C
The President examined a large wall-sized chart projected on the rear wall of the White House Situation Room. He ran a finger over the black line, making sure it ran right through Kavaznya.
The line wasn't quite straight-Arawn by a computer, the Great Circle course was a series of straight lines representing dozens of heading changes. But it was the shortest istance, the President knew, to an encounter that now seemed unavoidable.
General Wilbur Curtis and his aide stood behind their chairs watching the President. Curtis knew that the President was looking at something no other American president had ever seen-a chart of an actual peacetime attack plan against the Soviet Union. Even though hundreds of such plans existed, none had ever been presented to the President for his direct approval.
After quickly examining the chart, the President took his seat at the head of the oval table. Curtis kept watching the President as the other advisers all took their seats after him.
Dark rings had formed under the President's eyes, he was noticeably thinner, and his shoulders drooped.
Well, it was a terrible strain on all of them, because this young President relied so heavily on his advisors in foreign affairs. He was extremely effective when it came to domestic problems and he was immensely popular at home, but overseas it was a different matter. He and his Cabinet had tried to convince the world that the Soviet Union was threatening the United States, trying to provoke a conflict-but few believed him, mostly because they were afraid to find out it was the truth. The consequences of that were too scary. The war of words had reduced Secretary of State Marshall Brent as well.
His usual polish and spirit were noticeably dimmed.
Now, the laser had taken another life, and the President was looking at what he feared most-a direct assault against Kavaznya. In the U.S.S.R.…
Assembled were his National Security Council, his Cabinet and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. They had already held a hastily formed meeting of their own. Now it was time for them to present the plan they had come up with.
"Let's have it, General," the President said, prompting the chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Wilbur Curtis nodded and stood.
"Yes, sir," the general began. "Two B-1B Excaliburs from the new Tenth Bombardment Wing at Ellsworth Air Force Base will execute this mission.
Yesterday they were flown from Dreamland, where they were undergoing design modification, to Ellsworth, where each was armed with two AGM-130
Striker TV-infrared-guided bombs. Per your order, sir. It's the largest non-nuclear standoff weapon in our arsenal. It uses a small strap-on rocket motor to glide as far as fifteen miles from a low-altitude release, and it has the explosive power of one ton of TNT.
The bombardier can steer it to its target using a TV eye in the nose, or it can lock-on to a target with an infrared seeker.
"Two Strikers, General?"
"An added insurance factor, sir. Two weapons targeted for the same point. If the first weapon fails to detonate, the second, impacting five seconds later, will take out the target. If the first works, the second bomb will be destroyed in the blast. The second aircraft insures destruction of the primary target and has the additional task of air defense suppression."
There was a rustle of uneasiness, even from those who had been in on the entire Kavaznya crisis from the start. This was not an exercise or simulation Curtis was talking about.
"The bombers have been equipped with the standard coded switch and permissive-action-link security arrangements," Curtis continued.
"Those are the electronic switches between the weapons and the bombardiers' control panels. We're treating the Strikers just like nuclear weapons-no prearming or launch possible without a coded strike message from you, sir, transmitted via satellite communications or normal U.H.F traffic and entered into those switches. Two of the most experienced Excalibur crews will fly the missions-both senior Standardization-Evaluation crews. They've been briefed and are standing by.