Hancock jumped out of the vertibird before it actually touched down, impatient to get in and talk with the people he had come to see. The crew chief of the bird looked at the ghoul askance, reminding the Vice President of the Commonwealth that attitudes didn't change overnight. The Brotherhood of Steel, under Sarah Lyons, was not the same organization as it had been under Elder Maxson. But a generation of hunting ghouls, feral or civilized, had left a mark on the best of them. But now they were an ally, and one that Hancock was willing to take advantage of.

 

The Brotherhood still maintained the majority of the aircraft within the Commonwealth proper. The Minutemen had their own, of course, but with the current expansion most of them were at the fronts. The campaign to expand without conquest that Nora Jane Adams had started, and that Hancock was determined would continue unabated in her absence. It was eating up a lot of resources, but the return was thought to be worth it. More people, more raw materials, more of everything, eventually.

 

Yeah, motherfuckers, thought the young ghoul as he looked back at the lifting vertibird. You better behave. The Brotherhood, now reunited with their outcasts, was still a major player, the second most powerful military in the region, commanding over a thousand well trained and disciplined troops. The Minutemen now had more vertibirds, more suits of power armor, more boots on the ground. And they had artillery, massive long-range mortars that gave the Commonwealth hitting power anywhere in their territory. Or at the fronts.

 

Only none of that does us any good when it comes to finding our President, he thought, heading toward the lift and the two absolutely perfect males that stood beside the entrance.

 

Coursers had originally been created to serve as the covert operational arm of the Institute. Nora had changed all of that, and now the Coursers were nothing more than an internal security force. Some served in the Minutemen. It would be insane to turn down such capable warriors. But Hancock had never really trusted them.

 

We need you back, Nora, he thought as he nodded to the Coursers, who waved him into the lift. There were still too many factions in the Commonwealth, at odds with each other, and she was the only person who had the respect of all of them. Only the Sole Survivor had the status to make everyone listen. She had brought Hancock, the former mayor of Goodneighbor, on board to show the ghouls of the Commonwealth that their concerns were important to her. Hancock was enough of a realist to know that he would never win the vote, not with still simmering prejudices reinforced by the terror of the ferals, but so far there had been no call for an election as specified under the constitution. Everyone was still waiting for their President to return and lead again, but eventually they would grow impatient.

 

The lift dropped swiftly downward, making the passenger feel like he had lost considerable weight. It also slowed swiftly after a couple of minutes, and the door opened to reveal the vestibule of the Institute and another pair of Coursers.

 

“It would have been so much easier to teleport in, sir,” said a female synth, gorgeous like all of them.

 

Hancock still didn't trust the teleporters. Sometimes people went in and didn't emerge. Very very rare, but it had been documented. No one knew what happened to them. Stolen by another teleporter for unknown purposes. Or simply scattered across space. Something had grabbed the President, and Hancock could only hope that she had gone someplace else, and was not simply gone.

 

The Institute was all clean white and light. Everything down here was fresh, clean and radiation free. Many of the thousands of people down here still wore the white uniforms of the Institute, but many were wearing the clothes of the common people of the Commonwealth, mostly business wear and the casual clothes of scientists. There were even some in the uniforms of the Brotherhood, once the Institute’s greatest enemy.

 

“Vice President,” said the Assistant Institute Director Doctor Allie Filmore. “Welcome.”

 

“Good to see your, Dr. Filmore,” said Hancock, reaching out a hand that the Assistant Director looked at for a moment before taking. “I wish it was under better circumstances.”

 

Hancock tried to avoid the Institute when possible. He had too many memories of people disappearing in the night, of synths on the run, of people unable to sleep for fear that they might be kidnapped and replaced. Another faction that had been brought to heel. Nora was responsible for that as well, and her absence was raising concerns within the Commonwealth that the Institute might again become a problem. Hancock was determined that if that happened he would nuke the hell out of them.

 

“Doctor Li has been looking into the problem, and has some results,” said Filmore. “Not all of them good.”

 

The pair walked down seemingly endless corridors, seeing people going about their business. This was one of the few places that mimicked prewar America, although their tech was much more advanced. The only organizations that came close were Fusion City, with its university, and the various working vaults. Light everywhere, maintenance people bustling about, men and women with computer clipboards hurrying about their tasks. Under Nora the Institute was sharing everything with the world above. Building water purifiers, power plants, releasing seed crops that improved the harvests. They were now a force for good, but how long would they remain so with her gone?

 

Hancock was ushered into a conference room in which a number of people were already seated. The only ones he recognized was Doctor Madison Li, the once ex-patriot scientist who had helped the Brotherhood finish the Liberty Prime project. Nora had taken control of that ultimate war machine, which was still standing at Boston International, and would be forever if Hancock had anything to do with it. Next to her was Heather Casdin, once a follower of Nora’s, and one of the foremost experts on the flora of the Commonwealth, now working with the Institute Biosciences Division.

 

“Vice President Hancock,” said Li, getting up and offering her hand. “We think we have located the President.”

 

“That's good, right?” Hancock took a quick look around the room before accepting the offered seat. There were a number of view screens active, the ones catching his attention the images of downtown Boston, several towers under reconstruction, and the map of the Commonwealth, with all the proposed expansions marked in blue.

 

“Well, it gives us a starting point,” said Li, frowning. “But it gets us no closer to getting her back.”

 

“But you can do that, right?”

 

“Understand, Hancock,” said Li, “she's not anywhere on Earth.”

 

“Another planet?” said the disbelieving ghoul. How in the hell could someone kidnap her from another planet? They knew that aliens existed. People had run into enough of them, and Nora had even thwarted some of their attempts to establish a foothold in the region. That might be enough to make them her deadly enemies. If she was in their hands?

 

“Another dimension. You might even say another Universe.”

 

“One with superior tech?” asked the ghoul.

 

“No, not really. Though with something just as powerful. Here, have a look at some of the images we have found.”

 

A holo sprung up over the table, showing a blurred staticky vision of another world. What looked like great pristine forest, snowy mountains in the distance. A view of a stag, one head. Bears that weren't the mutated horrors of the Commonwealth. And, what? A fucking dragon, with armored warriors shooting arrows at it, and balls of fire rising from the hands of robed people to strike it. The dragon leveled many of those fighting it with a blast of white-hot fire from its mouth.

 

“What the hell is this?” asked an incredulous Vice President. “Dragons? And is that magic?”

 

“We're not really sure what it is, but yes, it does appear to be magic,” said Li. “And there's more. We have picked up energy signatures in the temples we have observed. These people have deities, and they are real. Maybe not like the God many of the people of Earth still believe in, but powers in their own right. Able to manifest, heal, and curse.”

 

“How and the hell can we fight against that,” blurted Hancock, staring at Li. All the power at his command. Gigawatt generators, artillery, vertibirds, even nukes. And none of them would do him any good.

 

“With science, and perseverance,” said Li forcefully. “We have teleporters, and knowledge of where this world is. Given time we might be able to bring her back, though I put more faith in the proposition of sending some of our own people through to her.”

 

And why in the hell would anyone go through a portal to another Universe, thought Hancock.

 

“I would go,” said Heather, answering the unasked question. “All of the plants I could bring back to aid our agriculture and biosciences. And I'm pretty damned sure I could get a team together to go with me.”

 

“This is getting ahead of ourselves,” said Li. “First we need to figure out how to do more than observe. These images were all we could gather, and only by using every erg of energy we could generate, and linking in every teleporter in our possession. That's our limit, for now.”

 

“How did you locate her?”

 

“We found energy traces of an unknown type at the spot where Nora and R4-04 disappeared,” said another of the scientists. “We found we could trace this energy through the dimensions, and then we located the Director through her quantum signature. We, of course, had it on file, just like that of everyone who had ever used one of our teleporters.”

 

And you people probably had more interest in that signature than most, thought Hancock, glad that he had these people on his side, but never truly trusting them.

 

“Are you sure she's there?”

 

“Before this morning, I would have said no,” answered Li. “But then we traced her signature and found this.”

 

The view was still filled with static, but it was clear that a group of armored people were moving through the woods, leading horses burdened with armor and other equipment. The people were also in armor, helmets on their head, and Hancock was wondering if Nora had been captured by these warriors. The image shifted, showing faces. First a golden face with pointy ears. An elf? Then a human, then another. All females. And then she was there, also in armor, blue eyes looking out on the world as she shouted an order.

 

“Son-of-a-bitch,” gasped Hancock, feeling his heart skip. “She's not only there, but she's landed on her feet.” He should have expected as much from the Sole Survivor, the woman who had done the impossible in this world.

 

“More than that, Hancock,” said Heather, the one person in the room the ghoul considered a true friend. “I think she was called there for a reason. To save a world. And I wonder if we need to leave her to it until she accomplishes that task.”

 

“That world can take care of itself,” said Hancock, shaking his head. “We need her here. The people we care about need her here. So we will get her back, no matter what it takes.”

 

“Easier said than done,” said Li, shaking her head as well. “As I said, we can pierce the barrier much more easily from this side. So the possibility of sending someone through from here exists.”

 

“Again, I’ll volunteer,” said Heather.

 

“Right now, dear, we’re estimating we will be able to send less than a hundred pounds through in a transmission,” said Li, frowning. “So, unless you want to go through in pieces, it’s a no go from the start.”

 

“A hundred pounds, huh,” said Hancock, running down a list of what he would want if he were in Nora’s place. “Weapons, ammo, maybe some electronics. Anything she can use to survive.”

 

“To kill dragons?” asked one of the other staffers at the table. “I’m thinking rockets and gatling laser power cells.”

 

“That would work,” said Heather, nodding. “But I think she will get use out of small arms ammo as well.

 

Images played over the table, more of the staticky vid they had retrieved through the vale. People in armor fighting with primitive hand weapons, swords, axes, hammers. Arrows flying to take down lightly armored warriors. If he could send a couple of companies of heavily armed infantry they could probably conquer that land. But what about the magic? What would they need to counter that? Artillery? Nukes?

 

Hancock was sure that Nora Jane Adams wouldn’t stand for such a force coming through the dimensional barrier, even if it were possible. The ghoul wasn’t certain he would be all in either. It went against his philosophy of letting people do what they wanted as long as they didn’t step on the rights of others. But from what he recalled from his school days in Diamond City, Medieval societies weren’t much on individual freedom. Everything was run by elites, who demanded that the common people bow and scrape, obeying every whim of their betters. That might be a society that needed to be toppled. If they couldn’t do it with an invasion, maybe Nora could work from within.

 

“Make sure she gets a copy of How Things Work,” he told the people at the table.

 

“Why?” asked a curious Li.

 

“Because Madame President might want to engage in some social engineering in a society like that. And changing the culture from farming to manufacturing should stir things up just fine.”

 

John Hancock felt a little better on the ride up to the surface. He knew his good friend was still alive, and that they might be able to send her help. As far as bringing her home, that was not a given. But the best people they had were on it, and that gave him hope.