by Gary Chesla
Rogers listened for a few minutes before continuing.
“Hell if I know. The computer spit out some report about satellite 77127 changing course or something. Then it printed out some longitude and latitude numbers or something.”
The phone clicked in his ear and Rogers put the receiver down.
“Well, I’m guessing that something important must be going on,” Rogers said.
“Why? What did Chervy say?” Davis asked.
“He just said ‘Oh Shit’, then hung up,” Rogers replied.
A few minutes later they heard voices and the sounds of running feet outside the building.
As the voices got closer, Rogers recognized the voices of Unit Commander Johnson and head technician Petty Officer Chervanak.
They were talking rapidly as the door opened.
“If the system was spitting out longitude and latitude information,” Chervanak was saying, “that means the system is projecting a potential point of impact.”
“What kind of impact?” Chief Johnson asked. “It is an attack or is it just a satellite falling out of orbit?”
“Unknown Sir,” Chervanak replied. “I’ll know more when I see the report and have the system identify the satellite. But since the report is giving a location, it is projecting a target area for whatever is going to happen.”
As the Chief and Chervy came into the office, Rogers held out the computer printout which Chervy quickly grabbed and began to read.
After looking at the report, he looked at Chief Johnson.
“It looks like a satellite has changed course and is going to re-enter the atmosphere,” Chervanak said.
“Is it just falling out of orbit?” Johnson asked. “Is it just being pulled out of orbit by gravity?”
“Negative Sir,” Chervanak replied. “If I am reading this right, it appears to have made a deliberate course adjustment. The adjustment is a change similar to what our astronauts make when they are returning from the space station. It is a course correction that is made to keep from burning up in the atmosphere. This is way different than what normally occurs when a satellite falls out of orbit and burns up in the atmosphere.”
The Chief thought for a second, “Where is it projected to come down?”
Chervanak walked over to the computer terminal and began typing on the keyboard.
“The computer projection has the point of impact as Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in approximately ninety minutes.”
“Are you sure it isn’t going to just burn up on re-entry?” Johnson asked.
“Not according to the projections, Sir,” Chervanak replied.
“Who the hell does that thing belong to?” Johnson asked.
Chervanak began typing on the keyboard again, then stopped and stared at the screen.
“The damn thing belongs to North Korea,” Chervanak said. “It was launched in March. We originally thought it was never going to be able to obtain a stable orbit but it quickly settled into a solid pattern and has been quietly circling the planet for the last two months. We haven’t observed any communication from it since it reached orbit. We thought it was dead and assumed it would fall out of orbit within a month or two”.
According to what I see, it came alive thirty minutes ago and has been sending and receiving signals from southeast Asia every few minutes since.”
“So this appears to be a deliberate maneuver to bring this thing down on Pittsburgh?” Johnson asked.
“It appears to be a deliberate course adjustment,” Chervanak replied. “The computer projects point of impact as Pittsburgh, but that may or may not have been its intended destination. Washington, D.C., New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Boston are all in the general vicinity. From the point where it made its course correction, if it would have made its course adjustment a second or two before or after it did, any of those cities could have been the intended destination.”
The Chief scratched his head, “Why the hell would it make a course correction over Nevada if its intended target was a city on the east coast?”
“Two reasons,” Chervanak replied, “or maybe one reason and one possibility.”
“Explain,” Johnson said.
“Well, first Sir, the course correction was made now because the satellite needs to begin a specific angled descent to re-enter the atmosphere without burning up. It will gradually move through the atmosphere and come down on its next orbit,” Chervanak replied. “The possibility I was thinking of is that they made the course adjustment over Nevada because they thought that maybe no one would notice.
They are aware that we have monitoring stations on each coast, but maybe they aren’t aware of our station here in Nevada. They could be betting that our station on the west coast wouldn’t pick up anything unusual or even notice a course change had been made when their satellite passed over California and flew out over the Pacific. The outposts usually pay close attention to anything incoming but no one worries much about what is leaving the area. The idea is anything incoming could pose a threat. Anything leaving is no longer considered a threat.
No one over Africa would give a shit what their satellite was doing and nothing would call attention to it over the Atlantic. It wouldn’t be until our station on the east coast picked it up again would anyone notice the course change. By then it would be too late to react effectively before it reached its target.”
“What if the damn thing was a Russian missile?” Rogers asked. “Do you mean the Russians could pull off a sneak missile attack against us by sending their missiles in over the Atlantic?”
“No,” Chervy replied, “missiles follow a different trajectory. They rise up into the atmosphere at a high angle and then re-enter at a sharp decline. We have systems in place to detect those kinds of actions. We also have satellites watching Russia, China and others to detect early signs of a missile launch. A satellite just moving along lazily in high orbit usually doesn’t attract too much attention. In all probability, the North Korean satellite’s new course change wouldn’t have been noticed until its low orbit was observed as it approached the east coast.”
“So you feel they are up to something?” Johnson asked.
“It’s just a possibility, Sir,” Chervanak smiled. “They have been up to no good for years. They have claimed many times that they could strike the U.S. mainland if they wanted to. It could just be my paranoid imagination running away with me, but when I saw whose satellite it was and then the projected point of impact, my first thought was they were planning some kind of sneak attack on Washington. Again, it was just something that popped into my mind.”
“I wouldn’t put it past those bastards,” Johnson said. “Is there any way we can determine what is on that satellite? Could it be carrying a nuke?”
Chervanak punched at the keyboard again.
“I don’t think it’s a nuke. The satellite is too small for a nuke. It could just be that they are trying to prove a point by dropping a satellite on one of our cities that they can hit us if they wanted to.”
“They would be taking a big risk of retaliation to just be dropping a hunk of metal on us,” Johnson added. “Could it be some kind of EMP device to knock out the electrical grid on the east coast?”
“That could be a possibility, but I don’t think so,” Chervanak replied. “An EMP attack requires a detonation high in the atmosphere. This thing will be coming in low and is projected to hit Pittsburgh. If it was an EMP device, their execution is seriously flawed. If I had to guess, I think they are just trying to make a point or they were trying to bring it back and land it in North Korea but they just screwed up the instructions to the satellite. It’s hard to say with any degree of certainty. All I can say for sure is that it is coming down on Pittsburgh in ninety minutes.”
“I say we have to err on the side of caution. The leadership in North Korea doesn’t think or act like normal rational people,” Johnson smiled. “Besides, how the U.S. responds to this event is not our call. That will be up to the President and th
e Airforce. We have done our job. We have spotted the course change and projected the point of impact.
Petty Officer, contact the Airforce and tell them what our systems have projected. Also tell them what all we have discussed so they can take those possibilities into consideration.”
“Yes Sir,” Chervanak replied.
“In the meantime, I think it best I put this station on high alert,” Johnson added. “This could all be some kind of diversion for something bigger that is about to happen. I learned a long time ago that nothing is ever as simple as it first appears to be.”
Chapter 2
Friday, May 7th, Johnstown, Pennsylvania
Mike watched as the man and his wife looked at each other and shook their heads, then they walked out the front door of Cambria Chevrolet.
This was getting to be frustrating.
Mike had worked at U.S. Steel in Johnstown for the last five years.
He had made good money working in the office as a financial analyst.
He took that job right after graduating from the University of Pittsburgh, Johnstown campus, five years ago.
The Johnstown area had been in decline, the city’s days as a growing vibrant metropolis were long gone. Mike was thrilled he had been able to find a good job and be able to stay in his hometown and he quickly accepted the position.
The next year he married his college sweetheart, Linda.
One year later little Jamie arrived.
When Jamie was born, he and Linda decided they needed something bigger than their small one bedroom apartment in Richland.
With the real estate market depressed in the Johnstown area, it had been easy to find a great deal on a three-bedroom house in Westmont, one of the few good sections left in Johnstown to live and raise a family.
They also bought a second car, a Dodge minivan, for Linda to use while Mike was at work.
Life had been good and Mike had happily settled into his role as a husband, father and family man.
Mike remembered coming into the office two Mondays ago after he and Linda had attended a Penguin’s game in Pittsburgh on Sunday.
The Penguins had beaten the Capitals after which he and Linda went to Station Square for dinner at the Hard Rock Café.
The atmosphere was exciting as the waitress asked them question after question about the game she wasn’t able to attend because she had to work.
Most of the other guests at the restaurant talked excitedly, all dressed in the black and gold colors of the Penguin’s, as they ate.
After a few beers, Linda began saying she thought it was time they considered a little brother or sister for Jamie.
After a few more beers, Mike agreed.
Yes, life was good, Mike thought as he went into the office the next morning.
His life was everything he had hoped for as his mind thought about everything that had happened over the weekend and about what was to come.
Jamie would be starting first grade next year, probably about the same time as the next family member would arrive if everything went as expected.
When he walked into his office, he found a note on his desk.
His supervisor had left him a note saying he wanted to talk with Mike as soon as he came in this morning.
Before leaving for the weekend, Mike had prepared the quarterly financial report for the Johnstown operation and had left it on his supervisor’s desk.
As Mike walked into his supervisor’s office, he was sure that his boss just had a few questions about the report.
Mike prided himself of his ability to be thorough and accurate. He wasn’t worried about having left out anything important.
He entered the office feeling relaxed and confident.
The Johnstown plant was struggling against all the foreign competition, but Mike felt there were ways to overcome the plants financial problems and had even suggested a few options for management to consider.
Johnstown at one time had three steel mills.
Now all that was left was U.S. Steel, which now only made specialty steel products for General Motors and the Military.
U.S. Steel in Johnstown, like the city itself, was now only a shell of its former self.
When Mike stepped into his boss’s office, he was complimented on the detailed analysis of his report.
It was explained that the report provided exactly the information and projections that upper management needed.
Unfortunately, the report also provided upper management with all the information they needed to make a difficult decision that they had been considering.
Upper management had decided that in order for the plant to survive they had to make some major cut backs.
One of the cutbacks was to eliminate Mike’s department.
Mike was given a one week notice that his position had been eliminated.
Having a mortgage, a car payment and a family to care for, Mike needed to find a new job fast.
Johnstown didn’t have a lot of employment opportunities like it had at one time. In fact, it no longer had a lot of things that the city once had.
At one time traffic was so heavy in Johnstown that it could take ten minutes to walk across Main Street’s five lanes of one way traffic.
Now, you didn’t even need to look before walking across the street. You had a better chance of getting hit by a meteor in Johnstown than you did getting hit by a car on Main Street.
The big department stores had all pulled out of town years ago, leaving only the small stores like Dollar General remaining.
The town had four hospitals when he was a kid, now only one remained.
The area coal mines were also long gone.
At one time finding a new job was as easy as picking up the want ads and making a call.
Of course, that was before Mike had graduated college.
A lot of things had changed since then.
The only thing that really hadn’t changed was the Johnstown Jets, a minor-league hockey team that was known for all the fights that broke out during their games.
It had been ages ago since the team had actually won a hockey game, but their fight record was much better. That was probably the main reason their games were always sold out and why the team was still in Johnstown.
Despite all the problems Johnstown had, Mike wanted to keep his family in Westmont.
He didn’t want to uproot his family to move someplace else, besides he doubted he could sell his house for anywhere near the amount he still owed on his mortgage.
So Mike took the first job he was offered in an attempt to stay in town.
It wasn’t what he wanted, but he needed a job and took it, hoping to at least be able to pay the bills until something better would come along.
He took a job as a car salesman at Cambria Chevrolet.
After the couple walked out the front door, Mike turned and started to walk back to his desk.
He could feel the sales manager staring at him as he walked across the showroom floor.
In fact, Mike felt like everyone in the showroom was staring at him.
Mike had been here now for one week.
At first the sales manager would smile at Mike as a potential sale walked out the door.
After a couple days, that smile changed to a grimace as the sales manager would just shake his head each time Mike blew what was described to him later as an easy sale.
Now all Mike received was a cold stare.
After one week without even getting close to a sale, Mike knew he was in trouble.
The job started out paying one thousand dollars a week plus commission, for the first two weeks.
After two weeks, the job was strictly on commission only.
Mike knew he wouldn’t be fired.
He wasn’t worried about being fired, even though that would probably be a blessing in disguise.
The dealership never fired any of their sales people, unless they tried to steal a car or something along those lines.
After t
wo weeks, the car dealership just stopped paying anyone who didn’t sell any cars.
Anyone not cut out to be a car salesman would leave on their own when they stopped getting a paycheck.
Mike wasn’t used to feeling incompetent and if his situation would have been different, he would have probably left work today and just not come back.
But he needed the money and would receive one more week’s pay regardless of whether or not he sold a car.
He hadn’t come close to selling a car this week and he knew that probably wouldn’t change next week.
Mike just couldn’t sell someone a car that they didn’t need or couldn’t afford.
In order to be successful at this job, he would have to do too many things that just went against his beliefs.
He didn’t believe in taking advantage of people in order to make a dollar.
Most of the salesmen here didn’t have that problem. Most of the guys here wouldn’t have a problem selling a bottle of Jack Daniels to a recovering alcoholic.
Mike picked up his newspaper and his first week’s paycheck from his desk and headed for the door.
He waved at the two new guys that were hired the same time as he was.
They waved back, looking as depressed as Mike felt.
All Mike could think as he walked out the door was that he and Linda needed to have a long talk this weekend.
Taking this job had been a mistake.
He hadn’t felt this bad since he ran over a gray squirrel in the driveway. He tried not to hit it, but the damn squirrel just seemed determined to get itself run over.
Mike liked squirrels, even though they were ornery pests that managed to get into everything from the garbage can to his tools in the garage. However, none of those offenses required a death sentence as a penalty.
Mike walked back behind the dealership and opened the door to his old Toyota Corolla.