“But because we’re shooting at such a great distance, traveling hundreds of miles a minute, for even greater accuracy we can tie into any other sensors that happen to be in the area at the same time,” Kai went on. “USA-234 is a U.S. Air Force radar-imaging satellite that takes radar pictures and transmits them to the National Reconnaissance Office in Washington. We are lucky enough to be a user of the images, so we can request that the satellite focus in on that particular target. We can merge the satellite’s images with our own to get a more accurate look at the target.”
Lathrop entered more commands, and on a large monitor to the left of the main monitor there appeared an overhead still photograph of the simulated target, a remote radar site with a large radome in the center, several communications pointed in different directions, and several long, low buildings surrounding the radome. “This is what it looks like in a recent overhead photo,” he said. A few moments later the photo disappeared and was replaced by a different image, this one showing a dot surrounded by an H-shaped box against a mostly black background. “This is the radar image from the reconnaissance satellite. The background is black because snow doesn’t reflect radar energy very well, but the buildings show up nicely.”
“Operations, Engineering, MHD is at simulated fifty percent,” Alice reported.
“Roger, Engineering,” Valerie said. “Combat, this is Operations, we’re at fifty percent, simulate open Skybolt engagement circuits, weapons tight, prepare to engage.”
“Roger, Operations, simulating opening Skybolt engagement circuits, weapons tight.”
Another few moments later the image changed again, and this one looked very much like the photograph they saw, with an occasional cloud drifting across the image. Lathrop used a trackball to precisely center the image on the screen. “And this is with station’s telescopic electro-optical sensors added to the radar image,” he said. “Operation, this is Combat, positive identification on simulated target Golf Seven, tracking established, we’re locked on and ready.”
“Roger, Combat,” Valerie said. “Command, Operations, we’re locked on. MHD status?”
“MHD at one hundred percent in ten seconds.”
“Roger,” Valerie acknowledged. “Request permission to simulate transferring Skybolt to Combat and engage.”
“This is Command,” Raydon said. “You are cleared to transfer Skybolt control to Combat and simulate engage target. Attention on station, this is the director, we are simulate engaging terrestrial target with Skybolt.”
“Roger, Command, Operations acknowledges we are cleared simulate engage target. Combat, Operations, Skybolt is cleared to simulate engage, weapons simulate released.”
“Roger, Ops, weapons simulate released.” Lathrop pressed a single key on his keyboard, then looked up. “That’s it, Mr. President,” he said. “The system will wait for the optimal time to fire and then keep firing until it detects that the target is destroyed or until we drop below the target’s horizon. There are actually two lasers involved other than the main laser: the first measures the atmosphere and issues corrections to the mirror to correct for atmospheric conditions that might degrade the laser beam; and the second tracks the target as station flies past and helps to focus and precisely aim the main beam.”
“Thank you, Henry,” Kai said. Lathrop looked exceedingly relieved to return to his console after nervously shaking the president’s hand. “As you can see, Mr. President, only one tactical crew station is manned, because our Kingfisher weapon garages have not been reactivated. But if they were, the sensor fusion operators detect, analyze, and classify any threats they see, and those threats appear on these four monitors, used by myself; Valerie, my chief of combat operations; the aerospace tactical-weapons officer, and the terrestrial-weapons officer. We can then respond with our own space-based weapons, or direct Earth-based ground, naval, or air responses.”
“What are the Kingfisher weapon garages?” the president asked. “I remember President Gardner was not fond of them.”
“The Kingfisher weapon system is a series of spacecraft that we call ‘garages,’ in low Earth orbit,” Kai said. “The garages are controlled from here and can also be controlled from U.S. Space Command headquarters on Earth. The garages have their own sensors, thrusters, and control systems, and they can be programmed to dock with station for refueling and rearming. Each garage carries three antisatellite- or antiballistic-missile weapons and three Earth-attack precision-guided weapons.”
“I remember Gardner really hating those things,” the president remarked. “When that one attack missed and took out that factory, I thought he was going to kill someone.”
“Well, President Gardner didn’t cancel the program, just put it in mothballs,” Kai said. “A full-up Kingfisher constellation has thirty-six Trinity garages in orbit, so that every part of Earth has at least three garages overhead at any moment, similar to the GPS navigation system. It’s all controlled right from here, or from U.S. Strategic Command headquarters.”