Metafire

Jack opened the radio channel, then Steven Streep took control, "This is Bluebird. We have U.S. government orders to join with you. We are with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. FBI Agents. You must respond immediately!"

There was no response from Metafire Two. Jim Edenfield then said, "Steven, put it over optical." He was referring to the optical relay channel. Any capsule that was in contact with a power hub had an optical contact with the optical emergency contact channel. This was basically a light that communicated by flashing billions of times a second on the power hub. Any capsule would intercept messages and could be instructed to force the broadcast message into the capsule.

"Done," Steven said. Everyone waited for about a half a minute. The Metafire Two capsule had to receive this one since it was hard wired to provide an audible message inside the capsule. Still no response.

"Maybe optical doesn't work," Steven was willing to believe the system was going to fail. He had not had enough space experience to know one way or another.

"Then try the direct laser," Jim Edenfield was not going to be deterred. This flashed an extremely strong light. It was enough to wake people in the capsule. Furthermore, there were external alert receivers that could take the message packaged in the light burst and interpret it. At the very least the capsule would recognize the presence of the Bluebird and give a response of some kind. But there was no response.