Dr. Li
Ellen pulled her armor's head-piece off and stood blinking in the mouth of the old Metro station just north of Rivet City. The clouds had parted since she'd left Three Dog and taken to the dank, dark under-ways. Even now, after all this time, her eyes had difficulty adjusting to the sudden change between sun and darkness. Besides, the Metro tunnel mouth was so low that it was walled in on three sides and fed up to a flight of stairs. She wanted to be sure there were no surprises waiting up above, whether green-skinned or half-corpse already.
There was no sound of scuttling, feral feet, though, and no coarse mutant laughter. In fact, the only sound that reached her ears was the dual-voiced lowing of a Brahmin. Ellen scrambled up the stairs when she recognized it. This far into the ruins it had to be a trader's pack animal- and it was, though not any trader she knew. The man, a brown-haired fellow dressed in worn leathers with a pair of goggles around his neck, raised one hand in greeting. "Welcome, welcome!" he said. "In the mood to do a little shopping, or just passing through?"
"Just passing through at the moment, sir," Ellen answered. "I've got to find someone in Rivet City."
"Ah, excellent," said the man, flashing a smile. "My own destination almost exactly, although I plan to make the residents come to me. Even a marketplace like Rivet City's can't hold out nearly as much variety as a man who scours the Wastes for the variety of junk and miscellaneous goods it holds. Feel free to stop by on your way out if you like. The name's Crazy Wolfgang; we'll be here all day."
Ellen didn't quite know what to say to that, but he seemed harmless enough, so she nodded and continued on her way.
There were guards waiting. Two, she didn't recognize. One, she did. "Welcome back to Rivet City," said Harkness as Ellen stepped away from the swing-bridge and onto the carrier proper. "What's your business this time?"
"I probably won't be here long," Ellen said. "I'm trying to find a Dr. Li. I don't suppose you know her?"
The armored man snorted. "Yeah? Let me guess -- no, she's not expecting you, but it's really important and you need to see her right away." At the look on Ellen's face he added, "Been a lot of that going around lately, and I've had just about enough of it. So you're going to have to do better than that."
"Um-" Ellen faltered; she had no idea what to say. "I was told she might be able to- she might know where my father is. Three Dog said Dad told him he was going to look for her here..."
Harkness eyed Ellen levelly a moment. Then his gaze softened fractionally. "Hmm. Older guy, in his fifties or so?"
"That's right," Ellen said. "Gray hair, lighter than mine. His name's James. People tell me I look like him. Have you seen him? Has he been here?"
The guardsman nodded. "I remember him. He left already, but... yeah. Doctor Li might know more." With a sigh, he stepped back a pace. "All right, you can go on up. She'll be in the Science Lab, up at the north end. Just don't cause any trouble, or else you're going to answer to me."
"Thank you, sir," Ellen said, and darted past. There were answers on board this rusty old hulk, at long last...
Ellen had thought the atrium of Vault 101 to be a very big space once, before Bryan Mills' world and Three Dog's mission to the Museum of Technology. The science lab Harkness had spoken of could have held all of that atrium and then some. Ellen paused just inside the door to take the room in; it was all pipes and bundles of wires, lights and generators and equipment she couldn't even name. But not people, or at least not so many as a space so grand ought to be holding. There couldn't have been more than four or five people moving about among the equipment, tweaking this, adjusting that, taking down notes on the other thing. It seemed a shame, to have so much to study with and yet so few people to do the work. . . but at least she wouldn't have to ask too many more people where Dr. Li was.
She started for the stairs that led down from the balcony around the edges of the lab, intending to tap the first person she reached on the shoulder. It never happened. From somewhere just behind her, a woman's annoyed, tightly controlled voice snapped, "Look, this is a restricted area. I'm tired of telling you people-"
Ellen spun to face the speaker: a woman of perhaps her father's age or a little younger, black hair tied up in a no-nonsense bun. She wore a once-white lab coat buttoned tightly over her other clothes, and her features bespoke more Chinese ancestry than anything else. As her eyes met Ellen's, the expression on her face shifted from irritation to shock. "I. . . it's you," the older woman stammered, one hand coming up to cover her mouth for a moment. "My heavens. You look so much like him... you're James' daughter, aren't you? What are you doing here?"
"I... I'm looking for my father, actually," Ellen answered, fighting the urge to mirror the gesture."You know him, ma'am?"
The shock faded; the annoyance returned. "Well yes, of course I do. Don't you know who I am? I suppose James never told you. Typical."
Ellen tried not to bristle, though she really felt that if anyone was going to be upset at her father's withholding of information, it ought to be her.
"I am Doctor Madison Li. I worked with your father many years ago. Your mother as well, in fact." A moment's indefinable strain crossed Li's face; she shook her head. "You'll have to forgive me. This has all been very stressful, what with your father suddenly showing up here after being gone for so long. You have to understand that I... We put all of that behind us. Project Purity, our work, all of it. We've moved on, even if your father hasn't."
Why Li felt that dumping so much information in Ellen's lap was necessary, Ellen didn't know. If a stranger she'd only just met was annoyed or cranky, what of it? Still- "I don't know anything about any of that," she had to admit. "I'm sorry. Dad never even let on about any of it, back in the Vault."
"I see," said Li, a little distantly. "Funny you should mention that. Your father told me that you were supposed to still be in the Vault."
"I couldn't just stay there after he left!" Ellen exclaimed. "I had to try and find him!"
"Did you?" Li raised an eyebrow. "I was under the impression that's exactly the opposite of what he wanted for you. Well, you won't find him here. He's come and gone already."
Ellen fought the urge to scream, instead scrubbing at her face with both hands. "I know," she managed. "Chief Harkness told me he'd gone. I just- I need to know where he went. He didn't tell me anything."
Li shook her head. "You would have been better off staying in that Vault," she said. "Both of you. Your father's taken it into his head that he can revive Project Purity somehow, even twenty years after he walked away. The whole project is a lost cause. I wish he could see that. It's been too long. It's too late to go back."
"I don't understand," said Ellen. "Please- Project Purity? I've heard the name before, but I don't know what it means."
"A dream of your mother's and your father's. It was simple, really," said Li with a half-shrug. "'Fresh, clean water for everyone.' Such a simple idea, and yet so impossible to realize... The plan was to build a facility that could purify all the water in the Tidal Basin at once. No radiation, no muck, just clear water." A bitter little smile crossed her face. "It just turned out to be more difficult than we anticipated. We had the basic principles down; we understood most of the science behind it. But the radiation in the area is much too pervasive. Small-scale tests were fine. But any time we tried to test the process on a larger scale, it was just too much. Maybe if we'd had more time, or better equipment..."
There was something about the way Dr. Li said more time that prickled at Ellen. It didn't sound right at all. "Why'd you stop?" she said. "What happened?"
"You happened."
Ellen's mouth snapped shut without another word. Li went on anyway. "It wasn't just you; we had more problems than we could handle already, but your birth is what finally pushed it over the edge. Your father decided that you were more important than everything we'd been working for, and he left. He left all of us. Once he was gone, the Brotherhood decided we weren't worth their time anymore. Without their protection from the mutants, we had to abandon the purifier."
If there was anything else to say, Ellen didn't know what it was. She was only half-aware of asking, "This purifier... where...?"
"It's in the old Jefferson Memorial building, northwest of here." Li looked Ellen over a moment, eyes lingering on the patched stealth armor, the rifle butt behind her head, the pistol and sword on her hips. "Even if you know how to use all that armament you're carrying, it's still dangerous. Please don't go after him. It was foolish of him to even think about going there alone."
Memories of the Memorial rose up in Ellen's mind: the blotchy, scabrous dome half-glimpsed across the river from the greenskin encampment, the shining marble building of Mr. Mills' world. "I have to try," she said, forcing a confidence into her voice that she didn't really feel. "One way or another, I have to try. Thank you, Dr. Li."
Silence; then Li nodded. It might have been Ellen's imagination, but she thought she heard a note of real concern as Li said, "Good luck finding your father."
There was no sound of scuttling, feral feet, though, and no coarse mutant laughter. In fact, the only sound that reached her ears was the dual-voiced lowing of a Brahmin. Ellen scrambled up the stairs when she recognized it. This far into the ruins it had to be a trader's pack animal- and it was, though not any trader she knew. The man, a brown-haired fellow dressed in worn leathers with a pair of goggles around his neck, raised one hand in greeting. "Welcome, welcome!" he said. "In the mood to do a little shopping, or just passing through?"
"Just passing through at the moment, sir," Ellen answered. "I've got to find someone in Rivet City."
"Ah, excellent," said the man, flashing a smile. "My own destination almost exactly, although I plan to make the residents come to me. Even a marketplace like Rivet City's can't hold out nearly as much variety as a man who scours the Wastes for the variety of junk and miscellaneous goods it holds. Feel free to stop by on your way out if you like. The name's Crazy Wolfgang; we'll be here all day."
Ellen didn't quite know what to say to that, but he seemed harmless enough, so she nodded and continued on her way.
There were guards waiting. Two, she didn't recognize. One, she did. "Welcome back to Rivet City," said Harkness as Ellen stepped away from the swing-bridge and onto the carrier proper. "What's your business this time?"
"I probably won't be here long," Ellen said. "I'm trying to find a Dr. Li. I don't suppose you know her?"
The armored man snorted. "Yeah? Let me guess -- no, she's not expecting you, but it's really important and you need to see her right away." At the look on Ellen's face he added, "Been a lot of that going around lately, and I've had just about enough of it. So you're going to have to do better than that."
"Um-" Ellen faltered; she had no idea what to say. "I was told she might be able to- she might know where my father is. Three Dog said Dad told him he was going to look for her here..."
Harkness eyed Ellen levelly a moment. Then his gaze softened fractionally. "Hmm. Older guy, in his fifties or so?"
"That's right," Ellen said. "Gray hair, lighter than mine. His name's James. People tell me I look like him. Have you seen him? Has he been here?"
The guardsman nodded. "I remember him. He left already, but... yeah. Doctor Li might know more." With a sigh, he stepped back a pace. "All right, you can go on up. She'll be in the Science Lab, up at the north end. Just don't cause any trouble, or else you're going to answer to me."
"Thank you, sir," Ellen said, and darted past. There were answers on board this rusty old hulk, at long last...
Ellen had thought the atrium of Vault 101 to be a very big space once, before Bryan Mills' world and Three Dog's mission to the Museum of Technology. The science lab Harkness had spoken of could have held all of that atrium and then some. Ellen paused just inside the door to take the room in; it was all pipes and bundles of wires, lights and generators and equipment she couldn't even name. But not people, or at least not so many as a space so grand ought to be holding. There couldn't have been more than four or five people moving about among the equipment, tweaking this, adjusting that, taking down notes on the other thing. It seemed a shame, to have so much to study with and yet so few people to do the work. . . but at least she wouldn't have to ask too many more people where Dr. Li was.
She started for the stairs that led down from the balcony around the edges of the lab, intending to tap the first person she reached on the shoulder. It never happened. From somewhere just behind her, a woman's annoyed, tightly controlled voice snapped, "Look, this is a restricted area. I'm tired of telling you people-"
Ellen spun to face the speaker: a woman of perhaps her father's age or a little younger, black hair tied up in a no-nonsense bun. She wore a once-white lab coat buttoned tightly over her other clothes, and her features bespoke more Chinese ancestry than anything else. As her eyes met Ellen's, the expression on her face shifted from irritation to shock. "I. . . it's you," the older woman stammered, one hand coming up to cover her mouth for a moment. "My heavens. You look so much like him... you're James' daughter, aren't you? What are you doing here?"
"I... I'm looking for my father, actually," Ellen answered, fighting the urge to mirror the gesture."You know him, ma'am?"
The shock faded; the annoyance returned. "Well yes, of course I do. Don't you know who I am? I suppose James never told you. Typical."
Ellen tried not to bristle, though she really felt that if anyone was going to be upset at her father's withholding of information, it ought to be her.
"I am Doctor Madison Li. I worked with your father many years ago. Your mother as well, in fact." A moment's indefinable strain crossed Li's face; she shook her head. "You'll have to forgive me. This has all been very stressful, what with your father suddenly showing up here after being gone for so long. You have to understand that I... We put all of that behind us. Project Purity, our work, all of it. We've moved on, even if your father hasn't."
Why Li felt that dumping so much information in Ellen's lap was necessary, Ellen didn't know. If a stranger she'd only just met was annoyed or cranky, what of it? Still- "I don't know anything about any of that," she had to admit. "I'm sorry. Dad never even let on about any of it, back in the Vault."
"I see," said Li, a little distantly. "Funny you should mention that. Your father told me that you were supposed to still be in the Vault."
"I couldn't just stay there after he left!" Ellen exclaimed. "I had to try and find him!"
"Did you?" Li raised an eyebrow. "I was under the impression that's exactly the opposite of what he wanted for you. Well, you won't find him here. He's come and gone already."
Ellen fought the urge to scream, instead scrubbing at her face with both hands. "I know," she managed. "Chief Harkness told me he'd gone. I just- I need to know where he went. He didn't tell me anything."
Li shook her head. "You would have been better off staying in that Vault," she said. "Both of you. Your father's taken it into his head that he can revive Project Purity somehow, even twenty years after he walked away. The whole project is a lost cause. I wish he could see that. It's been too long. It's too late to go back."
"I don't understand," said Ellen. "Please- Project Purity? I've heard the name before, but I don't know what it means."
"A dream of your mother's and your father's. It was simple, really," said Li with a half-shrug. "'Fresh, clean water for everyone.' Such a simple idea, and yet so impossible to realize... The plan was to build a facility that could purify all the water in the Tidal Basin at once. No radiation, no muck, just clear water." A bitter little smile crossed her face. "It just turned out to be more difficult than we anticipated. We had the basic principles down; we understood most of the science behind it. But the radiation in the area is much too pervasive. Small-scale tests were fine. But any time we tried to test the process on a larger scale, it was just too much. Maybe if we'd had more time, or better equipment..."
There was something about the way Dr. Li said more time that prickled at Ellen. It didn't sound right at all. "Why'd you stop?" she said. "What happened?"
"You happened."
Ellen's mouth snapped shut without another word. Li went on anyway. "It wasn't just you; we had more problems than we could handle already, but your birth is what finally pushed it over the edge. Your father decided that you were more important than everything we'd been working for, and he left. He left all of us. Once he was gone, the Brotherhood decided we weren't worth their time anymore. Without their protection from the mutants, we had to abandon the purifier."
If there was anything else to say, Ellen didn't know what it was. She was only half-aware of asking, "This purifier... where...?"
"It's in the old Jefferson Memorial building, northwest of here." Li looked Ellen over a moment, eyes lingering on the patched stealth armor, the rifle butt behind her head, the pistol and sword on her hips. "Even if you know how to use all that armament you're carrying, it's still dangerous. Please don't go after him. It was foolish of him to even think about going there alone."
Memories of the Memorial rose up in Ellen's mind: the blotchy, scabrous dome half-glimpsed across the river from the greenskin encampment, the shining marble building of Mr. Mills' world. "I have to try," she said, forcing a confidence into her voice that she didn't really feel. "One way or another, I have to try. Thank you, Dr. Li."
Silence; then Li nodded. It might have been Ellen's imagination, but she thought she heard a note of real concern as Li said, "Good luck finding your father."