Skywave

by K Patrick Donoghue

  Twenty minutes later, Amato stood with Pritchard and Brock at the rear of the Mission Control Center. Their eyes were focused on the wall of display monitors beyond the rows of station consoles.

  On the center screen was a live shot of a high-altitude balloon carrying one of Amato’s SatFleet launch platforms. Another screen showed a close-up view of the platform itself. From a distance, the platform looked like a squat dome attached to a ring-shaped base with engine exhaust tubes lining the underside of the base. In reality, the base was three nested rings, each outfitted with engines.

  At twenty miles above the Earth, the launch platform would detach from the balloon and fire the six engines of its first stage, propelling the launch delivery vehicle higher into the atmosphere. When first-stage engines exhausted their fuel supply, the outermost ring of the base would separate and fall back to Earth, revealing a second ring with four engines. The second-stage engines would shoot the dome even higher, until they, too, used up their complement of liquid methane and oxygen fuel.

  The second stage would then fall away, leaving one last ring with a solitary engine to push the dome-encased payload the final stretch to attain low Earth orbit. There, the final ring would detach and the dome itself would be ejected, uncovering one of Amato’s CubeSat probes. Kiera’s experimental VLF engine would then take over to power the probe to a rally point two hundred fifty miles above Earth where the other eleven probes of the SatFleet would meet up to begin the space trial.

  Once the other eleven probes arrived at the rally point, Dante would activate the SatFleet programming aboard the probes and they would maneuver into formation around the command probe. Two probes would take positions overhead of the command probe, while two others would take corresponding positions below. Two would guard the right side with another two on the left. A scout probe would take the point position, while another would form the fleet’s rearguard. The final probe was a deadhead command probe that would travel inside the fleet behind the active command probe.

  The first to launch would be the command probe, CUBE-1. Over the intercom, the launch control officer counted down the final seconds until the launch platform separated from the HAB. “Three, two, one…Flight, we have separation.”

  On the side display screen, the camera attached to the balloon tether showed the domed LDV falling away from the tether. Dante, the flight director for the space trial, replied, “Roger that, Launch. SEP confirmed. Boost, you are go for main engine start.”

  “Affirmative, Flight,” said the booster system engineer. “Stage one MES in three, two, one…”

  As the engines roared to life on the main screen, Brock turned to Amato and smiled. He held up crossed fingers as the flight dynamics officer reported on the LDV’s flight path. “Flight, FIDO here. CUBE-1 LDV trajectory nominal.”

  “Roger that, FIDO,” Dante said.

  Further updates and commands flowed back and forth between Dante and the station controllers through stages two and three of the ascent. At last, FIDO announced the payload had arrived in low Earth orbit. “Flight, CUBE-1 LDV in LEO.”

  “Roger, FIDO. LEO confirmed. Boost, you are go for CUBE-1 SEP.”

  “Affirmative, Flight,” replied Boost. “SEP in three, two, one…”

  The main screen showed the dissipating contrails of the earlier stages. Amato turned away from the display and said to Pritchard and Brock, “Here we go. Moment of truth.”

  “CUBE-1 SEP confirmed,” Boost said.

  “FAO, power up CUBE-1,” Dante said.

  For the first time in the launch sequence, it was Kiera’s turn to speak. As the flight activities officer for the SatFleet space trial, she responded, “Copy that, Flight. CUBE-1 power green.”

  “Roger,” Dante said. He then addressed the instrumentation and communications officer. “INCO, confirm CUBE-1 comms and instruments.”

  “Flight,” INCO said, “CUBE-1 C&I green.”

  “FAO, deploy solar panels,” Dante said.

  “Solar panels deployed,” Kiera said. “Flight, solar panels green. Batteries full.”

  “FAO, you are go for CUBE-1 VLF MES,” Dante said.

  “Roger that,” Kiera said. “VLF MES in three, two, one…”

  With no visual to confirm the activation of Kiera’s VLF engine, Amato’s eyes darted to another display showing a stream of data from CUBE-1’s instrumentation. The data included CUBE-1’s altitude, GPS coordinates and speed, among other readings. For several seconds, the data bounced up and down by small increments. Then, in an instant, all the numbers spiked. Kiera’s voice trembled over the intercom. “Flight, CUBE-1 VLF MES confirmed. Engine performance nominal.”

  Cheers and applause reverberated throughout Mission Control. Station controllers stood and turned toward Kiera’s console, offering congratulations. Teary-eyed, Kiera nodded her appreciation and smiled.

  “Well done, Kiera.” Dante’s voice echoed above the din before he returned to the business at hand. “Guidance, confirm CUBE-1 heading.”

  “Flight, CUBE-1 on course for rally point Alpha, speed twenty-eight thousand km/h,” said the guidance and navigation officer.

  Rally point Alpha was an orbital band in medium Earth orbit, approximately ten thousand kilometers above the planet surface. Here, Amato’s SatFleet would congregate for the eventual test of the fleet management software program.

  “Copy that,” Dante said. “FAO, initiate reaction control system thrusters. Let’s take her out nice and easy. We don’t want to run into Hubble or ISS or anything else on our way out.”

  At CUBE-1’s present speed, about five thousand kilometers per hour faster than the average speed of an orbiting Space Shuttle, the thrusters would gradually push the probe toward its desired orbit plane as it circled Earth, ultimately reaching the rally point Alpha within a few hours.

  Kiera wiped away the tears on her cheeks and issued the command for CUBE-1’s automated thruster control system to activate. “Roger that, Flight. RCS active. VLF still nominal.”

  At the back of the room, Amato exchanged handshakes with Pritchard and Brock. Meanwhile, Dante said, “INCO, activate CUBE-1 cameras. Let’s see the view.”

  “Affirmative, Flight. CUBE-1 eyes are green.”

  Moments later, two side screens illuminated. The top one displayed a digital label, Cam-1. It showed a slow-moving image of the Atlantic Ocean and Africa’s west coast, intermittent clouds casting shadows on the topography. The bottom one, labeled Cam-2, showed a dark background with a blue slice of Earth’s curvature at the bottom of the screen.

  As another round of cheers sounded out, a small bright light appeared against the black backdrop on Cam-2, speeding toward CUBE-1. Then another shot up from the Earth’s curvature. A third swirled down from above.

  Amato’s smile vanished. “Oh, no.”

  Pritchard and Brock’s heads turned to follow Amato’s gaze. Seeing the lights descending on CUBE-1, Pritchard leaned over and whispered to Amato, “It’s all right. They’re probably just coming to take a sniff.”

  Four more of the UMOs zoomed into view just as the first three passed beyond the camera’s field of vision. Then six others appeared on the screen. Brock, a touch of alarm in her voice, asked, “You don’t have X-ray equipment aboard, do you?”

  “No,” Amato said.

  “What band are you using for comms?” she asked.

  “S band,” Amato said.

  “Thank heavens,” Brock said.

  Urgent chatter from the station controllers spilled from the intercom.

  “Flight, INCO. CUBE-1 gaining speed. Thirty-eight thousand km/h, forty-thousand…”

  “Guidance, here, Flight. CUBE-1 off course, climbing toward HEO.”

  “FAO?” Dante asked. “What’s going on?”

  Kiera’s eyes flitted around her console monitor, taking in one diagnostic reading after another. “VLF output nominal. RCS trying to compensate for course change.”

  Amato left Pritchard’s side and hurried to Dante’s f
light director station. On Cam-1’s video feed, Africa grew smaller as CUBE-1 moved away from Earth. Soon, Africa was joined on-screen by Europe and Asia. On Cam-2, more and more UMOs appeared. The images on both video feeds began to wobble.

  “Flight, INCO. Speed escalating. Sixty thousand km/h and increasing.”

  “Holy crap,” Dante said, his epithet echoing throughout the room. “FAO, deactivate VLF and RCS.”

  “I don’t understand,” Kiera said, scanning her monitor. “Nothing’s wrong with the engine.”

  “Flight, we just lost one of the solar panels,” INCO reported.

  “Shut it down, now!” Dante barked.

  Kiera typed a short command sequence and pressed enter. “VLF and RCS deactivated, Flight.”

  “Roger that,” Dante said. “INCO, talk to me. What are you seeing?”

  “CUBE-1 slowing down, but not by much,” INCO said.

  Amato leaned over to examine the readings on Dante’s monitor. The screen showed a mix of green bars and red bars next to the data displays for the probe’s systems.

  “Flight, INCO again. Speed tapering off, down to fifty-six thousand km/h now.”

  Looking up at Cam-1 and Cam-2, Amato saw the video feeds stabilize. The full orb of the Earth was now visible on Cam-1. On Cam-2, only the black of space could be seen. And then came the craziest moment of all. On both screens, dozens of UMOs flashed into view…speeding away from CUBE-1. Amato couldn’t be certain, but to his eyes, it seemed the lights were brighter.

  “What the hell?” Amato heard from behind. He turned to see Ajay, mouth open, gaping at the screen.

  Conference Room A

  A3rospace Industries Command and Control Center

  Mayaguana Island, The Bahamas

  An hour later, Amato huddled with Dante and Kiera in the Mission Control briefing room. CUBE-1 remained dormant but was still traveling at over forty thousand kilometers per hour as it pushed deeper into medium Earth orbit. Unless corrected, the momentum and direction of the push from the UMO swarm would eventually lead CUBE-1 into high Earth orbit, though its speed would continue to taper as it moved outward, slowed by the reduction in gravitational pull as the probe moved away from Earth.

  As remarkable as it was that CUBE-1 had climbed so far, so fast, Amato was more stunned by the speed with which the swarm had formed. Looking at the expressions on Dante’s and Kiera’s faces, it was clear they were just as dazed. He thought of the crew of Cetus Prime and how helpless they must have felt as the UMOs descended upon them.

  It might have been wishful thinking on Amato’s part, but he had not expected the UMOs to take an interest in CUBE-1. At eight feet long, one foot wide and one foot tall, CUBE-1 was tiny in comparison to other satellites orbiting Earth. To the UMOs in the vastness of Earth’s atmospheric layers, Amato believed CUBE-1 would have looked like a grain of sand in a sprawling desert. And even if Amato had dared to imagine a visit by a single curious UMO, the prospect of encountering a swarm seemed inconceivable.

  But facts were facts. Within a minute of powering up Kiera’s engine, the creatures had converged upon CUBE-1 like bees to honey. With that image in mind, Amato resisted the temptation to ask Dante, “Believe me now?” Instead, he looked at his two shaken underlings and said, “Well, we have our first crisis. It’s time to prove we can overcome it. Tell me what you’ve discovered so far.”

  Dante had prepared an after-report with the help of the Mission Control team. He handed it to Amato and provided a summary of the current situation. “Right about now, CUBE-1 is nearing twenty thousand kilometers, which means, if it continues to tack outward, it will cut across the path of several countries’ GPS satellite networks. I informed Dr. Pritchard and Dr. Brock and gave them permission to dial out to alert Goddard and Houston. They’re across the hall in Conference Room B. I don’t think CUBE-1 is an imminent threat so long as we make a decision on the thrusters soon.”

  “Understood,” Amato said.

  “As far as damage goes,” Dante said, scratching the back of his head as he spoke, “we lost one of the four solar panels, and right now we’re at a crappy angle to pick up quality rays from the Sun. Batteries are still in good shape but we’re going to have to turn RCS back on soon and use the thrusters to reorient so the batteries don’t completely drain. Comms array and instrumentation are intact and functioning. Onboard computer was unaffected; the SatFleet command program booted up without issue. We don’t know if the engine is damaged yet. We did ping the component controller program. It responded with green for the VLF transmitter, same with the electron gun.”

  Kiera’s innovative VLF engine had three main components: a very-low-frequency radio wave transmitter, a plasma chamber and an electron gun. The VLF transmitter was used to broadcast VLF radio waves into the plasma chamber, creating an enclosed, magnetically charged field. When the electron gun fired, the clash of positive and negative ions inside the chamber produced a lightning-like reaction. The mini-lightning bolts were channeled out of the chamber through a magnetic venting system, creating propulsion. The speed of the spacecraft was controlled by manipulating the rate at which VLF radio waves were transmitted and by how frequently the electron gun fired.

  “The biggest unknown right now,” Dante said, “is whether the electron-gun mount held up during the swarm — we’re concerned it might have been knocked out of place by the vibrations. Unfortunately, there’s only one way to find out whether the mount is in good shape or not. We have to turn the engine back on.”

  During Dante’s synopsis, Amato twice glanced at Kiera. Her head was lowered, staring at her lap. When Dante finished, Amato asked Kiera, “You said earlier there was nothing wrong with the engine. Did you see anything different when you reexamined the engine output data?”

  Kiera continued to stare at her lap. Amato said, “Kiera?”

  She looked up and noticed both men staring back at her. “I’m sorry. Did you say something?”

  Amato repeated his question. Kiera said, “No, the ion mix in the plasma chamber was well within parameters, which means the VLF transmitter was working as it should. The electron gun fired at its prescribed intervals. Engine output was spot on for cruise speed. It never wavered.”

  “Yet, instead of cruising at twenty-eight thousand km/h, the probe maxed at over sixty thousand km/h,” Amato said.

  “I can’t explain it,” Kiera said, shaking her head. “In theory, at full power, if everything worked perfectly, I don’t think the engine could generate enough push to go more than one hundred thousand km/h without a gravity slingshot.”

  “Which leads to the obvious conclusion that the UMO swarm was responsible for the jump in speed,” Amato said. “Do you concur?”

  Both Dante and Kiera nodded in agreement.

  “Then we have several puzzles to solve,” Amato said. “First, it would appear our engine attracted the UMOs. Theories as to how?”

  “We’ve discussed different possibilities,” Dante said. “If they feed on ions, like you told us, then most likely they were attracted to ions ejected by the engine.”

  Kiera sat up straight and moved closer to the table as she added to the conversation. “Or ions ejected in the engine exhaust interacted with free-floating ions in the atmosphere, creating a slurry of electromagnetic reactions in CUBE-1’s wake.”

  “Right,” Dante said. “Sort of a Hansel and Gretel trail of food leading to the gingerbread house, so to speak.”

  “I thought of these explanations as well,” Amato said. “But how does one or the other translate into the dramatic boost in speed we witnessed?”

  “Kiera has a theory, but it’s speculative,” Dante said.

  Amato turned to Kiera. “Let’s hear it.”

  “Well, I wondered if it might have been a bow shock effect caused by the swarm.”

  “Elaborate,” Amato said.

  “It’s total conjecture,” Kiera said.

  “Conjecture or not, let’s hear it,” Amato said.

  “Okay. If t
he UMOs arranged themselves into a cohesive unit, it might have created a singular magnetic field around the swarm, a bubble,” Kiera said. “If that happened, the plasma in the ionosphere would have flowed around the bubble, creating a bulge of magnetized energy directly in front of the swarm.”

  “Meaning anything magnetic in front of the bulge would have been pushed away from the swarm,” Amato said.

  “Exactly,” Kiera said.

  The explanation made sense to Amato, in part, but there were aspects of the swarm encounter that didn’t fit well with Kiera’s theory. “Answer me this. How could the UMOs feed on ions from the engine if the bow shock kept pushing CUBE-1 away? It seems to me it would have created a carrot on the end of a stick the UMOs could never reach.”

  “Good point. I don’t have an answer,” Kiera said with a shrug of her shoulders.

  “Too bad I didn’t pan Cam-2 aft. We might have seen something that would give us a better sense of what the UMOs were doing behind CUBE-1,” Dante said.

  “True, that would have been helpful,” Amato said. “But, not to worry, you’ll get another crack at it.”

  “Wait. We’re scrubbing the trial, right?” Kiera asked.

  “Says who?” Amato said.

  “With all due respect, Mr. Amato,” Dante said, “Kiera’s right. We can’t launch the rest of the SatFleet. Not now. It’d be chaos.”

  “Wrong,” Amato said. “We learned a very important lesson from what happened to CUBE-1, and I think we can take advantage of it if we put our minds together.”

  “Say what?” Dante asked.

  “The UMOs gave us a twofold increase in speed with our engine running at a quarter of its capacity. Imagine how fast we might go if we were at full power with those things pushing behind us,” Amato said.

  “Yeah, but the speed ripped off a solar panel. If we go any faster, the whole thing will disintegrate,” Dante said.

  “I don’t think the speed caused the solar panel to come off,” Amato said. “I think the RCS thrusters did. They were fighting to reorient the probe. That’s what caused the vibration, in my opinion.”