Minigun Bridge Bitch

Another day passed, and more progress was made, including the departure of the Brotherhood, which she felt was tremendous.

Before the Brotherhood Scribe and his entourage left, he delivered to Lily a list of possible trades and a holotape containing three different methods to construct sapphire glass, the simplest being useful for panes, for example, the screen she was slowly designing for her e-reader. It could also be used to make arbitrary shapes, like rods for lasers. Still, after reviewing the literature, she felt that it would be filled with microscopic imperfections, which would be the site of failure in any attempt to use it in a high-energy laser application, even if she knew how to dope them with the almost ten compounds necessary.

Lily found his delivery amusing because she had told him that he would not be able to take her full papers back or even read them until she got at least part of the deal on her end. That night she had observed him, through her electromagnetic sense, conduct an encrypted back-and-forth conversation with Galaxy News Radio.

She had saved the encrypted transmissions, but honestly, she was not a cryptologist. She did not know what cryptosystem the transmissions used, much less its encryption key. She believed that the Fallout universe encrypted radios suffered from a low key length, but she did not know enough to even try to brute force the key because she had no idea how the cryptosystem worked. She would need to get a copy of a handset capable of encryption or maybe its maintenance manual or design docs before she could figure it out.

There were a number of cryptographic libraries included on the operating system she had taken from her nanohive, so the same libraries were present on her computer, but Lily did not really know how they functioned, just how to use them for the basics involved in securing her own radio transmissions, encrypting data and simple public-private key cryptographic techniques to verify the authenticity of a message without needing to communicate with the sender. The explosives she had decided to remove from her office used that simple HMAC-style technique. All of that was just plug-and-play, though. A few lines of code, at most, since the libraries did all the work.

In the past, she had been an excellent hacker, but that didn't really mean the same thing as understanding cryptography from a mathematical perspective. Instead, cryptography was baked into her processors; it was the difference between closing your eyes and being able to touch your nose and explaining, in-depth, the process of sensory proprioception that gave a human that ability.

She asked her expert system to analyse the radio waveforms, and it thought about it for a whole minute before telling her:

[Group of Electromagnetic Transmissions in the Medium Frequency Band, Modulated to Carry Data of Unknown Type (Two-Way Communication Voice (79%)), Featuring an Algorithmically Simple Rolling Frequency Hopping Scheme* and Encrypted using a Novel, Unknown Cryptographic System.]

[Unknown Cryptosystem Designated CRYPT-2074-0001. CRYPT-2074-0001 cyphertext samples bare some similarity to a known Block Cypher Algorithm (61% FIPS-46-1, FIPS-46-2).]

[No More Data]

[* Algorithm deduced and attached.]

She basically knew that already, at least in the first part. The rest didn't make any sense to her. She didn't really know what one kind of cryptographic algorithm was compared to another, and she wondered how her expert system did if she didn't.

She posed a question to it, perhaps the first time she used natural language to do so: [How did you quantify the guess/inference that the data contained two-way voice communications?]

Immediately it tried to vomit a huge screen of math based on a bunch of factors which were merely referencing a seemingly large number of footnotes and appendices. She rephrased that and asked it to reply in five sentences or less, in natural language.

It thought about that for a short time before replying again.

[1. Transmission amplitude between the two sources was primarily half-duplex, which is similar to simple radio-based voice communication. 2. Transmissions were on a band suitable for voice communications. 3. Transmissions were on a band with past unencrypted voice communications. 4. Transmissions were from a source previous categorised and associated with voice communications on this band. 5. Unknown cryptosystem reduces confidence.]

All that seemed logically consistent, she supposed.

It was nice that her proto-Muse was potentially getting smarter. Plus, it had deduced the algorithm the radios were utilising to hop frequencies, which was useful. She noticed they were hopping, but her receiver was broad enough that she noticed every transmission anyway. She really needed a better processor for her to run her Muse on, as there was going to be an upper limit of both its complexity and ultimate usefulness running on the one she presently had.

She'd save this group of back-and-forth transmissions. Once she found a handset capable of encryption -- perhaps she could ask Grace to borrow one -- she could reverse engineer it to determine its precise cryptographic system and then perhaps use brute force attacks against the encryption key the Brotherhood used. It would be useful if they didn't rotate the codes too often.

That wasn't all that Ferguson had, though.

Before he left he asked if the Brotherhood could rent her cloning machine, and although she had gotten everything moved up to the fourth floor and had started to rebuild it, she responded in the positive, with the caveat that it would likely take a while to reconfigure it to a medically useful therapeutic mode. Apparently, there were many older Brotherhood members, mostly retired, who could use new hearts, livers and kidneys. She intended to keep its normal function in addition, though. Because who knew when you would need to clone a whole organism?

He also had data on the location of four potential seed vaults set up by the American authorities, two of which were government and two of which were made by private parties. So, Lily bought that with another one of her "tokens" and discovered that there were really only three. He had been wily as one of them was a US government project, but it was in Antarctica.

As such, she had given the man a holotape that contained her three research papers, which he took with a look of relish. Internally, she was nodding. He was right to cherish her work, she felt.

She didn't know if she got ripped off as far as the seed vaults were concerned. Clearly, none of them would be immediately useful.

VaultTek had two projects listed, Vault 22 in Nevada and Vault 182 in Alaska, which may as well be as far away as far as she was concerned. The last turned out to be a potential possibility, a government project underneath the Terrapin Nature Park on Kent Island, which was only about one hundred kilometres to the northeast, although she doubted very highly the bridge from the mainland was still in usable condition.

The exact coordinates were included for all sites, but it would be many moons before she felt comfortable taking a one-hundred-kilometre trip with segments over open water.

She enjoyed seeing the Brotherhood leave her hospital and, hopefully, her town. Walk-in patients had reduced day over day by almost ten per cent while they were here.

She was less happy to see the Mechanist and Sophie go, but he had agreed to stay until tomorrow so she could get at least half of his promised auto-turrets finished, combined with the DMLS system and metal recycler he was taking home completed.

The metal recycler he was getting was a little bit better than hers, and she had also built as much of it as a black box as possible. The four nanohives that it used were entombed in layers of armour and were fitted with small thermite charges as well. If the computer installed on the machine thought it was being reverse-engineered or disassembled, those important parts would be reduced to their elemental components.

She didn't expect Scott to do such a thing, but it paid to be sure. What did the Russians say? Doveryay, no proveryay. Trust, but verify. Plus, there was also the very small chance it could be stolen from him. Although the amount of military force necessary to do that once he got it sequestered in his new Vault kind of boggled one's mind, but it was still possible.

Before he left, however, they were going to set up a radio mast on the roof, with a point-to-point dish on top pointing directly to Vault 108. At first, Scott was a little uneasy because, well, it pointed directly at his home, and people could easily see that, so Lily added a half-sphere of radio-transparent carbon fibre to conceal it. So, now, people would only know the direction in a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree arc, visually at least.

Once he got back to his Vault, he would set up a similar transceiver pointed at her so that they could maintain a continual datalink. She would need to send him periodic OTA updates to his OS and software, in any case. Plus, it was nice to stay in touch and possibly collaborate on projects. He had already had a number of useful suggestions on the truck project, as had Gary, although he was less useful as he did not have access to her CAD software or a computer.

Although, Scott still said that he intended to conceal it at his end somehow, to defeat adversaries with radio direction-finding equipment.

Lily took that to mean he would establish some series of concealed relays himself. Or perhaps he would just offset his receiver slightly and trap it heavily. She didn't really care; he could be as paranoid as he liked, she supposed.

Honestly, she suspected a small community to spring up on or about Vault 108 eventually when it was revealed that there was some water and electrical power available. She was vacillating between a water tank size of ten or twenty thousand litres. Lily did not know the projected use case of the truck. Would it simply go back and forth to Canterbury Commons, or would it go farther afield to sell its wares? She didn't know, so she intended to design it with the maximum flexibility possible.

She suspected, though, that Canterbury Commons would not buy the entirety of the water that Scott and Gary could sell, especially when Scott had already asked for her assistance to repair or even expand the water purifier that the Vault had, as well as repair the fission reactor that was on site.

Vault 108's fission reactor was an interesting case. She had examined it in-depth while she was there. It was a standard breeder reactor design and had an absolutely ridiculous number of unused fuel rods still in storage. Over four hundred, and when you consider that it took only eight rods to refuel the reactor and that the reactor could run for about eighteen months on a single refuelling cycle, according to the operator's manual, it meant that there was sixty years of fuel that they had stocked and never used.

If Lily recalled, Vault 108's main reactor was designed to fail intentionally after about ten years. You could discover this in the game if you looked up the Vault either in the Citadel's computer or at VaultTek's HQ; she couldn't remember exactly. No doubt, part of their experiment, somehow. However, it never got past the first year before there was nobody alive to care one way or another. But they were given a ridiculous amount of fuel, she suspected, so as not to give any of the residents an idea that they would have to do without in a few short years.

In between FEV experiments, she had inspected the reactor, which appeared to be in good condition, and tried to bring it up into a self-test mode, but the controlling computer would not respond. All of the control rods that were made of a neutron-moderating material were firmly and fully deployed into the reaction chamber, preventing any fission reactions from occurring at all.

Sabotaging control chips seemed to be a popular VaultTek pass-time, as that was what happened to the water chip from the first Fallout game and for a similar reason. Still, it meant that the reactor might be easily repaired. If so, it was a medium-sized fission reactor and could provide over four hundred megawatts of electricity, enough that Scott would have a lot more power than he knew what to do with if he could get it working. He would have to inspect every inch of the thing, though, especially all of the cooling loops, to make sure they didn't require maintenance or repairs.

Lily had claimed half of the remaining fuel rods as an afterthought but hadn't brought any home. She didn't have a present use for them, and although fission reactors were, theoretically, simple technology, she wasn't really that enthused about building one from scratch. She felt better about proceeding down the path she had already started along, especially if she could expect collaboration in fusion power from Madison Li. From what she learned building the Eastside power generator, she felt she could build another that had a much more efficient plasma loop that might extract ten or twelve megawatts. And they were relatively simple to construct for her.

She considered the rods trade goods but not immediately useful ones, as surely there were people still operating fission reactors around.

All of her projects were making slow but steady progress. She slowly stood and stretched like a cat in her underground basement. In a moment, she was going to spend a couple of hours working with the Apprentice on not a medical project but an engineering one.

Lily had reviewed the girl's light bulbs, and although they were a good first attempt, she considered them wanting and not good enough to be a product associated with her, so they would need some adjustment before the girl actually sold any. They used too much electricity, provided too little light, and they probably wouldn't last more than a year before needing replacement.

However, there were a number of simple fixes that Lily would lead the girl towards. Both the light and the electricity problem could be solved by changing the shape of the filament to increase its surface area, as well as adding a dopant that would vastly increase the carbon's electrical resistance. The girl could solve those problems herself after they were pointed out.

Regarding the longevity issue, however, Lily would have to put a hand in herself and spend a little time designing a much better device to mate the bottoms of the bulbs with the tops, but that wouldn't take long at all. The one the girl was using now looked MacGuyver as hell, and the airtight seal it created wouldn't last long, especially if exposed to repeated cycles of heating and cooling, like, for example, turning the lights on at night and then off during the day.

Alice wasn't familiar enough with her design software to realise that she could build the bulbs as mostly airtight in the first place, with only a tiny drain hole. That's how lightbulbs were made in the first place, after all.

It was time to start the next generation of eels, too, so everyone would eat eel sandwiches for a couple of days! Not only electrifying but delicious too. She would have to let the fishermen that she would like to receive deliveries of live eels again.

Lily liked lazy days at home like this.

---xxxxxx---

POV Elder Lyons

"...and that's pretty much all I have to report. The specific details on everything are in my two written reports, as well, Elder," the Senior Scribe, finished reporting a group of three that consisted of Elder Lyons, his daughter and the Head Scribe.

"You seem in a hurry, Scribe Ferguson?" asked the Elder, only the barest hint of mild disapproval in his tone.

However, Ferguson readily admitted to it. He nodded, "Yes, I have already reviewed the tech we received in trade from Dr St. Claire, and I will note that she wrote them in exactly the same format and general tone as a Pre-War published scientific paper, and I am eager to begin attempting to replicate. We have forty-one brothers and sisters utilising cybernetic prostheses, most of which are then medically retired. Only a few, like Star Paladin Cross, continue to serve in any capacity at all. However, I believe this technology will help every single one of them, with the potential to bring more than half out of retirement. I am eager to get started."

Rothchild looked very interested in that. He was the one who had saved Cross' life and, in fact, collaborated with Ferguson on much of the cybernetics installed. It was true that Cross had a cybernetic limb, but her alterations which were needed to save her life, were much more than that.

Lyons suspected Cross herself was interested as well, but she definitely was the stoic sort when she was in bodyguard mode and didn't externally appear, externally, interested at all in what Ferguson had to say.

He decided to ask a follow-up then, "And how long do you expect before you can see any fruits from this research?"

That caused Ferguson to pause before saying with some confidence, "Everything is relatively straightforward. The style of the prosthesis is not radically different from what we produce ourselves. I expect we can start limited clinical trials in about six weeks."

Six weeks? If only the other research projects the scribes were pursuing had such quick turn-around times. Maxon knows they have been wasting time on that damn giant robot for years and years now, with little success. He nodded, "Very well, Scribe. You are cleared to proceed. If we really can get over twenty medically retired Paladins back to active service, then this will be worth any reasonable expense. You're dismissed."

Ferguson nodded, saluted sloppily and departed.

Elder Lyons then glanced at Rothchild, "Did you do the research I asked you?"

Rothchild nodded, then coughed into his hand, "Yes. On the assumption that Ferguson is correct and she is a scientist from the Old World, I checked all of our oldest archives. The first High Elder, of course, liberated most of West Tek's corporate records. There is no record of any employee or contractor of the name St. Claire."

The older Lyons frowned, "She could have changed her name."

"Maybe. But all the scientists in the West Tek NBC division, which is where any virology work was accomplished, were all located at the Mariposa military base that the High Elder purged. There were none on remote assignment, on leave, or even on vacation. At the time of the Great War all leave was cancelled, and they were working furiously on the program. And we have records indicating every single one of them was executed at Mariposa. None escaped. Also, they were all male. I suspect Ferguson's idea is probably close to correct. I've done a cursory search against other records, but she wasn't a VaultTek employee, at least under that name, either," Rothchild said firmly.

That caused him to make a thoughtful noise and then nod.

He then turned to his daughter and Rothchild, "Well, I am flummoxed. I think the only thing we can do is just try to stay friendly at the moment. Another stabilising force in the Wasteland will probably only prove to be a benefit in our efforts to eradicate the Super Mutant threat. Unless you think you could convince her to come to accept a Senior Scribe position, Sarah?"

Sarah slowly but firmly shook her head.

"Alright, then. For now, we will keep what we know and suspect about this woman confidential. I don't want our toleration or even acceptance of her to become yet another point of friction with our more reactionary elements," the Elder said mildly.

"Casdin is a psychopath. Worse, he is stupid. He still says we should invade Rivet City," his daughter complained.

This caused him to sigh. One possible benefit of their relationship with this doctor woman was that he might be able to get himself a new heart cloned and transplanted. He might need to set up a recurring periodic purchase and treat them as consumables at the rate his subordinates, his daughter included, liked to give him heart attacks.

"Maybe, but he is our psychopath," the Elder said.

Sarah had a sceptical look on her face. Did she truly think Casdin would... what? Mutiny? No. He knew the man. There was no way that Casdin would do that. He'd walk off into the desert on his own before that, but what, then, would he do after that? He didn't think more than a handful of people would join him on his quest, tilting at every technological windmill he saw.

"Sarah, think of some way we can stay in semi-routine contact with this woman without the same obviousness of one of our Senior Scribes spending days at a time at her hospital. Local contacts, scout teams, whatever. You figure it out," the Elder said firmly, before adding, "Also, figure out a way we can get all intelligence that mentions her, that hospital or anything connected with her without it being obvious to the analysts."

Sarah nodded, "Yes, sir."

He glanced at Rothchild, "Anything else to add?"

Rothchild nodded, "I think we should increase surveillance of not only Megaton but Rivet City and Adams as well."

That caused the Elder to purse his lips, "That's tough. We're already kind of spread thin, especially on scout teams. Do you expect her to work with Rivet City or the Enclave? The Enclave, really? They'd throw a bag over her head and whisk her off in a flat minute."

That caused the Head Scribe to chuckle, "Okay. Maybe just Rivet City. The governance of that place is twisty but we know that a woman named Madison Li is heading their research and development wing, and she is for all appearances rather reasonable."

The Elder rapped his fingers on his desk. He'd heard that name before. In fact, he had the mental image of a woman in his head but he couldn't place her. Damn, fallible memory. Was it just in another briefing about Rivet City? "Where have I heard that name before?"

Rothchild said, quickly, "She was one of the lead three researchers for Project Purity, until one of the three died and the other fled."

He slapped his fist into his palm. Of course. James was quite an honourable man. It was such a shame about his wife. Madison Li stayed more in the background if he recalled, and he had the impression that she didn't quite approve of the Brotherhood presence, "Of course, of course. It is such a shame that it never came to fruition. It would have really helped the Wasteland."

His daughter nodded, "And for the Brotherhood too. People would have a lot better opinions on us if they knew we were behind, even if it was only in part, that kind of project."

He sighed. He couldn't rightly blame James for fleeing into a nigh-makebelieve world inside a Vault when his wife died. Maxson knows he had wanted to do something similar when his Anna passed.

"I'll see if I can increase some of the passive intelligence gathering assets in Rivet City, see if we hear anything," he allowed, which caused Rothchild to nod.

"Okay, we'll leave things here then," he concluded the meeting.

---xxxxxx---

The next week proceeded much as the last few days had. The Mechanist and Sophie departed in her truck, which caused her to lose the drone overwatch, as she felt it was much more useful for them on the road, where ambushes were common. She wanted to produce another, perhaps of an improved design, but her stock of Eyebot processors that were nil.

She had already informed Moira Brown and her employees that worked in the pharmacy that she would pay a premium for them but hadn't had any offers yet. It made her want to go back to the fourth floor of that hospital and farm the thirty or so floating murder machines, but she didn't feel confident enough to do that. Plus, she didn't have her truck. Her days of walking places on her feet like a peasant were at an end if she had anything to say about it.

Most of the time, she simply enjoyed her life and worked on her projects. However, Lily did work in the hospital every third day, and her return was much rejoiced both by Dr Taylor and Bonesaw, who had been working every other day while she was gone.

Today, however, she got a surprise when she walked into exam room two. She would have recognised the woman, but with her enhanced reality tags, she didn't have to. Right above her head floated [Minigun Bridge Bitch (Surprise 77%, Shock 59%)].

It was clear the woman recognised her, too, even if she was wearing a tasteful ensemble and a white lab coat instead of her combat bodysuit and body armour. Lily even had a stethoscope hanging around her neck, for verisimilitude's sake, even though she often didn't need to use it to hear someone's heartbeat or breath sounds.

Perhaps the best social strategy would be just to pretend that she had never seen the woman before? Her social assistant was silent. "Uhhh..." she said elegantly, "...so what seems to be the problem today?"

Shit, she hadn't even looked at the woman's chart.