Project Boussh: Naked Force
by Brad Corletti

NORAD, Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado
November 22nd 2000, 5:00 Zulu

"Event!"

The surprised yell echoed through the command centre like a gunshot. The 
nightwatch hurriedly spilled their instant coffee and checked their screens.

"Satellites have detected a massive infra-red spike detected over eastern 
seaboard, inconsistent with any known missile types!"

"Location of spike determined: New Hampshire state!"

A blinking red light had appeared on Big Board at the far northeast of the 
continental United States.

"Take the DSP off Auto-Detect and run an error-check!" General Wilson 
barked. The crew ran the event manually, and still the same mysterious 
event. Infra-red spike, no known missile type, New Hampshire. And it was 
lingering.

Wilson shouted to the duty comm officer: "Send an OPREP-3 PINNACLE NUCFLASH 
4 to the National Command Authority on Nightwatch: SRV is Valid, repeat 
System Report Verification is Valid."

NUCFLASH 4 meant detection of unidentified objects by missile-warning 
system that created a risk of nuclear war.

The message came back from Command: Proceed to DEFCON 2.

--

The White House. No, Not That One, The Other One.
November 22nd 2000 5:05 Zulu (12:05 am Local)

"Well, what do you have for me?"

"Well, Mr. President, not much," National Security Advisor Bryan admitted. 
"NORAD spotted a massive infra-red energy spike over New Hampshire at 
midnight last night. Eyewitnesses have confirmed it. We've examined the 
satellite imaging and while none of them have gotten good views, it appears 
that the heat spike was some sort of energy bombardment from space. Without 
the Hubble we can't do any better than that."

"The Russians?" the President asked, although he already suspected the answer.

"Not as far as we can tell, sir. The International Space Station was 
nowhere near the predicted blast point. Nor have we been able to determine 
what it was in New Hampshire that provoked the attack."

"So what was it?"

"There's a theory going around that it has something to do with stellar 
radiation or something."

"Is that possible?"

"Beats me, sir," Bryan shrugged. "Seems pretty unlikely though."

"Agreed. What's your projection?"

"Either the Russians managed to sneak a chemical laser into a satellite and 
just wasted it to no effect, or ..." He couldn't bring himself to say it.

"Yes," Gore said. "It looks like the people upstairs are sending us a 
message of their own. Our thinking time is up."

The National Security Advisor looked from Clinton to Gore and back again.

"Who?"