In truth, the project code the colonel was using referred to an upgraded GPS-based missile guidance system he was supposed to be testing. But the various civilian scientists Dr. Sobleski was consulting with didn’t know that. They just knew that any disclosures they made about their work here would be covered by the same threat of a lifetime behind bars that came with all highly classified work. Assuming none of them were spies, this should stop them from chatting about what went on in the lab to anyone, even other base personnel.

At some point, no doubt, the team was going to have to actually work on the GPS project whose budget the colonel was burning, but the senior officer would string it out for as long as possible.

“So,” continued Martin excitedly, “my colleagues here have set us up with a pretty potent device.” The laser the man was poring over looked like a medium-sized spotlight, about fifty centimeters across and a meter deep.

It was mounted on a motorized rotating frame designed to point the big device at airborne targets. This was because the lethal device was in fact a beta test of a now obsolete missile defense system. At the request of Martin and the colonel, it had been revived for this test, though, and it was now pointing across the room at a series of sheets of metal mounted on a twenty-inch-thick concrete block.

“OK, gentlemen, it’s time we started our control test. Colonel, those sheets represent a rough approximation of the military grade steel that a missile defense laser would have to penetrate or buckle to render one of our munitions inoperable. Now, we know that as of now, our missiles carry enough shielding to protect them from low-level laser attack. But apparently the Chinese are looking into ways of increasing the power/heat output of their systems and our job is to make sure our missiles stay one step ahead of them.”

“Sounds good, Doctor. So what are your initial thoughts about how to increase the shielding’s resistance?” asked the colonel, playing along with Martin’s charade. He knew that they really only needed the laser so that they could design and then test the mounting of the new armor plating they would need. They already knew the primary method they would use for buffering the missiles against the satellites’ scything laser. All they really needed to do was design the shape of the plates they would need and then supply that to Madeline. The real benefit would come when she then used the resonance manipulator to morph a wide array of raw materials into the plates with the same properties as the superconducting alloys the alien satellites were coated in. The task would then fall back on the team to take these plates and get them installed on enough of the GBMD missiles to make them able to penetrate the satellites’ defenses.