Phenomenally stressed was slowly becoming Becky’s default state. Taking up the reins of the Presidency right after the end of a war via a controversial peace treaty had been bad enough, but heading a critically weakened Enclave during what was arguably its darkest hour, against an opponent unlike anything they had ever faced before, was almost unbearable.

In a vain attempt to retain some semblance of sanity, Becky decided to spend the morning digging through the mountain of paperwork that had built up. Normally, she preferred to go out and get her hands dirty, but a quiet morning spent resolving simple problems with a pen would surely make her feel better. Or at least numb her brain a little.

Unfortunately, it seemed that even paperwork wasn’t interested in being boring today.

The bad news had started right off the bat with the technicians’ response to Senator Lily’s request for parts and equipment. They didn’t bother sugar-coating it; they just bluntly stated that the Enclave didn’t have all of the bits she needed and to look elsewhere. Luckily, one of the technicians had been nice enough to add a note explaining that some of the Vaults might have the necessary parts.

Becky couldn’t spare enough soldiers to send them out digging for treasure, but if Vault 101’s new Overseer was as open to contact with the outside world as Sunset had mentioned, then trade was potentially an option.

The next few forms and requests were standard bureaucratic garbage, but just as Becky was getting lulled into a false sense of security, she stumbled upon a pair of reports about the Enclave’s newest guests. First was simply confirmation that Luna was being trained in basic weapon handling, with a little note at the bottom saying that Sonata Dusk was to be kept as far away from magic as possible. The second was a notice from the scientists that Sonata was currently inside the compound’s biggest magic storage area and had been given a magic gemstone of her own. She had also emphatically requested that Luna not be informed of such.

Becky’s temper flared at the thought of her scientists’ blatant disregard for any sort of security protocol. She knew that she couldn’t really blame the scientists; the Rainbooms had almost unrestricted access to the Enclave’s magical research, and Sonata was potentially a valuable source of specialist magical knowledge. But Becky’s brush with Sunset’s memories had given her an innate distrust of anything related to the Sirens.

Thinking quickly, the President turned to her terminal and typed an urgent message to Whitley. ED-E would be perfectly suited to keeping Sonata under stealthy round-the-clock surveillance. The plucky eyebot would also be able to handle any attempted treachery quickly, quietly, and with a minimal amount of mess.

With one potential problem neatly accounted for, Becky made the mistake of letting her guard down as she reached for the next document, only for her blood pressure to shoot back up. t was an exhaustive report from Doctor Mercer about Sunset’s magically enhanced medication, and the mundane variety it was based on, bizarrely nicknamed Naptime.

Becky skimmed through the first parts of the report; details about who invented it, when, and what ingredients it contained. It wasn’t until she reached the section about what Naptime was actually for, along with its side effects, that she perked up and started really paying attention.

Nausea filled Becky as she read, with each successive line somehow making it worse. Mercer hadn’t been lying about how nasty a drug Naptime was. In small doses over a short term, it was known to be beneficial to children with night terrors, but the positive effects ended there.

Apparently, it had originally been developed to give to heavily traumatized soldiers in the field, keeping them combat-capable instead of breaking down and becoming a burden on their unit. Naptime wasn’t a cure, it was just a stop-gap measure that shut down a person’s trauma long enough for them to get the job done. It was the mental health equivalent of getting stabbed and just taking painkillers instead of applying a bandage.

With an awful sinking feeling in her stomach, Becky flipped to the last section of the document, which contained case files on each of the soldiers who had been prescribed Naptime. Naptime itself didn’t cause any serious physical harm, but none of the soldiers prescribed it had lived longer than a month after stopping treatment. Even the ones who kept taking it continuously didn’t last longer than a year at most.

As if to add insult to injury, the very last file contained a decades-old note stating that Naptime could only be prescribed with Presidential permission going forward, after a Senator lost both of his sons to it.

Becky silently closed the file and slumped in her chair. Her head spun as conflicting feelings warred within her mind, guilt being a prominent one. In a vain effort to ease her conscience, she turned back to her terminal and filled in an executive order, giving Sunset the highest priority right alongside the President when it came to medical treatment. After everything that had happened, Becky would be damned if she was going to spare a single resource when it came to getting her counterpart home alive.

Next Chapter: Chapter 144 - Horrigan's Resolve Estimated time remaining: 12 Hours, 48 Minutes