ROF-2
By Vernon Nemitz

Thirty-six decades after the Ring of Fire had transported the unassuming town of
Grantville back to the middle of the Thirty Years' War, some descendents of that
event wondered if it would happen again.  While they did not know what the cause
was, of the Ring of Fire, they did know that it happened to a particular part of
the Earth, at a particular moment in time.  Well, nothing was keeping that piece
of the Earth from once again experiencing that particular moment in time....

There was, of course, a political storm regarding deliberately using the Ring of
Fire to send an oustandingly well-equipped mission into the past.  If it did not
happen, then all who joined the mission would look foolish, indeed!  If a repeat
happened, then what would come of the World that did not go into the past?  They
KNEW that History could be re-written, after all!

On the other hand, the science of the Year 2000 in the Original Time Line lacked
the benefit of suddenly being handed a great deal of information beyond what was
known in the early Seventeenth Century.  The scientists of the new Year 2000 had
a huge head start, by comparison.  Thus all who could understand the mathematics
had concluded that there was no danger in sending an expedition.  However, since
when have political types ever paid much attention to scientists?

Actually, it probably would have been a major surprise to people in the Original
Time Line, if somehow they could have learned the long-term consequences of that
knowledge-injection, into the Spawned Time Line.  Deforestion in many places was
stopped by the knowledge of the importance of replanting trees -- because entire
cultures found out in advance just how far they would fall after all their trees
were gone.  Similarly, soil management to prevent erosion and fertility-loss got
introduced centuries earlier, compared to the Original Time Line.  Women who had
freedom and weapons and birth control AND antibiotics formed a tide that all but
drowned every culture that sought to repress them and control them and keep them
"barefoot and pregnant".  Thus the biggest event in human history, Original Time
Line, the runaway population explosion, simply didn't happen.  Men who could not
respect women either got shot, or were declared unworthy of having children!  So
the overall ability to get things done depended on knowledge, and the Scientific
Method had centuries of a head start in proving itself as a source of verifiable
knowledge.  Politicians DID pay attention!

Thus the political storm that arose, as the time of the Ring Of Fire neared, was
due entirely to deciding which of many millions should go, and arguing over what
plans should be followed by them, after getting transported to the past.  It was
known, of course, about all the troubles that the original batch of uptimers had
experienced.  The gaps in knowledge, the unavailable tools, the limited supplies
of advanced technology, were well documented.  ALL of those things were going to
be corrected!

The exact location in North America from where Original-Time-Line Grantville had
been plucked was identified.  Fossils yielded the data.  Transplanted Grantville
was accompanied by cubic miles of Earth that included many thousands of fossils.
Their specific types and relative locations could be and were exactly matched in
North America.  This allowed the boundaries of the terrain subjected to the Ring
Of Fire to be mapped with equal precision.  Then the construction began....

A perfectly fitting spherical "vessel" was built.  Fusion powered, with nanotech
reprocessing and replication facilities, there was easily room for fifty million
people in cryonic suspension.  More than a hundred and thirteen cubic miles were
due to be transported, and that is a LOT of room for stuff!  So many people were
going that the Earth's Seventeenth-Century population would be getting roughly a
twenty-five-percent boost.  An invasion the likes of which even the fabled D-Day
could not in the slightest compare, would be launched via Grantville II.

On schedule the Assiti Shard arrived.  Not knowing the cause of the Ring Of Fire
only prompted every imagined sensor device to be devised and aimed, not just all
around the region, but scanning space surrounding Earth and festooning the outer
shell of Grantville II.  The science and technology of the era actually WAS able
to detect the cause of the Ring Of Fire, and witness its behavior in action.  No
effort was made to interfere.  But afterwards, it was captured and studied...and
in that time line, the Assiti got their come-uppance rather sooner than later.

"Meanwhile", Grantville II arrived as anticipated in Germany, in 1631.  Comlinks
to the First Spawned Time Line had received incoming sensor data right up to the
instant of the Event.  This, combined with data from onboard sensors, provided a
degree of insight that let the scientists who came for the trip solve the puzzle
even without having access to the Shard.  However, that work did require several
years, and just now there was an invasion to carry out!

From the below-ground regions of Grantville II, boreholes began getting drilled,
to provide raw material for the nanotech processing facilities, making transport
tunnels as a side-effect.  One huge rocket was launched, its mission having many
purposes:  placing comsats, locatesats, weathersats, and spysats into orbit, and
also to plant Luna with semi-autonomous von Neuman machines.  Robots having full
autonomy were still part of fiction only.  Controlled from Grantville II as need
be, in less than a year the Moon would have a space elevator and powersats would
be festooning the skies.  Thousands of people at a time were thawed and awakened
from cryosleep, that being the only way so many could wait out the TIME required
for fifty million to board.  All were outfitted with equipment just manufactured
by the nanotech facilities, at a rate of a thousand tons an hour.  (It's amazing
how ordinary rock can be converted into composite/ceramic armor!)  A vast stream
of vehicles began rolling and flying away in all directions.  Everyone they met,
of course, knew something awesome had happened and was happening, because a very
large region surrounding the three-mile high Grantville II could SEE it easily.

Many people fled.  The invaders were faster.  Much fear became wonder as quality
speakers blared, declaring in the local language, beautifully accompanied by the
most soothing yet uplifting music, that the war was over and everybody was going
to receive food, clothing, shelter, medical care, education, and, most important
of all, freedom from both terror and tyranny.  Poverty and disease were going to
be cured, too!  In a world where all the infrastructure had been paid-for, where
energy was freely available for mutually-repairing automated machines to convert
ordinary matter into elements, and then to turn elements into any desired thing,
well, people really didn't need to do much besides be creative, exploratory, and
friendly.  That's why the potential invasion force had to be weeded down to only
fifty million of the BEST!

The wave of ground vehicles had multiple elements.  The announcer cars had large
bulletproof glass windows in which period-dressed people were easily seen.  Then
came fuel tankers and people-processing units.  All were built to fit the narrow
roads of the era.  The vehicles that should be called Armored Personnel Carriers
were indeed that, but they too had thick glass walls, and their purpose was that
of displaying large numbers of CLEAN people -- who could don battle armor as the
need required!  "Come and talk with us!" they urged through speakerphones.  "Let
us show you how to rid the world of hunger and disease!  And we can make you all
richer than the King!"

Naturally there were those who thought the wealth could be had by force of arms.
They were introduced to knockout darts.  Then somebody in an APC would don armor
and go retrieve the bodies, who could now be processed as an example.  "They are
still alive!  Watch us make them more well than they've been in years!"  Some of
the people-processing vehicles had glass walls for this purpose.  Most units, of
course, had opaque walls, to give most of the era's people the privacy they were
going to want.  All the people processors worked the same.  Clothing was removed
first.  They would be broken down into atoms and reconstructed as fine garments.
The unconscious would-be robbers were uncaring of their nudity.  Bodies received
the bath of a lifetime, and DNA was taken and analyzed.  "Many of the things you
have been told about witches are false.  But those who spread the lies are right
about one thing.  Almost every part of your body has a way to identify itself to
the rest of your body.  And everyone, even twins, has different identifiers.  It
is claimed that those identifiers can be used to enslave you, and that is false.
Instead they can be used to heal you!  AND, remember, they can ALWAYS be used to
identify you!  We love it!  Nobody can pretend he is you and get away with it!"

The people-processing vehicles had complete scanning equipment, and every bit of
it got used.  "Here's what this person looks like on the inside!  See, his heart
is still beating!  And there, parasitic worms!  Here is some medicine that kills
those worms without hurting the man!"  Nanomeds are among the best inventions of
all time, of course.  "Watch them shrivel up and die!  Next, look at this kidney
stone!  Watch us shatter it into tiny fragments that won't hurt a bit!"  Robbers
got the thorough treatment, one after another.  "This bone was broken and didn't
heal well.  Watch us reconstruct the bone so it's good as new!  This man's teeth
are in terrible shape!  Watch us fix them, and replace the missing teeth!  Don't
you wish good things like this could happen to YOU?  Just step right up and they
WILL happen to you!"

About the only thing that wasn't shown was the brain scan, and the treatment for
excess selfishness, which would leave anyone with making fewer demands on others
and their possessions.  (A little selfishness is perfectly natural, or you would
not bother to feed yourself at the expense of other life-forms, including seeds,
but excess selfishness is a greater cause of problems in the world than lack-of-
communications.)

The aircraft that had flown out were sail-plane types that could travel very far
before refueling.  They could also glide quietly over towns, announcing that the
end of the war was at hand -- and be HEARD.  "Rejoice!  When the helpers arrive,
Magdeburg shall be rebuilt in a week!  Just think what they can do for you!"

At regular intervals the nanotech facilities of Grantville II would create a new
nanotech facility, which almost immediately began producing.  As the invasion in
all directions progressed, a geometric increase of territory occurred, and equal
increases in production facilities were required to keep up.  Almost all the new
facilities went down the roads, where some of their output became road surfaces,
and others were used in home construction.  Each house was equipped with a small
sonic-resonator bubble-fusion power plant.  Hydrogen from well-water powered it,
and the water was also purified for the usual other uses.  Floors of fused stone
were the norm, and walls and roofs of foamed stone provided insulation in summer
and winter both.  A small-scale nanofactory recycled biowaste into nutrients for
either gardening or further processing into tasty foods.  Spacious enough for an
extended family of twenty or so, a fair variety of house styles began to dot the
formerly war-wracked landscape, every hundred yards or so.  Ordinary people were
given possession, and soon found they were indeed richer than the King.  Hot and
cold running water!  Bright lights at night with no fire or smoke!  Refrigerated
food!  Dwellings that were comfortable and not drafty!  Pefectly clear windows!

Accompanying the wave of house-builders was an actual expanding ring of invaders
wearing exoskeletal battle suits, using infrared to locate and intercept all the
stragglers that hid in the woods as the columns of vehicles drove by.  Every one
of them had to be processed, if the cycles of epidemics were to be broken.

After every couple of houses, the nanofactory that built them was given the task
of constructing another nanofactory.  The geometric progression continued!  More
than eight thousand mobile nanofactories arrived at Magdeburg, and it was indeed
rebuilt in a week.  And, along with all the other decent-sized towns swarmed and
cleaned and rebuilt by the wave of invaders, it was connected to the underground
and exponentially growing network of rapid-transit passageways.

The whole of Europe had fewer people than the invaders from Grantville II.  Only
rumors, and then only barely, were able to outpace the advancing peaceful circle
of conquest.  The rumors were unbeliveable, of course.  The war over?  Hah!  But
at least two armies found out that they were outnumbered ten-to-one, bullets had
no effect, cannon balls were intercepted and destroyed in mid-flight, and, after
a period of unconsciousness, they woke up clean, healed, free of pain and hunger
and disease, better-dressed (and more comfortably dressed) then ever remembered,
and inside wonderful new homes far from the battlefield.  For them, war had just
become a half-remembered nightmare...and was definitely over.

Every so often, mostly when the flow from Grantville II couldn't quite match the
need, some of the people in the APCs would don their armor and join the widening
ring of straggler-searchers.  Note that if spaced four feet apart, fifty million
of them could scan the circumference of a circle more than twelve thousand miles
in diameter!  No one in the whole Eastern Hemisphere would be able to escape the
cleaning process, to say nothing of merely the European area!

Whenever decent rivers and coastlines were encountered, automated scanning tools
were camoflauged and emplaced to give warning if anybody landed, so interception
and cleaning could rapidly take place.  The captured boats were processed by the
simple steps of imaging, nano-demolition, and nano-reconstruction.  More durable
and water-tight then ever before, with a solar-powered recycler facility aboard,
their bemused owners were simply told to try to stay clean!

The thing that caused the greatest slowdown of expansion, and the thing that let
rumors finally get far ahead of the invasion, was the encountering of occasional
major cities.  Each one had to be almost totally demolished and totally rebuilt.
The reconstruction actually began first, with new houses being built well beyond
the old city boundaries, because that was the only way widened streets could co-
exist with the same number of buildings as before.  It also gave inhabitants the
opportunity to move all their stuff into finished dwellings before demolition of
any original structures began.  Even with sixty thousand nanofacilities arriving
at Paris, along with a couple million invaders from Grantville II, somewhat more
than a week was required to clean up one of the world's largest cities.  Seeking
stragglers in the catacombs alone took longer than that!  As for Richelieu, once
told about the forty-odd million invaders who HADN'T come to town, he collapsed,
and was then as easily processed to lesser selfishness as everyone else.

-------

Roughly three hundred and sixty years later, it was decided that the alien cause
of the Ring Of Fire should be intercepted before reaching Earth.

The end.