1A/N: A crossover following the 1996 movie "Independence Day" and the short 2001 Animusic video "Pipe Dream". I recommend you watch Pipe Dream on YT before reading if you haven't seen it before - it's short.
Viral isn't Necessarily a Bad Thing
It was some time before David Levinson and Captain Steven Hiller found themselves alone again after being picked up in the desert while they walked away from the crashed alien ship. Steven had the quickest honeymoon in history with his new wife and David had to prove to his father and newly reconciled ex-wife Connie that he was still in one piece.
But there came a time when there was a lull between the celebration for the victory over the aliens and the proverbial rolling up of sleeves and getting the hands dirty job of rebuilding the greatly destroyed infrastructure of the world's major population centers. Still living in the underground bunkers that were part of the Area 51 complex, David and Steve relaxed in a side room away from the crowd. Somehow, a couple of cigars had been found and the two were enjoying them - blatantly in violation of the no-smoking regulations of the base. As heroes of the world, they allowed themselves the indulgence, although it didn't keep them from doing it in secret just in case they were caught.
"Enjoy it man, there's no telling when we'll find more of these babies" Steven said as he took a long drag on his.
"No truer words were spoken, Steve. Not even time for me to start a habit I suppose. Maybe after we rebuild things I could pick it up" David suggested. He choked slightly after long drag "Maybe not."
"I don't build, I fly. Tell you what though - I'll fly you anywhere you need to go when you're doing it. We have faced death staring at that ugly mother in the spaceship and lived to tell the tale, partner."
"Thanks. You know, I was thinking…"
"Uh oh."
"No, hear me out. Maybe you can sign up to be the President's personal pilot; I don't think there'll be a space shuttle program anytime soon for you to get in and after what we did I'd say you got first shot at the job if you want. But there's a lot of work, that's for sure. Not just cleaning up, but maybe this time we can do it right and build smart. Green. You know, sustainable."
"Whatever. If you can bring down a mothership with that little computer, you can do anything. How did you do it?"
"How much do you know about computers?"
"Not much. Some video games and flight simulators. Nothin' about the nuts and bolts."
"Okay. Well, let's just say that I had something in my back pocket, so to speak, that I was able to use on the alien's ship. Since everything was coordinated from the mothership, it had to be the target to go after."
"Yeah man, but what was it? Did you put on something that would melt their reactor or what?"
"I'm not a nuclear guy, and I don't even know if one of those people would know how to do that anyway. No, no, not at all" David said, putting his hand on his forehead. "I wouldn't know the first thing about it. And if I had to go to school..." he trailed off in thought.
"But you knew how to put the virus into their computer."
"That was the easy part. Remember, I studied their communications before the attack. Even without knowing their language, I was able to learn how they sent and received information based on what they were doing to our satellites. Math is pretty much universal. Well, it is for advanced species. My dog can't add."
"Jasmine's dog Boomer can tell time - he knows when it's time to eat" Steven bragged. "My girlfriend - I mean wife, gotta get used to that now - says when it hits five o'clock, he's starin' at his bowl."
"Conditioned reflex. Or maybe the sun, I don't know. But math is math and if you can count it gives you a place to start. They might be telepathic, but we knew their audio range and their visual range so the trick was to come up with something that would tie up their computers and cause them to crash. No computers, no communication."
"Right. Okay. So what did you do? Calculate pi or something?"
"That was just an old TV show; it wouldn't work for modern systems. No, I needed something that would tie up as much of their processing power as possible. So it hit me - send them a virus by sending them something viral."
"Like a cat video."
"They may not know what a cat is, but that's the idea. But for that extra component, that extra kick, I wanted something with audio too; they may not normally communicate verbally but they'd be sensitive to it. Something that was so catchy that they couldn't stop watching it; something that everyone on the ship would try to watch, even if they weren't sure why it was so mesmerizing."
"That rules out Fresh Prince."
"Fresh prints? What's that?"
"Nothing. So what did you use?"
"I'll show you." David pulled out his laptop and woke it up; with a few keystrokes he opened a video player. A scene started, showing an arrangement of pipes and strings.
"Pretty boring, man. Maybe aliens dig it, I guess – if they're a plumber named Mario."
"Wait."
Suddenly a ball shot out of a tube and bounced against some strings before bouncing off a drum and disappearing into another tube, creating a musical note every time it struck a string or surface. More balls joined in, to create a musical rhythm from the strings and drums.
"Trippy."
The balls continued to coming out at a faster pace, and the scene shifted. Soon Steven watched with his mouth open as a chaotic but melodic scene ensued with balls going in all directions, but always to create music. Drums, cymbals, xylophones, and bells all added to the effect until after a dramatic finish the scene became still and silent again.
"Wow. Jimmy would have loved this."
"See what I mean. They probably never saw anything like it before. No language barrier, just a voice saying 'watch me' in their heads, or wherever they keep their brains."
"It's...amazing. It's nuts."
"It's insidious. And it worked. Once they started watching this, it went viral in their system and crashed the whole thing. I don't know, maybe it even asked for an app update halfway through the process since it always happens to me. In any case, that is what I used."
Steven leaned back in his chair, the melody still running in his head. "You know, it's probably against the Geneva Convention."
David shrugged. "Undoubtedly."
"I won't tell anyone if you don't. What if it ever gets out into the public?"
"This is the last copy, so it's safe. I think. Probably. Although I might have left..."
The End
A/N: I saw there was a category for Animusic, so I simply had to come up with a quick story for it. I gave my brother-in-law an old computer with a copy of the video "Pipe Dream" included years ago not too long after it came out on the internet, and when I stayed at his house I could hear him listening (and presumably watching) it in the middle of the night. Heh heh.
But where did the real video come from? Sure, there's a cover story but maybe...
