Fade Out

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Authors: Patrick Tilley
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them in the President’s study, only nine of the top men in the Kremlin knew that the world had a visitor from outer space. Both nations had agreed, for the moment at least, to maintain total secrecy on the whole affair. The American military and civilian organizations involved were to be encouraged to accept Jodrell Bank’s statement that the orbiting craft was the ailing Jupiter probe. Conversely, the Russian personnel involved would be allowed to think that the craft was American. Because they were heavily insulated from the Western press and radio, there was a minimal chance of anyone over there catching the double play.
    The Russians had agreed not to make any statements to the Western press. Since their past space-flight mishaps and, more recently, the catastrophic accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant had been characterizedby the same tight-lipped approach, it would reinforce the conviction that they had another failure on their hands. In return, the President had promised to play down any reports linking the spacecraft with the fade-out. With the ‘spacelab’ satisfactorily identified and now predicted to descend and finally bum up as it entered the denser layers of the atmosphere, civilian observatories would turn their attentions elsewhere, and public interest would quickly wane. What happened after that would depend very much on what was up there.
    â€˜What are the chances of having one of our SAINTS look this thing over?’ asked the President.
    Fraser told him exactly what the chances were. Nil. There is always a risk to the bringer of bad news, but to Fraser it was worth it just to see Connors’ face.
    Considering the other shocks he’d had to absorb, the President took it rather well. He gave his nose a slow, sliding pinch but kept his eyes wide open. ‘Arnold, how soon could we send up a manned space shot to look this thing over?’
    â€˜The short answer is “we can’t”,’ replied Wedderkind. ‘The whole shuttle programme was knocked for a loop when we lost Challenger. NASA’s still trying to sort out the latest batch of design faults that have come to light.’
    â€˜So there’s nothing on the pad at Cape Canaveral…’
    â€˜Nothing we can put a man in.’
    â€˜Okay, but there must be duplicate Apollo modules around that were used for tests and training.’
    â€˜There are. We could probably blow the cobwebs off one of them. The problem is we don’t have any Saturn 5 rockets ready to lift it into orbit. We might be able to get something rolling but it’ll take at least three months to get it off the ground.’
    The President took a slow bite at his bottom lip andconsidered Wedderkind’s news. Connors caught his eye as his chair swivelled towards the window.
    â€˜In one sense, a manned flight is not a bad idea,’ said Connors. ‘But everybody in Houston Control and at the Cape is going to be in on this mission. They would have to be. It’s the way the setup works.’
    â€˜Yes, you’ve got a point there,’ said the President. ‘Can you see a way round that, Arnold?’
    â€˜Well, I know you feel a little sensitive on this issue because they’ve been pressuring you for funds, but we have to face up to the fact that we can’t lock NASA out of this much longer. We’re going to need their know-how. A lot of good people have left, but they still have some of the best brains in the business. I admit they’ve been laying on some heavy PR, but let’s also remember that for years they launched a lot of hardware for the Air Force and the CIA that a lot of people, including me,
still
know nothing about.’
    McKenna looked at Connors and smiled.
    â€˜Security is not really the problem,’ continued Wedderkind. ‘The spacecraft is orbiting one thousand miles out – slap in the middle of the inner Van Allen belt. When we had Skylab up there, it

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