“I agree with your assessment. I will make the necessary arrangements,” the commander said.
“If you don’t mind, since I am the one making the formal request, I think I should be the one to tell him,” Miller said.
“Yes, you should, and I am glad to see that you understand that. It just solidifies my choice of having you become the Number Two,” he said.
“Thank you.”
“Anything else?”
“That’s all Commander,” Miller said.
“Good. I will tell Parker to come see you after I meet with him.”
“I’ll be waiting.”
“Congratulations on both promotions Number Two.”
“Thank you,” he said, standing and placing his cover back on his head.
He had almost saluted but caught himself once again.
Gimbel made the final adjustment. Everything checked out one hundred percent. Now all that had to be done was to button the weapon up and get it ready for testing. He could hardly contain himself. If the BlackStar worked as he had designed it to, this would be the dawn of a new era.
The only other obstacle was having a platform to test the weapon from, and that was General Devin’s problem, not his. After years of work his creation was finally ready.
The Su-11 would have made the prefect platform to deploy the weapon once it had been tested, but now that was being pushed back because of the crash.
Rumor had it that it may have been pilot error but no one was willing to blame him for the crash. All Dr Gimbel knew was that he wanted to arrange a test as quickly as possible. When he finished replacing the cover he called the general.
“General, BlackStar is ready to become operational.”
“Outstanding. We are actually ready to perform a preliminary test?”
“As ready as we will ever be. I just need a platform to test it from,” Gimbel said.
“I have been working on that and think I have a viable solution. I’ll be down in just a few minutes to go over my plan,” he said.
His voice was less gruff than Gimbel could ever remember. Gimbel went back over the weapon from top to bottom one last time, making sure that every part was securely in place.
“Dr. Gimbel, I am extremely pleased with the way you have performed. I can’t tell you how happy I am at this moment,” the general said, as he entered the lab.
It was the first time that any real praise had been handed out by Devin. Gimbel was a little taken aback by the total change in attitude.
“Thank you general. Here she is, and I am confident that it will work as designed,” he said.
“I have no doubt about that. You have done an amazing job.”
“I appreciate that,” was all that he could say.
“I want to do a low yield test as soon as we can. Here is what I have in mind,” the general said, waking over to a bench and hoisting himself up on it.
“I have a 6 x 6 flatbed standing by. I will need your crew to get it ready to be transported to the surface, but I want it covered. I want no one to see it but your crew. We are going to take it to a newly constructed site over at the South Base Operations Center. Once it gets there, I will have a rig welded to the truck so that it can be used for a test bed. I intend to have the BlackStar taken to the top of the Hump. That will give us a 5700 foot peak to test from.”
Gimbel scribbled down ‘THE HUMP’ and 5725 on a piece of paper.
The hump was a 5725 foot mountain that was situated between gate 700 and the Papoose Mountains and was just southwest of the main Area–51 base and landing strip.
“I have had three buildings constructed. One is traditional construction. The second one is reinforced and hardened and the last one is covered by ten feet of earth and rock,” he general said.
“And those will be our targets?”
“Yes, along with livestock that will be inside of each one. I will want you to work up a range of tests starting with the lowest power and working up to as high as we can go with the power available. That should enable us to evaluate the BlackStar.”
“And the power is coming from where?”
“I had a power generating plant built on top of the Hump. That will work for our low level tests and maybe a bit more.”
“All right, I will have my people begin crating the BlackStar immediately. We will need the necessary supplies, and I have to warn you, I doubt we are much good at being carpenters,” Gimbel said.
“You don't have to be. Just do the best you can. We will transport the BlackStar at 0215 from Level–1 to the South Base. We will have a thirty minute window before the Kronos-II satellite passes over. Once we get to the South Base we will have the braces welded on the 6 x 6 so we can run our tests,” the general told him.
“Well, I guess we had better get cracking. When can we expect the necessary supplies?”
“They are being loaded into the freight elevator as we speak. You will have them in just a few minutes.”
“Then if you will excuse me, I have to make the necessary arrangements.”
“Have at it,” the general said and left the lab.
