Traveling from Sweden to Denmark, December, 2077, Wednesday…

Lars Nielsen couldn't put his hands over his ears since he was driving, so he did the next best thing. He screamed at his kids. They had been going at it for the last fifty kilometers. Turn about was fair play.

They got quiet. His wife looked at him sharply, then at the children.

"Father is a little tired, my dears. But please don't fight so. We're in a small space."

"Get a bigger van," suggested the oldest girl.

Lars ignored her.

"Now, we're coming to the bridge. Are you ready?"

It really was a magnificent piece of engineering, this East Bridge, the first of three links going from Sweden to Denmark. For three quarters of a century it and the other two links in the Oresund chain, the East Tunnel and the West Bridge, had allowed Scandinavians complete access to the rest of Europe without having to go by ferry. 6.8 kilometers long, 2.7 kilometers is in the form of a suspension bridge, whose 1.6 kilometer central span was still the longest in the world. Improvements had been made to it since its opening at the turn of the century, including the installation of autopilot linkups for cars traversing it, now required. The driver turned over control of his car at one end and got it back at the other. Computers kept the traffic flowing in an optimal fashion irregardless of the traffic density.

A kilometer onto the bridge the autopilot disengage light came on.

"Isn't that too soon?" asked the oldest boy.

"Of course," said Lars, taking manual control of the car and reducing the speed. Fortunately the other drivers were doing the same. "We're supposed to be on autopilot all the way into Copenhagen. Something's very strange."

The road hazard channel came on automatically.

"…two hundred meter section of the bridge is gone. All traffic must stop. Repeat, all traffic stop."

The overhead lights for their lanes turned from green to red. The traffic came more or less to an orderly stop.

"How are we going to get off this thing?" asked his wife.

Lars put a finger to his lips.

"Repeat: Terrorists have blown up part of the East Bridge. A two hundred meter section of the bridge is gone. All traffic must stop. Repeat, all traffic stop."

The first message had been in English. The second in Swedish. The message repeated the required number of times to cover most of the old EU languages.

Then, in English: "Please maintain calm. Authorities will approach you from both ends of the bridge and direct you. Please do not move your car until asked to do so." Again the message repeated in the different languages.