John Ringo - Von Neumann’s War

“Major Gries, Traci Adams,” Alan said as the young woman walked behind his desk and hit some keys on his computer. “She’s in our astrophysics department.” He paused to look at whatever was on the monitor, it was turned away from Shane, then blanched. “Jesus Christ. How big is that thing?”

“Over fifty meters in diameter,” Traci replied, tossing her hair over her neck to get at the keys again. “And this.”

“It’s… suspended,” Alan said.

“And this,” Traci continued.

“Crap,” was all Alan said.

“I realize I’m probably not accessed for this…” Shane said diffidently.

“You are now,” Alan said, spinning the monitor around so the major could see it.

The image was, apparently, from the Moon or at least a moon. Airless and gray anyway. But at the edge of a crater was a long… cylindrical object.

“That thing is… how long?” Shane said carefully.

“Just over a hundred kilometers,” Traci repeated. “And it just landed or is landing… it’s hard to tell.”

“Someone landed something a hundred kilometers long on the Moon?” Shane said, closing his eyes. Surprise is a function of the mind of the commander. He knew what he knew. He knew nobody had lift capacity on Earth to do that. He knew it was real; you didn’t get sent off like this by the Army on total bullshit. “We’re being invaded, aren’t we?” he said quietly.

John Fisher and Alice Pike sat quietly in the hotel room watching the latest reality television programming with their respective daughters. Well, the girls were watching television while the parents were trying to work and also spend time with their kids. They had returned to the Cape for spring break, but unfortunately it had rained for the last two days. John and Alice worked during the days and mostly in the nights, while the girls did whatever teenage girls do at the beach during spring break.

Alice sat at the little hotel table pecking at a laptop and peering over it occasionally at the television, then out the window at the pouring rain. John was reading a technical paper on how to increase the space shuttle’s launch capabilities and punching in numbers into a Mathcad simulation on his laptop while at the same time continuously eyeing his wristwatch. The girls lay on their stomachs on the floor in front of the television oblivious to their parents and occasionally poking at each other and giggling.

“I believe it’s gonna rain all week.” Alice glanced out the window at the downpour; she sighed, closed her laptop, rose, then sat on the couch.

“Come over here and sit with me a minute,” she said, motioning for Tina to come sit next to her. She tore off a piece of pizza from the meat lovers thin crust in the pizza box on the coffee table and started to gulp it down. “What time do you have, John?”

“Just enough time for me to refill the ice bucket. Anybody need anything from the soda machine?” John replied, looking at his watch and placing the report and his laptop on the end table.

“Yeah, Daddy, get me a Diet Pepsi will ya?” Charlotte asked.

“Okay slugger. Anybody else?” Nobody responded so John hurried to the vending area. He looked at his watch again, “Five minutes. That’s plenty of time.”

Once he filled the ice bucket he stuck a dollar bill in the soda machine and pressed the Diet Pepsi button. Nothing happened. Then he realized the darn things were a dollar and a quarter, so he added another dollar bill and this time he got the soda. But the machine informed him that it was out of change.

“You son of a bitch!” John smacked the machine with his fist… then he laughed at himself. “What difference does it make?” he muttered and hurried back to the girls’ room where they had gathered to watch television.

“Hurry up, John; I thought you were going to miss some of it,” Alice told him as he handed his daughter her soft drink and set the ice bucket down. Then, just as they had been briefed would happen…

We interrupt this program to bring you a nationwide presidential address. We were informed just an hour ago that the President of the United States of America will address the nation about one minute from now from the Oval Office. We go now to our correspondent at the White House, Bret Marshall, for insight into tonight’s address. Bret?

Yes, Shep, the President released a statement to the press corps about an hour ago that he would make this address and has yet to release the topic. Various White House sources have told us that it most likely has to do with a meeting he had earlier this week with the United Nations’ National Security Council. However, the actual topic of this meeting and of tonight’s address has been kept from press sources. The White House has been very tight-lipped about it, Shep.

Thanks, Bret. We go now to the Oval Office and the President of the United States…

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, my fellow Americans and to our friends and allies around the world. Tonight I must speak with you about a matter of utmost importance and the most historic event in the history of humanity. Tonight I am here to tell you that humanity is not alone in this universe.

Approximately two years ago NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Russian Space Agency began to lose contact with probes that had been sent to the planet Mars. Fourteen months ago scientists at the Space Telescope Science Institute and at NASA discovered that the color of the planet Mars was changing. At that time they brought this to my attention and also told me then that they had no idea as to why this would happen. I then asked the National Reconnaissance Office to conduct a rapid mission to our neighboring planet and send a spy satellite there to determine the cause of this phenomenon. This was not a “Mars Probe” in the traditional sense. It was a spy satellite sent to Mars.

The space reconnaissance community under the leadership of the NRO successfully built a spacecraft, then launched it just five months later, a remarkable achievement and proof that our space community is capable of responding as true Americans and problem solvers. Since Mars is so far away, it took the probe about five more months to reach the planet. Once there, the little spacecraft gathered intelligence data for a short period before it was destroyed — and I use that term carefully — by the phenomenon at Mars.

The data the NRO gathered did show us that the surface of Mars has been completely developed into a planet-covering grid of giant, citylike structures. In a period of less than two years, the entire planet has been hyperindustrialized.

Recent studies of other planets in our solar system suggest that the outer planets or their moons, Pluto, Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, and Jupiter, have undergone similar transformations.

It’s the belief of the scientists, engineers, mathematicians, philosophers, and military strategists studying the data that this phenomenon is some sort of automated threat. In other words, it’s their best assessment that automated robots or robotlike insects have reached our solar system and are transforming the planets within it to meet whatever their goals may be. It has been suggested that the planets are being prepared for other entities to approach and move in once the solar system has been completely prepared for their arrival. We cannot be certain of this, however. What does seem to be the case is that all of the outer planets have been impacted by this phenomenon while no planets from Earth inward have been… yet.

It would appear that Earth is the next planet in the path of this phenomenon, as it appears to be moving from the outer planets inward to the Sun.