"-And that will end today's session!" the head speaker of the Commonwealth Council barked before banging an old wooden gavel on the wooden desk. "Good day!" his reared itself itself into James's ears once more as the members slowly began to leave their stations for bluerer skies and greener pastures. James shook his head and sighed as he relaxed in his pue.
The Council Chambers were located in the Old North Church. For whatever reason, completely unknown to James, people had thought this was the ideal location for their meetings and hearings.
"Politics…" James muttered grumpily as he watched Hancock, the ghoul leader of Goodneighbor, now ironically one of the richest "new money" settlements in all of the Commonwealth, conversed with a few others that James knew. Danse, for one, spoke animatedly with the ghoul and without disgust on his face. Despite his synth heritage and Brotherhood upbringing, he spoke to Hancock with no sign of disgust. Which was one of the most expressive emotions that Danse used to be capable of utilizing back when James last saw him.
James eyed Deacon, who again had changed his face. Now Deacon looked to be a much younger, specimen, with short, styled blond hair. He now had sharp features and was growing some stubble. Deacon had his arms crossed, he was unhappy with something. And interestingly enough, it wasn't Danse that Deacon appeared to have a problem with.
"You don't like politics, James?" Marie asked as she chewed some gum. She had her legs kicked up on the back rest of the pew ahead of her and seemed to be enjoying herself.
"What? Was it that obvious?" James asked. Marie nodded and James rolled his eyes. "You look like you're having fun…"
"Actually, I am." Marie confirmed. "This used to always be my favorite place to visit in Danse's class."
"Hmm, see, you do take after your dad!" James joked, but he had hit a sore point and Marie's expression shifted. James took the joke back internally and nodded. "Yup…" he muttered.
"So what are we doing here, James?" Marie asked. "Even Danse only brings us here when something interesting's going on?"
"Oh yeah?" James challenged. "Like what?"
"Like the time when the Council had to decide between 'sterilizing' the feral ghouls within Commonwealth territory or 'relocation'." Marie refuted. James stopped. He was already interested.
"I bet that was pretty interesting." James agreed. "What was Danse's take on the issue?"
"He actually casted the deciding vote on the issue." Marie said.
"What?"
"Yeah, it was really dramatic and everything." Marie continued. "Diamond City led the charge on the sterilization front while Goodneighbor was obviously leading the relocation effort."
"Diamond City?"
"Yeah, McDonaugh was elected Governor of the Green District and therefore represents Diamond City and its immediate surroundings in the Council."
"Huh," James said stroking his chin as he thought.
"Anyways, the factions were deadlocked and all eyes few onto the Air District, where Danse's Brotherhood has set up shop, and then Danse voted for Relocation." Marie finished. James nodded and couldn't help but smile. Things really were changing in the Commonwealth.
"Well, I sure am surprised to see you here." a voice said, calling James back into why he was here. "General."
Preston stood above James flanked by Danse, Deacon and Hancock.
"So here we are." James began. "Things really have changed around here."
"Well, not really." Deacon said, bursting James's bubble of hope.
"What's the problem now?" James asked.
"It's quite a few, Elder." Danse added. "Though the safety of the Commonwealth is no longer in question, there are people who wish to lead this country in danger once more."
"Danger?" James asked. Deacon stepped in, waving his arms between Danse and James dramatically.
"Whoa there, now." Deacon interjected. "I know it's been a while and you like to get straight to business, boss. But like you already know, things have changed. And you really need to be briefed."
"Okay, brief me." James said.
"Not here." Deacon said. "Follow us."
James looked out the truck as it whizzed past building after building. Marie stared out the windows with indifference, but James was amazed. It was almost as if he were the deprived teen and she was the disgruntled middle-aged man.
"When did we get cars working again?" James asked.
"We didn't!" Hancock shouted from the driver's seat. "This is a gift o' your pal, Mr. Hale!"
"Hale?" James asked as he recalled the man once known as The Courier. At least James used to know him by the title he held out West.
"Yeah, man!" Deacon said from the passenger seat. "Turns out Hale owns a few company tech giants out West that are super into science and stuff." James looked the truck over. It was clearly old and used. It resembled a military truck, complete with bullet holes and even rips in the metal sheet around the chassis.
"Yeah, I'm a huge shareholder with them." James mumbled haphhazardly. "But I've never seen one ready to drive before."
"Guess, he held some stuff out on you, boss." Deacon said with a laugh. "Anyways, a few months after you go missing for good, he and his big ass train pops out here out of nowhere and his people start developing things left and right."
"What?"
"Yeah, he ships everything into Country Crossing. Don't ask me how he got that to work with a big ass working train on rails older than the half the buildings here. But he did it. Built this huge shiny four story building right next to the tracks and everything. It's all decked out with the best stuff and-"
"Let me stop you there." James said, interrupted Deacon's rant on Hale's exceptional business acumen. "I've been out West. I've seen New Vegas, I know exactly what Hale is capable of."
"Wow, you've actually been out that far?" Hancock asked. "Out even to Nevada, huh?"
"Dude, you never told me you knew what Nevada was!" Deacon said.
"Hey, i'm a man who gets around." Hancock responded. "But even if you've been out to as far as New Vegas, you should see Jamaica Plains, now."
"What happened to Jamaica Plains?" James asked.
"Well, don't take my word for it, but Hale's changed the place to a resort town. Everything a man could ever ask for, all right there in that town." Hancock said longingly. "Women, chems, women, caps." Hancock took a deep breath as if breathing his first breath of fresh air in forever. "A wonderland!"
"Okay, okay, dreamboat." Deacon laughed. "Stop drooling, we're here." The truck rolled to a stop and light flapped into the back of the truck.
"C'mon General, just a few doors away to privacy." Preston said, holding up the canvas flap of the truck's trunk. Marie stepped out first with James following seconds after.
James stepped onto the freshly paved concrete. He landed with a clack that he hadn't heard since he first walked onto Enclave developed territory.
"Where are we?"
"Well, boss," Deacon began with a curt bow. "Welcome to the Switchboard."
James looked up to see a brand-new building had replaced Slocum Joe's. It resembled a fortress, an old one, not dissimilar to Fort Independence's architectural style.
"Who funded this?" James asked.
"Funny story," Deacon said, another lead-in to an overly complicated version of events.
"It was us." Another voice finished for Deacon. James turned to find Nate and Arcade had arrived, a vertibird sat on a helipad in the distance, its rotor blades still slowing to a stop.
"Us?" James asked. "We funded the renovation of this place? God, how much did that cost?" James asked, already calculating the numbers of caps that must of been moved around in the transaction.
"Actually, it was seen as a 'return' of sorts to one of the Enclave's apparent shareholders." Nate said.
"Shareholders? The Enclave isn't a company…" James began.
"I didn't think so either, but I think Arcade explains it better."
"Well, to be frank, we had more than enough caps to finance this… endeavor." Arcade said. "However, a client of sorts felt that he owed it to you to share some of his success back with the person who helped him establish the networks of success that he now has."
"You're not saying that Hale paid for this are you?" James asked.
"Quite." Arcade confirmed. James frowned and lamented the news. Now I owe him one, great. "And he asked me to ensure that you understood that you don't owe him a single cap."
"But that's the problem!" James returned. "That means I do!" Arcade chuckled and flipped a few pages on the clipboard he was carrying.
"As humorous as your business acumen is, I'm sure you'd like to be briefed now, right?" Arcade asked. James quieted himself and nodded.
"Yeah, I'd really like that right now." James said. Arcade nodded and smiled. He pushed up his glasses and put the clipboard away.
"Follow me."
James sat at the table as a smartly dressed woman gently placed a cup of steaming coffee in front of him. James looked around the room. Gray cement all over, but the floor was a red carpet. Too expensive for a military installation. Dammit, Hale. James thought. Always have to show me up, don't you? James looked up at the colleagues seated around him. There were faces he recognized and faces he didn't. Most of them he had worked with through Katherine, back when everyone actually knew where she was. Now, there was no more facilitator. The training wheels are off.
"Let's take attendance." Nate said as the only member standing. "Sherry, you ready?"
"You don't have to ask me every time, Nate." the assistance grumbled silently beside James. James smirked and saw how under Nate, The Enclave somehow had become less military-like and more of a paramilitary organization. Though different and a bit jarring, James did find the change a breath of fresh air. Even if some professionalism went down the drain.
"NIck Valentine." the synth said gruffly, raising a lit cigarette with his skeletal hand.
"Deacon."
"Preston Garvey"
"Nate"
"MacCready"
"Piper"
"Arcade Gannon"
"Boone"
"Fawkes"
"Marcus Morales"
The list went on for a few more minutes before finally ending with "James Hwang" and the room silenced.
"What are we doing here?" James asked immediately before taking note that Nate had just placed a recording device on the table with a few spare holotapes next to it. At the same time a few assistances in the corner typed on typewriters but only whenever a person spoke or moved. They were recording this. "What is this?"
"We're recording the meeting. For future reference." Nate explained.
"What for?" James asked.
"It's a contigency that we all thought would be…. prudent in case you ever disappeared again." Nate continued.
"No one wants to lead the Enclave." Nate stammered. "Just so you know. It's just that most of us are uncomfortable leading anything of this scale for a prolonged period of time." James looked into the eyes of every person in the room and realized they were all fixated on James despite it being Nate who was talking.
"We need a leader." Nate said. "And so we need you."
"And if I'm not here? How does this help?"
"This will preserve your words. Your ideas." Nate said, becoming slightly excited as each word passed through his lips. "Then we have something to go off of. Some idea of what you intend to be your vision for this organization. That way we can have consistency in our leadership rather than the devolving values that the Enclave went through just after the Great War."
"I see." James thought carefully about this proposition. "But even so, how do you prevent the issue of interpretation?"
"We load all of this data into Eden."
"You're joking."
"No, we're not." Nate said. Arcade stood and signal some staffer that James couldn't see. The assistant pushed forward a small television unit. The screen was lit with a single blue line crossing the center.
"Hello, James. It's been quite a long time since we last spoke." Eden said calmly.
"Yes, it has." James said through gritted teeth. Why are they showing me all of this when they could just be
"-telling me?" Eden asked. James flinched.
"What-"
"-is this?" Eden finished.
"You already did it?!" James asked, baffled. Arcade nodded solemnly.
"We tried a few months ago but ultimately it was unsuccessful." Arcade relented. James visibly relaxed, allowing Arcade to relax in tandem.
"You see, we need more data. Eden already has quite a bit of information on you already incorporated into his system. However, more data will make it more accurate in predicting your thoughts, your ideas. Eventually, Eden can be conditioned to think exactly like you."
"And you don't see how scary this is?" James asked incredulously before glancing over at Danse, who sat next to the Pride seating area.
"It does sound scary. Which is why we've had Scribes and Enclave Technicians work together on this. We don't want another incident like Autumn." Danse said monotonously.
"He really works more like PAM but for you thoughts. He'll give us your take on a situation but ultimately we'll all still discuss it right here before making a final decision on the direction we need the Enclave to go." Deacon suggested. James nodded and then rested his chin in his fingers as he began to think.
"Okay." James said as he took the time to breath carefully and slowly. "This is obviously a lot to take in. What is it exactly that I need to be briefed on immediately?"
"The Enclave." Arcade said firmly. "Things have changed within the Enclave that has specific ramifications for the Commonwealth as a whole. To be frank, you're going to need to catch up on three years of history."
"Okay." James replied. "Where do we start?"