FFF - Leave Dr. Curio

Annette is eager to start talking business.

Dr. Curio is more qualified to help Shell if there’s a medical problem.

“The first problem is power,” Annette tells you when you return to her broken-down, robot body. “A number of connection points have failed. Every failure causes the system to try to reroute power. It’s extremely inefficient. It’s a bug, but I can’t re-write the code. We need to clear the obstructions and repair the connections.”

This is nostalgic. A few deep breaths aren’t enough to reconcile yourself to this new reality. As Annette talks about the necessary repairs, it truly sets in that you will not be leaving this place for a while.

At least you have plenty of experience making repairs like this in the Vault.

FFF

Shell is up and about in less than an hour. She’s in good health, as far as Curio can tell, but she’s not happy. Especially after you explain things to her. She’s pissed that Melody is outside this facility, and it seems to offend her that you came after her. She doesn’t seem to like you very much.

You worry that she’s going to argue with Annette, but Shell seems to grasp the reality without much help. She doesn’t like it, but she gets it. Whether you like it or not, you, Curio, and Shell are going to have to be a team on this.

Likewise, Annette seems to appreciate that the three of you are not robots. She’s pushy and impatient, but she manages not to act like a tyrant. At least, not yet she isn’t.

The facility is vast, and several entire sections are sealed off with crude welds.

Apart from a few visibly damaged areas, it’s in good repair. Nearly everything still works and there are plenty of supplies. The living quarters allow the three of you to have private rooms; you’re living in greater comfort than you did in the Vault.

Curio is easily able to reverse your mutations, and running water means you’re more hygienic than you’ve been in what feels like forever.

Dressed in clothes left behind by the scientists who once staffed the lab, the three of you uncover a hatch in the floor of an office. You and Curio get to work removing the bolts sealing it, and Shell lifts it out of the way. You point your light down. A short ladder leads to a concrete tunnel.

“These aren’t on the schematic,” Curio notes.

There’s a garbled burst of static from the camera on the wall. Annette’s digital coverage of the facility is imperfect. In some rooms, she can talk to you clearly. In some rooms, she can’t. She can see everything on her cameras, though. Even your personal rooms.

You jump down, landing heavily. Shell hands the toolbox down as Curio descends the ladder. The lab coat that she insists on wearing all the time is silly, but you have to admit that Curio does look cute in it. She’s awfully easygoing for a living legend; maybe because she’s not aware of how she’s viewed by the women of Vault F. You try to keep your hero worship to a minimum; Shell would just sneer at it.

Curious and sprightly, as always, Curio takes the light from you and starts down the passage. It doesn’t take long to find the issue.

“More of this,” you say, reaching out to touch the damaged piping. “What did this?”

“Definitely the same as the others,” Shell agrees, putting her light in her teeth and balancing the toolbox on the pipe.

Curious peers at the damage then shakes her head. “This is tempered steel. I don’t know what could’ve done this.”

“It almost looks like claw marks,” you suggest.

“A deathclaw couldn’t even scratch this,” Curio says confidently. She points her light down the passage. You’ve suggested exploring this facility under the facility, but Shell and Curio have both pushed back against the idea. They say it’s better to stay focused on Annette’s agenda of stabilizing the power.

“Annette must have the plans for whatever’s down here,” you say.

“Just like she must have the answer to why all those doors are sealed,” Shell says.

“She says that her data is corrupted,” Curio replies, joining Shell to help with the welding torch. “Look away from the light.”

You turn your back on them, keeping an eye on the tunnel.

“She’s lying,” Shell says around her flashlight.

You don’t say anything, but you’re inclined to agree. You don’t trust your hostess.

It takes about twenty minutes to get the conduit sealed up and tested, but there are quite a few more to go before Annette will be satisfied that the power isn’t going anywhere. You can understand why she’s so hung up on it; if she’s just ones and zeroes, a true outage means **** for her. She might not be real, but her passion for her mission is. That much, you trust.

A few minutes later you’re climbing back into the facility and tightening the bolts on the hatch. Locating the breaks in the conduits takes more time than doing the actual repairs.

“That’s enough for today,” Curio says as you replace the rug that covers the hatch.

There’s another burst of static from the camera: Annette trying to protest.

“Give it a rest,” Shell says irritably. “We’re hungry.”

It’s true. You want a shower; Curio has cured you of your skin oil problem, but you still feel dirty.

Curio catches up to you in the hallway and touches your arm. You pause.

“What’s up?”

She moves close. “Jane,” she says, and she’s behaving strangely. “May I wash your back?”

“Oh.” You’re taken aback. The past 48 hours have been chaste. You’ve been enjoying the comforts of this place too much to even think about anything naughty. Shell’s not very approachable, and you wouldn’t make a move on someone like Curio, so you hadn’t been expecting any action.

But Curio’s from Vault F, like you are. There’s nothing to stop her from making a move on you. It doesn’t hurt that she’s slim and pretty, just your type.

“Sure,” you say.

You feel some nerves as you strip down in the shower room. Heart beating fast, you turn around to find her still dressed. She’s leaning into the shower stall to turn on the water. She comes over to you, looks you up and down, then speaks quietly.

“Only way to be sure she’s not listening,” Curio says.

“Oh,” you reply. OK, you misunderstood this a bit. That’s on you. “Right. Right.”

“I think I’ve seen enough of the wiring to take my chances. I want to try to cut her ears off in the canteen; we can play it off as a malfunction. That way we can at least talk in private when we eat. Bit less awkward than the three of us showering together.”

You nod awkwardly.

“Think it’s worth the risk to try it?” Curio asks.

It’s a risk for sure. Annette holds your lives in her busted robot hand. It’s best if she trusts you. But you can’t trust her. The three of you need to be able to coordinate.

Tell Curio to try it?

Or tell her to hold off?