"We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever."

Friday, September 14, 2277

3:27 PM

The weather was actually fairly nice for once, and Three Dog was enjoying the relative peace in the studio. The Big Green Uglies hadn't shown their faces in a while, and the local Brotherhood contingent was mostly out on patrol. He liked the armor-clad weirdos, but damned if they weren't noisy. It would have been a lovely lazy afternoon, if the door hadn't burst open just ahead of a wild-eyed wasteland wanderer brandishing a package of cake.

"TAKE ME TO YOUR TINKER!" she demanded without preamble. Three Dog sighed in resignation. There's no such thing as a lazy day anymore.

3:41 PM

"So let me get this straight." Veronica said, in between mouthfuls of Fancy Lads. "You found a previously-unknown Vault underneath an auto repair shop."

"Yup." Julia said, nodding.

"And it's staffed by freaky brain robots."

"Yup yup."

"And it's got weird pods in it hooked up to a computer?"

"Big ol' mainframe." Julia confirmed.

"And the pods have people in them? Living people?" Veronica exclaimed.

"Near as I could tell. They weren't decomp-ugh-" she paused a moment, visibly choosing a different word "-they weren't skeletons yet."

Veronica didn't even notice the pause. "And you want to get one of these people out?" she asked, tone mildly incredulous.

"That's about the size of it." Julia said matter-of-factly. "Can you help?"

"Believe it or not, yes. I've seen a setup like this before." Veronica said, leaning back into her chair.

"Bullshit." Three Dog said more out of surprise than anything else.

Veronica grinned. "That's not even the tenth weirdest thing I've seen. Someday remind me to tell you about the giant T-rex." While Three Dog was distracted, she turned back to Julia. "But yes, I've seen something like that before. Are you up for a field trip?"

"We're going somewhere else?" Julia echoed. "If it's necessary, sure, but I'd rather not leave Dad hooked up to whatever that thing is for much longer."

"He'll keep." Veronica said, waving a hand. "If I'm right, then this place has just the tech we need. It's less.. spaghettified than your description, so we should be able to get a better sense of its operating principles."

"Ah, so if we can dig into one weird pod-person computer, we'll have a better shot at success with another one." Julia said, nodding along.

"Exactly!" Veronica said brightly. "And there's nobody hooked into the other one yet, so we're freer to experiment!"

"Yet?" Julia asked, but Veronica was already heading for the door.

"Come on! There's tech to poke!"

-0-

"And so when she opened the door, all of the cherry bombs went off at once!" Veronica exclaimed in triumph. "It took two whole months for her eyebrows to grow back and another four for her to be able to hear loud noises without flinching. I only wish I'd have been able to see her face.."

Despite her blithe assertion that the elder Mateus would "keep", Veronica nonetheless agreed to set a brisk pace to their destination, and her stories had proven an able distraction from Julia's own worries as they made their way westward.

"She must have been irritating as heck." Julia said after the giggle fit had died down. "Even I never went so far as to weaponize a teddy bear like that."

"I swear, if she hadn't been blonde, she never would have gotten half as far as she did." Veronica grumbled.

"Still, remind me sometime to tell you what we did to the cigar lounge in seventh grade. The maintenance department still has a little ceremony every year to mark its passing."

"That sounds awesome." Veronica said. "Why can't you just tell me now?"

"Because then I can't use it as leverage to get you to spill the beans about where we're going. You've been tight-lipped about it the whole time and I might actually need to know!"

"Ugh, I swear I'm not doing that on purpose." Veronica said apologetically. "It's just... complicated. In multiple ways."

"Let's start with something simple, then." Julia said primly. "Where are we going? Is it a church? A lab? Our friendly local library?"

"It's a Pre-War military training facility, as far as I can tell. Or some kind of prototype for one. It uses virtual reality pods like the ones you described to immerse the trainees in a simulation of real world scenarios."

"That's uh…" Julia paused for a moment, stumbling mentally over the implications. "Amazing. And awesome. I am awed by this. How did they not use this place more? How have I not heard about it? It seems like the sort of thing that would make the news."

"Because it was a waste of money." Veronica said, snorting. "It's not like training army recruits is a new thing, or basic training wasn't working. The only difference between handing someone a rifle and a helmet and having them figure out which was which in virtual reality as opposed to regular reality was several billion dollars. Per trooper."

"Per trooper? Just how much did that thing cost to run?"

"Well, per trooper averaged out over the first year and projected trainee intake figures, but still! I'm almost sure it was some general's pet project rather than an actual proper initiative, and if the War hadn't happened you probably would have seen it on the news as a military budgeting scandal. Or uh, probably not because that was 200 years ago, but you know what I mean."

"I do sort of wonder if I would have read as many old newspapers if I hadn't grown up in a place without much better things to do." Julia conceded the point. "But if it was such a boondoggle, why is it still around?"

"Partly probably because it was such a useless waste." Veronica continued. "Nobody really ended up using it before the War, so it never got specifically targeted. And even though it was a silly idea, it was still a top-secret military contract. Security through obscurity at its finest. Also, it was put offline by the EMPs from the war and subjected to two centuries of zero maintenance. When the Brotherhood found it, it wasn't in very good shape."

"Wait, the Brotherhood found it?" Julia exclaimed. "Why didn't we ask them about it before we left then?"

"That's one of those complicated things I mentioned earlier." Veronica said with a sigh. "How much do you know about the Brotherhood's history?"

"I assume they have one." Julia said without missing a beat. "Aside from that, zero."

"Sounds about right for someone not a member. They don't share much outside of their own ranks. Let me give you the version I'd have as a "wastelander" recruited for my skills - there used to be one Brotherhood presence in the area, they had a massive argument, and a bunch of them left to be their own group. Both insist that they're the "real" Brotherhood of Steel, and every single one of them is touchy about it. I picked all that up from inference and a very abortive round of questioning, I would not suggest asking any of them about it yourself."

"So the group at the training facility is the 'other' Brotherhood?" Julia asked, making finger quotes. "As in, not the ones at GNR?"

Seeing Veronica's nod, she continued. "The Brotherhood I've met hasn't been that keen on letting people into their bases to touch their stuff. How are we going to get access to the mainframe?"

"Well, it helps that they know me." Veronica started. "I was the one who helped them get it all up and running in the first place. Also, the reason I'm not still there is they need someone with a compatible interface in order to access the simulation space. Part of why I left is to try and find one - and fortunately, you do have one. It's on your wrist."

"My Pip-Boy? How does that even work? Would it even work? It's an older model. Er, relatively speaking."

"They use its biometric data as part of the authentication system. Why that's simpler than just using a password or physical access for user authentication is beyond me, but sanity wasn't one of their watchwords over at VSS."

"So your plan is to what, go down there, negotiate our way into a secure Brotherhood installation, plug me into some crazy Pre-War simulation, and use the data to figure out how to get into what we're assuming is another, similar simulation to get my dad out?"

"Don't forget instilling some basic combat skills into that head of yours." Veronica said cheerfully. "Even though a basic training sim was sort of useless back then, it's more or less exactly what you need now."

"Ah, good." Julia said. "As long as something makes sense now."

-0-

Tuesday, September 18, 2277

9:02 AM

Several days, about 17 ghouls and far too many mole rats later, Julia and Veronica found themselves approaching an unfinished skyscraper tucked away in the midst of the rubble of some of its more complete contemporaries. The facility, Veronica said, was in a bunker underneath the building, and the building was to have been a cover for the lab both metaphorically and literally. There were no overt signs of habitation, but that is part of the point of a secret bunker.

"Okay, once we get to their first checkpoint, let me do the talking." Veronica said. "I've worked with these guys before, and they know me. You'll know when to join in."

"Should I play dumb, or is it not a problem that I know stuff about things?" Julia asked.

"Just play it like you would with anyone else." Veronica said, and then paused for a beat as she realized how much flippancy and sarcasm she was about to unleash.

"..actually, I take that back. Play the dumb wastelander and I'll be your 'handler'. Ideally we won't be here long enough for that to matter too much, and we don't want to antagonize them. They're prickly enough as a group to each other, we don't need trouble from backsass."

"I promise I can put on a good act of 'not knowing what's going on'." Julia said. "It's playing very well to type these days."

"Good! They're not actually assholes, but they're very insular and they don't think much of 'outsiders'. If we keep our noses clean we shouldn't have any problems."

-0-

Before much longer, they had descended into the substructures of the rusted skyscraper skeleton, where a man stood guard. His armor seemed to be of the same type as that of the GNR sentries, but painted a dark red.

"Hail, Scribe Veronica." he said, inclining his head. "Why have you come in the company of an outsider?"

"I asked you not to call me that!" she said with a surge of irritation, before taking a calming breath. "Hail, Defender Morrill.I have brought the bearer of a Pip-Boy with me, so that we might gain entrance to the VSS simulation."

"Protector McGraw will be pleased." Morrill said, inclining his head and ignoring her admonishment. "You will likely find him in the main lab. I will tell him you are coming."

He pressed a button to open the nearby elevator and returned to his "guard" stance, apparently dismissing them. Taking the implied hint, Veronica and Julia entered the lift and headed down. After the doors shut, Julia "hmm"ed.

"'Scribe' Veronica?" she asked, eyebrow raised.

"It's just a dumb nickname they tagged me with." Veronica said sourly. "They have 'Defenders' and 'Protectors' and 'Knights' so why not a 'Scribe'? Blegh. I think they insist on it because it annoys me."

Before Julia could ask anything else, the lift reached the bottom and slid open, revealing a surprisingly clean bunker entrance area. Veronica headed off like someone who knew the place well enough to walk around on semi-autopilot,and Julia hurried after her. Helmeted faces watched them pass with a mild amount of interest before going back to their tasks. The complex wasn't very large, so soon enough they found themselves facing the pale hazel eyes of Protector McGraw.

"Hail, Protector." Veronica said, hand twitching at her side like it wanted to salute. "I have brought a wastelander who possesses the technology we need to enter the simulation."

"So I see, Veronica." he said. "Well done. We haven't been making much headway in creating a workaround, so this is welcome news indeed. Please begin your preparations as soon as possible."

Veronica and Julia made for the door, but McGraw stopped them with an upraised hand. "Outsider. A moment."

Veronica hesitated, but Julia sent her on her way with a nod. McGraw turned his full attention to her, and his gaze seemed to become sharper.

"I want to impress on you how unusual this meeting of ours is. We do not normally interact with outsiders, we have not ever allowed outsiders to enter one of our facilities, and we certainly do not make a habit of allowing them to use our technology." He paused for a moment to let that sink in. "I do not tell you this as a threat, or to attempt to discourage you from your task. I merely felt it important to impress upon you the severity of the context in which we find ourselves. There is a power in this place, one that only we can make proper use of. And even then, only after somebody has completed the simulation. A trivial task in the old world, and likely a trivial power in that time - but such things can be the undoing of civilizations in the present. It is our mandate to keep such power hidden from the 'common man' until such time as they have the wisdom to use it properly. We seek to prevent another Great War, ultimately - though I doubt the technology here is that potent. This is the mission you will be aiding today, outsider, and this is why we have made an exception to allow you in - but make no mistake, it is an exception. Do not approach us expecting aid, for we have none to give. I will, however, offer you good luck. You will likely need it."

-0-

"Did your talk with McGraw go well?"

Veronica was busily plugging things in and typing commands into terminals, but still noted when Julia came in. Fortunately, they were alone save for the guards outside - they wouldn't be stealing anything, but they trusted Veronica's expertise.

"More like a talk at." Julia said. "He was very, very clear that this is an unusual event and that, quote, 'I should not approach them expecting aid', unquote."

"That sounds about right." Veronica snorted. "McGraw is a pretty straight shooter compared to some of these guys, but it was still good of him to be so forthcoming about that. Once, I would have thought that the idea of a cloistered, exploratory order was self-contradicting, but.."

She trailed off, shaking her head. "Anyway! This is the prototype pod they built. Does it look at all like the ones in Vault 112?"

"Darn near exactly, as far as I can tell." Julia said, running a hand along the side of it. "It's better lit here, but I'd put money on it being the same kind of tech."

"And here, we have local admin access." Veronica said with a grin. "Go ahead and change into that neural interface suit and we can do the bootup prep."

"I beg your pardon?" Julia asked.

"It'll help transmit biofeedback to the mainframe and let me monitor the surroundings. It'll also apparently transmit a bunch of data that would be interesting to me if I was your CO, but less so for our purposes. Also, it will give you some tactile feedback too - you'll be able to feel the weight of the guns, the kick of the recoil, and so forth. It'll also give you a nasty buzz if you get shot or otherwise hurt. Nothing fatal - this is training after all, but the point is to be realistic enough to be useful in the real world."

"Swell." Julia said, mentally conceding that that made sense. "Just don't peek while I'm changing."

"I'm too engaged with this terminal to peek even if I wanted to." Veronica said, rolling her eyes. "Which I don't because I'm not rude."

"Fiiiine." Julia said, ducking behind the pod to change anyway. "What do you know about the 'power' that's allegedly hidden here?"

"About as much as you do." Veronica said distractedly, still typing. "Given the location, it's probably not the secret army cupcake recipe or anything lame like that, but I doubt it's anything world-changing either."

"Then why's McGraw got his metallic britches in such a twist over it?" Julia asked, sliding into the (oddly cozy) neural interface suit.

"The mission statement 'preserve mankind by keeping our cool toys locked away' sounds good and kindly, but in practice it often turns into 'hoard energy weapons and keep all the bombs for ourselves'." Veronica said bitterly. "There's some nobility at the core of it, but it turns self-serving really easily. And ultimately, self-defeating."

"So ,what then, some kind of fancy ray gun?" Julia said, folding up her suit and leaving it on a nearby table.

"Probably something like that." Veronica said, entering the last few commands with a flourish. "I wouldn't suggest coming between them and whatever they want once we get out, but if we play our cards right, we might be allowed a trophy. Pseudo-feudal trappings cut both ways sometimes."

Julia mouthed the term "pseudo-feudal" to herself before mentally discarding it and continuing. "So what do we know about how this is going to work? Like, specifically."

"Well, first, you sit in the chair." Veronica said, indicating the padded seat inside the VR pod. "Then I close the lid and the pod's internal systems link up with your suit, while the suit connects with your Pip-Boy. Then this monitor here - " she leaned in and indicated what looked like a computer monitor hanging from the top "shell" of the pod - "will swing down and start beaming the sim signals to your brain. After a brief period of transition, the cogwave signals combined with the haptic feedback suit should do a pretty complete job of convincing your brain that it's actually somewhere completely different!"

"What in the name of the Lord is a 'cogwave'?" Julia asked.

"No idea!" Veronica said, grinning. "That's just what it said in the documentation. Given the context, it's probably short for "cognitive wave", but your guess is as good as mine. Anyway, once you're in the simulation, you'll be able to interact with the virtual world just like you would this one. I'll be able to communicate you over the microphone and hear anything you say, but I won't be able to directly see what's going on. We'll have you train for a couple hours and then pull you out and check the data. Sound good?"

"Sounds good!" Julia said, walking over to the chair. "Are we ready?"

"Go ahead." Veronica said. "I almost wish it was me going into that thing, it sounds fascinating."

Julia hopped into the chair and Veronica began the startup sequence. The neural suit started giving off a tingly, staticky sensation, which indicated that it was ready to transmit.

"Alright, Julia." Veronica said through the pod's comm link. "Can you hear me?"

"Yeah I can hear you. This thing tickles!"

"Awesome. Beginning cogwave emission in three… two.. One…"

The monitor on the pod began emitting blue waves that seemed to travel directly through Julia's eyeballs directly into her brain.

Which, she thought, they probably are.

The pod roof vanished in a cloud of blue pixels, and before she knew it, she was standing in the rear bay of an aircraft.

"Hey!" she said over the comm link, shouting over the noise of its rear ramp extending. "Is this parachute training? Because I really don't expect that to be relevant!"

"What? No!" Veronica's voice came over the comms. "You're supposed to be on a rifle range at Fort Benning!"

The plane gave a lurch and Julia fell out of the airplane, giving her a fantastic view of very rapidly approaching ice fields.

"THIS IS VERY NOT FORT BENNING!"

Veronica's reply was drowned out by the wind howling in her ears as she plummeted down through the icy night air.

A/N: This chapter brought to you by a generous grant from the "holy crap has it been THAT long since I last wrote a chapter?" Foundation

The usual culprits continue to kick my butt and spend my creative spirit, but I remain as dedicated as ever to actually finish this. I've also been doing some behind the scenes work in the previous year to flesh out backstories and timelines and whatnot that make it easier to write quality chapters more quickly when the urge arises, so that's nice.

Also, per chapter 1:

Third is perhaps the most significant and major one, [REDACTED] [REDACTED] will be found much earlier, [REDACTED]ing [REDACTED]. Not a joke, I'll unspoiler this when it comes time. Don't want to ruin the reveal.

As promised, here is the unspoilered version.

Third is perhaps the most significant and major one, Veronica Santangelo will be found much earlier, replacing Olin. Not a joke.

Have fun! Don't hug a deathclaw!