The Cries From Dead Worlds

Chapter Seven: Carry On You Wayward Sons

The heavy scent of plant and animal suffocated her senses the second she materialized in Haven. Better than a Brahmin pen, but not by much. The smell of salty sea air did much to make the atmosphere tolerable even if the roar of buzzing insects was fast becoming annoying.

Passed the electrified bars of the Linking Chamber she could make out angry clouds maybe an hour away from where she was.

Six let go of ED-E and shoved the bench aside so she could put in Atrus' key and the combination to open the chamber. She checked her stun gun to make sure it was good to go, the last thing she needed was it jamming at the wrong time. ED-E beeped that he was ready after she checked to make sure her spare energy cells were easily accessible. She nodded up at him and they set out into the jungle, sweat already dripping from her skin. One of the many reasons she owned a bandanna.

She kept her weapon ready as she walked across damp, uneven ground. It was either the wet season or the Age just received a lot of rainfall. So far she had seen more healthy plants during her visit to Tomahna than she had for most of her life in the Wasteland. It might be a good thing if she didn't suspect she was coming down with something. As if to prove her theory she sneezed four times in a row. Whatever it was, she had probably gotten it in Edanna, by god did she hate that Age.

ED-E beeped an alert and Six managed to stop her allergy fit in time to point at a nearby bush. "ED-E blast it," she ordered. The very next second the bush was nothing but a pile of ash being blown away by the strong breeze. "That'll be you next if you so much as think about making a wrong move." Six took a clean rag from her bag to wipe her face with. "Watch him, please."

Achenar, who had been frozen stiff in shock at the sight of them, dropped the logs he was carrying and held out his dirty hands palms up. "I-I don't mean any harm," he mumbled almost too quiet to hear. His eyes darted from her to ED-E and then at anything that wasn't them. Six was suddenly reminded of a bighorner calf that had been separated from the heard, skittish and lost. The comparison almost made her bark out a laugh. Achenar the Terrible was no baby herbivore even if he didn't mean any harm at the moment.

"Sure thing, pally. Why don't you prove it by sitting down on one of those logs and cooperating with me. You and I are going to have a nice long talk while I make sure you're fit as a fiddle."

Achenar finally focused on her with a thoughtful stare. She stared right back until he adjusted one of the logs and sat down without a word. Still not quite believing his passive attitude she kept her eyes on him, watching his every movement. ED-E would probably react first if he tried something, but she wasn't about to let her guard down.

"I think I remember you," he said, apparently finding the ability to speak more clearly.

"You think?" She kicked another log over closer to him so she could sit down without getting mud all over her clean pants. She hadn't exactly brought a lot of clothes with her to Tomahna.

He rubbed his face, not caring that he smeared mud all over it. "It's kind of blurry," he answered. "It's all kind of blurry after I Linked into the Book. For a long time after I got here I didn't even remember being trapped. All I could remember was that I Linked here and there wasn't a way back."

"What jogged your memory?" Six asked as she grabbed his wrist. He jerked a bit in surprise at first, but didn't put up any other resistance as she checked his pulse.

"A number of little things," he answered. "The first time I saw a camoudile I dreamed of the strangest dog I had ever seen, like something Sirrus would cobble together on one of his trips."

"I'm obligated to tell Roxie you said that," Six informed him, releasing wrist.

Achenar clasped his hands together in front of him, bracing his elbows on his knees. "It might not sound like it, but that was kind of a compliment. The dream reminded me of how I got that scar on my arm, which made me remember you stitching it. That led to the rest. I still don't remember too much of being in that dark place, but I remember you locking me up in Stoneship...Thank you."

"You're welcome," Six said, raising an eyebrow. She still wasn't sure if she trusted him, but at least he was being cooperative. She retrieved her stethoscope from her bag and silently gestured for him to turn his back to her. There was a moment when it looked like he wasn't going to, but it passed and he did as he was told. They fell into silence as Six listened to his lungs. When that was done, she got him to face her so she could check on his heart.

"Is my mother well?" he asked when she finished and began digging in her doctor's bag again.

"Yeah, she is." The sphygmomanometer was located under a bottle of whiskey she kept solely for medical purposes.

"That's good," he said, eyeing the new instrument she pulled out of her bag.

"Roll up your sleeve, please. I need to take a look at your blood pressure," she said. He did as he was told and she set to work. Truth be told, she had had worse patients in the past, a few of them had even smelled worse.

Achenar didn't seem to like being touched, or at least he wasn't used to it. Throughout the whole checkup he had been one step away from squirming like a small child who was getting their face washed by a fussy mother. When she was finished with the sphygmomanometer, satisfied that everything appeared to be in order, she tested his memory with a deck of cards at the same time he sat with a thermometer under his tongue. The time it took him to find all of the pairs wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. His temperature was better at least, completely normal.

"Congratulations, you appear healthy enough. If you've got some insidious disease that I missed then there's probably nothing I can do about it anyway," she said as she put her things away.

He frowned at her from behind his bushy beard that resembled a bird's nest, but said nothing.

"So how are things?" Six asked, shuffling her cards. "What are you up to?"

"I've taken to carving things," he said vaguely, toeing one of the logs.

"Whittling to pass the time?"

"I guess so." He stared down at his hands as he asked, "How is my sister?"

"She is one of the most well behaved and healthy babies I've ever met," Six answered honestly. When she had left, Yeesha had seemed determined to keep her mother from frowning. Perceptive girl. She'll be trouble when she's older.

"Is she happy?" he asked quietly.

"As much as any child her age can be," she answered.

Achenar just nodded. Six searched him for a long time, not entirely sure what she was looking for. He was hunched over and refusing to look back at her. She reached for her bag and wordlessly pulled out Saavedro's worn down journal. It was incomplete and missing pages, but it said enough. She passed it to him, insistent that he take it.

"Read it. Every word."

He opened the cover slowly, hesitant at what was waiting for him within the pages. He breathed out a long breath when he realized what it was he was reading. Six didn't take her eyes off of him as he read. Her hands remained occupied with her cards as she waited. It took him longer and longer to turn pages, his breathing become more ragged. With a start Six realized he was about ready to cry.

She yanked it out of his hands and put it away. Six drummed her fingers on her knee as she waited for Achenar to calm down a bit.

"Saavedro's alive?" He asked, his voice even rougher than normal.

"His family too," she replied with a nod.

He frowned at her. "Why wouldn't they be?"

"You fucked up the Lattice Tree pretty bad. Saavedro was convinced they were dead when he eventually made it back. He couldn't disable the shield to see for sure." Six rolled a log over and placed three cards on it. The queen of hearts, jack of clubs, and the jack of spades. "Find the lady," she told him and flipped all the cards over. She picked up a single card with one hand and the remaining two with the other.

"This is like the shell game. It's always rigged." Even still, he watched her movements as she mixed up the cards.

"Yes, yes it is. Doesn't mean you can't still play," she said.

"What's at stake?" Achenar asked her. He looked up at her when she let the face down cards lie still.

"What do you want?" Six countered.

"I'd like to meet my sister," he said with no thought at all.

"I'll advocate for that, but you have to win. Best three out of five," she said, waving her hand.

He stared at her, there was a healthy amount of suspicion in his eyes, but they were clear of the madness that she remembered filling them. Achenar flipped the middle card and the queen greeted them. He just frowned at her while she smiled back benignly.

"So, why'd you guys start a civil war on Narayan?" she asked.

He flinched and looked away from her. "We didn't mean to do that," He said, or she thought he said. Achenar was mumbling again.

"That didn't answer my question."

He remained silent and she shuffled the three cards again. Achenar tried the one on the left, but it was the jack of spades that said hello. Achenar's frown deepened along with his suspicion.

"What do you think of having a sister?" she asked him, giving him no further time to process his loss.

"That she can't be any worse than Sirrus."

Six cracked a smile. "Normally I would take that sentence as an evasion of the question, but I'd settle for that too if he were my brother."

Achenar shrugged. "He was a sweet kid when we were children, but that didn't last."

"Clearly."

"You might not believe this, but family is important to me. I...I know getting another chance from my parents is far too much to ask, but I would like another chance to be an older brother. I failed Sirrus pretty spectacularly in a lot of ways. I know better now."

"Try again," she said, waving her hand at the facedown cards.

He earned himself a queen. Achenar picked up the card and examined the image on it. He gave it back to her, mumbling something that sounded like: "There was a woman."

"There always is," she answered. "Where was this gal?"

"Narayan."

"Ah." And something clicked. It was the piece of the puzzle she was missing, but the image still wasn't complete. She needed to take another trip to Lattice Tree.

"I don't want to talk about it, I don't, but I will if that makes it so I can see my little sister." He was scratching at his wrist hard enough that it would draw blood if he kept it up.

"All you need is one more win and I'll do my very best to convince your parents," she said. "Between you and me, it won't take much to convince your mom."

Achenar stared at her expectantly.

"Why Riven?" All Atrus, Katran, and her had been able to do was speculate. In one letter, maybe seven years ago, there had been a vague throwaway line about Atrus asking Sirrus and Achenar the same question, but it hadn't amounted to much. Six had tried to follow up and only got an explanation from Katran that said the attempt at questioning them had dissolved into a fight between Atrus and whichever one they were talking to at the time.

He sighed and shook his head. "They won't tell me what happen there. I can tell something happened. I mean, they had to move the natives to a new Age. I tried asking, but father becomes defensive and mother withdrawn. Was she hurt?"

"She told me she was fine," Six said, unsure how much she should tell him.

"Yes, but was she?" he pressed.

"Your mom's a strong lady, but what happened shook her. If you expect details beyond that then you're pushing your luck."

Achenar stared at the angry clouds that were promising to bring heavy rainfall onto them very soon, but said nothing.

"If you didn't want to hurt her then why Riven?" she asked.

"Because we weren't going to hurt her," he said tiredly, closing his eyes. She could tell that he didn't expect her to believe him. "We sent father back to his old home, and mother to hers. We didn't know it was dangerous."

Six chose to say nothing in reply. She pointed at the cards and said, "I hope you were paying attention."

He opened his eyes and flipped the middle card. The queen was handed back to her without him bothering to look at it. "You're going to be caught in the rain if you stay," he said.

Six checked her pip-boy. "Yeah, my time is almost up. You earned your win. I'll be talking to your parents," she stood and brushed off the back of her pants. "If I come back here where would I be likely to find you?"

"There's a lake in the south jungle," he pointed vaguely in a direction over his shoulder. "My home is there."

She nodded, already anticipating getting hopelessly lost on her next visit. "So long, Achenar."

"*/{ $"

"ED-E says goodbye. Good luck with your carvings."

"Bye," he replied looking at the robot with a tamer version of the expression Atrus had on his face when he had first seen ED-E. The family was full of geniuses with more curiosity than was really healthy.

2

She could see nothing but a thick white fog outside of the Linking Chamber. Removing the bars and stumbling out onto the soaked grass didn't help her any. Six nearly ended up running into a razor thin tree that had bark that allowed it to blend in perfectly to the foggy environment. The fine leaves looked like long streams of water blowing in the wind.

"ED-E, I'm going to need your help navigating," she just managed to finish saying before she sneezed. She recovered and asked, "Are there a lot of animals here, or is Sirrus going to stick out like a sore thumb?"

"$)&!"

"Damn," she muttered. "Alright, let's stay near the Chamber. I don't want to wander too far out. Had I known I'd have to plan an expedition, I would have brought some more supplies."

A direction to walk in was picked arbitrarily, ED-E keeping her from running into the near invisible trees. At one point she had kneeled down to discover that the thick carpet of grass she was walking on was a grayish blue in color. She left deep footprints on the ground, each one filled with water. Shivering, she wished she had brought a heavier coat.

Six was getting better at seeing the trees before ED-E warned her away when she saw another trail of footprints. They looked fairly recent as far as she could tell. Six followed alongside them for a solid twenty minutes with her Regulator drawn, saying goodbye to her plan of staying near the Linking Chamber. She wasn't too worried, ED-E would know the way back if her pip-boy wasn't filling in the details for whatever reason.

A cabin slowly materialized out of the fog, the windows covered with pale cloth that looked more like blankets than curtains. The inside glowed with a steady light that told her there was either running electricity or fire-marble lamps. Six waltzed up to the door and knocked firmly on it three times. There was a nasty crash in response followed by pure silence.

"If you don't open this door under your own power in two seconds I'll break it down. One..."

The door was wrenched open, but Sirrus wasn't standing directly in the way. He was off to the side using part of it as cover. Smart man.

She grinned widely at him. "Doctor's call. I certainly hope you're doing better than the last time I had you in my care. Watching you dry heave into a bucket wasn't pleasant." When he didn't move she sized him up. "You gonna let me in, Crocodile?"

Sirrus had narrowed his eyes to slits and while the rest of his face betrayed nothing, the white knuckled grip he had on the door said a whole lot. He glanced down at the weapon in her hand and then up at ED-E floating silently beside her. Slowly, very slowly, he stepped away and let her in without a word.

The inside of Sirrus' cabin was very tidy in an almost manic sort of way. Minus a long workbench in the very back of the room, everything was just so. It was like he used a ruler to organize his few belongings. There were two shut doors branching off from the main room. From the outside it had looked like the cabin had a second floor with maybe three more rooms on the ground. Katran had told Six that they had made Sirrus a one room cabin before sending him to Veil. Sirrus must have taken the liberty to add more additions.

"What are you doing here?" Sirrus asked with poorly veiled suspicion. He remained by the door while Six invited herself to sit down on a dark wooden chair by the writing desk. The intricate, over the top design wasn't something Atrus or Katran would have made or bought, so Sirrus must have carved it himself. That also meant that there were different varieties of trees elsewhere. Nice to know the whole Age wasn't a bitch and a half to navigate.

"Why the hostility? I'm your friend, remember our last chat before you got shipped to Spire?" The key to dealing with Sirrus if you didn't want a migraine was to ease him into things. Orders, open disdain, and insults got very few results unless you were going for reverse psychology and that only worked about thirty percent of the time. He was pretty good at knowing when someone was trying to manipulate him. Of course it could also very well be that he was just extra paranoid regarding anything she said.

He cast a skeptical eyebrow at the weapon in her hand. "I recall," he said drily.

"Then relax, get off your feet. I'm here to give you a check up."

"So you say," he replied, not budging from his spot. "And if I refuse?"

"Nothing," she shrugged. "I just go back and tell your parents you're being an uncooperative little bastard."

His frown deepened. "My parents were wed when I was born, though there is some question of my brother's legitimacy."

"It's a figure of speech where I come from. If you don't want to know if you're healthy or not then I guess we'll just talk until it's time for me and ED-E to leave," Six reasoned as she examined him closely. He was pale, too pale when you considered he had naturally tanned skin. Unlike his brother, Sirrus' appearance was well put together. The red sweater with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and the gray pants he was wearing looked brand new and he probably spent an hour in front of the mirror getting his hair right. "How you been, Red?" she asked, having not achieved as much as she had wanted from her appraisal of his physical appearance.

"Well," he answered evenly. "Why?"

She held up her free hand. "Just asking. Not everything has to have strings attached."

"With you and I it does," he replied without missing a beat.

"True enough," she admitted. "You sure you don't want to have a seat?"

"This is my home," he snapped.

She held up her hand again.

Sirrus finally allowed his eyes to slide off of her to examine ED-E who kept his distance. He tried walking up to him, but ED-E zoomed away.

"What is it?" he demanded to know. "How does it stay aloft?"

"My best friend, so keep your screwdriver to yourself." She moved to stand up, but ED-E did his equivalent of waving her away. She kept her chair, but got a firmer grip on her the Regulator. "And it's an antigravity device that let's him fly."

"You are dumbing it down," he guessed without looking at her. She had a feeling he was already come up with multiple theories.

"Okay, it involves a lot of electrodynamic mumbo jumbo I don't want to get into right now. I'm sure you can figure it out on your own if you wanted to." Sirrus stared off blankly at one of the fire-marble lamps like he was a thousand miles away and Six remembered Katran's fear over his mental stability. Isolation does strange things to people, and Sirrus wasn't exactly mentally sound to begin with.

Achenar had calmed down in his years of confinement, even seemed to have put himself together a bit, but Sirrus was showing her a remarkable impression of a time bomb. The look in his eyes, his body language…if she wasn't careful with what she said and did then he could really snap. It was like the two had swapped mental states. Maybe interrogating him over Narayan wasn't such a good idea. Treading lightly was the strategy here.

"So what have you been up to? Invent anything interesting?" Six asked.

Sirrus managed to focus on his cluttered workbench where he was in the middle of putting together some type of machine. "I am attempting to make a more efficient generator with my limited supplies," he said. He strode over to the table and began tidying it up, placing objects into a metal box and setting tools on a rack over the table. He kept his body positioned in a way that he could keep an eye on both Six and ED-E. She could imagine he had a weapon nearby, maybe under the table. The question was would he grab it?

"Where are you getting your power from?" she asked, beginning to tap her fingers against her knee in the rhythm of some marching band song the Enclave channel used to play. She couldn't remember the name of it.

"A dam and a windmill not far from here," he waved a hand vaguely to the west. "Before you insist on prying, I use the energy for a heater." One he didn't seem to be running because the inside was just as chilly as the outside. Six was just thankful it wasn't quite so wet inside.

"Why not just have a fireplace?" There were a number of open spaces for one.

"Less efficient and the wood from those trees outside does not burn well." He placed the last item into the box and stacked it under the table with several others, making sure it lined up perfectly with the one on the bottom.

"No?"

"The first and only time I attempted it the wood exploded." He brushed his hands together before rolling down his sleeves.

"Ouch."

"Yes." Sirrus finally came over and sat down on the chair by his workbench. "If you are going to interrogate me for my parents then do it. Do not just sit there feigning innocence."

"It's not your parents I'm interrogating you for. Your dad doesn't even know I'm here and your mom just wants to make sure you're healthy. Even if they had sent me to get information out of you I wouldn't tell them a thing so long as you aren't doing anything nefarious."

He tilted his head to the side, his eyes unreadable. "Why?"

"You're entitled to privacy. Besides, I'm your friend, remember?" She really was, especially when you consider that Sirrus had a very different definition of friendship than most other people.

"If you were my friend you would help get me out of here," he said, his temper rearing up like an angry snake.

"Friends don't help friends do stupid things," Six told him. "If you really want out I should inform you good behavior gives untold rewards."

That gave him pause, his anger fleeing as quickly as it had come. "For how long?" Sirrus asked, following her implied statement.

"As long as it takes," she answered. "Seriously though, parole isn't out of the question. To be entirely honest with you, I'm not a huge fan of leaving you and your brother to cool your heels in your hotboxes."

"What would you rather do?" he asked.

It was amazing how quickly people calm down when they were given room to maneuver. There were few things more dangerous than forcing something into a corner, be it animal or man.

"Take you both back to the Wasteland and put you into community service work in New Vegas or maybe Rivet City, somewhere I can keep a close eye on you. At least there, most people are wise enough and tough enough to stand up to you two." Not everyone, of course. There were always idiots no matter where you went. "At the same time, you'd be useful."

"Can I?" he asked immediately.

"What? Go to the Wasteland? You know there's a reason we call it that? Raiders, mutated abominations, feral animals, radiation, scarce clean food, limited water, vicious tribals, wars, acid rain, need I go on?" Who wanted to go live there if they had a choice?

"Is that a no?" There was that anger again, not as pronounced, but building.

"I thought you had a bigger sense of self preservation," she said, wondering if solitary had affected him worse than he let on.

"I did, and then I was locked up for the last ten years," he said, answering her unasked question. "This is the first time I have spoken to someone other than my parents. The first time I have spoken to anyone without obstructions in the way. It is true that this Age is infinitely better than Spire, it has life here, but there is still no one to talk to. And I am so, so bored. I have exhausted everything there is to do. Now I just occupy myself with busy work. The one thing Spire had over Veil are those crystals...I never did figure out for certain how they worked." He gazed off at a spot above her head, deep in thought.

"%^!)_"

Though he didn't understand a word ED-E said, the noise was enough to stop Sirrus' mind from wandering. He snapped out of his daze and Six was quick to start talking before he could fade out again, "I can talk to your folks, but I don't know if they are willing to put your life on the line like that."

"I am thirty-six years old. I am not a child." The wonders of D'ni blood. She wouldn't have guessed him to be that old. It reminded her of when she had presumed Achenar and Atrus to be brothers when she had seen their pictures.

"You look good for nearly forty," Six observed. Sirrus did his best to pretend that the compliment did not stroke his considerable ego. "Look, your parents care about you. Only god knows why. I've told them enough stories about home to make them very scared of where I come from. I don't think they'll be too keen to send you there. Here in Veil they can be assured that you're safe."

"And not wrecking anymore of father's precious Ages." Anyone else would have muttered that like an insolent child, but Sirrus somehow managed to make it sound like he was a victim of a terrible crime.

"Sirrus, I was just in Narayan." So much for not bringing up Narayan, but he needed to be reminded that she had seen his crimes first hand. There would be no pretending that it was all overblown.

"Oh?" he said, raising an eyebrow at her. "And how is Saavedro?" He could not have sounded more disinterested in the answer if he tried.

"Mad as a March hare. Thanks to you and your brother." That was probably putting it mildly. She would be genuinely surprised on her return to Narayan to hear that he was doing well and not ranting and raving like the lunatic he very much seemed to be.

"That civil war was not our fault," he stated, looking down at his fingernails. They weren't the manicured perfection she expected them to be. He had hands typical of any engineer or mechanic, rough with little pale scars here and there. Sirrus was such a contradiction to himself. If werewolves existed he would be one.

"I meant stranding him in J'nanin," she reminded him. Saavedro's diary was in her bag, but she got the distinct feeling he would even have half the reaction Achenar did. He would probably regard it much like she had regarded Pride and Prejudice when she had been forced to read it as an unimpressed fourteen year old.

Sirrus waved his hand dismissively in the air. "He was hardly stranded. The book to Narayan was there and unlocking it was child's play."

"For you and Achenar," she said.

"Saavedro was one of the more intelligent people I've met." That had got to be the biggest compliment in his repertoire. She was sure Saavedro would be honored. "He did manage to get through the lessons?" he asked.

"Yeah, eventually. He got a bit stuck at the shield though. Couldn't get passed it with just one person." Poor man hadn't the information or the tools like she had.

"The point of that puzzle was that it was simple for two people to solve it, but if both needed to be on the gondola it became more difficult. Achenar and I had to get creative." He smirked, clearly still pleased with whatever genius solution they had come up with.

"He thought his home and family were dead." It was a good thing she was so desensitized. Otherwise she would probably be very furious right now. As it stood, she couldn't bring herself to be more than slightly exasperated.

"Not my fault," he shrugged.

"Wow."

"^)/*"

"I did not murder his wife or his daughters. I am not responsible for his delusions," he said firmly, glaring at her like it was her fault.

"You are such a stunning well of empathy," Six told him, placing her hand over he heart. "Pull yourself together man! No need to get so emotional."

His only reply was a raised eyebrow. She sighed and gave it up as a losing battle for now. Instead, she looked around the cabin again as an excuse to stop looking at his annoying face. Her eyes stuck on the chess set in the corner, identical in every way to the one set up in the kitchen in Tomahna.

Six almost asked him if he was any good but stopped herself. That line would get her nowhere fast. Instead she asked, "Do you like games?"

"Depends on the game," he said warily.

"Card games?" she clarified.

He blinked owlishly, trying to follow her leaping thought process. "I haven't played one in a long time," he answered slowly.

"Wanna learn one? This one's popular back home. I think you'll like it. Poker is a fascinating little game of skill and chance..."

3

Sirrus kept her deck, but that was fine. She had plenty of others back home. He had become a little more tolerable during their second game of Texas Hold 'Em, by the time she taught him Solitaire he had even been comfortable in her presence.

She hadn't been okay with solitary confinement ten years ago and she still wasn't. She had to remind herself that the 1800s weren't exactly known for its stellar mental health practices. The D'ni didn't seem much better in that regard. Atrus was of a scientific mind, but some things take time. Letters just weren't as convincing as people and she didn't have the pre-war studies on hand that she was trying to convince him of. Strangely enough, some scientists don't just take people's word for it when they think they know better.

Achenar and Sirrus were still murders, among other things, but even they still needed to be treated like human beings. Or part human aliens, as the case may be. The sentiment still applied.

Six made an uneventful walk back to the Linking Chamber, Sirrus hadn't even tried to follow her. He had something else up his sleeve, she was sure of it. If she had any luck on her side, he'd wait until he got the answer about getting another prison transfer before he tried anything.

ED-E beeped to get Six's attention. She looked up, expecting to see Katran waiting for her, but saw Atrus instead. His brow was furrowed, but other than that his face was carefully blank. He had a right to be furious, but she didn't think he was, just disquieted.

She plastered on her best grin. "Hey, come to say hi to your son too?"

Silently he opened the gate so ED-E and she could step inside. He hit the switch to put the bar back in place. Without saying anything at all he Linked back to Tomahna.

"%!.,,)"

"You said it," she replied.

Six grabbed one of his antennas and touched the Linking Panel. She got one last look at the fog and noted a fast dark shape just inside her field of view.

4

Atrus was waiting in his bedroom, staring out the closed doors, when she made it up the hidden elevator. All the doors in Tomahna were see-through glass except for the ones to the Sun Room and the office, they clearly had no problem with the lack of general privacy.

"How are they?" he asked, stopping her from walking out the door. She'd prefer to talk in the office, but she supposed the bedroom was as good a meeting place as any.

"Achenar has a clean bill of health, from what I can tell. Sirrus wouldn't let me take a look at him," she said. ED-E beeped, a quick look at her pip-boy for the translation forced her to hide an amused smile. It was a good thing she was the only one who understood him.

Atrus nodded, not looking at her. "He always hated healers, even as a baby, if you can believe that. He would only ever let my grandmother take care of him. After she died it seemed like he never got sick. Looking back at it, maybe he just never said anything and I never noticed," Atrus sighed the last part.

"You know you can't keep them in those Ages forever," Six said instead of indulging his pity party.

"It's up to them," he answered in a tone that told her that he had had this conversation often in the past.

Six shook her head. "No, Atrus. It's up to you and your wife. You're their jailors." ED-E beeped again. Six jabbed her thumb up at the robot, "And he thinks you need to take a deep breath and consider the current situation, not the one ten years ago."

His eyes searched her for a moment before he said, "You two have something in mind."

She shrugged while ED-E bobbed beside her. "Achenar seems alright, all things considered, but Sirrus looks like he's gearing up for a massive breakdown. When that happens, and it will, it won't be pretty."

"What are you suggesting?" he asked.

"To put it simply, I want to take your son home with me."

"Absolutely not," he stepped over to her, stopping just shy of entering her personal space.

"What? Why not? I promise that I'll take real good care of him," she effected a begging tone more suited to a five year old. "It won't be like what happened to my goldfish! I'll feed him and play with him and-"

He interrupted her, "After everything you have told me about your Age, you really expect me to be okay sending my son there?"

"He would prefer it over being alone. The great thing about the Wasteland is that there is always someone ready to shoot him in the leg if he rubs someone the wrong way. Sirrus has technical skills and smarts that are rare anywhere. There are some projects in New Vegas that could use him. He might not know the tech yet, but I have a feeling it won't take him long to learn," Six explained. It was only a slight fib. She would actually put him to work in Novac and tell Manny to keep the riot shotgun he inherited from Ranger Andy loaded.

"I do not want my son dead," he insisted, the conversation starting to visually upset him.

"So you would just prefer him to go even more insane than he is now. He's a person, not a pet or a book. You can't shove him on a shelf and expect him to be fine the next time you get around to checking on him." And there was Atrus' biggest problem, his poor understanding of living people. He had a superficial grasp at best. A common trait for people raised in isolation. It had just been him and his grandmother who was replaced by his father who was replaced by his wife. Those were the only deep relationships he had with others his whole life, and she had some doubts about how close he had actually been to Gehn. Excuse her if she didn't think he was an authority on how people should be treated.

As if he could hear what she was thinking, he looked away from her. "I know! I know. You are right. I do not want you to be, but you are. And Catherine would agree with you if we were to go and ask her opinion. I just…I just want to keep them close. Somewhere I know they are safe and out of trouble. I have been a terrible father and they terrible sons in turn, but I do love them. I gave them space as children, as I thought that was the right thing to do, but I was wrong."

"Extremes of one thing or another are always bad," she said softly.

"I discovered that too late," he sighed, he was doing an awful lot of that. Atrus stepped away from her to sit down at the edge of the bed.

"(!$/?:"

Six nodded up at ED-E in complete agreement. "It might be too late to have an ideal relationship with your sons, but it doesn't have to remain completely broken."

Nothing was said for a long time after that. Atrus rubbed his hands together absentmindedly just before he started speaking again, "Did you know the D'ni do not consider someone an adult until they are twenty-five? I didn't until I found the other survivors. D'ni age slower, mature slower. Even part D'ni are affected by this."

"And how old were you and Kat when Achenar was born?" she asked, she had a feeling where this was going.

"Not twenty-five," he answered with some black humor. "We had just escaped from Gehn a year before. Finding out that Catherine was pregnant was a mixed blessing. I had never even considered the idea of children. I'm not proud of it, but it felt like being trapped again by my father."

"You were young." If she had a cap for every time some teenage parent abandoned a child she could rebuild the entire downtown DC area in just a couple of years. The man in front of her had done the rare thing by keeping his kid.

"And I had my grandmother," Atrus said, unintentionally interrupting her train of thought. "She was more than happy to care for Achenar, and later Sirrus. She gave Catherine and I the freedom we still so craved."

"Then she died," Six said so he wouldn't have to.

"Yes," he whispered. "And we all mourned. In a time in which we all should have pulled together, we drifted apart instead. I locked myself away from everything. It was not as though I did not notice their pain. I would stay up late into the night and sometimes I could hear Achenar sobbing into his pillow when I walked by his room. If I wandered the halls of my home, I would sometimes encounter Sirrus who did little but stare at the world through eyes that didn't seem to see much of anything at all. I would have comforted them if I knew how." He released a bitter laugh as he said, "How selfish it seems now."

"It's never too late to teach an old dog new tricks," she told him. ED-E beeped his agreement.

Atrus looked between the two of them. "If anything, I have to try harder for Yeesha's sake. I refuse to make the same mistakes again."

"Knowing you have a problem is the first step." It relieved her to no end that he was trying to do better, that he was acknowledging what went wrong. Ignoring it wouldn't have done any good.

"I have been practicing expressing myself more with my sons," he said, again making her think he could read her mind. "I think Achenar and I are having an easier time at communicating now. It had always been a problem trying to talk to him in the past. We have managed to hold a full conversations without needing Catherine to mediate." He smiled a little before the levity dropped immediately. "In contrast, I don't know what to make of Sirrus."

"Easy," she said. "Ambush predator."

"I don't want to believe that's all he is," he answered slowly.

"'Course not. He also has OCPD." At Atrus' expectant look she explained, "Obsessive compulsive personality disorder, not to be confused with OCD which is a different thing."

"The difference?" he asked.

"OCD is an anxiety disorder and OCPD if a personality one. Sirrus is a textbook example. There's not much you can do about it in the current situation. I mean, antidepressants sometimes helps, but the Followers only have so much and I don't trust any other suppliers with something like that. OCPD can cause suicidal urges, but I think Sirrus is too fond of himself to go that route." Maybe. "I don't think he even realizes that there's anything wrong with him."

"I want to do whatever is necessary to fix my family," Atrus said. "They are my priority now, as they always should have been."

"The Wasteland?" she asked, following up on her original question.

He shook his head. "Catherine and I need to talk it over."

"Take your time."

5

"Caught red handed," Six said as she stepped through the door into Yeesha's room. They were still working on it technically. The walls still needed a coating of paint, and there weren't really any decorations. Only a crib and some scattered toys were inside. The girl usually still slept in her parent's room unless someone was in the kitchen while she was napping.

Katran looked up at her. She was sitting on the floor with her legs folded under her, rubbing Reilly's belly with one hand. The dog woofed a soft greeting at Six and Yeesha waved a block at her.

"He was not angry, as I knew he wouldn't be. He was not even surprised," Katran said.

Six sat down across from her, moving a few blocks out of the way. Yeesha dove for one, falling over in the process. She sat up instantly like nothing happened.

"Oh, I know. I was just hoping to avoid the ugly conversation for a little while," Six said as she placed a block on top of two more. Yeesha snagged it back and placed it in a cluster with several others. Six admitted defeat and turned back to Katran with a smile.

"Which conversation?" she asked, an almost imperceptible frown marring her face.

"He ought to fill you in soon," Six said. Reilly rolled over to climb into her lap. "You know I don't have any treats on me," she told the dog. Reilly licked at her face. "I don't have any treats! Kat help me!" Two sets of giggles answered her. "Okay, okay! We'll go play fetch or something. Give me thirty minutes, alright?"

Reilly finally stopped attacking her. She bounded off of her, nearly toppling her over in the process, to bark at the birds loitering about the railing outside. Someone was well rested.

"How are they?" Katran asked her, making Six turn away from Reilly's antics.

"As well as can be," she answered.

Katran averted her eyes, "That's all I can really hope for, isn't it?"

"Chin up, things could be a lot worse," Six smiled brightly.

Katran returned it weakly before it faded. She tilted her head at her and said, "Six?"

"Hm?"

"Are you…I know you and Atrus have been planning to go to Voltaic, but I was wondering if you had anything else planned after that?" Katran asked.

"I ought to check up on what's going on in Narayan, but other than that? No. Why?" Six felt a tug on her jacket sleeve. Looking down, she saw that Yeesha had crawled up to her. The girl held a block up to her, and Six could do nothing but accept it with a grin. She placed it on top of the five block tower and looked to Yeesha for approval. The girl had already lost interest. She crawled away to grasp at the SPECIAL book lying near her mother. Yeesha opened it up somewhere in the middle without an ounce of grace and dropped it onto the floor. The two adults cracked a smile at each other.

"Would you like to visit Tay?" Katran asked.

"Love to," Six replied. "How's everything going over there? Your letters have been pretty sparse on that subject."

"I didn't wish to worry Atrus," she sighed. "He already has so much on his shoulders."

"That doesn't sound great, Kat." What was the matter? Six tried to recall all mentions of Tay in the letters she had received, but all she could recall was some trivial nonspecific stuff. Getting farms started, who had gotten into the ruling council, short updates on their mutual friends, that sort of thing.

"It's not so bad," Katran was quick to reassure. "Sunny says he has the situation well in hand."

"But there is a situation?" Six asked. So it wasn't just Atrus who had wanted her help when he had invited her to stay the moment he found out they were close to solving the problem with the portal.

"Yes, but perhaps I should wait to explain so you can focus on your immediate concerns." Katran said as Reilly wandered back inside, successful in her quest to put the fear of god into the birds. Katran held up her hand and the dog obediently went over to her to be pet.

"Well, I'll have ED-E add a trip to Tay to my busy schedule when he's finished examining your dam." The robot had wanted to see how hard it would be to integrate some of their technology with Atrus'. Katran liked to vent to her about the random power outages her husband had a habit of causing at inopportune times. Once or twice was no big deal, but according to her it was often enough to be truly annoying. "Speaking of Sunny, how is he?"

"You are solely responsible for turning him into bloodthirsty scoundrel," she said it with a smile that told Six that she meant that in the best possible way.

"I do my best."

"It's thanks to him and his considerable efforts that had convinced many of Gehn's former worshippers to turn from their old ways and strive for a new future. It took great courage and charisma on his part to rally everyone together, especially for one so young. These days he mostly just runs around Tay socializing it would seem. He solves many miscellaneous problems the council can't be bothered with." Katran sounded proud of him, and Six was struck with the fact that she knew very little of Katran's relationship with Sunny. She had taught him English, but what more than that? Was he a relative, a child of a friend, a random orphan she decided that she liked?

"Sounds like what I do, just with less shooting on both sides." Did they even have guns in Tay? Another thing she would have to look into.

"Thank the Maker," Katran said more to herself than to Six. "He still looks up to you, he will be more than pleased by your visit."

"Yeah, it'll be great to see for myself how Tay's doing." Last time she had seen the Age it had been like an insect hive inside that gigantic tree. That couldn't have lasted long with how much of a sea faring race they were. Fishing had been a big part of their culture.

"Better after we took your suggestion to create a sheriff's office," Katran told her.

Six suppressed a laugh. "Did you actually call it that?"

"Sheriff? Yes. Why? Shouldn't we have?"

"No, it's fine. I just wasn't expecting you to actually use it." Well the Rivenese wouldn't be the first people to adopt words from other languages. English itself was a mutant hybrid with little originality.

"It's the word you used and it was so far removed from Gehn's own law enforcement that we felt it was safe," Katran explained.

"Alright. So who was the lucky guy or gal voted into office?" Six asked even though she had a hunch.

"The unfortunate soul you and Sunny made a figurehead of," she replied with disapproval that was tempered with fondness. Six mentally congratulated herself for guessing correctly.

"Good to hear Moe is still on top of the world." Good ol' reliable Moe.

"And that your nickname for him has stuck like glue," Katran informed her.

A rueful grin spread across Six's face as she said, "He really hates me, doesn't he?"

"Hate is a strong word."

"He isn't going to attack me on sight is he?" Six couldn't help but ask. She knew the feeling. She had despised Three Dog for a solid two and half years for all those broadcasts that made her famous in the capital, that made her enemies more aware of her movements, for practically nominating her for sainthood. After awhile she had understood what he was doing. Good morale in the Wasteland, especially on the east coast, was hard to come by. Any little grain of it spread as fast as possible could do wonders for people. That was why she didn't regret what she had done to Moe. Riven needed heroes more than he needed peace of mind.

"No," Katran reassured her. "He might have before being put in charge of keeping the harmony, but he does like his job. He grumbles a lot less than he has in previous years."

"Is he good at it?" That was the important thing.

"I believe so, but my standards for such things do not compare to yours," Katran said.

"Has crime gone down?" she asked, expanding on her previous question.

"Our system before we nominated Moe had been trying to let the people themselves bring criminals forward. It was how it was done on Riven during Gehn's time, but it was not as productive now. People had been too afraid of Gehn to act out, but now…"

"Now people are shaking off their fear. Now, people are being people rather than serfs in a fiefdom. They want to see how far they can push their new freedom they are only now realizing that they have," Six said. Hadn't the Pitt been much the same? After their uprising it had been six years before real unrest started. In Terahnee, it had been immediately only due to how beaten down they were and just how long their servitude had been. The bloodshed had been a long time coming with no outlet, like pressure building up between two fault lines. It was a damn good thing Atrus had committed her bomb recipe to memory and recalled enough of her long winded stories to form a sort of strategy. What happened could have gone a lot worse than it had.

"That is not an untrue assessment of the situation," Katran said, her eyes downcast. She had clearly been hoping for something brighter. That was on the horizon, but it wouldn't be anytime soon for Tay. It might even happen only after Katran was dead. Her daughter would be there, maybe even her sons if they could straighten up and fly right. Speaking of which…

"I kind of made a deal with Achenar. In exchange for clearing up some things, I told him I'd talk to you about meeting Yeesha."

"I think it's a wonderful idea," she said immediately.

"Atrus?" Six asked.

"Yes and no," Katran said. "It's the same thing as always. The want for us to be a family, whole, and the want to protect people from them. Yeesha especially. He fears they'll hurt her, use her. I fear that too, but we can't live in fear. We'll never heal that way." She sighed, "Yeesha may be too much of a risk."

"Better they get to know her now as a person rather than just a nebulous idea they know of, but don't actually know." What would happen if they broke out, or someone broke them out?

"I think so too," Katran said just as Yeesha released a great yawn and curled up on the floor. "Oh, someone needs a nap." She gently picked up her daughter to take her over to the crib in the corner.

"Yeah, I promised a certain dog some exercise." Six stood up, being careful not to knock the blocks over.

"I will see you at lunch," Katran whispered.

"I'll try not to skip," she replied just as quietly.

She laughed softly, "You are as bad as Atrus. Make sure to drag him into the kitchen at noon for me, will you?"

"Sure thing." Six moved to walk out, but stopped when she caught sight of the SPECIAL book. She picked it up and opened it to the last page out of curiosity.

Yeesha would be a very intelligent and perceptive woman when she was older, but she needed to work on her charisma. That was alright. Six had some self help books for that.

End of Chapter Seven

Up Next: Voltaic

Author's Note:

I'm so sorry for the lack of updates!

Very little has gone right for me these past couple of months. First I was obscenely busy, then I had well over two weeks worth of computer troubles, then Wasteland 2 came out and a good chunk of my free time went into that. This chapter also stretched on longer than I really thought it would. I almost split it into two parts.

Things should be better now, so the delay between updates shouldn't be as long. Hopefully. Maybe. We'll see. Sorry in advance if I'm wrong.

You are a wonderful person for your continued patience,

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