“Roger,” Valerie said. She entered commands into her keyboard. “Henry, Christine, get ready to do your thing.”
“Yes, ma’am!” Henry Lathrop said. He and terrestrial-weapons officer, Christine Rayhill, were at their stations in their oxygen masks, running checklists. A few minutes later, the command monitor switched from an overhead still satellite image of the rectenna to a live image from Armstrong Space Station, clearly showing the large, dark, circular device all by itself in the New Mexico desert. “Combat is locked on to target,” Rayhill said. “No other secondary sensors available except the Project Starfire cameras.”
“We want this one right on the mark, Christine,” Valerie said. “Use everything you got.”
It was very close. After several faults were discovered and corrected, and about thirty seconds after the station had passed above the rectenna’s horizon, they heard, “Operations, Engineering, link established and tested. You have power, and the feed levels are programmed. Engineering has switched MHD control to Operations and is ready.”
“Roger,” Valerie said. “Command, permission to switch Starfire control to Combat.”
“Verify that Skybolt is cold, Valerie,” Kai ordered.
After a few moments, Valerie replied, “Verified, sir. Skybolt is cold.”
“Switch Starfire fire control to Combat, Valerie,” Kai said. He looked over at Brad and Casey. “Release authorized. Good luck, guys,” he added.
“Combat, you have control,” Valerie said after entering instructions into her computer.
“Roger, Combat has control. Starfire, how’s it look?”
“Everything is go, Armstrong, except for the capacitor discharge subsystem, and it has been deactivated,” Jodie said, nervously twisting her long blond hair. “Starfire is ready.”
“Roger that, Starfire. Good luck.” Rayhill entered a command. “Starfire is alive, guys.”
Absolutely nothing changed either on Armstrong Space Station or at the lab at Cal Poly for several long, tense moments. The only indication of anything happening was the suddenly excited face of Jerry Kim as he checked his readouts: “Rectenna receiving power, Control!” he shouted. “Point two . . . point four . . . point five . . . it is working, guys, it is working!” The control center at Cal Poly erupted into cheers and applause, and Brad and Casey almost flung themselves into an uncontrollable spin as they tried to hug each other.
“Microwave cavity is getting warmer, but it should still be within limits by the time we shut it down,” Jodie said. “Reflectors, collimators, and beam control temps are higher but still in the green. Engineering?”
“Everything is in the green, Starfire,” Alice reported. “We’ll hit the yellow temperature range in about three minutes.”
“One megawatt!” Jerry shouted a little more than a minute later. He was jumping around for joy on camera so much they could not see his face. “We have just received one megawatt of power from Starfire! The rectennas are right on their temperature curves—they should reach their yellow line in four minutes. Jodie, you did it! The rate of conversion is well past what we predicted! We could possibly get two megawatts before we hit the temperature limit! We could even—”
“I’ve received a warning from White Sands range control, guys,” Valerie announced. “Unauthorized aircraft entering the range. Shut Starfire down, Combat. Engineering, secure the MHD and reactor.”
“Roger,” Henry said. His finger was already on the “kill button,” and he entered the command instantly. “Nose is cold, crew.”
“Starfire is off-line,” Alice said. “MHD spinning down. Reactor is secure. Everything is in the green.”
“Congratulations, guys,” Kai said, removing his oxygen mask. “You pulled it off. You shot electrical power from space to Earth.” On intercom he said, “All personnel, this is the director, you may secure from MHD stations. Join me in extending congratulations to the entire Starfire team for a successful test firing.” Applause broke out in the command module.
“We couldn’t have done it without you and everybody on station, sir,” Brad said after removing his oxygen mask. He hugged Casey again. “It worked, Casey. Your microwave generator worked!”
“Our microwave generator,” Casey said. “Our Starfire! It worked! It worked!” And to celebrate further, she pulled out her barf bag and threw up in it.