when it was shot down.
And not just an ordinary ‘robot,’ or unmanned aerial vehicle, commonly known as a UAV. The experts interpreted the poor quality of the radar returns to indicate that the tiny aircraft was faceted much the way first-generation Stealth fighters were; the blanks in the simulation that made the plane jerk across the screen were a function of weak or missing radar returns. The experts had also determined that the craft had been going somewhere around 400 knots and took a turn sharp enough to pull close to ten g’s.
Designing and building a small aircraft – its wingspan appeared to be under ten feet – was certainly difficult, but the real achievement was controlling the robot. To make it fly and maneuver in real time took considerable skill, skill that until now had resided only at Dreamland. While there was a variety of UAVs around, most flew preprogrammed courses or went relatively slowly. Only the U/MF-3 Flighthawks developed at Dreamland were capable of high-speed maneuvers and aerial combat.
Imitation might be the highest form of flattery, but in this case it could also be deadly. Properly handled, the U/MF-3s were almost impervious to American defenses. If the ghost clone – one of the techies had named it that while reviewing the radar and telemetry intercepts – was armed, no part of the country would be safe.
‘So whose is it?’ asked Rubeo, voicing the question of the hour.
‘Could be a Russian project,’ offered Jennifer.
‘Yes,’ murmured Rubeo. ‘It’s possible.’
‘And they stole it two years ago.’
‘The intelligence assessments would have shown this,’ said Rubeo. Dreamland had been rocked two years earlier when a deeply planted Russian spy was exposed. He had compromised some of the facility’s top projects, and in many ways Dreamland had never been the same. But he had no access to the Flighthawk project, as an extensive investigation had proven.
So if the technology had been stolen, someone else had done it.
Someone still working at the base.
Rubeo stood back from the screen.
‘Our code or not?’
‘Very close,’ said Jennifer. ‘It uses similar theories and compression schemes.’
‘So what does it mean?’
Jennifer pointed to the first few integers. The code was in base sixteen. ‘It’s detecting the radar, giving a position, tagging the type, and then I think this part confirms a maneuver it’s already started on its own.’
‘Still think it’s a coincidence?’ Rubeo asked her.
‘Mmm,’ she said. ‘It could be.’
‘The memorial service is in half an hour,’ he told her. Then he walked from the room.
Colonel Tecumseh ‘Dog’ Bastian looked out at the apron in front of Dreamland Hangar Two. A half-dozen temporary bleachers had been erected in front of the building; augmented by a sea of folding chairs, they held a good portion of the men and women he oversaw at the hightech developmental base in the wastelands near Glass Mountain, Nevada. In front of the bleachers was a podium; off to the side, a short row of folding chairs. In a few minutes, an honor guard would appear from the building for a ceremony commemorating a recently concluded operation in the Pacific. Some of the people back at the Pentagon called the action ‘the Piranha Incident’ because of the undersea surveillance weapon Dreamland had used during it; to Dog, the nickname was appropriate for its bloody connotation – the operation had been a man killer. Five members of Dreamland had lost their lives during it: four when a Megafortress was shot down by an errant Chinese missile; the fifth had stepped on a mine during a support operation.
Ostensibly, the ceremony that was about to kick off would honor the living – the President had issued a special, albeit secret, unit commendation to Dreamland, which would be read by the President’s representative, NSC assistant director for technology, Jed Barclay. But for Dog and most of the people attending, the ceremony was mostly about the men who had lost their lives.
It was something of a cliché to refer to military commands and bases as families. In many cases, it wasn’t a very accurate description – thousands and thousands of men and women might work at a typical base. The majority would have little contact with one another outside of their assignment area. But Dreamland was different. Ostensibly part of Elliott Air Force Base, the home of the High Technology Aerospace Weapons Center, Dog’s command was an ultra-secret and relatively small unit contained at facilities adjacent to the main base. Dreamland didn’t just make the country’s next-generation weapons; they tested them in combat under an ops program known as Whiplash, which answered to the President through the National Security Council. Whiplash was Dog’s brainchild.
Only a few hundred people worked here, and the majority lived here as well. Not only did civilian experts mix freely with military personnel, service people of all ranks worked together in as close to harmony as the high-pressure, creative atmosphere would allow. The cafeterias, lounges, and rec areas were ‘all ranks,’ open to everyone who worked at Dreamland, from Dog all the way to the kitchen help. Pilots still ruled the roost – it was, after all, an Air Force operation – but, with a few notable exceptions, the zippersuits kept their egos well in check.
Partly, that was a function of whom they worked alongside. Everyone here was the best of the best. The ordies loading missiles to be tested on a plane were likely to have helped design and build the weapon. And partly, it was a reflection of Dog’s own personality, and his desire to run a cutting-edge operation that made a difference, not just for America, but for the world.
Dreamland had done that, as Piranha proved. But it had also paid a terrible price.
The loudspeaker near the side of the bleacher blared with a solemn martial tune. The colonel stiffened, waiting for the honor guard that just now emerged from the building. He glanced at the bleachers, where everyone had suddenly snapped to attention. Despite the solemnity of the occasion, the scene brought a smile to his lips – not only were all of Dreamland’s military personnel wearing freshly starched uniforms, but the civilian scientists, engineers, and other technical experts were wearing their own Sunday best – suits and dresses.
Dresses!
Ties!
These were as rare a sight at the top-secret base as any Dog could imagine.
The colonel fell in, his legs a little rusty as he marched to his place at the front. He was joined by the Reverend Madison Dell, Dreamland’s chaplain, and two other members of his staff: Major Natalie Catsman, who had just been named second in command at the facility, replacing Nancy Cheshire, who had recently been given new responsibilities integrating the Megafortress in the regular Air Force; and Captain Danny Freah, who besides being the head of base security also commanded the Whiplash ops team, the ground force charged with providing security and ground intervention in connection with Dreamland deployments.
After a brief prayer, Dog stepped forward. He’d worked on his speech for several hours the night before, carefully revising and rewriting it over and over again. But now as he walked to the microphone, he decided not to take it from his pocket.
‘I don’t have a lot to tell you,’ he said simply. ‘You’ve done a good job, and I know you know that. I also know that, like me, you’re hurting today, because of our friends who aren’t here. Unfortunately,
