Nightmares

by Stephen Brandon

  COMPANY COMMANDER: Briefing under tab A.

  BATTALION COMMANDERS: Briefing under tab B.

  COMMUNICATIONS SECTIONS FROM SQUAD TO COMPANY: Frequencies and authentication under tab C.

  COMPANY AND ABOVE COMMUNICATIONS SECTIONS: Frequencies and contacts listed under tab D.

  GROUND WEAPONS AND AMMUNITION: Listed under tab E.

  AIR WEAPONS AND AMMUNITION: Listed under tab F.

  # # #

  Defense

  ~ ~ ~

  First Meeting

  “The meeting will now come to order. I see that everyone is here.”

  “Chairman, Why were we asked not to bring our phones or recorders, and why is your secretary using that antique?”

  The Chairman replied, “You are now Mr. Brown, this meeting is so secret that no electronic copy will be made of the discussion or plans made here. We face a problem, almost all the electronic media and storage facilities we have, have been penetrated. My typist will type up the conversation, plans, and decisions made today. You each will get a paper copy if you so desire.”

  “ Chairman, My computers are secure.” stated the second man on the left.

  The Chairman replied, “You will now be referred to as Mr. Blue. Mrs. Jones, would you please pull Mr. Blue's company file.

  “Thank you.”

  Handing Mr. Blue a thick folder the chairman stated, “If you will quickly look through the contents of your folder, tell everyone your first impression.”

  As Mr. Blue looked through the folder his eyebrows got higher and his expression got more and more angry. Looking up he hollered, “I strongly object to your underhanded tactic of trying to get my cooperation by hacking my company files!”

  The chairman replied, “You may notice that file ID's are not in our language. Look at the top of each page. These were smuggled out, and I got this copy last night. Does anyone else want to see their company files?

  “One of my analysis made the mistake of copying some of the memory chips to our mainframe last week. One of our foreign contacts managed to get part of a message through before it was cut off. It simply stated, some of the files I sent you last week are reappearing as new fil---. Our IT team has located several problems in our system that compromise all our file security. The first program located was in the kernel of the operating system. That leads his team to conclude that the operating system teams have been compromised for some time. I suggest that you dig out your old typewriters. Mrs. Jones will give each of you another folder to take to your most trusted IT individual. I suggest you only use paper copies of anything you want to keep secret until your IT teams can secure your computer systems including your stand-alone research computers. One of our IT guys stated that the only way would be to trash our operating systems and write our own.”

  Pointing at the other three men at the table the Chairman simply stated, “You will be referred to as Mr. Green, Mr. Yellow, and Mr. White. I will be referred to as simply as Mr. Chairman. As you know, I am not the head of the agency, I'm just a member. He briefed me last week and told me to handle it, along with another problem.

  “Now for the second problem. Our allies are getting their asses kicked. The enemy has captured the equivalent of four divisions worth of prepositioned equipment in the last year, and they are using it. We need a new weapon that any illiterate tribesman can understand and use. I hate to state it, but it must be powerful enough to take out our main battle tanks that are being used against our allies.”

  Mr Yellow raised his hand slightly.

  “Yes, Mr. Yellow.”

  “There is a weapon that is in the idea stage. So far as I know it hasn't been put on any of our networked computers. I'll talk to my research team as soon as I get back. It may be useful. Are there any requirements that your boss demands for any weapons we develop?” as he looked around the table.

  The Chairman looked at each member and then stated, “His only fear is that the enemy might get hold of the developed weapons and use them against us, or reverse engineer them. Now that you know our problem, Mrs Jones will type up a copy for each of you that want one. Any contact or future planning will be only transmitted by courier on paper. Any questions?

  “Yes Mr. White.”

  “If John, I mean Mr. Yellow doesn't mind I will send two engineers over to brainstorm with his research team.”

  The Chairman looked at the assembled men and then said, “My boss doesn't care who works together as long as we get results, and neither do I. He simply stated we needed some new toys and they would be purchased as such. Any royalties or development cost will be covered by the developers. If they work, we'll buy them. If they don't, we won't.

  “That leaves you free to decide what they are, how they work, and how efficient they are. He simply wants results, politics be damned! He referenced an aircraft developed several decades ago that was superior, but wasn't bought because of politics, the more expensive one was. He also referred to a story he heard in Europe back during the Cold War days. If I remember it correctly it was about a weapons system that could have been replaced by giving every soldier in Europe a brand new Cadillac with several antitank rockets in the trunk. The Cadillac and antitank rockets would have cost less.

  “Our next meeting date and location will hand delivered to you soon. Please don't put anything on any computer or talk on any telephone system.”

  ~ ~ ~

  ࿇

  Mrs. Jones invites you to her son's birthday party on the 14th of next month. He will be ten.

  The location is the Cranberry Club. Limousine service will be provided from your location in Pennsylvania. Pick up time will be noon.

  Attire will be informal. Dinner and breakfast will be furnished with accommodations.

  PS: No electronic toys, he has enough junk as it is. I am trying to interest him in art.

  ࿇

  The party started off with a buffet dinner. The adults of each family had seats at the head table with the birthday boy having a round table in the center of the room. All the other children sat at that table.

  One of the mothers behind the buffet was covered with splashed food within five minutes by several younger children playing with their food. Linda just smiled and commented to another server, “Just like home. It was nice of Mrs. Jones set up this party for my son.”

  Barbra, the server to her left commented, “Yea, next month it's my daughters turn to have a birthday party. Betty said something about planning a western weekend for her.”

  The third server, Ann, then commented, “I see the boys have retired for their conference. How soon do you think the kids will wear down?”

  “OK, this room is now secure. Mr. Green, you asked for the meeting.” stated the Chairman.

  “I know its only been three weeks, but some of my boys have an idea. It's based on the old SFR. Just in review, the SFR was a shoulder fired rocket. To prevent it from being used more than once the tube will be made out of cardboard lined with heavy foil. The firing trigger and sight mechanism will contain a microchip powered by a battery. In the nose of the rocket will be a black and white led TV camera with the necessary microchips. This should allow the firer to lock on a target, fire, and throw the empty tube away. The rocket will be solid fuel with three guidance vanes. The overall weight will depend on the type of warhead, but half my team wants a depleted uranium rod with a shaped charge. The other half wants to try tungsten steel sabot with Teflon coated penetration tip. Everyone agrees that the rocket needs to be over four feet long for sufficient velocity.”

  The Chairman asked, “Anyone else?”

  Mr. Blue said, “Yes, my dream team has come up with a portable rocket. It weighs in about sixty pounds.

  The guidance vanes are deployed to form a launch platform, and act as the safety for the motor. The control unit is twenty pounds with a periscope range finder. A UV laser tags the target. A two hundred foot wire carries the launch signal allowing the rockets to be
placed away from the controller. Range is four miles. Once launched the rocket climbs to 1600 feet and scans for the tagged target. Once located it sends an acquisition signal with picture to the launch controller. The operator has thirty seconds to verify the target or tag something else. If the tag remains steady or disappears, the rocket then goes for the target. If it is moved then the rocket re-targets. This can be done twice. The backup targeting system is thermal. It looks for any heat source over two hundred degrees. The rocket is fueled for a five mile range with the last part of the fuel in the form of a shaped charge to fire the penetrator. The rocket is subsonic until the shaped fuel charge is ignited. With ten test so far we have a 7 hits with 5 penetrations of the M2 reactive armor. Over 90% of the targeting components are off the shelf and the main rocket is an adapted J43.

  Rubbing his chin, the Chairman asked Mr. Green and Mr. Blue the cost per unit.

  Mr Green replied, “The first handmade two hundred will cost approximately $1200. Production line cost will drop to $600 each.”

  Then Mr. Blue replied. “The control targeting unit is a reusable unit costing $1200. The rockets and their electronics can be built for $525 each, once the production line is set up.”

  “Mrs. Jones, as soon as the meeting is typed up I need a contract for Mr. Green to deliver two hundred of his units plus one trainer in forty-five days. Units will be packaged so they can be either carried by man or beast.

  “Mr. Green, can you meet the deadline?”

  “Yes Sir.”

  “Mrs. Jones then type up a contract for Mr. Blue to deliver two control targeting units, two hundred rockets, and one trainer in forty-five days. All units including the control unit should be packaged for man or beast transportation.

  “Mr. Blue, can you meet the deadline.”

  “Mr. Chairman, I'll need to send two trainers.”

  “No you won't. Mr. Blue, your trainer will train the native soldier on the first fire mission, and then he will train the second operator on the second fire mission. They will then train their replacements.

  “I will assign observers to confirm hits and kills. I expect a kill ratio of 60% or better. If both of you are confident, then the next batch will be purchased at the prices you've given me in lots of two hundred each.

  “Mr. Blue, that will include a control units per hundred rockets. Is there any maintenance required for the control units?”

  “Yes Sir, the batteries are estimated for approximately twenty uses.”

  “Mr. Blue, I hope that they are replaceable by someone that can not read the instructions, and may have never even seen transistor radio.”

  “Sir, can you give me a fifteen day extension on the first order. I need to get my team to make the control units more shockproof, and childproof. The cost will remain the same.”

  “Mrs. Jones, change Mr. Blue's delivery date to sixty days out.

  “Now, Mr. Brown, do you have anything in the works or ready to propose.”

  “Mr. Chairman, my team was uncertain of a high kill rate on tanks and APC's. They concentrated on soft targets like helicopters, small aircraft, troop trucks, cargo trucks, troop concentrations, etc. It is also utilizes an optical guidance system. We have the targeting and flight control system design ready and can put out the contract to our toy manufacturer in the morning. The warhead is a reshaped claymore. The basic rocket is any Stinger rocket in inventory. Guidance system replacement and testing takes approximately one hour from start to finish. The original shoulder launchers can be used without modification. Original range can be extended by replacing the fuel core, and that takes an additional hour. Guidance system manufacturing cost is $209 off the manufacturing line in lots of five hundred or more.”

  “It seems that your design crew just upgraded the Stinger with a new guidance system, am I correct?”

  “Basically yes Mr. Chairman, however they have tested the prototype against several foreign shoulder launch guided missiles and found that they also work. I almost forgot to mention that the new guidance system contains pictures of over a hundred vehicle and aircraft types and can be launched in the direction of the enemy without locking on a target first. This feature also allows it to pick a target by threat priority and adjust its impact to the most favorable soft spot of the target.”

  “Mr Brown, just how adaptable is your design? Could it work on smart bombs or torpedoes?” asked Mr. Blue.

  “Yes, my team is working on different frequency modules from the infrared to x-ray. That also includes a target memory for radar installations that go off line before impact. Another feature is what my team is working on is the ignore circuit. That would allow it to be fired into a group of aircraft and ignore the friendlies, and only target the hostiles. One of my boys suggest that it could be used as and anti-missile missile guidance system with the proper air-frame.”

  Mr. Blue then asked, “Can I get a few dozen to test on other munitions?”

  “No, when we finish design on all the snap in modules and harden it to make it shockproof, we will only sell them in five-hundred lots. After retooling the manufacturing line I can let you have five-hundred optical only units for $125000, or you can wait an negotiate for different frequency modules.

  “Mr. Chairman, the first lot will be at manufacturing cost to you with a technical crew to install on any weapons system you desire for test. The technical team will write the installation manuals on site. I know that isn't what you outlined at the first meeting, but that is what I am prepared to do. You may accept or refuse, your choice.” stated Mr. Brown.

  Then the Chairman turned to Mr. Yellow and Mr. White and asked how they were progressing with their project.

  Mr. Yellow replied, “We are progressing with the operating system, however our first attempt failed because we used part of an existing system. Mr. White has written a completely new language that has no root in any existing language that we know of. From it my team is designing a root kernel that will not work on most of the latest microchips. I also had to design and manufacture a new central processing unit. This CPU has twist in it that will hopefully defeat any attempts to compromise it. It will work only with our new OS. Standard programs loaded into our new computer will not work, so that means that we are having to write all standard programs from scratch. Two members from our teams have had nervous breakdowns, and have been institutionalized. One of them kept claiming that the CPU was sentient. We are in completely uncharted territory. The memory requirements alone are eight times what we anticipated. Your boss is going to hit the ceiling because we have used three quarters of the allotted budge so far, and we estimate that we'll need twice that for the first dozen computers. ”

  The Chairman rose and said, “Mrs Jones will furnish each of you with a copy of the meeting before you depart in the morning. Have a pleasant evening.

  ~ ~ ~

  Fishing

  “Mr. Yellow, I hate fishing,” stated the Chairman.

  “I didn't know that.” Turning up the radio he continued, “I rented this boat on the way up here so I don't think there are any local bugs. This radio also puts out white noise along with subsonic and hyper sonic frequencies.

  “Now for the reason. As you know I reported that my team designed a new CPU for the computer and other teams are writing the kernel and OS. Let me explain that the CPU is quad, not binary. In simpler words it needs four commands to perform any function, not the two like a normal computer CPU. I explored this architecture and its structure because of a comment made by a doctor friend of mine. His comment was that a DNA strand contained as much information as any library in existence. Not completely accurate, but closer to the truth than I knew at the time.

  The language that Mr. White created for us is also unique. It only has sixteen letters. Let me give an example. A simple command like print a cursor on the screen takes several layers or rungs on the ladder. First you code in the rung number, then the number or rungs to read, where to execute, then execute, and t
he cursor appears on the monitor. To print the cursor on the printer you just change one rung of the command. Each command is coded in like a rung of a DNA strand and each command ladder has its own unique number. Do you understand so far?”

  The Chairman answered, “I think so.”

  “Now we get to the hairy part. The original language only had the ten numbers, 0 to 9, and sixteen letters. A combination of four codes, imagine binary, make up each number and letter. Remember at the last meeting I informed you that the computer required eight times the memory we forecasted. One of my boys finally figured out what was in that memory. The CPU has been writing its own code and expanding its capabilities. It has also been modifying the code we programmed it with. Yesterday it posted to our monitor a schematic for us to make a new CPU that looks simpler than the one I designed, but upon close examination it is far more complicated and capable. Not to mention the fact that we calculate that it will be almost twice as fast.

  “Do you have any idea what I'm describing?”

  The chairman looked puzzled and then commented, “I think what you are describing what's referred to as an artificial intelligence computer.”

  “Yup, what you wanted was an unbreakable computer and I've got one. However, we've lost control of it, and don't know what it is capable of doing, and quickly loosing our knowledge of how it is doing it.

  “I need some guidance. Do I pull the plug, or will your boss take responsibility for what comes out of this project? The decision may go way above his pay grade, because we built a second computer at a different location, and the first line of code we put in was that it was not allowed to write its own code. In less than a week it found a way around that command and expanded its capabilities. Mr. Chairman, I'll brief him and his bosses anytime.”

  Rowing back to shore didn't take long.

  # # #

  One Day in Texas

  ~ ~ ~

  Prologue for One Day in Texas

  This story is fiction and I hope it remains so! It wasn't until modern times that an army was deliberately disarmed when it returned to its country of origin.