Chapter 35, New Life in the New World
I smiled in response to her birthday wish. I'm glad she remembered. Makes me wonder if she had planned this in a way to line this up on my birthday? Only one way to find out.
"Did you plan this out," I asked.
She pursed her lips, "In some way. I knew your birthday was coming up, so I was hoping I could get it to line up. That and maybe something else."
"Oh, there's more?"
"Maybe. You'll just have to wait to see," she coyly remarked.
I smiled back. She's once again taking pages out of my book. Guess I'm going to have to play along to find out what it is.
"Well, I think it's time to get up," I stated, getting out of the covers.
"I agree, " she replied, getting out as well.
We both got out of bed, got some clothes on, and made our way to the kitchen to make breakfast and get ready for our day as we normally do. During that time, Sally greeted us with tons of energy and excitement, running around in circles. No doubt the source of not getting to sleep with us last night like she usually does.
I spent a bit of time with Sally, trying to get some energy burned out of her before we head out. It sucks we can't bring her with us, but the last few times we did, she caused so many problems, we couldn't get it to work. From rummaging around the boxes, to grabbing equipment and running around making me have to chase her to get it back, it was just too much to deal with. Maybe if she slows down a bit, maybe we can bring her with us, but that might be a while since she's just a puppy still.
After what felt like a half an hour, I could tell Sally was starting to slow down, giving us the sign that we could get ready to go.
"Alright, let's see what happened after yesterday," I stated, standing up.
We made our way to the elevator, going down to make our way to the Jeep outside the Gate in order to head back to Nellis to continue our work. The cool morning air greeted us throughout the Jeep as we made our way there, bumpy roads and all. It's making me wonder just how fast the team is going to move for the next week. They were really ready when we arrived in D.C., as if they were waiting their whole lives for that moment. I mean It would make sense all things considered when you take into the idea of what the Brotherhood of Steel stands for.
Once we arrived at the Nellis gates and were let in, I could easily see the progress they had made. Already in one night and part of a morning, they had already set up a base of operations and some tents to accommodate that with people starting to work like clockwork.
"Well, looks like they've been quite busy haven't they," I stated.
"Yeah, they're not wasting any time to get this started, " Elizabeth replied.
We walked towards the group and made our way to where Sentinel Sarah Lyons was to speak with her on their progress. Sarah was appointed by her father Lyons to help oversee the New branch in New Vegas. She had agreed to it as she felt things were getting a bit crowded back in D.C. since Lyons and my Dad have been helping expand D.C., but she hadn't been doing as much as she liked. So, this appointment was something welcome for her. It wasn't glamorous, but she seems to enjoy it in her own way.
As we got closer, I saw a young black haired teenage boy handing her some papers and talking with her.
She handed some lab equipment to him, "Thank you Maxson. Bring these over to Proctor Quinlan, so he can start with his assignment."
"After I'm done, can I go out for some firearm practice later," he asked.
"We'll see. We have a lot to do today. We might have some time tomorrow," she replied.
A look of excitement filled his blue eyes as he took the equipment and headed off.
"Are you guys getting settled in ," I asked, moving aside.
She nodded, tucking some blonde hair behind her ear, "Just fine. Some of our eggheads here have some ideas to make the power much more sustainable, but we are going to need some help with that. I do believe you know someone who can help with that."
Yes and I know exactly who she is referring to too. It hasn't been that long since we talked, but I'm sure he's going to want to know what's going on given our activity in the last week.
"I'll talk with him this afternoon. We'll see what he says," I replied.
"Excellent, otherwise we're just going to continue studying the device and running our tests. If you want to help us set up some of our equipment, talk with Paladin Danse over on the other side of the hanger. Be warned, he's not particularly happy being here. He's not usually interested in stuff like this."
I nodded, as we made our way to him. As we got closer, I could see him barking orders clearly showing his frustration of being there to other members. His face definitely screamed veteran, but not too old given he still had plenty of color in his brown stubble and no immediate scars over his brown eyes. But, his demeanor spoke of someone who was more business than screwing around.
We approached him, "Sarah said you needed help."
He nodded, rubbing his head, "Yes. I apologize. This is an area I am not familiar with nor do I fully support. But I am bound to the Brotherhood and its needs. If you can help me move some of this equipment and help calibrate it, that would be very helpful."
Elizabeth and I both nodded as we got to work helping Paladin Danse. We helped set up a few things from tech to tents, there were plenty of things to do and Danse seemed to be very pleased with our help over the other grunts he had, but we did have more field experience then them most likely. After a few hours of work, I could feel my stomach starting to grumble, signaling us that lunch time was ready.
"Ready for some lunch," I asked her.
"Yeah, " Elizabeth replied, wiping her brow of some sweat.
We both got up as Elizabeth took off first, not giving me eye contact. I took notice of other Brotherhood members also getting ready to have their lunch as well as I followed her to the cafeteria.
I caught up to her walking side by side with her and holding her hand. Still no eye contact. I think I'll try something else.
"I didn't think you would be sweating this much with it not being that much warm out," I sarcastically stated.
"Yeah," she replied, still not looking at me.
"Are you alright, " I asked.
"Yeah."
Well this isn't working. Maybe after she eats she'll be more talkative. I know for a fact the pregnancy is on her mind, making her this way, but I want her to just talk to me about it. I may not be going through as much motion as she is, but I still got to try.
We both got in line, plates and utensils ready as we waited for what looked like egg salad and bighorner stew. Once we dished up plates, we took our plates and found a place to sit down. As I started to eat, she started to eat slowly, just staring at her plate. After five minutes, I decided to break the ice.
"Elizabeth, are…are you going to be ok," I asked.
"This is going to be a long week Evan," Elizabeth replied.
I played dumb for a moment, "Yeah we got some things to work on getting set up…."
"I'm not talking about that," she stopped me.
"Oh. Are you referring to last night," I asked, bringing it full circle.
She nodded, "It's been in the back of my mind all morning. I mean what if… what if I am sterile? What if I can't have a child? Is there any reason for me to be here then? To be alive?"
I was taken a bit by what she said, "I…I don't know. Only thing I can think of is just waiting a week to see. Nothing we can do now at this point. I'm just trying to stay focused on what we have right now."
She took a breath, "I am too, it's just… I really really want this to work Evan. I want to have something family related. You have your father and I don't have anyone else. If this doesn't work, I…I"
I grabbed her hand, "No more thinking like this. It's not going to help. Let's just focus on this and when it gets closer, we can worry about it. We can reach out to the Followers of the Apocalypse and set a time to check. A month ago they got that new Auto Doc up and running to help them for their operations."
She smiled, wiping quick tears from her eyes, "You're right. Let's focus on getting these tests and that power source."
I smiled back, as we both finished our food. Then we put our plates away and threw our trash, heading back to help finish Paladin Danse set up. We only had about another hour of work before finally finishing, giving me an opportunity to finally start my next task.
"Ok. I'm going to go have a talk with Mr. House. I'll do my best to get back here quickly," I declared.
"Ok. I'll keep helping them here. Don't let him intimidate you," Elizabeth replied.
We shared a kiss before I headed out to the Jeep to drive back to the Strip. Once I got out of Nellis, I started to think how I was going to word this to Mr. House. I mean it's not like it's going to be crazy difficult to do that. He asks for monthly updates since he's more preoccupied with his side of furthering his agenda for New Vegas. For the most part, he's been slowly tolerating the Brotherhood of Steel, though he loves to remind me that they are my problem since he still has his own reservations about them. But they are slowly winning him over I can tell. We haven't gotten him on our side completely when it comes to helping the people, but that's where the Brotherhood comes in and what Elizabeth and I do. Being the middleman and that's what we will have to continue doing. For better or worse.
I parked the Jeep outside the Gate as always and made my way back to the Lucky 38. Then I went to the elevator and back to the penthouse where I entered to once again meet Mr. House.
The screen turned on upon my presence, "Well, it has been a minute. I was not expecting your monthly update sooner. Though I doubt this is a social conversation. I assume you need something from me. "
As always, like a machine, he calculated and read my mind.
"Well, we've made some huge progress and the Lutece Device 2.0 is nearly ready. However, we need more energy to power it up further. What we have is not enough to keep it up and running longer as well as to test further distances."
Mr. House paused for a minute, most likely contemplating in his head whatever was going on in that machine calculating mind. Finally, he spoke.
"Have one of the Brotherhood members provide me with the schematics and what power it needs to one of my Securitrons. I will find a way to make it work. This is progress that pleases me incredibly. My vision of taking humanity to the stars has now only sped up in its possibility with this device. It seems the Brotherhood of Steel has become far more useful than I was led to believe. Your efforts to combine both branches months ago has paid off. "
Guess that's the best of a thank you I am going to get from him. Obviously he is more interested in the technological aspects of the Lutece Device, rather than the benefits of the people in that it will help progress his vision of New Vegas. But it will help bring more life back to the Wasteland and only bring us closer to a sense of normalcy than he realises.
"I'm glad to hear that. I do think this will also help the people and get people back to something normal. "
"That I can agree. By my calculations, tourism in New Vegas should start to progress in the next month or so. Not a large amount, but still an increase nonetheless and the monorail will be complete and functional by them. Which by my calculations will increase tourism by about 20% and increase as time goes on. Oh by the way, our last conversation I had told you that public support of Kimball was at an all time low, well it looks like President Kimball is not seeking reelection now. The Loss of the Hoover Dam was a crushing defeat to the NCR and has only forced them to be shrunken down further. I believe in a few more years, the NCR will soon cease to exist. But we will see soon enough. General Lee Oliver has also walked out of the lime light so if my 36.5% of his suicide is correct, we can expect to hear a headline at some point in the coming months."
"You seem a bit happy by all of this," I stated.
"Happy? I would be more proud. My vision of New Vegas is becoming closer and closer to fruition and with Caesar's Legion gone and the NCR almost on its way out, whatever resistance I could have in the future is now nearly gone. And with the tech you are providing, I see nothing, but great things for New Vegas' future. I will get to work creating a powersource to help aid the Brotherhood in its efforts. It will take time I am sure, but I will make something work."
"Ok. Keep us in the loop, I need to get back and continue the work and Nellis"
"Till next time," he says, shutting down.
I went into the Elevator and made my way back down to the lobby. I expect nothing less from the Machine Man in how he's viewing the world. Still, it's better than being even colder and just turning everyone into machines. He still feels humanity has a use to him and will continue to view that way I feel. I do feel he is, in some way, slowly becoming a bit more human. His acceptance of the Brotherhood of Steel tells me that. Who knows, maybe in a few years, he'll start talking to me in a more jolly tone like Santa Clause. I felt a smile grow on my face with that idea as it started to become a clear picture in my head. Wishful thinking clearly, but something fun to think about as I wiped the smile off my face and got back to reality.
I exited the elevator, making my way back to the Jeep and back to the Nellis Hanger.
As I pulled the Jeep back into the Nellis hanger, I saw that Veronica and Elizabeth were sitting and talking. Veronica has definitely been more involved, but I would say still more with coordinating her branch. There has definitely been some infighting, with some leaving though not really big enough to start their own branch. Just doing things on their own as some nomadic wanders. It was a bit heartbreaking for Veronica, seeing some of her family leave like that, but seeing the rest getting along, it's really helped her be more optimistic. As I got closer, Veronica caught me approaching and turned to face me.
"So, you finally did it," she asked.
I nodded, "Yeah I had a talk with Mr. House. He'll figure something out hopefully. But now that he knows this works, he really wants to use this to advance his vision of going to the stars."
She subtly rolled her eyes, "Right…. Not what I was referring to."
I paused for a moment before realizing what she meant, making me turn to face Elizabeth.
"You told her about last night," I asked.
She shrugged, "Well, Veronica knew something was bothering me, so I had to tell her."
"If it's a girl you better name her Veronica Junior or Todd if its a boy" Veronica declared.
I was puzzled, "Why Todd?"
She shrugged, "I don't know. Always wanted to know someone named Todd."
I smiled, "We'll keep that in mind when we find out the gender. We just got started last night."
"I think you'll both be great parents. You both have changed so much in the Mojave in the last few months, being parents won't be nothing you can't handle. "
Being parents I think is a whole other kind of situation and could even be more stressful than what were doing. Still, nice to have some support.
"Thank you Veronica, " Elizabeth replied, "It means a lot coming from you."
They both embraced each other with Veronica not leaving me out once she was done with Elizabeth.
"I am so happy for both of you. I can be your Nanny if you want. I promise I won't create a troublemaker."
I cracked a smile, before letting her go.
"That would be great. Thank you Veronica."
"Of course. I'll leave you two alone. Besides, Elizabeth needs to talk to you about something," she states as she walks away.
As she walked way out of sight, I turned and faced Elizabeth.
"What did you want to talk about," I asked.
"Close your eyes and hold out your arms," she says.
I did as she commanded, bracing what she was going to give me. After a minute, I felt a somewhat heavy box being placed into my arms.
"Ok, you can open them now."
I opened them and looked down to see the box, sealed shut with what looked like a makeshift ribbon bow on it made from a string of some kind? My birthday present. Kind of reminds me of the presents I got back in the Vault.
"I couldn't find a ribbon that wouldn't break easily, so I improvised," she stated.
I smiled, starting to unwrap the string and opened the box up. I looked inside and saw what looked like some old bottles in it. I was a bit stunned by what they were as I had never seen bottles crafted like this before.
"Huh," I said, picking up one of the bottles that was shaped sort of in a vase shape to inspect it, "What are these?"
"Take a look at the others and you tell me," she replied, with a smile.
I set the box down and took the other bottles out. I took one red bottle that had a red woman on the top that was in the shape of a devil with her head being the cap of the bottle. I took the cap off to look inside and not to my surprise, it was empty. I put the cap back on and looked at the front of the bottle, where it had a faded picture of clearly the devil on it. Interesting bottle, but I don't know what to make of it.
I set the bottle down on the table then took another bottle out where this one was bronze in color, but had a man riding a horse on it as the cap and the symbol of a horse on the front. I took it off and again nothing in it. Setting that bottle aside, I then took out a green bottle that had a red heart, pierced with a green sword of some kind with a pink heart cap on top.
"Any ideas," she asked.
I got nothing. There nice bottles don't get me wrong. But I am not drawing much conclusions about what these mean.
"I…I don't know. They're nice bottles, but who made them," I asked.
"Well, those bottles you took out with the horse and heart on them, those are old vigor bottles from Columbia," she answered.
My eyes widened immediately with what she just said. How did she find these bottles after how many hundreds of years?
"How did you find these," I asked.
She tucked some hair behind her ear, "Oh it was a long process. A month ago, one of our scout teams found the red bottle in the basement of some collector in Virginia and I knew what it was immediately. So, I had them keep an eye out for more, only telling them that they're part of a rare collectors set. Naturally, they got all excited and kept more of an eye out for them. So far, they found four of them and that first bottle you pulled out was a plasmid container from Rapture. They found that in a bar in South Carolina on display."
I took out the last bottle which was a blue bottle with the head of a crow on top as the cap and a sticker of a crow on the front. Based on the little rings on each side, it looks like there was some sort of string that was tied to the bottle to help hold it? Or was it for decoration?
"So, what did they do when you drank it," I asked.
"Well, it gave you powers for a time. The red one was called Devil's Kiss where you could shoot far out of your hands. The Green one was called Possession where you could have enemies fight for you. The horse one was called Bucking Bronco where you could throw people in the air. And finally, the Crow one was called Murder of Crows where you could summon crows to attack enemies for you. So, all sorts of fun if you had them. Plasmids were similar, but a bit more refined since they came a bit later technically."
I smiled. I can think of many situations where these would have been really useful to use. I started to imagine moments in my life where these Vigors could have been extremely useful, especially during the Battle of Hoover Dam. Sadly, that remains as a what if scenario, but still would have been fun to experience.
"Does this mean you might be able to recreate these," I asked.
She shook her head, "Unfortunately, no. And honestly, maybe it's for the better if they don't come back. Both Plasmids and Vigors caused nasty side effects in people and believe me Evan, it's not a pretty picture."
I definitely believe her and she doesn't need to explain why.
"Yeah. Anyway, these will be cool decorations and hopefully we can find more of these. Thank you for getting them for me," I replied, giving her a kiss.
"You're welcome. Anyway, shall we get back to work? Sarah has us helping Proctor Quinlan with Arthur, the kid from earlier. Don't worry, he's not as eager as Sean is. He's much more calm."
I breathed a sigh of relief. Nothing against Sean, but I'd rather not have 21 questions right now.
We walked over to Quinlan to be briefed on what needed to be done. He sported a lab coat with brown combed over hair and glasses to sport the look only further that he was, as Sarah would say, an egghead. He gave us the rundown of going around the area and placing beacons for not only surveying the area, but also to help boost his signal for communication with Brotherhood members in the area in at least a 40 mile radius. He hopes to start sending more people out to scout in the next week, just to see what they can find.
Arthur was definitely much calmer than Sean. He had his questions for sure, but they were mostly combat kinds of questions as he was more interested in me than asking Elizabeth questions. Some of them were what was my favorite weapon, how effective was it killing Mutants, and if it was good against robots. I had a variety of weapons I've loved using through the years, so I was able to give him a variety of ideas on what weapons there were out there. Despite being a teenager, he definitely still had that childlike wonder in him and I'm sure he will be a great soldier in the Brotherhood. Once we were done helping Proctor Quinlan, we wrapped up the day and went in for dinner.
After today, the days went by quicker in the week. Our progress on the Lutece Device only started to go faster and the days only became more hectic in a way. We had fully established a Base of Operations at Nellis with communication back in D.C. with more talks of getting more equipment and resources transferred in the coming weeks. For the most part, it kept us busy and our minds nearly off Elizabeth's Pregnancy. However, it was still there, lingering in the back of our minds like a bad itch. We had reached out to the Followers of the Apocalypse and set a time to check on March 1st. While waiting for our appointment, I was handling it the best by putting it in the back of my mind, but Elizabeth I could tell as the day got closer, she was getting more nervous. A good chunk of the time I could see her staring off in the distance, losing her focus. Other times she would forget what she was doing and someone would need to remind her. It would only get worse the day before to where she didn't even eat, not even wanting to make dinner.
"Are you ready," I asked, as we got close to the camp.
Elizabeth nodded, "Let's find out what's going to happen."
We walked into the camp where the Followers were we checked in and took our seats in one of the tents. I remember months ago when I used to pass by here as a Courier how run down, understaffed the whole place was. Now it's a far cry from what it once was. They've started production on buildings with what I think is a command center of some kind being the one closest to completion. Though still a ways off given its second floor is just now being started. Obviously they've had some help from the Brotherhood, but not too much. They've been very adamant about doing things more by themselves to stay independent with the rare instance of asking for help, mostly when it comes to huge influxes of people looking for help. Still, they had their tents and operations functioning normally despite their new construction.
I gripped Elizabeth's hand as we waited for Emily to greet us. I could tell by the subtle shaking of her hand that the anxiety in her was eating away at her, the worse it has been this entire week.
"Just try to relax ok," I asked, " Whatever happens, we'll deal with it."
"I know, I just…really hope this happens."
Emily walked towards us, "Ok Elizabeth. Are you ready?"
She nodded as she let go of my hand and got up to follow Emily. As she walked away around the corner into a tent, she took one last look at me before going in.
They were gone for about half an hour before she came back and sat down next to me.
"How did it go," I asked.
"We'll see what happens, " she quickly replied.
After another half hour passed, Emily approached us, clipboard in hand, ready to give us the details.
"Ok Elizabeth I have some good news and bad news," Emily stated.
"Ok, what's the good news," she asked.
Emily took a breath, "Good news, you are pregnant."
Elizabeth let out a gasp of air, followed by sobbing tears of joy. I felt something similar though not as strong as I was ready for what the bad news may entail.
"What's the bad news, " I asked, not wanting to celebrate too soon.
"The bad news, based on our calculations with the Auto Doc, there is a 73% chance this is going to be a painful pregnancy," she answered.
"What do you mean," she asked, wiping some of her tears.
"Your uterus, unlike most females, is most likely an incarcerated uterus. Meaning it's going to be difficult for the baby to be able to freely move around which in turn will cause discomfort for you over the coming months. There is a chance your uterus can expand as normal females usually do, to account for this, but again that's a 27% chance it could based on this data. It's treatable, but it won't be easy. Then there is also a detection of Hyperemesis gravidarum by about 40%. Meaning you will have severe nausea and vomiting during the time you're pregnant. There is no calculation of this being lethal, but we won't know more until it gets closer. That's pretty much what you are looking at right now. "
She stopped for a moment, looking at me. This wasn't going to be easy for her. The strain on her body and what this could be for her. Still, I felt a sigh of relief with the knowledge Emily provided to us. Judging by Elizabeths look, she wants to continue with it. And I am ok with it. She needs this. She needs to have a child to give her something more in this world, something to help give her more in life to fight for. However, the road ahead is still going to be rocky and this pregnancy is going to make it a bit harder. Once we get the power source running, then it's more tests to make sure it's all working. Then, we can set our eyes to another place much further. And I know just one place to test once that day comes.