The Soldier

“Satellites. The answer is satellites.”

Mandy and Caitlin looked up at the same time. Two mugs of coffee sat on the table the dining area where they were talking.

“Satellites, huh,” Caitlin said. “That’s fine, but what was the question?”

“How do we reestablish communication between America and the rest of the world?”

Caitlin looked at Logan. The expression on her face clearly indicated how far out in left field she thought he was.

“OK, assuming we could pull off a satellite launch without the Federals knowing about it, exactly how would that do us any good? Other than being able to chat across the Atlantic again.”

Logan went over and sat down as Caitlin watched him carefully with a suspicious eye.

“Back home, we get occasional snippets of information about what’s been going on over here that your Ham friends can sneak out. Don’t you get the occasional bit of news leaked in from the rest of the world?”

“Once in a great while,” Mandy said. “But getting stuff out is a heck of a lot easier than getting it in. The Feds worry more about outside information upsetting their apple cart.”

Logan grunted. “Somehow, I’m not surprised. But the truth is that you’re not alone. There has been a growing movement out there to find out what’s going on in here, and if possible to try and convince America to rejoin the world.

“So far, there has been little support in the world’s governments because the information is so spotty. But if we can establish a communication link and let the rest of the world know, and have someone representing the underground ask for help, you just might get it.”

“And just what sort of help do ya’ think we might be able to get, Logan?”

Jon had walked up.

“At least some international pressure,” Logan said.

“And at most?”

Logan’s eyes twinkled. “I wouldn’t bet against a few well-placed missiles taking out some of that wall.”

A stunned silence fell over the room as Jon, Caitlin and Caitlin all looked at Logan.

“You are out of your British mind,” Jon said. “Even assuming you pull off this hair-brained stunt and we can start talking to Europe, there’s no way you’re gonna take down the wall with a few missiles. The sucker’s 100 feet thick at its widest and it’s all reinforced plasti-steel. And what about the defensive systems? Your boys would be toast before they could even get within missile range.”

“I understand your skepticism,” Logan said. “But there have been some major advances in ordinance technology since you Yanks decided to shut yourselves off over here.”

It was Jon’s turn to grunt in disgust. “Most of us didn’t decide, it was kind of forced on us.”

“Right,” Logan said. “Regardless, I worked for a firm that does research for the British Military, MI6 and such. That’s why we were working on the chip your Feds managed to pinch. But it wasn’t the only project. I think it could be done. But you need to let them know that intervention is needed and requested.”

Jon looked around the room. Most of the minutemen were looking at their leader and their eyes spoke volumes. They were all tired of fighting the Feds and the prospect of even minimal help from overseas was extremely attractive. But Jon was stubborn.

“You still haven’t said how you plan to deal with the air defense systems.”

Logan laid a hand on Caitlin’s shoulder.

“You leave that part to us.”

“OK, let me recap.,” Jon said. “You plan to find some old communication satellites – somewhere. Put them on top of a few rockets, assuming we can even find working rockets, launch them into orbit and use them to contact Europe and holler for help.”

Logan thought.

“Yes, that sums it up rather nicely.”

Jon glared at Logan.

“I don’t know whether to thank you for your offer of help or call one of the medics and have you permanently sedated as being totally loony. That is the word you Brits use for a wack job, isn’t it? Looney.”

He smiled.

“That’s one of them. And if I have any input, I vote for the former option so we can get started.”

“He’s right, you know,” Caitlin said to Logan. “You are completely looney if you think you have a snowball’s chance in hell of pulling this off.”

“So, what you’re telling me,” Logan said, “Is you don’t think you can hack the system and blind the Yanks long enough for our lads to take out a hunk of that damned wall so America can be liberated from herself?”

“Oh, of course I can do that,” Caitlin said with a snort. “What’s not going to happen is finding one, an unused missile capable of launching a payload into orbit that can be launched, two, some kind of communications satellite that is still in working order and three, enough fuel to get the damned thing off the ground and into a stable orbit without, four, the Americans shooting it down on its way up.”

“Well, of course you can make it sound difficult,” Logan said. “But what if we don’t need to get it into orbit.”

She stared at him.

“What are you planning? What sort of scheme is knocking around that mostly unstable head of yours?”

Logan smiled. “It’s too early to tell, love. You just worry about the computers and you let me worry about getting our people to ride to the rescue of the Yanks, and in the process, give us a ride home. Now let’s go fill Willie and David in on the good news.”

“Which is?”

Logan laughed. “Always the optimist, aren’t you?”

“He wants to do WHAT!”

Jon sighed. He knew it would be a tough sell.

“Logan. . .”

“That wack job from England who showed up yesterday?”

Jon realized word of Logan’s idea had already made its way around the camp. He raised his hands to try and calm down the group of minutemen gathered in the mess tent.

“Logan thinks he has a good shot of reestablishing a communication link with Europe and if they hear the truth, they might just help us bring down The Wall.”

“And he plans to do that with some hair-brained scheme to launch a communication satellite? Jon, I’ve been up and down the east coast for years. There aren’t any of those left – at least not in workable shape.”

“I know, Charlie, I told him so, but he thinks his people would be able to get one working, if they could just get their hands on one.”

“OK, so maybe they can hotwire a satellite. How are they going to launch it?”

Falcon was standing closest to Kelley. Her eyes were blazing and Jon could tell she was spoiling for an argument at best, a fight at worst.

“They think they can find a working rocket – somewhere. Look, I know it sounds farfetched, but it’s the best idea I’ve heard in a long time, and it sure beats the hell out of our current strategy. Hit and run raids may get us extra supplies but it gets us nowhere in terms of changing anything. Maybe it’s time we asked for help.”

“It’s been tried before,” said David McAllister, one of Kelley’s section leaders. “They shot it down. What make you think this Logan can succeed where we’ve failed? We’ve been dealing with the Feds a lot longer than he has.”

“For one thing, he has some expertise we don’t,” John said. “He’s got a computer person he says can hack the Feds system and blind them to the launch.”

He looked around at the minutemen, his friends.

“I’ve got a feeling there’s a hell of a lot more to this Marcus Logan then meets the eye.”

Logan was drinking coffee in the mess hall when Jon found him.

“Just so we’re clear, everyone thinks you’ve complete gone ’round the bend,” he said.

Logan smiled.

“So I gathered.”

He took a sip of coffee and looked evenly at Jon over the rim of the mug.

“But are you in?”

Jon sighed. It was the sigh of a man fighting what he increasingly believed to be a battle he could not win, and seeing the proverbial last straw floating in front of him.

“Yeah, we’re in. What do you need from us?”

“Well, for the moment, just your continued hospitality – at least until we get a line on the hardware we’ll be needing – the missile and the satellite. But that’s Caitlin’s job, and she’s already working on it.”

“And then?”

“And then I’ll need you to provide a few of your people to help us get the missile, the satellite and get it in the air.”

Jon looked at Logan and shook his head.

“My friend, you are nuts. But at this point, maybe nuts is just what America needs.”

“What have you got?”

Logan walked into the old Ham shack that Caitlin was using for her base of operations.

“Not a lot, but what I have found is somewhat promising,” Caitlin said. “America’s been off the ’Net for years, so I wasn’t too surprised that most of the usual good search engines, Google, TranSearch and such came up empty. I’m assuming the Feds still monitor the ’Net, and their computers must have more layers of firewall than my Aunt Petunia has carrots in her garden back home. Even some of my own spiders couldn’t find a hint of anything interesting.”

“So you found nothing?”

“Well, not exactly nothing.”

Logan stood for a moment as Caitlin continued to examine her computer screen. He knew she zoned out sometimes when on the hunt, so gave her a few moments, but finally couldn’t wait.

“What exactly do you mean by ’not exactly nothing?””

“Oh, right,” Caitlin said. “I came up with, well not exactly information, but a hint of information, kind of like a whisper. Very obtuse comments on blogs that if interpreted just the right way might mean something.”

“And?”

“And what?”

Logan took a deep breath.

“What do you think it all means?”

“I, well, it could mean. . .” Caitlin’s voice trailed off.

“Look, love, if you found something, even a hint of something, I need to know it. Does it affect what we’re going to try and pull off?”

“Big time,” Caitlin said with a grim expression on her face.

“Good or bad?”

“Very good, and in a way very bad.”

“All right, then, out with it. What do you think?”

“I think the Yanks have been working on restarting their space program,” she said. “Or more precisely their ballistic missile program.

Logan raised an eyebrow. Jon Kelley whistled.

“What makes you think that?” Logan asked.

“Well, a lot of references to birds, and communication and then something about Star Wars. That seems to ring a bell, does it mean anything to either of you?”

Logan thought.

“All that comes right to mind is a very old movie,” he said.

“Oh my God,” Jon said.

Logan and Caitlin looked at him.

“What?”

“Star Wars was also a government defense initiative from the late twentieth century. It was designed to defend America from a surprise nuke attack using interceptor missiles. .”

“Doesn’t sound too bad,” Logan said.

“Another part of the program involved the use of killer satellites armed with nuclear powered lasers to take out missiles shortly after launch,” Jon said.

“Again, so?” Logan wasn’t seeing where Jon was headed.

“If the Feds found some of those old prototypes and got them working and got them into space, they could use them for nearly anything. Defense, or offense.”

It finally hit Logan.

“Meaning they could just as easily use these satellites to soften Europe up, take out our defenses before launching an invasion.”

“Exactly,” Jon said.

“But why? Aren’t the Feds strict isolationists?”

“They were initially,” Jon said. “But in case you hadn’t noticed, things aren’t going so well over here right now. We’re always short on fuel and supplies in general. The shipments we get on the robo-freighters only go so far. Perhaps there’s been a change in policy and someone has decided that maybe it’s time for America to rejoin the world – and not in a good way.”

Logan looked at Caitlin.

“We need more intel, something definitive.”

“In order for that to happen, I’m going to have to hack their system,” she said. “And on a remote link, that’s a risky endeavor.”

“Can you minimize the risk?”

“I could,” she said. “But it would mean getting inside a facility – any facility – where I could have a direct link.”

Logan glanced up at Jon.

“Can you think of someplace where Caitlin can patch in, someplace not too well guarded?”

Jon thought.

“Yes, I think I know just the place.”

Logan, Caitlin, Jon Kelley and several of Kelley’s minutemen remained hidden in a line of pine trees about 100 yards from a building that stood in the center of a small clearing. Just outside the building was an assortment of satellite dish and standard antennas.

“I thought you said you could get me a direct link?” Caitlin whispered.

“I did, and this is it,” Kelley replied. “Look at the top of the tower next to the building.”

He pointed to a small dish near the top.

“If I remember my electronics correctly, that’s a microwave link and as good as a wired connection.”

Caitlin thought. “Well, it is a little old school, but if my memory serves it is fast and relatively secure.”

“And you say this facility is never manned or guarded?”

Kelly looked at Logan.

“Never,” Kelley said.

“This is too easy,” Caitlin said. “Why wouldn’t they guard it?”

“You’ll see,” Kelley said as he motioned for two of his men to reconnoiter the building. They moved off silently into the woods, reappearing 10 minutes later.

“All clear, boss,” said the first man, a tall Hispanic looking man of about 30.

“OK, let’s move out, but everyone stay sharp,” Kelley said as he stood up and began to walk slowly toward the building.

They were all soon standing outside the locked and chained door.

“OK, now what?” Caitlin asked. “Even if you pick the lock, won’t there be an alarm of some sort.”

“You haven’t been paying attention,” Kelley said as he stepped aside to let the Hispanic minuteman pick the lock. “Things have been falling into increasing disrepair. There may have been an alarm at some point, but it failed years ago and as far as we can tell was never repaired.”

“And how would you know?”

“Because we keep an eye on this place and when the Feds do send someone out to check on the equipment, they never seem to realize that we have been inside.”

Just then the lock opened and the Hispanic man opened the door allowing the group inside. The building itself was about the size of a smallish house and was jam packed with monitors of different types which were all lifeless. There wasn’t a keyboard or any sign of a computer anywhere.

“Are you kidding me, this place is dead as a doornail,” Caitlin said.

“Not exactly,” Kelley said. “This is a relay station. We think the Feds actually kept this thing staffed back in the day, but haven’t for years. ”

Kelly walked over to one panel and pulled, revealing a panel with several connections.

“We found this about six months ago, but none of us had the skills to take advantage. This, I think, is your link.”

Caitlin walked over to the panel and looked, touching the connection gently with her fingers.

“It’s an old Ethernet all right,” she said as she began to unpack her laptop.

“With the question being, can you get in undetected?” Logan asked.

“Actually, that would be two questions,” Caitlin said as she pulled a cable from her carrying back and plugged one end into her computer. “One, can I get in and two, can I keep from being fingered.”

She plugged the other end into the connector in the wall.

“So, let’s just see how good I really am,” she said as she booted up her laptop.