Nat spilled out of the mock 'space ship' giggling. Fortunately, the Nuka Galaxy in door roller coaster had come to a complete stop. The General exited the craft much more lesiurely and helped Piper out of the one she rode.
"Come on, old people!", the younger Wright sister commanded. "I want to go on the next one."
"You really want to burn through your caps that quickly?", Piper asked.
Nat pouted. "But you said you were the Overboss of this place."
The General laughed. "And what kind of leader would I be if I abused my position just to play favorites and change the rules to suit myself? Just be grateful there aren't any lines."
The two sisters looked at her funny as they all left the building. She reiterated, "You know...queues? For the wait?"
Nat shrugged.
"Oh, that's right." Piper realized. "The population in your time. I'm sorry. It just didn't occur to me that there could be enough people that some would have to wait in a place this size.
"That's what those metal bars that were in the way were for, right? So that people could be organized into who came first to get on."
The reporter then held onto the arm of the General. "Sorry for ruining the mood."
The General sighed wistfully. She took Piper's arm in both of hers. "No, you didn't.
"I was just remembering the last time Shuan's father and I were here. We didn't even go on many rides. We just moved from zone to zone when the staff figured we broke too many public displays of affection rules. He was on leave and I was supposed to be using my spring break to prepare for the Bar, um -the test you had to take before they would let you be a lawyer. We had decided that we wanted at least one parent to have time for our child, so he stayed on for another tour while I was in college. He was going to college when I started my career.
"Heh. He gave me the new pet name of 'sugar mama' instead of 'boss lady' once I started supporting him instead of out ranking him."
Piper interjected. "You outranked him?"
The two women continued down the path even though Nat had run off to ride on the 'space ships' that were lifted on bars from the side as if that didn't make it a merry-go-round.
"For a few weeks in my only tour of duty and his first. After his second, he came home with a shoulder of stripes bigger than his smile."
The General took a deeper breath. "He was a good man. A good father. He...he deserved the chance to be one."
Piper patted her hands. "I know another man that deserves that chance."
The General turned to her. "Really? You too?
"And furthermore, what about us?"
Piper laughed. "Come on, Blue. You had a natural son. I can't be doing everything for you. And I can feel you holding back: you don't mean to, but you do. If it wasn't for your husband, Nat would probably be dating a tall, dark, and baby Minuteman by now."
The General walked away from her with a smile on her face. "Let's go find Nat, alright?"
"No, seriously.", Piper called out as she followed her. "How else am I going to get my way into his harem unless its on your coat tails? I mean, if your husband wouldn't mind us then I'm sure Preston won't."
The General stopped dead in her tracks laughing.
Piper shrugged. "You're the one that talked him up on the radio. You know how people take your word. That recruitment poster you came up with is now turning our printing press into a money machine."
Her elder by two centuries caught her breath and stood back up. "Oh, really."
The younger sidled up to her. "With the way things are now, Blue, you wouldn't even stand a chance if you weren't the strongest and most fiery woman in the Commonwealth."
With the two so close, the General could whisper. "I'm not the only spitfire here."
Only the jingle of Bottle and Cappy from a nearby NUKA-COLA MACHINE broke the silence. Until it wasn't the jingle any more.
The GNN - Global News Network logo lit up the screen. An unfamiliar female voice announced - "For those of you who still have powered televisions, important information."
And when the picture became clear, an altogether too familiar voice came on. "Woo-hoo! Red-Eye here. That's right, y'all. Ole Red-Eye's moved up in the world and now is on your television set! And an army man too. Welcome to the Gunner News Network, where you can get crystal clear proof that we are kicking Minuteman ass all day, all night!"
The woman sitting next to Red Eye glared at him as if she could kill him by will alone. The General supposed she was eye-candy, wearing only a GUNNER HARNESS despite being rather...gifted. The two were obviously supposed to be seated behind what she could recognize as the GNN nightly news desk. But a man in GUNNER FLANNEL SHIRT AND JEANS with eyes more bloodshot than a stoplight stood with one foot on the desk, the other being propped up by probably something it shouldn't, and hovering over a guitar.
"Now you must be wondering: just how in the world did Red Eye get this job? Well, I was out wandering around looking for the meanest, toughest bunch of bad asses around. You know, like I do. And then I found these Gunners. They weren't any old Gunners see. They were Colonel Cypress' private crew. And seeing as it was the head honcho himself, I walked up. I walked up and said, 'Here I am. Now what?'
"And I could see he was really impressed. Because a man like that can tell that I was the real deal in a heartbeat. So Colonel Cypress said to me: 'I am really impressed. A man like me can tell that you are the real deal in a heartbeat. How about joining up with my corps.'
"Now at first, I didn't want to. Because on account of how tough I am, I didn't want to get none of his guys jealous, like how I do. But then he showed me this here television station and said 'I want you to make this awesome.' And that why I'm here, poking my nose in your living room and smelling what you are cooking, ready to eat everything in sight."
"Ahem!", the woman interrupted.
"Oh, that's right.", Red Eye reminded himself. "The purpose of tonight's little broadcast. Well, here it is folks. The Main Event. Footage taken directly from the battlefield. I give, for your viewing edu-tainment, un-cut footage from the Battle to Retake Sommerville Place."
With that, the picture changed to an outdoors theme. The General couldn't believe what she was looking at: an operational heavy tank. Its two barrels swiveled and fired as if they were actually armed with live ammunition. When the camera panned and zoomed, she could make out one of the guard posts of Somerville Place. It exploded.
Red Eye's voice came back over. "Oh wow! I didn't believe. I wouldn't believe if I seen it. I did see it and I still don't believe it. Kaboom!
"And now that those Minutemen abandoned all those people, because they run like cowards, we've reclaimed Sommerville Place. Yee-haw!"
The General stared at the screen for half a second longer. Then, "Piper, get Nat. Run to the Vertibird that flew us here and get yourself back to Diamond City pronto. I need to get back to the Castle a bit faster."
