Chapter 7 – Who are you?
"OK, move out into the open, with your hands in the air", I ordered, as I slowly moved out from behind the generator; having realised that hiding behind something that explodes when damaged was probably not a good idea.
"I can't! Please, Help me!" she replied tearfully.
"What do you mean?", as I moved warily towards her. She didn't look armed, but I was reluctant to take too many chances.
"Can't you see?" She responded in a slight aggravated tone of voice "I've got a Slave Collar around my neck, and every time I try to move out of this room, it starts to vibrate, and only stops if I go back in"
"And, if you don't go back in?" I encouraged.
"The vibration is a warning, if I keep moving away from my Slaver Master, then it blows my head off" She exclaimed, with an expression on her face, which suggested that she was thinking that I must be very dim not to know this.
"Look," I explained, "I have never been outside of this Vault, so have very limited accurate knowledge of what's it like outside".
"O Sorry" she replied, now looking slightly sheepish, "I should have realised. I assumed that everyone would have known. This is a Slaver's Capture Collar; it is what the Slavers put on newly captured slaves, or troublesome ones that are likely to try to escape. The scumbag that caught me explained, it is linked to a radio transmitter which one of them carries, and if I move too far away from it, the collar starts to vibrate, and unless I move back closer straight away, it will kill me"
"So, how did you end up in here? I can't see anybody here that would have the transmitter preventing your head from blowing" I responded still slightly suspicious of her.
"The Slavers I was with, met up a bunch of Raiders a few days ago; they were planning to raid a Vault, this Vault" Sarah-Jane responded gesturing around her "and they did a deal: in exchange for helping in the attack, the Slavers would get to have any of occupants of this Vault that are captured, while the Raiders got everything else of value. Well, we got in easy enough, as promised, but main central hall, I think you call it the Atrium" I nodded, confirming that detail, "We're attacked from all sides, by people in those blue Vault suits, like you are wearing. It was terrifying, they kept coming, even when they had been shot full of holes. And the Air, the air it went weird, all I could feel was fear, mind-shattering fear. I fled along with a couple of Slavers down a passageway, but the air was even thicker. It was Blue!" She stared at me with terror-stricken, as she described what happened, clearly reliving the whole thing as she spoke.
"Go on." I urged. She gasped, but then haltingly continued "The slavers who were with me started shouting, and shooting at things that weren't there. I clawed at a door to try and escape; that was my only thought: to escape! ... I got the door open, managed to squeeze in somehow... My only thought was to hide, so I closed the door behind me, and ran in here, into this small room, but I was didn't close the door, as I wanted to see what was happening ... The slavers then dashed back the way we had come. There was a big explosion, and the silence apart from a few isolated screams."
I gave slight smile, as I had seen that explosion first-hand, and I imagined the later screams were when the surviving Residents mopped up the wounded, which I missed, as I was unconscious by that point; I guess it was only the fact that I was wearing a Vault suit, and had been hidden behind some crates that saved me, while I was lying there exposed.
My smile then faded, there was something she had said that didn't sound right, but I couldn't put my finger on what it was.
"After awhile the air cleared, and that raw fear started to disappear, but when I tried to leave this room, the collar would vibrate, and I would have to plaster myself against the back wall to make it stop" She continued, "Please can you get it off?"
"Okay, let me have a look at it." I responded, having finally decided to trust her, and besides I couldn't remain alone in here, and live as a hermit forever.
I moved closer, so that I could to examine the collar closely. The first thing that struck me was the smell, she stunk. Though to be fair, that is not too surprising, after all bathing must be a very rare luxury, with clean water being at a premium, and all main bodies of water contaminated with radiation, and often occupied by Mirelurks. It must be the fact that I'm technically a new arrival here in this universe that made it something noticeable to me.
A close look at the collar itself revealed that it was basically a very simple device, with its anti-tamper defences being designed primarily to make it impossible/dangerous to be removed by either its wearer, or by someone else who doesn't have the right tools, or skills. Thanks to my toolbox, it proved to very easy disable it, and render it safe.
I put the dismantled collar in the Spares section of my toolbox, after all you never know when a bit of plastic explosive may come in handy.
After Sarah-Jane profusely thanked me, I gave her what little food that I had with me, and plus a bottle of clean water, as she had not eaten or drunk anything properly for a couple days.
She admitted that she had been drinking some bottles of 'Dirty' water that she had found in the store-room, not realising that these had originally water samples taken from the Reactor, I quickly gave her some Radaway. She had been lucky that the samples were 200 years old, as looking at the radioactivity level of the remaining samples, had they been fresh drawn from the Reactor, she would have died from radiation sickness, or be well on her way to ghoulification. She certainly started to look a lot better as the Radaway took effect
By this stage, I was getting pretty well exhausted; it had been a long day and Sarah-Jane didn't look a whole lot better, so I activated Up-N-Atom, who was now fully recharged, and sent it about its tasks of servicing and tending the Reactor, and its two auxiliary generators. I also instructed it to start reprocessing the spent fuel-rods, once we were clear, with the limiter that it was not to leave the Reactor room.
It is slightly ironic that safety of a robot, such as Up-N-Atom, was much more important than a human life, but then again robots are now a precious resource, while there more people available outside the Vault, at least in theory.
So after locking the Reactor door behind me, we headed down to my living quarters. I kept a very careful eye on Sarah-Jane, in case the psycho-gas affected her. She seemed fine with the gas concentration on the Atrium level. However, as we dropped down to the Maintenance staff quarters level, she did start to get a bit jumpy or at least nervous, but when we entered the corridor outside my rooms, she started to relax again, probably as the gas level was much lower here, thanks to the now correctly mounted vents in the Dump quarters were removing the psycho-gas from the atmosphere.
When I quizzed her, once we're safely secure in my rooms, she admitted that rather than a Red Madness that I had felt, from the increasing gas level, she had felt a rising level of Blind Terror, which made her want to flee and hide in a dark corner somewhere.
"Well" I said, "I suppose that we best find a way to get you out of this Vault as soon as possible, then." "NOOO!" came her astonishing reply, real fear spread across her face "PLEASE, Can I stay HERE?"
"But what about the psycho-gas? And the Insane Residents, who attack anyone?" I said stunned, "As far as I'm aware we are the only rational people in the Vault, and if the concentration of gas increases, even that is not guaranteed"
"No, you don't understand. I love being in these confined spaces, I feel safe, MUCH safer here, even with the gas, than outside with all the monsters, mutants, and the like. Doctor Church says that I have agroo...obia... agrora...obia" "Agoraphobia" I suggested. "Yes that sounds like it, Big Open Spaces terrify me. That's why I almost never go outside Megaton"
"So, how did the Slavers get you then? Did they attack Megaton?" "No!" She replied with a slight laugh, "Sheriff Simms, along with Deputy Weld and Stockholm make sure that doesn't happen. No, my best friend Silver was forced to leave Megaton, but she still lives nearby. So I went out to see her; if I go outside at night, I can cope temporarily, probably because I cannot see all that open space, only I didn't see those Slavers until they ambushed me"
"But, how did you cope, after they caught you, and daylight came" I asked curiously.
"I closed my eyes, and one of the other slaves guided me" She said with a faint smile "The Slavers thought I was a bit simple in my head or something."
"So, please can I stay? I can be the Vault Doctor, Nurse, or something" she pleaded "I help Doctor Church all the time, he even once admitted that I'm as nearly good as he is, and I'm a good chemist too, I make all the medicines and drugs that Doc Church uses, when we don't have any patients to deal with."
"Okay, you can stay, but the Vault Computer will probably insist on giving the GOAT first, it is a kind of test, supposed to gauge the best use of your skills/talents" I explained "But we can sort that tomorrow. Let's get cleaned up, and then some sleep"
There now followed a rather confusing time, where I had to explain to Sarah-Jane the importance of keeping clean, and the proper use of soap and shampoo. You would have thought that I had recommended bathing in Asp's Milk, when I mentioned the need to wash clothes in clean water, though considering how rare clean water is, maybe I practically did. But I was determined to re-establish basic hygiene standards, as soon as possible. This strange attitude that I was developing is probably due to that Domestic Goddess side-effect; I did briefly consider changing my hairstyle, but was worried that might saddle me, with some other attitude or compulsion.
Once, she had got over the shocking idea, she then went on to spend over a hour luxuriating in the first hot soapy bath she had ever had in her life, and to put on a clean Vault 106 suit.
In the meantime, I checked on the Computer Terminal to see if there was any more information available.
I found that my computer access was still primarily limited to just the areas concerning maintenance, but those reports were now more accurate, or had been updated, as the improved power situation, meant that a number of sub-systems were now able to power up, although most were simply reporting how badly damaged they were. There did seem to a large number of security cameras located all round the Vault, but infuriatingly I was denied access to their video feeds, as these were classified, as stated by Overseer Leris's Standing Orders and the security was such, that I couldn't hack around it.
Interestingly, there also seemed to be an unaccountable large power demand, from what the Vault map had listed as a small store-room located next to the kitchen area. I noted it on my white-board, for future investigation.
However, the item upmost on my list was now "FOOD", as with now two of us to feed, I had enough food for only one day, but that would have to wait until tomorrow.
Once Sarah-Jane was out of the bathroom, we decided to get some sleep: She volunteered to sleep on the settee in Lounge area, while I would sleep in the bedroom, as for some reason, neither of us felt comfortable with the idea of sleeping in the same room.