Skyfall

“A greater disaster is in the making,” he wrote, “one that will make the tragedy of Cottenham New Town insignificant by comparison. The screaming death that hurtled out of the clear sky on that helpless city was just a single booster of the complex array of boosters, six in all, that lifted Prometheus into orbit where it now rests unstably, hurtling over our heads once every eighty-eight minutes. The boosters are toys compared to Prometheus for with its payload this vehicle weighs in excess of two thousand tons. A figure so large as to be meaningless — until we compare it to something we know. A US Navy destroyer. An entire destroyer is up there over our heads. The weight of all those guns, armor, engines, bombs, shells, munitions, all of that weight ready to fall. And fall it will — and bring down with it something far worse than sheer mass. Radioactive poisoning! For as fuel for Prometheus's motor there is carried five hundred pounds of uranium. When Prometheus hits the ground and explodes with the forces of a small nuclear bomb it will have a nuclear fallout for that poisonous radioactive metal will be turned to poisonous radioactive gas in an instant. Enough to kill two million people if it were dispersed finely enough. And where will this atomic bomb from outer space hit? It will strike…”

Where would the damn thing come down? Cooper thought. ie turned to a Mercator map of the world that he had spread jn the desk. On top of it was a transparent overlay sheet with the sine-wave shaped orbit drawn upon it. With each orbit the track changed as the Earth below revolved out from under the satellite. So… there… on the twenty-eighth orbit, when they had announced it would impact the atmosphere, it would be going… Christ!… right over the middle of the US!

Cooper shivered and looked out at the dark sky. The black birds of his predictions were coming home to roost. Far closer to his own head than he liked.

“We must face all the possibilities, Mr. President,” Dr. Schlochter said, nodding as he spoke. “There is a good chance that Prometheus may be destroyed---”

“I don't want to think about it. I get an ulcer when I do. Dragoni, another bourbon and step on it.”

“We must consider, I am afraid. Must consider the international aspects of another disaster. What this would do to our relations with the Soviet Union and with other nations.”

“Hey, do we consider the five in that thing and what we can do to help them?” Grodzinski asked. Dillwater nodded in the direction of the Secretary of Labor, a nod that was almost a slight bow of recognition. Grodzinski, for all of his gross and obvious faults, was at least thinking like a human being, about human beings.

“They are not our consideration,” Schlochter said, his nostrils flared slightly.

“I beg to differ with the Secretary of State,” Dillwater said. “I speak for NASA when I say the lives of those people are most valuable to us. It could not be different.”

“They're valuable, they're valuable,” Bandin said, ice rattling in his glass. “But that is not what we are talking about right this moment now. This is another consideration completely. What if they don't get that thing patched up? What if it does come down in twenty-six hours? Can we let it take out some American town like it did that Limey one? How are we going to stop that?”

“There is a way,” Bannerman said.

“A way to save this whole thing?” Bandin asked.

“I did not say that, Mr. President. I said there was a way to prevent Prometheus from falling and causing another disaster on Earth.”

“What's that?”

“If it could be destroyed in space — “

“Are you saying what I'm thinking, Bannerman?”

“I am, sir. We have defense rockets in silos and on the alert at all times to prevent a sudden nuclear surprise attack. These rockets are designed to intercept other rockets aimed at the United States and to destroy them. This would be a good test of the ability of the system.”

Simon Dillwater had to fight to keep the revulsion from his voice when he spoke. “Are you talking about deliberately destroying five human beings, General? Three of whom are American citizens?”

“I am.” Bannerman was calm, unmoved. “We take far greater losses in combat during a war and no one complains. By tomorrow morning ten times that number will be dead in auto accidents on our highways. It's not the number of lives that should be considered, nor the citizenship of the persons involved. Our only thought must be preventing a larger disaster that could be caused by the rocket striking the Earth.”

“Have you thought what would happen to the Prometheus program if this were done?” Dillwater asked.

“That is not a consideration at this moment,” Bannerman answered in his coldest drillfield voice. “If you'd done a better design job of building Prometheus we wouldn't be 'in this trouble right now.”

“You cannot say that….”