Von Neumann’s War

“I need to read that memo carefully,” Roger said. “So if I am, what’s the problem?”

“Major Gries isn’t part of my command,” the general said, ticking off a list on his fingers. “He’s temporary duty, as is Sergeant Major Cady. I’m not his commander. For that matter, I don’t even know who does his evaluations. Maybe we should get that changed, but that’s the way it is for now. And the base is not part of FORCECOM. I’m not somebody that they put in charge of shooters. Then there’s the authority to perform a combat action in a foreign country—”

“We’re planning on Greenland,” Roger said, sitting down and listening carefully.

“Greenland more or less obviates that,” Riggs said, nodding. “Planning on staging out of God’s Thumb?”

“Yes, sir,” Roger said, nodding.

“I call you ‘sir,’ sir,” General Riggs pointed out. “Okay, but what you’re talking about is forming a direct action group under the control of this base, more or less under your direct control. That’s… not how civilian control of the military is supposed to work and there are actually regulations to prevent it. And then there’s the question of movement priorities, funding and all the rest.”

“We sent Gries to France,” Roger argued.

“He wasn’t going in command of a group of shooters,” Danny said with a sigh. “He was an observer. That’s different. Lethal force and all that.”

“Danny, all we want to do is send ten guys or so to Greenland!” Roger said plaintively. “We’re developing the weapons and trap systems right now! What do we do, rent a plane?”

“It’s not that simple and you know it,” General Riggs said definitely.

“So what do I do?” Roger asked. “Call Ronny?”

“You don’t work for Ronny anymore,” the general pointed out. “And it’s not impossible to do, don’t get me wrong. But when you said ‘make your team larger’ you weren’t just talking about size, you were talking about profile, whether you know it or not. And you’ll be stepping all over a lot of feet.”

“I’ve been doing that since Alan, Tom and I came up with the mission, General,” Roger said, shrugging. “I’m not afraid to step on a few more. Who do I call, or whatever?”

“I know the way this is supposed to go,” the general said, breathing out. “But I’m not sure how to do it fast. Except make some calls. How can I reach you, Mr. Secretary?”

“On my cell?” Roger asked. “If it’s secure, I’ll move to one of the secure areas.”

“Right,” Riggs said, looking distracted. “Let me make a few calls. Who does Gries want?”

“I’ll send your secretary a list,” Roger said, standing up. “Thanks for your time, Danny.”

“Any time,” the general said, giving him a half salute. “Oh, what are you planning on using to catch these things?”

“The most incredible mish-mash,” Roger said, shrugging.

“Have you figured out how to track them yet?”

“I think, I dunno. I’m workin’ on it.” Roger raised an eyebrow Spock fashion. “The solution will be… fascinating.”

* * *

Roger had been analyzing the data from all previous engagements including the loss of the probes at the Moon and Mars and the telecommunications sats around Earth. And he agreed with Shane that radio was the culprit. If it was an emitter in the RF through to microwaves, it went first. That meant something, perhaps something even more sinister than he could put his fingers on and his mind around, but… but it was lingering in the back of his mind that there was more to the radio emission attraction than he had completely grokked.

What he had figured out was quite unfascinating technologically, but extremely fascinating from a “go figure” point of view. Roger had put together a team of electrical engineers and RF specialists including a group from the CIA’s Directorate of Science and Technology’s Measurement and Signatures (MASINT) division. He had also gathered some expertise from the NSA’s ELINT group and AFRL’s MASINT branch that used to be the so-called Central MASINT Office or CMO — the CMO had been renamed years ago, but it was still the CMO to Roger. And to round off his team he had found a group of wireless networking engineers and several amateur broadcasting enthusiasts. His team had been working for months behind the scenes trying to detect and even hack into the alien machines’ communications. Finally, one of the ELINT engineers found their communications method: Radio.

That sort of surprised people. Most of the group figured that it was some sort of unobtainium quantum whatchamacallit but it turned out to be, more or less, plain old radio.

More or less. Actually, it was a spread spectrum signal that worked a lot like 802.11b wireless data transmission protocol, only it was centered somewhere around 1.42 gigahertz. Roger could not place it but that particular radio frequency meant something to him.