Locus-2007, best short story This story is based on Cory Doctorow's experience as a system administrator in the early 1990s. The author himself explains in detail in the preface to the story how it was born and what it is about: There is still a pernicious myth that the Internet was designed to withstand nuclear war. Although this dream was no doubt present in the depths of the brains of those generals who gave the green light to the development of the network, in fact it was not the main thing in its design and creation. However, it all makes for a fascinating scenario in which system administrators in their 'cages' around the world watch with bated breath as generators fail and servers lose power, and wait until they run out of energy and air.