Chapter 32: Cold Relic

Jeff sat in the underground secure conference room, a deadly serious expression on his face. For the first time in days, all ARHUDS and bracelets had been left outside the room and a dampening field was active to prevent sound or electronic transmission from leaving the area.

Chris, Marky, Twilight, Emmy, Dr. Hardy, and Celestia looked back at him nervously from their seats around the small conference table. Chris and Emmy sat next to each other, and Jeff momentarily wondered why they both looked a little damp. Then he dismissed the casual thought and spoke.

"There's a reason I brought only you guys in here," Jeff said. "I have a possible backup plan for our attack, should things take a turn for the worse."

The room was silent as Jeff tapped his fingers on the table. "You may not be aware, but one of the research sub-divisions of ProteC deals with marine biology. We have a small fleet of oceanic exploration vehicles, including robotic deep-sea subs and retrieval equipment."

"Huh?" Marky asked, summing up the narrow-eyed looks around the table.

Jeff held up a finger. "Give me a moment. It will make sense soon enough. Are all you ladies familiar with nuclear weapons?"

Twilight, Emmy, and Celestia all nodded. "It's the most powerful weapon possessed by your species," Twilight said. "So powerful that only governments control them."

"You're mostly right," Jeff said. "Except that I also control one, and it's arriving on Leviathan by the end of the day."

Chris, Marky, and Dr. Hardy gasped in unison.

"What the fuck? And you didn't think to tell any of us?" Chris choked out, shocked beyond all sense.

"Dude! What the hell! Dr. Hardy squawked.

"Oh man," Marky groaned. "Oh, crap."

"Let me explain, damn it!" Jeff growled. "I couldn't tell you guys. For this, we have to maintain absolute, total secrecy. That's why I've brought only you few in here. That thing out there on the island absolutely cannot know what we have in our possession."

"Who's going to tell it?" Chris said, still angry that Jeff had held out on him.

"I don't know who's going to tell, we don't know what Shub-Niggurath is capable of," Jeff said. "And it's a risk we cannot take. The future of the world is at stake here."

Chris sighed. "You have a point. But what are we going to do with it?"

"Hopefully nothing. It's our backup plan, our fail-safe. If all goes as planned with the assault, we won't ever have to use the option."

"Where did you get this thing?"

"Like I said before, we have deep-sea retrieval robotic retrieval equipment. Are you familiar with the term empty quiver?"

"Not exactly," Marky said. "And I'm pretty sure none of the ladies are either."

"An empty quiver is an American military term for the loss of a functioning nuclear weapon. Throughout history, there have been several accidents where weapons were lost by different countries, especially at sea. Some time ago a ProteC team found the well-preserved remains of a U.S. submarine on the ocean floor, and were able to retrieve a repairable warhead from aboard, which we carefully restored to operating condition."

"That's kind of a big secret to keep from us," Chris said.

Jeff looked at him and narrowed his eyes. "I never promised you there would be no secrets, Chris. And I assure you that in what I do, I have the best interests of humanity and the world at heart. For now, I would suggest you stop fighting the idea and start thinking about how we can use this to save our asses."

"Fine. I guess you're right. If we do mess up badly enough out there, I'd rather get blown to hell by a nuke anyway than become part of a Patchwork Golem."

Twilight, Emmy, and Celestia had watched the humans with wide eyes, and Jeff now looked at them. "I have to tell you for two reasons. One, I need your help modifying this weapon with your magical crystals to create an amplified effect, like Marky has mentioned. By the way, that's why you're here Marky. You are the only one who has any clue about how such a device is modified."

"A nuclear-pumped magic bomb," Marky said quietly to himself. "Fuck."

"Secondly," Jeff continued, "I am giving you all the last chance to abandon us and our world. If our mission goes badly, we may have to detonate this bomb as a last resort and pray it stops Shub-Niggurath. Just assume that everyone one of us on the island will die in that instant, because from what Marky has said in the past, a magic bomb would make a regular nuclear weapon look like a firecracker."

"Theoretically," Marky said, faintly.

Celestia tapped her forehooves together, thinking. "What say you, Twilight? Emmy?"

"I will stay no matter what," Emmy answered, unhesitatingly. "Come what may. But I cannot speak for the others."

"As will I," Twilight added. "But we must tell the others and let them make their own decisions!"

"We cannot," Celestia said quietly. "If we do so, the vile creature may learn of our plan, and mitigate against it. We must keep knowledge to the fewest possible, and as leaders, decide the future for our friends, as unpalatable as I find it."

Jeff felt a deep stab of guilt. I've done it again. I've put them in another situation where they have to make a horrible decision.

Celestia and Twilight looked into each other's eyes. "I know what I would want," Twilight said. "Exactly what I chose."

"And you believe," Celestia began,

"That they would want the same thing," Twilight finished.

Both Celestia and Twilight looked at Jeff. "Equestrians are not quitters, and we do not abandon our friends," Celestia said.

"All of us knew this would be dangerous when we volunteered to come here," Twilight added. "And I believe nothing has changed, although this is a somewhat heavy secret to carry. We stay."

"And let's just hope it doesn't come to using the doomsday weapon," Emmy suggested. "Right?"

Chris exhaled loudly. "Right, Emmy. You're right."

"Well then, we need to move quickly," Jeff said. "Marky, do you remember what magical components go in a bomb?"

Marky sighed heavily. "Uh, just give me a sec please." He put his head in his hooves, apparently concentrating. After a moment he looked up. "It's complicated, and I'm no scientist. I only remember the basics of what I read on the Web and stuff."

"That's better than what we know," Celestia said. "Help us."

"Uh, it's a magnification spell. Like, one you would use to magnify light, but generic so it amplifies the thermonuclear blast instead. And I believe you place the imbued shards around the outer perimeter of the reaction mass. They can just go inside the outer casing of the bomb. When it explodes, they disintegrate instantly, their magic mixes with the plasma and, well, it's supposed to be a much stronger explosion."

"Can we do it?" Jeff asked.

Celestia spoke softly with Twilight and Emmy, then turned to Jeff. "Well, imbuing the crystals with a spell should not take long. We can do it within a few minutes, and there will be plenty of crystals left over after the firearm modifications are completed."

"I can modify the warhead," Dr. Hardy said "And depending on the type, we can install it on one of our close-range missiles." He frowned. "Very close-range missiles. But remember what I said before. There is no guarantee a nuclear device will work. In fact, it may make things worse."

"It's a risk we will have to take if things get bad enough out there. Let us pray they do not." Jeff tapped his chin. "It will take a day or two to load the Leviathan for combat. During that time, get the warhead modified, because we need to launch our attack immediately after. I think the appearance of the Patchwork Golem was a significant event, and we need to end this before we have another such situation. By the way, what is the firearm modification status?"

"In fabrication as we speak. The ladies imbued several stacks of crystals with the spells we needed, and the magazine and barrel mods are being run off in the automated assembly plant right now."

Jeff nodded approvingly. "So then that's our fallback plan, then. If Celestia and Twilight can prepare a few crystals after we're done here, then you can be ready to install them on the missile in short order. And remember everypony, not a word of this leaves the room."

***

As the others left the conference room, Celestia noticed Marky still sitting by himself at the table, staring into space. "Marky? Is everything okay?"

Marky looked at her slowly. "Yeah, I'm fine."

Celestia let the door close and returned to the table, sitting next to him. "You don't look fine. You can talk to me."

Marky sighed. "It's that obvious, huh?"

"You look like you feel sick to your stomach."

"I do, a bit. You know, I never told you how I got here."

"True. Is there something you want to share?"

Marky thought for a long moment, then finally took a deep breath. "I was a police officer on my home world. There was a terrorist death cult waging war against our society. They had acquired a nuclear-pumped magic bomb."

Celestia gasped. "Just like..."

"Yes. Like the device Jeff is having you create. Anyway, the lunatics had placed the device in a subway rail car, and hidden it underneath one of our largest cities. It was a huge maze, miles of dead ends and forgotten lines. Nobody believed the bomb even existed, but my team managed to find it with no assistance from our precinct or anyone else. When we finally found it, we had only minutes to spare. We were outnumbered, outgunned, our bomb expert was dead, and the rest of the squad held off the terrorists while I attempted a defusal."

"What happened?"

Marky stared at the wall. "I failed. I couldn't defuse it, I tried, but all I could do was pull wires at random. The countdown ended, and it went off. I was right there on top of it, surrounded by wires, doing no good at all. I just remember everything going white. It was like every mistake I made in my life came back on me in that one moment. It didn't hurt, physically, but the sense of hopelessness was complete. I felt my body vanish instantly. I felt myself die."

Celestia said nothing, her eyes big.

Marky continued after a moment. "I... I floated in empty whiteness for I don't know how long. But then suddenly I opened my eyes and I was laying in a pool of mud in Equestria with my hair all on end, like I'd stuck my nose in a wall socket or something."

Marky focused back on her. "The city probably died that day. A magic amplified bomb is a lot worse than anything the humans here on Earth have created so far."

He closed his eyes. "And I'll never know for sure what happened. I think the unbelievable power of that weapon may have thrust me right through into another universe, maybe because I was literally inside the machine when it went off. The others? My friends and teammates? I don't know. They may have died. They may have been thrust into other universes. And I'll never know."

His voice tremored slightly, and when he opened his eyes they were moist. 'I'll never know what happened to any of them." A tear rolled down his cheek. "I'm sorry. This just brought back a lot of memories I was trying not to think about."

Celestia reached out a hoof and touched his shoulder.

He blinked, and more liquid squeezed from his eyes even as his gaze hardened. When he spoke again, there was iron in his voice that clashed with the unwiped tears on his face. "But I'll not let it stop me. I'll not ever give up. If I've been given a second chance, I will not waste it. I will never let my failures overcome me."

He tossed his head slightly, defiantly. "Even if it kills me."