Celia begged Calhoun to let her throw the grenade into the room with the sentry bot. When she heard his plan, she felt like it was something she ought to do as the primary robot combatant. ...She decided to come up with a better name for the position, later.

But Calhoun, who watched her in amusement with those shining black eyes, choose to give the honor to Pesaro, who had actual combat training. She sulked a little, but as least she was allowed to switch the sentry bot off when it was disabled. Ed and Mike rolled it outside while she and the older men searched through the supply room.

Looking around, she saw a lot of metal shelving standing in the middle of the room and pushed against the walls. Scrap metal, ammunition, some odd-looking guns, regular service rifles and sensor modules were scattered throughout the room. She picked up a roll of duct tape and shoved it into a pocket. She stopped at the very far end of the room and examined a big orange button on the wall.

"Can I press this button?" she called.

"What?" Pesaro moved to her side of the room. "Oh, well. Probably the access to the power room. Calhoun!"

"Celia, run out and grab up Mike," Calhoun said, rubbing his chin.

"Where is the door?" Pesaro said, as she left.

Celia took her time walking out. She walked even slower through the building, thinking. Everyone had been busy all day, tempers were high, and people were acting like mean children. She wished things would hurry up and get back to normal.

She'd noticed Pesaro taking liberties with Calhoun's authority, and Mike too, and wondered what was going on with that. If they were still in the Vault, Calhoun would have stripped them of privileges and put them on toliet duty for a few weeks. ...But they weren't in the Vault, anymore.

Everything was so much different, now. Celia didn't know that she liked it.

Ann stared at her maliciously. She didn't know what was going on there, either. Lately, Ann had treated her as if she were a useless appendage, only fit for cutting off. It was a little harsher, a little more mean, than Ann had been before. Whatever the woman had shoved up her butt need an -ectomy, immediately.

Celia ignored her and stepped toward Mike, who was shining his Pip-Boy light into the panel on the sentry bot. She peered over his shoulder to see what he was talking about and caught an elbow in the nose when he jerked his hands back in an excited gesture. "Ah, hell," he said.

"Calhoun wants to see you in the supply room," she mumbled, through the pain.

When she returned, Pesaro watched her blowing her nose, with a funny look on his face. Mike went to the panel and everyone forgot anything they'd been thinking when the button was pushed, and the wall slid open to reveal a massive computer console set in the far wall of a hidden room. In the floor of the room was a closed hatch. Alarm lights on the walls spun red circles around the room.

Mike went to the operator console and pulled out the keyboard. His fingers flew across the keys. "Bingo!" he said. "Access to the basement, and a site-wide shutdown protocol. We're lucky!" He typed while the rest examined the room. "Okay, I've shut down all the robots on the lower level, and a functional turret system. Seems like a great hideout if we need one," he added.

Calhoun patted his shoulder. "Open the hatch," he said. "Celia, run back to the supply room and grab some weapons."

She darted off and returned with some of the funny-looking pistols. Pesaro had his 10mm out when she returned, and she showed him what she'd gathered. He checked out the pistols. "Laser," he said. "Hmm. Here's the safety, that's the trigger. Probably has less kick than the little revolver you had before." He handed her one of the pistols. "Be mindful."

They entered the basement, one at a time, with Pesaro and Celia ahead of Mike and Calhoun. The tunnel stretched out ahead of them, leading into a power room. Mike looked it over briefly, then said, "This one's for Benjamin." Calhoun and he went left, while Celia and Pesaro went right, down a tunnel with several small closets. It was a dead end of supply rooms filled with fission batteries and other electronic scrap.

Celia nudged a Protectron with a foot. "Should we disable them manually, too?"

"Probably." Pesaro turned to her and looked her up and down. "Celia, what was your score on the G.O.A.T?"

She opened her mouth in shock and turned to him. "What?" she sputtered.

"I only ask, because we are going to start assigning jobs to people around the base." He looked at her amicably. "You and the twins were the only ones who hadn't been assigned a position, before we left. Given how much school you missed, I can't imagine you did very well."

She reddened, and glared at him. "That's very rude!" she snapped. She grabbed a screwdriver and removed the panel from the back of the Protectron, disabling it with a jab.

Pesaro followed her down the hallway when she moved. "You'll probably be stuck with farming," he said, absently.

Celia ignored him. There was nothing wrong with farming. He acted like she should be better than what she was doing. She supposed it was because her mother had been Overseer, and because Ed was so much more successful. So what? she thought. Somebody had to farm. Maybe they could get a Brahmin or two. She'd liked the Brahmin at Grayling. They were less horrible than a lot of the people she knew, present company included.

Just because she didn't fit into some predetermined Vault mold, she thought. Because she was a loner? Or because she seemed like a pushover when someone argued with her? She wished she was a different person, sometimes.

He was right about the General Occupational Aptitude Test. She gotten frustrated with it and changed all her answers to "C", and Mr. O'Nan had made her take it two more times. Both times she'd gotten Maintenance, a trash collector. She hadn't really cared until John Feely had cursed at her and drove her out of the incinerator room for trying to burn soiled linens. That was when Calhoun had called her up to his office and organized supplies for her to scout the wastes.

Celia suspected she'd been volunteered for the mission by Ann. She was nonessential personnel at the Vault. Bobby Perkins had been, too, and a lazy, stupid boy. If everyone here saw her in that light...? She almost felt like crying. Maybe she could just go away from them. Lilian would probably take her in. She'd have to persuade Lionel, though.

They walked back to the power room and found Calhoun waiting by the turbines. "Mike went up to find Benjamin," he said. "What did you find?"

Pesaro detailed the contents of the supply rooms as Celia slipped away, back up the stairs and out of the main building. She kept walking until she reached the eastern fence, and sat down with her back against a solid wall to watch the sun setting. She dropped the pistol beside her and pulled her knees up to her chest, feeling a twinge in her shoulder.

Maybe she should leave, she told herself. It would be easy. Just her, and this little laser pistol, walking the wastes. But she was scared. If one bloatfly sting was enough to make her limp, and a robot enough to give her twelve stitches and enough blood loss to cause unconsciousness, then the other creatures of the waste... would certainly kill her.

She squeezed her knees to her chest, staring out over the base. This place was okay. Maybe not the people, but the base itself was safe. Except for Grayling and maybe Lionel's little hideout up in the rocks, there wasn't anywhere for her to go. Ann wouldn't let her leave, either. She still seemed to think she was Celia's mother, or at least acted like it.

Celia sat by the wall until night fell, the twinkling of the stars given background music by the soft whirring jets of a Mister Gutsy.