Chapter 9

Deacon looked at me. “Well, I guess that couldn’t have gone much better.”

“Which? Cleaning out the basement of the Slocum Joe’s, or dealing with Danse and Maxson?”

“Danse and Maxson. I didn’t have any doubts about getting or retrieving the prototype. I’ve seen you in action. I admit that watching you take down that second Behemoth was a thing of beauty, though. I don’t think there’s anyone else who’s actually ever done that.”

“I agree with Deacon,” Nick said. “I’ve seen a Deathclaw and Behemoth go at it before and the Behemoth won. Not particularly something I care to witness again.”

“Well, at least we got even more parts so you can fix yourself up if need be, and more of those synth chips for Curie to play with,” I said.

“Oui, madam. While I lack the requisite electronic equipment for a full breakdown and schematic study, I have made several discoveries in the differences between the chips and components in fully robotic synths versus the one we removed from K1-98. There are some similarities to the Courser chips in some of the more advanced robotic synths.”

Nick replied, “So, call this my detective itch, Curie. What the Railroad is calling the Gen 1 synths, you’re calling robotic synths. They call Gen 2 synths a Gen 1 with coverings, and Gen 3 are effectively human. Where do I fit into this?”

“Ah, monsieur Nick, as you noted, you are a prototype. You do have a component in you that I have been able to detect, but it is much more primitive than any of the others. As for my nomenclature usage, the robotic synths are just that. Advanced robots with metallic physical components that emulate a human endoskeleton. It does not matter whether they are the Gen 1 or 2. They appear to be potentially as capable of autonomous functionality as Codsworth or myself, but are highly limited by their programming restrictions, although I suspect that the two of us are unique individuals, as we have been continuously in operation for more than two centuries”

“As for you, you are like Glory mentally in that you have the full human capacity for inspiration and everything that is human, while not having a human body. And then, of course, there are the Gen 3 synths. From my studies, they truly are unrelated to the Gen 1 or Gen 2 synths, simply because the Gen 1 and Gen 2 are not actually synthetic beings, simply humanoid robots.”

Deacon shook his head. “That’s going to irritate Glory, but will vindicate some of the rest of us at headquarters in our decisions. But what about some of the other robots, that have been operating for that long?”

I shook my head. “I suspect we’ll have to handle those on a case by case basis. Most of the military robots that we’ve encountered simply never had flexible programming in the first place. I think the reason General Atomics made Codsworth so flexible was because he went to my house, and they wanted to keep me happy since I was with RobCo.”

The vertibird had saved us a long walk, taking us directly from the airport to Lexington. Once done, we walked back to the Old North Church and heading down to the Railroad headquarters. First thing I did was toss a bundle to Carrington. “Here you go. One prototype recovered from a formerly secret headquarters.”

“Oh, um, thank you,” he said.

Desdemona was standing at her table, looking over a map of the Boston area. I could see the mirth in her eyes when I treated Carrington so casually. She stood up and lit a fresh cigarette. “So, congratulations on recovering that. I’m guessing it was difficult?”

“You should have seen it, Dez. She carried me out on her shoulder, shooting synths left and right, without hardly breaking a sweat,” Deacon exclaimed.

Piper coughed, with her voice remarkably sounding like, “Bullshit!”

Desdemona laughed. “Okay, I’ll take that comment with the usual grain of salt. But in all seriousness, what happened?”

I shook my head. “Not much, really. We went in through the backdoor tunnel, killed all the Gen 1 synths that were guarding things, and recovered the prototype. We were in and out in about three hours, total.”

She frowned. “So, what took you so long in coming back here?”

Piper laughed. “That was Tina doing what she does best. Better than shooting a feral ghoul. While we were on the way out, we found a Brotherhood of Steel outpost set up in the Cambridge Police Station. When we were on the way back, we escorted the leader to the airport, where their airship is moored.”

“We knew that it was there. You’d have to have been blind to miss it coming through. We’ve been watching them, since it appears they’re here to hunt for synths, which would make them our enemy.”

“Well, yes and no. They’re here to fight the Institute, but I think once their leader gets over the ass-chewing that Tina gave him, they’ll consider things regarding synths in a new light.”

“Really? What happened?” Desdemona sounded intrigued.

I smiled. “Law and history. I’ll fully explain later, but for now, we needed to drop the prototype off with Carrington before we head back into the Glowing Sea. You won’t have any problems with the Brotherhood. I’ve given them a mission that should take them at least a couple of weeks, and we’ll be back long before then.”

“You gave the Brotherhood a mission? And they agreed to do it? You’re damned right I want that explanation. But I won’t keep you for now. Good luck and good hunting.”

We left the church and headed straight for Goodneighbor. “You didn’t think I’d forget?”

“No, madam. It’s just ... I find myself with both elation at the prospect of being able to contribute more to science once I have a human brain, yet also fear that something will go wrong and everything will be lost.”

Nick chuckled. “Well, I think that pretty well settles the argument about whether robots or synths can become human. If that’s not a description of human emotions, then I don’t know what is.”

“Oh, Monsieur Nick, you are right. And in my confusion, trying to fit human emotions into my neural networks, I forgot to mention something I have discovered that may be important. When Madam was injured and I treated her wound, my sensors scanned her automatically as part of my research of human injuries. I have found a match.”

“Wait, what?” I asked. “A match between someone you’ve scanned and me?”

“Oui, madam. I did not want to mention this near the soldiers, but these are your friends. Your genome is a seventy percent match for all three of the synths that I have scanned.”

That stopped me in my tracks. I repeated myself. “Wait, what?”

“What the hell are you talking about, Curie?”, Piper squeaked, very upset.

“Oh, I am sorry. I have said things to upset you. I do not mean that Madam is a synth. I scanned her routinely when I treated her. She does not have a synth chip. What I meant is that each of the three synths that I have scanned share approximately sixty percent of the same genome, the same DNA. Of that sixty percent, approximately seventy percent matches hers.”

Deacon had a serious frown on his face. “We’re in a safe spot right now. Do Piper and I a favor, and take samples from both of us.”

“Of course, Monsieur.” She quickly did so. “Other than normal genetic markers, you each share less than one percent of DNA with any synth.”

I sat down, right there, in the rubble of a Boston street, my hands barely able to hold me up. I had never felt like this before. It was an empty feeling, like something had been ripped from my body and soul. It seemed from a distance that something was making noise, but I couldn’t make anything out. I felt like I was drowning in emotion. Then it felt like I was drowning for real when I inhaled a bunch of water.

I started coughing, spitting water out and shaking my head. “What the hell was that about?” I was irritated and rather wet.

“That was getting you out of the shock that had just hit your system,” Nick said, putting another bottle of water away now that it wasn’t needed. “I’ve seen it before. You went into an overload, your brain just about shut down because it didn’t want to recognize something.”

I wiped the water off my face. Deacon offered me a hand up, which I gratefully took. “Wow, um, sorry about that.”

Piper came up and wrapped her arms around me. “I love you, Tina. So does Gwen. We’ll help you through this.”

“Thanks, Piper.” I shook my head. “Fuck! This is... fuck!”

Codsworth was concerned. “I’m sorry, mum. I know you’re upset, but I have to admit that I am puzzled about your reaction. I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

“It’s simple, Codsworth. Whatever it was that I saw in Kellogg’s memories was a lie.”

Piper gasped. “The Broken Mask incident! Oh, my god.”

Valentine said, “The synth that did that was still mostly metal and plastic inside. If I had to guess, I’d say he was a prototype like me, the carrying through of the next step. Reducing the number of artificial parts while encasing them in human flesh. But if that’s so, then that means we’re not hunting for a ten-year-old child anymore.”

Deacon shook his head. “That was just over sixty years ago. Is that even possible?”

“I’ve been out here on my own for a hundred years. So not only is it possible, it’s also probable,” Nick explained.

Codsworth was still a step behind. “My apologies, but I still don’t understand.”

Curie spun so all three of her eyes were on him. “My colleague, it is quite simple from a scientific perspective. I will scan the synth that will become my human body before the transfer is done, as I will no longer have access to certain rapid analysis afterwards. But with three positives so far, from different individuals, there is a near certainty that all synths will have the same results. The main biological source of DNA that was used to create them came from someone closely related to Madam.”

My voice was almost hollow. “Shaun.” I bent my head, closed my eyes and took deep breathes, several of them. Almost like a dog shaking himself after getting wet, I shook my head, then raised my head back up. “Come on. Let’s get to Goodneighbor. We’ve at least one more synth to meet up with, then a long walk back through the Glowing Sea.”

We had no trouble getting to Goodneighbor. While walking through town to get to the Memory Den, we saw two ghouls standing over a body. “Damn! He looked just like Sammy!”, one of them said.

The other said, “Yeah, but he didn’t act like him.”

“What’s going on here?”, I asked.

“We shot this synth that was trying to infiltrate things here,” the first one explained. I motioned, and Curie flew over to the corpse. “What’s she doing?”, he asked.

“Making sure he was a synth.” Curie rapidly worked, then was done. “Results?”

“Oui, madam. Synth component confirmed. And ... the same genetic results as well.”

“Thanks, Curie. Okay, guys, you shot him, you clean the mess up. And ... good work.”

Upon entering the Memory Den, Irma directed us all downstairs. I was rather surprised to see Glory talking to Doctor Amari. She turned to me. “Wait? You’re the one who wants to put a robot brain into G5-19? You know she’s a synth. We’re supposed to protect them.”

“You’re right, we are. But is G5-19 actually still in that body, or is she like someone from my time who is only being kept alive, on life support while their brain is dead?”

Amari said, “Glory, she wanted new memories. She knew her personality would be all but completely erased. There’s always a risk when we remove memories like this that something will go wrong. But now her body is dying, the life support was only keeping it alive. G5 herself is gone.”

Glory wasn’t convinced. “I don’t know, this still doesn’t feel right. She was tough, so tough. I remember her having to get her memories wiped time and time again by the SRB because she wouldn’t quit.”

“Glory, before we do this, if we do this, I need to have Curie do one quick check on G5, like we did with you. Please, it’s important, and ... I’ll explain afterwards,” I said.

“Fine. Do it. It can’t hurt her now.”

Doctor Amari raised the lid on the memory lounger where the synth woman lay still, barely breathing. G5 had a good-looking face, medium brown hair, and was of medium build. Curie took up her hand, gently, then removed the smallest amount of material needed to run her tests. She then gently placed the hand back down.

Piper stepped to one side so she could see better, then gasped when she actually saw the face of G5, looking first at G5, then to me. “Tina, I ... my god, if we needed more proof of what we thought...”

Deacon and Nick both joined Piper. Both of them agreed with her.

Curie finished her test. “The test is complete, madam. The percentage of DNA shared by all of the synths we’ve encountered, including G5, is the same. However, G5 shares ten percent more with you than any other so far, possibly due to gender.”

Amari closed the lounger again. “Well, Glory, what will it be?”

“What the hell is going on here, with that test and such?”

“You said G5 was tough, wouldn’t quit. I know where she got that trait. From me. Like you, she is my ... daughter.” I felt almost relieved to say that.

“What the fuck are you talking about? Come on! Deacon, what’s going on?” Glory was distraught.

“Do we have time for an explanation or not, Doc?”, Deacon asked. Amari shook her head. “Glory, you trust me, as much as anyone trusts me. Let the doc do the procedure and put Curie into her body. Curie has already made a huge discovery that will take more time than G5 has left to fully explain. If she’s allowed to become human, I can only imagine how many more she’ll make.”

Glory closed her eyes. I could see she was in pain, but I dare not comfort her. Not yet. After several moments that seemed much longer, she said, “Fine. Do it.”

Amari sighed with relief. “Quickly, now. Curie, you go here. Let me hook these up to you. Good, just like that. Remain still now. Terminate all non-essential functions.” Amari turned back to her console, began flipping switches and typing commands. “Connection complete. I have access to your friend’s memories. And ... now!”

At exactly the same moment, the robot body that was Curie fell to the floor, the human body that was now Curie suddenly took a deep breath. “Oh, I feel so strange. What is this? I ... my chest. What is happening?”

Doctor Amari said, “Just breathe. It’s an autonomic function. Just let your body do what it must. Listen to me. Can you hear me? What is your name?” She flipped a switch, causing the lid over the memory lounger to open.

Curie said, “My designation is Contagions Vulnerability Robotic Infirmary Engineer, or Curie.” Shakily, she started to get up. Glory and I both helped her stand. “Oh, that is so much better.”

Amari smiled. “Good, very good. Now, let’s test some cognitive functions. What is one plus two?”

“Three.”

“What would you do if I threw a baseball at your head?”

“Uh, move.”

“Think of a strong memory. The first that comes to mind. Tell me about it.”

Curie sighed. “Doctor Burrow was very old. He was the last living scientist in my section of Vault 81. He was on his bed. Very weak. He said to me, ‘Curie, you must... ‘ and he died before he finished the sentence. Oh, my insides feel peculiar. What is that?”

I smiled. “You might be feeling grief. For a friend.”

She frowned. “But this unit has no friends. Wait. There, my chest is tightening when I think of poor Doctor Burrow. And ... I feel ... you have called me your friend before. I feel, something else inside when I think of that. Something different, warm.”

Piper said, “Welcome to being human, Curie.”

Glory stepped back. “Okay, now that we’ve got that out of the way, what the hell were you talking about before?”

Deacon said, “I don’t know if you ever gave it a thought before, Glory, but synths are effectively fully human, just instead of having mechanical parts like the chip in your head, everything else is human. Bones, blood, skin, everything.”

She frowned. “Of course, I know that. I’ve been beat up enough to know that if you hit me in the face I’m going to bleed.”

“But where did you come from? They had to have had some way to create you, to create all the synths. And to do that, they had to have something ... someone ... human to use for their pattern,” he explained. “Bullseye was alive before the war.”

“I know,” Glory interrupted. “I heard this discussion back at HQ about how she was frozen for a couple of centuries. So?”

“So was my family. My husband, my baby son. I woke up once, thawed out, saw my husband murdered, my son taken, by Kellogg. Then I was frozen again. I had no idea how much time had gone by while I was in stasis. When I woke up again, three weeks ago, I first thought that it had only been a few days since my son had been taken. When I looked through Kellogg’s memories here with Doctor Amari, it appeared that it was about ten years ago.”

“You saw how we found out that all synths share a common DNA structure, that they all have quite a bit of DNA in common with each other, about sixty percent. The only way that’s possible is if they used the same person as the basis for whatever process they use to grow you. And of that sixty percent that is the same person, about seventy percent of that matches my DNA. Since we know they didn’t use me as a basis for growing you and all synths, they had to use someone descended from me. Which means that not only is my son in the hands of the Institute, but he’s been used to make synths. That’s why I said what I did earlier. I’m effectively your grandmother.”

“Not only that, but ... Glory, come here, stand next to me,” Piper insisted. “Now, look at Tina and Curie, standing side by side. That’s what I noticed before.”

“But ... G5-19 was my friend for a long time. How is it that she looks like Bullseye?”

Doctor Amari exclaimed, “My God, you’re right. I didn’t notice it myself. What was it you said before, Curie? That G5 had ten percent more than others? You almost look enough like each other to be twins. There’s enough difference to be able to easily tell you apart, but your relationship is obvious.”

Curie was apologetic. “I did not know any of this when I made the request to become human. I am sorry that I have caused such a problem.”

Surprisingly, Glory was the one who responded first. “I’ve always been the tough one with the Railroad. But G5 was tougher than I ever was in the Institute. I can see where she got that, now. This will probably be one of the few times that I’ll ever admit that I was wrong, but I was wrong. Welcome to the world, Curie.”

She turned and looked at Deacon. “Don’t think I’m going all soft here, either. I’ll still kick your ass between your ears if I need to. I’ll ... I’ll see you all back at HQ at some point. Good luck.” With that, she left the basement.

Doctor Amari asked, “So, how is it possible that when you went into Kellogg’s memory that he had a young Shaun with him? Didn’t Mister Valentine have recent records that it wasn’t that long ago they were in Diamond City together?”

“I was wondering that myself,” Nick said. “Those were recent memories. But the first incident with a synth with human characteristics was right at sixty years ago.”

“It’s obvious that they’re using DNA from Shaun to make synths. Otherwise I wouldn’t be so close a match. One thing I considered, but not very likely, was that it wasn’t ten years ago they killed Nate and stole Shaun, but a long time before then. At this point I don’t know how to reconcile what we know with the evidence. This just means I need to get back to Virgil, and quickly.”

Amari asked, “What will you do then?”

“Whatever I have to. Thanks for this, doc. Um, how much do you want for doing this?”

She replied, “Actually, I have a question for Curie.”

“Oui, madam?”

“This is a rather delicate question, but ... your robot body. What were you planning on doing with it?”

“Ah, I see.” She looked at her old form, now completely lifeless in a heap. “I have noticed that humans have a habit of having different exterior coverings, depending upon what they are doing. Since I am now human myself, I consider it to be ... clothing I will never need again. You may do with it as you wish.”

I’d never heard a robot gulp before. “Codsworth, are you alright?”

“Mum, please don’t take this the wrong way, but I have no desire to change clothes myself. I ... feel ... proper in this form.”

“Well, unless you wore a black suit and tie all day, you’d have a heck of a time being a proper English butler any other way. You’re fine, Codsworth,” I reassured him.

With that, we moved some things around, as the robot Curie had been carrying items we could sell or otherwise trade. It only took a few minutes and we were heading back out of Goodneighbor. We made it to Diamond City just before the markets closed. I was able to get more ammo from Arturo, along with a laser rifle for Curie.

“Is this really necessary, madam?”, she asked, holding the weapon in her arms.

“In an ideal world? No. In the one we find ourselves in? Oh, yes. I figure that with a laser, you won’t have to worry about recoil or windage. I don’t want you to take any risks if you can avoid them. There’s a reason I picked up an extra hazmat suit, I knew you would be human this trip. I just hope the critters we killed before haven’t been replaced by too many nasties.”

“Very well. Um, is there something wrong with me? I feel ... something from inside me.” About that time her stomach grumbled loudly.

Piper, Deacon and I laughed. “Let’s get you some noodles. Humans run on food, water, and require sleep. Piper, can we sleep in your office tonight? Nick, we’re going to run back to Sanctuary tomorrow morning, get a Vault suit fitted for Curie, and some armor. If you want to head back to your office and see if Ellie has any cases you need to work on, you can either stay here and do those, or meet us at the Somerville place in a couple of days. We’ll be following the same route in and out to the cave we used coming out the last time.”

“As long as you’re not trying to get rid of me, I’ll at least check in with Ellie. She can get worried about me for some reason. It’s not like I go missing all the time, right?” He chuckled, since that’s how we’d first met. With that, he left us.

“Don’t look at me, boss. I’m staying with you,” Deacon said.

“Wouldn’t dream of getting rid of you, Deacon. I think you’re actually starting to grow up,” I told him.

“Crap, don’t tell that to Dez. Look, we’ve been together a while. I ... well, you’ve done something that I didn’t think would really ever happen again. You’ve become someone I can trust. I’ve ... I’ve got a history, one that I’m not proud of, but I think it’s something you should know, all of you should know.”

I nodded. “We all have something in our past. Come on, let’s go get something to eat, more than just noodles, and you can tell us about it.”

We went to the Dugout Inn for dinner. Vadim was his usual obnoxious self, but at least the food was decent. And we were able to get some privacy, for Deacon to unload his soul to us.

“This is tough for me, because I’m so used to lying to everyone about my history. I take on all sort of different identities to gather information that I sometimes almost forget who I really am. I’ve told people I’m a synth, I’ve told people I’m the real head of the Railroad, I’ve made so much shit up that ... well, let’s just say that to get intelligence, I’ve pretty much done everything you could imagine. But when I was younger, I killed a man and ... I’ve been trying to make up for it ever since.”

He held up his hands to still our protests. “I was a rough kid. A gang member, part of the University Point Deathclaws. Terrible bigots, and I was one of the worst ones. We used to terrorize anyone that we thought might be a synth. Sometimes we were even right, which just made things worse. Well, we took it too far one time. There was a farmer someone accused of being a synth, so we took him out, beat him up, then in the heat of the moment, we lynched him. Except when I cut into his neck to pull out the synth component to show everyone, he didn’t have one. Turns out he was innocent, just someone had a grudge against, and used us to get even.”

“That ... that did it for me. I left the gang, swore them off, and decided that being a farmer was just fine for me. Met a girl, Barbara, and we fell in love. We had our own little farm, were a happy couple, and Barbara was trying to get pregnant. Only thing was, the Deathclaws had heard that Barbara was a synth. So, when I was out taking care of the crops, they came to the house. I heard her scream, but it was too late by the time I got back. She was dead, and they were celebrating that they’d killed a synth.” His voice got quiet, his eyes seeing something that wasn’t in the tavern.

“I went crazy, then. Killed all of them. Tracked down a couple of them that escaped and killed them, too. That brought me to the attention of the Railroad, and ... well, I’ve been with them ever since. They didn’t know I’d been in the gang once, just that I was fighting to help synths. I ... I know that if I told this to Glory, or Carrington, or even Dez, they’d think I was blowing smoke up their ass, because I’ve done that too many times to have credibility about myself with them. But ... I think I can open up to you and be honest, because you ... you know what it’s like to lose someone.”

“I like to think that I’ve got a pretty good bullshit detector, Deacon. Remember, I was a lawyer, and I’ve had to shovel it out myself in court a few times. So, you get the benefit of the doubt from me on this, because it rings true,” I said.

Piper had a frown on her face. “I hate to be the nosy one here, but it sort of comes with the territory of being a reporter. You said that Barbara was trying to get pregnant. This isn’t me trying to be perverted any more than I already am, but ... so far as you could tell, did she have regular human female sexual responses, orgasms and such? And ... did she have periods, like a regular woman?”

Deacon sat back in his chair. “I don’t see how that’s any of your ... oh, shit. I didn’t even think about this until just now. But you’re right. My apologies, Curie, I’m not used to thinking of you as a young woman yet.” His face turned red.

“Monsieur Deacon, are you feeling alright? Your skin tone has drastically changed.”

“I think he’ll be fine, Curie. The reason I asked is ... well, hell, you look like Tina here, and we all know how she and I feel about each other. Thing is, you’re not a robot now. You don’t just have a human body as a replacement for your robot body, you are human. That means as a female, you have to watch out for things like yeast infections, wiping from front to back, never from back to front, and all the hormonal imbalances that come with having monthly periods. That is, if synths have periods.”

“Ah, the human menstrual cycle. Peak fertility for the human female is typically half way between the time defined by the starting and stopping of this. Oh, does this mean I will experience personally the difficulties I’ve only studied?”, Curie asked.

“Probably, depending upon how Deacon answers once he figures out how to speak again. My cycle has been thrown off by being frozen. Today’s the 14^th, I’d normally be just finishing up. Which, as messy as it sounds, is another good reason for wearing the Vault suits. You don’t have to worry as much about tampons or napkins, just cleaning the inside of the Vault suit, which is bad enough,” I explained.

Deacon closed his eyes. “God, this is the kind of conversation I never thought I’d be a part of, that’s for damned sure.” He shook his head. “Not exactly one of the topics we trained on, discussion of feminine hygiene. But, in answer to your question, Barbara and I were together for seven months. From a ... sexual ... perspective, she responded normally. As for periods ... I’m not saying this to piss you ladies off, but a joke among guys is how can something bleed that much and not die? Of course, she had periods.”

His face grew still. “All but the last one...”

I put my hand on his. “I’m so sorry, Deacon.”

“Thanks, boss. I appreciate it.”

We finished up in relative silence. At least until the end. The expression on Curie’s face changed into a frown. “Oh, my. I have eaten, and now I feel ... feel...” She cut loose with a tremendously loud belch. “What is that, that I just did?”

Once the rest of us quit laughing, Piper explained, “Yeah, we’ll have to watch you for the next few days. You eat too fast, like you did, and your body produces gas. It has to come out somewhere. And since you only have two exit points, it’s either going to come out as a belch, like that, or as a really stinky smell.”

“Oh, I am so sorry, I did not know this,” Curie said.

I patted her hand. “That’s okay. We’ll make sure that you get used to normal bodily functions. Unlike being a robot, you need to eat, drink, sleep, and of course, you’ll also have to pee and poop. Remember when we poked fun at Deacon in the Glowing Sea?”