Launch on Need by Daniel Guiteras (small books to read txt) 📗

space to view Earth in various ways. He’d visited web sites that allowed the public to purchase satellite photos of essentially anywhere on Earth, detailed photos of your own backyard if you wanted them.

But what did it mean to have a satellite in space that could view close objects such as Atlantis? Brown wondered if a satellite that could view close objects was a secret part of the Space Surveillance Network. What better way to patrol space than to have an eye that could see space objects up close. What better way to know what other countries were launching into space?

The representative from Cheyenne Mountain entered the Mission Control Center in Houston and walked briskly toward Warner’s desk. He was tall, lean, well-decorated, and wore a high-and-tight haircut and a dress Air Force uniform.

Warner figured this had to be the guy.

He approached Warner’s desk and motioned for him to hang up the phone. He said nothing and offered no ID.

“Ah Ken, ah, let me call you back,” Warner said and cradled the phone.

“Are you Allan Warner?”

“Yes, yes I am,” Warner said, aware of his own stumbling.

“Lieutenant Walker, sir, United States Air Force, Space Surveillance Network Division, Cheyenne Mountain. I’m here under the direction of Commander Scheckter.”

“Ah yes, I’m…” Warner was amazed at how Scheckter was still able to rattle him from several states away.

“I’ve had a room secured by my MPs. It’s just down the hall if you’ll follow me.” Walker motioned that Warner should follow him. Warner did not know what to say. He was the damn Flight Director for God’s sake, seated at his post in the Mission Control Center with an orbiter in flight on NASA’s highest-profile mission ever. But he could not think of anything to say that would fit at the present moment. So he simply stood and followed Lieutenant Walker as he had been directed.

Chapter 53

Kennedy Space Center, Florida

BROWN WAS STARTLED by the knock at his office door. He’d slipped off into a daydream, reeling from his conversation with Warner, thinking of all the possible ways the Air Force might be able to image the wing of Atlantis.

“Come in,” Brown said, thinking it was a staff member with another question.

The door opened quickly, and the uniformed man stood at the doorway, holding a black, hard-sided, oversized briefcase.

“Ken Brown?”

“Yes, I’m Ken Brown.”

“Lieutenant Leborne sir, United States Air Force, Communications Specialist, Cheyenne Mountain. I’m here to provide you with communications, ah with,” Leborne looked down at a small piece of paper he was holding, “telephone communications with an Allan Warner, sir.”

Brown smiled, mostly to himself. Ah yes, the Military, he thought.

His thoughts were then quickly interrupted.

“May I set this on your desk, Sir?”

“Sure, that’s fine,” Brown said, shooting forward in his seat to help move some piles of papers, his low back aching in protest.

Just as soon as there was room on the desk, Leborne had his briefcase open with the upper half of the case facing Brown. He unplugged Brown’s phone line and reconnected it to a module mounted inside his briefcase. Then he ran another phone line out from the module back to Brown’s phone.

Commercial grade, or military grade, rather, Brown thought to himself. “Hardware based, one-hundred twenty-eight-bit encryption I’ll bet?”

“Sir?”

“Never mind. Hey, if you need to plug that thing in, I’ve…”

“We’re self-contained sir,” Leborne said, looking up briefly from the strange communication device. “A/C power won’t be necessary. Should have your uplink in a minute, sir.”

The module’s yellow ‘waiting for signal’ light flashed from its control panel.

Chapter 54

Johnson Space Center, Houston

LIEUTENANT WALKER CONTINUED his brisk pace out of the Mission Control Center. Warner followed, walking as fast as he could without breaking into a jog. He caught glances from other controllers who wondered what this was all about.

Warner exited the Mission Control Center and looked down the hall to the right. Lieutenant Walker was gone, but outside the small conference room was a guard. I guess we’ll meet in the small conference room then, Warner muttered under his breath. He walked to the room where the guard was standing.

“Check your ID, sir?”

“But I’m in Mission Control for…”

“Just doing my job, sir,” the MP said, scrutinizing Warner’s NASA ID badge carefully. “Thank you, sir, you may proceed.”

Warner entered the conference room and found Walker sitting at the far end of the conference table. There was another chair at Warner’s end of the table. The other six chairs had been moved against the wall to Warner’s left. Centered along the right wall was another MP, standing at attention. Walker motioned for Warner to have a seat at the conference table.

On the table in front of Warner was a laptop computer, already on, free of any cabling, and running a screen-saver program displaying the words:

United States Air Force

Space Surveillance Network

At the other end of the table, in front of Walker, sat a large hard-shell case, opened fully onto the table. There were various compartments carved out of high-density foam, like the type used in professional photography. It housed various electronic devices, the likes of which Warner had never seen before.

The largest, most obvious piece of equipment was a three-panel antenna array with each section measuring approximately 8 by 10 inches. It fanned out at the back of the case, blocking Warner’s view of other equipment in the case. The antenna was part of some sort of satellite phone, Warner guessed. The conference phone at Walker’s end of the table had been connected to a module, same type as used on Brown’s phone. Warner’s module had a control panel with three headings marked “searching for signal,” “signal lost,” and “secure.” The light under the word “secure” was glowing red.

Warner tried to figure out the purpose of the other equipment Walker had brought with him, but