In A.D. 2004, War was beginning. CHINESE: What happen? OPERATOR: Someone set up us the SDI. CHINESE: What you say? GWB: How are you gentlemen!
Niki dropped the booklet in disgust. She had expected the fifth-hand account to be corny, but this was ridiculous. The heavily ionized air made her sneeze one more time, the involuntary jerk about the only thing that prevented her from dropping asleep. Who cares about history anyway? Nuclear war had come and gone, how's that for a break with the past... The face of her former mentor flashed in Niki's head with a scornful look. She brushed the mental picture away, trying to ignore the guilt. Sure, having a hyperactive visual imagination was useful when having to keep an 80 years old airship aloft, but it could get annoying sometimes.
Somewhere below the Weatherlight, a hand flipped a knife switch and a bright purple light came alive. Niki shook her head and blinked once or twice, just to make sure she wasn't seeing things again. She powered down the engine, and replied in somewhat sloppy morse code with the landing light. WEATHERLIGHT TO VAULT: HAVE GOODS, PERM TO LAND?
GRANTED WEATHERLIGHT: DROP CABLE.
Niki yawned. The anchor dropped from the slender airship with a loud CLUNK!, and she looked down as two men ran towards it to anchor her. Vault Dwellers. Too soft to leave their havens and too chicken to face the outside in daylight. As long as those people had fuel cells and RadAway, it was just fine with her. Another flash of light signaled her that she could come down. Niki checked the padding in her backpack and opened the hatch door, jumping straight down the five hundred feet or so that separated her from the ground. She loved that part, to remind the Vault Dwellers how different she was from the "pure human strain" they clinged so hopelessly to. They sure can't afford to shoot THIS mutant on sight, ha!
Niki glided down halfway through the anchor cable, at which point she grabbed it and rappeled down to make sure her delicate cargo didn't suffer from her usually rough landings. Pre-War electronics just couldn't stand the kind of stress her elastic, hollow boned body could afford without a problem.
By the time it took for the Vault Overseer to emerge from the sealed entrance and greet Niki with his hand raised, she had already folded her wingcape in what looked like a short mantle draping from her shoulders. Without a word, she took her backpack off and slowly removed the dirty box that it contained. She allowed herself a grin seeing the Overseer's white gloves, just another symbol of their fear of contamination. "Water chip, standard VaulTek issue. I found it at Vault 15."
"How did you persuade them to part with it?"
"Easy enough. They were all dead, have been for a good while I guess. Nothing but molerats and radvines down there."
"Hush."
Niki smiled in the old man's face. She was almost sure this was the only Vault left intact, and even said so to the Overseer on their second meetings. For some reason, the old man still wanted his 'citizens' to think all was fine and dandy though. Probably doesn't have the guts to accept it himself... "Where is my stuff?"
The Overseer motioned the two guards to bring forth a crate, and open it. The three men backed off as Niki took a look inside.
"Thirty fuel cells, antibiotics, and the data tape you asked us for. Pray tell, why did you need it?"
"I got some friends that like ancient history enough to pay the proper price for it, Overseer." Niki put the tape and medicines in her backpack and tied the fuel cells to the anchor cable; she had no use for the container, and motioned the guards to take it back. No doubt they were going to boil it, now that they no more concerns with saving water.
"Niki, on behalf of my people, I must ask you a question."
"What's the matter, got another job for me?"
Tue Jul 10 08:16:09 2001