milliways_bar | (no subject)

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Ellen's had some time to think about it, and to pray about it, and she still doesn't know what to think about what they found out at Second Diana. But she's definitely got to pull her thoughts together before she can go home, because Squire Maxson's parents would have been involved, and he's going to want to talk to someone, and if it's anything like the Vault they're going to send him around to talk to the nearest chaplain. That means either Knight-Captain Colvin, or her. So she has to be ready, when she goes back.

(And she's been thinking about the Scribes, too. All four of them; they've worked so hard on this... she's going to have to talk to Senior Scribe Jameson, when she can. About that, and- other things.)

Anyway, she's not quite ready to go home yet. Maybe talking to someone else will help. Outside opinions are useful sometimes. A lot of the time, really.

She'll just get some coffee, and go see who she can find.

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William's spent most of the day out with the horses, he's happy to see that they're comfortable once more.

When he walks in, he spots Ellen and comes over with a smile that fades as he orders his own coffee, "Ellen, what's wrong?"

"Oh-" Ellen looks up from her coffee. "Hi, William. We... had a project result come in, and it's- it's a little.... I' not sure how to describe it."

"I'm guessin' it ain't good?" Judging by the look on her face, it's complicated.

"No," Ellen says. "It should have been, but it's not."

She gestures to one of the seats at her table.

"I forget. Did I tell you about our radio project, or about the situation with our high command in California?"

William sits down as he thinks about that, "I don't think so. Radio's sort of like a telegram, right?"

Ellen nods. "Like a wireless telegram," she says. "You can send a radio message a very long way under the right conditions, and with the right equipment. It relies on line of sight a lot of the time, as if you were bouncing light around."

(She could probably explain in more detail, but one step at a time.)

"That must be useful in the Wasteland,"

The distances seemed almost more than in Arizona there because of all that lay between.

"It is, when you can get it to work," Ellen says. "We managed to get a really long distance radio transmission to work this time. If you design the transmitter right, you can flash your signal from an antenna on Earth and hit the Moon with it, and it'll bounce off the Moon and hit another target somewhere else. It takes a lot of math to figure out how to make that work, but it can be done, so you can send a message to anywhere that can see the Moon in the sky at the same time that you can."

"Damn, that's pretty amazin'. Have you been able to connect with folks far away yet?"

"...sort of," Ellen finally says. "We were trying to send a signal to California. Elder Lyons and his soldiers were sent east from California about twenty or thirty years ago, and the last time they heard from the High Elders was five years back, when they sent Squire Maxson to live at the Citadel instead of California. We tried to signal them, and we got everything right, but they didn't answer..."

"I'm sorry. Maybe they can't answer back just yet."

Ellen shakes her head. "I don't think they're going to be able to," she says soberly. "I've talked to someone from out West in my world, who comes in from a few years in my future. She's told me about the Brotherhood in her time, how there's only one chapter she's ever encountered, and how they're hiding in a bunker that's been under lockdown for years. No reinforcements, no supplies, nothing. They've been in hiding for years because there's nobody left to come to their rescue, in her time."

"Oh hell, that don't seem like an easy situation. At least you do know they're out there."

"Yes," says Ellen, "but that's just one chapter. Less than a hundred people... there were thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of Brotherhood before all this. Apparently the Western chapters got into a war with the New California Republic. From the way the only signal we got back sounded, NCR won, and Mojave Chapter is in hiding because NCR would be wiping them out if they could."

"Damn, it's really just one thing after another for you?"

"Seems that way," Ellen says wryly. "At least the robot factory's working okay, but... it'd be nice if things'd let up a bit, just for a little while."

"Yeah, I hope they do. You'll let me know if I can do anythin'."

"I will," Ellen says. "I've got two Brahmin due to deliver calves in a few months, so I may come looking for you for that, if I can."

"I'm glad to help with them. Brahmins can be tricky."

"No kidding," Ellen says. "My arm still gets crampy sometimes when I remember having to move that one head."

"Yeah, that was a hard calvin'."

"Which reminds me," Ellen says, "if the cows throw boy calves this time instead of girls, I'm going to need some help... I understand you're supposed to make steers pretty young, right?"

"Yeah, pretty young so you can control what they're doin'."

"Okay," says Ellen. "I've already got the herd bull and one bull calf, so I don't think we need to have more bull calves born, at least not this year. If that's the case I miiiiiight need you to show me how you go about... you know."

"I will, it just takes practice and a steady hand to get it right."

"Practice?" Ellen says. "Huh boy. That's... going to be interesting."

She's wondering if Bar gives out plastic models to practice on.

"Yeah, I helped my father for a while then when he went off to the war, I got better."

"Mmm. I might have to find somebody with a herd to work with if I'm going to practice," Ellen says doubtfully. "Even if the calves do have four each instead of two, that's not a lot to practice on."

"You're welcome to help us out on the ranch to get used to doin' it."

"Fair enough," says Ellen. "I'll have to see about getting the right clothes first, but that might not be a bad idea. Even if the cows are different."

"They ain't too different, a little smaller but behave about the same."

"All right," Ellen says. "Can I bring Dogmeat?"

"Yeah, he won't be too out of place though he'll have to be nice to Horus."

"I'll work on that with him," Ellen says. "He doesn't have much experience around cats."

"He can get to know the forge cats, they're pretty nice."

Ellen nods. "I'll start bringing him around," she says. "I've still got a few months to go, so that shouldn't be a problem."

"I'll bring Horus in too and they can get to know each other."

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