I do not own anything related to the Fallout franchise, those come under the heading of Bethesda Softworks and Zenimax Media (thankfully).
"Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards." – Aldous Huxley
'Urrghh, my head. What hit me?" Ruby groaned pitifully for a moment, refusing to open her eyes in case the light brought on any worse pain that her already head-splitting migraine. 'Oh that's right... a bullet.' Ignoring for the moment how she could have possibly survived a bullet at point blank, the girl took a moment to just allow the pounding in her head to die down. Once it did she tried to take stock of the situation as best she could while keeping her eyes firmly closed. 'Relatively soft bed, thin covers... Well I'm not in a grave somewhere so that's a start. They seem dry so it's probably not a raider camp.' There was a soft breeze rolling across her prone form but without the irritating sand that accompanied it in the desert so she figured she was inside.
"Well look at that, didn't expect to see you up for a few more days, though I suppose you're the type that just exceeds expectations now ain't ya?" Hesitantly Ruby cracked her eyes open, immediately regretting it as her retinas felt like they had taken a direct hit from a laser rifle. After another few moments of simply allowing her obviously weak and wholly unaccustomed eyes to adjust to the light, Ruby was able to make out the vague blur of a man sitting beside her.
"Whe-" She had meant to ask where she was but all that emerged from her parched throat was a raspy cough that the man immediately tended to by rising and walking away. Ruby took the opportunity to continue trying to make out more than vague blurs of the room around her. By the time he came back she had just enough of her eyesight return to see he was holding a somewhat clean glass of water out to her. Her natural reaction was to lean up and take it but her body violently rejected that line of action. As soon as she tried to raise herself up even moderately her head felt like it was being repeatedly stabbed by a rusty knife.
"Woah there, I just pulled far too much lead outta your noggin to be healthy, don't be too hasty now." Ruby just gently leant back before nodding her head, just about the only thing she found she could do that didn't result in damn-near crippling pain. However when the thankfully cool glass was pressed up against her lips she managed to drink greedily from it, uncaring that quite a bit dribbled down her chin in an un-ladylike manner. She was sure if her mother could see her now she would have her ear in a vice-like hold in no time.
"Here you go, this should help." She could vaguely feel a small needle being inserted into her arm but she just found she couldn't care less as the pain suddenly melted away, dying down to an only slightly uncomfortable throb. She released a greatly satisfied sigh before turning her head, pleasantly surprised to find her vision had returned to her completely. "Now I bet that feels a whole lot better, am I right?" The girl simply nodded, a small smile starting to form on her face without her meaning to. "Now I need to just make a few checks to see if all your mental faculties are still there, we'll start off with something easy; how about your name?"
"Ruby." The girl's smile widened at the sound of her own voice; it was still a little hoarse but being able to talk was definitely a good sign. The older, balding man before her gave a mirroring grin.
"That's a pretty name, I can see where you get it from." The man gave her a once over before nodding, seemingly satisfied. "Well Ruby, you can call me Doc Mitchell, or just Doc if ya like. I think that's enough for today, that Med-X should be kicking in pretty soon and knock you out for a while, when you wake up again I'll run through a few more tests, just to see if you're really back up to scratch, or if you even know what scratch is anymore." Ruby wanted to nod, but her head suddenly weighed too much; the pounding headache had subsided and the bed felt warm and inviting.
Doc Mitchell leaned back as the young girl drifted off back to sleep, luckily she seemed less troubled this time and her face wasn't scrunched up in pain. She had been in a right state when Victor had practically dragged her into his office, caked in earth and mud and just barely breathing, although it was fairly touch and go for a while. He shook his head, wondering what the poor girl could have done to get her into such a situation; the wastes really weren't the most forgiving place.
True to his word, when the next day came around and Ruby woke up she was subjected to a flurry of medical tests to affirm that she was indeed healthy. She found she had full mobility, a blessing considering her line of work as a courier, and didn't actually seem any worse off for her very, very close shave with death. The doc had tried to explain it to her but she had never been very good with biology; something about 'a lot of the brain being redundant' and 'the bullet only entering one hemisphere'. She didn't get the technical terms, but she was alive so it didn't matter all that much.
"Well that's about all I can do for you." The Doc said in his accented drawl. The two were currently sat in Mitchell's sitting room, Ruby on the couch and him on the armchair opposite. "Stitching people up is what I'm good at but in the end whether or not you think any of your marbles may have fallen out is up to you." Ruby just nodded before looking down in thought for a moment.
"Do you have anything electronic or mechanical I could borrow for just a moment?" Ruby's voice had cleared up overnight, allowing her slight Californian accent to peek through. The Doc just raised an eyebrow before getting up slowly, joints creaking like an un-oiled spring. After a moment of hearing him root around, the sounds of clutter being moved this way and that sounding through the small house Ruby now knew intimately, he returned. In his hand he loosely held an old AEP7 Laser pistol, not looking all that pleased to be carrying it.
"You mean something like this?" Ruby just nodded as she caught the small energy weapon, handling it with extreme care; she knew it was slightly irrational to be wary of guns, especially in the wasteland, but it was more of an ingrained thing. She frowned at the little hand held laser pistol before shrugging; it wasn't ideal but it would do.
"Thanks."
Doc Mitchell spent the next few minutes watching in rapt awe as Ruby systematically disassembled the device, laying each component out carefully on the table in front of her. After running a scrutinising eye over everything she nodded once before re-building the device just as quickly. The doctor was quietly amazed as the gun was handed back to him, somehow looking cleaner than before. Experimentally he aimed the little gun, choosing one of the more burnt books on his shelf before pulling the trigger.
"Wow." To his continued amazement the book simply disintegrated; it seemed that whatever Ruby had done had increased the power-output of the weapon. Not only that but she seemed to have somehow increased its accuracy; Mitchell had carried the laser pistol for quite a while and always knew it shot slightly askew. "What did you do to it?" Ruby just beamed, being praised for her repair-works never grew old.
"Most energy weapons were massed produced during the resource wars so naturally companies made them ideal for quick and easy creation. If you just go delving around in them you can find a whole lot of things to tweak, like for instance I just ramped up the power-output of the energy cells by another twenty five percent." Mitchell just stared at the gun appraisingly; amazed at how simply the girl had improved it.
"Doesn't that damage it more though?" Ruby shook her head, taking the gun out of his hands and taking out the energy cell unit from the side before holding it up.
"Actually a lot of weapons like these have something called a 'factory setting'. It's supposed to maximise the output while not putting the more delicate equipment at risk of overheating. In actuality though these settings were under that value so it was less draining on the cells, even though the power units themselves still had energy to spare. You wouldn't be able to recycle them afterwards but it gives the gun more kick." The doctor just nodded, feeling somewhat strange getting a lesson in weaponry from a girl less than half his age.
"What about the accuracy?" Ruby beamed at that, inserting the energy cell back into place inside the gun before putting it down on the table.
"Oh good, you noticed!" The doctor nodded, finding it odd how enthusiastic the young girl was over this; he would estimate her at being no older than twenty, and probably closer to eighteen. "Yeah well, the thing is the AER7 was supposed to be the cheaper alternative to the standard issue Wattz one thousand. It was essentially the same gun but with cheaper materials better for mass production. Unfortunately the development was slightly rushed with the invasion of Alaska. The gun was supposed to have a laser-sight and was built and designed with that in mind so when production was sped up and it ended up with a normal iron-sight, the accuracy problem never got fixed. It caused a whole bunch of controversy at the time." Again the Doctor could only blink in surprise at the almost text-book knowledge the girl displayed.
"And how, rightly, do you know all this?" Ruby suddenly realised that she had been rambling again, something that she found happened a lot when she started talking about machinery. She chuckled sheepishly as she scratched the side of her head, her eyes straying from Mitchell's gaze.
"I uh, I read a lot of technical manuals growing up, sometimes they would have cool little footnotes written in. My dad would also make me read newspapers from before the war; he always told me that knowledge was the most important thing we could take from history's mistakes." Her shoulders slumped slightly as an almost childish pout appeared on her face. "Most of the time though it was just boring propaganda bits or information on the various businesses that were affected by the war." Mitchell raised an eyebrow at that, wondering just where Ruby was from if she had access to both technical manuals for advanced weaponry as well as in-tact newspapers... as a child.
"I reckon your dad had the right idea." Ruby just shrugged non-commitally as her eyes drifted around the room. Mitchell was quickly coming to understand that when talking about anything other than technology her attention span was about as short as a Bloatfly's. "Well in either case you seem to be just fine in the head, enough to school an old doc like me anyway. Why don't you go wash up and when you come out I'll have a surprise for you." It was like talking to a child; as soon as he mentioned a surprise Ruby was on her feet and excitedly heading towards the Doc's bathroom.
The face she saw in the old, cracked mirror was certainly a sight for sore eyes; she was a little grimy and her hair looked like it could use a good soak but it was definitely the Ruby she remembered. She gave a sly grin and the doppelganger in the mirror copied her. She was a pretty modest person and wouldn't be the first to say she was beautiful but, with her slim build, long red hair and pale, but freckled face, she would at least call herself cute. It helped that she had a more than modest bust that currently strained against the dusty grey vest she was wearing.
She quickly cleaned her face up with a nearby cloth, sighing as the cool waters cleansed her skin. It took her a while longer to clean her hair before tying it back into the long, loose pony-tail she always wore it in. Finally she stripped down and cleaned off the rest of her body, feeling as though she was shedding a great weight as the dust and grime was wiped from her skin. There was a knock at the door that made her nearly shriek in surprise, dropping the wet cloth into the sink.
"Here, I know it might not quite fit but I ain't really stocked with female clothing." The door opened a crack but before Ruby could protest a set of folded clothes was placed on the side and the door was promptly closed again. After a few moments spent drying herself off, another long-awaited and greatly appreciated task, Ruby finally felt clean enough to walk over and check the clothes. She almost burst out laughing when she picked up the dull blue jumpsuit, complete with yellow borders and a dull, metal belt.
A grin lit up her face as she pulled the familiar clothing on; it was a little tight in the chest and long in the legs and arms. That was quickly fixed though as she rolled up the sleeves until they were past her elbows and pulled the zip down on the front until she was showing a fair amount of cleavage; it wasn't enough to be immodest, though her mother would still probably pitch a fit. She completed the look by buckling up the utility belt and pulling on a pair of red high-top sneakers.
She felt nostalgic just wearing the clothing and although the large yellow '21' emblazoned on the back was different, it was like the last five years might as well not have happened. She emerged from the bathroom with that same melancholic grin, something immediately noticed by the Doc, who just happened to be standing right outside.
"I see the clothes fit okay; my wife was a bit taller than you but you seem to fill them out just fine. You didn't have any trouble with them did you? I know there a bit different to what people normally wear out there."
Ruby just chuckled as she looked down at herself, the old familiar blue staring right back at her. "Yeah well, it's kind of hard to when you grow up wearing the things, no matter how hard I try to forget." At that Doc Mitchell's eyebrow made a desperate escape attempt into his non-existent hairline.
"You were born in a vault?"
Ruby just nodded with her trademark grin, seeming proud and annoyed by the fact at the same time. "Yeah, Vault Fifty Three, born and raised."
The doctor just shook his head while chuckling; at this point he shouldn't have been surprised yet this girl continued to amaze. "Well then I suppose you should be pretty familiar with one of these then?" With that the man moved his hand, pulling out a small but bulky device that left Ruby's eyes as wide as saucers.
"Is that what I think it is?" Before Mitchell could even blink the wrist-mounted device was out of his hands and eagerly being looked over by the over-enthusiastic courier. "Damn, it really is a Pip-Boy three thousand model!" Mitchell felt a small amount of satisfaction from seeing the girl so enamoured with the device.
"Huh, you coming from a vault I would have expected you to a' seen one before." Ruby's eyes never left the device as she shook her head, still excitedly turning it over so she could gaze at every inch. Mitchell suspected that the only reason she hadn't ripped it open was the fact he was standing there and she was trying to be polite.
"Our vault was only stocked with the two thousand models." She finally stopped eye-raping the pre-war tech as a sheepish smile inched its way onto her face. "I ran into some trouble a few years back and was forced to sell mine; really sad too as it had been with me since I was five years old." This time Mitchell tried not to be shocked... and failed; in Vault Twenty One your Pip-Boy was a sign you were an adult, ready for responsibilities; he couldn't imagine that being placed on a five-year old.
Suddenly though a thought seemed to strike Ruby as she looked up at the Doc before glancing between him and the device in her hands."Are you really giving me this?" Mitchell just gave the girl a warm smile and patted her gently on the shoulder. "But why? Don't you know how much you could get if you sold it?"
Mitchell just gave a small bark of a laugh before sighing amusedly. "And where exactly am I going to find somebody to sell it to kiddo? Goodsprings ain't the thriving little town it used to be. Plus, I'd feel better knowing that it's out there with you as opposed to some rich NCR Brahmin Baron that's too lazy to take stock o' what's in his pockets." Even Ruby had to smile that that; rare technology like this was highly sought after by the wealthier NCR citizens with more money than they knew what to do with. "Plus... maybe it'll be the thing that stops another bullet ending up in your noggin and ruining all my nice needlework eh?"
Ruby found herself torn between hugging the older man and opening the Pip-Boy up; she chose the former after a moment's hesitation. "Thanks Doc, for everything." If Mitchell was surprised by the hug he didn't show it, just calmly patting the girl on the back, wondering if his own kids would be like this if he had any. Eventually Ruby pulled away, rubbing the back of her head with a small cheeky grin. "Although now you've left me in the really awkward position of owing you a lot and having nothing to pay you with." To emphasise her point she emptied out the contents of her new jumpsuit's pockets to reveal little more than dust and lint.
"Ah you shouldn't worry about that kiddo; I've got enough here for an old man to live comfortably. Healing people is its own reward as my old teacher used to say; although do me one favour will ya." Ruby nodded eagerly; like most she didn't like being indebted to people and was happy to return the great kindness the good doctor had done for her. "Give up any notions of revenge you might have."
For a moment Ruby simply looked quizzical, wondering what Mitchell meant, before she remembered that there was a reason a bullet had been lodged in her skull. "Oh right, the guy who shot me." Mitchell was a little taken aback by the almost casual way Ruby spoke about the man who by all rights should have killed her, as if he had simply bumped her in the street or something. "Eh, life's too short for stuff like that; I'd much rather be rooting around in some Pre-war tech than go chasing after a man that's already put a bullet in my head once." Mitchell blinked once before nodding slowly, again confused by this odd girl that had been dragged to his doorstep not a week ago.
"Well good... I suppose." Ruby gave him a beaming grin as she slipped the Pip-Boy onto her arm, latching it closed around her wrist before pulling on the accompanying glove. "Oh and watch out for the-"
"Ah!" Ruby yelped as a sharp pain bit into her wrist, flailing the offending limb about as it felt like hundreds of volts of electricity were arcing up her arm. Her vision went fuzzy for a few moments before it all stopped abruptly, leaving a slight tingle up and down her left arm. Mitchell just smirked amusedly, remembering back to when he had first gotten his Pip-Boy, nobody could quite describe the feeling.
"Yeah, I probably should have mentioned that; that was the Pip-Boy taking a sample of your DNA so it could biometrically seal itself onto your wrist. Right now only you and the most skilled technicians could remove that thing and short of a miniature nuclear bomb it ain't breaking any time soon."
Ruby just grimaced as she rubbed her arm, unfortunately unable to scratch a sudden itch that had surfaced under the bulky device. "And the shock?"
Mitchell chuckled, earning a small glare from the girl; he had almost forgotten about that part. "Right; that was the VATs linking up with your nervous system." It was Ruby's turn to blink in surprise as she looked down at the device on her wrist incredulously. She was hardly a doctor by any stretch of the imagination but something linking with her nervous system didn't sound like a particularly good thing.
Mitchell caught her look though and quickly elaborated. "Don't worry, it's harmless unless you activate it; it pretty much just speeds up your brain activity for a few seconds. It's almost like time slows down for a while, good for making tough decisions or giving you a moment to think in stressful situations." He pointed to the glove that was connected to the wrist-mounted device. "You activate it with three quick taps to your palm."
Ruby seemed unsure at first but the gentle smile on the doctor's face put most of her concerns at ease. Experimentally, she curled her fingers back on her left hand and quickly tapped her palm three times like she was trying to clap one-handed. The effect was instantaneous; the edges of her vision blurred slightly but it was just like the Doc had said; time literally seemed to slow to a crawl. Her body didn't move any faster than before but she could send the signals much quicker. She imagined somebody equipped with this would have the reflexes to rival the NCR rangers themselves. She noticed that the doctor was telling her something but the sound was slow and distorted, inaudible to her much faster-moving mind.
"-bit of a headache at first." All at once reality snapped back to normal speed and immediately Ruby winced as her head throbbed painfully. Mitchell just gave her a sympathetic rub on the shoulder as she clutched at her temples. "Like I said, the first time's always pretty rough; your brain isn't supposed to work that quickly and keeping it up for too long can give you serious damage. Luckily there's an in-built safety that automatically disengages it after two seconds, although when it's on that can feel like twenty." Ruby nodded slowly, she definitely would not be abusing that... much.
"Well then, other than that I don't really suppose I have much to say." Mitchell announced, his tone kindly even if his smile was a little sad. He had to admit, as strange as Ruby was he was about due for some excitement and this girl was nothing if not exciting. "If you really ain't going after the man who tried to make a pincushion with your head then you probably won't want to stick around town very long. Even so I'd recommend you stay for at least a day or two; you'll need supplies and right now you ain't got the money for 'em. I'd lend a helping hand but I ain't exactly swimming in caps you know."
Ruby just smiled appreciatively, deciding against another hug and instead offering her hand. "It's alright; you've definitely done more than I could ask for." In response Mitchell tipped an invisible hat, making Ruby giggle slightly, and once again he had to marvel at her apparent innocence. The wastes had certainly taken younger boys and girls and turned them into cynics, pessimists, raiders and rapists; it was heart-warming to see that this girl at least still held onto some kind of virtue. He just hoped it wasn't naivety or the wastes would eventually prove to be a harsh wake-up call.
"Ask around the saloon maybe, if there's work to find here then that's where you'll find it." Ruby nodded again as Mitchell took her hand, shaking it in a warm, firm grasp. "And maybe drop by sometime; it'll be nice to see how my favourite patient is doing every now and then."
Ruby beamed as she gave a sloppy salute that would have any drill sergeant bug-eyed and beet-red with indignation. "I think I can manage that."
Mitchell grinned, spreading his moustache out. "Well then, take care kiddo; I hope I don't see you back here too soon."
Ruby nodded once before opening the door and walking out into Goodsprings, but not before giving a friendly wave to the man who had saved her life, or at least patched her up. However turning around proved to be a problem as the mid-morning rays of the sun managed to blind her momentarily. She had been used to weak sunlight filtering in through the blinds of Mitchell's house; the real thing was far more intense. Once again she couldn't help but think back five years; it was just like the first time she had emerged from the vault.
The two feelings were completely different though; back then she was a naive young kid who didn't properly understand what the sky was. She still remembered her childish amazement that the outside world didn't have a roof, despite her reading about it; it just seemed so incomprehensible back then. She sighed at the nostalgia before looking around; it was almost disappointing when her eyes finally adjusted. Goodsprings wasn't all that impressive of a town, just a bunch of scattered houses with people out front tending to their meagre crops. She could see the make-shift neon sign of a saloon but not a lot else that broke the monotony of pallid browns and muted greens.
'Then again...' A sly grin appeared on her face as her eyes naturally drifted down to the glowing screen on her wrist. Without wasting a breath she sat down against the outside of the doctor's house and began to mess about with her latest toy. The sheer amount of functions the wrist-mounted computer offered might have been daunting if she wasn't already familiar with the earlier model. She was pleased to find it had the same auto-logging, clock and passive mapping features as her old computer but was even more pleasantly surprised to find a whole host of new features.
It seemed the device linking with her nervous system did more than connect her with the VATs, it gave her a run-down of her vitals as well. There was also a satellite map of her current location which was set to a large area around New Vegas that she could mark and label way-points on. Most helpfully though was the Holotape slot on the back that would instantly download any data-disks she found and play them back to her. However it was lacking the video function of the older model as well as the animated screen saver she had enjoyed watching sometimes out of boredom.
Of course this was just the surface, quickly Ruby got down to what she was good at as she carefully pried the screen off of the bulky pre-war tech. She nearly drooled at the sight of the various delicate and almost pristine electronics she found inside. Mostly it was a jumble of wires and assorted electrical components, but the way they were put together made her feel all warm inside. However before she could really get into it she was interrupted as a shadow fell over her form.
"Well howdy there Pardner." Spoke a corny and distinctly synthesised voice; Ruby quickly saw the source was a large, oddly proportioned robot. It rolled along on a single tyre attached to a bulky, box-like body with spindly arms looking like vacuum cleaner hoses with awkward pincers attached to the end. Of course that wasn't the strangest part... no, that would be the caricature of a cheesy cowboy head, complete with cigarette and neckerchief, displayed on a roughly television-sized screen at the centre of what she assumed was the machine's chassis.
"Uhh, can I help you?" Immediately Ruby felt incredibly stupid for actually answering the robot; she wasn't a bigot by any means but ultimately she knew any semblance of intelligence a machine like this could show was simply lines of sophisticated code. Nothing this small could house a true artificial intelligence; she should know, the computer governing her vault had been one. She had often passed time conversing with it and knew a truly artificial personality from pre-set dialogue options run by sub-routines and a voice synthesiser. Then again the vault's computer had about seven different personalities, at least one of which was a gerbil... but that was beside the point.
"Well funny you should mention that little lady, I don't suppose if the good doctor told you but I'm the one who pulled you out of that there grave up in the cemetery; the name's Victor." The robot pointed with one of its surprisingly dextrous arms towards a far-off hill where the outline of a large water tower could be seen. Ruby just raised an eyebrow, to her it almost sounded like the robot was smug about that and wondered who on earth would actually programme it like that. Right now though she was very eager to be playing about inside of her Pip-Boy so couldn't really care less what this robot was saying.
"Aaannnd...?" Ruby said, making sure to draw out the word as she once again wondered why she was humouring this mass of spare parts and coding. The robot couldn't express emotions but Ruby could have sworn what he said next was said in mild irritation.
"Well that would make me the one who saved your life little lady."
Ruby just chuckled as she fastened the screen of her Pip-Boy back on securely; she would have a look later. "Actually that would be the one who programmed you, or the one who built you... or I guess the one who designed you. You're not much more than electrical signals and some very sophisticated coding that I certainly wouldn't mind having a peek at."
If Victor seemed disturbed by the notion of Ruby prying him open and having a look inside he definitely didn't show it. "I suppose you were thinkin' of going after that rascal that done shot you in the head right?" Ruby just sighed, the robots pre-programmed thought processes were starting to show; that or it was simply ignoring her. Either way she had begun to grow less concerned with the conversation and more interested in just how this particular robot could seem so intelligent; it was actually rather impressive.
"Actually I wasn't."
The robot paused for a moment, obviously thrown for a loop by the answer and Ruby could almost see the sparks going off inside its casing as it tried to compute what she had said. She didn't allow it too though as she quickly stood up, looking the robot right in the screen, where she assumed its sensors were. "Victor, listen very carefully." That seemed to knock the robot out of whatever artificial daze it had entered. "This sentence is a lie." Immediately the robot froze in place as a smirk appeared on Ruby's face.
It was one of the oldest tricks when dealing with robots; it was a bit cliché but paradoxes were generally the best way to deal with synthetic intelligences that weren't full AIs. Their processors would loop over and over as it would try to comprehend the statement; of course they weren't designed to do this as the repeated computations would overheat the CPU. There was the slight fizz of electricity from inside Victor's casing before the screen turned dark and the robot slumped forward slightly. Naturally there was an in-built safety switch to turn the machine off before the processors could overheat, which had just been tripped in Victor.
Of course this loophole in a robot's intelligence wasn't anything new, especially after people started to abuse it during the early days of robot manufacture. There had been various measures to circumvent it, namely making the robot only acknowledge statements from certain people. In the military this meant the soldiers the machine was fighting for, for domestic robots it meant the owners. Unfortunately with machines designed to interface with anybody, like Victor, they were completely susceptible to the cheap trick. It was the downfall of sophisticated programming; in some cases simpler really was better.
Ruby just rubbed her hands together with an excited smile on her face, her Pip-Boy temporarily forgotten as she gave a cursory glance over the machine in front of her. There was a hungry gleam in her eye at the sight of untapped technology.
"Right then Vic, let's see what makes you tick."
A/N: Big thanks to my Beta and friend BackhandTrebond, who'll be sticking with me through this fic (The more encouragement to finish it the better right?)