Fail safe

Fail Safe Word Count
2954

The launch Control Facility (LCF for short, the military loves Acronyms) designated as number 12, was located in the middle of nowhere. It was a small building, as buildings go completely unassuming in appearance, but its purpose for being was anything but. When the alert sounded, 1/3 of the men assigned, were on patrol, 1/3 were sleeping, and the rest were playing cards.

The Master Sergeant, a 29-year, veteran, from San Diego, looked across the table to the white faced 2nd Lieutenant, still holding onto his cards, but otherwise unmoving. "It's your bid, soldier, are you in or out?"

The Lieutenant stammered, "BBBut Sarge, the...

"Damn it Lieutenant, don't they teach you shave tails anything at OCS." " Look at the pretty lights, on the pretty board." " What do you see?" " Oh Defcon three is lit, that and $2.50 will get you a cup of coffee." The Sergeant shook his head in mock disgust, and then yelled "Carlisle."

A thick mass of blonde hair, attached to a pimply faced 22 yr old PFC, from Arkansas pocked his head around the mess hall doorway. "Whatcha need Sarge?" he asked as he shoved a large spoonful of something, resembling Apple Pie into his mouth.

"Kill that freaking noise." " If it goes on much longer, I think the lieutenant here is likely to piss his pants." Then, seeming like an afterthought added, "And check communications, make sure patrols ok."

Corporal Moniz, brown haired, 20yr old Computer Tech, wiz kid, from Des Moines;
Sitting on the Sergeants left, grinned. Corporal Danvers, a 22yr old, Military Police Officer sitting on the Sergeants right, grunted. "We playing cards, or what?"

As the piercing wail of the siren stopped, The Sergeant looked at the ashen-faced Lieutenant. "Well you in or out?"

The Lieutenant checked his cards, "I'll raise you $2.50; I'll want a coffee while I'm at your Court-martial for insubordination."

"Yea, good luck with tha...the Sergeants reply was cut off by a ear splitting warble. As he glanced up at the board, his stomach lurched. Defcon 1 was lit. Nuclear war.

"Aw hell." he groaned as he jumped up from his chair, "The shits finally hit the fan."

At that moment PFC Carlisle charged into the room, his facial expression said all that was needed to know.
"Sarge, Lieutenant, communications are down, all of it." "No chatter from Norad, or the big house, and the radiation meter, is off the scale." "I can't raise patrol either."

He continued, his voice shaking, "Before the Com went down, it showed tracers, there's incoming heading for every major city, in the US." And Sarge, he paused, umm and Lieutenant...The safety doors dropped, the Emergency Teams trapped in the ready room." his mouth moved but no words came out.

"Spit it out son." The Sergeant growled.

"Well before everything went dark, I pulled up the cams in the launch room, both...both of the Captains were on the floor, I don't know what happened.... they weren't moving sirs."

"Damn, the Sergeant turned. "Orders Lieutenant?"

The Lieutenant sat unmoving staring straight ahead.

"Oh, that's all we freaking needed." PFC Danvers shouted to no one in particular. "We're under attack, we can't launch our birds, and Lieutenant Useless, is living up to his name."
He turned to the Sergeant, "Orders sir?"

"Aw, hell no." The Sergeant pointed at the comatose Lieutenant, he's in charge.

PFC Danvers looked from one to the other. "Chain of command sir." "As Senior Non-Com, you get the duty." "Besides, he gestured at the table. "Lieutenant, I don't know my ass from a hole in the ground, is incapacitated." he grinned, "Tag your it."

"I can do it sir." Corporal Moniz's voice cut in.

"Do what?" asked the Sergeant

"Our birds, I can let them out."

"What! Look, kid, I know your good; but fixing the damn coffee machine is one thing. Firing off nukes...without launch codes, or orders is a whole different animal."

Carlisle broke in "Sarge if he's right, we're already under attack." " The com is linked by satellite, there's only one way that can go down, no ones home anymore." "Screw orders, we can't get them, if there's no one to send them."

Corporal Moniz's voice was steady. "Sarge, I didn't join the military voluntarily, or to see the world...

"That see the world shit is Navy."

"Whatever, ...Navy, Army, who gives a flying rats ass. Will you shut up and listen. I got busted for hacking. It was join the military or rot in prison."

"Must have been some hack, so what exactly did you do...Never mind, don't answer I don't want to know. If you're that good, then why are you here, and not with the rest of the geeks, in a think tank somewhere?"

"Moniz raised his pants leg to reveal a silver bracelet, wrapped around his ankle. A tiny green led was lit. I'm lo-jacked. The Military Shrinks, thought it would be good, if I logged some down time, with the rank and file." "I ahhh never was much of a people person."

"Swell, okay Mr. Wizard, lets say we let you mess with the system. You do realize if you screw up, the fail safes will kick in and we all go?"

"Understood sir."

"The Sergeant rubbed his eyes, "Stop calling me sir, unless you want my size 9.5's kicking yer skinny ass, across the room. "Carlisle, Danvers, what do you think?" "Should we let Gates Jr. have a go at it?"

In one quick move Danvers had drawn his sidearm, he pointed it straight at Carlisle's head.

"Well sir, he said as he flicked a small lever on the guns side, causing the clip to fall out and down, onto the floor.

"If Carlisle here is telling the truth...

His left hand had removed another clip, from the belt on his pouch. He inserted it into the gun and yanked the slide back, in one smooth motion. The chambered round; clicked into place. His arm hadn't moved an inch, and the weapon remained pointed at the Corporals head.

"Than I don't know what we have to lose."

His voice turned as cold as a Planet Neptune Winter.
"Carlisle, do I have your undivided attention?"

Carlisle, his face an interesting shade of green, nodded mutely.

"The clip I just loaded in carries some very special rounds, not exactly military issue. Not only will they take your head clean off your shoulders, they'll carry the pieces back to your mama in Arkansas."

"I'll know if you lying, so I'm going to ask you once, and once only." "Everything you told us, is it the truth or not."

Carlisle was visibly shaking, "I swear, all of it, Gods honest truth."

"I don't believe in God."

"Then that's your friggin problem." His color slowly returning, Carlisle's eyes remained focused on Danvers.

Danvers stared at him for what seemed like an hour, but was really only seconds; he holstered the weapon. "Sarge, I say we do it." "Hell we may be the only ones left, able to fight back.

The Sergeant nodded "We're agreed then." He turned to Moniz, "Okay MacGyver, what do you need?"

"My laptop case, and the Lieutenants Access card." He started walking towards the kitchen.

"Where the hell you going?" Danvers asked, "This is not a good time for a snack."

"There's a service access panel, behind the freezer, we need to tap into it." The wiring harness is tied directly to the launch computer."

"There is?" "How the hell do you know that?"

"Trust me, its there."

"What the hells, launch control wiring doing in the kitchen?"

"Piss poor design, a glitch in the schematics. They found it after the LCF' went active." "On the plus side, its shielded, protected against EMP, and runs off the auxiliary power generator located in this facility. "To expensive and time consuming to fix." "Besides your not doing good listening, I said the harness was there, not launch control."

"Right, no idea what the hell you're talking about, I'll go get your laptop." Danvers disappeared into the outer room.

In the kitchen, Moniz and the Sergeant, each grabbed a side of the freezer, and pulled. It slid easily into the middle of the room. They stood staring at the blank section of wall.

The smooth section of blank wall stared back.

Danvers returned, dropped the laptop case onto the counter, and joined them.

"Nice wall."

The Sergeant pulled a cigarette from the pack in his pocket and lit it. "Moniz, you sure about this?"

Moniz had already removed the laptop, and placed it on the counter. As he turned it on, a grinning skull filled the screen, its mouth opening and closing as if it were laughing. Moniz turned and continued rummaging around inside the laptop case.

"Its there." "Behind the wall." He removed a cable, and a small black box.

"Okey dokey." Danvers drew back his leg, and sent a vicious kick into the wall. The plaster splintered, leaving a small hole; He kicked it twice more, and the hole grew larger.

As he drew back for another kick, the Sergeant placed a hand on his shoulder. "That's enough, you might break something." He walked to the wall, flipping his half smoked cigarette, into the sink.

"That shit will kill you Sarge."

"Maybe, but not today." "Get your sorry ass over here, and give me a hand." "You to Carlisle." He grabbed a piece of the dangling plaster and tore it off the wall.

Danvers and Carlisle joined him. Within two minutes they had a hole four feet high, and three feet wide, revealing a dull gray metal cabinet recessed inside.

"I'll be damned." The sergeant inspected the cabinet, than took a step back.

"Moniz, this things locked, it has a card reader, and a keypad." " I'm also willing to bet, it's wired to blow."

"Probably, that's what I'd do." Look, take it easy Sarge; Moniz approached the panel, "Piece of cake." I need the Lieutenant's access card."

Carlisle, who was busy micro waving another dessert, turned and removed the card from his pocket, he handed it to Moniz. "Aren't you going to need a password or something?"

Moniz took the card, "You can bet your ass, I will."

"But you don't...

"Just watch grasshopper, most people are predictable, and lax about security. First we'll try the five most common passwords; 123456, jesus, password, love and 12345678."

Carlisle shook his head, and headed for the microwave, as it dinged softly.

Danvers watched as Carlisle removed an Apple Pie, "Are you for freaking real?" "We're in the deepest shit possible, and your having lunch."

"I'm a growing boy, besides this is a dessert, I love these pies." "Would you feel better, if I ran around pissing and moaning instead?"

"Can it you two." The sergeant watched as Moniz, inserted the Lieutenants access card into a box, attached by a cable to the laptop, which he then slid through the reader, on the panel.

The screen flashed, and filled with numbers, when it stopped, it read enter access code. He punched in the first code. The led blinked red, and let out a small beep. Typing at a speed, which would make Mavis Beacon Flinch, he repeated the process. After 4 unsuccessful tries, he sat back on his heels.

"What's wrong MacGyver?" The Sergeant asked

"Didn't work."

"I can see that." " Why haven't we blown up, don't you get a certain number of tries before,,,,BOOM!"

"As a rule, yes. But I'm overriding it." "Is the Lieutenant married?"

"Yes."

"Do you know his wife's name?"

The sergeant scratched his chin, then lit another cigarette, "Umm I think its Brenda."

Moniz typed it in. "Nope, does he have kids?"

"Yea, a little girl, I think her name is Molly."

Moniz typed it in, the led flashed green. After a tiny click the door popped open.

"Shit, nice work there, Corporal."

Inside the panel, were a series of receptacles, each connected to massive amounts of wiring, all colors, and sizes, which ran off and down in different directions. A red panel with 12 zeros, showing, was positioned directly above.

"Not that I'd fully understand, but what's next?"

Moniz had switched the cables on the laptop; he plugged the square shaped silver cube into one of the six receptacles. The laptop screen flickered, and a series of numbers filled the screen. Within seconds, the number 9 replaced one of the zeros, on the led panel.

"Well I'm connected directly to the main launch control computer console for the missiles." I bypassed the lockouts, and all the other safeties." Another digit replaced another zero; "I told it we're running a launch simulation." "It'll assign a launch code." He gestured at the led, which now had 4 numbers showing. When it gets all 12, it'll simulate a launch." "Only....

"Only what?" Demanded Danvers

Moniz stood, "In laymen's terms, because the main computer is thinking it's only a simulation, it'll send the simulated code to the silo's." " Since I locked out the silo's, computers, they don't know it's a simulation, they'll treat it as the real deal"

They stood watching in silence, as the eleventh digit popped up.

"Can you stop it." Carlisle's voice was hushed

"No, I locked it all out, no one can, not even me." "They're on their way in 10 seconds."

"Oh sweet Jesus, what have we done?" Danvers whispered

"I thought you said you weren't religious?"

"I lied."

The sergeant rested his hand lightly on Danvers shoulders, as the twelfth digit appeared.

"Take Moniz, get those safety doors open and free the response team. When you finish that, get the capsule open, dead or alive, we need to get the Captains out of there."

The two men left.

Deep inside a mountain Somewhere in Colorado, a red-faced Colonel, accompanied by two burly guards, burst into a room containing six men, all were Scientists, Specialists, the best of the best, in a dozen disciplines of human behavior. One wall of the room was occupied by several dozen view screens, all showing various aspects of the interior of Building 12.

The Colonel spluttered "Tell me this is part of your experiment." "Another simulation." "Am I right or wrong?"

One of the scientists, his face pasty white, turned "No." he said "I'm afraid its not." "The experiment went wrong. "With the exception of the Lieutenant, they all performed, well they broke all the rules, their reactions, were not textbook responses....his voice trailed off

"You stupid sons of bitches, I though you planned for every contingency."

"So did we, but that young Corporal, he....

The Colonel turned to the two guards, "They stay here." He fairly spat out the words

"If they try to leave, shoot them." He headed for the door

In the corridor, the Colonel walked quickly, stopping outside an elaborate mahogany door, with a Gold plate attached, which read General Goldman. Sliding his access card, He burst into the room.

General Goldman was seated at his desk; leaning back in his chair, a drink in one hand. He was staring at a view screen, which showed over a dozen out bound white tracers.

Targets, every major city and some not so major, circled in red. The tracers were moving incredibly fast, the red circles, looming closer and closer with every tick of the clock.

"Colonel."

The Colonel gave a half hearted salute. "We have a problem sir. "This is not a simulation."

The General sighed, and picked up the receiver, on the white phone sitting on his desk, after a brief couple of seconds, he intoned, "Mr. President, we have a problem.