October 4, 2025
Fragment 6: Sasha - DEFCON-1

The President insisted. "And?"

The general glanced at Sasha, then said "Sir, this information is only for maximum security clearance -".

The President waved him off. He turned to Sasha. "What's your clearance level?"

"Confidential, sir."

"Are you a spy for a foreign adversary?"

"No, sir." Sasha felt like if she hesitated, she may have answered incorrectly somehow.

"Then congratulations Ms. Holmes, you're now Top Secret clearance." The President turned back to the general who struggled to maintain a sense of decorum. "Well, general? The nuclear arsenal?"

The general gulped and continued. He laid out a stack of printouts on the table and pulled one long ribbon of paper out to the top. "Here sir, is a readout from the worldwide hydroacoustic network." When unfurled, the ribbon stretched about three feet and had a seismograph-like line across it. For most of the way across the paper, the line was fairly steady, with perceptible but tiny wiggles from baseline. Then, at the point marked 2:59 ET, the line jumped to the top edge of the ribbon before bouncing back and forth around baseline for a few minutes.

"How many?" The President asked.

"Sir, we've been unable to contact any of the submarine crews."

Jamie ran his hand over his face, the levity he had earlier now sucked out of his lungs. "Do we know if the Russians or the Chinese fleets are still operational?"

"No sir, no reports yet. We do know," the general spread a few more handwritten notes on the table, "that allies in the United Kingdom and France have reported a loss of radio contact with their submarines as well."

"And the weapons themselves?"

The general pulled out another ribbon of paper. This one had a flat line across the entire page.

"Sir, this is the data from the seismograph network. If weapons had detonated, we'd expect to see substantial movement."

The President exhaled at the silver lining, his shoulders relaxed. "So someone blew every one of our nuclear submarines, and our allies' nuclear submarines out of the water, without detonating the bombs."

"We'll get confirmation from our ocean water fallout tests within the next few hours, but that is our current operating assumption."

Sasha watched Jamie's eyes search the dead space in front of him.

"Sir, that's not everything." The general pulled out another instrument readout from the pile. This one fit on a normal sheet of paper, and had two plots on it. The top one looked similar to the seismograph, but Sasha realized it was a spectrum analysis, with the peaks corresponding to elemental signatures. The two plots were identical, save for one set of jagged peaks that were present in the first plot, and missing from the second. The general continued.

"The top analysis is from last week. Regular testing of a representative sample of the Minutemen payloads. We re-ran the analysis after losing contact with the SSBN fleet. That's the bottom. As you can see, the radioactive signatures are absent."

The President stared in awe at the readout. "How confident are you that this holds for the rest of the arsenal?"

"I've ordered additional tests sir, but for the meantime, we should assume we are effectively toothless."

Jamie reeled at the information. America's backstop of guaranteed national security was gone. The nuclear arsenal was just a bunch of fireworks.

"Sir, I recommend at this time placing the military at DEFCON-1. We have limited information on the adversary and assume that our opponents are still armed. We should mobilize for immediate war."

Sasha watched as the weight settled onto the President's shoulders again. He paced the room and pulled Luis away to a corner to deliberate. The general remained stationed by the instrument readouts. Sasha felt the weight in her gut as she imagined a world on the brink of war, with her home no longer the de facto victor. How could things move this quickly to the edge?

Before she could stop herself, Sasha addressed the general. "Respectfully sir, the assumption that we're outmatched leads to a dangerous escalation."

The general, forced to reconsider her presence, grew stern. "Ma'am, I've been doing this a long time, and it will not be on my watch that we fail to defend ourselves. Respectfully."

"But we don't even know who we are defending ourselves from," Sasha rebutted. "If you order naval or air engagements, and you're mistaken, this could drag us into a war that may outlast your watch." She grabbed a blank sheet of paper and scratched out a series of four questions with two columns for answers marked "Y" and "N". She shoved it into the general's hands. "This is a standard information exchange format. I'm a radio operator, and even though I don't know who to call, I know who to call to find who we need. Now, I speak enough Russian to be polite, not fast. It might take a while, but let me at least try to get some communications open on the subject. I suspect there are similar conversations going on in the Kremlin right now, and they may appreciate our willingness to de-escalate."

The general glared at her insolence, his face reddening at the implication that his course of action was not only foolish but ill-conceived. He was about to tear into Sasha's proposal when the President bumped his elbow.

"Doesn't sound like a bad idea to me, does it general?"

The slew of corrections got caught in the general's mouth as he stumbled over his words. "Sir, yes, it's an idea." He caught himself and straightened out his posture. "But it may give away more than we care to. Assume the Russians are not involved, they may see this as an opportunity to get involved while we are weakened. If they are the aggressor, then the reachout will open us to possible counterintelligence."

"Counter point," Sasha levied, "if the Russians are in the same situation as us, we have a much bigger problem on our hands. It would be good to quickly build trust and work towards an alliance."

The President stopped the argument before it could reignite. "We're not working up to war, and we're not about to forge an alliance. The important thing, as Luis and I were just discussing, is to ensure communication channels stay open. It's the only thing that got us through the cold war, and it's our best strategy now." He looked to Sasha. "If you know who to contact, then let's get in contact. I'll give you thirty minutes. General, thank you very much for the report, and keep me updated as you learn more. We'll move to DEFCON-3, relay the order to the air force and navy."

Sasha and the general both nodded, each energized by the compromise. Luis ducked out of the room behind the general. Jamie ushered Sasha over to the radio set in the corner, where he relieved the busy staffer and asked her to sit. He had a way of flexing in and out of command that Sasha found mesmerizing, and in this moment, with the two of them huddled around the radio, she felt like she wasn't sitting next to the President. She was sitting next to Jamie. Another human just as confused, scared, hopeful, and unprepared for what was to come.

Sasha picked up the receiver and began searching the airwaves, praying to find that same humanity on the other end.