Chapitre 5: A lady's pulchritude
The Doctor didn't know whether to be offended by that statement or not because she was sure she looked at least as fabulous as one could look while they had been hiking for a half day in the wilderness. Oh, wait. Her neck still had dried blood all over it. She didn't even bother putting a bandage on the cut was so small.
She decided on a slight French accent, although she didn't push it to the extreme. Instead, she tended to ignore H sounds and pronounce both R and W sounds similarly, used a T.H. sound for S, Z and F and utilised a more upwards tilting intonation pattern. She thought it sounded subdued yet cute.
There was a reason beyond sounding cute, though. She wanted to imply without saying specifically to people who would be wondering why she was so accomplished in so many fields that she was a pre-War scientist that had been in stasis for hundreds of years. Wasn't that the plot of Fallout 4? She couldn't remember anything about it, but she simpered for her audience, "Ah yes, I suppose I 'ave, no? I can't rightly say 'ow I found myself in the middle of a band of lunatics, but they shot me in the ahh... how do you say, derrière, twice! I highly recommend anyone who does not wish to engage in the mortal combats with homicidal clones to avoid Vault number 108, about fifteen kilometres south of here. Ah, I am forgetting my manors. I am Lilliane St. Claire, Doctor of Medicine by trade, scientist by vocation, and sadly most recently Warrior by sad necessity. And it is a pleasure to meet you and your son, monsieur, and I would be pleased if you would call me Lily."
She did feel kind of grimey already, though. One of the standard bio mods to Sylph-class biomorphs, beyond the elfin or fey aesthetic and optimised pheromones for near-universal appeal, was the clean metabolism mod. She was positive she knew how it worked; it was a small genome change combined with specialised nanomachines. With it, a Sylph could exercise until sweat and grime would have been covering them entirely and not only would they not smell at all, but their sweat excretions generally provided a self-cleaning effect for their skin rather than the opposite in her case. That might be her first real mod, if she could get her hands on whatever the Fallout equivalent of a simple gene editing system. She studied such technologies like CRISPR-cas9 in history, but in practice, transhumanity had gone way past that. But CRISPR, or whatever the local Universe equivalent, was very, very simple. You could buy CRISPR kits on eBay in her past life and follow a simple step-by-step guide to add the trait of bioluminescence to simple organisms like moulds or algae as a fun science experiment. Although, of course, if she couldn't find anything anywhere, she would have to return to the bowels of Vault 108, she definitely wanted either Power Armour or a team or both before she braved it.
The man called Louis looked shocked, "You escaped from that charnel house? Every so often, we have people come looking for it to scavenge pre-War tech inside, but we rarely hear from them again. Are you okay? As places to get shot go, well... that's not the worst. You're lucky to be alive Miss, no Dr. Lily. Don't see too many doctors 'round here, neither. Not to be rude, but you look more like a soldier than a doctor." He says the last bit a bit suspiciously.
Lily chuckles softly and says in a way that makes it obvious she is quoting someone, "My poor body, sir, requires it: I am driven on by the flesh; and she must needs go that the devil drives... Ahh, in other words, I would most prefer to wear the lab coat somewhere and see to the ills of the world and my research, but I am more likely to survive longer like this, at least for now, when one finds oneself alone and bereft in a dangerous world."
Louis tilted his head and then nodded slightly, "I reckon I know what you mean, ma'am. Would you care to take a seat? I'll buy you a glass of water."
This man was not familiar with me at all, but his son is the spitting image of one of the NPCs in this town with the same name, except instead of an annoying teenager, he looks more like an annoying cheeky brat. Was she multiple years before the start of the plot of the game? That would be both good and bad. She wasn't that interested in the plot of the game; her main interest was survival and research of new technology. However, she indeed approved of the Vault Dweller's father and the Brother of Steel's quest to provide limitless fresh water to the Capital Wasteland.
She was a hyper-materialist, and the more people alive meant more people working to advance society forward and a more significant number of geniuses alive, propelling technology and society much faster too. Transhumanity had over forty billion sapients living on planet Earth before the Fall. By the time of her last memories, ten times that lived in various habitats and O'Neil cylinders across the Solar System. So all of her memories were in accord that the more people alive were to the better.
"Ah, yes, I would appreciate that. And if this establishment sells any food that is better than Fancy Lad cakes and scavenged military rations, I'd very much like to buy some, too. I have some of the, bottle caps, yes? If not, I have other things to trade," she said as she sat her rucksack down on the ground and slid into one of the booths, although she did select the booth that had a clear line of sight both to the door and the main windows of the diner, something she thought Mr Louis definitely noticed.
The cheeky brat stepped up to her booth and said bluntly, "You talk funny, lady." His dad smacked him upside the head for that, which made her giggle, "Yes, but what if the truth is that YOU talk funny? Perhaps, everywhere else people talk like me, no?"
The kid rubbed the back of his head before shaking it firmly, "No way! I once talked to a trader from Rivet City, and that is like ACROSS THE WORLD!"
His dad chuckled slightly, "Ah yes, sorry about Derek; he doesn't mean anything by it. I'm pretty sure they're serving some grilled kebabs today; not sure what the meat is from, but it is seasoned enough that you don't really care. Cheap too, only a couple caps."
Her mouth started watering. She didn't even care if it was a rat. So long as it wasn't grilled Gary kebabs, she would eat it. She turned to the proprietor, "Yes! I would like three kebabs, please!" She pulled the required caps out of her pocket, as she was sure this was cash on the barrelhead sort of establishment, and they wouldn't extend a strange drifter woman who talked funny any credit.
Looking down at the caps she started to understand why they were used as an ad-hoc currency. Really, the only thing money needed was to be scarce and for to multiple people to agree to use it as a medium of exchange. These bottle caps were quite strange. She would scan them later but felt that they were an organometallic-based metal alloy, perhaps, and they had embedded within them with tiny sparkles. Grown crystals? They would undoubtedly be difficult to counterfeit, and she could see trade continuing this way until someone got the Nuka Cola bottling factory up and running again.
She drained the glass of water in one long gulp. Hmmm, what would she drink with her delicious hot kebabs? She dug out the Nuka Cola Quantum she found in Vault 108. She had already examined it and was curious why it was slightly radioactive before being opened. Still, the label proclaimed it to have "Twice the calories, twice the carbohydrates, twice the caffeine, and twice the taste!" That was a bold claim that she would test. It also appeared to have at least twice the strontium, too.
It was a shame she couldn't chill it, but she couldn't have everything. She glanced up at Louis, "Please, take a seat. Your son too!" They did so. She dug out a regular Nuka-Cola and handed it to the brat, who yelled, "Thanks, Lady!"
His father elbowed him and whispered, "She's a doctor!" To which he regarded her, nodded and said, "Thanks, Doctor Lady!"
Louis groaned but shrugged, "At least he said thank you. So, Doc St. Claire, what kind of doctor are you? Do you plan to stick around town long? We ain't had a town doctor in some time, cepting when one comes through traveling with the merchant caravans."
Lily's eyes tracked the plate of kebabs from when they came from the kitchen to her table like prey. They were prey. Her prey. She decided to eat one right away so he held up her finger to indicate she would reply in a moment before chomping down on the meat, one bit at a time. It was seaoned quite well, a little spicey. The taste, she couldn't quite identify but it was surprisingly tender. She might save a bit to scan, but then again, that might ruin it for her.
She took a swig of Quantum. Wow that is tasty; then she turned back to the man, "General medicine, to include surgery -- although it is not as though we have many operating theatres these days, so I'd generally have to limit myself to emergency surgeries, and minor ones out here. My research, though, is in genetics and human augmentation -- like; for example with the right equipment, I could fashion a robotic prosthesis for a person who had lost his or her arm in an accident or similar situation." Lily didn't plan on hiding her skills. However, she did plan on understating them at first and especially understating how precisely in favour of augmentation she was for otherwise healthy flats.
The brat's eyes widened, "WOW! You can give me a ROBOT ARM??? Like Doctor Robotron?!"
Yesss. She liked the cheeky little brat's moxy. Yes she could, little boy! 'Why don't you come with me in my white van so I can --' she shook away the thought. Hahaha, of course, she was being ridiculous. She wouldn't just give any kid free robot arms! They had to PAY for them!
Louis smacked him upside the head again, "There's nothing wrong with your regular arm! She is talking about people who've had their armed chopped off in accidents or by raiders. Sorry, Doc. With a speciality like that, I can't see how you'd be sticking around town for too long. I wouldn't be surprised if you weren't headed for Rivet City, or heck, even the Brotherhood of Steel at the Citadel."
She blinked, tilting her head to one side. She was pretty sure that once she made a name for herself organisations would find Mr. Louis and quiz him about her, so she decided to slightly play up the possibility she might be from the pre-war time period. "The Citadel? Isn't that the Military College in South Carolina? Is that still running? Isn't that pretty far away? And, could you tell me a little about this Brotherhood of Steel? I assume they're more than a fraternity?"
Louis blinked, "Ahh... you must really not be from around here. I won't really comment about that, it ain't really my place, but perhaps I should give you a brief run-down on a few groups like that; you'd be kind of bringing attention to yourself if you don't know who some of them are. But firstly, the Citadel is what they call the ruins of that giant five-sided building in the heart of the ruins of D.C., the Brotherhood of Steel operate out of there as a base."
Lily nodded her head, "Ah, I understand. The Pentagon, now called The Citadel. Got it."
Louis began to give her a quick and dirty briefing on the larger settlements and prominent players in the Capital Wasteland while she ate her kebabs. She knew most of it, but she wanted confirmation that she wasn't in some alternate universe or something.
She even got him to mark points on her paper map, including Megaton, the Pentagon, and a couple of small settlements. He recommended she stay far away from downtown D.C. as he called it a warzone, mostly.
That made her tentative destination of the VSS building problematic, as it was on the western edges of what he called a warzone.
Well, she didn't know precisely what the date was, but if the cheeky brat was anything to judge, and the fact that nobody had mentioned the Mechanist or AntAgonizer, she had some time before she ran into the plot. She still wasn't sure what she planned to do about that can of worms, beyond help as she could. But she had time enough to get set up in Megaton before hitting the VSS building. Of the combat mods she could probably build and install in herself in just a few months was perhaps limited to light Bioweave armour under her skin, a neural mesh if she could make a proper fabricator by reprogramming her medichines, basic reflex enhancements and possibly an adrenaline control module which would let her trigger, at will, a hefty dose of fight or flight chemicals. It was considered in the same family as the reflex augments, and it was obsolete but easy to build -- the user would notice time slow down for perhaps half a minute but would be jittery for a time after that.
He was recommending she should stay away from the Enclave when their discussion was interrupted by several gunshots outside. The pistol started to clear her holster as her eyes immediately tracked a squad of some obviously Mad Max rejects split up, the majority running towards the Fire Station across the street while two burst through the door. They all had pushed up from the booth simultaneously, she was keeping her pistol at her side, and hidden a bit behind Louis. Maybe they just wanted to rob the place.
The taller one who had an honest to god mohawk guffawed, "Woah, look at the tits on that one, kill the old man, I'll pop the kid and--"
Her bodysuit WAS form fitting but she was wearing armour over it! Plus, didn't they see all of her weapons? Her pistol was rising in their direction as soon as he said the word kill, but when the first one said his target was the kid her aim point shifted to him imperceptibly.
Louis was, surprisingly, not armed. He yelled out, "No!" and leaped to put himself in between the two men and his son. Lily fired first, and she thought the gunshot surprised the second guy into jerking the trigger of his improvised pipe gun, letting off a round that struck Louis directly in the chest, who crumpled to the ground.
Lily's target's brains were splattered against the diner door with enough force that a bit of skull struck the bell that was kept tied to the door to announce new arrivals hard enough to give an audible ringing sound. She shifted to fire three rounds at the second guy, all hitting centre mass, putting him on the floor.
Little Derek screamed, "Dad! No!" and went down on his knees to grab his dad's arm, who had started coughing up a fair bit of blood. "Don't worry, D. I have a StimPak in my pocket, just a sec."
Lily kneeled down and stopped him from reaching for it. "Stop. Don't. If you use that StimPak you will die. Derek, go grab that camouflage bag from my backpack, please."
All Derek heard was that his father was going to die, and was inconsolable. "You have to save him, Doctor Lady! You have to!"
"Go grab my bag, please," she repeated and he was off to comply.
Lily sighed, seeing the confused expression on the man's bloody face. "The bullet wasn't a through and through, and judging by the fact that you're coughing up blood, it either penetrated or deeply bruised the lobe of your lung and probably lodged partly inside it. If you use that StimPak with a bullet lodged in the lobe of your lung, you'll die of a pulmonary embolism within a day; if it is IN your lung, you will likely die of pneumonia in a couple of weeks. Have to get it out, then you can use the Stim. It isn't magic, you know."
A look of comprehension came over his face and he nodded. Derek returned with her messenger bag. She glanced down at him, "What do you know about guns, kid?"
He looked up at her, "They are always loaded, never point it at something you don't want to destroy and keep my finger off the trigger until I'm ready to fire."
Lily clucked her tongue, "Good enough." She slung her carbine off her back, turned the safety off and handed it to the boy. "The safety's off. I want you to go behind the counter and cover the entrance. If someone you don't recognise walks through that door carrying a gun, shoot them. Three times. I will be a bit distracted keeping your dad alive for the next few minutes. Can you do that for me, Doctor Robotron?"
The boy got a severe and determined look on his face before he nodded, taking the rifle and running back behind the counter to use it as cover.
Lily nodded and sat down, fishing for some forceps and hemostats out of her bag. She also pulled out her scanner. While she was very confident in her diagnosis, the real-time imaging of where the bullet was would make this a lot easier.
Louis was groaning a bit and spitting blood every few seconds. She suspected a severe bruising of the lobe rather than an outright penetration. "Alright, this is going to hurt, so uhh.. just try to stay conscious. As soon as I get the bullet out, we can administer the StimPak." He nodded, without saying anything.
It didn't take her that long at all to fish the bullet out, especially watching the forceps dig for it with the scanner. She pulled it out, dropped it on Louis' chest, reached into his pocket for the StimPak and carefully administered it intravenously rather than intramuscularly. It was slightly more effective when administered this way, and plus it cleared out plaque in arteries and slightly rejuvenated his heart which always tended to be the first thing to go in old active men.
She watched her scanner in fascination as the medicine slowly over time regenerated the lung, even absorbing the blood that was pooled in the lobe back into the arteries and destroying the clot that was in the process of forming. She didn't stop watching even as the entry wound started to knit shut. Finally, she blinked and shoved the scanner away. "Looks like you'll live, Louis. HEY! Doctor Robotron, come gimmie my rifle, please."
---
Hours later a much better Louis and Derek had parted ways with the visiting Doctor and they were checking up on Louis' brother, who was the main target of the attack. The raiders were eliminated rather quickly by the guards at the merchant's transhipping area.
Louis was snickering, trying to hold off a full guffaw, "Derek, tell your Uncle about why you said Doctor St. Claire shot the men first."
Derek nodded and said, "Well, uhh... when the two bad men came in the diner they said something about the Doctor's uhh... well, I'd rather not repeat it." But like many a tween boy as soon as he heard the word "tits" he didn't hear the rest of the sentence where his and his father's life was threatened.
His Uncle blinked, "She shot them because they said something uncomplimentary?" Not that he cared, in fact. They were murderers who should have been shot on sight as far as he was concerned. But it was a bit odd.
Derek shook his head, "It was complimentary! But, uhh... dad always told me that there are times to remark on a lady's pulchritude, and then there are times when you ought just to stay silent. That man, he should have just shut up. But, since his friend shot my dad, I'm glad he didn't!"
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone