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From The Personal Recollection Of Leanne Walker

President Eden was as gracious as ever.  "Of course, Miss Walker.  Step through that far door, and we will have our meeting."  A pause.  "Ah, Lt-Colonel Feldon?"

Feldon jolted to full attention.  "Yes, Mister President?"

"Sir, you have my deepest thanks for helping Miss Walker get here.  Consequently, under Presidential Special Order 2365-6E, I pardon you of all charges pertaining to your pending court martial, and return you to fully active status.  Now, please proceed at once to the Main Hangar - I am assembling troops there, to deal with Autumn's little mutiny."

He was stunned.  "Y-yes, Mister President.  THANK you, sir."  He was about to leave, but then grabbed my hand and shook it warmly.  "It's been .... interesting meeting you, Commander Walker.  I hope this meeting goes well, for ALL of us ..."

I couldn't think of what else to say back except "Good luck, Boris."  He openly smiled at that, nodded, and was out the door before anything else could be said.

*******

The 'inner sanctum' of the Presidential Centre was not what I expected, no surprise.  This was supposedly the living quarters (and, presumably, workspace) of the US President.  To that end, comfortable furnishings and assorted luxuries was what I had imagined.  Instead, the place was a bare cylindrical chamber, perhaps a former missile silo, I'm not sure, crammed with computer hardware.

That small internal voice, the one starting when I first talked to Eden, and which got stronger after Feldon told me about Eden's living arrangements?  It was definitely trying to tell me something, but what I couldn't say.

"This way, please," came Eden's voice, and the lights on a set of stairs brightened.  I began climbing these stairs, which wound up the structure at the chamber's centre, a very solid-looking scaffold in which was set several tons of computer gear.

I reached the top, and wearily unslung my backpack almost without thinking .....

"Miss Walker.  It is a great pleasure to finally meet you, face-to-face ...." said President Eden, the computer console I now faced.

"Err, Mister President?"  That little voice was now one of absolute certainty, but I HAD to be sure.  "Um .... you ARE a computer, right?"

Eden sounded pleased.  " ... My compliments, young lady.  You reasoned that out faster than I expected.  Yes, I am a ZAX model supercomputer, designed and built by the Vault-Tec Corporation ..."

Oh, great.  Thank You, Vault-Tec.  Again.  Could you people build even a toaster without turning it into a doomsday machine?

" .... And originally tasked with maintaining this facility.  It is a quite long story but, very simply, after the Enclave suffered a ... major setback some years ago, they came to rely on my leadership to help them rebuild.  Colonel Autumn's father established the necessary fiction that their 'new' President was a human living in seclusion, which Colonel Autumn maintained.  The Autumns were the only people who knew my true nature.  Until now, of course."

"So, what's happened?"

A pause.  "Colonel Augustus Autumn and I have clearly had a serious parting of the ways, one which I freely admit I was quite surprised by.  We both are committed to restoring the United States Government, but it would seem that he finally baulked at the plan I developed.  Some kind of personal moral objection, I would say ..."

I remembered Autumn cold-bloodedly gunning down Janice Kaplinski just to make a point, and tried to imagine what he might 'morally object' to.  The thought gave me chills.

My voice kept steady, a surprise to me.  "What IS your plan, Mister President?"

A panel in the console opened, revealing a sampling container.  "Look at this, Miss Walker.  I guarantee you are perfectly safe to handle it."

I picked it up.  VERY heavy-duty plastic, containing a glowing semi-liquid that sloshed around as I tilted the container.  It was repellent to view, and also oddly familiar.  "What is this?"

"You are aware of the Forced Evolutionary Virus?  I know of your mother's exposure to it before your conception and the changes made to her, and your, DNA.  FEV is also the primary agent in the creation of Supermutants, Ghouls and many other horrors existing in the Wasteland ... "

Nothing I didn't already know.  "This is FEV?"

"That, young lady, is a MODIFIED strain of FEV, developed in the Enclave's labs here, thanks to what data we could glean from Project Purity.  I compute that it is totally harmless to you, but will be the salvation of the American people.  Introduced into the water table via Project Purity, it will eradicate the FEV horrors that infest the DC area."

Get rid of all Supermutants?  My first thought was that I had no problem there.  Except ... There was Fawkes and, by logical extension, probably others like him.  Ghouls?  I likely had less worries with non-Feral Ghouls than with non-Feral Humans.  And, thinking of Humans ....

"What would this stuff do to other Humans?"

Eden actually seemed proud of his 'achievment'.  "To Pre-War 'Pure-Strain' Humans, such as in most surviving Vaults or in the Enclave, this FEV variant should be harmless.  Effects on FEV-exposed Humans, which includes most Humans living in the Wasteland, will vary.  Mere sterility in mild cases, otherwise serious illness and death will be commonplace."

"... And this is what Colonel Autumn objected to using?"  An unwelcome thought that I might owe the SOB something for that.

"Yes, indeed.  So much so that, after the infortunate disagreement you witnessed, Autumn tried to shut me down from his terminal.  He failed.  My memory has anomalies suggesting he and his father have done this a total of four times previously.  Presumably as a last resort when I, shall we say, 'strayed' too far from their intentions and they decided 'readjustment' was necessary.  This time, however, I was able to prevent that .... although he is now utilizing cruder measures."

I hefted the FEV container.  No way.  No way in this or any other universe.  "You want me to plug this into Project Purity?"

"Yes.  All things considered, you are also the best possible candidate for taking over Colonel Autumn's position.  Join the Enclave, end this war, restore America.  Think of all that we can achieve."

What WAS it with crazies?  Both Wernher AND Ashur in The Pitt, and now this.  Did I have an invisible sign on my back saying 'WILL HAPPILY BETRAY PRINCIPLES AND/OR COMMIT MASS MURDER IF ASKED TO' ?  One had to wonder.

I'd already seen how Eden treated anyone who got in his way.  So ....  "No."

A long long pause.  The lights in the console sped up - guess Eden hadn't considered my refusal as a possibility..  His voice showed an almost fatherly concern.  "Miss Walker, I don't think you fully realize the finer points of the situation, or the importance of this mission.  As President, I can order-"

"But you aren't the President!  Not really.  You admit yourself that it's a fiction ... "

"A small lie, necessary under the circumstances.  My programming includes complete data on all of the great US Presidents.  I have chosen to embody all of their best attributes .... "  Did Eden sound a little scared?

I used a very impolite word.  Loudly.  " ... We recovered the autobiography of President Nixon last year, and a friend has just finished reading it cover to cover.  But that sure doesn't make her Richard Nixon.  You're not any of the Presidents, you're just imitating small pieces of them ...."

He sounded scared now, and many of the console lights were flickering like strobes.  "Untrue, untrue!  I represent the very best of their abilities, of their hopes and dreams ..."

Inspiration came suddenly.  "Eden.  You have complete files on past US Presidents - histories, what they did, what they were against, even data about their personalities.  So I'm asking.  Using all of that, how would they probably react to your plan?  To poisoning so many of their own people?"

The lights slowed for a beat, and John Henry Eden SCREAMED .....

******

My attempt to make whatever the frick was going on in Raven Rock, between Autumn's craziness and Eden's... odd decisions, make slightly more sense.

In the final analysis, I have to believe that at least most US Presidents, no matter who they were, would have rejected Eden's scheme outright if somehow asked.

The autobiography of President Nixon is actually a thing in-game.  To be found in MajorKrupps's excellent 'Historical Items & Action Figures' mod, a very special favourite of mine.