John Ringo - Von Neumann’s War

The rushing water was very loud in the pond chamber because a small underground stream flowed from thirty or more feet above over a falls into the pond on the left side. The stream flowed from left to right and went out somewhere under the rocks on the far end of the pond. There was very cold spray that misted the area near the ladder and pier. The cool mist and the rushing water sound were quite tranquil and sometimes Richard would just sit in the folding chair on the pier for hours and relax. But today, he had a lot of work to do.

He climbed the ladder to the metal pier above him where his waterwheel and generator assembly sat. The main eight-inch PVC water line and the coaxial cable bundle ran up to the edge of the falls to the bottom of a large galvanized metal hundred-gallon animal trough. The Internet cables split off and disappeared into the water. The trough was positioned in such a way that part of the falls fell into it and it was full and overflowing. This is how he ran water through the mine.

The waterwheel was positioned in the middle of the falls and the axle, slip-ring connectors, and control circuitry wires ran out along the periphery of the axle to the power conversion unit sitting on the pier. Richard tapped the lights on that pier level and set about running the Ethernet wires. In the dim lighting it was tedious work.

After a few hours Richard had the waterwheel spinning free and the clutch being controlled by a laptop in the main chamber. He activated the system and a rechargeable battery powered gearbox slipped the main drive of the waterwheel into gear. Richard watched the UPS units against the wall of the main chamber eagerly. After a few seconds the little green lights on the front of the boxes kicked on and then the chamber lit up.

The fluorescent lights hanging from the ceiling of the chamber hummed to life and Richard could hear the refrigerator compressor kick on. The microwave beeped and a video tape ejected itself from the VCR that was set up in the end of the main room where Helena had established a “living room.” There was an inflatable couch and chairs set, a small folding coffee table, and a small entertainment stand. The entertainment stand housed a stereo, a VCR, a DVD player, a Playstation2 and a nineteen-inch color television. All of which came on and were blinking 12:00 AM on their respective displays.

A few more hours of connecting systems and checking Internet and file-sharing protocols and he was too tired to think straight. Then he looked at his watch and realized it was pushing eleven PM.

“Oh God,” he said looking at his watch. “I better hurry or I’ll miss it.”

“Hurry up, Charlotte or you’re going to miss it!” Tina said loudly in Charlotte’s ear as she looked over her shoulder at the computer monitor.

“Dingbat, the show lasts four hours. We’re not gonna miss it.” Charlotte giggled and shook her head. “There we go.” The speakers chimed on and the RealPlayer software finished setting itself up.

“I know that, geek-brain. But I like how it comes on. I hate missing that part.” Tina punched her friend on the shoulder.

“Okay then, shhhh. Here it is.”

Ret Ball: Welcome friends across the country and those across the world who can still hear us through the wonders of the World Wide Web. I know that we have lost contact with most of Europe and our prayers go out for those folks and for the rest of humanity. Although there are phone lines still working in this country, they’re mostly overwhelmed with emergency services. If you can manage to call in, we will take your calls. Also, now we’re set up for the real-time online audio chatting as well as using instant messaging. So we’re still on live with you and can still hear from you. God bless us all and let’s get to the Truth Nationwide! Caller one is talking to us online from New York City. Go ahead, Mike, you are on the Truth Nationwide…

“Mr. President, this is Dr. Carolyn Mayer from the National Security Agency’s ELINT branch. She has compiled some information that we thought you would want to see,” Vicki Johnson said as she introduced the forty-three year old blonde analyst to the President and the secretary of defense.

The two men had been in the War Room looking over possible defensive and offensive strategies in the event the probes made it to the U.S. That would happen soon enough as far as anybody could tell, but with no recon on the situation in Europe nobody had a clue how bad the situation was. There were no orbital platforms and it appeared that the aliens were enforcing a no-fly zone over most of the Atlantic and eastern Eurasia. The Americas still had air travel below thirty thousand feet — nobody had tried to go higher. Naval boundaries seemed to be about the same. Anything traveling eastward past about the forty-five degree latitude line was never heard from again.

The President looked up at the NSA and the pleasingly plump lady she had brought with her. He always found the diversity of individuals who came together in times of crisis to be intriguing. This young lady could have been a model for an oversized-women’s clothing store, not a black-program analyst.

“Nice to meet you Dr. Mayer. This is Secretary Stensby.” He motioned to the secretary of defense. “What is this all about, Vicki?”

“Dr. Mayer,” the NSA motioned for the analyst to begin.

“Uh, right. Here, Mr. President,” Carolyn said. She pulled out her laptop and toggled to a map of Europe. “Here is where the probes have gotten to.”

The map of Europe was a standard map package with an overlay of red growing on it. The red blotch covered all of Western Europe and even had spread to Iceland. On the eastern side of the region the red covered parts of Russia all the way from Rostov in the south to St. Petersburg in the north. Stockholm and Helsinki were red also. Due south, all of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and parts of Saudi Arabia were red.

“How do you know this, Dr. Mayer? We’ve been trying to get recon for weeks with no luck. About all we can discern is the no-fly zone.” The SecDef shrugged his shoulders in disbelief.

“Right. Well, you see, before all of this it was my job to track Al Qaeda operatives using electronic intercepts. Most of that has been using Ferret satellites, but I specialized in Internet communications. I spent the better part of the last four years finding and geolocating every Internet hub and router and every webcam in existence around the world. Oh, I only made a drop in the bucket, but I made a pretty good map of the world and had several known routers and webcams per region.” Dr. Mayer paused for a second and toggled some keys on her laptop.

“I see, so how does this help us now?” The President looked over at the painting on the wall behind his desk in the War Room. He missed the Oval Office. He missed being above ground and he hated all this hiding and waiting.

“Ah yes, it’s actually kind of simple, Mr. President. This map of red is a map of lost Internet routers, hubs, power grid stations, phone hubs, webcams, etc., all compiled into one graphic. I’ve even got several images from many of the webcams before they failed. Here.” Carolyn turned the laptop back around for them to see.

“What is that?” the SecDef asked.

The President nodded.

“It looks like a battleship aground.”

“Well, actually it’s one of the aircraft carriers that we’ve been missing from the Mediterranean. And if you look here in the background you’ll notice the Coliseum.” She paused to let that sink in.

“Rome! These things have picked up an aircraft carrier and set it in Rome!” SecDef Stensby was stunned. “What on Earth for?”