Chapter 170: Chapter 165

As I gained control of more of the continent and cleansed the blood, radiation and monsters from it, the Nexus passed the population milestone of two hundred thousand citizens. Thanks to the use of efficient residential zones, city apartments and other low-to-mid density residential options, most of the population fit nicely within Boston and a few outlying towns.

 

Caladan now served as exclusive ‘government housing’ to accommodate those who served in the admin or Companies, though it also doubled as a popular tourist attraction for even the snobbiest of integrated wastelanders. The grassland level with its invisible roof was still such a hit that hiking the admission price up to fifty creds per entry hasn’t shortened the queue noticeably at all.

 

Wasteland settlements that chose to remain where they were, like Far Harbor, comprised a significant minority of the population that overall left little impact to how we run things. Having each town, village and commune connected to the subway and road networks pretty much ensured that no community was left too isolated, and that’s not mentioning the eyebots in the sky keeping the lands under surveillance.

 

Frequent Minutemen patrols and Sentinels swarms in the air ensured that the Nexus had a response time of under fifteen minutes if ever anything happened. The latter could easily make it to the scene in under three, generally, but considering that most issues nowadays are social disputes, the human enforcers were the best to tackle such issues.

 

For settlements like Rivet City, Megaton and the various trading posts in New York, they’d eventually be absorbed once the District of Columbia and New(er) York City was rebuilt, just like what we did to Diamond City and the rest of Boston’s camps and villages. The goal was to restore and upgrade on the pre-war metropolis model, fitting in dense commercial and residential zones without most of the nightmarish traffic that followed.

 

The rest of the non-urban population by then would be the farmers, ranchers, fishermen and such who chose to spend their time with such work. With heavy labor and manufacturing being automated, on paper the Nexus’ human industries seemed almost like a pre-modern agrarian society.

 

Hm… Come to think of it, park rangers might have to be a profession that needs filling quickly, seeing how the forest wildlife are hitting their numbers. It’s not the Deathclaws, but the bears, wildcats and even deers that my former wastelanders have to be worried about as eco-tourists.

 

Maybe hire the Deathclaws as rangers then?

 

Anyway, even with that number of people around, our insular economy hasn’t crashed yet thanks to how the Nexus Credits circulated from money printers, to allowance and wages, to goods, and finally back to the Nexus again to purchase raw materials and extra essentials. Ideally, we won’t find the breakpoint any time soon, and Cabal and Gwen convinced me that it’d be a problem that can be prioritized down to at least one future generation to fully work out the kinks.

 

Combo-ed with the whole floor of cloning tiles in Caladan, the Nexus Severalty will be reaching a post-scarcity environment soon. There’s still the issue of ensuring the following generations don’t end up too soft and over-entitled, but we’re trying out a few ideas that use the VR pods salvaged from the Memory Den and Vault 112. 

 

Basically, simulate a life pre-Nexus, as lived through some of the former slaves and wastelanders. Maybe even add narration from the people whose lives the VR experiences are based on. Controlled trauma to hammer home the utter shit show the land was, and then finish it by the arrival of the Nexus or the migration into it.

 

The trauma would be siphoned off by rituals later, of course, to ensure that nobody got too scarred.

 

We’d need a few test pilots for it, and so far Nora’s maaaybe interested to give it a go, just to judge for herself whether these things are ethical or not to be used by the general public. My goal was to make it a middle school level compulsory thing, with refresher in high school. We had plenty of volunteers who told their lives’ tale to cobble up several amalgamated scenarios, ranging from the common wastelander life, to refugees and the more…intense suffering of a slave.

 

No surprise that Nora was most concerned with simulating a slave’s ordeal. Here’s to hoping she signs on for the trial. As a pre-war survivor untouched by the wasteland, hers would be an invaluable source of feedback. Or I might end up having to listen to some sort of ethical tirade.

 

Eh, it’s worth a try.

 

*****

 

Brian Virgil, formerly of the Old Institute, sighed as he regarded his new home. The higher powers of the Nexus (basically Sev) had deemed his services in wildlife bioengineering to be sufficient compensation for his time in the Nexus Correctional Institute. It’d taken a bit of paperwork, but finally, Brian was one step closer to being a free man.

 

He took the option of citizenship, of course. It’d be suicidal for the mere scientist not to. He’d seen enough samples brought into Ix to know that any life beyond Nexus borders would be counted in the minutes.

 

So, with his probation documents neatly packed in a suitcase along with his first monthly allowance of Nexus credits, Brian had navigated Boston’s extensive subway network to reach his new home. Despite the rather comfortable set of clothes the Nexus provided him, the trip to his assigned residential zone was almost unbearable thanks to the strong sense of paranoid self-consciousness the former researcher felt.

 

He nervously looked about while he stood in the station and train, anxiously awaiting the moment where a synth or Railroad agent would confront him, or someone around him would single him out as a former Institute inmate. The paranoia followed him to the driveway of his new home, and only once he stared at the small, two-storey building did the unease melt away.

 

For better or worse, this would be his home for the foreseeable future. Whether fair or not, he was free now to begin a new, much less oppressive life on the surface that was being remade to Sev’s vision.

 

Brian tentatively went for the door, and his hands were about to wrap around the doorknob when a voice startled him.

 

“Yo there!” 

You are reading story Uncommon Wealth at novel35.com

 

He quickly snapped to the source of the voice, finding a young couple bearing smiles at him from the short fence bordering the sides of his driveway. The beaming man winced at Brian’s reaction, and the smiles for a moment faded to apologetic grimaces.

 

“Whoops, sorry ‘bout dat.”

 

Neighbors. They were his neighbors.

 

Brian relaxed a little before shaking his head and forcing out a nervous smile of his own. “No. No, it’s ok. I’m just…tired, that’s all.”

 

The couple nodded to his words, taking it at face value it seemed. “Is nice to finally see a new neighbor,” the young woman offered. “Me’s Janice, and this here’s Bob.”

 

Brian gulped quietly and somehow managed a courteous voice. “Nice to meet you. Brian. I’m Brian. I’m…I’m still on probation, but well…”

 

Again their heads bobbed, this time with clearer understanding. “Ah. Is okay, we get it,” Bobsaid. “Youz need time to get used to al’ this. Was same for us two. Hey, no worries, we won’t disturb you any further. If you need help, feel free to come ovah and give our door a knock, a’ight?”

 

Managing a brittle smile, Brian nodded and watched as the couple gave a final wave and disappeared into their house. Then he returned to stare at the door, and this time quickly grabbed the handle and twisted it open.

 

There was no one on the other end in the livingroom. The basic furnishing looked desolately clean. Brian peeked in first, and then tentatively slipped into the building. He took a cautious look around. There was a faint humming in the kitchen from his fridge, and the ground floor toilet was larger than his cell in NCI. The storeroom was stocked with a toolbox, a pack of toilet paper, a vacuum, and other assorted household items.

 

No synths though.

 

The wooden stairs creaked a bit as he climbed upstairs, finding two bedrooms - one larger than the other - and a study room. The sheets on the mattresses were unwrinkled and oh so inviting. The wardrobe was big enough for Brian to curl up and sleep in. The bathroom on this level, with its bathtub and shower, and neatly arranged shampoos and soaps, was extravagant compared to what he was used to. The towels seemed large and soft enough to be blankets in their own right.

 

Still, no one was waiting for him. At all. There was not a hint of any anti-Institute warning message that his nervous mind had expected.

 

This time, Brian slumped as he exhaled with relief, the tenseness in his muscles finally unwinding. 

 

He was truly alone now.

 

On the surface.

 

In his own home.

 

Brian shook his head and recomposed himself. He needed to take stock of his new home and sort through his meager belongings. After that… He checked his watch - his issued Pip-Boy was still in his suitcase and needed charging - and decided that a late lunch after settling in would definitely be a good idea. He’d have until tomorrow to register to the nearest Nexus Enforcer station to finalize his paperwork, but he could use the time now to get his bearings of his new surroundings.

 

So: Unpack, then lunch, then acclimatize, and then…dinner? Yes, dinner. Then return back here, and if the synths and their sympathizers truly didn’t show up, he’ll lock everything up and sleep away the rest of the day.

 

With the schedule settled, Brian went to the master bedroom and plopped his suitcase on the overly bouncy bed. Pip-Boy with charging cable, network ID slip for terminal access, clothes, paperwork… He unpacked everything neatly, taking refuge in the monotony of the process. He can dread going outside to find lunch and explore the place later.

 

For now, the former Institute scientist just focused on his current task. He was about to be part of the Nexus Severalty now. Maybe they really practice giving second chances here, maybe they really did wipe his slate clean.

 

It would take a full week before Brian finally accepted the fact that he was truly nobody of consequence now, and actually started to enjoy his probationary citizenship with all the perks that it entailed. When the Nexus gave him a job offer back in Ix again after his probation was up, Brian politely rejected it in favor of his new job as a science educator. To his pleasant surprise, they didn’t insist on his return. He eagerly discarded his past, only remembering about the Old Institute when he bumped into the rare face from his old life.

 

Brian Virgil slowly faded into the background among the Nexus citizenry, happy to be forgotten and ignored by the powers that be.

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