Vault 69/Meeting/Nexus
"Alright," you say, "we should probably talk about the loss of the Nexus, and what we can do going forward. Chief Killian?"
"Well, I don't know what you are all expecting, but this is more of a briefing than a policy discussion. We took a direct hit from what must have been a very high-yield fusion device directly between the vaults. Each vault survived due to the extreme measure placed on their construction, but the Nexus, the connection between Vault 68 and Vault 69 was directly beneath the blast and buckled under the pressure. Radiation was leaking into the vaults at an accelerated rate. We had to deploy lead-cement foam to fill the remainder of the Nexus on both sides to seal the radiation leak. The weight of the foam crushed the fiber-optic lines that connected the two vaults through the Nexus. The lead also blocks radio signals as well as radiation. The combination of those factors means that we are completely cut off from Vault 68."
"Is there a way to tunnel over to Vault 68?" you ask.
"The earth between the vaults is completely permeated with radioactive materials. Using human labor is therefore out of the question. We only have a handful of Mr. Handies; but we could put them to the task of tunneling through to Vault 68. We would have to seal them off from our vault while they worked, and if one needed repair they would be out of luck. The real problem is that we do not have enough radioactive shielding to build a bridge between the two vaults."
"Could we tunnel around the contaminated earth?" asks Chief Runningdeer. "Make a large circle from the far side of the vault?"
"I considered that possibility. That would be a much larger tunnel, and while it would be through earth with less radiation, less is not none, and we still wouldn't have enough shielding to make the bridge."
"Could we cannibalize parts of the vault to get the shielding necessary to build the bridge?" asks your mom.
"The problem with that is from where do we take the shielding? The obvious answer is the Ranch section. The problem is that the supplies in the vault were designed to accommodate having a ranch. Without the ranch we would eventually starve to death, or dwindle to an unmaintainable population size. There is no other area of the vault that has enough material to build the bridge. Even taking from every possible location, getting to the minimum possible size, we still would only have enough shielding for a bridge half the size we need.
"If we still had a connection with Vault 68, we could probably coordinate in order to both use the so-called-excess shielding to build a big enough bridge . . . but I see no way of communicating. I've tried EM transmissions from A band to Y band, ELF to THF, UV, X-Rays, Gamma Rays, even vibrationally transmitted Morse Code . . . nothing works.
"I'll keep working on finding a solution, as I'm sure they are on the other side, but it won't be quick if it is even possible."
"Thank you for the report," you say solemnly. "Are there any other questions or clarifications to be made?"
"Well then," you say after a period of silence, "all in favor of moving on."
The ladies all raise their hands.
"Okay, next up . . ."
What issue should you tackle next?