Chapter 342: The Actions They Intend To Take

The White House Situation RoomWashington D.C. - 6 hours after the announcement.

President Williams sat at the head of the table, surrounded by advisors who all looked like they’d aged five years in the last six hours.

National Security Advisor Rebecca Torres spoke first. "Mr. President, we have a situation that doesn’t fit into any existing regulatory framework."

"Again? I hope it’s not what I think it is. Explain it to me like I’m not a telecommunications engineer," the President said. "Because I’m not."

Torres pulled up a presentation on the main screen.

"Nova Technologies has announced a device that provides internet connectivity globally, instantly, with no infrastructure, no power source, and no regulatory approval. It bypasses every system we have in place to monitor, control, or regulate telecommunications."

"How many units are they releasing?" the President asked.

"One thousand initially. But that’s not the point—"

"That is the point," interrupted Daniel Morrison, Chief of Staff. "One thousand units means thirty thousand maximum connections. In a country of three hundred thirty million people. That’s statistical noise."

"Now," Torres emphasized. "What about in six months? A year? What happens when every household has one? What happens when we have zero visibility into who’s communicating with whom, about what, and where?"

Secretary of Homeland Security James Carter leaned forward. "Mr. President, this represents a complete breakdown of our signals intelligence capabilities. The NSA has spent decades and a ton of resources building infrastructure to monitor communications for national security purposes. This device makes all of that obsolete."

"Not to mention," added Attorney General Linda Vance, "it enables perfect anonymity for criminal organizations. Drug cartels. Human traffickers. Terrorists. They can coordinate globally with zero intercept risk."

The President looked at FCC Chairwoman Michelle Roberts. "Can we regulate this?"

Roberts laughed and replied, "Sir, I’ve been asking my legal team that exact question for the last four hours. The answer is... complicated."

She pulled up a document.

"The device won’t use licensed spectrum—or if it does, considering that it’s Nova Technologies, we won’t be able to detect it. It won’t connect to any existing infrastructure. It won’t draw measurable power. It will have no installation requirements. Every single regulation we have is predicated on devices that use electromagnetic spectrum in detectable ways."

"This is like trying to regulate telepathy. Our rules don’t apply because we don’t understand what it’s doing."

"The question now, is what do we do? Here’s what I want to do," said FBI Director Marcus Webb, his voice tight with frustration. "I want to classify this as a national security threat. I want to ban its purchase, delivery, and usage in the United States. I want to seize every unit that enters the country and arrest anyone who tries to distribute them."

"I want to subpoena Nova Technologies’ technical specifications and force them to build in government backdoors. I want mandatory registration of every device with real-name verification. I want the ability to monitor, intercept, and shut down connections at will."

He paused.

"That’s what I want to do."

"But you can’t," the President said.

"But we can’t," Webb confirmed in exasperation.

Nova Technologies has really gotten on his nerves. Since the day it made appearance, things has never been the same for him.

Secretary of Commerce Angela Martinez pulled up a legal analysis.

"We have five major constraints, Mr. President."

"Constraint One: Constitutional Issues. Which mean that any outright ban faces immediate First Amendment challenges. Internet connectivity is arguably protected speech infrastructure. We’d need to prove imminent national security threat, and ’we can’t spy on it’ doesn’t meet that standard legally—even if it does practically."

"Constraint Two: Enforcement Impossibility. The device is basically an extremely advanced router, requires no installation, no power connection, and no external infrastructure. It’s effectively undetectable unless you physically find it. How do we enforce a ban on something we can’t detect?"

"Do we search every home? Every business? That’s Fourth Amendment violation territory. Even if we wanted to, we lack the resources."

"Constraint Three: International Jurisdiction. Nova Technologies isn’t a US company. While they have their industrial base and headquarters building here; unfortunately for us, both are empty."

"The company operate globally. We have no jurisdiction over their manufacturing, distribution, or operations. We can ban sale in the US, but we can’t stop Americans from buying devices overseas and bringing them back."

"And the device works globally anyway. Someone could activate it in Canada and use it while standing in New York. How do we stop that?"

"Constraint Four: Economic Retaliation. If we ban Lucid and Lucid Air, we’re banning the most advanced technology on Earth. We’d be deliberately cutting American citizens off from transformative innovation. The political backlash would be catastrophic."

"Worse, other countries might not ban it. We’d be the only major economy without access. That puts us at a massive competitive disadvantage."

"Constraint Five: The Streisand Effect. The moment we announce a ban, demand goes through the roof. We’d be advertising that this device is so powerful, so threatening to government control, that we’re terrified of it."

"That’s not a message any administration wants to send."

"So we’re powerless," The President said, rubbing his temples.

"Not powerless," Torres corrected. "Limited. There’s a difference."

She outlined the actual options.

"Option 1: Regulatory Delay. We can’t ban it outright, but we can slow it down. The FCC requires certification for any device that emits electromagnetic radiation. We demand Nova Technologies submit units for testing."

"Testing takes time. Months. Maybe a year if we’re thorough. We can require environmental impact studies, interference testing, safety certification. We bury them in bureaucratic process."

"Will it work?" the President asked.

"For a few months, maybe. But they can sell internationally while we ’review.’ And eventually we either approve it or look like we’re obstructing innovation for political reasons."

"Option 2: Mandatory Backdoors And Registration. We pass emergency legislation requiring any telecommunications device sold in the US to include government-accessible monitoring capabilities. We require real-name registration for all Lucid Air subscriptions."

"It won’t be popular," Vance said, "but we can frame it as national security. We’ve done it before with encrypted phones and messaging apps."

"And if they refuse to comply?" the President asked.

"Then they can’t legally sell in the US. They’d have to distribute through gray market channels, which limits adoption and makes users wary."

"Option 3: Tax And Licensing Requirements. We treat it like a telecommunications service," Martinez said. "Heavy excise taxes. Business licensing requirements. We make it expensive and bureaucratically complex to operate legally."

"We can also exclude it from federal contracts. No government employee or contractor can use Lucid Air devices for work purposes. That’s a massive market segment."

"Option 4: Strategic Accommodation. This is the option nobody wants to say out loud," Morrison said carefully. "We acknowledge we can’t stop this. So we adapt."

"We work with Nova Technologies to establish voluntary cooperation frameworks. We request—not demand—that they implement optional law enforcement access for court-ordered warrants. We treat them like we treat Apple or Google."

"We accept that perfect surveillance is over, and we adapt our intelligence gathering to focus on other methods. Metadata, endpoint security, human intelligence."

"That’s surrender," Webb said flatly.

"That’s reality," Morrison countered. "We lost the encryption wars twenty years ago. Every messaging app is end-to-end encrypted now. We adapted. This is the same thing, just bigger."

The President was quiet for a long moment.

"Here’s what we do. Multi-phase approach," he said, after coming to a decision.

"Phase One: Immediate regulatory review. FCC announces that Lucid Air requires certification before legal sale in the US. We buy ourselves three to six month."

"Phase Two: We draft legislation requiring telecommunications devices to include lawful intercept capabilities. We introduce it quietly, we lobby hard, and we see if we can get it through Congress."

"Phase Three: We approach Nova Technologies through back channels. State Department handles this. We make it clear that cooperation is in their interest. We offer incentives—government contracts, research partnerships, regulatory fast-tracking—in exchange for voluntary law enforcement cooperation."

"Phase Four: We prepare for the possibility that none of this works. NSA and FBI develop new intelligence gathering methodologies that don’t rely on communications intercept. We shift resources accordingly."

He looked around the room, to see if everyone was following what he was saying.

"And someone explain to me how a startup company has technologies that the entire US government can’t regulate, intercept, or understand."

A heavy silence filled the room, as no one was able to give a response. No one has any idea how Nova Technologies was able to achieve Lucid, the delivery drones and now, their coming latest addition, Lucid Air.

"That’s what I thought. Meeting adjourned," the President said, when no one gave a response.

***

All around the globe, governments were having emergency meetings to discuss Lucid Air. And within 24 hours of the announcement, the global response to Nova Technologies’ announcement would be clear.

China & Russia will issue a complete ban on Lucd Air, impose criminal penalties for owning the device and will follow up with aggressive enforcement.

European Union will use their usual tactics which is regulatory delay, compliance demands and diplomatic pressure.

United States will request for certification requirements, legislative efforts and also attempt cooperation with Nova Technologies. This time around, they will work even harder, as Lucid Air touches very delicate parts of national security—something they take very serious.

India will go with licensing and registration requirements with ban as backup.

While, Smaller Nations will be waiting to see what the major powers do. But underneath all the posturing, all the regulations, all the threats...

Everyone knew the truth. Which is that they can’t stop it. Not really.

Technology doesn’t respect borders. Information doesn’t obey laws. And once something exists—once it’s real and available and desired—banning it just creates black markets.

The age of government-controlled telecommunications was ending. And every government on Earth was desperately pretending they still had a say in what came next.