Judgement Day, page 16
“We’ll have to be doubly careful from now on,” said Jackson, in many ways stating the obvious and it weighed heavily upon him that perhaps most of the squares and even the precious laser gun currently awaiting docking with the space station had been tampered with in some way.
Whilst this meeting ground its fraught way to a conclusion in Washington, Brandi and Joseph worked closely together with Professor Arthur Stromberg to firstly check the calculations of the new lattice structure to be created with the severely reduced number of squares that had been manufactured, and they spent a great deal of time verifying the revised intricate shape that the team, along with computer algorithms, deemed to be optimum for the delivery of the biggest explosion possible. In addition, Joseph was concerned to make certain that the master controller would still function and be able to communicate and instruct the millions of squares to ensure that they would be ordered properly and linked together for maximum destructive force. The new shape was now some six meters in diameter in a rough rectangle, and inside there were rows of squares joined together in a pre-numbered fashion.
Brandi was still concerned about the sheer lesser number of squares and whether there had been a physical problem in their construction but she had been again reassured by Joseph that despite the extreme cold of space they would nevertheless attach to Judgement which had sufficient gravity to allow this, although he confessed to having concerns that the software might lose control to deal with such vast numbers of the small saviours of mankind. Brandi took the view that they had no choice but to continue with the project.
Hours passed during which time the rocket made its way to the International Space Station after which the docking procedure took place and the payload, and three new astronauts made their way to join their Russian colleagues in the body of the craft. Despite everything the first question that Sergei asked of the lead new astronaut was whether a bottle of vodka had been smuggled aboard. The astronaut, whose name was Dean Kosker, smiled and nodded in the way of comradeship and gave a wink as if to say, yes and they would deal with that later.
Back on earth everything was being prepared for the real deal, for the time for demonstrations had passed and now the stakes were as high as anything could be for the future of civilization. The vast number of squares were carefully stored in the cargo hold ready for extraction in several hours’ time. Sergei looked at the instructions which said that the tiny squares, which had been assembled in thin plastic sheet to keep them together, should be assembled next to the station so that they could be blasted by the laser guns, but given the enormous numbers of these tiny items it was unclear how this could possibly be achieved. In addition, firing a laser towards the Moon was one thing, but setting it up so that it would be directed to strike the massive numbers of squares and propel them to intercept an object some four hundred million miles away and closing fast was another thing altogether, particularly given that the space station itself was travelling at over twenty thousand miles per hour.
He knew of course that the astronomers had given this problem a great deal of thought and computer modelling had come up with a solution, for the only way to achieve the necessary precision would be to hand over the directionality of the lasers to the computer itself. Man’s intervention would not be steady enough and anyway the space station movement and shifting position of the asteroid meant that there would be no other way than through artificial intelligence.
The laser guns had been linked to land-based computers which would take control as soon as Sergei gave word that the setup had been completed and the lasers had been properly attached to a limb of the space station. He was still concerned about the physical problem of placing a huge number of squares in front of the two laser guns so that they could be fired synchronously at the squares to send them into deep space. Mission control had explained the principle to him in some detail, but he was unconvinced so far, but was disciplined enough to know that there was much about the whole exercise that eluded him. He felt like a mechanic changing valves or checking spark plugs when the real action was on Earth run by people with huge brain power. Still, at least he saw the northern lights every two hours and could kiss Natalia whenever he wanted.
The project team had come up with an ingenious way of making sure that the squares were properly positioned and the idea was that a rectangle of them consisting of many thousands would be placed in front of each laser gun which would fire a short burst, and when they had departed into the dark ether a further array of the squares would similarly be placed and then another measured burst of the laser would follow, for a pre-determined time duration designed to provide optimum acceleration of the squares until they had been discharged to their remote destination hundreds of millions of miles away.
It was felt that their landing on the asteroid would be close enough together for them to be able to assemble readily, and in fact the marginal differences in the landing areas due to the gradual phased laser blasts meant that they had a good chance of all landing safely and especially to avoid colliding with each other as far as possible. This apparently crude method was the result of deep mathematical calculations, taking into account all the variable factors to make sure that it would work.
Dean Kosker had been instructed very carefully in this process and he explained to the others exactly how they would deliver the squares in front of the lasers, in such a way that they would, in effect, become like rapid slides of a film show, using a device that he had brought with him in the hold which was a special container to store the squares not unlike a large film projector which ran through reams of celluloid at great speed. The whole process was designed to take approximately one hour with many bursts of the laser guns per minute under control of Earth’s careful direction.
Astronomers had calculated the optimal duration for the lasers to be discharged which to the cosmonauts seemed to be eternal given that they would have just completed a spacewalk to set up everything. Sergei was very tired after his work outside and on his return inside the space station to rest he breathed a sigh of relief. Natalia looked at him when they were in their own space and kissed him, wondering aloud whether he thought this would work. He answered in the affirmative knowing her well enough, but his eyes betrayed his true feelings that he was considerably concerned about success. Still, they had been encouraged by the demonstration of sending a limited number of the squares to the Moon but sending millions of these small squares a considerable distance into space was another matter altogether. They both knew that they had duty to perform and that was good enough for them. Sergei was a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Russian army and was used to following and giving orders.
Joseph Stonehouse had spent several days rechecking his team’s calculations for the structure of the squares. He knew that this was too late but if a problem arose, he might as well be aware of what had caused the issue. The team had utilised sophisticated tools to manipulate molecular structures, which process needed extremely powerful electron microscopes whereby the very atoms could be seen and manipulated if necessary. It was leading-edge research to be sure and if the planet survived the impact of Judgement, he was hopeful that the field of research would have moved forward considerably. Perhaps a shared Nobel prize with Dr Kovach might be awarded, but such did not figure in his mind for any length of time.
He had managed to retain a few dozen of the squares that had not been needed for the trip to space, following the revised mathematical calculations as to the number required to form the new intricate lattice-like shape. After taking a strong cup of coffee he decided to analyse these items in some detail, including tests of the strength of the squares in greater depth than he had previously done for the initial demonstration. Carefully picking up one of the small gold coloured squares, it felt so light in his hand, and he needed small tweezers to grasp it. As the main designer, he knew well the design of the imprint on the front side of it for he had lived with this for many months already and looked with awe at his creation.
He placed the square he had selected inside a super-cooled vacuum flask, which measured close to absolute zero in mimicry of deep space. The square was sealed in the unit for thirty minutes during which time he went and made himself some more coffee, bringing the steaming mug back to the laboratory. He then opened the flask and used tongs to retrieve the small plate on which he had rested the square, but as soon as he saw it, he was shocked and had to sit down on the bench stool.
There before him was what appeared to be a smudge of dull gold-coloured dust which could only have come from the square. He wondered whether he had contrived to damage the square when he had manipulated it, so he selected three more of them from the stock held back from the rocket launch and proceeded to follow the same routine.
The thirty minutes he was forced to wait was one of the longest periods of his life, and at last he was able to open the flask. Retrieving the new plate once more, he saw that two of the squares appeared to be fully intact and the other consisted of the same dust-like remnants as the first square that he had selected. He made a telephone call to Brandi to come to see him urgently and whilst he waited for her, he carried out a third test, this time selecting twelve of the squares from the huge batch that had been manufactured in China.
“Brandi, we have a problem,” he said to her urgently as soon as she arrived, and he proceeded to explain what had happened.
“This is the third test, this time with twelve of the little things.”
They stood looking at each other as the clock ticked by as they waited the requisite half-hour. Checking his watch, Joseph asked one of his assistants who had joined him and Brandi, to do the honours and open the flask.
The assistant, a graduate student, carefully did as asked and laid the larger plate before them. Once the fumes of dry ice had disappeared, they peered at the plate and saw with horror that only eight of the twelve squares had survived intact. There were discrete piles of the by now dreaded dust where the missing squares should have been.
“I’ll carry out more tests on the rest of the batch,” said Joseph, “and we’ll get right on to analysing the dust particles.
Brandi stood watching with utter horror gripping her stomach which seemed to turn inside out.
“If what we see is typical of the whole stock, we could be looking at one in three being duds,” she said, at which Joseph nodded.
They both fell silent as each made some mental calculations as to the potential impact on the project, and they did not like what they determined.
“And the firing of them at Judgement is scheduled for tomorrow,” she added. They all knew that they would be in for a long night of it.
One hour later, Brandi sat in Jackson’s office with Thomas Mulvaney and they discussed what Joseph had found so far. Jackson once again stared at the ceiling as he ordered his thoughts.
“If Joseph is right and one third of them are damaged then the question is whether an explosion can be made at all and, if so, will it be powerful enough?” he said.
“Can the controller detect which squares have been destroyed and re-program the rest?” asked Thomas.
“Yes, it should be possible,” said Brandi, “in theory anyway.”
Jackson made the practical decision: “We proceed with the blast tomorrow. If it works great and if not well, at least we’ll know.” There was a chill in his voice when he said this, reflecting the mood of the room.
After Thomas and Joseph had left, Brandi went over and kissed Jackson and they hugged, and she said that she was going to spend all night at the laboratory with Joseph to get to the bottom of what was going on.
“Try not to get too tired,” said Jackson kindly, “because the launch of the blast is scheduled to be at ten o’clock in the morning our time.
Left on his own in his office once more Jackson wondered what to say to the President but, for now, he decided to say nothing until he had further information from Joseph and Brandi. After all he could hardly accuse the Chinese of screwing up the manufacturing without proof. The night passed slowly, and Jackson remained in his office until two o'clock in the morning knowing that Brandi, Joseph and their team would be in the laboratories and would be throughout the night.
Early the following morning in the mission control building, dignitaries assembled early. This was partially due to the excitement of the day and its importance and as before Chinese officials were well in attendance along with representatives from the White House and members of the general staff from the Pentagon. Jackson wore his general's uniform and looked immaculate despite having only three hours sleep overnight. He looked around the main reception area to see if Brandi was there but so far there was no sign of her. However, he could see that there were still two hours to go before the cosmonauts would make the space walk and activate the lasers.
In a separate section in another part of the building Joseph and his team were looking at the angle of the laser and how it was controlled and they had been in touch with the space station to make sure that the links were in good order and that his instructions had been given to angle the lasers precisely, before they would be taken over by ground-control computer for the fine-tuning necessary, and that all would be ready. The timing of this activity had to be exact due to the movement of the Earth among other factors, but the computer program they used took this into account in real time so that when the instructions were given, at the very moment the calculations would be correct and could be varied in real-time. At least, that was the theory, but they had, so far, little opportunity to put it into practice. The delay in messages received at the space station from when they left Houston was also a factor, but this was built into the calculations made by the computer algorithms.
It was decided to fire three laser bursts to blast some of the traces to the asteroid to see if they impacted correctly before the rest of them would follow. With just under two hours to go Dean and Sergei, both of whom had slept reasonably well, moved into the area where their space suits were hanging to dress in readiness for the spacewalk and for checking of the huge number of squares that they had placed there several hours earlier.
Approximately one hundred and fifty miles above mission control the space station was a hive of activity and the space walks commenced and the physical loading of the squares into the delivery mechanism to be parked in front of the lasers was being double-checked. The lasers themselves were powered up partially from solar power but also from fully charged batteries that had been shipped into orbit the day before.
As far as Dean was concerned, not having resided at the International Space Station when they carried out the initial test it was very bizarre because the lasers were being pointed into a region of space where there was nothing, and certainly well away from the Moon, such that they had to completely rely on Earth to dictate just where the lasers should be directed. Fortunately, the experts who built the laser guns had allowed manoeuvrability so they could track precisely the movement of the asteroid relative to that of the space station.
Slowly and in accordance with the instructions they had received the two astronauts did their perambulations and with half an hour to go they were satisfied that they had done as much as they could. Dean had been to the International Space Station before so was familiar with the magnificent view of Earth which went from night to daytime approximately every two hours, but he was again so thrilled to see the wonderful colours, and like Sergei he loved the polar lights as they flew over them.
Sergei started to hum an old Russian folk tune and in response Dean sang a country and western song which had become very popular and they both laughed but it was useful for them to do this because of the alleviation of stress. The controllers on the ground also smiled because they could hear the awful toneless noises and in any case all parties knew of the seriousness of what was about to commence, and grim humour never went amiss.
Eventually Brandi appeared with Joseph in the melee of people in the anteroom to the main mission control theatre and she looked around for Jackson, whom she saw it last. She went over and grabbed him by the arm at which point he detached himself from talking to a senior general from the Pentagon and went with her to speak in private.
“We’ve discovered several chemicals in the destroyed squares which are not part of the formula,” she said to Jackson, adding: “It looks like some of them have been tampered with.”
Jackson thought carefully and then nodded to the love of his life and they went back to join the throng.
Standing in the corner of the room drinking a cup of coffee was Deng Qui, who had an inscrutable expression which skilfully hid his true feelings. He kept a close eye on the General and he could see him now accompanied by Dr Kovach, and he saw something in each of their faces that was new to him. There was no sign of Joseph Stonehouse, who he assumed was already in the control room making sure that the software and controller would be ready to deliver the coup de grace to the asteroid. Nevertheless, Deng’s suspicions had risen, and his mind raced ahead, and he swiftly concluded that they had discovered problems with some of the squares.
“Well, so what if they had, it’s too late to do anything about it anyway,” he thought, but he was also aware that the chemicals in the white grains would be identified and there was a distinct possibility that their origin would be traced.
Thomas Mulvaney’s voice was heard over the speaker system, inviting the dignitaries to assemble in the viewing room. He reminded the audience that once the squares had been fired towards the asteroid, there would be delay of approximately one and a quarter-hours whilst the signal was sent to Judgement and a response could be received back given the distance the signal needed for the round trip. Only then would it be known if the first three batches of squares had survived the journey. A signal would be awaited from the asteroid to confirm that the squares, or at least some of them, had survived, at which point the remaining squares would be systematically fired, a process that would take approximately two hours at least. At each point, the laser direction would be minutely adjusted in accordance with celestial movement and that of the International Space Station.
