CONTINUE MEDIVAC MISSION. IS COMM LINK WITH THEM
OK?
VAFB/SCM TO SACHQ/SJL
READ THEM LOUD AND CLEAR. WILL CONTINUE MISSION
AND STAND BY FOR RED ALERT.
SACHQ/SJL TO AFHQ/SJL, ADC/SCM COMMUNICATIONS WITH ORBITAL STATIONS ALPHA, BETA, GAMMA CUT OFF. HAVE INITIATED STANDBY FOR RED ALERT. AWAIT FURTHER ORDERS.
JSC/SJL TO ALL COMMANDS
RED ALERT. REPEAT, RED ALERT. ARM ALL MISSILES PREPARATORY TO STRIKE ORDER. FULL SECURITY ALL BASES AND SUBMARINES. ALL LEAVES CANCELED. THIS
IS NOT A DRILL. REPEAT, THIS IS NOT A DRILL. ACTIVATE SUBROUTINE 98-00622.
QUERY. QUERY. QUERY. NETWORK REQUIRES AUTHORI- ZATION FOR ACTIVATION OF SUBROUTINE 98-00622.
AUTHORIZATION SUBCODE JCS/AAA 11813175441514.
AUTHORIZATION SUBCODE ACCEPTED. SUBROUTINE 98-00622 ACTIVATED.
ACK. SUBROUTINE 98-00622 BEGINS:
CHIEF OF STAFF TO ALL BASE AND FBMS COMMANDERS:
MEN, WE ARE ON THE BRINK OF THE NATION'S SUPREME TEST. THE WORLD DEPENDS ON US TO FACE DOWN THE AGGRESSORS WHO THREATEN CIVILIZATION. I KNOW THAT EACH OF YOU WILL DO HIS DUTY, AND FUTURE GENERATIONS OF AMERICANS WILL BE PROUD OF YOUR HEROISM AND DEDICATION. GOOD LUCK. GOD BLESS AMERICA.
By 2000 hours Alpha was securely in the hands of the Luniks. All of Stahl's men were back in their quarters, cowed and disarmed. Several were in sick bay, oxygen masks and IV tubes feeding into them while medical teams grimly tried to keep their oxygen-starvation injuries to a minimum. The dead were being prepared for shipment Earthside.
Kinsman split his tiny command into three groups and set up a sleeping routine. He put a lieutenant in charge as Officer of the Day, then made his way down to Level Three and the comm center. The extra weight there was still painful. He braced himself in the doorway as he received reports. Extra men and women were on their way from Selene. The troop- ship had re-entered Earth's atmosphere and made an emer- gency landing at Patrick Aerospace Force Base, in Florida. The medivac mission would rendezvous with the station in less than an hour.
"There's all sorts of queries and messages from Earth- side," the youngster running the comm center told him. "Should we continue radio silence?"
Kinsman nodded slowly, and it made his head feel like a cement mooring block. "Got to. We can't let them know what's happening until we've got enough of our own people here to run the whole ABM system."
The young officer shrugged. The heavier-than-lunar gravity did not bother him in any discernible way.
