The Good, the Bad, and the Insane

Chapter Three: Hound Dog

The sun was going down, but that didn't bother Six. She sat on the steps leading down to the dock with her chin her hands, and just watched as the colors slowly began to paint the sky alternating shades of purple and orange. After her encounter with the books she had made it her mission to uncover the purpose of every building and log it into her pip-boy. The Planetarium had been a surprise, as had all the possible dates on it, but it didn't help her cause.

In the library she had discovered a secret passage accessible through one of the paintings on the wall. It had led to an elevator she was waiting to explore later. One step at a time, that's the way she was taking this.

A noise from the docks that wasn't in anyway part of the environment cut through her musing with enough efficiency to make a Ranger proud. Six stood and made her way slowly down the steps, but when she heard the excited bark she broke into a ran. Roxie met her halfway, and jumped up to lick her face in greeting. She barked again and ran in circle as Six laughed.

"Are you here to rescue me, girl?" Six asked, kneeling down to pet her, and get a better look at the object attached to her collar. "What do you have here, hm? Is it for me?" It was a holodisk bearing the Think Tank's signature on it. "Did they send you through as a test rat?" Six muttered as she inserted the object into her pip-boy.

"Um...is this...is thing thing on? It is? Good. Six-assuming you're still alive and this book thing really is a teleporter like Klein theorizes, and isn't just vaporizing everything it touches—we're working on finding your signal, but its completely disappeared off the map. Which is weird. But, if you're still alive just...kind of...I don't know...don't go too far? Make our job a little easier, you know. Um, so, yeaaaah. This is Dr. Zero, signing off."

The tape ended with a click, and Six rolled her eyes. Roxie got her attention again by pawing at the small compartment in her side that Six usually used to store things on long journeys. The Courier caught on, and opened it to find the Transportalponder, the spare lockpicking gear she always stored on her, and the Sonic Emitter with some energy cells.

Already guessing what would happen, Six looped an arm around Roxie's neck and pulled the trigger on the Transportalponder.

'NO SIGNAL', flashed on screen as it did whenever she tried to use it indoors, or on the Strip for whatever reason.

She breathed out a sigh and said, "Worth a shot. Thanks anyway, girl." She clipped the device to her belt, and stood as Roxie whined in disappointment. She patted the cyber dog's head in consolation. Six hadn't really want to go back to the wasteland anytime soon anyway. Too much to do here.

The Sonic Emitter was far from her first choice in weaponry, but the options for Roxie to bring her would have been limited with the Think Tank's thoughts on combat in general. She pointed it towards the water and fired it to hear 'Gabriel's Bark' come out of it. Close by birds squawked in alarm as the sound waves disturbed the water even though none of them were hit.

It would do.

Six put it in the empty holster on her side before heading back to the library for a quick power nap. It seemed like the only thing she had to worry about at the moment were the two prisoners, but they hadn't communicated that they were in any immediate danger, so they could wait a bit. Even if there was anyone lurking on the island to ambush her, she had Roxie with her and Six had yet to meet anyone who could sneak up on a cyber dog.

.2.

Sleep had come with more strange dreams again, but they were mostly forgotten when she awoke a short time later. Something about change, something was changing. Something had been wrong.

Six shrugged it off with the practiced ease of someone who made it a habit of not lingering in any one place or on any given thing for extended periods. From her spot at the beginning of the secret passage, she gave the books a lasting glance as she considered trying to question the men, but discarded the idea as a useless venture. Six gestured to Roxie and they continued on to the elevator.

Inside was just enough room for Roxie and her as long as the dog didn't squirm around too much. She shut the old fashioned door and pushed the button to go down, but nothing happened. Busted. Six retrieved the screwdriver from Roxie's compartment to pry the panel off.

Someone in the past had fried the circuitry inside, and whoever had tried to fix it afterward had done a poor job. They either hadn't know entirely what they were doing, or they were in a hurry to get to the top. She stared at the guts of the machine for a long time as she considered what to do. The tech was old. Like pre-pre war. Six had to recall as far back as the robotics classes Mr. Brotch had taught her when she was about ten. She couldn't grasp the exact memory, but she still remembered what she had been learned.

Rewiring the elevator took longer than it probably should have, what with Roxie getting antsy and her operating on memories that were well over a decade old. She could only pray it was worth the effort. Her luck had proven to be a schizophrenic thing in the past. It would either lead her to a secret lab full of dangerous monsters, or the place the owner stored his rock collection. Guess which one she would find more interesting.

The elevator jerked before rattling down the shaft. The trip was a short one, and Roxie was bounding out of the elevator in no time at all. Six followed at a much more sedate pace.

The hallway leading away from the elevator was a much more cheery affair than the decor on the floor above. It was well lit by wall lamps separated at even intervals on light colored wood. The end opened up into a wide sitting room area with simple, but comfortable looking couches surrounding a large fireplace. Small pictures lined the mantel. Six went in for a closer look and found two with likenesses of the men trapped in the books. Definitely close family.

The remaining pictures depicted the man in glasses who had left the message in the hidden chamber, a dark haired woman, and another woman who was positively ancient. The picture of the man showed him at a desk surrounded by books of all shapes and sizes. Six picked up his picture and held it up beside the other two males. One big family. What were they to each other? Brothers? Cousins? The man in the glasses didn't look anywhere near old enough to be a father or uncle to the other two. The younger woman—Catherine, perhaps—who was she to them? She looked nothing like Glasses Man, but shared a few vague features with Sirrus. And what of the old woman? A grandmother? Maybe the one tie that connected them all together. The only thing she could say for sure was that the man who might be Achenar was the spitting image of Glasses Man with the prior being a little buffer and scruffier, and the latter a little older.

Roxie let out a bark. Six looked down at her to see what the problem was, and found the dog sniffing at the fireplace. It was full of ashes and the remains of burned books. She got down and shifted through them. Someone had tried to destroy a great many of them in a hurry. The fire hadn't been big enough to completely incinerate them, but simply opening the covers on a few of the more intact ones proved enough damage had been done. All of the little screens inside showed only static.

Ashes covered the stone in front of the fireplace by the time she was done. Six brushed her hand off on her jeans as she stood up.

"What else, Roxie?" She asked her.

The dog put her nose to the ground, her tail wagging. Six remained in the sitting room as Roxie began her investigation, a painting had caught her eye near the entrance of the hallway Roxie had disappeared through. It showed the Glasses Man holding an open book standing behind the dark hair woman in a red dress. Two small boys were playing with the toy ship in the fountain on the surface. Six gave it bewildered look that she transferred back to the pictures on the mantel. No way. Those little kids couldn't possibly be the same people as the other two. This portrait couldn't be that old, because that would mean Glasses Man and the woman hadn't aged a day in the time it took for the kids to grow up. Those two kids had to be different people, or something was really off here.

Roxie's bark drew her attention back to the present. Six left the painting to find her dog. Roxie's head was poking out of the second door down the left side of the hall. The Courier looked briefly into each room as she passed. She saw what she guessed to be the master bedroom, and an office that had been thoroughly tossed. The room across from where Roxie was waiting had a closed door.

"What is it?" Six asked as she stepped into a bedroom so extravagantly decorated it would have impressed even Dean Domino. She gave a low whistle at the sight, "Someone likes gold." She pushed down on the bed, and found it fluffy as a cloud. Talk about living like a king. Not even her bed at the Luck 38 had been that soft.

Roxie wagged her tail and sat down beside the dresser, looking up at her expectantly. Six took the hint and began pulling open drawers. She shoved aside oddly designed clothes with little care. In the first drawer she found a dagger which she pocketed. In the second she didn't find anything out of place, but she did discover what type of underwear the owner of the room wore. In the third, hidden under a single layer of pants, were bottles of morphine and hypodermic needles. Morphine. That stuff had been phased out by Med-X sometime in the early stages of the Resource War. If she recalled her medical studies right, than morphine had an even higher addiction rate. Nasty stuff.

"Do you suppose this room belongs to one of the prisoners?"

Roxie barked and jumped onto the bed. She rolled around on the red comforter, effectively rubbing her dirty fur all over it. Six really hoped the owner wasn't going to come by anytime soon. Things might get awkward if that were the case.

"Just because it's red doesn't mean it belongs to Sirrus." Roxie gave her no answer of any kind. "Come on, we've got other rooms to search. This mystery isn't going to solve itself."

The cyber dog obediently leapt off the bed, and joined her as she exited the room.

"You are getting some treats the minute I find something suitable for dogs."

Roxie wagged her tail.

Chapter Three End

Author's Note:

The AU begins! Expect more departures from the Myst storyline in the future. Something as silly as a broken elevator isn't going to keep this Courier from her meddling. I suppose I really should put the Courier's stats on here just so people know. Or not. It could be a surprise!

For those of you who must know, this Courier focuses on Speech, Repair, Medicine, Science, Survival and Lockpicing. I think it's relevant to mention that she has Jury Rigging and Logan's Loophole.

Also, the disclaimer I keep forgetting to add: I OWN NOTHING!

Thanks for your time,

Home On the Range