THE ARK

Day 302

While Air Force Colonel Roger Barrett drove to work that morning, he thought again about the highly unusual events that had taken place over the last few weeks.

As the commanding officer of the remote, desert missile testing facility, he and his team were responsible for the scheduling and conducting of tests of many different types of military hardware.

For the last few weeks, he and his team were working with the Army on preparing for the testing of some classified new missiles. He had not been able to learn much, other than they were highly classified and that they were massive in size. That did not seem to make much sense. This facility was typically used to test smaller weapons that would only travel a few hundred miles at the most.

In the case of larger missiles, which would travel much greater distances, these tests usually were conducted on the coast. This way if there were a problem and the rocket had to be destroyed, the debris would land harmlessly in the ocean. This week’s launches would break that rule.

Today was to begin the week-long string of missile launches from this facility. This was by far a most unusual project, for more than just a few reasons.

The missiles in question were of a design that he had not seen before, and the one time he had asked about the payload it had been made clear that the specifications that he had been provided were all that he needed.

He had also not been made aware of the details about where these rockets would be coming down. Based on their size it was clear that they would be traveling a long distance. Normally he would be involved in the briefings that discussed all on these details

It also seemed that an Army Four Star was running the project, and this added to the mystery.

Colonel Barrett drove up to the gates at the Air Forces facilities only entrance and had to present his ID to a US Army Corporal who looked at it, and back at Barrett repeatedly before allowing him to pass. Barrett’s normal security personnel knew him and after just a good look at his face would normally allow him to pass. While that was not proper procedure, Barrett never said anything about this minor breach of protocol.

As he drove into the facility, located in the Mohave Desert, he was amazed at the intense increase in security. There were heavily armed US Army personnel all over the base. His regular Air Force Security force was all but unseen and the few that he did see were much more heavily armed than usual.

Barrett parked in his reserved parking spot and inwardly was somewhat surprised that the Army had not taken it since they had taken over everything else on his base. He walked the short distance to the to the mobile command trailer, and again showed his ID, this time to a young soldier with an assault rifle.

It was just after nine in the morning and the mobile command trailer was already heating up rapidly in the desert sun. Barrett was standing in the control room, and the more he thought about the strange situation the more uneasy he felt.

The launch countdown progressed, and there were a dozen people packed into the control room, half were his staff and the other half Army.

Some of his team made a final visual inspection of the rockets and they were escorted the whole time by stone-faced soldiers.

When the report came back as all clear, he picked up the special phone that had been installed for this project. It immediately rang on the other end. “General Draper,” boomed the voice on the on the other end of the phone.

“Sir this is Air Force Colonel Barrett, all preparations are complete and we’re requesting final launch clearance.”

“You are authorized to launch on schedule, contact me if there are any problems,” Draper said.

“Yes Sir,” responded Barrett

Three minutes later the first of the two rockets lifted into the sky, riding on an ever-fading plume of fire. Thirty seconds later the second rocket lifted off.

As Barrett and his team were conducting their post-launch procedures, he snuck a glance at the digital display that an Army officer was closely studying. He was shocked to see the course and trajectory of the rockets. They were clearly not going to be coming down at a remote site; in fact, they were not on a trajectory that would place them in an orbit either but were, in fact, going out into space.

Now Barrett was confused. The only things ever launched deep into space were automated robotic spacecraft used for studying objects in space. If that were the case why were they launching twenty rockets over a ten-day stretch and why all the secrecy?

These people were treating these things like nuclear weapons instead of space probes. That thought gave Barrett an idea that he quickly dismissed. After all launching nuclear weapons into space was a more ridiculous idea than any of the other scenarios that he had come up with.