CHAPTER ELEVEN: 81 WAYS TO NOT DIE

Re-upload as I'd inexplicably missed out some content 'Donapples' – no idea how

"I'm getting a signal." Sam said suddenly and Jack paused, glancing through his scope at the surroundings, waiting. "It's Vault-tec."

He turned back then and raised an eyebrow at her. "Here?" She didn't miss the note of irritation, Jack was on mission, and currently that was to get to Diamond City. He never had appreciated sight seeing trips.

Sam pointed. "About 5 clicks that way."

"So, mark it on the map and we'll come back some other time." Jack half ordered and she turned and gave him the eyebrow this time.

"Jack… this is an active signal. Someone's still down there." Sam replied a note of irritation creeping into her own voice.

"Sam." He snapped and his eyes flashed dangerously. "If they're alive, then there's a good chance they've been that way for 200 years. I highly doubt that's going to change in the near future." He growled. "You know what would change the situation, us… opening it up and sticking our noses in where it doesn't belong."

Sam breathed in sharply through her nose, counting to ten. "It's a distress signal Jack. I'd say somethings already changed." He ducked his head and swept his hand over his brow.

"Sam, Jesus I made a bad call on that Supermarket. We're a few clicks out of the City…" She heard the concern there, the wafer-thin hold on his control. She knew better than to poke the bear with a stick, especially after his blow up yesterday, but she wasn't going to just leave a bunch of people stuck in a tin can underground in trouble. And she didn't think he really would, but he gripped her arm tightly.

"Sam?" He rasped almost a plea, and she reached up and caught his cheek in one hand. She knew what it was that was tearing him up inside. He didn't want to take the risk again so soon… didn't want to risk her. He wanted a moment, just one, for themselves. She felt it too, but he was missing the bigger picture, which was what he'd always feared would happen. Perhaps he was right to have kept them buried all these years after all.

"I know Jack. But this is who we are, the minute we stop being that then what was the point of surviving?"

"General… the Minutemen don't ignore a cry for help." Preston reminded him quietly.

"You think I don't know that." Jack hissed back at him. "Hell, I've been saving people since well before you were born." He muttered, sounding like the miserable old coot he'd always threatened to be and Sam smiled, that meant he was definitely going. She turned and started walking in the direction of the signal. Jack followed wordlessly, with Preston taking up the rear and Dogmeat cantering along beside her his knowing eyes on her that she studiously avoided. The Dog was loyal she'd give it that, he clearly knew they were about to head in trouble and he was coming anyway.

The location to the Vault whilst not especially protected was off the beaten track. They had to clear out some local wildlife but nothing too insidious. But it was inside some sort of cave structure, it looked like an entrance to a mineshaft, there were no signs persee just a big black opening. They'd proceeded inside with Jack on point and hit the metal ramping she was familiar with from the last time. There was even an access console she recognised from where she'd found her PipBoy.

She stood looking down from the scaffolding at the vast circular metal door that was sealed tightly shut.

"Do we knock?" Jack asked looking down at it with irritation.

Sam rolled her eyes and went to the panel on the console. Pulling up the connection lead she plugged her PipBoy in. Instantly the command prompt for 'Vault Door Remote Access' flashed up on her monitor and she ran the program.

There was a burst of static and a young mans voice… barely out of his teens she suspected squawked across the console at her.

"Hold it right there, this is Officer Edwards, Vault 81 Security. I don't know how you got your hands on a working PipBoy, but you better start talking!"

Sam glanced down at the radio dials on the console and flipped the transmit button.

"Hi. I'm Sam Carter, my husband and I are out of Vault 111. I picked up your signal, thought you might need a hand?" It was generic enough, she'd learnt the hard way not to reveal everything at first, particularly if there was something happening down there, it might even be some sort of 'silent alarm' for all she knew and she didn't want to inadvertently get someone in trouble. Jack's hand brushed her back as he walked past, his little recognition of her calling him her husband and she smiled ruefully. Realising if they kept pretending that they might have to actually make good on it one day.

A new voice came over the radio. A woman this time. "This is Overseer McNamara. Given as you have a working PipBoy I'm inclined to believe you. If you're here to help, that's good, we operate an exchange system here for entry, you scratch our back we scratch yours, namely with entry."

Sam glanced at Jack. He leant closer to the radio and she pointed to the switch. "Let's hear it then, what do you want?" he flicked off the radio and looked to her. "They don't sound all that distressed." He pointed out, but his curiosity was peaked, she could tell by the set of his jaw that now because they didn't want him in there, he was going to get in.

"Straight to the point, I like that. I'll be equally blunt. Get me three fusion core's and we'll roll out the red-carpet welcome wagon for you."

Jack looked at her, he had some idea what they were worth, they both did. It was a little steep given as they had no idea what they were walking into… or why. Barter and trade were literally the only things they had going for them in Diamond City so they couldn't afford to waste their resources. Jack looked about to respond when Sam pressed a hand to his chest and moved up to the radio.

"Let me." She insisted and he held out his hand inviting her to give it her best. "I have a counter offer. One fusion core… and the means to recharge it."

There was silence on the other end of the line.

"Now that's a mighty fine offer, but utter hokum. Even Wastelanders know a fusion core's a one shot only deal, once its depleated that's all it's got."

Sam smirked. "I was a military engineer before the war… frozen in a cryopod. The military had access to all sorts of tech. No way no how did we run those Power Armour frames off a 1 shot battery. I can do it and I can show you how, no more bartering required."

There was silence on the other end of the line and Sam glanced at Jack who shrugged. Then the alarm went off and the Vault door started to open the service lights flashing as the huge circular structure slid open.

"Come on in then. But don't make any sudden moves. Your weapons will be collected at the door I suggest you comply." The turrets which Preston and Jack had their eyes on seemed to track them as they moved. She'd not seen turrets like it, Vault 111 didn't have them, these were fixed up into the sealing, some sort of bubble-like domes to them with a weapon. Discreet and heavily armoured she imagined. Probably laser. The threat wasn't idle then as they made there way down and inside the Vault door.

Officer Edwards greeted them and Sam took a good look at the first 'actual' Vault Dweller she'd met.

"Nice suit." Jack quipped. The blue skin tight number with Vault 81 embossed on the back in gold was identical to the one they'd found in Vault 111 which on occasion Jack wore to sleep in. He'd said it was surprisingly warm, yet breathable. She'd thought it looked like some sort of carbon fibre mesh, quite resistant to heat and cold, maybe even some energy weapons.

Sam stepped up beside him and he gave them both a once over with a whistle. "Wow, you guys certainly smell better than the types we normally get wanting to trade. Even got all your teeth." He grinned and waved them over to a huge security cabinet.

"Weapons down." He instructed, strangely enough he was happy for them to keep the blades, the ones he saw at any rate and she wasn't about to volunteer the rest, he also hadn't been interested in the pistol, waving that away, but the rifles they had to give up and any explosives or grenades. She'd handed them over a little nervously, weapons were more important than ever out here and she didn't like the idea of being unarmed.

"Preston." Jack turned back to the dark skinned man. "Why don't you go wait outside the Vault, with your weapons and the Dog." They shared a non-verbal and Preston nodded. Sam understood the instinct. One of them should stay back fully armed in case the others needed rescuing.

"I'll get you a souvenir." Jack promised.

Preston glanced at it, and at the guy dressed in his neat blue suit and combat helmet and snorted, to be fair he probably would have blown the whole 'vault dwellers' idea and they didn't want the people here to think otherwise, Sam and Jack had gone this long passing as Vault Dwellers.

"You better. And some purified water. Vaults are good for that." He declared as Sam handed him a radio, Preston nodded and tipped his hat at the Officer before making his way back out of the slowly closing Vault door before it sealed him in, Dogmeat gave Jack one serious headbump into his knees before following at Preston's command.

"Good dog." Jack said affectionately, before rubbing his hands together and standing there non-plussed. "So, you got a tour-guide or something?"

Turns out they did. A boy with a shock of red hair, named Austin fleeced them of 5 caps for the privilege. To be fair Sam thought it was worth it, he showed them all the basics and their polite if somewhat surprised first look at the facilities could be masked with gentle indulgent questions that a grown up might have paused at from 'other Vault Dwellers'. Like how the Atrium worked, and what the Overseer's role was daily.

"This is my class room. We learn all sorts of stuff in here. Mostly from before, you know when there were other places to go. I'm training to be an engineer. I heard you were one?"

Sam smiled at him as he started to tell her about his fascination with the power generators and how he liked to go and sit in those rooms and follow around the maintenance guys, learning what all the tools did. He was a sweet kid Sam decided, and the first child they'd come across in the Wasteland.

"So you do this a lot?" he asked, "Greet the Wastelanders that come in?" there was a note of concern there that Sam didn't miss.

"Oh no. They don't let them in, most people just trade outside the Vault Door. I heard them say you were from Vault 111. What was it like there, did you have Atriums like ours to grow food in? Where are your Vault suits, don't you wear them outside? What's the Waste's like does it smell as bad as everyone says it will? How many things have you killed out there? Are the bugs as big as they say?"

Jack nodded, the kid spoke quick and rattled off questions back at them, apparently it was better to let him talk she realised with a smirk as Jack did his best to answer.

Sam gave Jack a nod and detached from the 'tour' as Jack sat down perched on a barrel and started to tell the boy about the wildlife out there who was staring at him with wrapped fascination. She heard Austin's declaration a few minutes later of, "Okay you have to come tell my whole class this stuff. Come on. I bet our teacher Miss Katy will be so pleased to meet you!" Glancing back Jack was being led away by the hand, his expression of bemused concern as to what he'd just volunteered for staying with her as she stifled a snort of amusement. Jack O'Neill… collector of stray dogs and stray children apparently.

It became apparent to Sam as she wandered and smiled politely at everyone that passed and introduced themselves that no one seemed obviously in distress. She glanced at her PibPoy, it was still sending out the signal, which meant somewhere, someone in here had set it off. Unless of course it had been triggered years ago, maybe even at the start of the war? She had to work on the assumption for now though, that there might be something else going on here, until she'd proven otherwise. And honestly, it was kind of nice to walk through the clean sterile concrete corridors. It was a lot like home she realised, or the base, only brighter than the grey concrete they'd favoured there.

It was as she was exploring the Atrium and the marvel of mostly automated technology that was that Overseer McNamara found her. "Please, call me Gwen." She held her hand out and Sam shook it politely.

"Sam." She returned.

"Your husband is currently entertaining the school children with tales of the Wastelands. And a couple from before the War. Charming man." She admitted and Sam didn't sense anything but honest surprise in her statement, but eyes were sharp. She swept them over her body and took note of what she'd chosen to leave on her person, including the pistol which the Officer at the gate had clearly not judged as a threat, but the Overseer clearly thought that might have been a mistake.

Sam smiled politely, "That's one word for him." She admitted.

"Would you walk with me, I'd be happy to give you the grand tour so to speak." Gwen offered, Sam agreed because it seemed like the easiest way to search for the source of this 'SOS' signal and see an operational vault up close.

"So… you said you were military?" Gwen pressed, clearly wanting more information, Sam didn't imagine she'd got much out of Jack who would have bene politely irreverent as he focused on the 'distraction' of the kids. But she didn't seem all that hostile, unlike the looks she'd been getting and the muttered whispers of 'outsiders' she'd heard from a few of the residents, mostly Gwen seemed curious.

Sam smiled as unthreateningly as possible. "Air force. I was a Colonel."

"A Colonel, that's impressive and your husband was he military too?"

"An honest to God General." Sam smiled trying to make that sound somehow less threatening.

Gwen actually stopped, the young woman looked faintly impressed but then Sam wondered if she understood something of what it was to have to bear the burden of responsibility, she couldn't imagine it was easy running a place like this. Sam was starting to have a hard time seeing this woman as a morally bankrupt Vault-tec employee.

"Wow, I mean, he just seems so good with the children, for a solider?" Gwen admitted and hastily looked away at Sam's slightly affronted look that somehow anyone in the military mgith make a bad parent, hastily she resumed their walk. Although to be fair Sam supposed that maybe a man that looked as gruff as Jack wouldn't naturally be viewed in a 'child-friendly' way.

"I think he gets on so well with kids because he's just an overgrown one himself." Sam added smiling and trying to defuse any tension that Gwen seemed to fear she'd inadvertently created.

"Fortunate that you both made it out together though, were you married before or is that recent?" Sam hesitated a moment, there didn't seem any malice or underlying agenda in that question perhaps it was just idle conversation, Sam imagined with the same people down here to talk to it must be hard to keep entertained. Speaking of she wondered just how many were down here?

"It's a fairly recent thing, he was my CO before that." Gwen frowning at the term, "I have to ask," she pressed on, wanting some information herself. "Just how many people do you have down here?" Sam asked, noting yet another security guard and passing several maintenance staff.

"There were 66 at last count. We obviously have to entertain some fairly strict population controls for obvious reasons. We simply don't have the resources for more, although this vault as I understand it was built to house up to 200 at any one time through its various levels. We have no use for those at the moment and have cut them off, focussing our efforts on maintaining just the structures and population we have is proving challenging enough."

Sam considered offering her services and paused, they had their own plans, perhaps she could help out a little but she couldn't make any commitments and looking around this place, whilst on the surface it seemed to be running, she'd passed enough terminals and bowed structures to realise that they'd been putting band aids on this place for years. What it needed was major surgery. "So that's why you trade with outsiders?"

"Yes. It is fairly recent, we first opened the Vault doors about 10 years ago, my predecessor faced some stern opposition from the residents, but they simply don't understand that if we don't start to gain resources, both food and supplies that we are unable to source ourselves, we will die down here. Fresh meat for example has been an absolute god send, I can't tell you what it was like to have a steak for the first time in my life."

She was grinning like a kid and Sam couldn't help but beam at her. "Look, I can't promise anything, but we have a fairly well established supply route that we've been working on around neighbouring settlements, farmsteads. All working together, I'll speak to Jack see if he can add you onto the supply line. There's a group up North that make the best cheese you've ever tasted."

Gwen gripped her wrist. "Oh that would be… well more than I had hoped for thank you. You think your husband has that much sway though, we haven't been all too popular with the suppliers I don't think we quite have the resources they were looking for?" She was clearly wary of accepting too much help or seeming desperate, Sam could relate. They were after all living in a bubble down here, outside must seem terrifying, which it was, but she wasn't going to frighten her further by telling her that.

Sam looked about, "It may be you can help out in other ways, you look like you could do with some help down here. Jack… well he's the General of a group called the Minutemen. They're establishing a community of settlements. Pushing back the raiders and the mutants, trying to make it safer for everyone."

"My goodness, you have been busy, how long since you awoke?" Gwen looked a little awed and Sam sighed.

"Around 6 months, but it seems like forever, the surface can be a difficult place to live. I'll admit it was a shock when we found ourselves here. We were frozen before the bombs fell you see, we had no idea what had happened." Sam admitted and Gwen released her hand, looking sympathetic.

"Yes we knew from the logs of course, but its one thing to know in practice, quite another to open those doors and see the ravaged surface. My goodness what a mess our ancestors made."

"You say you were frozen before the bombs?" Gwen looked suddenly interested, and Sam realised they'd reached what looked to be a medical bay, "Samantha Carter, this is Dr Forsythe." She introduced her to a greying man with dark skin and kind eyes." He held out his hand and Sam shook it.

"Ah the new Outsiders, yes I'd heard that we had some visitors. I hope the majority of the residents aren't being too rude, we have something of a problem with xenophobia down here I'm afraid a side effect I'm sure of our enforced isolation. We are trying to work on it with the children." He glanced at Gwen as if awaiting an instruction.

"Samantha and her husband were frozen cryogenically before the bombs fell." She announced and Dr Forsythe's eyes widened.

"Oh, wow, that is remarkable. Would you mind terribly if I took a sample of your blood?"

Sam startled and they both saw it, along with her no doubt uneasy expression at the thought. "Can I ask why you want it?" She' learnt a long time ago that offering her blood up to anyone was a bad idea, particularly anyone with issues with Xenophobia given the alien protein markers she carried.

"First to ensure that you aren't carrying any diseases that might be communicable to our residents. But I must confess the second reason is to help me with my research, you see we are an isolated population, genetically speaking as well as socially. We have had a limited gene pool to expand into these last 200 years and I'm concerned that our genetic isolation might have made us, unsuitable for sustained life on the surface, that we may need to diversify if we are ever to hope to survive in the long term. Your DNA markers being almost a baseline if you were of what we should be would be most helpful. We have recent samples from those born in the Commonwealth to compare alongside you see. A number of our current residents were actually once from outside as well."

Sam swallowed. "I don't think my DNA would help you all that much."

The Doctor and Overseer frowned sharing a look with one another.

"You are human… yes?" The Doctor asked carefully, "Not one of these 'synths' we've heard about?" Gwen gave a double take and Sam cringed.

"I'm not a synth…" She replied with more bite than intended. Before she noticed their surprised looks. "It's just, I was experimented on, Government experiments I mean, whilst we were sleeping." She lied, it was almost easy. "I found records. They did something, introduced some foreign element into my DNA. I don't know what." She raised her hands at their concerned looks. "It's not contagious, you can have it, I just, I wouldn't use me as blueprint or a standard for anything if I were you. So don't be surprised if the results are a little, weird is all." She tried not to make it sound too unusual, or threatening. Certainly not 'I was taken over by an alien parasite with metal in its blood and tortured to death that one time'.

Gwen looked more sympathetic when she'd finished and the Doctor was nodding a little to eagerly. "Yes, well we'd heard that some of the other vaults were used to experiment on people, I can't say I believed it myself, Vault-tec after all saved our lives for all these years, but I suppose perhaps they had other reasons to build these vaults than just survival." He sighed, and gestured to the bed. "If you would, I must still make sure that you are not carrying anything that might harm us, we have some quite advanced medicines and antidotes available to us for all manner of diseases, our vault came well stocked in those. I'm not quite sure what they expected us to come in contact with down here, but if there is an outbreak of plague, we have a remedy for that at least!" Sam took that in, the notion of the distress signal from somewhere in the vault sitting alongside that information as well as this relatively 'normal' vault setup and sending alarm bells ringing. She didn't think the Overseer or this Doctor knew any more than they were saying, but that didn't mean there wasn't more here to find.

Easing herself up on the bed she let him draw the blood and scan her over. "My goodness. Your almost completely radiation free, its like you haven't been on the surface at all?" he exclaimed looking her over. "Did you find some natural source of food to help cleanse you of radiation?"

"Radaway." She told him. "It's this medication they have up there, flushes you out. Plus they have some pills to help soak up the radiation I guess before it hits your cells. My PipBoy has been helpful in letting me know when I needed to purge of course."

The Doctor nodded, placing her vial of blood in his machine and turning back to her. He glanced once more at his scanner and frowned. "You have a foreign body, in your uterus. Would you like me to remove it?"

Sam blinked nervous again. "I do?"

He frowned and turned the scanning device around to show her. "Oh. Its an IUD." She told him quietly relieved. "Um, back before the war, when I was frozen, that's what we used to, prevent pregnancy and menstruation in women that were going onto the front lines." The Doctor looked appalled.

"That's practically barbaric. When did you say you were frozen again?"

Sam considered lying, and realised that would probably just get her in deeper and honestly why bother, what did it matter to them, the frozen story was good enough and she had said they'd been in the vault separately to the others. "2005." She told him firmly and he blinked trying to contain his clear surprise; Gwen looked her up and down sharply as if trying to look for signs that she was nearly 300 years old. "Like I said, we were frozen sometime before the others."

"Yeah, about 70 years!" Gwen gasped. "My God, you really are out of time and place aren't you!"

"Well," The Doctor admitted. "We have something much more advanced, and safer than that now, I would highly recommend you use that instead." He held out an injection. "This liquid will halt your biological fertility exactly as it is, freezing it as it were, so that you might remain fertile for when you wish to consider children."

That was more than she was expecting. "You mean, its not just blocking it, but actively pausing it?" She had to admit that was more than tempting, she'd been concerned not only about how she might get the IUD removed in a few years time when its lifespan expired but also about her fertility, if they ever were to get out of here, the radiation damage alone would be cause for concern, but her biological clock was well into ticking at 36. And if she was honest she hadn't completely given up on the idea of kids. Just not out here. There was also the risk of injury out here dislodging it to consider. She sighed. "Okay… I please, yes that would be helpful. How long does it last?"

"A couple of years for one dose. You can get boosters, even out there in the Wasteland the Doctors should still have F-19. I imagine there's more call for it than ever." The Doctor explained and Sam nodded. Which was how Jack of course happened to come by and find her with another man between her legs.

"Carter!" he barked and she heard his pistol.

"It's fine Jack." She turned to see him as he rounded on them behind the curtain and took in the sight of the Doctor, doing his… thing.

"What is he…?" he asked and then as the Doc pulled it out he paled and spun. Hand clapped over his eyes. "Right… sorry. I'll be outside."

She emerged about 10 minutes later, one frozen fertility serum injected and her dignity a little bit bruised as she came to stand next to him.

"Odd time for a check-up?" he grumbled, clearly wanting an explanation. She wondered if he was concerned perhaps she was 'taking' care of an issue that he hadn't actually dared broach with her since they'd started having sex out here.

"My IUD would have failed in about a year, he had the skill and a pretty nifty alternative so I figured why not, this place is more sterile than anywhere else we're likely to find." Sam explained and there was a moment of relief that seemed to pass over his face.

"Right…" he paused, looking around furtively before he settled on staring at her. "That's good, that it's taken care of, I guess." He looked like he'd rather be anywhere else than there talking about this and she took pity on him and patted him on his arm.

Gwen approached them again smiling but it wasn't quite reaching her eyes. "I have to ask, about those power cores. You did promise to help us 'recharge' them." She looked more than a little sceptical now. "How is it you think you can help us, if what you've said is true then did they even have cores back then?"

Jack shot her a look, and she wished she'd had a moment to catch him up. Giving away that part of their tale hadn't been on the agenda anywhere. But then she realised they'd have found it from the blood test anyway. Perhaps she should have just refused, but given as they were accusing her of being a synth it had been the lesser of two evils.

"Oh well, we've been out here a while and I've been… tinkering." That didn't seem to convince Gwen if anything she seemed to be more unsure now about letting her near one of them.

"Look. Sam's a genius. That's why, stone cold brilliant. She had these little power core things figured out in no time." He gave Gwen a look, "Why do you think out of everyone the Government chose to put her on ice to begin with, trust me Sam was considered a goddamn National Treasure." He gave her a look, and she glanced away feeling a touch of colour in her cheeks, remembering the awkward conversation they'd once had when he'd told her that the first time. Smooth talker.

Gwen nodded, looking slightly relieved as she accepted that with grace, Sam imagined they had enough bullshit from traders and Wastelanders spinning them tall tales to deal with. Gwen turned on Jack then. "So why were you placed in the vault then, are you a tech genius too?"

Jack grinned his dangerously charming smile, with his flat dark eyes. "No. I have other skills that some people considered valuable." Gwen looked momentarily startled by that, before she broke his gaze as she realised what he was getting at. It seemed even buried in a vault for 200 years, she knew better than to look a trained killer in the eye. Which when all was said and done, what Jack was on paper, even if it ate at him every time. His soul was littered with the marks that he'd willingly inflicted for his country.

"I see." Gwen gave her a searching look, perhaps wondering what it was she'd actually let into her vault and around the children. Sam offered a gentle smile hoping to reassure her. After all that was only a fragment of Jack O'Neill, granted it was becoming the dominant one in them both out here in the Wastes. But Gwen it seemed had just learnt a valuable lesson, that disarming someone didn't automatically make them any less of a threat, or any less capable of harming you. Not that she and Jack would, but it was probably a valuable lesson.

"Why don't you show me to your engineering bay, or wherever it is you keep your spare parts and I'll see what I can do for you?" Sam offered. She turned back to Jack. "Why don't you go mingle Dear."

He blinked. Then saluted, "Yes Ma'am." Before he did an about-face and made himself somewhere other than there which Sam thought was wise as she followed Gwen sidestepping a surly looking woman in a labcoat who was muttering about 'outsiders' under her breath as she went.

Jack watched Sam wander off with the 'Boss Lady' and glanced at the lab Sam had just vacated and decided to give it a wide birth before they decided to 'fix' him.

"Hold on young man!" The Doc called and Jack winced, walking and pretending he hadn't heard him, after all he wasn't young, so he could just as soon be talking to someone else. The Doc made pace beside him and stepped in front. "Jack, isn't it?" he questioned, clearly knowing, "Your wife said that you'd both be happy to provide blood samples, I have hers."

Jack stopped and glowered at the man. "You know I've just seen you with your head practically in my wife's lap and hands where they definitely shouldn't be, I'm impressed your brave enough to corner me in an abandoned corridor." The Doctor paled slightly and looked around at their secluded surroundings before he seemed to visibly straighten up.

"Nice try. Scare tactics. I take it your familiar with routine check-ups then from your military service. Think of this as that. If you please?"

Jack grimaced and did a u-turn and started rolling up his sleeve with a muttered curse about bloody Doctor's and needles. It seemed wherever the hell he went there was some busy body wanting to jab him for some reason or other. Under ten minutes later he was striding out of there with a promise to live clean and hurried off before he found another test to run. Sadly he wasn't paying much attention to where his legs were taking him and he ended up somewhere quite by accident that seemed to be another lab… only this was full of plants. There was a Labcoat in here too. Jack attempted to hide behind what looked like an apple tree.

"I see you!" Came the short sharp woman's crisp exclamation. "Ah," she grinned as he popped his head up trying not to look guilty, or like a labrat. "So your one of our guests. Wonderful, I was hoping one of you would stop by. My son Austin was quite impressed with you both, said you'd travelled a fair bit. Perhaps you wouldn't mind helping me?"

Jack sighed, "With what… I'm not much of a… botanist?" he had a stab at her profession.

"Very good. I'm also the hydroponic gardener down here, no easy task let me tell you." She held her hand out. "Dr Pinske."

"Jack O'Neill." He shook it, surprised at how firm her grip was and how steady her gaze, most people so far down here had barely met his eye, it was starting to make him feel a bit shifty about the place. Although he didn't trust people that trusted immediately, it tended to make them fools.

"Try this." She handed him a fruit.

He took it and held it in his hand, it looked like the ugly cross bread of an apple, a pineapple and a peach. Furry and spikey and roughly apple shaped. "Why?" he asked the sensible question. After all he knew better than to stick any random food into his mouth, he'd at least got one up on Alice when she went blundering into Wonderland.

"Oh, I'm experimenting, trying to create a Fruit that is not only radiation resistant but can help cure radiation sickness by absorbing the particles to be passed harmfully from the body. Particularly those that line the digestive tract after so much has been ingested."

Jack grimaced at the thought of what was clogging up his guts since landing in this damn place.

"And you're not testing it on anyone else here because?" He pressed and her expression grew pinched. He read between the lines, her usual 'victims' had made themselves scarce.

"Is it likely to poison me?"

"Oh no, its fairly far along it's development. It's perfectly safe, its just a taste test."

Jack grimaced. "Ah… I think I'd have been safer with poison." He sighed. He supposed he could say no. He peeled back the furry prickly skin and glanced at the mostly unappatising looking thing in the middle.

"Bottoms up." He muttered and took a mouthful. It exploded on his tongue and he damn near startled the poor woman with his exclamation of 'Oh my God!" as he sprayed her with the remnants.

"Oh goodness, is it that bad?" she looked horrified. "My last testers said it was almost there?"

Jack shook his head and took another bite, and another. Closing his eyes in near bliss. "Good…. So good." He groaned. Donuts… the damn woman had made a plant that tasted like donuts. "He opened his eyes and stalked forward and grabbed her by the arms and pulled her into the biggest hug he could. Ignoring her faint protest and squeal of surprise.

"I could kiss you right now." He muttered around a mouthful. "I'll take like a kilo of these babies."

"So it's good then?" she asked a small smile escaping her.

Jack nodded. "Oh yeah, I'm sure you've no idea what a donut is, but this thing, tastes like a crispy crème one with a jammy gooey centre. Bless you." He kissed both her cheeks and she turned faintly pink which on her pasty pallor was quite impressive, he didn't suppose they got to see the sun light… ever down here.

"Erm… certainly, I'd love to trade them, I'm calling them 'Fresh Mutfruit' especially if they are as delicious as you seem to think. But I'll need to grow more, if you could find a way to help with some fertiliser?" she asked somewhat hopefully and Jack grinned nodding vigorously. Finally something was going there way.

"Oh it is both our lucky days. I can do that, I know a lovely lady with a cow-thing. Tonnes of shit, literally. I'll get some shipped up here just as soon as I can get Preston on it." He promised, meaning it, he needed these babies up on his farm. Hell donuts you could grow on trees that cured you or radiation sickness… what was not to like?

"Oh, aren't you a Dear. Thank you. I'll be sure to reserve you some special." She handed him another one and he grinned conspiratorially.

"Terrible name though… who wants to eat a 'mutfruit?'" He pointed out. "Why not call them…" he had a brain wave from a little remembered misadventure in googling about a donut peach, "The Donapple?" She looked less than impressed. "The Applenut?"

She gave him a quirked eyebrow, "I see. And is that a condition of your assistance with the fertiliser?"

Jack grinned, "Let's call it a hopeful request?" He gave her his most charming smile. She sighed and smiled back.

"We'll see." She conceded, and he'd take that.

"Thanks." He disappeared off before she tried to ruin the flavour of heaven in his mouth with something less appetising and he pocketed the other one for Sam, she'd never believe him otherwise and he wanted to kiss her with the taste of donut on her lips. Just 'because'.

It seemed like for everyone that wanted to avoid him in this vault there were a dozen more who wanted to talk to him. One guy, Horatio was really insistent, Jack didn't like to stereotype people but the young hairdresser and former Wastelander seemed to definitely have more than a passing interest in getting him in his damn chair. Jack relented not because of the constant flattery and critique of his current 'silvering' do, although getting him to shut up was high on his list, it was also because he really could do with a trim and he hadn't dared let Sam come near him with a pair of rusty scissors they'd found.

It was more than a little strange to be sat in a barber's chair in the middle of the damn apocalypse staring at his reflection in a pristine mirror as a guy with an easy grin and too much idle gossip to hand out gave him a number two on the back and sides and took more than a little off the top. By the time he was done he felt a little more human, as he stroked his smooth cheeks and gave a nod of approval. He also had more intel on this place than he knew what to do with.

He wasn't entirely sure how helpful knowing that Bobby DeLuca was a jet junky, or that his sister Tina as sleeping with some guy named Holt was, but he knew it. Apparently, the power generator room might be a useful place to take a visit as it seemed to be where all the action was happening. His feet led him down there and he met the unwashed sack of crap that was Bobby DeLuca, honestly the guy was pathetic, he had literally everything in here, every opportunity not afforded the poor assholes up in the Wastes and all he knew to do with it was to shoot up and if that failed, get blind drunk. His sister seemed to have a modicum of decency, he got the feeling she was harbouring some guilt for his condition, but he personally thought that was misplaced and that Bobby should take responsibility for being his own fuckup.

Although he kind of admired the guys ingenuity in his own laziness to programme his 'Mr Rusty' robot to do all his chores. If he'd applied even half that moxie to his work the generators probably wouldn't be in need of such repair.

He couldn't wait to get away to him, both of them put his teeth on edge, too damn twitchy and wrapped up in their own shit, plus he didn't like being near a nuclear reactor, no matter how 'safe' Sam claimed they were when she'd seen the one still running in Vault 111. He was pleasantly surprised when he ran back into Austin, who'd apparently been sent to retrieve him for lunch. He'd sent him off to get Preston and Dogmeat given as the threat inside was clearly non-existent and they needed a good meal.

Lunch was an American 'diner' or at least as close an approximation of one as he'd thought he'd see again. Sam was sat at a table with Gwen and a sunken looking woman he thought from the description Horatio had given him was Alexis, the poor wife of the cheating rat Holt. They all seemed to be getting on like a house on fire and he smiled touching Sam's back briefly as he went and meeting her eyes, she nodded once to indicate everything was fine and he headed up to the nice homely looking white-haired woman who had a big smile for him.

Turns out Maria and her 'Good ol'boy' husband Mark Summerset had been running the diner for going on forty years or so together, he got the impression they'd been married as soon as they'd been old enough and had never looked at another person except for each other. Just like everyone down here it seemed that they were in sore need of a fresh perspective and in Maria's case some fresh ingredients. He promised her that he'd already spoken to Gwen about getting them onto the supply chain from the farming settlements for some reliable real meat. She promised to have a steak waiting with his name on it if he could teach her the recipe to good ol'BBQ sauce, just like Grandpa used to make with more than a splash of bourbon in it. Easy win really and definitely the best deal he'd made out here so far steak and 'donapples'. Heaven.

With the plated-up food consisting of some fresh veg, he assumed came from the hydroponic garden and something vaguely rice like and tomato-ish things, he slid into the seat next to Sam who'd finished all hers he was pleased to see. He slid Dr Penske's 'Donut Fruit' onto her plate.

"Desert." He told her with a grin and she frowned, he wasn't normally much of a fruit guy. He winked at her. "Trust me." He watched her like a hawk from the way her hand hovered over it to the lift of it to her lips as she parted them and took a bite. The look of ecstasy on her face was worth it, and he really wanted to be alone with her in that moment.

"Donapples." He told her smugly with a nod. "Trademark pending."

Sam laughed gently and took another bite. "God that's good. But I dunno, names kind of cheesy, how about Cruller Fruits?" Jack wasn't convinced it was as catchy as Donapples but frankly she could call them whatever the hell she wanted if she looked like that eating them.

"So, Ladies." He nodded at her companions in turn, giving it a bit of a twinkle for poor Alexis. "Having fun?"

"You were right, your wife is a complete genius." Gwen grinned, and Sam gave a small quirk of her lips at the praise but didn't otherwise respond. But he quite enjoyed that she still took pride in being called that. She'd blown up a sun for crying out loud, genius didn't cover it.

"Told ya she'd fix your little power problem." He smirked. She'd taken particular offence to Sturgess' challenge when her power core had run dry on her Power Armour that no one had found a way to re-use the buggers. He reached out and placed his hand over hers on the table, also enjoying the idea that he could do that without loathing himself now. He brushed the skin on the back of her hand with his thumb, giving it a gentle squeeze. Only Sam could 'fix' future technology in ways these lot hadn't even dreamed of.

"Quite a setup of you've got here." He admitted pleasantly. "I've had quite a tour." He paused taking them in, "Seems like we may have something to offer you folks. You're in need of supplies, regular and good quality. Like I said, we have that network with the Minutemen." Right then Preston walked in with Dogmeat who bounded up to him and he gave him a bit of a fuss, strolling his head as he sat down next to him thumping his tale and Jack grinned looked around for the boy… Austin, who'd clearly gone to get their friends as requested, but he wasn't anywhere to be seen.

It was as they were finishing up and chatting about the Vaults needs with Preston taking point on that, when the call went out. More like a cry as a group of Vault Security and a terrified looking Dr Penske who was carrying a bloodied Austin ran past. Jack had a moment to hesitate before he was up and after them. Gwen and Sam close by with Dogmeat at his heels. They headed straight for the infirmary. There was frantic movement and he and Sam hung back whilst the Doctors talked and as it turned out Austin's mother Dr Penske panicked.

"Mole-rats, some sort of… I don't know he said they were rabid, but then he just passed out." She was shaking as she held him to her and Gwen gently moved her back so Dr Forsythe could help her son. Jack felt his chest ache a little at the thought of that poor boy, looking so pale and lifeless. He crossed to him, waiting for the Doc's report on his status.

The man looked up, harried and clearly distressed; Jack got the impression he wasn't used to a lot of medical emergencies down here. He didn't seem to know quite what to do.

"It some sort of disease, fast, vicious." He pulled back the wound on the boys leg and Jack could see it spreading like veins up his leg from the blooded mess. "I can clean up this wound, its superficial, but whatever's causing the fever, is causing systemic organ failure, I've never seen anything like it!"

Jack looked at the others, they all seemed frozen. "How the hell did a molerat get in here, where was he when he got bit?"

"You don't get it. Whatever this is, it's not normal, I've never seen a molerat inflict this kind of damage – and yes occasionally we get them infesting the upper levels when they burrow down, but not like this." The Doctor declared. "I don't know how to treat him, because I don't know what this is. Not without seeing one of the creatures for myself!"

"Please Gwenie, my son, you have to help?"

"Where was he found?" Sam cut in and Jack was right behind her.

"Outside the Generator room, Bobby found him." Dr Penske informed them, her face drawn, Jack knew that look, he'd had it himself as he'd cradled his dying son in his arms, praying for a miracle. He reached out and touched her shoulder.

"Sam and I got this. We'll go down and find one of these damn molerats. We'll get you your damn samples so you can figure this out and save the kid." He tapped Sam on the arm and started moving. "I need the weapons we came in with." He instructed Gwen and she nodded running off to see to it or get one of the guards too.

Jack turned to Preston. "Go with the guards, scout the area see if you can see anymore of the blighters on the other levels." He tried to get Dogmeat to go with him, but it seems he was loyal to a fault he sensed the tension in the air, he was stuck to Jack's legs like glue. He wasn't complaining, he'd take another jaw full of teeth and a bad attitude on his side any day.

The security team met them at the generator room and handed the weapons, then they stepped back, although to protect what exactly Jack wasn't clear. He rolled his eyes and headed in, coming across the waste of space that was Bobby DeLuca almost immediately. He was hiding sobbing behind one of the pillars an empty syringe at his feet. Jack dragged him out and Dogmeat got in his face all teeth and pricked up fur growling dangerously. Jack placed a hand on his neck. Trusting the dog to know this was a show of force, and not a use of it right now.

"What the hell happened to Austin, I need to know now Bobby. He was last seen down here?"

Bobby shook his head, shaking and sniffing, but he was sober, or at least as sober as Jack figured he got. Jack grabbed him by his shirt and all but shook him. "Damn it man, the kids dying. Tell me where the hell that molerat got in!"

Bobby was wide eyed and furtive but he kept looking over to one side. Jack gestured to Sam and she darted to go check it out.

"Jack. There's a hidden panel back here." He appeared, dragging Bobby with him and rapidly running out of patience for his snivelling. What they found was Bobby's stash, inside some sort of containment suite. Sam pulled it open and a room opened up, there was a control panel there that Sam had already spotted and was sliding in front of. Jack's eyes lingered on the rows of chems that were stashed just inside the entryway inside a cubbyhole. The little creep had found some sort of hidden passageway, or unfinished part of the vault and clearly hadn't mentioned it to anyone so he could keep his damn junk in there.

"What is this place?" Jack snarled at him.

"I just… I use it to get high. It's just some damn storeroom. It's nothing. But, I saw one of the damn moley's in there. Austin, that damn kid was snooping around he must have seen me go in here. I dragged him out and shut the door on the thing but that's all I could do!"

Sam was tapping away at the computer and he shoved the useless Bobby back out the door, "Get out of here. And clean yourself up for God sakes!" he snapped at him. Turning back to Sam, "What have you got?" he asked coming to stand over her and dropping his hands onto her shoulders. She reached up and touched one.

"This place… it was just like Vault 111, just like all the vaults I think. Morally bankrupt. This vaults purpose was to great a more resistant human being, to make them immune to all disease. They planned to do this by testing biological weapons on isolated populations within the vault. The whole damn place was rigged with nozzles to release it through the ventilation. Their lab rats, like everything Vault-tec I suspect."

"Where the hell do the molerats come into it?"

"Animal test subjects." Sam replied, pointing to the screen and the text. "There was a stepwise plan, cultivate in the lab, expose to the animals, and then test on the human population."

"Survival of the fittest." Jack reasoned. "So why didn't anyone mention that they are routinely exposed to various plagues that wipe them out?"

Sam shook her head. "Because it didn't happen." She pointed at the screen to what he could clearly see were 'logs'. "The Overseer, 200 years ago she wasn't fully on team Vault-tec. When she found out what she was supposed to do, what their mission was down here, this 'Secret Vault' down here to experiment on them, she stopped it. She was supposed to contact the civilians and the scientists, so she just didn't call them. All but three who turned up on their own. She sealed them off down here in this separate part of the vault. Locked them away where they couldn't complete their objectives."

Jack stared at the screen, reading the words for himself. "She sealed them off down here? Indefinitely?" he questioned, it seemed down right cold to him, but he supposed effective. Personally he'd have found it more humane to kill them than that miserable alternative.

Sam looked like she was thinking along similar lines as they shared a grim look. "It looks that way. After she'd sabotaged all the disease delivery systems throughout the vault. Then yeah, she left them to live or die it didn't seem to matter." Sam pointed to the screen and a bunch of messages. "They had a way of messaging her, but after the initial lock down she didn't respond again, but it seems like they carried on their work with what was available to them. Even left updates, seems like they used the mole-rats as their test subjects all those years. The last message came in from a 'Collins' about 30 years after he was trapped down there, he was dying, wanted her to know that she'd got her wish and saved the vault, but that he thought she should have trusted them to do the morally right thing all along. Reminded her about the Vault ethos, that it was about the many not the few."

Jack shuddered. "Yeah you know what, the more I learn about these Vaults the less I like them." He squeezed her shoulder. "So we got what, mutant molerats running around down here?"

Sam slid out of the seat and stood. "They're already mutated Jack. These things are just… wrong. But whatever they are carrying it seems like they may have developed a cure for it in their time down here. We just need to go further in, find the laboratories."

"And not get bit." Jack muttered. Dogmeat gave a low snuffle of a bark in agreement. "Agreed only biting that's getting done is by this guy. Am I clear?" he told her and she nodded picking up her rifle. He held her gaze for a moment and she smiled, reaching up to pat his chest, he couldn't help it, he worried now. He'd always worried but he hadn't been able to show her before, this was new ground for both of them.