“The only upside is that if we come under attack from space then it will negate the need for secrecy, at which point we can call upon our friends in Russia to launch their A-135s and the Chinese and Indian missile defense systems can also be deployed. If what we know about the satellites is accurate, then that would surely be the end of the fight. Between them, China, India, and Russia have more than treble our defense network, so the upside of our network being decimated would be the eventual destruction of the fourth and final satellite.”

“Assuming John Hunt is able to deploy the HMS Dauntless’s munitions, and they are successful.”

“Assuming John Hunt is successful, yes.” Neither of them doubted John’s ability, but to put so much faith in one man and his one ship was not the kind of redundancy upon redundancy that military men were trained to strive for. The fact that the man was John Hunt did make it easier, but even one of Britain’s cutting edge new Type 47 Destroyers had only so much exo-atmospheric firepower.

The captain recapped the conversation so far, “So, if we can destroy the four satellites, and that is a big if, we are still left with a best case scenario where the continental United States will, most likely, be left with virtually no long-range missile defense system.”

The colonel shook his head, staring at the ground. He had come to the same conclusion. It was an appalling strategic position for any military man to consider.

Jack looked a little desperately at the colonel and then regained his composure. His back straightening again, he said, “Not desirable, I think you can agree, sir. Even if it is successful, which is far from certain. But Colonel, even that scenario is not the greatest of my concerns.” Jack paused, waiting for his mentor to react to that, but the colonel merely stared off into the distance. So he has seen it too, thought Jack, then continued slightly resignedly, “Clearly Madeline’s work with that machine she is working on is moving even faster than we could have hoped, and that is great, I don’t question that for a moment. No doubt Ayala and Madeline have now begun co-opting the new manufacturing abilities to produce the first prototypes of the antigen.

“But, well, I have thought long and hard about it, sir, and it just doesn’t add up. I just cannot see how we can spread the nano devices quickly enough, and diversely enough, to initiate the immunization of nearly seven billion people in time. It just isn’t possible.”