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“Yes, that’s the one. That’s what all this is about, you might say. The Waters of Life. That was what we were trying to do. All of this water, and it is so beautiful, but it isn’t pure. Irradiated, dirty, and poisonous. We drink what filters in, you can get in it, but it hurts you, and it makes you sick in the end, if you have too much of it. That was her dream, to make this water pure again. To make it clean, so it could just be beautiful again, and not poison. So people could use it again. For everybody. There are ways to purify irradiated water, of course, but it wasn’t about just getting enough clean water for a few people to drink. Life comes from water, and maybe the type of life comes from the type of water there is. With dirty water like this, you get stunted, twisted ecology. The environment is fouled, and there’s no way for it to be cured, because of the water that is at its base. She wanted to find a way to make it ALL pure, the whole Tidal Basin, the source of all the life in the Wastes, in the end. If we could make it all clean, then maybe the lands would start to heal, grow up better, straighter, less corrupted. Maybe there would be trees again that didn’t require so much sacrifice to keep going. Maybe the animals would stop dying, the people would stop sickening. A change on a much deeper level than the fiddling around on the surface of things that is most of what we can do. She dreamed of doing more, and she gave that dream to me, to carry with me. She dreamed it for you, too. To leave something for you, but she didn’t have enough time to make it happen.”

“The Waters of Life,” I said softly.

“Yes. That’s what this was – is -- about, Project Purity. It’s what we were trying to do, before she died. I was the head of our work here, but she . . . she was its heart. Failure after failure, always so close and then it slipping out of our grasp, but she never gave up hope that it would happen. She kept us going. Then, when she died, the light went out of the place. She held us together. She was the one who stood at the center, and we fell apart after she was gone. I was afraid for you, and Madison and the others had other work they could do. So many failures, and then I left and they went to Rivet City, and Project Purity, the dream of your mother, the Waters of Life, it was all forgotten. When I found out about the GECK, all of that came back to me. Letting go of Project Purity felt like forgetting her, and when I realized that, when I learned of the GECK, it felt like she woke up inside me again. I had to finish it for her.” I saw a small shimmer in his eyes then, and looked away, letting him have his privacy. We sat together quietly, for a time, looking out over the waters, together.

The buzzing of his comlink, clipped to his belt, brought us out of our study. He answered, listened for a few moments, and then said: “All right, I’ll be up there shortly. I’ll see if she can take care of the other.” We stood up, and he looked over at me. “Duty calls, but I was hoping you could do me a favor. Alex Dorgan tried to start up one of the pumps, but he says that there’s a block or a jam in an outflow pipe, and it’s frozen the system. Can you go down and clear it? None of them will, too dirty for them, and I have to be at the controls. I’d send one of the Brotherhood, but they all left a few hours ago to go back to the Citadel. It’s dirty work, I’m sorry, but will you take care of it?”

“Sure, Dad, no problem. I’ve gotten used to getting dirty out here.” We laughed, and walked back to Memorial building, and inside started to move our separate ways. But as I unlatched the manhole, and started to swing my legs over the ladder, he called out for me.

“Kristina, I was hoping . . . about your outfit . . .”

“What about it?”

“You . . . don’t have to show so much of your midriff, do you?”

“Dad, shut up.” I laughed, and went down the ladder, closing the cover behind me.

The Forgotten Past, Chapter Two: The Loss Of Purity

Page One: Hope Springs Eternal Part 1
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Page Two: Hope Springs Eternal Part 2
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Page Three: The Meeting Of Minds
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Page Four: The Waters Of Life Part 1
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Part Five: The Waters Of Life Part 2
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Page Six: Unexpected Guests
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Page Seven: A Shot From the Dark
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The complete story, unedited, can be found as downloads in the optional files here: http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16864
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