They left Entrance Cave well before dawn to avoid most of the death claws in the area. Calli watched the sun rise over the land as they strode toward Tennpenny tower. They had trading rounds and business to conduct. Although they still scavenged whenever and wherever they could their other interests took more of their time and were more profitable. Calli wanted to stop at the small farm she helped a young couple establish to see if they were doing all right. They would owe a small payment soon.
Around mid-morning the partners approached the small farm they were renting to the Galens. They could see the young man working in the fields. He looked up, snatching up his shotgun. Of course, he would recognize Hawk, but not her. He seemed wary as they approached.
"Hey, Stan.", Calli called, coming to a halt a short distance from him, their weapons holstered. The young man studied her warily before turning to address Hawk. "Hey, Hawk.", he said. "What's going on? Where's Sally?" Hawk nodded at the woman beside him.
"Meet Calli, Stan. She used to be Sally.", he said. Stan seemed to be having some trouble assimilating this information.
"I understand, Stan.", Calli said quietly. "Surely you've heard of the Project explosion? I was caught in it, and this is what happened."
Stan stared uncertainly for a few moments. Shaking his head he led them to the small house. Stranger things happened in the wasteland.
"Nancy", he called as they entered the house. "Come here. You gotta see this." The young woman came from the back room, and stopped, staring at Calli. Stan explained to her. She smiled tentatively at the small woman.
"It's Calli now?", she asked uncertainly. "Will you stay for lunch?"
"We'd love to, Nancy, but I'm afraid we're on something of a tight schedule. We just had breakfast a short while ago." She noticed Nancy trying to hide her relief. They were good, polite people but super mutants eat a lot and they didn't have much.
A small boy ran into the room and stopped, staring boldly at the strange woman.
"Come here, Joe" Nancy said. "You remember Sally , don't you?" The boy looked at her with big, serious eyes.
"Hey,", he greeted politely. "You don't look like Sally."
Calli smiled at the boy. "Yeah, I've changed, haven't I?", she agreed. "That's why I changed my name too. It's Calli now. Say, I brought you something." She pulled a large sea shell from her pack.
"Wow." Joe said, taking the shell. "Thanks, Calli." He trotted off to add it to his boy's collection of treasures.
They spent an hour with the Galens catching up and discussing their business arrangements. The small farm was doing well considering it was only the second season. They were producing enough of the flower to keep the lotion maker in business, and were producing a few extra eggs from the wasteland birds they had captured. They now raised them for meat and eggs which they sold to the traders. The traders in turn took them to nearby Tennpenny tower who had need of the fresh food.
Calli and Stan went over the books and she accepted the small payment they owed for the farm. She then traded a box of shotgun shells for a dozen of the fresh eggs which they would have with their lunch. With both parties satisfied with their arrangements, Calli and Hawk took their leave to head to the Tower where they would check in with Charles Tennpenny and spend the night in their suite.
After the stop at Tennpenny Tower it took only a couple hours to get to Megaton. It was still early so Calli called on Moira to discuss business. She was delighted with the change from Sally to Calli and couldn't wait to run her DNA analysis to study the changes. She also had news of her own. She and Billy Creel had gotten married a month ago. Calli was happy for them and told them so.
The townspeople weren't as astonished at her change as Calli had feared as roving traders had already been spreading the story throughout the wasteland. Calli stopped at the restaurant to pick up her payment there, and at the bar and clinic. She checked in with Walter at the waterworks to see if the boy she had brought him was working out as his apprentice. She had noticed her bathroom's plumbing needed a little work.
They spent an entire day and night in their home in Megaton re-organizing and making plans as well as satisfying the curiosity of the residents.
With numerous stops for trading, business, and social visits, and a few battles with raiders, the occasional super mutant, and the ever present wild life, it took 5 days to make it up to the Pitt.
Kayla nodded at Calli's inquiry.
"Yes, the formula worked. We've gotten the radilite into a form that can be incorporated into a solid substance. It's really tough, nearly indestructible, and completely radiation proof. We've done numerous tests and no radiation gets through the material itself."
"That's great!", Calli said. "Now what about cloth? Can you create a material to make radiation proof clothing?"
Kayla shook her head. "Not at this time. We'll keep working on it, but it's going to take a lot longer, if we ever get it to work. The material wants to get stiff and hard. And there's another problem, the base radilite is pretty rare. We're having trouble finding enough material to work with." Calli sighed. Nothing was ever easy.
"I'm going to need some rather large tiles. Have you worked out a formula for bonding the tiles together to form a completely radiation proof enclosure to transport items through highly radiated areas?", Calli asked.
"Why, yes, we can do that. The powder that forms the tiles can be mixed to form a cement to glue the tiles together or onto other surfaces. As long as there're no gaps it should be completely radiation proof. You would have to test it each time you used it, and you would have to figure out how to move it."
"I understand.", Calli said. " How long do you think it would take to produce enough tiles and powder to cover, say, 200 square feet of 2X2' tiles and what would they weigh?"
Kayla shuffled some papers and ran some figures. "We have enough material on hand to produce enough 2x2' tiles and powder to cover that. This material is extremely light weight. It would only weigh, let's see, 45 pounds."
"When can you have it ready?", Calli asked.
"We should be able to have it for you in two weeks.", Kayla said. Calli ran some dates in her head. The Tradewind was due in two weeks.
"We'll be back in a month. That will give you some leeway if things don't go as planned. I'll just leave a retainer and we'll pay the balance when we pick it up. We're going to need a lot of much larger tiles as well. We can discuss that when we come back." They shook hands and Calli and Hawk took their departure.
It only took two days to make it to the Settlement where Hawk was happy to spend some time with his wife. Calli was pleased with the trades she made and enjoyed visiting with the Settlement's super mutant residents.
They went from the Settlement to the Super Duper trading post to make some trades, with just one stop to gather some salvage from an Enclave camp they had cleared earlier. Soldiers hadn't been reassigned to it yet so there was still good salvage in the footlockers.
They had plenty of salvage and trade items when they got to the Super Duper Mart. After doing some trades Calli decided to head down to Rivet City to catch the Tradewind and spend some time with her husband. Hawk elected to go on to Megaton where he would organize the inventory and update the books. He would then make a quick trip to the Tennpenny hotel post to trade off some of the Settlement products before meeting her at the Citadel when the Tradewind docked there.
Their plans agreed upon, they separated at the Mart to attend to their own affairs.
The DC area wasn't as dangerous as it had once been but it still wasn't safe. Calli skirted a known super mutant camp over the bridge, mostly because she didn't feel like having to heal when she anticipated being with Jack. Their times together could be physically vigorous.
A group of bandits that tried to waylay her weren't so lucky but at least she got some good weapons and a few bottles of scotch out of the altercation. Not bad for a couple of minor wounds that would be gone by morning. The bandits only got dead.
She got to Rivet City just before the markets closed and did a few trades. The rest of the evening was spent visiting, drinking and gossiping. She made a point of going to bed early when the Tradewind was due even though it wouldn't be in until mid-morning.
She would enjoy every minute she could on the Tradewind with Jack. They would dock at the Citadel in two days' time and she had gotten word the Elder was looking for her. That always meant trouble.