Ephialtes (Ephialtes Trilogy Book 1) (37 page)

“Fifteen
seconds,” said Baldwin.

“I have some
late minor adjustments to trajectory here,” said Walton.  “Looking good.”

“Ten
seconds.”

Kostovich
could see the green-blue blip and the red blips almost touching.

“Five seconds,
all systems normal.”

They all
lifted their heads from their individual terminals to look at the large display
in front of the consoles.  The green blue blip was now joined by the red
blips.  As they looked, the red blips disappeared.  A solitary green
blip continued its journey toward the left side of the screen.

Walton looked
back down to her console.  “I have two successful detonations, final
telemetry from both missiles suggests successful detonations three hundred
metres from the target as planned.”

“Data feed
from the target has dried up,” said Baldwin.

“This is
good,” said Kostovich.  “Exactly like the simulations.  Good work
people.  Shall we go for a cup of tea while we wait for her to come round
again?”

They
reconvened half an hour later to go through the same process again.  They
waited for
Ares-H 17
to come back around.  This time
they fired standard explosive missiles.  Not wanting to destroy the
satellite, but needing to test the accuracy of their system, they had set the
missiles to detonate at a distance from
Ares-H 17
such that
they would be able to knock it very slightly out of its path of orbit.

Red dots and
green dots once again converged on the screen and again the green dot continued
on its path.

“I’m
analysing the trajectory of
Ares-H 17
in comparison to the
previous orbits,” said Baldwin.

“Missile
telemetry indicates successful detonation in the selected areas,” said
Walton.  “Four for four,” she added, and Kostovich grinned.

“How’s that
trajectory data coming?” he said to Baldwin.

“I need a
little longer,” Baldwin replied.  “We’ve given her such a tiny jog I need
her to travel a bit further before I can see if we’ve made a difference,” he
said.

Kostovich,
having been through this experience many times in the simulations, knew this
would be the case.  But he was enjoying the novelty of working closely
with other people and asking them questions, especially when he knew what the
answers should be.

“Okay,” said
Baldwin.  “Her orbit has definitely changed.  We gave her a shove.”

“That is
compatible with my data from the missiles and what I would have expected,” said
Walton.

Kostovich
nodded, “That’s exactly right.  We just tickled a satellite moving at more
than seven kilometres per second, precisely how and where we wanted to.  I
think we can call this second test a success.  Not only can we place our
missiles on a postage stamp, we can place them on a postage stamp that’s going
really fast.  Well done everyone.  Is it too soon for more tea?”

They had each
viewed the previous tests as routine.  The systems had been well tested in
simulation and were based on systems that had had many practical tests on
Earth.  The final test would be the first time that any of them had ever
detonated a nuclear bomb.  They viewed it as somewhat exceptional.

Kostovich had
all the data he needed now, from the simulations and the earlier practical
tests, to demonstrate that the missile guidance systems were extremely accurate
and reliable.  A nuclear weapon, being something of a blunt tool, did not rely
as the previous two types of missile did on accuracy.  The test here was
simply to see if the thing would detonate as planned.

When
Ares-H 17
came around for the final time she might well have expected to have
continued travelling on her way unmolested.  She had been spinning around
Mars for many years and had made the journey hundreds of thousands of
times.  Why should she expect this time to be any different?  Maybe
she had been tipped off by the odd occurrences on the last two journeys, packed
with more incident than the previous thousands.  First, she had been
stripped of her senses and then, adding insult to injury, she had been most
rudely shoved.  Surely things couldn’t get any worse.

When she was
fifteen hundred kilometres off from
Parry 5
Kostovich went through
the same routine with Baldwin and Walton.  He asked them to feed him data
on the well-being of his missiles and the trajectory of the doomed
satellite.  Baldwin and Walton were well rehearsed from the many
simulations they had taken part in.

“Arm the
warhead,” said Kostovich.

“The warhead
is armed,” said Walton.

“Twelve
hundred kilometres,” said Baldwin.

“Prepare to
launch missile,” said Kostovich.

“Missile is
prepped and ready,” said Walton.

“Once again,
launch at a thousand kilometres,” said Kostovich.

Walton looked
at her screen, timing the launch to perfection.  “Missile away,” she said.

“Missile is
on track and on speed,” said Baldwin.

“Telemetry is
A-okay
,” said Walton.

“We can
expect detonation in thirty seconds,” said Baldwin.

Kostovich had
set the nuclear missile to detonate five hundred metres in front of
Ares-H 17
. 
The satellite would be within the blast radius and travelling at speed towards
the centre of it.

“Fifteen
seconds,” said Baldwin.  “Looking good.”

“Telemetry is
good,” said Walton.

“I’m patching
a visual through to the main display,” said Kostovich.  The display showed
the curve of the Martian horizon with the blackness of space beyond.  He
hadn’t bothered with visuals for the previous two tests because, due to the
great distance of his monitoring satellite, there would have been nothing to
see.

“Five
seconds,” said Baldwin.

They looked
at the main screen and waited.  There was a tiny flash, almost like a
glitch on the video feed, followed by a small orange blossoming over the
Martian horizon.

“Successful
detonation,” said Walton.

“I concur,”
said Baldwin.

“I concur,
too,” said Kostovich.  “Did you see that?  We got it, three for
three.  The system is good, the test is successful.  Let’s set some
AIs running through the data and go home.”

Kostovich
sent Walton and Baldwin home.  He had a cursory look through the data but
he knew it was good.  He’d seen the same data many times before in his
computer models, but he set his AIs to it for a deep analysis.  He was
aware that this was a vaguely historic event, so he needed to be
thorough.  Before he left for the night he put a private call through to
Charles Venkdt.

Venkdt was in
a bathrobe, getting ready for bed.  He took the call anyway.

“Hi Charles,
I just thought you’d like to know that we’ve just put
Parry 5
through
her paces and she is looking really good.”

“That’s good
to know, Dan.”

“We did three
sets of tests, EMP, chemical explosive and nuclear.  I haven’t got the
deep analysis of the data back yet but it all looks fantastic, exactly like the
simulations, exactly what we were expecting.  No surprises.  The
level of protection afforded by an orbiting system is far superior to what we
have on the ground.  I’d say that we now have an exceptionally effective
defensive system in place.”

“Well, Dan,
all I can say is thank you.  And so quick!  How do you do it?”

“In this
case, Charles, I did it mostly by stealing the designs from someone else, but
what the hell.  We’re covered.  And I’ve got uniforms and weapons to
Foveaux, too.  The MSS actually looks like a military force now. 
We’re looking at getting battlefield artillery and armoured transports to them
within the next couple of weeks.  We have an army worthy of the name.”

“We do,
Dan.  You’ve worked miracles, I can’t thank you enough.”

“I’m just
glad to have played a role,” said Kostovich.  “These are historic times
aren’t they?  I’ve always fancied having my name in the history books.”

“I’m sure
you’ll get that,” said Venkdt.

“Okay, good
night then,” said Kostovich.  “And remember, the reason you can sleep
safely in your bed is because of people like me manning the barricades, forever
looking into the dark night and protecting the citizens of Mars.”

“You’re full
of shit, Kostovich, good night to you too.”

“I am full of
shit, sir, goodnight.”

Kostovich
hung up, and found it difficult to wipe the smile off his face.

Colleen
Acevedo requested an urgent meeting with Andrews.  In light of her
previous work Andrews found time to meet with her.

Acevedo
entered the office with a sheaf of papers clutched in her hands.  “I’ve
sent you copies,” she said as she walked towards Andrews’ desk.  “Did you
get chance to take a look?”

“Very
briefly.  What was I looking at?”

Acevedo
pulled a chair round and sat beside Andrews.  She fanned the papers out on
the desk.  “It’s a report on Martian defence capability.”

“Okay.”

“As you
know - it’s not really much of a secret around here - the
Martians have been building missile defences around Marineris.”

“Yes.”

“They’ve done
it quickly, so we don’t know how robust they might be.  Anyway, they have
the whole city covered from the ground.  We’ve figured that into our
attack scenarios.  The commanders and dropships all have countermeasures,
and the new scenarios prioritise the neutralization of the missile bases.”

“This is all
known to us already, right?”

“Right, but
this is something new.  Or it looks like something new.”

“What is it?”

“We picked
this up from one of our Martian surveillance satellites.  It’s the trace
of a weak electromagnetic pulse.”

“So what does
that tell us?”

“The EMP
coincides exactly with an old communications satellite going dark.”

“Go on.”

“There was
some more activity after the pulse, most likely missiles in the same area, and
then about an hour after that there was a limited nuclear explosion.”

“And you
think this is from the missile bases?”

“No, it’s
not,
it’s
way out of their range.  We think it
can only be from an orbiting missile base.  And the satellite they
attacked was, until recently, one of ours”

“Ours?”

“It was a
USAN secure coms relay.  So you see, they have a weapons platform in
space, and they’re targeting our satellites.”

“They’re
taking out our satellites.  You’re sure of that?”

“It would
appear to be the case.”

“What can we
do about it?”

“At the
moment, nothing.  But I’d like to recommend that if we’re sending a
warship into that vicinity then taking out that platform is an essential
prerequisite.”

“Yes, of
course.  Thank you.”

Farrell had
high-level clearance, giving him access to military intelligence. 
He was made aware of Acevedo’s report.  The
Aloadae
were to have
been his big stick, backing up his team of negotiators.  Now it looked
more like they were headed into a potential hot zone.  He didn’t like it
one bit.  The original plan was to preen and bluster.  The
possibility of getting into an actual fight, however one-sided, had not
been given serious consideration.

Unusually,
the president had come over to the Ministry of Defence for the meeting. 
The standard practise was for the president to take meetings at the New White
House, or rarely at the Capitol.  Farrell guessed the president wanted to
look marshal, emphasising his role as commander-in-chief.  As
the nominal head of the armed forces, why wouldn’t he be at the heart of the
action?

It didn’t
bode well for Farrell’s side of the table.  Andrews had the military and
it was looking like that was the way this thing was going.  Farrell had
very few cards to play for the side of diplomacy.  In fact, if this came
down to an invasion, his department would only come into play once the smoke of
battle had cleared.  They would be charged with framing the peace, the far
more difficult task.  They had made preliminary contact with Shaw, but he
wasn’t sure how reliable she would be.  Maybe she had gone soft, out on
that cushy posting all these years and now under comfortable house
arrest.  What was house arrest on Mars, anyway?  It’s not like she
would be free to go outside at the best of times.

He would need
to ramp up their efforts to contact Anthony Karjalainen.  Anthony would be
the key to securing stability in the post insurrection Mars.  It was
something he needed to get right.  His department had done well to
anticipate the troubles as they bubbled up but they hadn’t really been
active.  All he had managed to do was provide a commentary.  He was
determined that, once order had been restored, his department would be decisive
in handling the re-established peace.  For now, all he could do was
back up Andrews.