“What can you do with it?” the president asked.
Lathrop gulped, a bit of panic in his eyes now that he had to answer a direct question from the president of the United States. But he was in his element, and he recovered quicker than before: “We can defend ourselves from space debris out to a range of about fifty miles,” Lathrop said. “We also use it to break up larger pieces of debris—the smaller the debris, the less danger it is to other spacecraft.”
“And can you use the laser to protect the station from other spacecraft?”
“Yes, sir,” Lathrop said. “We have radar and infrared sensors that can see oncoming spacecraft or debris out to a range of about five hundred miles, and we can tie into other military or civilian space sensors.” He pointed to a computer monitor. “The system is now on automatic, which means the COIL will automatically fire if the sensors detect a threat meeting certain parameters. We set it to manual as you were arriving, of course.”
“Thank you for that, Mr. Lathrop,” the president said. “So the laser can protect the station and break up space debris, but that’s all? Didn’t you once have the capability of attacking targets on Earth?”
“Yes, sir, we did,” Lathrop said. “The Skybolt laser was powerful enough to destroy light targets such as vehicles and planes, and disable or damage heavier targets such as ships. The Kingfisher weapon garages held guided kinetic payloads that could attack spacecraft or ballistic missiles, and also precision-guided projectiles that could reenter Earth’s atmosphere to attack targets on the ground or at sea.”
“Do we still have those Kingfisher garages? I know President Gardner was not in favor of them—he used them more as bargaining chips with the Russians and Chinese.”
“President Gardner allowed seven of the garages to reenter Earth’s atmosphere and burn up,” Lathrop said. “Another thirteen garages were retrieved and are stored on station’s truss. Ten garages are still in orbit but are inactive. They are periodically retrieved, refueled, serviced, and placed back into orbit by the spaceplanes so we can study their long-term effectiveness and make design changes, but they are not active at this time.”
“The COIL laser is different than Vice President Page’s laser?” Phoenix asked.
“Yes, sir, it is. We are prohibited from using any weapons with a range of more than approximately sixty miles, and Skybolt, the free-electron laser, can attack targets in Earth’s atmosphere and on the surface out to a range of about five hundred miles, so it’s currently inactivated.”
“Inactivated?”
“Not active, but capable of being activated if necessary,” Raydon said.
“In fairly short order?” the president asked.
“Henry?” Kai asked.
“We would need some expertise from Sky Masters or other contractors,” Lathrop said, “and a few days to bring the MHD’s reactor online.”
“And an order from you, sir,” Raydon added. “Controversy over Skybolt nearly cost us the entire military space program.”
“I remember very well,” Phoenix said. “I aim to fix that. Please continue, Mr. Lathrop.”
“The COIL uses a mixture of chemicals to produce laser light, which is then magnified and focused,” Lathrop went on. “We use different optics than the Skybolt free-electron laser to focus and steer the laser beam, but the process is very similar. We use radar and infrared sensors to continually scan around station for objects that might be a hazard—we can detect and engage objects as small as a golf ball. The COIL has a normal maximum range of three hundred miles, but we’ve detuned the laser by eliminating some of the reflectors that increase laser power, so we’re right at the legal limit.”
“Can you show me how the sensors work?” the president asked. “Perhaps do a mock attack on an Earth target?”
Lathrop looked panicked again, and he turned to Raydon, who nodded. “Show the president how it’s done, Henry,” he said.
“Yes, sir,” Lathrop said, the excitement quickly growing on his face. His fingers flew over a keyboard on his console. “We occasionally do attack drills on a series of targets that are continually tracked and are prioritized.” The largest computer monitor came to life. It showed a large area of the earth with the space station’s track and position approaching the North Pole from eastern Siberia. There was a series of circles around several spots in Russia.
“What are those circles, Mr. Lathrop?” the president asked.
“We call them ‘Delta Bravos,’ or duck blinds,” Lathrop replied. “Locations of known antisatellite weapons. The circles are the approximate radius of action of the weapons there.”