The Rangers Are Coming

by Phil Walker

  “I must say that I didn’t entirely understand your institution of such an extensive intelligence system 20 years ago. It was, and is an expensive program, but our network of spies and intelligence gatherers, allows us to prevent the least productive people and common criminals from getting into the country. Moreover, it’s very handy to identify the very gifted, who we are able to basically bribe to immigrate, by encouraging their research, and letting them teach, plus give them a decent salary.”

  “What about the expansion of our transportation system,” asked Arcadia?

  “Following the quarter century of Thomas’ sound policy makes it easy to see where we go next. Let’s summarize, we have now built over 50,000 miles of railroad tracks. The new trains running on diesel fuel with their special filters that limit pollution can reach speeds as much as 70 miles per hour. We are adding at least 5,000 miles of new track every year. The roads take longer to build and cost a lot more, but we’ve built highways between all the east coast cities and have three highways that are inching across the country. One to Chicago in the north, the farthest west is to Kansas City in the Midwest, and to Atlanta in the south.”

  “I know you’ve been sitting in on the meetings that give the reason for all these transportation systems,” said Arcadia, “but I haven’t kept up on the vehicle research like you have. What’s the latest on that?”

  “The engineers had to learn how to simplify their prototype vehicles. They were getting very frustrated over the advanced technology that augments the systems in the Humvees. Finally, they decided build the basic engine, transmission, and braking system without all the special features. They found out they didn’t need all that to make the vehicle run efficiently. Then one of the bright lads decided to take a look at the much simpler ATVs. That was the breakthrough. The ATV’s are easy to understand. So they built their own ATV and worked out the design problems as they went. They finally got one to run as well as the real ATV’s after they figured out they needed a better fuel, a more refined product. One of the guys found a reference to that in the refinery schematics. This fuel is called gasoline, and it changed the entire situation. However, the bigger vehicles are going to run better on diesel, so a small model of that was built and they improved it gradually until they had a truck that was something between an ATV and one of those big trucks you showed us. Then…”

  “Excuse me, Alex,” interrupted Arcadia, “I kind of know all about these vehicles from my century. We could have built them for you, but the fundamentals have to be understood from the ground up by people from your century. Just give me the status of the project as of today.”

  “Of course,” said Hamilton. “The shop at Fort Independence completed and tested the first big truck two months ago. It will carry 40,000 pounds of weight, and will run 500 miles on a tankful of fuel.”

  “Wonderful,” said Arcadia. “How soon can we start building trucks on an assembly line?”

  “A year,” said Hamilton. “Where do you want to build them, and who’s going to do it?”

  “The Pierce company has the best workers for wagons, so they will have the shortest learning curve to build trucks. They’re used to working on an assembly line. When you survey the country, where is the place with the slowest economic growth?”

  “Atlanta,” said Hamilton. “They’re stuck with a mostly agriculture economy and only have textile mills.”

  “We have a highway, a modern road to Atlanta. That’s where you should set up your factory.”

  “It makes sense, the city will be a boom town with a big factory to build trucks.”

  “New subject,” said Arcadia. “So far we’ve managed to flood the world with great products without letting most of the secrets of how we make these products from other countries. How are we doing in keeping our edge?”

  “Obviously every country would like to know how we build such advanced products at such cheap prices. We get a lot visits from foreign dignitaries who bring their best scientists along in their official parties. They can’t miss the subway system that runs under Washington, D.C., but they haven’t a clue how we built it. They understand the fundamentals of electricity, but how we produce so much of it and then adapt it to trains that run underground is a great mystery. Of course, the big power plants are always under heavy guard, so they can’t see the generators. They marvel at our trains, but it would be quite a feat to steal one. We never give tours of our assembly lines, so that piece of information hasn’t dawned on them yet.”

  “But there are smart people in every country, even though we try to siphon off their best, and use them ourselves. Nevertheless, other countries are making big improvements in their technology. Just knowing it exists here in the United States is a powerful incentive to make it. I think our goal of staying a hundred years ahead of everyone else is still true in nearly every area. In some fields, we are much further ahead, medicine is an example of that. We’re now routinely manufacturing and distributing vaccines for diseases that are still killing millions of people. Our surgical techniques are so advanced people are not afraid to go to a hospital. In other countries, going to a hospital is like a death sentence, since most of the world hasn’t figured out that washing your hands, taking showers, using antiseptics and practicing personal and private hygiene actually prevent disease. Most of the other countries still are disposing of waste in their rivers without ever treating the contaminated water.”

  “I know about the great progress we are making in medicine,” said Arcadia. “That was one area where we actually provided direct information, but tell me about the great revolution going on in education.”

  “Fundamentally, universities around the world are traditionally organized as institutions that regurgitate knowledge. In other words, they teach only what is already known. With the establishment of your many Special Education and Research centers all over the country, the old university models are changing to the discovery of new knowledge. Now, all of the main universities we have had for centuries, Harvard, Yale, Princeton and so forth, are changing their curriculums to reflect original thinking. A lot of your research centers have expanded to become universities of their own. The result is an avalanche of all sorts of new ideas and new developments. The fact you have your own people secretly imbedded in these institutions means their storehouse of knowledge is growing faster and faster.”

  “Another key development is that these universities are open to everyone, especially women. The fact you are still subsidizing these universities and making advanced education available to a much wider number of people is just staggering in its production of new things. All knowledge is now negotiable and in just a few years you will have students who are nibbling at the edges of technology in your own times.”

  “In general, I am aware of all this,” said Arcadia. “It’s not all good. In my history, sciences eclipses God and causes a lot of liberal thinking that sounds good, but which is actual very destructive. You’ve seen the master video, so you already know about the problems it produces. Your vice president, James Madison will be the last of the original founding fathers, which have seen that presentation. The president who comes after him will have to be the most carefully chosen person in the country. It will be my biggest decision so far.”

  “Speaking of that, Alex, how long do you intend to serve as president?

  “I’m not going to do it for 25 years, that’s for sure. As the country grows, this job gets a lot harder to do. It uses up a man pretty quickly. I would plan on two or maybe three terms for me and not more than that for James. He’s already complaining about how hard he works.”

  “I agree with that,” said Arcadia, “how do you think I feel? So it looks like I have less than 20 years to start growing myself a new crop of Presidents.”

  Arcadia spent a great deal of time reading history. The trick was decide which events in the world required the attention of the United States, and how. She was glad one of the first things she’d done was to establish the U.S. patent
office. As new technologies were discovered around the world and patented, she needed to be able to ward off any controversy and legal problems by being able to show the United States had already made and patented that innovation.

  Her idea was to wait for someone to develop a new technology and then trot out the patent and all the improvements that came as a result and then offer to include that particular morsel of technology in the list of products the United States exported. She reasoned most people would not care where a super new technology came from they would just want it.

  President Hamilton zipped through his first term, shrewdly doing one trade deal after another with dozens of countries. He finished 1812 with an even bigger surplus, and more importantly, major stock holdings in most of the big banks and corporations of the civilized world. His re-election was not even contested in most of the country.

  Then in 1812, Arcadia went back to Hamilton and told him that for the next four years, the United States needed to concentrate on growing food, and all buildings, and homes as possible be insulted for cold and that a huge supply of coal built up in towns and cities all over the country. For the buildings that had been electrified and were heated by electric radiators, and for the handful of big installations, like Fort Independence, that were heated by forced air pumped through the buildings on a supply of natural gas that came from the pipelines they had constructed from the oil fields.

  Arcadia had been adamant that electrical lines be buried and not strung on poles. In the first place, she considered them very ugly. In the second place, they were very susceptible to breaking down and failing in high winds and heavy snows.

  Hamilton wanted to know why the big emphasis on food production and cold weather production.

  “Because, Alex, in April of 1815 a volcano named Mount Tambora on Sumbawa island will erupt. It will be the largest volcanic eruption in recorded history. It will wipe out the Tambora culture and kill at least 71,000 people.”

  “This eruption will create a global climate change that will be known as ‘volcanic winter’. In 1816, we will have a ‘Year Without a Summer’. Unusually cold conditions will wreak havoc throughout the Northern Hemisphere. We need to be ready for that with at least a two-year supply of food, and a surplus we can donate to Europe and anyone else who needs it. The same is true for building up a big stockpile of coal. The trains may not be able to transport enough to the cities, and the trucks couldn’t carry enough to make a difference anyway.”

  “Obviously we can’t announce this is going to happen, we just need to be able to get through it.”

  Hamilton went right to work, offering extra subsidies and high prices for all the corn, wheat, barley, and other grains the farmers could produce for the next three seasons. He also increased the production of coal and began storing it in huge piles scattered around all the big cities and towns.

  The volcano blew up, right on schedule in April of 1815, and the dust cloud spread around the world in two months, blotting out the sun. Most of the crops in the United States, Europe and the Far East, failed that summer. The planetary temperature dropped 10 degrees. It started snowing in New England in August and it didn’t let up until June the next year. There were no crops planted in 1816. It was just too cold.

  The United States started digging into its vast reserve and no one starved. By the strong religious integrity of the country, there was no price gouging. Cries for help came pouring into America, and the United States responded by launching all its fleet of steel-hulled steamships filled with food supplies. The lifeline went on for two years, and the death toll was relatively small in Europe through strict rationing, and combining resources. The United States even delivered food to Japan and China as best it could without starving the American population.

  In 1817, the dust cloud mostly disbursed and the weather returned to normal. But America was hailed as the savior of the world, since it had not charged anyone a dime for the food, saying only “it was the will of God for the United States to do all it could for its fellow men.” Conversions to Christianity spiked significantly in the next several years.

  Alexander Hamilton finished his fourth term, and then thankfully retired and turned the reins of power over to James Madison in 1820.

  36

  Fort Independence, Virginia

  James Madison was a small, somewhat sickly man who won the presidency mostly on his reputation as one of the original Founding Fathers, the author of the Constitution, and most of Federalist Papers. He was clearly past his prime when he took office and Arcadia knew she had two problems. One was making the President look good enough to take him through a second term, and the other was to find his replacement from a group of men that nobody in the country knew anything about. He had to know about the Grand Historical Conspiracy, agree to the limitations of that effort, practice great Christianity, and also be a dynamic leader.

  The Political Science and history academy was located at Fort Independence. Arcadia watched several men over a period of years and narrowed the list down to three candidates. During Hamilton’s presidency, she sent all three men back to their home states to have them mount a campaign for Congress. As it turned out, two won seats to the House and one was elected a Senator. Even though the seat he’d won was from a term-limited man, the chances of a new face in the group winning the election from a man maneuvering to be the next Senator was formidable. Arcadia was impressed.

  His name was Henry (Hank) Taylor. He ran with a slogan “Bank on Hank.” He was a gifted speaker, and the records of his ten years in the Political Science Academy was spotless. He was consistently ranked near or at the top of his class. He was personable, intelligent, and tough as nails. He’d come to the Academy from the Rangers and had served five distinguished years in the ranks, before being spotted for bigger achievements and advanced to the school. At age 38, he’d served in the Senate for four years, starting in 1814, and was on two of the more important committees. Arcadia decided she had her man.

  Hank Taylor was coming back to his office when a courier arrived asking him to be the guest of the President for a private meeting. Taylor had never met Hamilton in person, so he was very excited for the prospect. The invitation said 3 PM the next day. Taylor said a prayer of thanks to God for the opportunity and asked to be able to serve the Lord, and the country to be best of his ability.

  He was very impressed when one of the private fleet of Smart Cars from the White House pulled up to the steps of the Capitol and a driver opened the door for him. Private cars were very rare in the United States. Normally, Taylor took the Metro to work from his Georgetown apartment. He’d never ridden in a Smart Car before and it was exhilarating.

  They passed through the guard gate of the White House without even stopping. Hank’s driver pulled up to the main portico and escorted him into the Executive Mansion. Taylor had been there before, for a supper of all the new Senators and Congressmen, but that was five years before. The escort took him directly to the Oval Office and opened the door.

  President Alexander Hamilton rose to his feet and came around the desk to shake hands with Taylor. “Glad to finally meet you privately Senator,” said Hamilton.

  “The honor is mine, Mr. President,” said Hank.

  “Do you mind if I call you Hank,” smiled the President?

  “Not at all, sir,” said Hank. He looked deeply at Hamilton. He looked tired and worn. The challenges of the ‘volcanic winters’ had tested him deeply. Even now, in 1818, when the weather had returned to normal, he could see that the residue of the crisis still remained.

  Hamilton walked back to his desk and picked up a thick file. “I’ve been reading all about you,” said the President. “You have a very honorable record.”

  “I have the Lord to thank for that, sir, He’s blessed me greatly.”

  “Yes, of course,” said the President. “They tell me you are a great student of history. Why don’t you tell me the important figures of the American Revolution and the founding of the United
States.”

  “Well, there was Washington, of course, and our mighty warriors of the Rangers, and also there was Arcadia whom is still revered as the inspirational leader of the whole movement. I’ve watched some videos of her speeches and sermons. She was quite a woman, the true Mother of the Country. ”

  The President smiled, “Tell me, Hank, how do you suppose I was able to anticipate the volcanic winters and prepare the country for them?”

  “Good and prudent planning, I guess,” said Hank.

  “Actually, there is another reason. It’s part of a thing called the Grand Conspiracy. I wonder if you can be trusted with the truth, keep it to yourself your entire life, except for your successor, and lead the United States to a long planned future.”

  Hank was taken aback by the enormity of words he’d just heard. His mind was reeling from the implications. “I don’t know what to say, sir.”

  “You can swear before God you will take this responsibility and never waver in the common resolve all of us, who proceeded you, have held as a sacred trust.”

  “I so swear, Mr. President.”

  Hamilton looked at Taylor for a long moment, his eyes locked on him. “I believe you,” he said finally. “Sit down, Hank, this is going to take some time. The reason why I knew to prepare for the volcanic winters was because I was told to prepare.”

  “By whom,” said Hank?

  “By me,” said a voice directly behind him.

  Hank turned in his chair and then jumped to his feet, shaking his head in shock.

  “I’m Arcadia, Hank. It’s nice to meet you in person.”

  Hank looked at the woman before him. She was the perfect image of the Arcadia he had watched so often in the videos. She was tall, had flowing blond hair, and crystal blue eyes. She was young and beautiful. She was wearing the familiar silver/white, dress that went all the way to the floor and there was a silver belt around her trim waist.