Chapter 2 - Lux lucet in inferno liberabis

The Mushroom Cloud Chronicles (Reboot)
A JAG-Sims3 Story

Author: Haruo Chikamori
Rating: M
Classification: Angst, Romance.
Spoilers: N/A

Summary: Continuity of Government (COG) – a stark term for starting over after a holocaust the likes of which is hoped will never ever happen. This is a what-could-happen if the button was ever pressed.

DISCLAIMER: The characters Harm Rabb, Jr., Sarah "Mac" Mackenzie, Meg Austin, AJ Chegwidden, et al. belong (in concept if not name) to CBS/Bellisarius. Animal and all OC characters are the property of Heather and Hugo Chikamori. No profit is being made from this story, nor is any infringement intended.

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Chapter 2 - Lux lucet in inferno liberabis
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Captain Bruce Carmichael sat in his office contemplating the events of the day. He'd never thought the Chinese had the gumption to do what they just did. After having advised the President that there had been no possible way that the Chinese would attack under any circumstance due to the possibility of US intervention, he had been mistaken and the lives of 473 men onboard the USS Monaghan, as a result, had been lost. Such was the gamble of diplomacy and the inner workings of the steps taken to maintain it - a finely tuned game of chess. Such a game was not for the faint of heart as the ramifications of this game had global implications.

Bruce was no shrinking violet with regards to the tough matter in life, but nothing scared him more than the threat of nuclear war. When both sides of the six-legged nuclear table were rock-solidly planted on the ground, there was nothing to fear; but when one of the legs was kicked out from under the table, then that stability was no longer there.

The game of intelligence was a game of cat and mouse and he had done things that he'd regretted. He'd frozen out his Academy classmate from learning things that would have protected his legal partner about a potential assassination plot that had occurred during the course of a Summit meeting on U.S. soil and he'd pretty much lost that friendship. And that particular friend was shot in the head. She had survived the incident, albeit with some memory loss of that particular traumatic event, but Harm had never forgiven him for that. Of course, irony had it that that former legal partner of Harm's had now been working for the better part of several decades in Naval Intelligence herself.

But with an impending war; he felt he needed to do the right thing. As much as he needed her assistance in sorting out this mess of information, he had to make sure that she was protected.

The Chinese had attacked the mainland with conventional weapons but Bruce had no doubt in his mind that the entire globe would be embroiled in nuclear conflict within a matter of weeks. In a global war situation, the first side that cracked open the nuclear genie would start a cascade of events that would eventually end with total annihilation of the human race. That was the stark reality of what had transpired at Alamagordo Bombing and Test Range on July 16, 1945 when J. Robert Oppenheimer had uttered the prophetic words, "We knew the world would not be the same, A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu Scripture, the Bhaghavad-Gita, Vishnu trying to persuade the Prince; he should do his duty and to impress him, he had taken on his multi-armed form, and says, "Now I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds..."

From the moment that any country decided to pick up a weapon and started a shooting war, a timer to nuclear annihilation was started. When tempers were short, those who had access to the missile triggers had to be of sound mind to determine a lawful order to launch from one that wasn't. And if a country had a hot-head in charge of the nuclear launch codes, then peace was tenuous. Everyone in the world relied on the fact that the other side wouldn't be the first to lose their temper and initiate the destruction of the world.

Those in the intelligence community knew just how little it took to initiate a conflict; it could be an assasination, a disagreement over a border-line or even as little as a few rash words. Bruce had seen regional conflicts flare up as a result of differences in religious faith so he had no faith in the stability of world leaders to keep the peace and so...as the world spiralled out of control, he sat staring silently at the wall in contemplation of what he had to do. to protect those he cared about.

The matter of peace was out of his hands - he didn't have the control to those reins; his only means of control was knowing more about the other side's moves than his counterpart on the other-side knew about his. If the world came to an end, it would be a harsh and unforgiving climate, if there was any reason to survive at all. He had read the studies on environmental consequences of nuclear war coming from the esteemed professors in research at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Rutgers and the University of California and it was bleak. And that was a best-case scenario if anyone survived at all. If there was any reason to survive.

Bruce knew that he would rather eat the muzzle of his service weapon than have to survive in the wasteland post-nuclear apocalypse. After all, he'd been living in a personal hell of his own for the past eight years. Everything that made life worth living had gone one day eight years ago. Nuclear war would be the final straw.

A knock at the door interrupted his morbid train of thought.

"Come in...", Bruce stated, he'd called to ask to speak to her. As she strode in; a tall 5 foot 11 statuesque blonde, he knew just what Harm saw in her. She was keenly intelligent (as demonstrated over the decades that she'd worked with him) and she was beautiful, a rare combination. But Bruce was bent on setting things right and he just casually nodded to her as she stepped into his office.

"You asked to see me, sir?" Even though they were of equal rank, Captain Meg Austin deferred to him as he was many days her senior (he had been in that rank a lot longer than she had).

"You are aware of the document Pinnacle?"

"Only in passing, sir." was Meg's reply. She looked rather confused as to why she was being asked this, but that was only a short moment of confusion as Bruce clarified in his next sentence the reasoning behind the question.

"Let me give you a brief rundown. In 1953, when President Eisenhower first entered office, he issued an executive order consolidating a plan for the continuity of government in the case of a national emergency - that national emergency being the initiation of total nuclear war and the imminent destruction of the United States of America."

As a military officer, Meg realized the implications of this...and with great effort managed to confine her reaction to just a brief exhale of breath. "Sir?"

"In the case of a conflict that threatens to escalate into nuclear war, the President has the authorization to initiate Pinnacle...and the JCS has just received that authorization with the proper authentication codes attached. The President of the United States has just initiated Pinnacle."

"I've been asked by the commanding officer of Naval Intelligence to provide a list of those within our infrastructure critical to the intelligence community who are to be transported to the safe facility. Meg, you...are on that list."

"...but what about you, Bruce?" This was a time to break military formality if Meg ever knew. Bruce sighed, as he got up out of his chair and went to look out at the window.

Bruce Carmichael didn't bother answering the question, "The world is a beautiful place, Meg. I thought it was something that you could count on to always be there; the trees, the flowers, the lakes..." his tone was pensive.

"...at least I thought that when I was growing up..." he stated softly. "That was before I entered the Navy and saw the evil in the world. There's so much beauty on the earth, yet there are people who seek to destroy all that."

"When nuclear war happens...and I'm not saying if, Meg, I'm saying when, because I know for a fact that if Russia gets involved this war will go hot, this world will no longer be a place worth living, but for only the hardiest; the most mentally strong. If you had asked me that question, nine years ago, I would have probably told you a different answer; I lost that will...eight years ago, Meg"

"...there's nothing left for me...other than my work...and once that is finished...then..." he left the sentence unfinished.

"Sharon?" was Meg's only question.

Bruce's silence was her only answer, but she knew that when Sharon had died, a part of Bruce had gone with her. Seeing him take very little time off while she was undergoing chemo treatments; the pained look on his face everytime he came into work, as she had wasted away...the devastation on his face when he realized that the treatments were no longer holding back that cancer that was eating away at her...and then the utterly broken man that he became when she had finally died.

There was nothing else to be said. But when Bruce suddenly turned away from the window and strode towards her, it startled her because she hadn't been expecting that sudden motion and the grim determination in his eyes scared her. "Meg..." he said, "You have something to live for." he said, his voice firm and a tone of command in his voice, "You...are being selected because your work is crucial...to the survival of everyone in the bunker that you are assigned to."

"You have to carry on...the legacy of the human race...along with those chosen to survive."

"I don't know what the situation will be like, Meg...up top after that bombs fall and there is no telling what will happen, the only thing that I'm thankful for if this goes down is that maybe there is a God...and maybe He'll be forgiving enough for all the sins that I've done, to allow me to be with Sharon for eternity."

"I'm sorry, Bruce..." was all that Meg could say. She would gratefully accept any chance to live, but her heart mourned for the Captain who had lost so much. "I guess this is it..."

Bruce looked down at his feet, "I did wrong by Harm in not telling you about Hemlock which ultimately got you shot...and I've had to live with that for over fifteen years, Meg. I pulled some strings and tried to find out if Harm was being assigned to a bunker. He was...and then I pulled some further strings to get you to THAT bunker."

"It's my way of penance. May good fortune travel with you...Meg, whereever the events of this world may take you." Bruce stated.

"Fair winds and following seas..."