Chapter 179: Chapter 174

Surprisingly, with the way the Nexus grew in starts and stops, the integration of new citizens proceeded without any hiccups. There were minor culture shocks here and there, but no signs of resistance from annexed settlers or over-entitled wasteland nobility.

 

Then again, with how the Nexus proved its might and reminded everyone of its presence, Nora shouldn’t have been too surprised. If anything, the rights watchdog she headed often had to remind people that they could do more with their new life. The tribals especially had standards of living so low that they were more than happy to live off the bare minimum as not to seem too gluttonous by their benevolent overlord Sev.

 

Nora had to personally drag Sev over a few times to get the self-oppressing people to stop being so harsh on themselves. To his credit, Sev loathed how they fanatically latched onto his very word, and adopted Nexus laws as if they were sacrosanct and beyond the community feedback. After a few entreaties, they found the most effective method was to insinuate to the hardy, maladjusted folk that not making use of Sev’s gift of luxuries was akin to snubbing his benevolence.

 

It did the job quickly, and got the tribals to finally use their allowances and wages for more than just shrines and offerings.

 

After about the tenth time of calling Sev over, both him and Nora agreed on having him record a message for the integration centers just to save everyone’s time. It was a novelty to see a ruler encourage people against austerity, especially considering the wasteland beyond the Nexus Severalty and Nora’s own experience during the War. 

 

And much as it annoyed her to admit it, it also reminded her that the Nexus’ ruler was a benevolent tyrant that was miles ahead of any other governing body she was aware of. Sev might not believe in universal human rights, but at least he was honest about it. It rankled that this casual, benevolent tyrant did far more for his people than Nora’s own corrupt government, with their lip service to a greater humanity.

 

She had truly believed in the United States of America, once. She truly supported the cause in the War, supported the small compromises her government had to make against the Communists, like annexing Canada and pacifying Mexico. Now, knowing what she knew about the Enclave, Vault-Tec and more… She felt shamefully relieved that Nate was dead, or she’d have likely grilled him for further answers, and probably ruin the happiness they built together.

 

Was Nate a war criminal? Nora honestly didn’t know, and was glad for it. Sev hadn’t rubbed it in her face, but Nora knew that most of the Old World documents were accessible to the public. She could hire Nick to dig through it…if she actually felt like discovering the truth.

 

Was it hypocritical of her to match Sev against Nora’s personal ethical standards, hounding him for every single action he took to enact his ‘peace through power’, when she couldn’t bear to discover the truth about her Nate?

 

Probably so. But thankfully, shamefully, no one held it against her. Sev didn’t care at all, either pretending or actually believing that such a thing wouldn’t affect their working relationship at all.

 

It was as if he actually respected Nora’s work as a devil’s advocate.

 

So she pretended along with him, and continued leading the cautionary voices in tempering the Nexus’ bouts of sadism. She fought against Sev and his people for raising the age of consent to something reasonable (double digits should not be the minimum requirement), and begrudgingly defended the occasional wastelander charged for participating in slavery. As detestable as it was, those people often had little choice for their survival. Some genuinely thought that they were giving their children a better chance at life by selling them to the flesh traders.

 

Remarkably, for all Nora did in opposition to Sev, she received no negative public sentiment. There was none of the silent judging like how established criminal defense lawyers used to suffer back before the bombs, there wasn’t even a nastily-worded letter or email. If anything, a lot of the people who knew what she did actually admired her.

 

“It must be so hard, having to make a job out of going against Sev.” 

 

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And they fucking meant it. No sarcasm, no mocking, people genuinely found her watchdog organization to be a highly commendable but burdensome niche. 

 

Nora was used to the derogatory lawyer jokes in her previous life, she had long gotten used to the side glances from people who discovered she was in the legal business, especially as a woman. But being respected by the common Nexus men and women? It was a weird thing. Nice, but weird.

 

Better than being seen as a politician, definitely.

 

Those in the ruling class found their influence and wealth worthless after assimilating into the Nexus, and a good number of them still hadn’t…adjusted into Nexus life. 

 

Once powerful merchant families found it hard to reestablish trade with fellow citizens they once exploited and scammed, their monopoly as middlemen utterly crushed and transporting goods were as cheap as they were safe within the Nexus. Former farm and ranch owners saw their power wither away as prices for essentials like foodstuffs plummeted thanks to the Nexus’ automated farms. Minor wasteland warlords struggled to get used to the idea that they had to wait in line just like everyone else, that their strength of arms meant nothing.

 

There was virtually no place for them in the Nexus, and that was becoming a bit of a growing problem in the Nexus. With the new round of quiet, Nora worked with Sev and his staff to figure out a place to dump the over-ambitious snakes (their words, not hers) before they did something stupid. 

 

It was a bitch and a half defending their spoiled scions especially, who hadn’t gotten it out of their heads that daddy and mommy were no longer valid excuses or ‘get out of jail’ cards. Their tantrums and bouts of troublemaking did little to help the public perception of the former upper classes. 

 

On the bright side, most quickly learned to eat their humble pie after being apprehended and Nora was done reminding them of the consequences of their vandalism, rabble-rousing and/or petty theft.

 

On the other hand, the rare few hardheads made Nora want to strangle them herself. Some of the girls were especially delusional, thinking that they could just spread their legs or open their mouths to the right people - even Sev - to let them off lightly.

 

Say what you want about Sev, but the man kept his laws strictly enforced. Bribery was nonexistent in the administrative and judicial level thanks to the pervasive presence of the AIs and robots. Those stupid enough to try found themselves serving extra time, something that Nora and her team were unable to avert or reduce even if they wanted to.

 

The last over-entitled slut that tried ‘appealing’ to Sev directly found herself serving four days as a janitor’s assistant in Blacksite Tleilax. Nora had followed up after her sentence was done, and all traces of youthful arrogance and entitlement had been scared out of her. Poor girl supposedly turned vegetarian and celibate after that.

 

And speaking of celibacy, a few self-styled ‘bachelors’ she had defended had tried to…court her. Worse, there were times their fathers tried the same, in a poorly veiled attempt to grasp for the mirage of power some thought Nora wielded over Sev. At the rate she was having to reject them - especially the dense, insistent ones too dense to take a hint - Nora was highly tempted to take up Cait’s offer of a pair of serrated shears.

 

With her workload settling on a comfortable pace for now, maybe it was time to reconsider settling down with someone. Nora had come to terms with the loss of her Nate already, after all, and it was hard to deny that she had her needs to fulfill. Maybe…maybe she could give dating a try again?

 

When the new intern, a dashing young man by the name of Abe Neason, introduced himself, Nora allowed herself to smile a little warmer, and not take his appreciative gaze too unkindly. He didn’t look too bad for a former vaulter, and the supposed reputation of DC’s Lone Wanderer did pique her interest…

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