62 Back and Forth

The man named Sibley started to move to grab the plasma pistol at his waist, and Lily was about to fry him as there was no way she was going to allow him to point that weapon at her head. She had already thought in the past couple of seconds that she had perhaps made a mistake just after threatening the man. Both her social assistant as well as her memories in the Army were telling her that Sarah Lyons would likely feel honour or duty-bound to defend the asshole, even if she agreed with her that he was an asshole.

She definitely didn't want Sarah Lyons to die; she was one of the most reasonable parts of the Brotherhood. Plus, killing Elder Lyons' daughter likely wouldn't be good for her long-term survival unless she went into hiding or instituted some sort of Total War and searched for the closest nuclear bombs to throw at the Citadel. She doubted many people around the Wasteland would trust her after that, though, so this was entirely suboptimal.

If only she had said something that was a bit more ambiguous. She could have played it off. It is hard to turn "you will die screaming" into a joke or sarcastic quip, though. It was too specific. It was her first thought, though, after being threatened by a hateful bully in her home.

Perhaps she had been ill-served by her instincts, as for nearly three centuries, it would have been more or less a normal response to do a little "sleeve damage" if threatened like that in her home. No one would think too badly of her. She had to remember nobody here could come back from the dead like she was used to. She was only too aware of it when it concerned herself, but some of her ingrained instincts when dealing with others might need some careful reflection.

Still, it seemed like things were spiralling out of her control as Sibley's hand was already closing around the grip of his plasma pistol.

She would judge how well Sibley's power armour handled the electro beams and try to disable Sarah's Power Armour without killing her. Alternately, two Labourtrons were rushing to her room right now. Neither Lyons nor Sibley was wearing helmets, and if she could prevent Lyons from killing her for long enough for one to come in and dart the woman, she would have all the time she needed to explain how she was really not to blame. She should really build herself a dart gun. She felt like this wasn't the first time she had thought that, either.

Only in the most extreme case where Sarah Lyons was about to kill her would she trigger the concealed devices inside the decorative panels on the wall.

However, right before she pulled the mental trigger on the turrets, she was surprised by a bellowing Sarah Lyons, "YOU WILL STAND DOWN, KNIGHT SIBLEY."

Wow, what a command voice. It snapped both her and Sibley out of their imminent murderous behaviour. It was orders of magnitude better than the command voice she had developed as an NCO, but it just goes to show you the difference between a woman who spent four years in the Army to pay for college and a woman who was basically born to command men and women in battle.

Lily decided to rotate the turrets upwards so that they were not directly pointed at Sibley as a sign she was willing to de-escalate. They moved fastest in that axis, anyway, so they would be able to train back on his body in less than one hundred milliseconds, so it was basically just a gesture. But a gesture was what her social assistant was demanding she accomplish, some gesture of conciliation.

She didn't have an idea how to do that and still not potentially get shot in the face by a plasma pistol. However, when Lyons startled both of them and Sibley kind of stood down by letting go of his pistol, she realized she could do a similar thing.

The two Scribes looked like they were really close to ducking for cover, Lyons looked furious, and Sibley looked mostly unrepentant. Lyons turned to stare at her and said mildly, "Dr St. Claire. While I assure you that Knight Sibley's outburst was in no way authorized, nor is his sentiment in any way official Brotherhood policy, and while I am sympathetic to the traumatic feelings being threatened in your home may engender in you, I cannot allow you to kill Knight Sibley, whether it be painful or painless."

Was that last bit a joke? Lily allowed herself to look only slightly sullen before nodding, "Perhaps I was... 'ow do you say? 'asty."

Sibley looked like he was radiating anger at the idea that threatening to murder him was only being described as hasty.

Lyons then turned to Sibley. Her tone was a lot less friendly, "Knight Sibley. You will immediately leave this building and proceed to the LZ, wherein you shall wait patiently for further orders. If anything other than 'Yes, sir' comes out of your mouth, or if you deviate from these orders in the slightest degree, then you will face charges of Usurpation of Command Authority when we return to the Citadel. Acknowledge."

There was a hiss of surprise from both Scribes. Lily took that to mean that this charge was a serious one. She didn't recognize it precisely from the UCMJ she remembered in her past life, but there were some similar charges that, in wartime, were capital charges and might end up with a charged soldier facing a firing squad. It sounded like she was basically close to levelling charges of mutiny on him, using other words.

Plus, the fact that she dressed him down so thoroughly in front of two Scribes and a stranger meant that Lyons might be really, truly angry.

That was interesting. Sibley still seemed to radiate anger too and looked almost like he was going to complain until he looked into Paladin Lyons' eyes; then, he bit down on what he was going to say and managed to growl out, "Yes, sir."

"Execute. Dismissed," said Lyons firmly.

Somehow he managed to do a sharpish-looking about-face in Power Armour, bringing his right toe back to behind the left heel and then pivoting one hundred and eighty degrees before walking out of the room without saying another word. Lily was impressed at that drill. It seemed like an impossible manoeuvre in Power Armour, and he had clearly practised it. It also seemed highly passive-aggressive.

Sibley paused outside the door when seeing a half dozen robots waiting for him but then continued on without saying anything else.

It was a bit of awkward silence for a moment. Her social assistant recommended a self-deprecating joke, but she wasn't very good at being authentically self-deprecating. Instead, she just coughed a little and said softly, "Well, zhat was a little awkward."

Sarah Lyons stared at her for a moment before saying mildly, "You know, you can't just kill everyone who makes an off-hand ambiguous threat to you."

Lily didn't know that she agreed with that. In fact, she pouted a little bit and muttered, "Never do your enemy a minor injury."

That caused Lyons to chuckle a little bit and shake her head, "I don't think a doctor should be, as a rule, quoting or taking advice from Machiavelli. Plus, Sibley is just misguided; he doesn't have to be your enemy."

That she disagreed with strenuously, but she would allow Lyons to think that she believed her. Why? Because of another piece of advice from that same Italian philosopher, namely, 'No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution.' T

The obvious corollary was that an enemy would never suspect the mild-mannered, somewhat agreeable person as the true mastermind of an attack against them, which was another reason why she screwed up with Sibley.

So, she smiled and said, "Perhaps you are right. I apologize for my actions; I overreacted. I am a bit sensitive to zhe idea of someone coming into my home and zhreatening me and trying to take my life's work from me. I tend to react with violence if I zhink zhat is happening."

Lyons smirked a little bit and nodded, "Yes, that is exactly the type of understated warning you should have used with Sibley. It's what we call... diplomatic. And I hear you."

Diplomacy, huh? The last time someone suggested she needed to utilize diplomacy, she financed the construction of an independent space habitat so she could hide behind it's putative status as it's own polity, even if she and the other founders mostly controlled its government from the shadows.

That was a great success, as for some reason, there was a social taboo about having a business relationship or military alliance with her personally, but if it was couched as a relationship with the independent polity of Tannhäuser Station, then most people didn't seem to mind.

After that, Lily and Ferguson resumed discussions both about her treatments and Vector MkI. Lily talked to him in some detail about the philosophy of the carrier and its general method of action but not about any specifics. It was enough that he understood the concepts and would save him a lot of time if he wanted to create a similar virus, but still unspecific enough that it would likely take him anywhere from one to two years to create a similar system.

Having actual genetic samples of her Vector wouldn't actually help him too much, as by now, it was over thirty-five per cent novel RNA structures, and who was to say which portion covered which feature? She felt he would make a lot faster progress starting from a base coronavirus of his own and doing as she did rather than trying to reverse engineer her work without any of her notes.

The other Scribe, Williams, was mostly quiet but occasionally would speak when something along her speciality of general medicine was discussed, and Sarah Lyons seemed to try to avoid falling asleep while standing up.

After about an hour when the conversation had hit most of its salient points, Lyons said, "Doctor, it sounds like nothing you're doing is bad or even dangerous, and I am not going to come down on you just for what you could do with what you know, not when you have the potential to do some real good in the Wasteland. I just have a few questions and would like to discuss a possible purchase or trade with you."

Lily hummed and thought that was very interesting and, dare she say, diplomatically stated. Sarah Lyons, herself, would not come down on her, but she clearly wasn't speaking for the Brotherhood as a whole there. "Of course, Star Paladin. Ask away."

Lyons nodded, "This one is mainly just my curiosity. What did you haul away out of that virology lab below the University of Maryland?"

Ferguson looked interested, "Oh, I didn't know that was you."

Lily chuckled and decided to be honest as there was really nothing incriminating about it, "Miscellaneous loot, like biohazard suits, and lab equipment, but zhe main things I got were a whole freezer full of synthetic guide RNA useful in gene editing, and a sample of zhe common cold virus, a coronavirus. Zhat was the source of my Vector system actually; originally it was zhis coronavirus." She hummed, "I also got a sample of HIV-2, a retrovirus, but I 'avent used zhat for anything. Originally I was zhinking about using it as my base, but zhere are a lot of disadvantages to zhe reverse transcription process, even if it is useful as a gene carrier. I need my Vector system to be very resistant to forming viable chimaeras or mutants, and zhat is just impossible with zhe retrovirus."

Sarah Lyons blinked several times, "Okay, I didn't understand a word you said after 'cold virus.' Second, also as a curiosity, if you don't mind me asking. What was all that seeming computer equipment you brought back in your truck trailer just a few days ago?"

Lily smiled, "Ah, zhat. Zhat is something very, very interesting. It's a fully functional cloning machine I found at what shall remain an undisclosed location."

Both Williams and Ferguson looked interested. Williams asked, "A therapeutic cloning machine? We haven't had a working model since we arrived in DC, which is why we need to replace so many limbs with cybernetic replacements, which often don't work as well as a person's regular limbs."

Lily stared at her like she was crazy. Cybernetic limbs that were... worse than a person's regular limbs?! What heresy. "What kind of medieval backwards cybernetics are you using over zhere in the Pentagon?"

Ferguson looked offended for a moment.

Lily then shook her head, "Sorry. Cybernetics, and its obvious corollary robotics, is a secondary interest of mine. I've sold two replacement limbs and have a contract to replace two more in the coming days. None of them is inferior to a human's natural limbs except in irrelevent ways."

At that, he looked more interested, "Would you be willing to allow me to sit in on the design consult and surgery of one or both of those limb replacements?"

Lily hummed. One leg and one arm, if she recalled. They were going to show up for an initial consult tomorrow after waiting for Lily to return to Megaton for some time. These would be mostly built of aluminium, with only some of the features that integrate with the patient's nerves being very interesting, and Lily knew that technology was already prevalent in this Universe. It wasn't what she would consider secret at all.

She finally nodded, "I don't mind. You would 'ave to stay here in Megaton for at minimum three days. If you want, I can offer you both a room and protection 'ere in zhe building for your time with us."

She noticed that Ferguson was clearly not in Lyons' direct chain of command because he neither asked her permission nor even consulted with her, except for asking, "Star Paladin, would it be possible to have the Lyons Pride arrange transport back to the Citadel for me in five days? I will have a comprehensive report on everything by then."

She paused and then nodded, "Yes, but I'd like you to give me a preliminary report in private before I leave that I can take back to the Elder while you're in the field." She then glanced at Lily and asked, "I appreciate you indicating you would protect him as a guest, but it would set my mind at ease if I could return with one or two Initiates to act as his bodyguards during his stay."

Lily squinched her face a little. She was about to nix that, or at least demand that they do not show up in Power Armour, but it occured to her that she could easily and covertly get a scan of an Initiate's Power Armour more easily than she could wave an obvious scientific device at Sarah Lyons and not have the incredibly switched-on woman immediately question what she was doing.

Finally, she nodded, "Zhat would be fine. If zhey don't mind barracks-style accommodations, as my current supply of guest rooms is limited."

That caused her to grin, "If they complain, make sure to tell me. I would love to hear about that."

The Scribe named Williams looked wistful and said, "I'd love to stay as well, but if I did, there would be no physician on duty at the Pride Station GNR." That was interesting; they had a clinic or medical bay at Three Dog's place. Well, it was a giant building in a strategic location, so it made some sense.

"Lastly, when we discovered the full range of your services and products, we noticed you were selling some pre-war military implants, namely the PHOENIX system. The Lyons Pride would like to acquire some of your stock, preferably at a discount, as we do not need you to perform the implantation surgery," said Sarah Lyons in her usual no-nonsense tone.

Wait, they were offering to buy them? Or was this 'discount' going to be suggested at ninety per cent or some ridiculous number? It was also interesting that she couched this as a purchase from her own independent command and not the Brotherhood as a whole. That made it seem less likely she was trying to screw her.

"'Ow many?" Lily asked, carefully.

Lyons began her haggling, "Presently? Five, hopefully at a price of three thousand caps, or equivalent, a piece."

Her retail price listed was eight thousand! She replied testily, only slightly exaggerating, "You are trying to make all seven of my children starve with a price like that! I was nearly incinerated finding zhose zhings and had to jump out of a tenth-story window, to my death, just to bring them back here!"

Granted, she was willing to sell them at about half price if she liked the person. And she wanted Lyons to survive, but three was too low.

Ferguson seemed amused, "You have children?"

"As far as you know!" she replied testily.

And Lyons smirked, "And you died?"

"I got better!" Lily claimed.

After bullshitting them a little bit, they got down to haggling, which Sarah Lyons was really good at. Lily felt like she lost a skill check when she agreed to sell them at a price of three thousand five hundred per unit.

"Do you accept payment in gold?" Lyons asked.

Lily nodded, "Of course, or any precious metal, or any valuable commodity but price is only negotiable at zhe time of sale. I won't agree to a standard exchange rate. Even the price in caps can vary day to day at my discretion. I mean, we are using bottle caps for currency, as ridicilous as zhat is. Zhe entire economy will collapse one day when someone gets the Nuka Cola bottling machine working again."

Then Lily offered slyly, "I also take payment in information, either useful intelligence or knowledge, like digital copies of books I do not yet 'ave and similar things."

Sarah snorted, but Ferguson said, "We often make trades like that, but it's against SOPs to give you a list of everything we have. If you give us a list of what books and media you have, we will mark the ones we do not have give you an abbreviated list of what we're willing to trade on a one-for-one basis. Or for caps or trade, also."

Lily nodded slowly, "I can do that, but it 'as to be an apples-to-apples trade."

Ferguson asked, "What do you mean?"

"I mean that I won't trade a copy of Einstein's paper on the photoelectric effect that won him the Nobel prize, assuming you don't have one, for a copy of The Little Engine That Could," Lily said wryly.

"Ah, I understand. Yes, we try to trade like for like," he said with a nod.

Lily had already had the titles of all of her digitized books and films, along with some of her digitized songs that she intended to also trade to Three Dog, copied over to a holotape, along with five PHOENIX systems and eight inhalers, each containing five of both her treatments and their reversing agents that she was donating out of the goodness of her heart.

Or perhaps she was being mercenary and hoping the Brotherhood would become a customer after studying them for a while.

One of her Termitrons opened the door to deliver two boxes to her. The three of them turned to glance at the robot as it walked in. Sarah Lyons and Ferguson looked shocked, although Williams just looked interested.

She took the two boxes from the robot, thanked it, and watched it leave. She was glancing between Ferguson and Sarah curiously, "You seem to 'ave an unusually intense reaction to my newly designed Labourtron chassis."

Sarah stared at her, "That was a Labourtron?" Then she shook her head, "Doctor, I need to ask you something else. Are you familiar with The Institute?"

Lily blinked, tilting her head to the side. "Yes, I zhink the best form factor for bipedal utility robots is the 'uman-form, or at least the 'uman-like form. It 'as proven superiority; just look at us."

She then hummed and shook her head, "The Institute? I know a lot of places that are institutes, some close by like the Naval Research Institute that became Rivet City. But I don't know any place that would be so arrogant as to call themselves The Institute."

Both Sarah Lyons and Ferguson stared at her, as if trying to divine her truthiness. That was an interesting reaction. Wasn't she planning on researching possible groups that used bipedal robots like her, after getting assaulted on the bridge by that minigun-woman? It sounds like she might have found the mysterious group.

Sarah Lyons paused before saying, "I... think you are telling the truth, plus that robot looked a bit different than what I would have expected for a Institute synth. Can you bring it back in for Scribe Ferguson to examine?"

Lily frowned, "Only if you tell me who zhis Institute is and why you seemed to be so concerned. Because, I 'ad one group of people get terrified and attack me once already when zhey saw me with a few of my robots when I was on zhe way to scavenge zhat cloning machine."

Sarah Lyons paused, and then nodded. "I will. Williams, this is classified information, generally limited to Senior Scribes unless there is a need to know such as anyone sent on a mission to the Commonwealth, but I think it might be best to elevate your clearance level at this time."

Williams just shrugged, "I won't lie and say I'm not interested."

The Termitron walked back into the room and stood out to be examined. Lily told the older Scribe, "You can even use its diagnostic port if you like to confirm it is a rebuilt RobCo model." She stopped herself from warning him not to hack it as, in truth, she would be kind of happy because that meant she got to discover and permanently patch a vulnerability she wasn't aware of in controlled settings. She had already disconnected this robot from the network and was controlling it directly, just in case.

While the Scribe examined her robot thoroughly, she got a briefing about this mysterious organization called the Institute. She wasn't sure how much was true and how much was technophobic Brotherhood bullshit, as most of what she heard didn't sound so bad to her. Why wouldn't they use robots and simple AI?

However, when she got around to telling her a number of ways that a person could identify an Institute operative or synth, Lily started to rub the back of her head. She suddenly realized that Grace and Miller definitely thought she was part of this Institute. Miller even basically out and out said it.

Towards the end, Ferguson returned to stand next to Sarah Lyons.

She hummed, "I suppose it wouldn't 'elp my case zhat all of my rebuilt lasers use a blue-wavelength light just like zhis Institute? In my defense, I was hoping to go past zhe visible light spectrum and into the ultra-violet, but zhe standard Pre-War laser designs just can't hack it that far up zhe energy saddle. I zhink I 'ave given some people I have met who must have known about zhis group zhe wrong impression."

Both Ferguson and Sarah Lyons looked like they wanted to face-palm or something. Finally, Lyons asked exasperatedly, "Seriously? Seriously?"

Ferguson raised a hand and said, reasonably, "We have a number of samples of Institute energy weapons that we have recovered from missions into the Commonwealth. Dr St. Claire, if you would allow us to examine one of your weapons, either a pistol or rifle would be best; the odds that both you and the Institute use a similar design and components are... almost nil, assuming you are telling the truth."

Lily sighed. She glanced down at her laser pistol in a holster. It was the prototype of her Mk4 that used carbon fibre and aluminium frame much like the AirTaser design. Allowing the Brotherhood to inspect its inner workings was... sub-optimal. Most of her components were clearly superior to the standard AEP7 pistol that was ubiquitous in the Wasteland. Worst of all, most were simple and obvious improvements that the Brotherhood would likely be able to duplicate if they had any kind of industrial base, which she knew they did.

Lily decided to tell it them straight, "My laser pistol is improved from zhe standard AEP7, but not so much zhat I don't zhink you could learn how to build similar ones if you examine mine. It's all just slightly smaller, slightly better components. You understand what I'm saying?"

Lyons nodded, "Yeah, that you don't want anyone who might understand it to get a look inside. I get that, but what you need to understand is that the Institute is a potentially existential threat to us; plus, they have demonstrated what could only be described as despicable behaviour, such as wiping out entire settlements north of here. So you need to weigh the desire to keep a slightly better laser pistol to yourself against the alternative where the most heavily armed and militant group thinks you may be a current or former member of their most dangerous potential enemy. We consider this group a more long-term threat than the Enclave, Dr St. Claire." That was a pretty well-done diplomatic threat, Lily thought. Lily took note of it for later.

Sarah didn't mention that these Institute people were murderous assholes in her previous briefing. Lily thought that the Brotherhood were just scared of anyone that had better tech than them, but if this Institute actually did wipe out towns, that was something else. But why would a former University want to wipe out towns? It was so cartoonishly villainous that she wondered if it wasn't propaganda. Still, Lyons seemed to believe it, according to her social assistant.

"Fine. Fine. 'owever, you 'ave to trade me one of your laser pistols for it. I can't make all zhe parts, and have a limited number of possible replacements," she said grouchily. The fact that she intended to build a replacement pistol model using the slightly larger Protectron rubies was irrelevant!

Ferguson shrugged and pulled out his own AEP7, "Fine, but you are counter-signing my requisition order for a replacement, Star Paladin. I'm pretty sure they won't let me keep Dr St. Claire's model, especially if it's better. They'll have it to bits five minutes after we get home."

That caused Lyons a pause, and it wasn't surprising. Nobody, nobody wanted to get on the bad side of the Quartermaster Corps. Finally, she nodded.

She pulled her own pistol out, flipped it around and handed it to the Senior Scribe grip first. He took it and examined it, removing and reseating the energy cell.

He shrugged and passed it to Lyons, "It already looks radically different. This is much more streamlined than the AEP7 or the Institute equivalent. I can already guarantee that unless this is a secret Institute prototype, they didn't build it. We'll know for sure when you take it back. I judge the risk of staying here is minimal and will continue with my plan to stay here and observe. Please have one of the Initiates bring me a replacement sidearm. I'd recommend you approach Scribe Peabody, Head Scribe Rothchild and your father directly on this matter and discreetly. Especially if you want to keep the Doctor's name out of a certain faction's mouth."

Sarah nodded and placed the pistol in her pack after removing the energy cell. Lily picked up the larger box on her desk and handed it to her, "Zhere are five PHOENIX devices in here, as well as a holotape zhat lists most of the books and media I 'ave. I also included five doses of all of my present genetic zherapies, as well as their reversing agents, and zheir instructions of administration and pre and post-administration protocols. Zhey will need to be frozen within forty-eight hours."

Sarah Lyons looked confused, "Why the bonus, as it were? By your retail prices, that is a lot of caps."

Lily pursed her lips, "I'm 'opeful zhat you as an organization will become a customer, but I am not naive to zhink zhat your organization would approve my treatments without some study. So... study."

Ferguson piped up, "Please deliver those perishable items to my lab; my assistant will see that they're put in one of the cryogenic freezers."

Lily then handed a smaller box over, "Zhis is from me to you, as an apology for making your life more difficult by zhreatening to murder your subordinate. One PHOENIX device and two doses of each of my treatments. You can keep zhem on ice, as it were until zhere is consensus about zheir safety and efficacy."

Lily almost withheld this second box after being slightly coerced into giving up one of her laser pistols, but the truth was she did not want to be mistaken for this mysterious group of mad scientists. Giving the Brotherhood the tech to slightly miniaturize some of their laser weapons was... unfortunate, a small price to pay to make sure no tragic misunderstandings took place.

Sarah didn't prevaricate or decline the gift; she just nodded and took it, "Thank you. I appreciate that. One of the purchased units was going to be for me, but now I can make sure someone else, probably one of our scouts who takes high-risk assignments, gets one also. I'll have the gold brought back with the two Initiates; thank you for trusting we're good for it."

Lily humphed, "Well, I know where you live."

The three of them walked out of the room, and they weren't naive enough to assume that a borrowed conference room from her would be private, so they all left her building. Lily assumed the one named Ferguson would be returning shortly.

She sighed. That was exhausting. She didn't know how she would categorize that exchange. Somewhat in between neutral to a disaster? She did learn some important information about a potential power to the north.

She had to say she didn't entirely believe what Lyons was telling her. Dehumanizing competitors was a story as old as time. Surely, such men of science couldn't be cartoon villains.

Then again, that group on the bridge was very scared of her; that was no mistake. Was the man they were defending some sort of defector? Some chosen one that would use the Force to defeat them after finding out he was related to the leader of the Institute?

She snorted; that was too fabulous a tale to be true. Not everything was Star Wars.