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CHAPTER 48

Low Earth Orbit

10,000 Kilometers Ahead of the International Space Station

Tuesday

3:48 a.m. Eastern Time


“Soyuz MS-51 has completed braking burn package and has begun to deorbit. Reentry blackout projected in two hours and thirteen minutes. Soyuz MS-52 has completed braking burn and has begun to deorbit. Reentry calculations underway.” The Russian Roscosmos version of the NASA CAPCOM—Capsule Communicator—spoke with Commander Vasiliy Nolvany. Allison sat quietly and listened, doing her best not to think about the body of her dead friend in the seat on the other side of Nolvany. “Preparing burn numbers for you now, MS-53.”

Nolvany muted the communications channel to Earth and did his best to turn his head toward Major Simms. Allison was waiting for this moment and had already prepared what she would say. Had Nolvany been American she’d have said something about wild horses.

“Are you sure you are up for this, Major?” Nolvany asked her. “Once we make the choice, we must commit to our actions. We are likely to be arrested if we make home.”

“Goddamned right I am, Vasiliy. We might be the only thing standing between the Earth and a nuclear war,” Allison assured him. “I am up for this.”

“Very good. I, too, am up for this.” Nolvany held up the small pistol-gripped metal rod that the commander of Soyuz capsules used to touch controls out of reach and then depressed a sequence of circuit breakers. “There. Mission Control cannot fly us from the ground now. We are in complete control of the spacecraft.”

“I see.” Allison nodded her approval as Vasiliy toggled the microphone back to the open communication channel.

“Mission Control, this is Soyuz MS-53. Belay the deorbit burn calculations and please prepare a package for returning to the ISS.”

“Uh, could you repeat that, 53? It sounded like you said you were going to return to the ISS.”

“Affirmative, Control. MS-53 is returning to the ISS either with or without your help. We would prefer to do so with help,” Nolvany said. “Standby, Commander.”

There had been several minutes of heated conversation in Russian, but finally Nolvany had told them he would simply shut off the radio if they were not going to be of any help. Several minutes after that, a new voice had taken over as their CAPCOM—General of the Army Pyotr Ustimenko.

“Major Nolvany, Major Simms, I am General Pyotr Ustimenko. I will be directing you from now on. I want you to know that while you are in a direct violation of orders to return home, what you are doing is damned courageous. I have instructed Roscosmos to cooperate with your plans whatever they might be. Maybe we can help to minimize what is about to follow.” When the new CAPCOM spoke, Vasiliy seemed to stiffen to an attention posture. He muted the internal mics and turned with a very serious and all-business look on his face.

“Army General Ustimenko. Would be equivalent of your Joint Chiefs,” he explained.

“I understand,” Allison replied. Vasiliy unmuted the internal microphones.

“It is unclear how many of them there are,” the general continued. “They seem very adept and clever. They are well connected. It is likely that Colonel Lytokov will be with them. He and his cohort criminals have already killed an entire squad of Russian National Space Force soldiers when they attacked and stole these warheads. They are deadly killers—make no mistake about what you are volunteering to do. Do the two of you understand this?”

“Yes, sir!” Nolvany almost shouted.

“Major Simms…we have a communication channel open to your superior. I will wait a moment for them. General Hastings, are you there?”

“Yes, General Ustimenko. Thank you,” the Chief of the United States Space Force replied. This time it was Allison who stiffened in her seat. “Major Simms, do you hear me?”

“Yes, ma’am!” Allison wasn’t certain if she had responded more loudly than Vasiliy.

“Major Simms, as General Ustimenko has just briefed you, whoever these criminals are along with Colonel Lytokov, they are deadly, vicious, and have no concern for life, it appears. If you make this decision, you will be going into this with no hope of backup and it is likely a one-way trip. Do you understand this?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Then why would you do this?”

“Because it is my job, ma’am,” Allison said. There wasn’t even a pause long enough to take a breath before the general responded.

“Your job, soldier, was to follow orders and return home.”

“With all due respect, General, I have family, friends, and billions of people I don’t know down there that are helpless to do anything to stop this. Major Nolvany and I might be able to do something. Anything. We have both sworn oaths to protect our country and we think this is what we must do to uphold those oaths.” Allison wasn’t certain how her speech would go over. History was filled with officers who thought they were doing right by disobeying orders but who finally ended up in prison or on the firing squad. Allison didn’t like either of those options.

“Since we realize there is nothing we can do to turn you around, both General Ustimenko and I agree. If you are going to do this, then we want you to have the best opportunity to succeed. So inventory your assets for us as well as give us a rundown of your current plan.”

“Well, ma’am, we have three short-barrel triple-barrel shotguns that we took from each of the Soyuz capsules. We have three Russian sidearms with three full magazines each. Nolvany and I are trying to figure out how to fire them in our suits, but have had no luck as of yet. Any help on that from the engineers down there would be helpful. And, ma’am, it would be helpful to know more about their plans.”

“We are reaching out to Roscosmos, NASA, and Space Force engineers now. Hopefully, we will hear from them soon.”

“Allow me a moment, General Hastings…”

“By all means…”

“As the Americans have worked out what they believe is the plan of these criminals, we think we might add some insight here. We think this is based on an old Soviet-era study of using an orbital platform for nuclear weapons. The platform would implement Fractional Orbital Bombardments. The idea is simply as stated. Use an orbital platform like the old Almatz systems with reentry vehicles aboard. When the platform is in the right location in orbit above a target, the reentry vehicle is deorbited to target. Colonel Lytokov most certainly has studied this report. It is historical and long been discarded for treaty purposes. That said, the ISS could function as such a launch platform for the RVs. The American analyst team believes this is their plan based on intelligence gathered so far. Our intelligence agrees. These enemies of the state, of the world, plan to detonate the warheads over multiple locations to create a global EMP blackout. To what purposes we do not know.”

“Are they religious or political extremists? Or is this something else, sirs?” Nolvany asked. “Have they attempted to make any contact?”

“There has been no attempt of any contact or negotiations,” General Hastings added.

“Honestly, Major Nolvany, we simply do not know their motivation,” Ustimenko said.

“Sir, is there any estimate on how long it will take them to launch from the ISS?” Allison asked.

“No, Major Simms. Everything we have are guesses only. A week ago, nobody would have even thought this possible.”

“Our team does have some thoughts on that,” General Hastings added. “One of our rocket scientists has drawn up a rough sketch of what such a system would look like and she believes that, if it is prebuilt, they might be able to install it in less than a day. NASA EVA timeline planners agree with this. It might take longer. This has been such a surprise so far, we put nothing past them and their capabilities.”

“Then we must hurry!” Nolvany said.

“Yes. We will be listening, majors, but we will hand you back to CAPCOM so you can speak with engineers.”

“Understood, sir.”

“Good luck.”


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