Crow's Gambit, page 16
part #1 of Sylphan Revelations Series
“Miss Cassie McIntyre allow me to introduce Mr. Nathaniel Hodson.”
Hodson tilted his head down with a frown.
“Sorry, Mr. Nathaniel Hodson... Esquire,” Neil corrected.
The man stood formally to hold out his hand. “Miss McIntyre. A pleasure to make your acquaintance.” She shook his hand and he returned to his seat. Two seconds passed before he raised his eyebrows in an exaggerated expression, “Well? I’m terribly busy. Was there something you needed?”
Neil mumbled something under his breath and then said, “Mr. Darrow would like you to brief Cassie, Miss McIntyre, on Project Icarus.”
Hodson made a harrumphing sound. “That is a highly restricted project, as you well know, Mr. Larson.”
Neil reached over and held up Cassie’s security badge near his face.
“Ah, very well then. That will be all. Your presence is no longer required. I will send Miss McIntyre back to you when I’m sure she understands the information.”
Neil looked at her and mouthed “good luck” before he stood and left the office.
After the door shut, Mr. Hodson sat quietly looking over his glasses and down his nose at Cassie. Finally, he pushed up his glasses and pressed his hands flat on the desk in front of him.
“What is your area of expertise, Miss McIntyre?” The way he put the emphasis on the “m” in Miss and dragged out the “s” sound was oddly annoying to her.
“Coffee,” she replied. “I also make a decent sandwich. Although opinions seem to vary.” It seemed petty after she said it, but it was hard to resist trying to get a reaction from him. The expression he gave her could be put in the dictionary to help define what ‘unamused’ meant. “I’m a pilot,” she finally said.
He made the harrumphing noise again.
“Well, we’ll see about that. Can I assume you have no previous knowledge of my work here or Project Icarus?” She nodded but he continued to stare at her waiting for a reply.
“No. I do not know what you do for Project Icarus.”
“There. Was that so hard?”
It occurred to her Mr. Hodson reminded her of a certain professor she had had in the university. He had started the first class by pointing out how much he hated teaching undergraduates.
“Crow Research was commissioned two years ago by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Senate to undertake Project Icarus. The goal is to collect, analyze, and correlate all data concerning Sylph strikes on aerial objects.”
“For what purpose?”
“An intelligent question, Miss McIntyre. The purpose is to determine the operational parameters for a cruise missile or drone that will help it avoid being targeted by the Sylph.”
“That’s simple. Don’t go too fast. Don’t go too high. Don’t make the missile too big.”
“Yes, that sounds eminently ‘simple’ Miss McIntyre. However, the equations are quite complex, and the uncertainties are exceptionally large. When lives are on the line, a fifty-fifty chance that a mission will be successful is not acceptable. Also, what if you want to go faster, or higher, or use a larger missile?”
This time she didn’t volunteer a quick answer because there wasn’t one.
Mr. Hodson paused and when she didn’t say anything continued. “You find the gaps in the Sylph target identification process and exploit them.”
Now, he had her attention.
For the next four hours, he explained his research detail by detail. They looked at research papers, Department of Defense classified briefings, interviews with pilots on Net-Day, and extensive statistics on drone flights. He had made several key conclusions and had the data grouped to support each. Most of the time she just listened. Occasionally she would ask a clarifying question, but she figured out early he liked to hear his own voice more than hers. The piece that was unfinished in the whole thing was the final recommendations section.
“It is a very impressive piece of work, Mr. Hodson.”
He acknowledged her compliment with a simple nod.
“Have you drafted any recommendations yet?”
His expression soured.
“I have drafted some, yes. Unfortunately, they have not sufficiently addressed the purpose of the study.” It looked like he was struggling with some inner conflict. “I have been unable to determine the missing link, as it were.”
Cassie realized she was curious about his conclusions. As a barnstormer she was always looking for an angle or way to get just a little bit farther a little bit faster and not get the drone blown up in the process.
Call it professional curiosity, but maybe he had found something she could use. She thought silently for a second of the best way to phrase her next comment. A little ego stroking was in order.
“Perhaps a fresh perspective might prove useful. I would be happy to offer some suggestions based on my experience as a drone pilot. I’m sure my recommendations will not be up to the standard of your work, but maybe they will open up some new avenues of thought for you.”
He looked at her coolly and suspiciously for several seconds. “Yes, I believe that would be useful.”
Mr. Hodson stood, and she realized their meeting was over and he was ushering her out the door. “I will provide access to my research documentation on the internal network for your further education. If you have any thoughts, you can submit them electronically to me directly. Please organize them following the headings I have already established.”
And with that she was back in the hallway, the office door shutting behind her.
She returned to the team’s area in the Crow Works section and opened a data connection to Hodson’s work. Over the next several hours she delved into the data. There was one theory he had proposed she kept coming back to.
It was still in draft form in the report Hodson had shown her. He didn’t trust his conclusion or didn’t know what to do with it yet. Everybody, at least everybody Cassie knew, operated under the triad principle. This principle stated the Sylph targeting was based on a combination of mass, height, and velocity. Hodson had theorized a fourth factor be added, acceleration. She found that idea very intriguing.
The other interesting fact in the file concerned the Earth satellites in low orbit. He had done a careful analysis of their destruction. Everyone knew a few of the much higher geosynchronous satellites had not been destroyed but it was widely believed all the lower LEO satellites had been wiped out quickly and completely. The information in the report indicated they weren’t all destroyed quickly. In fact, some of them went unmolested for months before finally being targeted.
She made coffee and continued working through the night slowly losing track of time. At some point she started doodling ideas on paper notepads. By the time the sun had started to brighten the sky outside, she had filled several pages with notes and sketches.
Using the number Neil had given her she called him excitedly. An hour later, she was waiting at the main security entrance when he arrived. His eyes were slightly bloodshot, and he was holding two cups of coffee in his hands.
“What is so important you had to call me at the crack of dawn to tell me you needed to see me?” He handed her one of the coffee cups. “I’m not sure I should give that to you. You look a little hyper already.”
“Look, I’ve got a theory, but I need help to test it. I need access to data and some serious computing time. Someone who knows how to use the computing time would also be useful actually.” She was talking a little fast, but chalked it up to excitement, not caffeine.
Neil pressed a finger to his lips and motioned her into an empty conference room down the hall. “This part of the building isn’t secured to talk about Icarus. Someone could be listening.” He took out a small box and laid it down on the table. When he activated it, she noticed a low hiss in the background. It reminded her of the white noise you got when you tuned the radio to a channel that wasn’t there. “Give me the high points, fast.”
“You’re afraid of being spied on inside the building?”
Neil just raised his eyebrows and took a sip of his coffee.
“That little box will stop eavesdropping?”
“Mostly, but it also raises a red flag to anyone listening. So once again, give me the high points. Quickly.”
“The data Mr. Hodson showed to me gave me an idea. I think the Sylph spheres operate under a radius of exclusion.”
“That’s an old theory. It’s why there are still a few geosynchronous satellites left.”
“No, I don’t mean just the GEOs. I think the same thing applies to the LEOs. The only reason they were destroyed was they eventually got too close to a sphere.”
Neil took a long sip of coffee. “And what good does that knowledge do us? The LEOs are already gone.”
“They’re all gone now yes,” Cassie replied. “But on Net-Day they were still here. If we can simulate their paths until they were destroyed, I think we can determine the exclusion distance and find a way to maneuver in low orbit that keeps the Sylph from blowing us up. Well, right away at least.”
Neil stopped mid-sip and slowly set the cup down on the table. “Like mapping the shoals and reefs on the ocean so you can avoid them? That’s an interesting idea, but to really make it work you’d need to know where the Sylph spheres are now.”
“I was hoping there was a way to determine that from the pattern of satellite destructions.” Her voice was hesitant and questioning.
Neil pulled out a phone and dialed. After a second a voice answered. “It’s time we showed her Merlin,” Neil said into the phone. “Yes, I’m sure. All right, ten minutes.”
He slipped the phone back into his pocket and took a sip of his coffee. “I have a better idea. There’s something we need to show you.” His face twisted into a smile. “I think you’re going to enjoy this.”
Chapter 26
DARROW WAS WAITING for them when they got to the conference room from yesterday. “I understand it’s time to introduce you to Merlin.” He touched a control on the table. The glass wall gradually darkened, and a portion of the tabletop lit up. The entire table was a display panel. A schematic representation of a device appeared, floating above the surface. It slowly rotated and then changed into an image of the actual object.
“This is Merlin. It was the last space probe launched by NASA before the arrival of the Sylph.” The image changed to an animation showing the probe sweep out from Earth and into the solar system. “When the U.S. government reorganized and eliminated funding for space exploration the Merlin mission was cancelled. The probe was put into safe mode and abandoned.”
“Until we gave it a new mission,” Neil offered from the back. The animation changed and showed Merlin swinging back toward Earth. It went into an orbit around Earth but well beyond the line of the Sylph and Earth’s remaining geosynchronous satellites.
“This is the probe you worked on, right?” She looked over to Neil.
He nodded.
“Let me get this straight, you stole a NASA probe?” she asked incredulously.
“Hijacked,” answered Neil.
“Salvaged,” corrected Darrow. “By the laws of maritime salvage, it was an intentionally abandoned craft we recovered.”
“That’s what the lawyers tell him to say,” Neil explained. “They even made us take down the skull and crossbones flag in the control room.”
“Other than the fun of pirating a space probe, what exactly do you need with one?”
“She fits in perfectly around here, doesn’t she?” Neil laughed.
“Why we’ve been having her spy on the Sylph, of course,” Darrow said with a smile.
Cassie looked from one to the other. It came to her quickly. From Earth it was almost impossible to spot a Sylph sphere. They hardly reflected or emitted any electromagnetic radiation. Their surfaces were blackbodies. With the dark of space behind them and their small size there wasn’t much to see. But...
“You’re using the Earth to back light them. They should cast a shadow or silhouette. Something. Unless they have some kind of advanced Sylph cloaking shield that compensates for that.”
“No, there’s no active cloaking device. They’re simply hard to see.” Darrow pressed a few controls and the image on the table changed to a silhouetted black sphere. “We still only get good resolution at the edge, but we’ve been watching them for a while now. When we superimpose the information, we have gathered over time we get...”
The image changed to a detailed schematic of a sphere. Darrow swept his hand over the image and it sprang out of the table. A three-dimensional image of the sphere hung in the air in front of her.
The sphere didn’t have any large protuberances. No antennae, solar panels, engine nozzles, or sensor booms. However, its surface wasn’t perfectly smooth either. There were small indentations across its surface. It looked like they were all rectangles of varying depths and orientations.
“Do you know what any of those things on the surface are?” Cassie leaned closer to the image to look at one of the rectangles. “Are they thrusters?”
Neil stood up and walked over to the table. “We don’t think so. We’ve never observed any kind of exhaust or energy emission when a sphere maneuvers. But some of them do seem to play a role in focusing the weapons.”
“What’s the scale on this? How big are they?”
“They have an average diameter of about three meters. Just over ten feet,” Darrow replied.
“All of the spheres are identical as far as you can tell?”
“Yes and no,” Darrow answered. “Their size varies by a few centimeters and the pattern of those indentations changes slightly. Otherwise they are all the same.”
“Really? I always thought they were bigger. How can they generate the power for their weapons systems in a volume so small?”
“We don’t know.” Neil leaned over and pressed a few controls. The image shifted to show a blurry internal structure. “We still know next to nothing about what’s inside them. What you’re seeing here is all we know about the inside. It was pieced together with data from the Department of Defense after they hit them with the nukes. Once their outer surfaces are breached that blackbody stealth effect breaks down. The particle emissions from the nuclear blasts passed right through them. Just like getting an x-ray at the doctor’s office.”
“So, they aren’t actually indestructible?”
“Actually, they were surprisingly easy to destroy,” Neil’s voice had an odd tone to it.
“The combined nuclear counterstrikes took out a large number of them,” Darrow added. “Any that were inside of a primary blast radius were destroyed or disabled.”
“They don’t have to be tough. They’re expendable. They just make more to replace what’s lost.” Neil stood and slid open a concealed panel in the back wall. Behind it there was a small wet bar. He started to pour himself a drink as he answered. “That’s what the American and Russian militaries concluded. They hoped to find some pieces of the damaged spheres to study after they fell to Earth. Nothing ever made it through reentry. They just burned up completely.” He came back over and sat down with a whiskey on ice.
Cassie glanced at Darrow to see what his reaction to Neil’s choice of drink would be, but he didn’t appear to take notice.
“If they are that easy to destroy, why didn’t they just nuke the rest of them?”
Darrow slid his hands over the table controls. The projected image changed to the Earth. Tiny black dots swarmed around it like insects. The sky was filled with them.
“This is a pretty close estimate of how many spheres there are. The ones in the upper orbits are geostationary but the lower ones move constantly. We’ve done our best to keep track of them using Merlin.” Darrow leaned back in his chair watching the dots spin around the planet.
“So, there’s a lot of them.”
“Even if they had enough rockets recalibrated to hit orbiting targets...” Darrow began.
“Which they didn’t,” Neil interjected.
“...there were two problems. The spheres get replaced so quickly you would have to hit all of them at once. That many high-altitude nuclear explosions would have wreaked havoc on the planet’s environment with long term health consequences to large segments of the population.”
“The first strikes did enough damage.” Neil added. “The Van Allen radiation belts were a mess for years. That’s why the Northern Lights make such impressive shows now.”
Cassie remembered how spectacular they still were in Minnesota. Some nights you could even see them through the city lights.
“And the second problem...” Darrow started.
“Since we don’t know where the spheres come from, there was no guarantee they wouldn’t just get replaced the next day,” Cassie finished for him.
“Exactly.”
Cassie paced the length of the conference room in thought. “Don’t get me wrong, this is all fascinating. What I don’t understand is how it helps you or me. You still can’t track them from Earth. You don’t know what their propulsion system is based on or how they generate so much power. Unless you’ve found an off switch, you haven’t shown me how the XS-9 isn’t going to get toasted after takeoff.”
“All true,” Neil observed. “But what we do have is a rough approximation of how many spheres there are and what orbits they are in.”
A smile of understanding slowly spread on Cassie’s face.
“That should help you with determining your exclusion zones for the spheres, shouldn’t it?”
“It would,” Cassie replied, not even trying to hide her excitement.
Neil stood. “You’ll need a programmer to help you and I think I have the perfect person.”
Whoa. This could really work. Cassie wasn’t positive what emotion she was feeling. Panic?
Chapter 27
FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER, Neil was leading her to a second-floor office in the Crow Works secured side of the building. The name plate on the door was empty. Neil swiped his security card and opened the door.
The office was a mess. It looked like someone was in the middle of moving in or out. Boxes of books were stacked up around the floor. A couple were open and had books scattered around them, as if someone had been looking for something. Instead of a normal desk a round desk sat in the middle. Monitors, keyboards, and cables covered its surface. Several blinking workstation computers sat under it.
