Eagle Station

“They’re carrying out some kind of orbital rendezvous test,” Hernandez replied. “As part of the president’s lunar mining initiative.”

Mulvaney nodded. A lot of private space companies in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia were ramping up their activity — hoping to snag some of the juicy contracts NASA was dangling. Based on what he was hearing, the tempo of space exploration and exploitation was set to increase exponentially. The historical analogy wrote itself. The Space Force was in much the same position as the old U.S. Army circa 1836, manning a few scattered frontier outposts just as the first wagon trains headed out on the Oregon Trail.

As he thought about the bandits and raiding parties who had preyed on those early settler caravans, Mulvaney’s gaze slid to the large central display. It showed a map of Russia, its Central Asian neighbors, and the People’s Republic of China.

Suddenly, a blinking red icon flashed onto the screen, centered about five hundred miles north of Moscow.

“Sir! SBIRS has detected an undeclared launch from the Russian Federation!” one of the junior watch officers reported.

With Mulvaney looking over his shoulder, Hernandez pulled up a data download from the Space-Based Infrared System’s satellites. “Looks like a rocket launch from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome,” he commented.

“Some kind of missile test?” Mulvaney asked. Plesetsk was often used to test new Russian ballistic missile designs.

Hernandez shook his head. “No, sir. The heat signature’s enormous, much larger than that of any likely Russian ICBM.” More information scrolled across his computer display. He whistled softly. “That’s got to be one of their big heavy-lift rockets, one of the Energia-5VRs. And based on its current trajectory, it’s heading into orbit.”

Mulvaney frowned. He checked the boards, looking for Eagle Station’s current position. It was high over the Western Pacific, just approaching the coast of Mexico. This suggested the Russians had deliberately timed their launch so that the U.S. space station was too far around the curve of the earth to see or engage the Energia’s payload as it reached orbit.

What was Moscow up to?

Only minutes later, another red icon blinked into existence, this time over an island off the southern coast of the People’s Republic of China.

“New launch! This one’s lifting off from the PRC’s Wenchang complex on Hainan Island,” another watch officer reported.

Quickly, Hernandez studied the tracking data supplied by their satellites. “From the thermal signature, that’s a Long March 5. And it’s going into orbit, too.”

Mulvaney’s frown deepened. The Long March 5 was a large two-stage rocket, roughly in the same class as the American Delta IV Heavy. Though not as powerful as SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy or Russia’s Energia-5VR, it could still boost a serious amount of payload mass into low Earth orbit — somewhere around twenty-seven tons.

And then a third icon flashed onto the map. This one was in southwest China, near the southern tip of the PRC’s Sichuan Province. “SBIRS confirms another Chinese Long March 5 launch,” Hernandez said. “This time from the Xichang Space Center.”

“From Xichang? That’s supposed to be an inactive launch complex, isn’t it, at least according to our goddamned intelligence reports?” Mulvaney growled.

“Yes, sir,” Hernandez agreed. “The Chinese claimed they were shifting most of their civilian space operations to Wenchang, because launches from Xichang were too dangerous.” He smiled wryly. “Apparently, the possibility that spent rocket stages might come crashing down on inhabited areas was seen as bad public relations, even in a communist dictatorship.”

Mulvaney snorted. “Well, so much for that bullshit about bad PR.” He stared at the screen, watching as the projected tracks for all three newly launched rockets curved across the large digital map. One undeclared Russian rocket launch was potential trouble. But three undeclared launches within a matter of minutes? One of them from a Chinese space complex U.S. intelligence had said was mothballed? There was no way what they were seeing was just coincidence, he decided. This was coordinated enemy action.

He donned a spare headset and plugged in. Then he reached for Hernandez’s keyboard and entered a series of codes, activating a secure link to the White House. “This is Lieutenant General Mulvaney at USSPACECOM. We are observing multiple non-ICBM launch events in both Russia and the People’s Republic of China. I need to speak to the president.”

Scion Secure Videoconference

Several Hours Later

“You guys ready?” Brad McLanahan asked quietly, with a glance at Nadia and Hunter Noble. They were in one of Sky Masters’ Battle Mountain conference rooms, waiting for their satellite connection to the White House and Scion’s Utah headquarters to go live. They nodded seriously, just as the wall-sized LED display lit up.