Jack Parsons and the 60-Year Miscalculation
"Well, I can't say that I've ever hijacked a classical radio frequency in order to relay someone's molecules into a shadowy underground institution, but there's a first time for everything. The math checks out, anyway," said Sturges.
Jack Parsons didn't understand half of the words that Sturges had said during the conversation, but the man seemed to know what he was talking about. At any rate, this engineer was his best chance of getting to his son. He was so close. Up to this point, he had woken from cryogenic sleep, tracked the mercenary who took his son from Diamond City to Fort Hagen, put a bullet in his brain, rode Kellogg's memories straight to Brian Virgil, taken down a Courser with a little help from his friends, taken a chip from its brain to a secret underground railroad group, taken over a castle, and built a device that seemed to be able to get him into the Institute. Needless to say, it had been a wild ride until now. However, that adventure was probably going to pale in comparison with what he was about to encounter.
He stood on the platform of the molecular relay device. This was a 20 foot tall structure with weird ray-shooting looking things, next to a computer, next to a radio antenna, all scrapped together in the last week or so using plans that were drawn up by a confirmed madman named Tinker Tom, of all things. Theoretically speaking, he had no idea if this would work. But Sturges was mostly sure, and he had learned to trust Sturges.
The man turned on the machine. Jack heard a mechanical humming, slowly growing in intensity. Jack was filled with great fear, slowly growing in intensity. What if they got the science wrong? What if this machine took his molecules apart and couldn't put them back together? What if it sent him someplace far away from the intended target? He tried to control his breathing and was struggling. Now Sturges was saying some instruction or other about getting information from a terminal inside the Institute using a Network Scanner. Jack could hardly pay attention, with the noise and anxiety rising.
As soon as everything reached its crescendo, he heard a zapping noise and everything went black.
The next thing he knew, he was inside a dimly lit room with one exit, right in front of him. He briefly wondered if he had died, and was in fact seeing the afterlife. Then a voice came from somewhere above him.
"Welcome, I've been expecting you. Please, step forward," said the disembodied voice. At that point, Jack Parsons was sure he was dead.
"Is that you God? Wow, this is crazy," he said, feeling oddly peaceful amidst everything. He stepped forward into another dimly lit room with a terminal and an elevator. Wait, this didn't look like the afterlife. The voice came on and shattered the illusion.
"Welcome to the Institute. I am Father, the director of this great organization. You may have your preconceived notions of what we are about, but come, we have much to discuss. I hope you can be persuaded to see us in a much different light," the voice announced.
All of the sudden, the anxiety came rushing back. Jack wasn't dead, he was successful. That meant that anything could happen down here.
He advanced to the elevator. Instead of an alcove in the wall with metal doors like he was used to, this elevator was in the center of the room, circular, and glass. Clearly whoever entered this elevator was meant to see a panorama. With no option but forward, he entered the elevator.
It eased down, silently, passing through the floor, and then through the ceiling of a vast subterranean complex. Out of his elevator, Jack could see a huge atrium, completely lit up. It was… clean. That was the first thing he noticed. He was used to everything he came in contact with having some kind of wear and tear from the past 200 years, except this place. The next thing he noticed is that it was advanced. He saw advanced lighting, trees growing indoors, working plumbing, and everything appeared fully functional. It blew his mind. The elevator kept going down, past the main room, which was beginning to bustle with activity. Before going through the floor, he saw synths patrolling, scientists walking to and fro, and even a couple of neat-looking children running around. From all appearances, this was a utopia. This was far from the shadowy, evil empire imagined by so many on the surface. He had been here five minutes and already had a lot to think about.
The elevator came to a stop in a brightly lit corridor. He heard Father's voice over the speaker once more:
"As you can see, we have much to discuss. However, I know that you are not here as the leader of the Minuteman, or as a representative of the Commonwealth at all. You're here for your son. Step into the next room, if you will."
At this, Jack's heart began to pound even harder than before. Father's last comment showed that the Institute knew about Jack and his journey up to this point. That, and this was the moment he had been waiting for. He was finally going to see his son. He was going to see Shaun. Everything else could wait.
The doors opened into a small room. Inside of that room was an even smaller room with transparent walls, so that one could see inside of it. The outer room had a desk and a terminal, and led out deeper into the facility. The smaller room was modeled after a Pre-War bedroom for a pre-teen boy. And inside that room, was a ten year old boy named Shaun. This was the moment Jack had longed for. He was not surprised to see a ten-year-old in place of an infant; he had seen this very boy inside of Kellogg's memories. He got his math wrong as far as when Shaun was taken and when he had woken up. That was no big deal. He still had his son, and he had time, so long as things with the Institute turned out somewhat favorably. There were still a lot of questions to answer. For now, he was going to greet his son.
"Shaun!" he exclaimed.
Now what Jack expected to see what some confusion, followed by reconciliation and a happy reunion. However, what he saw was confusion, followed by terror.
"Who are you…?" he asked, "Father! There's a strange man in here!"
"No, Shaun, it's me. Your dad! I came for you!" Jack tried to explain. He didn't understand what was happening. How come his boy didn't recognize him?
"Father! Help me!" he cried.
"No! Shaun! I'm your father, that's me!" Jack shouted, pounding his fist on the glass that separated them. At this point Shaun started crying. Then, the door to the room opened and a sixty-year old man walked in. He said some kind of code, and young Shaun shut down, almost as if he was some kind of robot in disguise. Jack Parsons was understandably traumatized.
"Okay, what the hell is going on? Are you Father? Where's Shaun? You had better start talking!" Jack said, instinctively reaching for his side arm. The sixty-year old man puts his hands up gently, but remained calm.
"I can see how this could be an emotional experience for you."
"You think?"
"Believe me, everything will be answered. Failing to relax in this situation, however, could cost you everything," he warned.
"Talk," said Jack, moving his hand away from his gun. The man took a deep breath.
"Yes, I am the man known as Father. I see how it could be bad timing, but I wanted to take advantage of this situation to test this model's reaction to stressful and confusing situations," he explained.
"So, you made a synth that looks like my son and put him in a room where I would find him, hoping to run some kind of experiment on me!? This is bullshit!" Jack complained.
"Yeah, well now I can see how it would be in bad taste," Father admitted. Jack Parsons sighed.
"Where's my son?" he asked.
"I"m your son," Father answered.
"No, seriously," Jack replied.
"Yes, seriously," Father replied.
"If you don't tell me where my son is in the next ten seconds, I am going to take this pistol and shoot you in the neck," Jack warned.
"Okay, let me explain!"
"Ten, nine, eight, seven…"
"I'm your son!" Father insisted, "Look, when you saw Shaun as a ten year old, you realize that you must have miscalculated how long you were asleep. What if I told you that you weren't out for ten years, but for sixty? Could you believe that?" he asked.
At that moment, Jack knew that he was right. He didn't want to believe it, because it was going to change a lot of things for him, but he knew that it made sense. The man standing before him resembled him closely enough. He knew that he could have miscalculated the years he was asleep. Shaun must have been taken by the Institute and raised as their own. He even rose to the top, which gave Jack a little surge of pride. But, that meant that the boy had basically lived his entire life already, without knowing his father. That meant that his son had been raised in the same organization that thought it was alright to send mercenaries to kill people and take their children, or to murder innocent wastelanders and replace them with androids. It definitely meant that he was willing to stage a fake reunion between a man and his son just to measure the reactions. This was a lot to take in.
"I think I'm going to be sick…" Jack said.