John Ringo - Von Neumann’s War

Riggs turned to his laptop and looked out his window over the open court of the Sparkman Center at the people having lunch outside below.

“If only it would rain,” he muttered, but there was no chance of that; the sun was shining and there wasn’t a cloud in the clear Alabama sky.

Sarah turned back to her desk outside the general’s door, laughing, and was startled by the phone buzzing. Sarah picked up the phone but knocked her coffee cup off the desk as she sat back down in her chair.

“General Riggs’ office, this is Sarah, how can I help you?” She stretched the phone cord down and struggled to hold it to her ear as she attempted to retrieve her cup and mop up the coffee spill with a PostIt note. When that didn’t work she reached for a box of Kleenex on the other side of her desk and in the process sent her jar of hospitality peppermints across the floor.

“Hello, this is the office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. General Mitchell would like to speak with General Riggs. Is he present?” the voice on the phone said. Sarah looked up over her desk quickly to make certain there was nobody hiding there with a candid camera.

“Uh, yes, he is… If you’ll hold a second I will transfer the call,” Sarah replied, unsure if the call was real or not. She timidly pressed the transfer digits. “Sir, I think you should take this call.”

“Who is it?” Riggs asked as his phone began to buzz.

“Well, sir, I’m not real certain but they claimed it was the Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.”

“What? It’s probably Fields messing with me.” Riggs picked up the phone. “General Riggs here.” There was a short pause, then a click.

“Yes, General Riggs, please stand by for General Mitchell.” There was another short pause, then another click.

“Danny Riggs! Kevin Mitchell here. How are things down there in Huntsville, Alabama, huh?”

“Great, General,” Riggs said, frowning in puzzlement. Redstone Arsenal was a very minor base and he was surprised the general even remembered his nickname. “How may I help you, General?”

“Well, Danny, we’re gonna need your help. I’ve got a couple of fellas that are going to come see you first thing in the morning and explain this in greater detail, but for now suffice it to say that we need to put that base and the whole town around it to work for the next few months.”

“Anything we can do, General. What’s this about?”

“Well, why don’t you call me back in five minutes on your STU at the number I just e-mailed you? I’ll talk to you in a minute, bye.”

“Sarah! Get me the STU-III key out of the safe and call Colonel Roberts and tell him to put on his golf shoes!”

More than a hundred scientists and engineers had been gathered by the Neighborhood Watch program leaders in the North Alabama town. Only a week after Roger Reynolds had delivered the white paper presentation to the DDNRO, he had been contacted by the NRO and awarded a prime contract for more than a billion dollars. The company Roger worked for had not expected a contract or even known of the white paper, but they were happy to help the NRO spend its money — if they could figure out how to spend more than a billion dollars in less than a year.

Roger was given the directive from the DDNRO to brief the commanding general of the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama — two-star General Daniel “Danny” Riggs — and the Director of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Dr. Sidney Byron. Roger gathered Tom and Alan and spent the better part of the next day with General Riggs and Dr. Byron developing a plan to choose the right facilities and personnel. Most of the facilities were available either from MSFC or Redstone, but they decided to have two local Huntsville space/defense contractors to “volunteer” a fabrication shop and a clean room, respectively. The civil service and military facilities would be funded via government-to-government funds transfers. The rest would be handled through subcontracts to the prime contractor that Roger Reynolds worked for.

It had taken the better part of the day and most of the night, but a cohesive list of subtask-level team leaders was put together. One of the problems was insuring that each of the members chosen as team leaders had a current Secret security clearance at a minimum. Initially, only people with Top Secret and Special Access or Top Secret and SCI level clearances were considered. The problem that soon became apparent was that although there were plenty of DOD scientists and engineers available with proper clearances who could handle portions of the mission design, most of the NASA employees and contractors that were needed for various aspects were not cleared at any level at all. It was a problem that most Huntsville residents were aware of — the DOD/NASA political dichotomy. Most NASA employees became NASA employees because they wanted to work on public space programs and tended to have the attitude that there shouldn’t be secrets. DOD employees on the other hand, held completely opposite philosophies and in many cases the political and philosophical differences created friction between the two groups.

But Roger Reynolds, Tom Powell, and Alan Davis had been straddling the fence between both communities for a number of years now and personally knew most of the others in town and within the community who were “straddlers.” This experience enabled them to pick and choose qualified and cleared people with a bit more ease. However, in the end they just couldn’t find a complete list and had to settle for a few handfuls of folks with only Secret level clearance. They had to get a special allowance from the NRO. But when he saw the problem, Ronny Guerrero made it happen.

After a long and exhausting night of planning, the next morning General Riggs and Dr. Byron, invited the list of Army and NASA civil servants and contractors to attend the kick-off meeting in the Sparkman Center auditorium, which would occur in three days. The invitation to the meeting was hand delivered or secure faxed to each person on the list and read:

Your presence at a meeting of the utmost urgency and importance is requested. The meeting will be held at the Sparkman Center auditorium on the Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, this Friday. We apologize for the short notice, but again, this is a matter of extreme urgency.

The meeting will be at the Top Secret level. If you are not cleared to this level, arrangements are being made to have you cleared in the interim. Please be certain to fill out the forms enclosed and appropriate visit request paperwork and fax it to the number given below, immediately.

Initial attendance is voluntary; however, all those attendees who decide to remain for the briefing will be reimbursed for their time and expenses. Direct procurement opportunities are also possible.

Sincerely,

General Daniel Riggs Dr. Sidney Byron

Commanding General Director

United States Army NASA Marshal Space Flight Center

Redstone Arsenal, Alabama Huntsville, Alabama

No invitations were turned down.

The auditorium, on the other hand, posed a problem since it was only rated for Top Secret level briefings and not for Sensitive Compartmented Information or Special Access Programs. A three-day waiver was authorized by the NRO and the Joint Chiefs, provided that the building was monitored for eavesdropping sensors before and after each meeting session and only individuals to be briefed into Neighborhood Watch were allowed into the building housing the auditorium during the briefings. A security specialist team swept the building for transmitters. General Riggs ordered three days of administrative leave for all of the employees who worked in the Sparkman Center building. No cover was created but if your name was not on the invitation list, then you did not get into the building those three days.