Begin Recording

Gifts

Recording by Scribe Ellison

I didn't think anyone else in the Institute knew how to get in touch with me but one day I got a message from Allie. "We need to talk about the synth boy."

Things in the Institute were different. The scientists and synths who'd stopped to say hello or ask me things now ignored me. I got sideways glances from the synths and obvious snubbing from many of the humans. Before I'd been Father's special guest; now I was the villain who'd convinced him to deny half their experiments, ruining years of work because they couldn't get human test subjects.

Allie looked tired, carrying the weight of her world on her shoulders now as she gestured me to have a seat in her office. She looked at me the same way Desdemona did now, a look that was almost friendship but couldn't quite get there because she couldn't quite trust me.

And just like Desdemona Allie said, "General." With heavy irony and a smile.

"Director." I replied, only smiling. "What's up with the kid?"

"He can't stay here. He's… how much did Shaun tell you about him?"

Allie was the only one who called my son Shaun instead of Father. I said, "Probably not enough."

"Synths don't grow. The child's mind will mature but his body won't change. And if we did create an adult body to transfer his neural map to… it would look like Father. People are already wondering if Shaun made that copy to replace himself. I don't think it's true, but Shaun did start work on the child, and release you from the vault, when his illness was first diagnosed. We can all agree his reasons… weren't purely scientific."

There was pain in her voice and I reached over to put my hand on hers. My son hadn't felt close with anyone, really, but that didn't mean no one had cared about him. And then I'd shown up and he'd immediately given me all the attention he'd never shown to the people who'd always been there. I hadn't even realized until later.

But there was nothing I could say to make that better so I just asked, "Did Father have a plan for the kid?"

"Shaun planned to program the child to believe he was your son. But you got along well so that didn't have to happen."

I cringed, not sure if I was more horrified or angry. I could miss my son and still hate every time he set us out like experiments without asking what we wanted. "Of course the kid can come live in Sanctuary. I wanted to make sure that was really what's best for him or I would've brought him back already."

"It certainly is what's best. If he stays here he'll end up reset and made into a worker eventually. There's no place for a synth with that kind of personality here." Allie sighed. "He should never have been created. But that's not his fault."

And I almost agreed. Everything about the kid's creation was tainted with all the terrible things about the Institute. Creating life without caring for its fate. Or maybe the boy was just the sign of my son's fumbling attempt to create a family. Someone with no understanding, doing damage, but trying.

"Well we've got a place for him topside. I'll go find him, he always seems to turn up."

And indeed he did. I made it down to the shop to pick up my order of toiletries and medical supplies. The synth vendor informed me that I was no longer permitted to purchase weapons or any technology, but he still accepted caps for toothpaste so that was fine with me. I made it to the commissary to buy some nutrient bars as well. The dense calories made them good for traveling, and for giving them to anyone found starving. Which happened, every so often the Minutemen would find a traveler who'd run out of food and was close to collapse.

Just as expected, the kid appeared next to me, looking up hopefully.

"Hey you. Still sure you want to come live in the Commonwealth?"

"Yes! Now?"

"As soon as you're ready. Today if you want. Pack your stuff and say goodbye to everybody. I don't know how often we'll be able to visit again."

"Ok!" The boy turned to run off then hesitated and turned back, "...I have a sister."

"What? What do you mean?"

"In robotics. Doctor Binet made her. If you want me maybe you want her too."

Maybe I did, but I had no idea what he was talking about and now he was gone. I went to ask Doctor Binet.

"Alan. The kid just told me the strangest thing..."

"Ah. Should have known he'd tell you."

"He has a sister?"

"In a manner of speaking. Come, through here." We went through a few doors into another of the many rooms in Robotics, with tables and drawers and pieces of robotic early synths sitting around, hands and legs connected to wires, and lots of terminals. "She's a project of mine… off the books. Father wanted to create the one child synth. He had no interest in improving the build or the programming. The project has the potential to be very interesting, but not if it's canceled before it begins!"

"So you made a second one."

"Yes. She's a copy of the boy, all I did was swap the chromosomes."

And he pulled open a drawer in the wall and there she was. Connected to wires and tubes, with a terminal port plugged into the back of her head. Me, when I was ten. She looked just like me. I must have gasped audibly.

Doctor Binet said, "I'm sorry. I had no idea you were coming here or I would have chosen a different appearance."

That feeling of my heart twisting. I reached in to smooth the child's black hair. She looked like Snow White in the coffin. "What's going to happen to her?"

"Well... nothing. She has the same early data package that Father made for the boy, and a strong learning protocol, but she's never been awake. I'd hoped perhaps, if the next Director approved… to make her part of my family. You know Eve is a synth. I thought she might enjoy having a child who is like her… but Director Filmore won't approve that any more than Father would have. Eventually I won't be able to hide this project anymore and I'll have to discard her. It's a shame."

"What's her name?"

"S9-25."

Of course it was. And there was only one thing to say next. "If you're sure she can't be part of your family… she can be part of mine. Wake her up and send her to Sanctuary. She can have a life, as good as we can make it in the wasteland."

Doctor Binet was delighted. "You'd do that? That would be the perfect test for the learning protocols, an ordinary upbringing! Are you sure? It'll take a few months to finish her upgrades so she'll wake up and then I'll send her to you. Do you want to add anything? Give her a name?"

It was right there in my mind, the memory of talking to Nate over a crackly international telephone connection when I first learned I was pregnant. He'd spent so much money on those calls, to be with me as much as he could even while he was deployed. I'd told him about buying the crib and that rocket mobile, the story of every visit to the doctor. And we'd talked endlessly about names, going through our whole family tree for inspiration. I think at the time it was less about names and more about something to talk about, connecting words across distance. But we had settled on two names in the end.

So I was all choked up when I bent over the terminal and typed in a name. "I'll make you a holotape, with me and the kid talking. So she'll know our voices and feel like part of the family."

"Of course. That will be beneficial. Now I have a lot to do to get..." He looked at the screen, "...Shiloh up and about. And I think you have someone else who needs you."

I turned and there was the kid, with quite a small backpack overstuffed with books and gadgets, and more in two plastic carrying bags in each hand. He waved, "Doctor Binet! I'm going to the surface with my mom. Thank you for being my friend this whole time!"

Doctor Binet laughed and went to rub the kid's hair, "Have fun up there. Be safe. I'll see you when you visit, you and your sister."

The boy's face formed into a grimace of great uncertainty. "Program her not to be annoying ok? Girls are sometimes annoying."

"I'll try." Doctor Binet said, laughing.

So we went home. Back through the heart of the Institute and up the elevator. The first time coming down I'd been almost dizzy with fear for my family and now I felt the same with… hope? Joy? Something that also felt a lot like fear because nothing else had changed even if the kid had started calling me Mom and I loved it.

We went to the molecular relay with the boy telling me about the first time he'd used it, when Father sent him to live in Diamond City for a while. So he wasn't scared since he knew it was safe. Allie had come up here to send us off, and to check what the kid was trying to bring with him. "You can take your gadgets, but not the books." The boy drooped until I told him Doc Jenna had quite a few medical books and would let him read them.

"What's this?" Allie asked.

It was a holotape. "Father gave it to me to give to my mom. It's got a message on it, and all my codes. So you can turn me into whatever you want." His face twisted as it always did when he mentioned codes.

I said, "I kind of like you the way you are. We don't have to use them unless you want to."

"But there's a code that makes me fight like a courser! That might be fun!"

Allie very pointedly gave the holotape to me instead of back to him.

I chuckled. "We'll have to talk about that before you try it. I don't know how that would even work. You're half the size of a courser. But let's get home and settle in first, then I'll listen to the tape. There's no rush."

The boy stood in the relay with his remaining possessions and I used the relay in my pip-boy and we teleported to Sanctuary. And had to squint because a sunny Commonwealth afternoon was a lot brighter than the pale light of the Institute.

There was Cogsworth, just coming up the road leading a pack brahmin from Greygarden. He dropped the rope in surprise and came sailing over. "Why! Do my eyes deceive me? Young master Shaun, is that you?"

The kid's eyes widened and he nodded hesitantly. "My name is Shaun."

"It is so good to see you safely home! Your mother has been looking everywhere for you. No more wandering off for you, young man! Oh, of course! You don't remember me. I am Cogsworth, your family butler. At your service, sir."

The boy laughed like sunshine.

I said, "Cogsworth, this is my… second son. Shaun."

"Odd choice of name, Mistress Emily, but the lad is home and that's all that matters."

I don't think Cogsworth understands, but that's all right.

And then everyone was gathering around and the kid was saying, "I know what that is, that's a dog! Is he nice?" Dogmeat was grinning his dog grin and wagging his tail. Sturges said, "I hear you like building things. Want to show off your gadgets later on?" and Preston said, "Welcome to Sanctuary, Shaun."

I showed him our house and his room and he immediately asked, "This is a big house but where's my sister going to sleep?"

This was a problem. The only other room was the laundry room which was at the time used for storage with a clothesline strung out over all the junk. Even if we moved everything out it wasn't a big enough space for a child. "I think we'll have to move this wall to make a bigger room. We'll do it next week."

"You can just build a room?"

"Sure. All I need is Sturges and half a dozen Minutemen. We raise a barn at a minute's notice!"

And we were home. And it was perfect… for about two days, then Shaun started acting like a normal kid and everything I'd experiences kind of hit me all at once and we all did a lot of dumb things and everything was entirely not perfect for some months. But we figured it out, how to be a family when things aren't perfect. And here we are. Here we all are.