"I know you think it's cool to be selected for this mission," she said. "But just remember one thing... in Norse mythology, the Valkyries were also called the Choosers of the Slain."
16
VICTORY AT SEA
Sunday June 6, 1999, 10:55 A.M.
The Pacific Ocean
It took the combined navies of the world six days to locate Godzilla. The delay was due to the fact that everyone was looking in the wrong place. The authorities assumed that Godzilla would return to Japanese waters, as he had the last two times he made landfall.
But Godzilla surprised everyone. This time, he headed east.
The USS Altoona, a Los Angeles-class submarine heading back to its southern port at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, located Godzilla quite by accident. In fact, there almost was an accident.
The submarine narrowly avoided colliding with the monster in the ocean depths. The captain surfaced immediately after the close encounter. He reported the incident, as well as his location, to Pacific command headquarters. He also informed them of Godzilla's speed and direction.
The Altoona's broadcast caused consternation in military circles, and the president was notified. After a hastily arranged conference in the Oval Office, it was decided that, for the moment, the government would keep the news a secret.
The president wasn't quite ready to inform the American people that Godzilla was only 500 miles away - and heading for the coast of California. Because the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff supplied the president with weekly reports on Project Valkyrie, the commander-in-chief knew about the staff crisis in G-Force.
The president decided, in the end, that General Taggart should be notified of Godzilla's approach. However, the general was not to pass on that information to the G-Force team at this time.
The commander-in-chief wanted to try conventional forces before he committed teenagers - albeit exceptionally well-trained and well-disciplined teenagers - to mortal combat with the most powerful and destructive kaiju of all.
So while General Taggart pushed his team in simulated and live-fire exercises in Raptor-One and Dr. Markham conducted more experiments on Lori Angelo, elements of the Pacific fleet were steaming toward a section of the Pacific Ocean where a confrontation between an ancient monster and modern, high-tech weapons was about to commence.
* * *
The presidential order put General Taggart between a rock and a hard place. More than anything else, the general wanted to get the team in shape for a confrontation with Godzilla in the near future. But he was not permitted to give them the knowledge that would spur them on and give them a sense of urgency.
Worse still, the general was facing a kind of mutiny over the situation with Lori Angelo. Her teammates remained loyal to her, and wanted to know why she'd been suspended from G-Force so unfairly. Even Colonel Krupp questioned his commander's decision.
General Taggart wanted to know why, too. So he kept Lori on the base - isolated from the others - instead of sending her to a psychiatric institution for more extensive study, as Dr. Markham had suggested. So far, Lori was cooperating, and she remained under the watchful eye of Dr. Markham.
* * *
On the morning of June 8, elements of the Pacific fleet, under the command of Rear Admiral John C. Shiller, prepared to face Godzilla as the creature arrived in the shallow waters off the coast of California.
On the bridge of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, Admiral Shiller watched the tranquil waters of the Pacific. Because Godzilla was being escorted by two Los Angeles-class submarines, Shiller knew its location at all times.
On the bridge with the admiral, Dr. Max Birchwood scanned the electronic instruments. He watched the image of Godzilla on sonar as the creature moved into attack range.
"Has all commercial shipping been cleared out of the area?" Admiral Shiller asked.
Captain Niles Carnahan nodded. "The last ship was moved out of the area two hours ago," he informed his commander.
"Then you have my permission to alert the submarines," the admiral announced. Instantly, officers on the bridge sent the command out to a fleet of subs waiting in Godzilla's path.
Dr. Birchwood listened to the radio chatter with anticipation. He knew the plan. He had helped formulate it. But the kaijuologist wasn't confident that the scheme would succeed. He had studied Dr. Nobeyama's research on Godzilla, and was convinced that the creature was indestructible.
However, Dr. Birchwood had been ordered to formulate a plan, so he did. But now, as Phase One of his attack went into action, the nervous kaijuologist had grave misgivings.
"All submarines stand by," the First Officer spoke into the radio. Then, after a moment, the admiral gave the command.
"Launch torpedoes!"
A hundred miles away, the fleet of submarines fired a battery of torpedoes at the oncoming monster. The torpedoes were not intended to kill, but to drive Godzilla to the surface for the real attack - for even as the torpedoes were being fired deep beneath the blue waters of the Pacific, a squadron of F-14 Tomcats launched from the Nimitz circled in the sky like birds of prey.
* * *
Hovering less than fifty feet above the waves, three Sikorsky CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters waited for Godzilla to appear. Equipped with anti-submarine warfare gear, the choppers acted as forward air control for the fighters that circled above. The helicopter crews listened intently to their radios and the sonar operator as the torpedo attack was launched in the ocean below.
For what seemed like an eternity after the command to fire was given, nothing happened. The sea below the choppers remained calm.
Then, suddenly, the helos' ASW sonar picked up the sound of the torpedoes detonating underwater. Almost immediately, great spouts of water shot into the sky as the torpedoes struck.
On board SEACAP ONE, Ensign Dale Delany and her co-pilot, Bob Michaelson, exchanged meaningful glances. They were both well versed in naval warfare and, despite what they heard in the pre-mission briefing, neither thought that Godzilla would survive the initial undersea attack.
"I wonder if a carcass the size of Godzilla's will float?" Michaelson mused out loud. "Otherwise, we could be here all day..."
Ensign Delany chanced a quick glance at her copilot. "Stop exaggerating," she quipped. "We've only got five hours of fuel!"
More geysers shot into the air. One explosion was so close it rocked SEACAP ONE and sprayed seawater all over the windshield. "That was close," Michaelson noted calmly.
Another line of blasts tore up the otherwise tranquil waters. Finally, the torpedoes were spent, and the ocean grew calm once more. Ensign Delany turned to her sonarman.
"Got anything?" she asked.
The man shook his head. "I think the explosions fried our sonar buoys," he informed her.
Delany nodded. "Get ready to drop more remote sonar detectors," she commanded. But before her crew could comply, the ocean underneath SEACAP ONE's hull began to bubble, then boil.
"Look!" Michaelson cried, pointing to the water below and in front of them. Ensign Delany stared as the ocean bubbled and began to steam.
"Uh-oh," Michaelson moaned.
As the crew of SEACAP ONE watched, Godzilla, the king of the monsters, rose out of the Pacific depths with a bawling roar. Seawater poured off its charcoal-black hide in torrents, and the water churned all around the enormous prehistoric leviathan. The stunned crew of the Super Stallion found themselves eye-to-eye with a beast that should have died sixty-five million years ago.
"It's Godzilla!" the sonarman cried, even as Ensign Delany tried to take the chopper up and away from the creature's grasp.
With astonishing speed, Godzilla lashed out. His feral head lunged toward the helicopter, even as his terrible jaws opened to swallow them whole.
The crews on SEACAP TWO and THREE fired flares at Godzilla and radioed the monster's position to the squadron above.
Ensign Delany pulled her chopper back, her eyes fixed on the twin rows of irregular tee
th that lined Godzilla's blood-red mouth. The helicopter accelerated backward so fast that when Godzilla's jaws snapped shut, they closed on empty air.
"Go! Go! Go!" Michaelson cried as Godzilla's eyes narrowed and the pupils focused on them. Godzilla prepared to lunge again.
But the agile Sea Stallion had flown too high too fast, and the prehistoric monster lost its chance to destroy the helicopter. "We have incoming!" Michaelson announced. "Tomcats at three o'clock -"
"Let's get out of here before we're caught by friendly fire!" Ensign Delany cried as she pushed the throttle forward again. The Sea Stallion spun on its axis and darted away.
As SEACAP ONE raced out of the attack zone, the F-14s, directed by the flares, dived toward Godzilla. The Tomcats from the Nimitz carried a special payload.
After evaluating the attacks made against Godzilla on land and sea, the United States Navy, with the help of kaijuologists, had devised a new strategy to destroy Godzilla. Given that the creature was a radioactive mutant, possessing incredible powers of organic regeneration, it was decided that most conventional weapons would be useless.
Most... but not all.
The strategists in the Pentagon deduced that if enough damage could be inflicted on Godzilla in a short span of time, the monster's powers of regeneration would be overwhelmed. There would be no chance for the creature to regrow its cells and organs before mortal wounds could be inflicted.
But what conventional weapon could inflict such damage?
The answer was something called a fuel-air explosive.
The six Tomcats that dropped out of the sky toward Godzilla each carried a fuel-air explosive canister - basically, a container filled with a flammable mixture of petroleum and chemicals fitted with a timer and a parachute. A fuel-air explosive was designed to drop slowly over a target, then explode above it at a predetermined altitude.
The weapon provided what is known in military parlance as a "double whammy" - it smashed its target with the force of a gigantic hammer, and it covered the area around the target with a layer of burning chemicals that could not easily be extinguished.
It was not a compassionate weapon. Dr. Birchwood felt it was so cruel that he had reservations about using it. But he also understood that the lives of thousands were at stake, especially if Godzilla came ashore on the densely populated West Coast.
The final result was that now, in the sky over Godzilla, the Tomcat pilots dropped their lethal payload as they swooped over the creature.
Their mission completed, the jets climbed back into the clouds. It was time for them to "get out of Dodge City"!
Godzilla gazed up with catlike curiosity as six parachutes blossomed open directly above him. Slowly, the canisters drifted down until the lowest one was right above his wedge-shaped head.
Godzilla grunted. Then the electric discharge that preceded his radioactive blast danced along his dorsal spines.
At that moment, an electronic signal was sent from the lead SEACAP helicopter - a signal that detonated all six of the explosive devices at the same time.
Even though the helicopter crews were briefed on what to expect, the intensity of the fuel-air explosions took them by surprise. As they watched from two miles away, their choppers were buffeted by the hot blast. The blue Pacific sky turned bright yellow as it was lit up like a second sun.
A tremendous glowing ball of fiery force smashed down on Godzilla. The violence of the blast knocked the stunned creature onto his side. The surface of the Pacific began to boil as a flaming blanket of burning chemicals descended on the area. The burning cloud covered the monster completely.
Roaring with rage and pain, Godzilla thrashed about on the surface, churning the red waves with each agonized movement. Every exposed section of the creature's hide was burning in the aftermath of the explosion.
As the creature's cries of mortal agony echoed across the water, Ensign Delany felt her breakfast rising back up her throat. She had to look away, but she could not shut out the horrible cries of pain and confusion. Delany had been raised on a farm and loved animals, and she couldn't watch this magnificent creature as it writhed in its death throes.
Finally, Godzilla's suffering seemed to end. The creature stopped thrashing, and his burning body began to sink beneath the simmering waves. The last of the flaming cloud of burning liquid and gas settled over the ocean, turning the pale blue waves to a bright, bloody crimson. Godzilla was gone.
SEACAP ONE, TWO, and THREE hovered in place as the ocean burned for miles around. No one aboard the choppers spoke.
Ensign Delany ordered a new batch of sonar buoys to be dropped into the ocean. The tiny portable sonar devices pinged the depths as soon as they sank beneath the waves.
The submarines, too, began a sonar sweep of the area, searching for Godzilla or his remains. But even after an hour, there was no sign of the mighty kaiju.
It appeared, even to the skeptical Dr. Birchwood, that Godzilla might indeed be dead.
* * *
Lori Angelo thrashed about in her bed as the dream overtook her. This time the images were more vivid, more powerful, and more emotional than ever before. And this time, the truth was finally revealed to her.
The dream lasted only a few minutes, but when Lori awoke, she was at peace for the first time in weeks. Now she understood what was happening. Lori knew that Mothra was the Protector of the Earth, and that she had come down from space to save humanity from something worse than Varan, or Godzilla, or Rodan - or even a swarm of killer asteroids.
Most of all, Lori knew what she had to do.
Rising from her bed, she went to her personal computer and began to work. The clock was already ticking, and Lori didn't have much time to plan her escape from Project Valkyrie.
17
THE HIGH
FRONTIER
Friday, June 11, 1999, 0703 mission time
The Mir space station
In orbit, 125 miles above the earth
Slowly, carefully, the space shuttle Atlantis docked with the primary module of the Russian Mir space station high above the blue Pacific Ocean. Through the viewports in the other modules on Mir, the station personnel watched the gleaming white shuttle slip smoothly into the docking collar.
The shuttle was a welcome sight, bringing much-needed supplies of food, water, oxygen, and scientific equipment to the overworked, aging space station. It also brought with it another guest for the already overcrowded Mir, Dr. Chandra Mishra.
Since the discovery of the Reyes-Mishra asteroids, Mir had become one of the focal points in a planet-wide effort to destroy the asteroids before they collided with Earth. The station, which was designed to function with a crew of five and perhaps three scientists or researchers, now had thirteen full-time residents and temporary crews coming and going on a monthly basis.
Now another crew member was being added to the roster. The crowded conditions put a strain on the Mir's scanty resources, and supplies were now being replenished from Earth weekly.
NASA was breaking all previous performance records toward that end. Each of the four American space shuttles was sent up in turn, alternating with Russian Soyuz resupply vehicles.
Mir had been designed and built to last only five or six years. At fifteen years, the station was not only still in service, it was starting to look like Grand Central Terminal.
The newest member of the Mir team, now disembarking from the Atlantis, Dr. Chandra Mishra pushed his way clumsily through the narrow hatch that connected Atlantis with the Mir module. He was not yet accustomed to weightlessness, and though he had experienced no nausea or motion sickness, he had had a lot of trouble maneuvering in zero-Gs.
His first impression of Mir was the smell. A distinctive odor of unwashed bodies assailed his nose, making him flash on the memory of the smelly locker rooms from his cricket-playing college days.
Dr. Mishra, forty, had actually been selected for the NASA astronaut training program over a decade before. Unfortunately, a previously undiagnose
d thyroid condition washed him out of the program in his second year. The Indian-American scientist thought his dreams of space flight had ended then and there.
Now, to his delight and amazement, he was orbiting high over Earth in Mir, about to witness the destruction of the asteroid swarm from the telescopes in Mir's Kristall and Kvant science modules. Despite the discomfort and overcrowding, Dr. Mishra was glad he was aboard, and he was greeted warmly by the international team of astronauts and cosmonauts on the Russian-designed space station.
The greeting was sincere and heartfelt, for Dr. Mishra was the primary architect of the plan to destroy the asteroids.
Today, the final steps in Dr. Mishra's plan were about to be implemented. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration was ready to launch the last of its three robotic smart bombs from a launching pad in Florida.
Mishra's plan had been simple, but infinitely difficult to set into motion. Since there were only three large asteroids in the swarm, they would be targeted individually - by as many remote-control nuclear bombs as the nations of the world could launch in the limited time they had left.
The plan was idiot-proof and included quadruple redundancy. The attacks would be coordinated, and each asteroid would have a total of four warheads coming at it after today's launch. If one or two missiles failed, there were more to take their place.
The United States, Russia, Japan, and France, with international technical and financial assistance, were launching the nuclear missiles. The Russians had already launched six Energia rockets carrying multiple nuclear warheads. Those guided missiles were heading for the asteroid swarm, and would intercept them at a point in space between the moon and Mars.
A second group of three nuclear missiles were being launched by a French/Japanese consortium - the Japanese supplied the boosters, and the French supplied the warheads.
Now, a third and final group of three high-tech robotic bombs were about to be launched from the United States on three separate Air Force boosters. These super-smart warheads contained their own guidance systems and rocket motors. They were designed to seek out and destroy any smaller pieces of the asteroids that might continue on toward Earth after the initial detonations.
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