Begin Recording

Lightning

Recording by Scribe Ellison

Even after getting the chip decrypted I couldn't go straight back to Virgil. Settlements keep needing help and they really want me to come in person. If the problem is just raiders I can send a troop of Minutemen, but if the problem is Brotherhood members trying to extort more food than they're owed then they really need me to show up and glare in person.

Eventually I got free and could return to Virgil with the holotape. He'd gotten taller and more misshapen in the time between my visits, but I must've caught him on a good day because he seemed more focused.

"Didn't expect to see you again. Did you get it done?"

I nodded, only halfway out of my radiation suit, and dug out the tape. "I did. This disk should have everything that was in the courser's head. I saw some schematics while it was being decrypted.."

Virgil took the tape and loaded it into his terminal. "Ah! I know what to do with this. How'd you manage to get it decoded?"

"The Railroad helped me."

"Oh god, those kooks? I'd've thought they'd be too busy trying to liberate vending machines or setting computer terminals free or… sorry, they have something of a reputation."

I gaped. "Wait, the Institute knows about..?"

"Of course they do! Anytime a synth goes rogue, the Railroad is behind it. Trying to make those machines into people. But I guess any port in a storm."

It felt… something, to think that the Railroad was so terrified of the Institute and the Institute just thought of them as a bunch of kooks. I kept my mouth shut and drank some water and rested after my latest hike across the Glowing Sea. And swore to myself that once Virgil had his serum I would never enter the awful place again.

I had time for a nap before Virgil finished his work and presented me with the holotape and some actual paper printouts. "I've put some plans together, from memory and things I've overheard, and now with this data to fill in the gaps you should have a working set of schematics. It wasn't easy, these hands are ridiculous. Fine motor skills have gone to shit." He stopped to snarl at his swollen hands. "Here's the simple explanation. You need to build a device that will hijack the signal the institute uses to teleport coursers and send you instead. You know the craziest part of the design? That classical music station, that's the carrier signal for the relay. All the data is on harmonic frequencies. You've been hearing it all along."

I've danced to it.

"Is this… safe? Teleporting?"

Virgil's massive shoulders shifted a little in a not-quite shrug. "I want to be clear this isn't my area of expertise. I was bioscience, not engineering or advanced systems or anything."

"Bioscience?" I asked.

"Specialized groups within the Institute, working on different projects. It'll make sense later. But if you can build this device and use the code you should be able to override the signal from the Institute's relay. It'll be just as safe for you as for a courser, or me when I used it to get out. Can you—can you build it? You have people who can help?"

That at least was something I wasn't worried about. "I have people who'd fall all over themselves to try building this."

"Good. You have to do this, for both our sakes. And don't forget our agreement! I've helped you as best I can, if you make it in there you find my serum! It's my only hope for ever being… normal!"

"If I get into the Institute I'll do everything I can to get the serum." I promised. I packed the holotape and plans into my radiation suit and climbed it. The power armor sealed itself around me and pressurized, the air purifier coming on. The heads up display loaded and came on. No faults reported. "Goodbye Doctor Virgil. I'll be back with your serum."

Or not at all, I didn't say.

I walked back across the Glowing Sea, then up to Sanctuary where Doc Jenna greeted me with a bag of radaway. Which is better than catching the glows but the side effects aren't great. So I was flat on my back between trips to the latrine when I gave Sturges the blueprints.

"Wow, what a mess!" Was his reaction. He delivered me a list of parts, got on the radio with Tinker Tom, and came back to give me another list of parts. Intact military circuit boards, a sensor module that I had to get from Trinity Tower since Danse wouldn't let me borrow the deep range transmitter unless I told him what I wanted it for. The biometric scanner I knew where find, because one of their uses is scanning pregnant ladies. So it was off to Kendall Hospital where Shaun was born. I had a whole troop of Minutemen along and we hauled back tons of medical equipment for Doc Jenna. There were enough of us that the raiders holding the place barely fought back. So that was fun, except for the deathclaw.

It took weeks… a month maybe for me to fetch the parts and Sturges to put together the whole thing. We built it right over there, that's why there's nothing built on that foundation. It was huge, a sort of… a platform to stand on, with a giant three-legged structure holding the beam emitter overhead. That thing glowed blue and crackled and dripped lightning, equal parts pretty and terrifying. It didn't look like anything you should get close to much less stand under. There was also a big pointy satellite dish that would relay me once my body and mind had been translated into radio signals. It didn't sound real, but Kellogg had seen it happen and Virgil assured me coursers traveled that way all the time and they have all the same biology as humans.

Yeah, there's nothing there now. The molecular relay we built only worked once so when he couldn't fix it Sturges eventually pulled the whole thing apart to reuse the pieces. Shaun helped, he thought it was great fun.

And then we were almost done and I had to think about what would happen if it worked. Would I really relay to the Institute? Would I live long enough to find Shaun or would there be so many synths they'd just kill me instantly? Would the 'me' that came back be a synth? Would the Institute take this as an invasion and send coursers to wipe out Sanctuary? Was there any, any, way this would be all right? But I couldn't give up on my son.

It would be me in the machine because I wasn't letting anybody else risk it. Deacon had offered. Nick had offered. Paladin Danse would probably have offered but I hadn't told him what we were doing because I didn't trust him not to tell the rest of the Brotherhood who would then come steal our machine. It's much nicer now when I can tell Danse and Haylin things! So it would be me taking the big trip.

"But not you first." Sturges said, "I'm not pulling that lever on you until some other living thing has gone and come back safely. Preferably something that went in a metal cage so I know for sure you won't get electrocuted by your own guns."

So Preston and Jimmy taught me how to make leg snares to catch a molerat alive. We went to Starlight drive-in and set them and sat around in the diner while I told them the stories of movies until we heard squealing. We'd gotten three molerats and we tied their legs together and slung them over a pole that Preston and I carried home between us. We made cages by typing shopping baskets together. If they survived being surrounded by that much metal I should be fine carrying two guns.

That was a nice break from my other job: writing my will. I didn't have a lot of caps to leave behind but I did want to leave in writing things like "Please take care of Dogmeat." and "I know you don't want to be in charge, Preston, but it's you or Ronnie Shaw and I don't think she's General material." And, "If there's a body, please bury me next to Nate." I'd taken on so much responsibility so fast. For Jimmy, for Sanctuary and its allied settlements, for rebuilding the Minutemen and freeing synths and helping Piper track down stories and Nick track down runaways. People would miss me. And I'd miss them. At the bottom of the page I added, "Noodles and beer on me when I get back."

And then it was done and ready to be tested. Nick and Piper had come up from Diamond City to be there for the event and Deacon had wandered in and out in three different caravanner disguises before I finally caught him and said, "Just admit you're here and eat dinner with the rest of us! Everybody, this is my friend Deacon. He's here to make sure it's really me that comes back."

Deacon nodded a general hello to the settlers and visitors eating at the picnic table and said, "What should I do if it isn't? Shoot or don't shoot?"

That was my punishment for drawing attention to him in front of the settlement and in retrospect I deserved it. "Don't shoot. It might be better to have… someone who looks like me, for the Minutemen. Even though the idea gives me the creeps."

Deacon nodded and did a little salute.

Piper, catching up to the whole horrifying idea, said, "You mean if you're a synth?"

"If I'm dead but there's synth who wants to fight raiders and protect the settlements, we might as well let her do it. Just remember I..." and my voice broke in the middle of sounding so confidant. It wasn't going to help anything for my friends to know how scared I was. Because I was, of course I was. This was goodbye in case I didn't come back.

I was going in the morning. The machine made a massive flash of lightning when used and we didn't want it going up like a flare at night for the entire Commonwealth to see. So I had the whole dinner to say goodbye and act confidant and then nobody would let me take a watch, so I'd be well rested for my adventure in the morning. Dinner was hardly over when I was back home repacking my gun harness for the third time while Dogmeat watched from the couch. How many bullets per synth?

Sturges knocked on the door with another present for me. "Plug this into any terminal in the institute and it'll drink up all the data it can get. I want more schematics and… our new friends… are hoping for a list of people who've been replaced by synths. And hell, maybe the Institute keeps a file entitled 'Our Evil Plan.' That'd make things simple."

I tucked the holotape, which was double size and equipped with a multi-headed plug that should be able to connect to whatever tech the Institute was using, into one of my pouches. "I'll do it if I can."

Sturges hesitated, "Just come back safe, willya?"

I smiled. "I'll sure try."

After him Mama Murphy knocked on the door, blank-eyed and stumbling in the doorway. I bit back the automatic 'Who gave you jet?' because even though I'd been logical and said Mama Murphy could take chems if she wanted, I really wished she wouldn't because I always worried she'd take too much.

Mama Murphy smiled her watery smile and said, "Don't act like my mother. You're about to go into danger and you need the guidance of the sight."

I sighed and motioned Mama Murphy to a chair while I sat down on the couch next to my dog. "I'll take any help I can get at this point. What guidance does the sight have for me?"

Mama Murphy sat down, took a deep breath and closed her eyes to focus on her mystical vision. "I see you lost… running through an alien place. You're searching for something, but when you find it… oh, when you find it. Hard times, kid."

Her eyes flicked back and forth behind their lids and I waited for more. When it didn't come I opened my mouth to ask the most important question… and realized there were two most important questions. "Will I find Shaun? And will I come back?"

"Oh you'll come back. All your friends, their energy will draw you back to us. But your son… there are dark clouds around him. He is alive, but beyond that my sight cannot see. Ah… that's it, that's all I've got for you."

Well that was both worrying and reassuring. I had my doubts about 'energy' the way Mama Murphy talked about it, but… determination is certainly real. I was thinking I might never see these people again, which suddenly made me realize just how much I wanted to see these people again. "Thank you, Mama Murphy. I'll remember what you said."

"Stay strong, kid. This is your destiny, and it will hurt."

"Well I don't doubt that." I said dryly. "Now while I'm gone, no more chems, ok? You know I'll come back so don't try to see me."

"All right. Now get some sleep."

In the morning we loaded a caged molerat into the machine and stood well back when Sturges pulled the lever. Lightning roared down and the caged rat disappeared leaving behind wisps of ozone-smelling smoke.

Everybody was watching, and everybody carefully didn't comment on how scary it looked. But it showed on their faces. Nick had his blankest synth face on trying not to look worried. Preston said, "I know it'll be worth it if this works out, but I kind of wish you wouldn't go."

I kind of wished it too. "I'll come back as soon as I can, but if something happens it might be days. If Deacon—wherever he is—says I'm a synth, believe him. Doubt anything else that comes out of his mouth, but not that."

Sturges said, "Moment of truth." and lightning flashed again. The molerat was back, in another cloud of smoke. Looking upset and panting, but unhurt. I touched the cage and didn't even get a shock from the steel shopping basket we'd made it from. My Pip-boy reported no radiation or toxins.

"Well it works." Suddenly my heart was pounding and I was smiling as something like excitement flickered. I hopped off the platform and hugged Preston, hugged Piper, and gave Nick a quick kiss on the cheek. Deacon had become visible behind everyone else and I waved and called, "Whatever comes back don't let it hurt anyone!" And I stepped into the machine, with a nervous look up at the bit the lightning came from.

Sturges said, "I'm bringing you back in five minutes, if you're still there at the other end. Tell me when you're ready to go."

Dignity be damned, I scrunched down and covered my eyes. "Ready!"

There was a deafening crack and the inside of my eyelids blazed red.