Lieutenant Page 19

  ***

  “General Wang.”

  The general recognized the voice of the Chinese President in his earphone. “Yes?” the general responded irritably.

  “The American news services are displaying a map that they claim shows our forces crossing the Taiwan Strait!”

  “Yes sir. I’ve seen it.”

  “Well? Is it accurate?”

  “Surprisingly so.” Wang ground out.

  “How?!” he paused, “How are they acquiring this information?”

  “Exactly what I am asking Beijing Aerospace Command! They claim that they have taken down all the American and Taiwanese satellites but that cannot be, unless one of our ‘allies’ is providing them this information?”

  “Could it be their planes?”

  “Their planes send their data back by satellite. With the satellites out of commission, the planes would have to return and land and their information would not be ‘up to the minute’ like this map.”

  “Should we abort?”

  “Absolutely not! They cannot stop us!”

  “My information says two of their Carrier Battle Groups are within range.”

  “Extreme range.” The general said reassuringly. “Their planes can reach the theater but cannot loiter to acquire targets. The Taiwanese do not have the strength to stop us and the Americans are too far away. We will have the island firmly in hand before the Americans arrive, never fear.”

  “OK.” the president said dubiously, then, “Wait, I have a call from the American President. I will patch you in so that you may hear what he has to say.”

  Moments later the two men listened to the recognizable sound of the American President’s voice in the background with translator’s voice following in the foreground. The President did not sound angry or emotional. The translator said, “We, the American People protest the destruction of billions of dollars worth of our satellite technology. You have done this on the pretext of wanting your privacy without even a warning of your intent to do so. We demand compensation for the value of our satellite technology and negotiations regarding how the satellites of all countries may coexist. More importantly, we note that the obliteration of our satellites occurred concurrently with the destruction of the satellites of the Republic of China, a country which should have the right to observe its own part of the world under your ‘privacy’ pretext. It is evident from the mobilization of your naval forces into the Taiwan Strait that the destruction of the satellites was actually just the first step in an invasion of the Republic of China. Your claim that the Republic of China is actually a part of the People’s Republic of China is belied by the necessity of the use of military force to obtain their cooperation.

  “We the People of the United States of America hereby signal our intent to help the Republic of China defend itself against your aggression.”

  Wang heard the seething undertone of fury in his own President’s response, “Americans have no right to interfere in internal affairs between the People’s Republic of China and its own rebellious province which only characterizes itself as an independent ‘Republic.’ Your vaunted military will not be able to significantly influence this internal disagreement without your space based spies.” Wang silently applauded those words and felt gratified to find that his own President had more spine than he had expected.

  The American President responded enigmatically, “We are sorry that that is your response. We have deployed new technology that will provide us the ability to respond to your aggression even without our satellites. In an effort to avoid bloodshed, we will demonstrate that ability in the next sixty minutes. Goodbye.”

  ***

  Allred heard Admiral Larsson’s voice in his earphone. “OK sub commanders, we have Command authorization for the ‘warning shots,’ alpha, hotel, delta, zulu, echo, foxtrot. Execute to achieve detonation 30 minutes from my mark… Mark.”

  Allred looked to his weapon’s control officer and received a nod. He nodded back and shortly heard the deployment of the two torpedoes from their tubes. The fish dove below the thermocline in order to diminish their sonar profile and swam straight and true on their wire guidance using a speed that provided a low sonar signature. They precisely located themselves in front of the designated PRC warships’ courses—as provided by the RQ-7 loitering above, through Ell to the sub captains. The torpedoes paused at depth until a precisely calculated moment, then drove up to detonation depth.

  ***

  Captain Lee dozed in his command chair on the bridge of his LST (Landing Ship, Tank), grateful for the relatively quiet seas that were allowing the embarked soldiers in his loading bays to transit the Strait without emptying their stomachs. A brilliant flash woke him and his eyes flashed wide to see a mountain of water rising in front of his bridge. Moments later the bow of his ship heaved up violently. Tremendous creaking indicated the strain placed on the frame of his landing ship. The top of the mountain of water blew open and water began pouring down out of the sky onto the upper works of the LST. Cursing he called out for damage reports and asked to be put in contact with Command.

  ***

  “General Wang! Six underwater explosions have detonated, presumed to be torpedoes! They missed, but were very close and exactly off the bows of six of our ships! Some damage to the frame of three LSTs with leakage into the cargo bays holding their armored vehicles! Two destroyers also with frame damage and some leakage.”

  Wang’s heart sank as he saw the plots of the location of the six ships subjected to the warning shots. There were two each at the front of his three groups. The destroyers had not picked up any torpedoes on sonar. How had the warheads been delivered? Submarines seemed obvious and the American submarines were famous for their stealth, but how had their president been able to communicate with submarines so immediately while they were stealthy? By report, the detonations had occurred precisely off the bow of all six ships indicating precision placement in keeping with the Americans’ damnable “smart weapons.” But how would their submarines have known where his ships were with such precision? And known which ships were military assets rather than civilian or cargo?

  It was a convincing demonstration of their understanding of his tactical plan and their ability to deliver devastating blows at will. Radar on his missile boats had detected the first glimmer of American aircraft coming over the horizon and Taiwan was launching aircraft as fast as they could. The element of surprise was lost. For a moment he contemplated bulling through, but the defenders would have so many advantages from their apparent knowledge of exactly where his ships were. Even if they only had three submarines, each could be loaded with fifty torpedoes each or one hundred fifty total and they had just demonstrated that they could take out a ship with each torpedo. His aerial assets should have been able to readily overcome the ROC’s Air Force when they didn’t know where he was, but with this evidence that the Americans could vector their forces precisely to each of his ships, it would be a bloodbath, exactly what he had been told to avoid. With a heavy heart he said, “Get me the President.”

  ***

  The CNN anchor looked up at the cameras. “We interrupt this broadcast with some good news. As you know the White House has been providing us a feed displaying the alarming naval deployments of the People’s Republic of China into the Taiwan Strait. That feed has, over the past twenty minutes, disclosed that the PRC naval elements have stopped advancing and begun to withdraw. The PRC has just announced that they have been conducting an ‘unscheduled naval exercise’ which has now been completed. Further they have apologized for not disclosing the nature of the events to the rest of the world more quickly and thus inciting so much tension.

  “I believe that I can speak for the world as a whole when I say that we all rest easier now.

  “There were no further announcements regarding the obliteration of Western and ROC satellites earlier except to say that the PRC would be willing to negotiate reparations for the costs of the destruction of the existing satellit
es and consider some verifiable means to allow restoration of communication satellites, though not ‘spy’ satellites over their part of the world again.”

  ***

  A week had passed since the Chinese backed off. Ell sat in the PGR communication center wondering whether anyone remembered where she was? The civilians from PGR Comm had left the morning after, having completed their assigned setup task. Ell had, to their great delight, delivered the additional $10,000 to their accounts as promised. She and Major Geller were the only personnel assigned to the comm center. Now that the shouting had subsided, Colonel Whitt was no longer intimidated by Secretary Amundsen’s admonitions. The Colonel said he didn’t have any spare noncommissioned personnel to help watch over the comm center.

  Major Geller felt shanghaied and abused. He spent most of his time trying to get assigned elsewhere.

  The comm center didn’t really need much in the way of maintenance but Ell shuddered to think about what would happen to Pacific military communications if one of the chip racks failed for some reason, especially with no one present in the center to address the problem. She’d taken to sleeping on a cot in the comm center, stepping out for food and showers.

  At least Colonel Whitt hadn’t denied them food in the commissary! It wasn’t all bad; things were so slow that Ell had been able to plan out several experiments and order equipment to be delivered to her apartment back in Las Vegas.

  “Allan, please contact Amy.”

  “Ell! Where are you now?!”

  “Still in a hole somewhere on the East Coast. Does the sun still shine out in the big world?”

  “My God! What do they have you doing?”

  “Right now I’m maintaining a comm center for the military. It’s using my new chips.”

  “Really? Does it actually need someone there maintaining it?”

  “Well, not really, unless it goes down, then they’ll desperately need someone to fix it, that’s what I’m here for.”

  “Crazy! Well what’cha need that you called?”

  “I’d like to have you arrange removal of the wall between my lab and that empty bedroom.”

  “What? Why?”

  “I’ve ordered a bunch more equipment; there won’t be room to set it all up in the current lab.”

  “Hah! Can do, but what if they permanently reassign you back East, wherever you are?”

  “Well, we’ll just have the wall restored when we have them remove all those doorways we had installed.”

  “OK, you still have no idea what’s going to happen next huh?”

  Someone rapped on the doorway to the comm center. “Nope. Hey someone is here so I’ve got to go.” Ell said turning to the door and coming to her feet.

  A Captain stood in the door, looking pinched. “Where’s Major Geller’s office?”

  Ell shrugged, “Sir, I’m afraid he doesn’t have an office, he works out of the comm center here.”

  “Where would I find him then?”

  “I’m not sure sir. I can have my AI contact him if you’d like.”

  “I thought he was in charge of some kind of high tech comm center?”

  “Yes sir.”

  “Well, where is that?”

  “Sir, this is it.”

  His eyebrows drew together, “When is the new equipment coming in?”

  “Sir, that’s it.” Ell pointed to the five racks sitting against the far wall.

  The Captain blinked slowly. “OK… please call him for me.”

  When Major Geller arrived, the Captain said, “Major, Captain Norris reporting for duty. I’m to relieve…” he looked up at the orders displayed on his HUD.

  Geller whooped. “Finally!” He stepped forward holding his hand out to shake.

  Norris said, “…a Lieutenant Ell Donsaii.”

  “God damn it!” Geller exclaimed.

  ***

  When Ell got back up to the real world on the surface, it turned out that the driver who had delivered Norris had waited for Ell in order to take her back to the Pentagon. She reported as directed to the Office of the Air Force Chief of Staff.

  A Captain looked up when she knocked. She appeared to be shocked, “Lieutenant, what are you doing here in BDUs!”

  “Sorry, Ma’am, I wasn’t told what uniform to wear and I thought I was catching a flight back to Nellis.”

  “Oh my God! We’re supposed to have you at the White House this afternoon for some kind of ceremony. Please tell me you have a dress uniform with you?”

  “Yes Ma’am,” she held up her duffel. “Where can I change?”

  “You can’t wear a uniform that’s been wadded up in a duffel to the White House! Let’s take it over to the Pentagon cleaners and get them to press it.”

  Ell smiled, “It isn’t exactly ‘wadded’ but I take your point.”

  Captain Platt shepherded Ell around, getting her uniform pressed and then back to her office where Ell changed into her dress blues. “Oh my God! You look like a recruiting poster! How did you get such an exquisitely tailored uniform?”

  Not wanting to say anything about how clothes just seemed to look good on her Ell said, “I took a few seams in myself.”

  Platt said, “Wow! You’ll have to teach me how to do that!”

  Platt then took Ell to meet an official car that took Ell to the White House. The entire time Platt kept up a chatter about protocol for visiting the White House. She got in the car with Ell, still continuing her patter. Ell finally interrupted, “Do you know why I’ve been invited to the White House?”

  Platt looked surprised, “No, don’t you?”

  Ell shrugged, “Well I have an invention that I would think they’re wanting to incorporate into military communications, but I’m not sure why I’d need to meet the President for that? I would expect that military brass should be making those decisions.”

  After stopping several times for security checks, they pulled up to a side entrance portico and got out. Platt consulted her HUD and said, “We’re supposed to go to the Blue Room.”

  A White House staffer met them at the entrance, “Lieutenant Donsaii, right this way. Oh Goodness! We want you to wear your Medal of Honor!”

  Ell ducked her head minutely, “Sorry, it’s in storage at present. I am wearing my ribbon.”

  Platt exclaimed, “You won the Medal of Honor?!”

  The staffer said in horror, “No one told you to bring it?”

  To Platt, Ell said, “Yes Ma’am.” She turned to the staffer, “I’m sorry Ma’am, no one told me until this morning that I was expected at the White House.”

  The staffer put her hand to her brow as if she’d developed a headache. She almost moaned, “I suppose they wanted to keep it a surprise!” She turned and looked down the hall, “Jimmy!” A young man stopped and looked questioningly at her, “See if you can scare up a Medal of Honor. I think they keep one or two for impending ceremonies.” The young man nodded and started purposefully down the hall. He returned shortly with a Medal of Honor in its display case.

  Platt helped Ell put the Medal around her neck, then Ell was directed to a room filled with military brass. When they stepped in, Platt said, “Oh-oh, lotta gold leaf in here!” She turned to Ell and said, “Just keep calm and we’ll stand over here and fade into the woodwork.”

  Ell did as recommended but moments after they entered Admiral Larsson spotted her and started their way. Ell’s stomach tightened with some apprehension that he would begin another confrontation; however he stopped in front of her, came to attention, glanced down at the medal around her neck and gave her a dress formation salute.

  Nonplussed to be receiving another indoor salute, Ell returned it.

  The Admiral said, “Lieutenant, I owe you a heartfelt apology and my sincere gratitude. My attitude toward you during the recent crisis was inexcusable, born out of years of exhibiting a lack of respect for junior officers who have not yet earned it. In your case my low regard was unfounded and unacceptable. I have reviewed the actions for which you
were awarded that Medal of Honor and I am truly humbled by the bravery you have shown.” He raised an eyebrow, “Your tolerance of my bad behavior is typical of the forbearance I’ve heard that you offer others with my tendencies. Much, much more, I appreciate that you provided my command with the means to pull its irons out of the fire off the coast of China without loss of life, to say nothing of the fact that you successfully averted a war. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

  Platt gazed in astonishment as Ell, apparently calmly, said, “Thank you Admiral. I am fully aware that we were all under a great deal of stress.”

  Platt’s eyebrows remained high as a number of other senior officers including the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff came over, each saluting the young woman in turn, then offering congratulations.

  At one point, when none of the brass were speaking to Ell, Platt leaned near and whispered, “What did you do?!” but before Ell could respond the Secretary of Defense came over to offer his congratulations.

  Then they were all asked to remove their AI equipment before being herded into the Blue Room. Once they were seated the President spoke briefly to the entire assembly. “The people in this room deserve our Nation’s public congratulations and thanks for their roles in averting a war in the Straits of Taiwan. Unfortunately, a public announcement of your roles and celebration of your achievements would further damage our shaky relationship with the People’s Republic. But, even if I cannot do so publicly, I at least intend to hold this closed door ceremony. I’m sorry about requiring that you leave your AIs with their attendant cameras out of the room, but I want there to be no chance that this ceremony might be recorded and become verifiably public.”