Author's Notes: See previous chapter.

Midea and Wernher listened intently to what the General told them about the papers before them. "Now, there will be a more formal signing back at the Castle. That will be done with your representative, whoever your community chooses. But by signing these, you'll be a recognized Commonwealth community. We can start the trade routes up today and that will bring/"

The slamming open of the door to the room interrupted her. Huffing and puffing, the Lone Wanderer stood in silhouette in the door frame. "You evil bitch."

The General looked over at her. "I'm sure you'll be granted an audience once this important business is done. We have a Pitt to feed, after all."

Then she saw the expressions in the room. "What am I missing?"

"She's the one that helped free us from slavery.", Wernher stated.

The General tossed down her BALL POINT PEN. "Well, can't compete with that. I freed Nuka-World from slavery and know how those people treat me. Guess we're going to have to hash this all out again over another round of NUKA COLA."

"Don't agree to anything she says.", the Lone Wanderer restated.

Midea stood and put a hand on her arm. "Why? She's promising to supply us with food and clean water."

"Clean water technology.", the General interjected. "We want our communities to be as self-sufficient as possible. We'll supply PURIFIED WATER only as a back up to you producing your own from the local river. Otherwise, you'd be to dependent. And I for one do not want that much power over...well, anyone."

"Tell that to Rivet City!"

"And their new water purifier? Unharmed civilian populace? Food production facilities?"

"You are occupying it!", the Lone Wanderer intoned.

The General objected. "And not razing it."

Wherner interrupted. "General. Can I ask you for a moment alone with her?"

"Because if any of what she's accusing me of is truly bad, you have to take that into account. And we'll get no where if she and I are just having a yelling match. I get it.", the General understood. The woman turned to the Lone Wanderer. "Show her the papers we've been going over. If she has anything that is actually productive to add, we can talk about it afterwards. Even with her."

The General brushed pass the Lone Wanderer on her way out of the room. The Lone Wanderer slammed the door shut behind her.

Midea asked, "So who exactly is she, if she isn't the General of the Commonwealth's Minutemen?"

The question put the other woman on her back foot. "As far as I know, that's exactly who she is."

Wherner explained. "Look, here's what she's been telling us. There are habitable areas to the east: like what was known as the Commonwealth, Nuka-World, Far Harbor, the Capitol Wastes and Point Lookout. Most of them are united under the Commonwealth and that's run by a civilian government made up of representatives from all the cities in those places.

"Except for the Capitol Wastes. Because the Capitol Wastes are run by the Brotherhood of Steel. According to the General, the Brotherhood tried to invade the Commonwealth a bunch of times and when they were pushed back, the Brotherhood nuked the Commonwealth just the same as was done in the Great War. After another defeat, the Brotherhood told the Commonwealth that they had surrendered but are going back on that."

"The Brotherhood never nuked the Commonwealth.", the Lone Wanderer offered.

"How did you find that out?", Midea asked. She picked up a few papers from the table that the General was showing her. "Apparently, a reporter in the Commonwealth did a very thorough investigation that shows the Brotherhood did."

"You can't trust some papers that the very person saying it shows you.", the Lone Wanderer objected. "I talked to the commanders of the Brotherhood myself."

"So the people who shouldn't have done this told you they didn't do this?", Wherner stated. "Maybe that's the ex-slave in me, but you do hear how that sounds?"

"Look, she's a warlord.", the Lone Wanderer stated.

"And you've been to where she's unleashed her army?", Midea asked. "How bad is it?"

The Lone Wanderer wanted to launch into a tirade. But Midea and Wherner...Marie deserved to know what she saw. "She tried to blaze her way into the Capitol Wastes. She's moved troops and supplies into Rivet City. The same with Point Lookout. Her marines move in and start installing defenses."

"And robbing the people.", Wherner assessed.

The Lone Wanderer bit her lip. "No."

"No?", Midea asked.

"No, alright?" The Lone Wanderer sat down. "She's obviously pressing to take the Capitol Wastes. So she's been moving food and water technology into the places that she's taken."

"With how scarce food is, how is she not welcomed?", Midea asked.

"She is...or at least was. In Point Lookout. They acted like it was the second coming of Abraham Lincoln.

"But in Rivet City, she's locked the whole city down. I don't know of anyone besides myself that has been allowed in or out. And I don't think she lets their local council meet without one of her colonels present, to try to convince them to come over to the Commonwealth side from the Brotherhood."

Wherner furrowed his brow. "So why is she acting like the Brotherhood invaded the Commonwealth if they never had?"

The woman folded her arms. "The Brotherhood of Steel has sent missions to the Commonwealth."

"But you said"

"I said they never nuked anyone. They wouldn't do that.", the Lone Wanderer.

Wherner lowered his voice. "You know what we did to be free. And the work we put in here. If someone came to take from us...would we act so different than how the General's acting?"

The Lone Wanderer glared at him.

"Let's look at this a different way.", Midea suggested. "She says that she can bring food that we desperately need. Can she?"

The other woman nodded. "That's how she got to Point Lookout."

"And water?"

"That too."

"We need that.", Midea told her. "There hasn't been any food made in the Pitt since...well, since anyone can remember. The only thing we have is salvaging the metal from the surrounding city, and that goes on for miles. Dirt's too polluted to farm outside of that either. Scavenging comes back empty nowadays. If we can't keep a food supply...we'll die. All of us."

Wherner raised his voice. "Can the Brotherhood of Steel provide food? Maybe they're different than the ones that came and tore up the place all those years ago, taking the healthy children away from their parents and trying to kill everyone that was left but shooting only slaves. And you can't be talking about the ones that keep coming up for reasons in their own head why we somehow owe them metal."

The Lone Wanderer was silent on that.

Midea spoke. "Let's...let's bring the General back in. Maybe she can explain things?"

Wherner nodded. When he opened the door, the General was leaning on the wall to the side working her PIP-BOY. "You'll have to forgive me if I thought that there wasn't any accusation of actual wrong doing that had any actual evidence against me.", she said.

Wherner frowned. "Come on in."

The General followed him back into the room where the Lone Wanderer continued to attempt to glare holes in her. The General nearly responded but then dismissed it with a wave of her hand. "So about joining the Commonwealth?"

"We've got a few more questions now.", Wherner stated.

Midea shrugged as if to apologize.

"Well, that's to be expected.", the General realized. "I thought I had explained everything about joining..."

"You did.", Midea stated. "But the Brotherhood..."

The General nodded. "I see."

Wherner pointed to one of the papers spread out on the table. "Does this first right apply to us?"

"What rights?", the Lone Wanderer asked.

Wherner handed her the copy of the Commonwealth Constitution there were using to discuss the one that they would sign.

"Right to Minutemen Protec...", the Lone Wanderer mumbled to herself.

"Of course it does.", the General answered. "There's two parts to understand to that, though.

"The first is that the Minutemen aren't some separate entity. We are all citizens of the Commonwealth, doing our part. When the constitution was drawn up, there was a real need to show that no one community was being put before any other. Or that any community could be left behind. As part of that equality, every community gains Minutemen protection. Period.

"That being said, secondly - we are just Commonwealth citizens. We recruit from all communities and settlements. The local populace usually knows the best about their homes, so it makes a Minuteman's job easier if the soldier comes from the community that is being protected. However, we also understand that people need equiping and training. Also, not every threat is as simple as another. We're currently still using apprenticing style training for new Minutemen. So what that means for you is that we'll be shipping in experienced Minutemen for external defense of the Pitt if you sign up. Any of your people who would like to volunteer would be serving in the central, secured areas of the Commonwealth for their training - unless they're at sea learning to become Navy. Once they're cleared by their units, they could request to transfer back here and switch out with Minutemen who would also like to serve closer to their homes."

"Volunteer? Request?", Midea asked. "But isn't defense such a vital part of life?"

The General smiled. "I'm...blessed to run an all volunteer outfit. Unlike other forces we've faced, we don't snatch children from their parents and raise them to become mindless drones. While I understand how the world turned to the ideology of 'If you work, you eat', I can't ask people 'If you don't die, you don't live'. The best servicepersons come from people who understand what they're getting into and why. And when that why is big in their heart, we can build great things. Like a Commonwealth."

"How did you join the Minutemen?", the Lone Wanderer interjected.

The General took a breath. "Well. My current Colonel of Personnel, Preston Garvey - you've met him recently?"

The Lone Wanderer nodded.

"He was protecting a group of refugees from a mercenary company from raiders. Um, they were refugees because a mercenary company pushed them out of their homes. When I met them, he was the lone rifle between the group and some raiders. Anyway, that's when I met them. He asked me to help. Yadda, yadda, yadda, I took down the raiders and survived an ambush by a deathclaw and was granted the rank of General of the Minutemen.", the General explained.

"Wait. How could he...?", Wherner asked.

The General smiled. "Well, the Minutemen were a much smaller force back then. It consisted of...Preston, really. He told me that the leader of the Minutemen was traditionally referred to as General. So as we helped save and establish more settlements, the new volunteers stuck to calling me that. I introduced the formal ranks much later to solve two problems. The first being that our organization was too flat with nearly everyone answering directly to me. The second being that now we have much greater capabilities that require a wide range of skills and prowess that I'm glad I can trust in the hands of others.

"Plus, the Commonwealth's civilian government now has a position that's responsible to it and no longer just my personal cooperation. The only way to the future is going to be with the consent of the people. I had to turn being General into being a civil servant."

Midea spoke next. "Old war stories that worked out for the best are all well and good. But the important part to us - can you provide supplies for the Pitt?"

The General stated unequivocally, "Yes. The settlements we have across the Commonwealth all the way into Far Harbor are primarily farms. We have been running a surplus and continue to store it. Our policy is to continue that into the foreseeable future. In a way you'd be helping us by consuming that product, as it would give us another reason to keep cycling food into our stores to create further surpluses - in case of some unforeseen event. But as I previously stated, there is no such thing as a free lunch. The Commonwealth would benefit from your foundry production just as much as your people from not starving and thirsting to death."

"I doubt that.", Wherner assessed.

"How much of their steel would go to you?", the Lone Wanderer asked.

"It wouldn't go to me, per se. It would go to the Commonwealth.", the General reminded.

"How much?", the other woman repeated.

"That would be determined by the Pitt.", the General stated. "It's just reasonable that only the surplus after their own needs were accounted for would be up for trade."

"So they could send a portion to you and a portion/"

The General cut her off. "The Commonwealth is only really trading with internally licensed people now. We are under threat by an enemy that has refused to recognize their own surrender after invading us three times. Allowing resources exchanged for a few bottle caps to be used to take everything, from lives to bottle caps isn't really a thing we can afford."

"So we couldn't hand over metal to the Brotherhood of Steel.", Midea determined.

"That makes sense.", Wherner agreed.

The Lone Wanderer exhaled. "But"

"But the Brotherhood was going to give food instead of take? And with any exchange whatsoever?", the General asked.

The Lone Wanderer was silent.

"And as a community, they can alter Brotherhood policy? Like introducing an anti-slavery right to the constitution?"

Midea and Wherner looked at each other. "We can do that?"

The Lone Wanderer asked. "Why haven't you yet?"

The two turned to the General. "One of our communities invented artificially intelligent machines that are beginning to pass as people. So they and a community of those machines are discussing what should be done about the subject."

Wherner waved his fists around each other. "Discussing?"

The General smiled. "No. Talking about it: between themselves, and debating at our capitol. One of the problems is that only some of the machines test as sentient. Our current compromise is that any machine that does so is considered a citizen, and any machine that is in Acadia (the community of machines) gets to stay in Acadia until they learn to do so.

"It would probably press the discourse forward to have an ex-slave community propose an anti-slavery right."

"I guess we'll do that then.", Midea stated.

"You guys are seriously signing up with her?", the Lone Wanderer asked.

"You haven't been here.", Wherner told her. "We have new people, families are growing, there's nothing left to salvage. We were getting to the point where a lot of people would have sold their soul to feed their kids. But now, we're getting a fair deal. Maybe not the one we were expecting, or one that isn't rough around the edges. But fair - and that's more than most can ask for nowadays.

"Plus, this means safe travel outside the Pitt. People have spent their whole lives in these few city blocks. I know several are going to jump at the chance to join the Minutemen and see the world."

"I can't believe you people!", the Lone Wanderer screamed as she stormed out.