“A medium hydrogen bomb produces around ten to the power fifteen joules of energy in a millionth of a second, which works out at ten to the twenty-one watts, or a one followed by twenty-one zeros. That’s equivalent to the output of a trillion large power plants. That power radiated equally in all directions would be distributed over a sphere, which is divided into four pi units of solid angle called steradians. That gives you a density of around ten to the twenty—twenty zeros—watts per steradian.” He paused to let that sink in and invite questions. Solemn silence persisted.
“As a conservative estimate, assuming figures I was using ten years ago, the divergence of a beam generated by this kind of device might be five feet over a distance of a thousand miles, or in other words a millionth of a steradian. That means that anything within the cone defined by that beam will be hit by a bolt of energy a trillion times brighter than a hydrogen bomb. Putting that in practical terms, you could easily destroy an ICBM booster at launch from lunar distance. Or you could take out a harder target, such as a reentry warhead, say, from ten thousand miles.” Low whistles and some ominous glances greeted his remarks.
General Kilburn shook his head. “I don’t know. . . . You said you were working on this? We could have had it years ago. What happened to it all?”
Keene shrugged. “It was talked about. But a lot of people said it was impossible, and they were the ones who were listened to. The same ones who said planes could never fly, satellites were impossible inside a hundred years, and the Moon landing would never happen, I guess.”
“So what happened to the other people who were working on it?” Kilburn asked.
“One of the top ones I used to know was Robert Sterman at Los Alamos,” Keene said. “He and his family moved out to Kronia. It wouldn’t surprise me if he had a hand in what we’re talking about now.”
Novek from the NSC sat forward on one of the couches to reach for the last of some salmon sandwiches that had been brought in earlier. “So at the hundred-mile limit that Idorf has stipulated . . .”
“Don’t even think about it,” Lomack said from a chair near where Keene was standing. “Any material absorbing energy at that rate will turn into a piece of the Sun.”
Seemingly, Novek had ordered the block on communications with the Kronians as a precaution immediately after he learned of what was still being referred to as the “situation”—which Keene wasn’t supposed to know about and Lomack still didn’t. Nobody had criticized the decision, and President Hayer had expressed approval that Novek had done no more than his job. The hold on providing a shuttle to take the Kronians up to the Osiris was simply an extension of the same policy until the official line was decided.
More serious was the demand that had been put to Idorf to allow the Osiris to be boarded, which Keene obviously knew about since it had been the last straw that prompted Idorf to contact him. The explanation given was that the President had authorized the signal after satellites observed launch preparations at Chinese and European military bases, and intelligence analysts voiced fears that a foreign move to seize the Osiris might be imminent. These reports had been exaggerated, and Born had given a contorted account blaming the confusion on a mixup in communications between Defense and State. Keene had no way of knowing whether the story was accurate or just for his and Wally’s benefit. He had a feeling of some wriggling and shoe-shuffling going on, and from Hayer’s reaction got the impression that the President had suspicions too—but it was hardly Keene’s place to comment. Why foreign powers should want to seize the Osiris had not been explained.
Hayer’s immediate concern was to smooth things with the Kronians before Idorf took it into his head to start broadcasting his grievances to the whole world. “Let’s make sure we manage our own public affairs,” Hayer said to the room. “That Idorf chose to communicate privately with Dr. Keene tells us he’d still prefer to straighten things out with us than compound the problem, so let’s use that chance while it’s there. Then we can do something about relaxing these restrictions.”