Chapter 130: Chapter 126

On the bright side, the women weren’t really pregnant, biologically speaking. So no visiting Nora to discuss the legalese of eldritch abortions required. On the other hand, those little things were clearly parasites, leeching off their  ‘broodmother’. It took a considerable amount of days to figure out what was done to the victims of the Children of Atom, requiring a lot of experimentation on the prisoners in Tleilax to get the full horrific picture.

 

The potency of the Children of Atom’s eldritch bullshit was such that it just took the act of sex - not the actual biological process - of it, to conjure up a freakish version of pregnancy. Sterile, irradiated sperm mixed with the blood of the women to create twisted parasites that were more radiation than human. Mutations caused many irregularities among the deformed things, like some deciding to ‘birth’ themselves out by clawing through their hosts’ womb. Or having extra limbs in physiologically impossible places.

 

Regardless, the whole eldritch insemination meant that conventional procedures to excise them would be fatal to the broken women. Whether they would survive after the birthing was also up to speculation. 

 

Not that I actually want to see any glowing, radioactive toddlers enter this world.

 

Metaphysical abortion was somewhat of a straightforward process. After some tests on the writhing fetuses from the women with torn out wombs, a very disgusted Madison Li confirmed the effectiveness of simply severing the umbilicals with Tiberium crystal blades. The fetuses, heavy with eldritch energies, would continue living…until we put them beside the blue and green crystals which leeched off the metaphysical energies that was their entire existence.

 

Madison preferred stabbing them rather violently with the crystals to speed up the process.

 

So we had dozens of mind-broken women on surgery tables, with bots essentially performing C-sections on them. Then the glowing abominations would be carefully removed, Tiberium scalpels nipping off the connection between parasite and host, and then a quick staple and to the healing arches the women went. After that, it was up to our nascent mental health department to try and restore their minds. I greenlit Desdemona and other former Railroad members providing what aid they could. They probably wanted to try and make up for their perceived failure in rehabilitating the synths we had to euthanize a year ago.

 

The rad-fetuses were studied before being neutralized with Tiberium and incinerated. Can’t take risks of unnatural residue entering our fertilizer system, after all.

 

As I peered into an automated lab from the observation decks in the bowels of Blacksite Tleilax, Eva’s voice chimed. “Sev, Nora requests an urgent meeting with you, regarding the Far Harbor incident.”

 

Oh yeah, I should’ve expected the legal team to come back to me about that…

 

*****

 

“Honestly, what the fuck?” Nora yelled, remaining on her feet ever since the meeting began. 

Sev had floated the idea of airing the recordings about the Children of Atom’s rape victims, unedited and uncensored, as a means of reminding the citizens of the Nexus of the depravity that still existed outside its borders. A blatant propaganda piece, and what’s worse was how he was just going to broadcast it while the victims were still being rehabilitated, and without their consent.

 

“You’re just going to exploit those poor women’s suffering like that?” Nora questioned angrily. “After being through god knows what, you’re going to try rehabbing them, only so they can eventually see their past selves on the TV someday?” To say nothing of the potential stigma they might receive.

 

As usual, the man before her only shrugged calmly. “I thought of censoring their faces or something, but considering how far the rumor about what went on in Far Harbor has spread…”

 

She wanted to slap the shit out of him. With a meat tenderizer. Attached to a power fist.

 

Nora took a second to gather and calm herself, almost snarling her next words. “They deserve their permissions being asked before you turn them into fucking propaganda. Isn’t consent a big deal here in the first damned place?”

 

Sev blinked, and then conceded with a nod. He still looked too damned calm about this, the bastard. “We’ll keep the reports from the press then, just limit official public knowledge to Far Harbor’s defense and the synth massacre.”

 

Better, and it’s probably about all she’ll be getting out of him. 

 

“How’s the cryo treatment doing, by the way?” he asked in a drastic change of topic, causing Nora to frown.

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As much as she disliked the man, Sev was still an overly generous ruler who thought nothing of offering practically all his resources for use to better the lives of those under him, while keeping standards enviously high, even to her pre-war sensibilities. In Nora’s case, the research into her cryostasis was far less invasive and intrusive than she had expected. The healing arches helped a lot, and the expert personnel and bots were fully transparent with their findings and the eventual ‘corrections’.

 

It turns out, Nora’s body had suffered some permanent physiological damage after the first thaw out and hasty re-freeze when her son was kidnapped. The second release from stasis further exacerbated the damage, which while non-fatal, would cause Nora a lot of problems down the road.

 

If this had happened before the bombs fell, Nora would likely have to fight for some compensation from Vault Tec and endure a life of meds and drip bags in a couple decades’ time. But here, in the Nexus? A few passes through the healing arches to nip any cancers or atrophy that were waiting to bloom, and an honest-to-god magic ritual to undo the genetic damage, and Nora was back to being fully normal again.

 

“I’m better. Thanks.”

 

And it only cost her her time and an eternal, begrudging gratitude towards Sev and his borderline inhumane ways.

 

There was a downside to being fixed, though, a rather simple but embarrassing one. She might no longer be lactating now, but her hormones had returned to their usual cycle, and that brought along nearly-forgotten emotional swings and desires.

 

Which also meant that she also now could…appreciate…the men around her. She even had wet dreams of Nate every few nights or so. Worse, there was one occasion each of her ‘dreaming’ about the people here, like Nick, or, god help her, Sev.

 

No, she was not going to drop her panties for him anytime soon. She was sure of it. Really.

 

“Something wrong there?” 

 

Sev’s words snapped her out of her musings, leaving Nora to quickly shake her head. “It’s…it’s nothing. Anyway, what’s the legal status of the raider women once they’re rehabilitated?”

 

Returning back to work, Nora kept her mind off her bodily functions for another day. She’ll definitely want to get laid eventually, but the who and when will be a problem for when the time comes. 

 

Sev’s out of that list, that for sure. And Dogmeat too.

 

*****

 

Emma had been keenly following the updates on the Nexus’ expedition far north, and the triumph of the soldiers’ return was tainted by the news of what was found up there. There were a series of interviews with the handful of immigrants from Far Harbor, detailing harsh conditions that Emma experienced in what felt like a lifetime ago.

 

But then the deranged Children of Atom decided to make a harsh life far worse, and it shocked Emma to her core to see photos and combat footage of the rabid men and women who were no better than feral ghouls. Carl got nightmares for a week thanks to peeking at snippets of the madmen in the late night news. At least that’ll teach him to sneak out of his bed. For the single mother, it was the various shots of the corpse-strewn synth haven that truly unsettled her. Emma picked out severed body parts, and didn’t want to imagine being torn apart by a rabid mob.

 

The interviewees were blunt about their gratitude and wonder towards the Nexus. They tried to be gruff and tough about it like some of the new migrants from the south and west, but Emma herself knew what assimilation would be like. It was far from the lifestyle they were used to, but a soft and easy life was much more preferred than one constantly worrying about a radioactive fog. 

 

These Harbormen would eventually take Nexus life for granted, just like she did. There’s too much here that was simply better than the lands beyond the borders. They’d forget about sleeping in shifts or working themselves to the bone to live to another day, and eventually learn to enjoy the luxuries that were the basic minimum of what was entitled to a Nexus citizen. Then they’d stop trying to show off how rough their former lives were, and start showing off the latest gadgets and trinkets they’d bought with their Nexus Credits.

 

She was so sure about it that Emme would take up her skeevy neighbor’s offer of a date if any of the Harbormen decided to go back to live in Far Harbor after a week in the Nexus. A thousand credits for an hour with Alan in the red light district was far, far better than a free night being pampered by Thin-Dicked Ernie.

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