Chapter 94: Chapter 90

Nora hated to admit it, but she was getting used to life in the Nexus. It was not the old middle class life with the old American values, but after having time to consider the alternatives, Sev’s empire was hard to beat.

She also realized that she could no longer judge the man after she herself had waded through the blood of other people. Nora had shot and stabbed her share of raiders and ghouls with a singular purpose. There were no negotiations after the first few bad outcomes, anyone who stood in her way of Kellogg was removed.

In her past life, she’d be at best charged for multiple counts of manslaughter, or be hopelessly stuck in some hole for as many first degrees.

Over here, within the legal and public courts of the Nexus, she was grimly lauded as someone who successfully enacted her retribution. It was something few ‘normal’ settlers would ever achieve, but at least now most people within the Commonwealth had the satisfaction of knowing that the raiders responsible for the death of their loved ones had been eradicated, or better still, been sent to Blacksite Tleilax.

So Nora was adjusting to the post-apocalypse rather decently, and found herself begrudgingly agreeing to the benevolent tyranny of Sev. She’d still prefer if he had set the age of consent higher, but it was apparently voted in particularly by the majority of the young rescued sex slaves.

That they were allowed to vote was also something Nora had to get used to, but considering that the wasteland forced people to mature to survive, they couldn’t be any worse than the voters before the bombs fell. If anything, the people here were more involved in the process.

Within the Nexus, each residential unit, be it house or underground apartment, had a terminal provided in the living room. Even in its most basic, unupgraded form, the terminal provided access to daily and emergency bulletins, a hotline for calling in robots, and voting access for those laws Sev deemed worthy of such things.

Nora had participated a few times already; the terminal gave a relatively simple and straightforward explanation of the topic being brought up, and then gave the available options to vote from. The legalese was not as thorough as pre-war times, but loopholes and possible exploitation was ‘up to Sev to judge’, which basically meant no one dared to try bending the rules unless they wanted a chance to visit Tleilax.

The simplicity of the voting system was impressive, though it was likely only possible due to the thorough monopoly of power Sev wielded. Anyone thirteen and above (supposedly it used to be sixteen before a vote) who wished to vote simply had to enter it along with their names through the terminal. The virtual poll was left open for a while, so people would have days to consider changing their vote. So far no one has dared use aliases or prank names due to the very real fear of drawing the Nexus’ attention.

Everyone knew how thorough Sev’s advanced AIs were.

Also, it hadn’t happened yet, but the disclaimer made it very clear that in the case that your vote was cast unknowingly or unwillingly by someone else, Sev’s robots would promptly investigate the matter, which would also involve the use of the truth chambers. Once more, Nora could see why Sev’s limited democracy worked as well as it did.

So far, people had voted in the focused expansion of Diamond City and Station 81 over newer townships, kept the regulations (and quiet surveillance) on outsider travelers, and rejected the notion of easing the punishment to rapists and slavers.

Oh, and allowed kids as young as thirteen to be treated as adults in nearly all matters, of course.

They were still restricted from exhibitionist acts at least, which eased Nora’s mind. Finding proper adult couples (or more) as she passed by parks or alleyways was discomforting enough, thank you very much.

Nora had found herself in a small minority group of ‘concerned adults’ that feared the radical direction the Nexus was taking with its vote-able laws. That minority consisted mostly of ghouls who had remembered a more civilized time before the bombs. Like her, they worried that the Nexus was being too casual with what could be voted on by the general public, and sometimes too extreme in the options it gave.

The younger voters especially might not fully grasp the laws they were voting for, nor the ramifications of the options attached. It was brought up to Sev, but their collective concerns practically died there when the ruler of the Nexus politely asked for their proposed solution.

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Of course, there were no good proposals that didn’t result in angry and likely dangerous teens (especially from the fanatics in 1st Company) coming for them. So Nora and her group settled for Sev’s offer, and now the Nexus had its first watchdog organization to ensure that laws put under a vote were at least easily understandable and the hidden dangers of their voting options blunted as much as possible, starting with the latest proposal of dealing with prisoners of war.

So now Nora had a proper job, and got to enjoy commuting via the Nexus’ advanced subway network between her recently purchased home in Diamond City and her newly constructed (literally overnight) office in Station 81. If she squinted a bit, it was almost like living through her past life again.

Nora hated to admit it, but she was getting used to life in the Nexus.

*****

With the excitement of war wafting in the air, it was impossible for Gwen to not be infected by it. She had seen Sev trample through his foes with ease, and was sure that this time would be no different. If anything, the supposed higher level of technology used by the Brotherhood of Steel was far less intimidating than whatever the hell the Atom was supposed to be.

The kids were right, if it needed some god-thing to even wound Sev, what are power armored goons going to do to the Nexus?

As part of the administration staff, Gwen had seen and heard the reports, and it was almost disgusting. Sev could simply drown the Brotherhood of Steel within their fortifications with nothing but Sentinels and he’d massacre them. But instead, he was happily building up new weapons to send another loud message on why the Nexus should not be messed with.

The biggest downside to all this buildup was that Sev was actually too busy cackling to himself as he developed new ideas, instead of doing his rounds and doling out the fucking as he was supposed to. The former overseer might not be as cock-addicted as a lot of the other girls and boys in the Nexus, but she still had her needs.

She’d tried dating, briefly, after settling into Caladan. They were clumsy and unsatisfying affairs, and despite the promise of…intense fun, Gwen always found her partners very mediocre at best. Maybe she’d eventually make a husband out of one of them, but the training required…ugh.

She’d have to ask Curie for the anatomy teaching aids, probably. And have them all heavily annotated.

Disappointment aside, Gwen found little to complain about overseeing the running of the Nexus. Eva’s vast processing capability and problem solving programming meant that most of the issues Gwen and her team had to handle were usually minor grey issues, like family grievances or trade disputes. Nothing that warranted sending people to the blacksite or the Institute, thankfully.

She also had access to the latest things coming out of the Ix, but the significance of a lot of them escaped her. Sev had poured a lot of resources into developing a massive reactor and enhancing existing weapons technology, as well as research into macro-scale construction.

Was he trying to emulate the Liberty Prime robot? Surely the Nexus could already make big robots like that, and if you slap on the existing white lasers and the new plasma cannons, it’d be more than enough to slag the Brotherhood’s big trophy.

Or was it something to upgrade the Kirov with, so Sev could unnecessarily overkill the potential airship the enemy might have?

Gwen honestly didn’t know and honestly didn’t care. As long as Sev’s laughing about it, she knew she had little to worry about. If anything, she pitied the Brotherhood for being made into unwitting messengers. At least this one-sided fight would remind prospective and existing citizens to behave themselves.

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