Chapter 14 — Dishonorable Discharge
"Knight-Captain Cade, what is Paladin Danse's prognosis?"
The doctor looked at Elder Maxson with a grim expression. In his twenty-three years as the Prydwen's medic, he finally came across a case that was truly unexplainable. From the outside, Paladin Danse sported no visible wounds and an X-Ray taken of his chest cavity showed no broken bones or internal wounds that might've affected his heart. Sure, if he had access to one of those Old World CAT scan machines, or even an auto doc, he'd be able to do a more thorough examination, but from what he could tell, Danse was physically alive but mentally unresponsive.
He shifted uncomfortably under the Elder's steely gaze. Far be it for him to pussyfoot around the issue. He'd have to come straight out with it. Elder Maxson could take it.
"Paladin Danse is physically healthy. His vitals are all within normal parameters but his brain is unresponsive. He's in a coma and there's not much I can do for him."
Maxson's gaze lingered on Danse's body lying on the examination table. He was dressed in his Brotherhood fatigue pants but was bare from the waist up. The man's chest rose and fell so slightly that most people would've assumed that he was truly dead.
Cade cleared his throat and Maxson jerked slightly as though he was caught doing something he shouldn't be doing. "What are your orders regarding the Paladin, sir?"
Maxson opened his mouth to speak but no noise came out. Loss was a part of the Brotherhood. He wouldn't have been unanimously elected Elder by all of the Brotherhood chapters if he shirked away in grief when he lost soldiers on the battlefield, but that didn't make the loss any easier to bear. Danse had served him faithfully ever since he became Elder at sixteen. He never once questioned his command despite being nearly twice his age. Danse had been the most loyal, most talented, and most valuable member of the Brotherhood he had ever seen, and his fate should reflect that.
"End his suffering Cade." He spoke in a barely audible whisper.
"Yes sir." Cade said. "The medication will take some time to prepare so I'll give you a moment to say your good-byes. Come and collect me from the barraks when you're done and I'll start on the necessary procedures."
The doctor excused himself and left the Elder alone in the small examination room. Maxson took a step towards Danse's body. His stomach clenched in pure rage at the Vault Dweller. She did this. He wasn't sure what she did to harm Danse in this fashion but he was sure she was at fault. She was a murderer and as soon as Danse's body was properly laid to rest, he'd march on the Institute and exterminate them all.
He placed a large hand on Danse's shoulder and a low sob tore from his throat unbidden and unwelcome. Danse's skin was cold to the touch. He was nothing more than a corpse at this point. Even if Danse's mind was still alive, his body was at the mercy of time. Time that they didn't have. They needed to be focused on the mission and worrying about Danse's body was an extra liability that they didn't need. He knew the Paladin would understand. Danse wouldn't want his brothers and sisters to be distracted from the mission.
"Ad Victoriam, brother." He murmured.
Elder Maxson squeezed the man's shoulder once in a final gesture of appreciation and he turned to leave.
A small body was standing in the doorway. Her eyes were puffy and red with tears and she trembled like a scared child when she saw the Elder.
"S-sorry sir." Scribe Haylen squeaked. "I — uh — was checking on D-Danse to see if he woke up yet."
Maxson exhaled slowly. Scribe Haylen could be belligerent and defiant — two traits that were antithesis to being a good Brotherhood soldier — but he couldn't deny that she was in just as much pain seeing her fallen mentor.
"I won't lie to you Scribe," Maxson said even-tempered and as gentle as he could be. "Knight-Captain Cade's prognosis for Paladin Danse wasn't good. I've given him the order to end Danse's suffering."
Haylen's eyes widened and shone with unspilled tears. "You're killing him?"
"He's already dead." Maxson replied. "He is in a coma. There's nothing we can do for him. If he is left alive, he'd just waste away aboard the Prydwen for years as a vegetable. He would be fed through a tube until old age or disease finally claimed him. I will not subject him to that kind of suffering."
"People can come out of a coma." She squeaked. Her voice sounded so child-like and innocent that Maxson's forced himself to tap into his limited patience for Haylen's benefit.
"Yes they can but that doesn't mean they will." He purposely emphasized the words. "If I could look into the future and see if or when Danse would come out of the coma then I'd most assuredly let him remain here until he awoke, but I don't have that luxury. We are at war Haylen. We will be marching on the Institute in no less than a week, and I can't let something like this distract us from our mission."
Haylen's eyes narrowed and her voice was thick with unbridled emotion, "You bastard. I can't believe that after everything Paladin Danse has done for you — for everyone — that you're just going to turn your back on him like this. Danse is the most selfless person I have ever met. I've watched him risk his own life based on nothing more than principle alone. He has dedicated his life to this mission and you're just going to put him down like some sick dog?"
Maxson's gaze was cold and he drew himself up to his full height as he took several steps towards the Scribe until she finally stepped back in submission.
He spoke slowly and punctuated each word with crackling anger, "I will excuse your belligerence this time on account of Danse, but if you ever speak to me like that again, I will have you charged with treason and thrown off the Prydwen. Do I make myself clear?"
Haylen's jaw clenched and she trembled but she maintained eye contact with the Elder. She nodded and then stepped aside so he could pass her.
"Say your good-byes to Danse and then report directly to Proctor Quinlan. You will be working directly under him until I can assign another Paladin to be your commanding officer."
Haylen knew that that meant. Maxson would take his sweet time finding her a new commanding officer which meant that she'd be stuck on the Prydwen under Quinlan's eye until Maxson felt she had been suitably punished for her outburst.
"Ad Victoriam Scribe." Elder Maxson growled and left her in the medbay.
Haylen forced herself to take several calming breaths before she went in to say goodbye to the only man in her life who hadn't disappointed her. Danse didn't deserve to have some blubbering girl weeping over his body. Like it or not, she was a soldier and she had to pull herself together.
The Prydwen wheezed and groaned like a living beast and the sound echoed through the empty vessel. Aside for a handful of Squires and inexperienced Initiates, the rest of the Prydwen was empty. All available personnel had been dispatched to hunt down the Vault Dweller and her compatriots. So when she heard a sharp whistle come out from behind a broken Nuka Cola machine she damn near jumped out of her skin.
"Who's there?" She called out.
A woman stepped out from behind the vending machine, looked up and down the hallway, then grabbed Haylen firmly by the elbow and tugged her into the medbay. She softly closed the door and flicked the lock. Haylen was about to protest but the woman cut her off with a head jerking motion.
"Shut up. There's not enough time to explain everything. You know who I am right?" The hawkish woman hissed.
"Your name is Li right? You're from the Institute?"
The woman's eyes gleamed with a luster seen on slightly insane people and she pressed a piece of paper into Haylen's hand.
"Danse isn't dead. He isn't in a coma. He's deactivated."
"Wha—"
— "No time. No questions. Read that code exactly as I have wrote it and Danse will wake up. He will be confused and groggy. You may need to remind him of who he is. Sometimes the details get a little muddled when they are deactivated but he'll be fine. Then you both need to leave. I'll create a distraction which will draw Maxson and Ingram to me. If Maxson finds out the truth about Danse he'll kill you both."
Haylen looked at the piece of paper in her hand and then back up at Dr. Li. She had a billion questions for the woman but the weight of their dire situation forced her to swallow them all. She nodded. Dr. Li unlocked the door, poked her head out into the hallway like a mole rat sensing for danger, and disappeared.
Danse's pale body looked unnaturally ashen beneath the fluorescent lights. Haylen stepped up to the medical table and looked at the piece of paper. The writing was legible but the phrase she was suppose to read aloud didn't make any sense. But then again, what did she have to lose?
"M7-97 initiate factory startup protocols 1-1-94-Alpha." She read aloud the command in a strong voice and then waited.
And waited.
Haylen waited at least fifteen minutes, long enough for the alarm sirens to go off and for Lancer Captain Kells voice to come on over the announcements to say, "All available Brotherhood personnel must immediately report to the bridge. The Logan Airport is under attack."
A handful of people thundered past the medbay and she ducked out of sight until they were gone. True to her word, Dr. Li must've done something to raise the alarms.
She waited four or five more minutes wringing the paper into a gnarled and twisted tube in her anxiety as she paced back and forth.
Then a weak voice so unlike Danse croaked out from the medical table, "Where … am … I?"
Haylen froze and spun on her heels. Danse struggled to sit up. His eyes were slightly unfocused as though he had just woken up from a deep sleep. Then Danse instinctually went for the gun that was always at his hip. Thankfully he was disarmed.
"Who are you?" He snapped.
"Sir…please. It's me. Scribe Amelia Haylen. I've served under you for the past six years. We were stuck at the Cambridge Police Station for the past six months until the Prydwen finally made it to Boston."
Danse swallowed audibly and he put a hand to his forehead. "I — I have so many memories running through my head. I can't sort them all out. Why is this happening to me?"
Haylen took Danse's hands into hers. Her skin felt blistering warm and he desperately wanted to bring her hands to his face to ease some of the pain in his forehead. But doing that would be … inappropriate for some reason.
"Do you know your name?" She asked.
He furrowed his brow. "I — I think I'm called Danse?"
A small smile toyed at Haylen's lips. "That's one of many names, sure. I also call you El Capitan and 'the blockhead' when you aren't around. Are you able to walk?"
Danse swung his legs off the table. The movement drew his fatigue pants against his thick thighs. His broad chest rose and fell with ease and Haylen caught herself wondering just how he would feel beneath her capable hands
"Are you blushing Haylen?" Danse rumbled.
She jumped, "No sir. It's sunburn. Uh — I — uh let's get going."
"Going where?"
"Out of here." She said. "We gotta leave before Maxson gets back."
Danse blinked several times. His mind felt slow and the throbbing behind his forehead only got worse as he tried to piece together fragments of information and memory.
"Why should I run from Elder Max—"
"Shhh." Haylen hissed and she clasped a firm hand over Danse's mouth. "I think I heard someone coming."
"Who's coming?" He asked but thanks to Haylen's hand it sounded more like "whofs cuffing."
Haylen pressed her hand a little harder against Danse's mouth and closed her eyes to listen. Aside for the occasional groans and creeks from the aircraft's exterior, Haylen heard no other noise.
"We gotta get out of here." Haylen whispered to Danse. "I don't have time to explain."
She let go of Danse's mouth and he brought up a hand to massage his jaw. Then Haylen grabbed that hand started tugging on his huge forearm but it was about as effective as tugging on a brahmin's horn.
"What — where — what?" Danse winced and his hand went to his head again. "I don't feel well Haylen."
"I know. That's why we have to get out of here!"
"No. I just gotta —"
— "Danse I'm serious. You're in grave danger. Maxson was about to euthanize you because you wouldn't wake up. Dr. Li gave me this." she handed Danse the rolled up, twisted paper but she didn't see that there was a printout on the back.
He unrolled it, turned the paper over, and scanned the back. His eyes narrowed at first and then his jaw dropped open. "No…this…what? That's impossible."
"There's no time!" Haylen urged. "C'mon Danse."
Whatever was on that paper had shaken Danse to his core. Haylen saw his indecision and panic — two things that she never saw from Danse before — and that scared her.
"Please!" She pleaded. "I'm not leaving here without you."
Danse's eyes held immeasurable pain when he looked at her and Haylen's tears ran anew. She liked to think that she knew Danse well enough to read him like a book. She knew how he operated, she knew his fears, his little quirks, his unconscious mannerisms, but now she was seriously afraid that maybe she didn't know Danse at all. Even if he didn't want to, the Danse she knew would go with her.
"Haylen?" Proctor Quinlan's voice echoed down the hallway.
"Shit! Quick lie back down and close your eyes." She all but pushed Danse back onto the exam table.
"Haylen?"
"I'm in the medbay." She called out in a quavering voice.
Danse obeyed and laid back down just as Quinlan came into the room. His eyes were downcast and he was reading intently from a printout. His brow furrowed creating creases on his slightly ink-smudged skin.
"Haylen what are you —" He looked up at Haylen's fresh tears and over to Danse's body. "Oh dear child. This is a sticky situation. Come here. Don't get too close to that thing."
"Thing?" Haylen echoed but she dutifully stepped towards the older Scribe.
"Yes, thing." He spat. "I just discovered some terrible information. I need you to report immediately to Elder Maxson. It seems that this so-called Paladin Danse is none other than a filthy synth imposter."
"Synth…" She whispered and then the pieces fell into place.
"Yes. Synth. Synthetic human. A bastardization of technology. That's why I need you take the transport vertibird down there to notify Elder Maxson imm—"
Glass shattered over the top of Quinlan's head and the man cut his sentence short, looked dumbfounded for a moment, and then slumped to the ground with a pained groan. Haylen stood over him holding a heavy glass graduated cylinder, now broken, over her head like a neanderthal that first learned that something heavy plus someone's head can equal a suitably unconscious person.
Danse sat up and looked at the scene. "Scribe, you just assaulted a senior officer!"
"Yeah well I suggest we listen to what he said and take the vertibird. The transport vertibird won't get us very far, the damn thing hasn't worked right since '85 but it's our best chance."
"But you assaulted an officer Haylen!" Danse's consternation made his voice echo through the hull.
"Quiet!" She hissed. "If you stay here and wait for Maxson to learn you're a synth, you'll be shot where you stand. If you come with me at least you'll have a chance at surviving and then we can make a plan to help the Brotherhood out as best we can. But you've GOT. TO. MOVE. IT!"
The Paladin groaned and shoved himself off the table. He grabbed medical tubing from Cade's equipment drawer and tied Quinlan's hands behind his back and tied his legs together while Haylen kept watch for younger Initiates or Brotherhood children who might've been woken by the sounds they made.
"The coast is clear." Haylen whispered. "If you get in a suit, I'll follow you out and tell anyone who asks that I'm suppose to inform Maxson about you. Do not speak unless you're given a direct order to, and even then, try to disguise your voice. Maybe with an accent or something."
"And how would I do that?" He asked darkly.
"I don't know. Doesn't your synth body have a voice modulator or something?"
The withering look he gave Haylen could've stopped a deathclaw. She sighed, "Nevermind. Let's just go."
The duo walked through the empty cafeteria towards the Power Armor bay. Proctor Ingram was already dealing with the feral ghouls at the airport, and at nearly five in the morning, the other engineers were either assisting with the fight or were asleep in the barracks.
"What happened to my Power Armor?" Danse asked as he got into the first available suit. As soon as he stepped in, his heartbeat eased a little. He always felt better being inside a suit.
"Don't worry about that now." Haylen said. She peeked into the main stairwell that led to the deck. "The coast is clear. Let's go."
Haylen and Danse walked out onto the Prydwen's deck. The cold morning wind tugged at Haylen's uniform like frozen claws and she ran towards the last available vertibird that was parked on the far end of the platform and closest to the airport landing pad.
The vertibird was damaged on their way to Boston. A Super Mutant encampment hiding in a skyscraper got a lucky shot on the bird and nearly shot it out of the sky. The forward thrusting mechanism was busted so all it could really do was hover about 300 feet in the air.
"Lancer, we need to go to the airport. Proctor Quinlan asked me to relay an important message to the Elder." Haylen barked and climbed onto the vertibird.
The Lancer was bleary-eyed and young; he couldn't have been older than fifteen and he had been caught sleeping on the job. He looked a little annoyed when Haylen issued her command but his eyes widened in fear when he saw the unnamed Paladin board the vertibird.
"Who is that?" He asked Haylen. "His or her name isn't on the suit."
Haylen wanted to tell the kid to just shut up and drive but the youth would've been suspicious of that, so he said, "That's Paladin Rhys. He's my new commanding officer now that Danse is …"
The kid's face fell and nodded sympathetically, "I'm sorry for your loss ma'am. Congratulations on the promotion, sir. I'll get you down to the airport right away!"
Although the kid was young, he was a skilled Lancer and landed the vertibird on the airport helipad without issue. Haylen and Danse disembarked and immediately took cover in the open doorway. Proctor Quinlan wasn't joking. The feral ghoul distraction was more like an infestation. Several dozen swarmed a handful of Knights in the main part of the airport while at least six more came running to meet them.
Haylen began firing on instinct. She had flashbacks to the firefight at the Cambridge Police Station and how they almost became overrun if it wasn't for Danse's heroic act of detonating nearby cars to take care of the approaching swarms.
Two ghouls collapsed in a pile of gore and dismembered bits. Another one launched itself at Haylen but she sidestepped quickly and it went skittering into the dirt. One jumped onto Danse's back and he grabbed it by its tattered shirt and threw it forty feet away into several shipping containers.
"Let's go!" Haylen yelled over the gunfire. "We gotta get out of the airport and into open ground."
Danse nodded and provided cover fire while they ran through the dilapidated concourse towards the baggage claim and the exits.
The acrid smell of ozone filled the air and red flashes illuminated the dark hallway that blocked them from their exit. Elder Maxson backed into the concourse. His huge gatling laser tore through ghouls like they were tissue paper but there were so many of them that they were still tearing through his gunfire.
Haylen's heart would've seized up in fear at seeing Maxson in his intimidating black Power Armor holding a weapon that could easily end hers and Danse's lives in nanoseconds, but the adrenaline coursing through her body kept her mind focused.
She jerked her head towards the shipping containers to the left and mouthed to Danse 'hide' before providing cover fire for Maxson. Ghouls crawled over one another snarling like rabid dogs, but eventually the dead carcasses had built up in the doorway to the point that their bodies were a natural barricade from other ghouls looking to break into the concourse.
"Haylen!" Maxson snarled as they pumped enough laser cartages into the last one that it disintegrated into ash, "I told you to stay with Quinlan. How dare you defy a direct order! I will deal with you —"
"— Sir! Proctor Quinlan told me to come down here. He has an important message for you about Paladin Danse. He told me that it was urgent! That's the only reason why I came down here, I swear!"
Maxson roared in frustration. Haylen had never seen a real lion before but she had heard Old World holotape recordings of the beast and Maxson would've put the largest lion to shame with his battle cry.
"I don't have time for Quinlan's message. Since you're here, help me provide cover fire to the other Knights and Initiates that were stuck down here. There's still horde of zombies out in the airport hangers in the north part of the building. If you do that, then maybe I'll reconsider your punishment."
Haylen nodded and replied with a polite but fierce, "Sir, yes sir!"
She ran into the forest of tall shipping containers and was nearly hamstringed by a feral ghoul that was crawling out of an opening; its legs had been shot off but its long talons were still sharp enough to act like razor blades.
"Paladin!" She hissed as loud as she dared.
Danse appeared in the western stairway like a ghost and motioned to her that the coast was clear. They descended several flights until they ended up in the airport basement. All they had to do was follow the wall to the north and they'd make it to the northern stairwell which led to the doors that to the open wasteland.
Haylen's eyes watered from the pungent smell of decaying flesh, rotting food, and human (or not-so-human) sewage. Danse activated the headlamp and looked around at the horror. Piles of MREs sat half-devoured in piles. Fat rats nibbled on the food they could get to but it was clear that somebody had spent a fair amount of time feeding the ghouls that lived beneath the airport.
"Who would feed these monsters?" Danse growled.
"I don't know." Haylen said through tight lips. Simply breathing in the putrid air hurt her lungs. "But that's not our problem. We gotta get out of here."
"And leave our brothers and sisters to fight these zombies without our aid?!"
"Yes!" Haylen exclaimed, "Because those same brothers and sisters would no sooner than shoot you for being a synth."
"Why haven't you?" Danse's question came out of left field and Haylen would've stopped moving to ponder it if they weren't ankle deep in muck and sewage water.
Danse knew Haylen couldn't see his expression from behind the helmet but he did his best to temper his voice into professional neutrality despite the tempest roaring inside of him. How could Haylen count him as a friend when he wasn't even human? Why should he receive mercy from a righteous fate? He was an abomination. Still, his primal survival instinct — whether a product of his biology or pre-programmed into his head — screamed at him to follow Haylen. Not doing so would mean certain death.
"I don't kill my friends." She said simply. "Let's move out."
Haylen climbed the stairs first. She heard soldiers in Power Armor running through the corridors and she heard Ingram's steely battle-ready voice leading the charge. After the herd had passed, Haylen waited a few more seconds and them motioned for Danse to follow her.
Power Armor wasn't meant for stealth so they figured if they blended in as more Brotherhood soldiers looking to fight the feral ghoul horde they'd be less likely to draw attention to themselves.
"Got some ghouls ahead!" Haylen yelled out and she discharged her laser pistol into the wall a few times to add to the charade.
Danse followed her lead and aimed some shots back towards where they came. They made it to the nondescript steel door that led outside when a mottled red arm shot out from the shadows and grabbed Haylen's arm.
"Help me." The creature wheezed.
Haylen screamed and jerked out of the creature's grasp which drew it into the dim fluorescent lights.
A tattered hospital gown hung off his trembling frame. Its blue eyes were bloodshot and the whites of its eyes were a sickly yellow. It didn't have a nose and only a few wisps of fine white-blond hair remained sticking out of it's head like whiskers.
"Please…"
"I see one down here!" Proctor Ingram shouted.
"Shit!" Haylen cursed. She looked once more at the ghoul and shook her head. She threw her weight against the door when she opened it and the cold pale light of early dawn met them.
Danse and Haylen sprinted through the entryway in the barricade. Blood pounded in their ears and the roar and thunder of the battle fell by the wayside. Time seemed to momentarily slow down as they ran for their lives from the only home either of them knew and into the unknown dangers of the wasteland.