T he wind was still howling up the Copper River Valley, buffeting the control station at Gakona, but for Dr Tyler Jackson, alarm bells were ringing over what was about to unfold, and he didn’t notice. Howard Wiley had arrived on a flying visit for a briefing. The satellite image on the screen was marked TOP SECRET, pinpointing the location of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard base at Fordo near Qom, one of Iran’s holiest cities and a major seat of Islamic academic endeavour.
‘As you’re aware,’ Gakona’s director, Dr Nathaniel B. Hershey, began, ‘for some time we’ve suspected the Iranians have been constructing a nuclear facility deep within the mountains near Qom. The infra-red satellite imagery has not been able to penetrate the solid rocks, nor is it likely that our conventional weapons will be able to inflict any significant damage.’ Hershey flashed up a diagram that showed the intended path of the extremely high-energy but low-frequency radio waves HAARP was capable of generating.
‘The second experiment in the Operation Aether series will beam three billion watts of energy directly into the suspected Iranian complex. If all goes well, anything inside the mountain will be destroyed. H-hour for the transmission burst will be in three days from now, at 0300 hours, our time. That’s 1530 hours Iranian local time, when the maximum number of workers will be on duty.’ Hershey went on to explain the details of the impact of the high-energy heat burst. He paused at the end of his briefing to allow questions. Jackson seized his chance, determined to sound one last warning.
‘There is, of course, a risk with this experiment,’ he began. A look of thunder appeared on Hershey’s square rugged face. ‘Deep-earth tomography has never been tried on this scale before, and the results are therefore unknown. It’s not inconceivable that this massive burst of energy may upset the earth’s rotational spin. The earthquake off Sumatra that caused the devastating tsunamis in 2004 measured 9 on the Richter scale, and we have incontrovertible evidence that it increased the earth’s wobble, moving the poles by several centimetres. Three billion watts of energy may have an even more devastating effect than a natural earthquake.’
‘That is pure conjecture, Dr Jackson,’ Hershey responded icily.
Wiley turned in his seat and glared at the senior CIA scientist. ‘Isn’t that why we do experiments, Dr Jackson? To see if they work?’
‘We should learn from history, sir. In 1954, as you know, we detonated the first hydrogen bomb on the Bikini Atoll. The experiment Castle Bravo was expected to yield four megatons. Castle Bravo yielded nearly four times that, devastating the population, vaporising the test island, and leaving a mile-wide crater on the lagoon floor. The radioactive fallout reached as far as Australia, India and Japan. We’re in a similar situation with Operation Aether: we don’t know what might happen here. Worse still, we’re moving towards a once-in-26 000-year planetary alignment, which culminates in December 2012, when the Maya predicted the earth would be exposed to the power of a massive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way galaxy. We should at least postpone the launch of the missile and the ELF beam until after 2012, when the earth will most likely be in a more stable orbit.’
‘Mystical nonsense from a bunch of savages. And it may have escaped your attention, Dr Jackson, but by 2012, the Iranians will have the bomb.’ Wiley made a mental note to organise an early retirement for his aging scientist, and he stood to address the thirty or so other defense and civilian employees.
‘There’s been a lot of crap put about in the media recently,’ he began. ‘A lot of rubbish about targeting North Korea. So, I’ve launched an investigation. Let there be no doubt in anyone’s mind: when I discover who’s been leaking information to the media about our classified missile launches, they’ll wish they were dead. All of you are signatories to the Intelligence Authorization Act, and the fastest way to lose your balls or your tits is to breach it. This facility is for peaceful purposes, and that remains the official line. We don’t discuss intelligence or classified operations, period!’
As soon as he could leave the briefing room, Jackson went straight to his office. This experiment held the same uncertainties as Castle Bravo, but on a potentially far more devastating scale. Somehow he would have to find a way to focus international attention on the madness that was Aether.