“They were miles apart,” Hayes said. “There was no danger of collision.”
“But a miscalculation of just a few seconds and things could have been far worse,” Ann said. “Bill is right: it was a deliberate and dangerous action.”
“You mentioned something else that happened before that flyby episode, didn’t you, Fred?” the president asked. “What was it?”
“Before the Russian spaceplane flew past Armstrong Space Station, we observed it fly very close to a malfunctioning Russian satellite,” Hayes said. “While we watched, we noticed the satellite suddenly breaking apart.”
“The spaceplane attacked it? With what?”
“The preliminary data on the event was from radar images, and they did not spot any projectiles such as the Scimitar hypervelocity missiles they have used before,” Hayes said. “We’ve asked the Air Force to look back through images from the Space-Based Infrared Satellite system taken during the incident to see if they can detect a laser.”
“A laser?” the president exclaimed. “A satellite-killing laser on a spaceplane?”
“Very possible, sir,” Hayes said. “We’ve had plans for small satellite-killing lasers for a long time, as have the Russians—it’s possible they’ve mounted one in the cargo bay of an Elektron spaceplane.”
“We could sure use something like that now,” Ann said.
“We opted for the Kingfisher attack satellites, ma’am, because they could carry antisatellite, antiballistic-missile, and ground-attack weapons, whereas the laser satellites couldn’t attack targets on Earth,” Hayes said.
“Are we in agreement that the Russians at least appear to be ready, willing, and able to attack our spacecraft?” the president asked. His question was met with silence and a lot of somber faces. “I tend to agree, guys: Gryzlov is angry, and he’s psychotic, and with that Starfire test he’s seen his opportunity to push the issue of space weapons—and he could very easily have world opinion with him. He could attack one of our spaceplanes and argue that he was provoked into doing so.” He looked at the stunned faces on the videoconference screen. “Anyone think that Gryzlov is going to negotiate any of this?”
“He’s already told the world what he’s going to do,” Glenbrook said. “He’s invoked the safety of his entire nation—he’s even told his citizens to take shelter when the station flies overhead! Anything less than Skybolt becoming a meteorite would not be acceptable. He’d look weak if he started negotiating.”
“What are my military options? Fred?”
“We haven’t exhausted all our options, Mr. President,” Secretary of Defense Hayes said resolutely. “Not by a long shot. The free-electron laser aboard Armstrong Space Station and the Kingfisher weapon garages are the best options to take out the Elektron launch sites, MiG-31D bases, and S-500S antisatellite missile launchers, sir. If we deploy the entire Kingfisher constellation, we can hold every Russian antispacecraft site and spaceport at risk twenty-four/seven. The Russians have deployed the S-500 air defense weapon at their launch sites, but they can’t touch a Thor’s Hammer precision-guided projectile coming in from space at ten thousand miles an hour—and of course Skybolt flies at the speed of light. If it gets into position and lets loose, it can’t be stopped.”
The president thought about that for several moments—it was obvious he wasn’t comfortable with using the space-based weapons. “Other options, Fred?” he finally asked.
“The S-500 changes the game, sir,” Hayes said. “The only other nonnuclear options are attacks by our six remaining B-2 stealth bombers, and cruise missiles launched from our few B-1 and B-52 bombers, plus ship-launched nonnuclear cruise missiles. To attack the Russian and Chinese spaceports, it means overflying Russian and Chinese territory—our nonnuclear cruise missiles have a range of only seven hundred miles, which means we could hit a few of those S-500 sites but not the spaceports. The S-500 is capable against both stealth and subsonic low-flying cruise missiles, highly capable against B-1 bombers, and deadly to a B-52.”