Executive Intent

“Any guesses?”

“Sir, the system that failed previously was the Trinity interceptor safe-arm circuit, which guarantees that the rocket motors in the interceptors are safe until the system is armed from here in the station, or until the self-protection systems detect a possible incoming threat,” Kai said. “We had the entire satellite shut down except for the maneuvering system, and two circuit boards in that subsystem were just replaced. If the boards were bad or the wrong boards replaced, a faulty safe-arm circuit would have closed the motor ignition circuit. When the garage was powered up, the safe circuit fault could have been interpreted as an arm command, and the motor ignition command set off one of the booster motors. But as I said, we had no indications of any faults after powering up the satellite. We’re checking all systems right now, and we still haven’t found anything.”

“And the astronauts?”

“They’ll be evacuated later on today, sir,” Kai said. “Mr. Noble is in good shape-dehydrated, possibly a broken shoulder, some sunburn on his face, but otherwise well. We’re concerned about radiation exposure-he wasn’t wearing a full space suit-but so far he seems to have weathered that okay.”

“He wasn’t wearing a space suit? How could he survive in space without one?”

“Mr. Noble was wearing what we call an ‘activity suit’-an electronically controlled mechanical pressure suit that allows the wearer a lot more flexibility and freedom, but it doesn’t offer as much radiation protection.”

“It sounds like he’s a very lucky man,” Phoenix observed. “And the other astronaut? His family’s been notified?”

“Yes, sir, his parents and siblings-Lieutenant McCallum was unmarried. Recently graduated top of his class from Stanford. The engineering college there wants to have a public service for him, and the family has accepted.”

“I’d like to be there.”

“I’ll set it up with your office, sir.”

“Thank you. How long was Mr. Noble adrift in space?”

“A total of four and a half hours,” Kai replied. “When the spaceplane caught up with him, he was napping. Scared the hell out of us-we thought he had a concussion.”

“Amazing,” the vice president breathed. “Alone in orbit around Earth, and the guy slept through it. I’d like reports on your investigation as you have them, General.”

“We’ll keep them coming, sir.”

“Thank you.” The vice president spread his hands to the others in the Situation Room. “Okay, back to China and what they’ve got planned in Somalia. It’s got to be more than just a punitive strike against warlords who ordered the pirate attacks, as they claim. I think China has much more in mind. They don’t drop a few thousand troops on the ground just to drop-kick some pirates.”

“The secretary of state is in Beijing right now and is set to meet with the premier and the minister of foreign affairs shortly and will-”

“Secretary Barbeau has been in China so many times in the past few months, we should probably get her a nice apartment across from Tiananmen Square,” Phoenix said. He rubbed his temples again. “And it seems every time she’s sent to Beijing, the Chinese make another move that makes me wonder even more what they have in mind.”

“Diplomacy takes time, Mr. Vice President,” Kordus said without turning toward him. “Do you have any doubts that Secretary Barbeau is doing all she can to find out more about China ’s plans?”

“What I’m saying, Walter, is that we shouldn’t be waiting around for China to state its intentions before we voice our own,” Phoenix said. “We as the president’s senior advisers should draft a statement for the president, recommending he strongly condemn Beijing ’s actions, demand a halt to the bombings and shellings and an immediate withdrawal from the area except for forces involved in the joint antipiracy task force.”

“I don’t think that’s warranted at this time, Mr. Vice President,” David C. Keeley, deputy secretary of state, representing the Department of State while Secretary Barbeau was traveling. “The Somali pirates have been terrorizing the Horn of Africa for years now, and the international community has done very little proactively to stop them. China finally does something about the problem. Why do we want to lash out at China? They did the dirty work everybody else wanted done.”

“Because there’s a clear pattern of aggressiveness that’s very troubling, Mr. Keeley,” Phoenix said. “ China places antiship and antisatellite weapons all around the world. Our response: announce we will unilaterally decommission our antisatellite weapons, and call on the rest of the world to do likewise. Then, when China runs out of friendly nations to place a missile site, they decide to invade an unfriendly one. Who’s next-the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, Cuba? And what will our response be?”