Chapter 120: The Transmission

Chapter 120: The Transmission

It was Sunday morning, and I think everyone in the Lucky 38 had finally gotten used to Stripe running around since his arrival yesterday. At least... somewhat used to him. Hopefully. And thanks to the audio link up in the penthouse, everyone had been talking to Jeeves and the other personalities in the Think Tank. With the exception of the Toaster and the Book Chute, all the people and personalities living in both nuthouses seemed to be getting along. And, obviously, everyone was in love with Roxie. So, I was looking forward to a nice, calm, stress-free, 'Lazy Sunday.'

"Alright, so what's the problem?" I asked with my coffee mug in hand, looking up at the wide open truck door. Cass was sitting in the drivers seat of the deuce and a half, frantically looking at the various controls like they were completely alien

"I'll tell you what th' fuckin' problem is!" She yelled, swiveling around in the seat to face me. She looked about ready to give up. "How th' fuck do you even start one've these things? There's no key!" She looked back at the dashboard, scoffed in frustration, and shook her head. "Hell, half this shit ain't even labeled!"

"What, have you never driven one of these before?" I asked, hopping onto the door sill and leaning into the cab. Cass leaned back and sighed.

"Obviously not," Cass shook her head again. "I mean, there's a button here that says 'start,' but nothin's happenin', so I'm guessin' that's a trick."

"It is a trick!" I said with a smile. Cass rolled her eyes and slid back across the bench-like seat, allowing me access to the drivers seat.

"I give. What's the secret?"

"Alright," I said, sliding into place. "The very first thing you've got to do: pull the parking brake." I reached down in the space between the left edge of the bench-like seat, and the drivers door, pulling up on the chunky lever with a heavy, solid clunk.

"Wait, that's what that is?" Cass leaned across me to get a better look at it.

"I know that seems like a strange place to put it, but putting it there rather than in the middle like usual actually makes it much easier to change gear with this enormous shifter." I jiggled the gear stick that was sticking out of the middle of the floor. "And that's good, because when you drive one of these things, you're going to be shifting A LOT. Be prepared to shift like you've never shifted before."

"You made your point, that's enough about the shifter!" Cass laughed. I just smiled and shook my head.

"No, that's not enough about the shifter, because the next thing is making sure you're in neutral. Reverse and first are unsynchronized, and the gearbox can actually disengage into neutral without the clutch, so you've got to be careful you don't knock it into neutral and leave it there by accident while you're on the move, because that'll kill the engine." I thought back to the perilous Hexcrete Archipelago, where I did exactly that completely unintentionally. "Yeah, you don't want to do that." Cass nodded.

"That definitely seems like a bad deal."

"Next, you've got to push in and turn the Engine Stop." I grabbed a small metal T-handle, almost directly below and down to the left of the steering wheel. "You turn it clockwise to 90 degrees. Or until you hear a clunk. Whichever comes first."

"O-okay..." She seemed a bit confused by that. "What next?"

"Next, you flip the accessory switch," I said, grabbing a large metal level to the right of the steering wheel. It flipped up with a heavy clunk, and the dashboard echoed with a soft hum that slowly and steadily got louder. "And now, you've just got to wait until all the dials warm up. Takes a while, since they're all so old and finicky and cobbled together from six different wrecks in the Big Empty." I tapped the dials, and the oil pressure needle wobbled. "Anyway, once the electronics are woken up, the rest is real simple. Push in the clutch, hit the stop/start button, and give it a bit of gas." The whole cab trembled as the suddenly rumbling engine gurgled into life. "See? Simple."

"You know..." Cass leaned back, shaking her head at the dashboard. "The 'stop' being the key to starting it is just a little bit misleading." I laughed, pushing the stop/start button again, and pulling out the Engine Stop. The noise started to die down as the engine slowly cycled to a stop.

"That's fair. But, you know, if it does get too confusing, I suppose we can always let Roxie drive." Cass was definitely a bit taken aback by that comment. And when I saw Roxie leap into the passenger seat, silent as a ghost, and lean around Cass... Part of me wanted to warn her, but all of me wanted to see her reaction.

"BARK!"

"HOLY FUCK!" Cass practically jumped out of her skin. "How long have you been there?!" Roxie just panted happily. When Cass calmed down enough, Roxie nuzzled against her, and then rested her head in Cass' lap.

"Yeah, she does that," I smiled, reaching over to scratch the cyberdog behind the ears.

"So, where'd you learn how to drive one of these things, anyway?" Cass asked.

"A few years back, long before coming to the Mojave, I worked for a small shipping company just outside the Portland ruins. They ran packages up and down to all the settlements and towns along the Columbia River. In the beginning it was mostly lead-lined boats, so they could navigate that rad-infested, scummy piece of shit, but right before I signed up, they acquired a small fleet of old deuce-and-a-half trucks."

"A small fleet?" Cass raised an eyebrow. I nodded... and couldn't help but laugh to myself when I looked down, and saw that she was absentmindedly petting the dog resting on her lap.

"Yeah, by 'a small fleet,' I mean 'six.' Well..." I thought back to that job, and how most of the trucks were broken almost all of the time. I laughed to myself. "Three. The company went under pretty soon after. It's possible that maintenance was a lot more expensive than they were expecting, but personally I think it's because the people they hired couldn't drive stick. Every time one've those muppets took a truck out, the gearbox would come back in pieces."

"Let me guess," Cass chuckled, shaking her head at me. "You were th' only one they could count on, right?" I shrugged, hopping out of the drivers seat.

"Well, I am the Courier, after all..." I started to walk around the truck, but stopped mid-stride: the familiar sound of ED-E buzzing into the car park, and echoing off every slab of concrete. Sure enough, he came zipping into view and came to a stop several feet away, right above the deuce's engine. "Oh, hey, buddy! What-"

"F-fri-e-e-e-end_C-c-c-courie-e-e-er!" ED-E stammered. His whole chassis shook as he spoke, and the bottom of my stomach fell out. "Somethi-i-i-ing i-i-is-s-s-" Suddenly, a small light under his speaker grill blinked red, accompanied by four shrill beeps; with the last beep, the light turned a solid green. ED-E stopped talking, he stopped shaking... he just hovered there, completely still and silent for a few seconds.

"ED-E?" I asked, walking over to him cautiously. I couldn't quite reach him, as he was hovering a good 2 feet directly above the middle of the deuce's chin-height hood. "Are you alright? Can you hear me?" He methodically swiveled in place, and his speaker grill pointed directly at me.

The voice that emerged out of the speaker made my blood turn to ice.

"Courier Six..." Growled an unmistakable voice: that Other Courier. "Why didn't I take the job? You. You were the reason." My eyes went wide as my brain finally made the connection. An image flashed in my head from all the way back when I went to Primm, and talked to Johnson Nash about the Platinum Chip job:

"His expression turned right around, asked me if your name was for real. I said, sure as lack 'o rain, that's the name I'd been handed. Then he turned down the job, just like that. I asked if he was sure, it was good money. Nope. Let 'Courier Six' carry the package, that's what he said. Then he just up and walked out."

Talking with Christine in the Madre... listening to the holotapes in his hideout in the Big Empty... I was amazed that I hadn't made the connection until now. He wasn't just an Other Courier. He truly was THE Other Courier! What the fuck?!

"What is-" Cass began, leaning out of the deuce. I held up a hand, cutting her off by shushing her as harsh and loud as I could; I was focused intently on the voice speaking through the eyebot. This was important. Extremely important - to me - and I didn't want to miss anything.

"See The Divide," The Other Courier growled. "See what happened. What was done. What you did... Your world stripped bare. All its beasts. Its shadows. Its horror." The Other Courier paused, exhaling loudly. "I have a message for you. Come find me. You know the way. Bring all your weapons. Bring your convictions. Bring all you can carry... and at The Divide, you and I? We'll... have an ending to things. This message... it is your burden, and yours alone to bear. When you come to walk the lonesome road, you must walk it alone."

The voice stopped speaking, and we were left in silence for a few seconds. There was one last burst of static, and ED-E dropped out of the sky like a stone without any further ceremony. He smacked into the deuce's hood with a resounding clang, and fell out of sight behind the truck.

"ED-E!" I yelled, running to him, wide eyed. When I rounded the truck, I saw ED-E lying on the ground, completely sideways and wobbling slightly. I dropped to my knees, skidding across the concrete, and grabbed hold of his chassis. He was completely still, and even all the antennae sticking out of him were hanging down, limp and lifeless.

"Wait - what th' fuck just happened?" Cass asked feverishly from somewhere behind me. "Who was that speaking just - holy shit!" Roxie was making her way around the other side of the truck, and started sniffing and pawing at the eyebot in my hands. "Is... is ED-E... he okay?"

"I don't know," I admitted, lifting the robot off the ground. He shuddered, and the familiar sound of his anti-grav generators hummed into life; he righted himself, and wobbled slightly as he returned to the air. "ED-E! Are you alright?" I asked. At first, he didn't say anything. He hovered in place for a few seconds... and then, a grainy, almost incomplete sounding version of the bugle music he usually played in combat. And then:

"RALPHIE!" A voice yelled from his speaker grill. It was distorted by the static somewhat, but it was still recognizable as the voice of a child. "Fly far, fly fast!" The music faded away, and there were a few more bursts of static, until all that was left was the hum of his anti-grav generators keeping him aloft.

"... ED-E? What... what was..." He shook back and forth several times in midair, in exactly the same way that someone who'd just been blindsided by a sucker punch to the face would shake their head to clear their vision. "You back with us?"

"I..." ED-E wobbled in place, still obviously shaken. "I am sorry, Friend_Courier. I do not... Yes. Yes, I am fine. I have had message protocols overwritten in the past, but this was..." ED-E paused, shaking back and forth again. "I do not fully understand what just happened."

"What the fuck was that?" Cass asked. "Who was that kid just now?"

"Are you sure you're okay? Do you want April or Emily to take a look at you?" I asked again, reaching up to try and touch his chassis in an attempt to comfort him. He didn't let me. He just floated backward, away from me.

"No. That is not necessary Friend_Courier. I am fine." Roxie looked up at the floating metal ball with a whimper; I didn't know if the cyberdog could understand what ED-E was saying, but if Cass' expression was anything to go on, you didn't need to hear the words for the message to get across. Mostly. Without another word, ED-E zoomed out of the parking garage, and I was left standing there in stunned silence.

Not to mention, there was one other thing worrying me. He said something about what I did. What did he mean by that? What did I do? What was he talking about? Was there something I had done in The Divide? The only thing I remember doing there was being scared out of my wits and almost dying.

Too many questions, and no answers.

"Actually, speaking of answers," I said, shaking away all the thoughts rattling around in my head. "Arcade? Veronica? Maybe you guys can help me, you guys are my go-to resource for all things obscure." The two of them just looked at each other curiously, and then looked back at me.

"We are?" They both said in unison. I did the best I could to suppress a smirk.

"Yes. The transmission that came through my Pip Boy," I held up my arm "and gave me the coordinates ended with a word that I can't make any sense of: Ulysses. Does that mean anything to either of you?" Arcade was the first to speak.

"Ulysses?" He snorted out a small laugh. "Man... the last time I heard that name was when I studied the Aeneid, years ago, back at the Boneyard University."

"The... what?" I asked, unsure what he'd even said. Except for one thing: name. It was a name? Ulysses was a name? What kind of a name is that?

"The Aeneid. It was an epic poem, written in ancient Rome - the real one - by Virgil. 9,896 lines of dactylic hexameter... It's kind of a shame, really. I bet that with the rise of Caesar and the Legion, they don't even teach it anymore." Arcade chuckled grimly to himself and shook his head. "In omnibus requiem quaesivi, et nusquam inveni nisi in angulo cum libro."

"So... who was this Ulysses person?" I asked again, hoping to get a clearer answer this time. Preferably, one in English.

"Ulysses is the Latin name of Odysseus, a Greek hero of myth. He was the focus of Homer's Odyssey. Spent the better part of ten years after the Trojan War wandering the Mediterranean, trying and failing to find his way home." Part of me was utterly confused, and yet... there was another part of my brain that seemed to recall pieces of this from somewhere. Was this one of the many things my brain had read to occupy itself while waiting for me to arrive in the Forbidden Zone? I couldn't be entirely certain. Trying to remember what my brain had read was like trying to read an open book lying at the bottom of a river.

"Pfft. Typical man," Veronica shook her head. "Never bothering to ask for directions." Veronica unfolded her arms and shrugged. "I don't know anything about any of that. But the only 'Ulysses' I know was the one mentioned in one of Taggart's US History lectures: Ulysses S. Grant. President number 18, and-"

"One of the great, all-time American drunks!" Arcade interrupted with a smile. Veronica just shot him a look.

"I was going to say 'Commanding Union General during the Civil War,' but yeah. I suppose that works, too."

"Wasn't he called 'The Butcher' after the Overland campaign?" Arcade asked. Veronica scratched at the back of her hood.

"I thought that was Sherman after he set fire to all of Georgia," Veronica said finally. "Wouldn't surprise me, either way. What is surprising is that I even know this much. I'm pretty sure I slept through most of that class..."

"I can't believe they doubted me when I said those two collectively know everything," I said under my breath, leaning over to Cass. She was staring at the two of them going back and forth.

"I can't believe the two of them'r still talkin'."

Half an hour later, I was back down in the garage, near my Corvega rather than the deuce. I wasn't carrying as many weapons as I was usually known for, but I had a few. And I must say - even without sleeves, it was impressive the sheer number of energy pistols and ammo my duster was able to carry without being cumbersome.

"So, yer seriously gonna do this, then?" Cass said from behind me the instant before I reached the car. I sighed, setting the Riot Gear helmet on top of my car, and turned to face her.

"Yeah," I nodded. Cass came to a stop a few inches away from me, her brow furrowed in anger as she stared up at me. Her hands were both clenched into fists at her sides.

"An' there's nothin' I can say to convince you that yer bein' ridiculous and stupid and you should just ignore this whole thing?" She was doing a decent job masking it with annoyance, but I could practically feel her worry like it was a physical presence as she stared up at me with those big grey eyes of hers.

"I'm just going to get some answers, Cass." I rested a hand on her shoulder, and her expression faltered; she even bit her lower lip slightly. "I'll be fine." She reached up and grabbed my hand.

"Just... I know it's impossible for you because it's you, but just promise me..." She looked away, shook her head, and looked back with renewed frustration. "Don't be an idiot!"

"Please, don't worry," Sue spoke up, startling Cass momentarily. "I can keep him safe and out of trouble."

"Fuck me, I keep forgettin' that thing can talk..." Cass muttered, rubbing the back of her neck and shaking her head.

"I won't be stupid, I promise," I said. "I'll get my answers, and I'll come back in one piece. But, you know..." I flashed her a smile and gave her a wink. "If it would make you feel any better, you could always give me a kiss for luck."

Okay, yeah, that was definitely a look of annoyance now. She was still smiling, so that was probably a good sign. Cass reached around me and grabbed the helmet off the top of my car. She cradled it in her hands, and planted a kiss on the helmet's respirator before tossing it past me and into my car's open window.

"You just be careful," She said finally, prodding me in the chest several times. "I swear, if you die out there, I'll kill you."

"Duly noted," I gave her a small nod as she turned on her heel and stormed off. Of course, me being the lecherous hump that I am, I couldn't help but stare. As soon as she disappeared around the corner, and back into the elevator, I turned back, fully intending to get back into my car. But I suddenly found myself face-to-speaker with ED-E, who had somehow appeared without a sound. Or maybe I was simply distracted by staring at Cass' backside, and hadn't heard him.

"Friend_Courier," ED-E buzzed in my face. "You are going after the man who transmitted the message?"

"Yeah... the Other Courier..." Ulysses. Was that even his name? At least I knew it was a name, now... "He's somewhere in The Divide. I'm-"

"Good." ED-E cut me off. "I am coming with you." I was a bit startled, but I rallied as quick as I could.

"No, not this time, little buddy. This is personal. You don't have to-"

"He has made it personal to me as well, Friend_Courier." ED-E cut me off again. "I wish to go with you, and register my displeasure in person."

"ED-E, no! It's too dangerous!" I pleaded. "Leaving aside the fact that The Divide is, with the possible exception of the Sierra Madre, the most lethal place I've ever been... just... what if he takes control of you again?" ED-E wobbled in the air slightly, the steady hum from the anti-grav generators interrupted by a subtle waver.

"It does not matter. I have reason to speak with him, just as you do. And Cassidy_Rose is correct. You operate at peak efficiency when you have at least one companion to provide adequate fire support."

"The Divide is still plenty dangerous, ED-E," I said. "Even for floating eyebots, I'm sure." In response, there was a belch of ozone and a crackle of electricity as ED-E vanished behind his stealth field.

"He can turn invisible, just like us!" Sue exclaimed without even bothering to contain her excitement. "We can be stealthy buddies!"

"I can move faster than you, Friend_Courier," ED-E said as he deactivated the stealth field. "I can be more stealthy. I can provide aerial reconnaissance, and dedicated fire support. And more important than any of that: you can not stop me." As if to demonstrate his point, he immediately hovered backward, far out of reach. "I am coming with you, Friend_Courier."

I sighed, shaking my head.

"I'm just... I'm worried. I'm worried that too many people - or eyebots - will just..." I sighed again. "Guess there's nothing I can do to dissuade you?" I asked, fully aware of the irony. ED-E shook his chassis back and forth.

"I am coming with you, Friend_Courier. That is final." I smiled, getting into my car. ED-E floated alongside as I started up the engine and drove out of the garage.

"Well, if nothing else," I said as I drove along, leaning my head out the window. "This just shows what great 'Camarader-E' the two of us have." ED-E let out a mechanical groan... accompanied by the recording of a very soft, sad sounding trombone.

"That was terrible, Friend_Courier," ED-E grumbled. I just laughed.

"I know. And I'm sorry." As I drove along, I caught sight of the Lucky 38 in one of my wing mirrors just as I drove out of The Strip's front gate. I shook my head. "So much for the lazy Sunday..."