"Brother Joseph? I need to talk to you," Sister Emily whispered as she tried to shake her friend awake from his slumber. He rolled onto his opposite side with an annoyed grunt, his face twisting with irritation as he turned his back to her. Undeterred, Sister Emily shook him again. "Please, brother. I really need to talk to you."
Reluctantly Brother Joseph turned to face her again, his mind clearly still a little foggy with sleep. "What is it?" he mumbled in mild annoyance as he rubbed his eyes. It took him a second to realise that Sister Emily wasn't alone – Rachel and Piper stood a few steps behind her. Instantly he got to his feet, smoothing down his robes and tightening the cord that cinched them in at his waist as he did so. "I'm sorry, Emissary," he said as he regained his balance and then bowed before her, spreading his arms to either side. "If I'd known it was you I would have –"
"It's all right, brother," Rachel said simply, laying her hand on the top of Brother Joseph's shaven scalp for a moment. "You've done nothing wrong."
"I haven't?" Brother Joseph asked, frowning. "Then… why are you here?"
"We need your help," Rachel replied. "We have to free the prisoners you took from Far Harbor and the Commonwealth."
"But the High Confessor –"
"Is my concern," Rachel finished, her voice sharp. "In fact, he should be everyone's concern. What he's doing is wrong. It's against everything we believe."
"How can it be wrong?" Brother Joseph exclaimed. "We're just doing what Atom is asking us to do."
"No, you're doing what the High Confessor is asking you to do," Rachel retorted. "You can't trust Tektus anymore, do you understand me? Something very bad's happened to him – he's not the man he used to be. He has to be stopped before his heresy spreads any further, for his own good and for the good of this church."
"Please, Joseph, you have a chance to do some real good here," Sister Emily said, imploringly. "You know the Emissary is right, don't you? This isn't what we were promised when we came here."
"What we were promised?" Brother Joseph echoed, his frown deepening. "We were promised salvation, sister. If this is what it takes to be saved then it has to be done."
"No, Joseph, this is the wrong path – I know that now. Do this for the Emissary."
"I'm not sure," Brother Joseph said in an increasingly-conflicted tone. "I don't even know this woman. Why should I trust her over the High Confessor?"
"Because she's the one who the Mother of the Fog chose to reveal herself to – the one who brought us back the holy symbol of the Mother's love," Sister Emily replied. "I think that counts for more than a single vision, don't you?" She stepped forwards and clutched her friend's hands in hers, her pale knuckles going even whiter as she closed them around his fingers. "But if you don't want to do this for her… will you do it for me?"
"All right," Brother Joseph said after a lengthy pause. "All right. Follow me." He walked quickly towards the nearest staircase, the wood creaking in annoyance with every one of his footsteps, and headed downwards towards the lowest level of the base, leading the three women behind him through the wafting trails of radioactive vapour and incense that permeated the Children's living quarters. Rachel felt her nostrils start to sting as the combination of odours got more and more intense the lower they descended, her stomach simultaneously tying itself in knots as she tried to hold back the gagging sensation she could feel building at the back of her throat. No matter how many times she visited the Nucleus, she still found herself wondering how these people hadn't dropped dead from radiation poisoning by now.
Irrelevant, she told herself scornfully, clamping down quickly on any wandering thoughts. Focus on the mission, soldier. She folded her hands into fists and walked that little bit faster, trying to compartmentalise her thoughts as she did so.
The abducted settlers and citizens of Far Harbor were standing ankle-deep in the radioactive water pooling at the bottom of the submarine base, contained within wooden cages that were securely weighted down and fastened together with lengths of both chain and rope. Even with her untrained eye Rachel could see that many of the prisoners were already extremely unwell, their sallow, sunken cheeks and pallid, sweat-soaked skin an indication of just how toxic their surroundings really were, patches of the luminous water covered with floating slicks of bloody vomit. The settlers from the northern reaches of the Commonwealth looked particularly afflicted, which Rachel supposed made sense – for them the island's own unique cocktail of radiation would have been a totally new sensation, one that their immune systems would reject without regular infusions of Rad-X and RadAway to stave off its effects. She remembered how the very air itself had made her woozy and sluggish the first time she had breathed it, so she had at least some idea of the nauseous discomfort they had to be feeling. Captain Avery and Brooks still appeared completely fine, if a little bedraggled, since their synth physiology didn't react to radiation at all – or if it did, it happened at a vastly reduced rate to that of human tissue. There had to be some side-effects eventually, she supposed, considering Danse had managed to pass as human for years on end without suspicion, but whatever they were, now wasn't the time to be pondering the finer points of synthetic biology. Just another thing I should save until later, she decided. Mission first, everything else second.
As she approached the cage, Captain Avery abruptly noticed her and began to open her mouth to speak. Quickly Rachel pressed her finger to her lips and shook her head as she sloshed towards the cage as quietly as she could, gooey strings of unidentifiable organic debris rippling around her boots as she did so.
"Mainlander?" Avery whispered in disbelief as Rachel closed the gap between herself and the cage. "What are you doing here?"
"Saving you," Rachel replied simply, before she fished a pristine bobby pin and her favourite screwdriver out of her jacket's outer pocket, crouching as she started to tentatively experiment with the tumblers on the first of the three padlocks keeping the cage's door closed, only taking a few moments to pop its tumblers and pull it free. "This shouldn't take long. Can you move?"
"I think so. Most of us from Far Harbor are basically fine – Allen's looking a little green around the gills but I think he'll be okay. The man's far too ornery to let a little bit of sickness get him," Avery said, before regret began to hang heavily in her words. "The mainlanders the rad-worshippers brought here are in pretty bad shape, though. I don't think anything short of a bath in RadAway is going to get them anywhere close to healthy again."
Rachel felt her shoulders sag as if under a heavy weight, and she exhaled a long breath of sheer frustration. "Couldn't give me just one easy win, could you?" she muttered, lowering her head to her chest for a moment before she met Piper's eyes again. "Okay, here's what we're going to do: Piper, you, Captain Avery and Sister Emily will take those that can walk on their own and get them out of here while I create a diversion. Stick to the shadows, keep out of sight and don't stop unless you have to. Brooks, you and Brother Joseph will stay here with those that can't move by themselves. Keep them covered, and then evacuate them as fast as you can. Hopefully I can buy you enough time to get them through the door or the base, and then join you when I'm done."
"Wait," Piper said, laying her hand on Rachel's collar-bone, a concerned expression creasing her bruised face. "What do you mean 'diversion'?"
"I mean I'm going to try preaching again," Rachel replied, returning her attention to the locks on the cage door and tossing aside the second as it clicked open reluctantly. It made a forlorn splash as it sunk beneath the water's greasy surface and then disappeared, leaving only a few momentary ripples to mark its existence. "I haven't worked out the finer details of the sermon yet. Just… just trust me on this."
Piper scowled. "You know, Blue, whenever you say stuff like that it makes me want to trust you less," she said in a flat tone as she removed her hat and ran her free hand through her hair, "but all right. I trust you. See you soon." Leaning down, she gently kissed the top of Rachel's scalp. "Don't you dare die on me, you beautiful asshole, or I swear I'll kill you."
Despite herself, despite the situation, Rachel couldn't help but smile. "I'll bear that in mind." She pushed herself to her feet and squared herself up in front of the compact reporter after she had popped the final padlock and thrown it away, taking one of Piper's small, pale hands in hers and brushing her lips against the shorter woman's mouth for a moment. "I won't be long, I promise." She unslung her radiation rifle then, pressing it gently but firmly into Piper's grasp. "Here – you should take this. You'll probably have to use it more than I will."
"I don't understand," Piper said, tilting her head quizzically for a moment. "Why are you giving me this? Won't you need it?"
Rachel shrugged. "You might get into a serious firefight. The last thing you want is to be underdressed for it, you know?"
"But Blue, what about –" Piper began, before Rachel cut her off abruptly with a wave of her hand.
"I'll be fine, but these people might not be unless you can protect them. Can you do that for me?"
"I guess I can try," Piper replied, slipping the rifle's strap over her shoulder and resting its stock in the crook of her elbow, her finger curling itself around the weapon's trigger.
"That's all I ask," Rachel said, cracking her knuckles reflexively. "Stay here until you hear me start speaking, and then get moving. Be ready."
"I'll do my best," Piper said, vivid reluctance colouring her words. "Come back to me, okay?"
"Always," Rachel told her with a small, crooked smile. "Can't get rid of me that easily."
She gripped Piper's fingers one more time before she turned on her heel and began walking towards the staircase that would take her back to the top of the Nucleus' hull, reaching around to the small of her back and checking to make sure her chain-dagger still occupied its spot on her belt, finding the sensation of the weapon's cold, contoured hilt under her fingertips almost comforting in its own bizarre way.
She wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.
Her trip up towards the top of the scaffolding was just as staccato as the journey to see Tektus, with disciples of Atom flocking around her and beseeching her for a moment of her time as soon as they saw her – and as before, she did her best to hide her irritation behind a fixed smile, short blessings and simple laying-on of hands for those of the faithful who managed to get closest to her, because she had realised that the more she did this, the more support she was likely to receive later, when she really needed it. Gently she managed to push towards the other side of the adoring throng and make her way to the uppermost level of the base, with the faithful following along only a few steps behind her. She continued to lead them along her path until she stood in front of Tektus' pulpit on top of the Nucleus' upper hatch, her hands curling around the metal railing as her new flock stood back respectfully, anticipation of her sermon clearly visible on their faces. She took a deep breath, her shoulders juddering as she exhaled through pursed, suddenly bone-dry lips.
You can do this.
She cleared her throat thoroughly before she closed her hand around her dagger again, pulled it from its resting-place and then hit the railing with the reverse side of its toothed blade, the ringing sound amplified exponentially by the acoustics of the launch bay and causing those of the Children of Atom who hadn't followed her to stand and look towards where the noise was coming from. Three more times she repeated the chime, until she was sure that everybody inside the base who could hear her was pointed in her direction.
"Children of Atom!" she began, trying to project as much confidence and assuredness into her voice as she could while it echoed from wall to wall. "I am the Emissary of the Mother of the Fog, and this is my gospel – hear my words and know the truth!" She paused, pointing at the group of disciples standing in front of her. "Let me ask you a question first: why are we here?"
For a few moments there was silence, before a woman cried out "To serve Atom!"
"Exactly," Rachel agreed, beckoning the unknown worshipper towards her with one hand. "Step forward, sister. Let Atom's light shine on your face." After a moment, a woman pushed her way to the front of the congregation. She was tall and gaunt, with patchy tufts of dirty red hair unevenly distributed across her scalp, and nervousness suddenly etched on her thin features. Rachel smiled at her briefly to try to ease her mood, and said "Don't be afraid, sister. What's your name?"
"My name?" the woman said, as if she could not quite believe the attention she was getting. "It's… it's Anna."
"Thank you, Anna," Rachel told her firmly. "You're right: we're here to serve Atom, and that's why I came back to the Nucleus. Serving Atom is not about causing pain or suffering, it's about showing others the radiance of His love. How many of you have gone out to preach the word? Anna, have you been to the Commonwealth?"
"Once," the red-headed woman said, in a meek tone. She hung her head, her shoulders slumping in shame. "Nobody took any notice of me."
"That doesn't matter," Rachel replied, trying to sound as reassuring as possible. "You still tried, and that's all Atom requires. He is a benevolent father to us all, even the unbelievers, and killing them is wrong. I can see now that Confessor Tektus has lost sight of that, and if you do what he is telling you to do, you make Atom's message meaningless. You spread fear and reap nothing but violence in return. Is that what you really want?"
The congregation started to ripple with incredulous murmurs of disbelief. "What are you saying, Emissary?" Sister Anna asked, stunned. "Confessor Tektus is blessed by Atom!"
"So he says," Rachel retorted, scorn thick in her voice, "but you only have his word for that. Have you seen any proof? Has he shown you miracles? I haven't seen any. But me?" She shrugged. "I brought you back one of your holiest relics after drinking from the spring to the west of here, I convinced Sister Gwyneth to return to the Nucleus, I brought you peace with Acadia, and what has Tektus done? Nothing, except get you to blaspheme against Atom's creation. You know I'm right, don't you, brothers and sisters?" She could see the ripples in the crowd increasing with every word, and she found herself daring to believe that this insane plan might work – but then she heard the hatch of the Nucleus creaking open behind her, and she looked back to see Confessor Tektus climbing out, even if he was clearly finding it difficult to use all of his limbs.
"What's – what's going on here?" he demanded through his mangled lips. "Emissary? What are you doing?"
"Putting an end to this," Rachel declared. "You're a heretic and a liar. Time for you to be deposed."