“My remarks will be short and direct this morning, my fellow Russians,” President Gennadiy Gryzlov said into the camera from the television studio in the Kremlin. He wore a somber, stern expression, as if he were about to announce the death of a beloved person. “By now you should have heard about the remarks made by American presidential candidate and former secretary of state Stacy Anne Barbeau earlier today about the test firing of a directed-energy weapon from space at a target on Earth from the American military space station, and the downing of an American aircraft by the weapon. I and my ministers were horrified to hear of this. We are working to verify this information, but if it is true, these actions would be a serious threat to world peace—in fact, they are a treaty violation, a warning to the rest of the world, a provocation, and a virtual act of war.
“When we considered our options, we were concerned about creating a panic throughout Russia, and indeed the world. But we felt that we had no choice, and that is why I am speaking to you this afternoon. Moreover, we decided to act in a deliberate and immediate way to protect the lives of Russians and our friends and allies, as follows:
“First: beginning immediately, the Russian Space Defense Force will continually broadcast the predicted position of the American military space station and the potential range and azimuth of its directed-energy weapon, and give warnings of when and where the directed-energy weapon may threaten Russians, our allies, and our friends on the ground,” Gryzlov went on. “When the weapon is a threat to you, we ask that you take shelter underground or in the strongest building to which you can quickly evacuate. The exact properties of the weapon are unknown, so we do not yet know what the best shelter may be, but you may have a better chance of surviving an attack if you are indoors rather than outdoors. The threat may last as long as four minutes. You and your loved ones may be under threat from the weapon several times a day.
“Electronics may be affected by a blast from this weapon, so prepare your households and places of business to be without power for days or even weeks: stock blankets, food, and water; gather wood for a fire; and organize your neighborhoods to band together to help one another,” he went on. “If at all possible, avoid flying in aircraft, riding an elevator or electric train, or operating heavy machinery while the weapon is within the danger zone, because, as we have seen, the weapon can easily take down an aircraft and may be able to disrupt or even destroy electrical circuits.
“Second: I demand that all of the American space weapons on Armstrong Space Station be deactivated and destroyed immediately,” Gryzlov said. “This includes the Skybolt free-electron laser, the Hydra chlorine-oxygen-iodine laser, and the Kingfisher orbiting weapon garages; Starfire, the so-called college-student experiment which turned out to be in reality a microwave-laser weapon; and any other space-based weapons, their power sources, and all their components, whether or not the Americans classify them as defensive weapons only. In particular, Russia demands that the Skybolt module be separated from Armstrong Space Station within forty-eight hours, and that, when it is no longer posing a hazard to anyone or anything on Earth, it be deorbited and sent to burn up in Earth’s atmosphere or crash into the ocean. We have powerful ground sensors to detect if this is done. If it is not done, I must assume that the United States intends to continue to use the weapons, and Russia will immediately take all necessary steps to protect itself.