The Destroyer

Chapter Ten

The President and her chief advisors, along with other top scientific and military leaders were packed into the Situation Room below the White House. The  purpose of this briefing was to allocate fuel and resource to repositioning the Sahara geosynchronous station. Unlike the eight Leo stations rapidly orbiting Earth a dozen times a day, at a distance of only about three hundred miles from the surface, Phoenix always shadowed Kansas at a tenth of the distance to the moon, or roughly twenty two thousand miles.

The Leos were a testament to Man's misguided beliefs about the dynamic comings and goings of a space faring human race, expanding into the cosmos. Only one of the eight Leos was now manned at any given time, based on the now infrequent missions, which mainly consisted of people and materials returning from the far side moon base.

"At issue Madame President, is the sanctity of humanity," declared Lola, the only attendee not physically present but the main instigator of the briefing.

"What are you talking about," whined Dalton Yang, President Amanda Carmelo's chief of staff.

"You had better listen carefully," warned General Avery Balanson, a confidant and believer in Lola's special capabilities.

"Well I would expect that from you. You and your cave project," shot back Dalton with a hint of disdain.

"I'm with Avery on this," jumped in General Bud Haley.

"Of course you are. You are in favor of anything  involving your fleet of tin cans up there," Dalton continued his combative counter attacks. He was of the mind that science was behind the decline of the Earth. Ascendency to him was the ultimate technological farce. Carmelo still kept him at her side because he did represent a majority view at this point, and he was highly efficient and fiercely loyal.

"Young man. To you, I'm nothing more than a dead woman. Someday, you may have the opportunity to join me. But more likely, your life will be cut short. You will have just enough time to realize your mistake before you suffocate on ozone. If you think I'm trying to frighten you, you're right."

"You're talking about something we can't even detect. This gamma ray burst. If it's going to hit us in only two years, then why can't we see it yet?" A few people in the room were thankful for the question, one that they also couldn't quite grasp but were too afraid of revealing any weakness by asking. Most people in the room just looked at Dalton, amazed that he held the position he did, so lacking as he was in a basic understanding of nature.

"Dalton, please leave the room," said Carmelo calm but firm.

"But, she said,"...

"Now!" Dalton, red faced, veins in his forehead bulging, gathered his notebook and exited. Most of the room breathed a sigh of relief. A few were disappointed, now robbed of the chance to get an answer the question they and Dalton shared. For her part, The President was not apologetic, nor embarrassed. As with most leaders, her sociopathic tendencies were handy in these situations. "Shall we get on with it?"

"All I'm asking is that we deliver some extra fuel to Sahara and reposition her temporarily, and then return her to the geo synch position at a later date. It requires no additional launch. It can all be handled with the resources we now have in orbit."

"Thank you Lola. Bud, is that your understanding?"

"Yes ma'am. It's not a big undertaking.  The orbit Lola has suggested is a no man's land, nothing even remotely near that altitude. About three thousand miles."

How high are the Leos?" Inquired the President.

"About three hundred miles. So we would deploy the Runabout from Leo Three, with fuel. It would deploy to Sahara, currently at about twenty three thousand miles out, then return to Leo Six. The whole thing would take three days."