Death Dealer

Chapter 4

Eli had woken up happier than he had in years, slight hangover and all. Last night was the best Night he had in years, he went to RD’s wedding, he had met a mare that had done the impossible and caught his eye, and the last and most important thing, for him, he had spent time with said mare. he felt like he was walking on clouds and nothing was going to ruin it.

“Uh, Sir?” feminine voice came from somewhere in the room, shaking his head, Eli noticed that right now he had an entire conference room full of the heads of every department looking at him, “Are you okay?” the voice asked again.

Turning his head to his right, he noticed that it was the chief of engineering, gear ratio, was looking at him with worry in her eyes.

“you are distracted today, that's unusual for you, Sir.”

“Yes,I'm alright.” he said as he tried to remember the last thing she said, but drawing a blank. What were you saying again?”

“we were wondering if there was anything else that needed to be brought up” she said as she finished putting her papers in her folder

“No, that will be all. thanks you are all dismissed” with that, the rest of the ponies and one donkie picked up their things and left the conference room.

Looking at his schedule, he looked for the next item in his agenda, ‘looks like will be making my rounds on the research side of the facility today’.

***

he began walking out of the conference room himself, he took an immediate right, started walking straight to the research and development area. going thru several doors, and a security checkpoint where he himself was to be scanned. ‘We don't want repeat of the changeling incident’ he thought as he felt the magic of the unicorn mare going over him.

“sorry for the inconvenience, Sir.” the mare said as she finished the scan, adjusting the earpiece for one of the new ‘compact’ personal magic radios the R&D department just perfected. though the R&D department had made it the smallest it could, it was still large enough that they needed to wear it as a saddle bag.

“No problem at all, Amethyst, you don't have to apologize, I'm the one that is making you scan every one, including me” he said as he chuckled

“O-ok Sir” she said as Eli straightened his jacket.

“So, how is your first week going?” he said as he stopped, there were no other ponies going in thru the door, so he took the time to speak to one of his newest employees.

“Its been great, Sir,I managed to learn the scanning spell, it was difficult at the beginning, but after doing it 50 or so times a day, it becomes second nature quickly!” she responded excitedly rubbing the back of her purple mane

“thats good.” Eli said, very happy that the mare was adjusting to her new position well. “how is your mother? last I heard she was having problems with her eyesight”

this caused the mare in an instant to look crestfallen “Y-yea, she has been getting steadily worse over the years, its actually why I took this job, the pay is good, and now that she is not working,I Am going to be supporting her and my little sister.” she looked to the side, not wanting to look at the man in front of her in the eye“I also wanted to put together some money for a procedure that can help her regain her eyesight.”

“hmm, that won't do.” he said as he shook his head and crossed his arms. the mare had a sudden look of panic for some odd reason, but it quickly vanished as he continued to talk. “talk to the employee health department and ask them to put her and you're on our health plan. free of charge of course”

“w-w-what, no w-we can't acc-”

“Yes you can, and you will” he interrupted her as he put a finger in the air “Just ask your mother to make me a dozen of her best chocolate chip muffins” he continued as he began to turn around “They are to die for!”

Eli began to walk away, but then turned around and addressed the mare with the jaw on the floor “By the way, amethyst” she stiffened at Eli calling her “Don't call me Sir, it sounds too old and we are about the same age, Just call me boss.”

Amethyst finally got control back of her vocal cords and responded “sure thing Boss!”

***

“How is the magic-Electricity conversion ratio, white lightning?” a male unicorn asked as he looked over a circuit diagram, his blue coat as messy as his dark gray mane and tail

“its good, but we still can't get the electricity to flow freely enough for the system to work, Rising Star. what else can we do to get more electricity thru the circuit, Flow?” a female pegasus pony said looking at the actual magical circuit on the table, her coat white and her mane blue .

“have you tried to rout the electricity thru one of th-” The light green earth pony mare with very light blue mane and tail responded, but was interrupted by the sound of a door opening

“There is the triple threat!” Eli said as he entered the room, a grin spread across his face, “blown up any buildings recently?”

“Hehehe” the unicorn stallion said with a nervous laugh that was accompanied by the laughs of the two mares, “You still bring that up, no, we try to keep our experiments on the tame side now a days” he said as he remembered the incident about 6 years ago where the three of them blew down the wall of company’s old research facility”

“So, what are you three working on today?” he starting, having enough of teasing the three ponies.

“We are working on a adding more capabilities to our current control crystals.” he started explaining “As you know, the current design for control crystals allow us to controll cars and other mechanical with greater precision than we could with our hooves.” he said, none of this was news to him, he did help his wife develop it, after all. “yes, we still hold the steering wheel with our hooves but things like accelerating and braking are very uncomfortable to do to the way our rear legs are shaped. but I digress.”

“Now, as I was saying,” the stallion said as he looked at the notes “The circuit you and… lady Ember” he paused, remembering the first head or R&D, the lady part was purely out of the greatest respect, as she was not an actual noble “develop was nothing but genius. nothing like this had ever been attempted before,I mean come on! laying down magical circuitry on a gem? I'm surprised no one had ever done it before! not only did you develop the process, but you also invented magicall circuitry itself!...But again I digress”

Yes, Eli remembered those days like they were yesterday. Eli came up with the concepts, Ember made them a reality, with Mechano magic begin their first real invention. they had invented a whole new magic that allowed ponies, no matter the species, to control magical actuators, another of their inventions, with the use of control crystals.

“So what we were trying to do is add the capability of not only controlling a Mechano magic, but also add the capability to control electrical switches,” the stallion said as he kept looking at the countless diagrams “but we are running into problems.” the stallion said with an exasperated look on his race

at this, white lightning picked up where the stallion left of “what Rising star was trying to say, is that the imperfections in each individual gem are causing too much interference with the magic circuit. this is okay with mechano magic since it is controlling something physical, but in this application, we are trying to control electricity, something much more sensitive”

“We would have much greater success if we had perfect diamonds, but the kids in section one haven't perfected the CVD process yet.” Flow said “from what they are telling me they only get one perfect diamond out of 50. and section one is using all of the ones they are cranking out. Us in section two only get what they don't use, which isn't much and there is a large waiting list.”

“Okay, thanks,I'm just doing rounds today, to get a better sense of what how the research is doing, though it sould like I'm going to have to pass by section one to. see you guys later.” Eli said as he exited the lab, and again tried to remember everything he knew about CVD. if he wasn't mistaking, section one was actually where apple bloom was shadowing today.

After he walked down the hallway, he was met by an elevator that would take him to the top floor of the R&D wing:Section 1.

***

Applebloom looked over the stallions shoulder, normally this would have angered him, but in this case, he actually asked her to do so.

“So, as I was saying, this is the machine we keep a variety of the chemicals.” the gray stallion with black graying mane said as he looked thru the viewing hole in a machine, manipulating the arms placed inside the machine with his magic “Though it looks like we keep them enclosed for our protection, it is actually to protect the chemicals from contamination. There are only a handful of chemicals in here that can actually hurt you, but there are none that will kill you immediately.” the stallion finished reassuring Applebloom in his own way.

“Okay. so what do we use these chemical for, Mr Matter?” Apple bloom asked feeling a little bit out of place. usually Applebloom and Dark Matter spent most of their time in on section three and four, sometimes on section two, but not often. this was the first time she had stepped hoof here.

Applebloom had spent her entire spring break shadowing Dr Dark Matter, he was an old stallion that worked as R&D supervisor. He was not the nicest stallion in the world, but after shadowing him for a week, the stallion had ‘warmed up’ to Applebloom

“Ah, a fine question.” Dark Matter said as put a different combination of chemicals.  “We use this machine for any project that needs a highly controlled combination of chemicals, but right now it is mainly being used for the CVD diamond project. It's probably the the most important project he are running right now”

the stallion, apparently happy with his work, pressed a button on the machine which caused it to expel a mixture of gas inside a canister. quickly levitating it off and labeling it ‘Blend #45’.

“What exactly are we trying to do with diamonds?” she asked, now knowing what CVD was.

“Basically, Miss bloom, we are trying to create diamonds atom by atom.” Dark matter responded, but sensing the oncoming question he continued “the reason that we are trying to make them instead of buying them is, as our leader so accurately expressed, ‘Mother nature is an artist, she does not like to make two of the same’. this is okay for jewelry, but for purposes like control crystals, it causes each crystal to have a ‘signature’ that the wearer has to learn before he can fully utilise it.”

“Oh,I See.” applebloom responded starting to get the purpose and goals of the project

“Miss bloom,are you alright?” he asked, actually showing concern for the young mare, something he would not do for anyone else. “you are not acting like your cheerful selfe today”

“Its...its nothing, Mr Matter” Applebloom responded while looking at the floor “Well, its something, but its regarding mah family, i'd rather not discuss it with, no offence, a stranger”

“None taken, Miss Bloom,I understand.” he said as he tentatively put his hoof on her shoulder. he was not very good with feelings, so he didn't know if what he was doing was okay or not, but regardless, he moved forward “but if you need to speak to someone, know that I'm here, and I'm sure the boss-”

At that moment the door to the lab opened and Eli walked in. The way that they were standing did not look good, alone in a lab room, AB looking crestfallen, and an older stallion with his hoof on her shoulder. Didn't look good at all.

“Whats going on here?” was all he asked but the response was immediate.

the stallion quickly wiped around looking at the tall Biped like he was about to soil himself “N-nothing Sir,I was just asking the young lady why she looked so down, thats all” Dark Matter was starting to panic at that moment ‘I'm going to get fired!’ he thought over and over again as Eli walked up to them ‘I'm going to get fired and I'm never going to work in the scientific field again!’.

Eli looked at the stallion for a moment, his face perfectly neutral, and then looked at Applebloom, “is anything wrong, AB?”

“No, E-,I mean, Boss.” she said, remembering that when they were at work she couldn't talk to him like she normally talked to him, the other ponies would think he had favorites. “Its like he said,I was feeling a little down in the dumps, and he was asking me why.”

Eli seemingly okay with her answer turned around to the stallio, causing him to jump a little, “So how is the process on the CVD diamonds?”

“W-well Sir, process is going slow.” he stuttered a little but soon calmed himself down, knowing that his Boss was not an unreasonable man “It seems like we are still having problems finding the correct combination of gases and compounds to make diamonds. we are getting diamonds, but most are nothing bigger than a grain of salt. every once in a while we get a big one, but it seems like they appear at random”

“Hmm. what are you using for the plasma, Dark?” Eli asked as he looked at the canister in the unicorns grasp

“right now we are using a mixture of hydrogen and methane like you told us, and  we’ve been experimenting with different ratios” Dark matter responded off the top of his head, as he leading the tall man to the running CVD reactor.

Eli was pleased that the reactor had come along nicely and was now operational, he had not had a chance to visit the team since the construction phase.

Unlike Eli, Applebloom was trying very hard not to let her jaw hit the floor. to her it looked like something out of a science fiction comic book or something, pipes and cables coming out of a big capsule like structure in the middle of the lab. she half expected it to open and for a little green pony to come out of it.

Once they were standing in front of the reactor, Eli looked thru the window and noticed something almost immediately “I think if found your problem Doc”

Immediately, Dr Black matter turned to look at the man, eyes wide thinking he might have done something wrong, “What is it?”

“You aren't putting enough power thru the high frequency emitters, the plasma is supposed to to be a deep lavender color.I guestimate that you probably need about double what you are putting thru it right now”

“Hmm...that does make sense, but we can't possibly draw any more power from either the grid or our power plant, not unless we redline our power plant.”

“We can't possibly do that, not for too long anyway.” Eli told the stallion as he wrote down something on a book “I'll have to speak to section five and ask them to start construction on another generator at their off site facility.” Eli said as he took another look at the reactor, “but in the meanwhile, do what you can with what you have.

“Yes Sir.”

“Now if you excuse me,I have several other departments that have to visit” with that and a farewell Eli went to exit but was stopped by Applebloom

“Uh...” The young lady spoke up, “can i talk to you, it does not have to be now, but i just need to talk to some one?”

“Sure, my door is always open.” he responded, lowering himself to be more at eye level. Dark Matter took that as a signal to make himself scarce “what about?”

“Well...” Applebloom started hesitantly, she had planned on talking to Eli for a while, but now that he was in front of her, she was starting to have doubts.“Its about Big Mac. Earlier today, he told us that he j-joined the army. My brother is leaving us tomorrow...”