John Ringo - There Will Be Dragons

“That is… weird.”

“Mother was written by a guy who in retrospect turned out to be pretty damned weird. Name of Arthur King. Ever heard of him?”

“The name and that he was the founder of the Web.”

“Not quite, he just wrote Mother. The Web existed before him, the only thing he really did was make the last major modification to its internal structure. And that was the last thing he did on this earth, apparently. Because he disappeared right afterwards. Vanished, without a trace.”

“And this has what to do with the explosive protocols?”

“Remember, Mother knows all, Mother sees all. But the only time that Mother does things about it is if the Council tells her to. She’s controlled by the Council members. They vote on what actions she should take outside of directly securing the Web. If enough of them told her to destroy the Earth, she would.”

“What? How?” Herzer said.

“There are various ways that come to mind. It depends on if they just wanted the biosphere wiped out or really destroy the Earth . If they wanted the biosphere destroyed, she could probably just dump an enormous amount of power into the mantle and cause every volcano on Earth to erupt and keep erupting. That would wipe out everything but bacteria in time. She could wipe out any particular species simply by causing its chemical processes to stop. Are you feeling happier now?”

“That’s crazy !” the boy said, shaking his head. “Since when?”

“Since looong before you were born, boy. Nobody talks about it and most people don’t even think about it. Mother owns us, but we, in turn, own Mother, through the Council. There is a reason that I hate the Council, hated it long before this damned war, and thought that it needed far more oversight than it was getting.”

“So you’re saying that Mother stops explosions by knowing they are going to happen?”

“Partially. She also can sense that they have occurred. And while explosions propagate fast, they don’t propagate faster than light or Mother’s reactions. When one occurs, it gets surrounded by a force-field and ‘damped’ with the kinetic energy converted to electrical power then drained off into the power net. All you get is a sort of wet ‘thump’ and a lump of ash. I tried it with homemade gunpowder one time and got a nasty note from the Council for my troubles.”

“But… there are explosions that occur in nature all the time. Lightning, volcanoes…”

“Like she can’t tell the difference between a deliberately detonated chemical explosive and lightning?” Edmund laughed. “And chemical explosions don’t happen in nature, at least not much. There are a few species that come damned near to having them, including plants. But Mother can filter for that. Chemical explosions have a very distinct signature. As to volcanoes, what makes you think she doesn’t damp them?”

“Well, I’ve seen pictures…”

“Sure, plenty of pretty eruptions. Ever heard of Krakatoa?”

“No.”

“Used to be an island. Then some salt water dropped into a magma chamber and blew it up. Big explosion, killed a lot of people, inundated islands, all the usual problems. With me?”

“Yeah.”

“I mean big explosion. Ever heard of the Stone Lands?”

“I went there one time, it’s… interesting. Geysers and hot vents and stuff.”

“Yeah. Did you know it once blew the hell up?”

“What?”

“Heh. Shortly after the AI war. Caused a hell of a stink because there was a lot of suspicion that it had been done deliberately; there are ways if you have access to power fields and enough power. Anyway, it had always been really unstable and the explosion had been sort of a background worry for geologists for a long, long time, as long as they knew what was going on down there. Similar to Krakatoa in that there was a big hot spot and a lot of water in close proximity. If it went, though, it was estimated that it would blow out not only the Stone Lands but the area for several hundred kilometers in every direction. And I do mean ‘blow out,’ as in blow it into the stratosphere.”

“Wow.”

“The hot spot had been heating the water for a few hundred thousand years and it was hoped that it would never break down. Well, it did. Big time. Magma/steam explosion estimated at something like one hundred megatons, that’s a really old expression to measure explosives.”

“Okay.”

“And what happened? Nada. Ground shook a bit, minor earthquake. That’s exactly how powerful Mother is. So forget making up a bunch of gunpowder and turning this into the New Model Army.”

“Okay,” Herzer said. “Damn. But one other thing?”

“Sure.”

“Why long bows, crossbows are easier to train on and…”

“Oh not you too !”

Kane was checking one of the horse’s shoes when Edmund entered the barn and he looked up in surprise at the mayor.

“When did they let you out of the cage?” he asked with a chuckle.

“I told my keepers to screw off and die,” Talbot replied with a grin. “I was thinking about taking a ride if you’d loan me a horse and gear. And I thought you might like to ride along.”

“Okay,” Kane said, dropping the horse’s hoof. “I don’t suppose you remember much hot shoeing? I’ve been cold farriering these beasts but I’m about out of decent shoes.”

“See Suwisa,” Edmund said, pulling down a saddle and tack. “I’m pretty much out of the blacksmith business these days.”

“I did,” Kane said, following him out and whistling up a horse. “Hanarah or Arab?”

“Arab if Alyssa won’t mind,” Talbot replied. When the horse was called forward he caught it up and saddled it with ease. “We’ll have to see if I remember how to ride.”

“It’s like sex,” Kane replied, lifting himself into the saddle. “Once you’ve done it once you never forget.”

“And, like sex,” Talbot replied with a grunt as he hoisted himself upwards, “if you haven’t done it for a while, the muscles lose their tone.”

Despite his protests they trotted out of the corral and up towards Massan Mountain, taking a narrow trail up its woods covered sides. The day was clear and just turning to the summer heat but under the trees it was still cool from the morning and the horses were frisky. Suddenly, Edmund kicked his mount into a canter, then a full gallop, charging up the winding trail in a series of hair-raising turns.

Kane tried to keep up but the Hanarahs for all their speed were designed for the flats; the more nimble Arab easily left the larger horse behind.

Finally he debouched into a clearing on a shoulder of the mountain where Edmund was settling his prancing mount. As the Hanarah charged into the clearing the Arab reared, flailing its hooves at the apparent challenger.

Talbot easily kept his seat, grinning from the exhilarating ride and the antics of his mount. “I guess I haven’t lost my touch,” he said as the Arab got all four feet back on the ground.

“You were always a fine knight, King Edmund,” Kane grinned.

“But no more,” Edmund replied with a frown. “Mayor I am and mayor I’ll stay if I have my way.”

“What’s that mean?” Kane said with a raised eyebrow.

“Those damned idiots in the constitutional committee…” Talbot said then shrugged. “We’re going from a nice, clean constitution to something… They want to reinstitute an aristocracy and I can’t stop the momentum.”

“Well…” Kane temporized then shrugged. “I guess it depends on whether you’re going to be the aristocrat or not. How are they going to ‘choose’ them?”