(Oct. 28, 2002/2215)

Hunter HQ - Commissary

Once the most-used area on the Fort Sam Houston, this area sees a little less usage by the Maverick Hunters, but it is still an important part of the ship. The mundane tasks of the Maverick Hunter Base are carried out here, from clothes laundry and armor cleaning to basic repairs. Mail sent from Neo-Tokyo is sorted here and delivered, and there is a small commisary, primarily for the human residents of the base, though it gets more than its fair share of usage by the Reploids here, as well. The room is seldom busy, but without the functions performed here, life in the Hunter Base wouldn't be quite as easy.

Kalinka [Work]

Down <D> leads to Hunter HQ - Science Area.

East <E> leads to Hunter HQ - Medical Area.

South <S> leads to Hunter HQ - Residential Level.

Kalinka is, at the moment, making some fried eggs on the stovetop. They sizzle and crackle as she flips them with a spatula, and the whole place smells like breakfast.

The door from the hallway swishes open, admitting a certain Texan. Bowie leans against the doorframe, his clothes rent, hair bedraggled, and caked with mud from head to toe. His right hand is swathed in what once was a red bandana, now just as grimy as the rest of him. In short, he looks much like one who's stood up to the school bully and lost.

Kalinka does a double-take as she sees her hero lope into the commissary in sorry condition. Quickly, she places the eggs on a back burner, and comes running over. "Handsome! What did happen to you? What a mess!!" she laments, looking worried. "I will help you. Come on, let's go into the Med Bay."

Limp would be a better term. He moves forward out of the doorway, his left leg noticably trailing behind the other. "Souvenirs frum Mexico," he grunts in response to her question. He accepts her help without complaint - he dragged himself this far, but a little help would be nice.

Kalinka helps Bowie as best she can into the med bay. "And no one picked you up? Aw, handsome, I am so sorry! If I knew, I would come get you. You know that. It will be okay, come with me."

Kalinka enters the Hunter HQ - Medical Area.

Kalinka has left.

You enter the Hunter HQ - Medical Area.

Hunter HQ - Medical Area

The medbay of the Maverick Hunter base is a vision of simple perfection. Perpetually well lit, the room is filled with tables, seats, and diagnostic equipment, while still retaining enough clear space for people to easily move about. Shelves and cabinets store enough equipment to treat even the largest Reploids, and the selection also includes sufficient supplies to tend to the human members of the Hunters with equal care. The back of the bay contains repair chambers, an isolation area for emergencies, and the special equipment used to work on several of the unique systems that are only possessed by the Hunters, such as Buster repair supplies. The room is quiet, though several concealed speakers can pipe in calming music when called for.

There are also several computer equipped desks in this room for the medical staff to use, including one room where the doctor on call can get some rest or relax between cases.

Kalinka [Work] [MH] Repair Chamber

West <W> leads to Hunter HQ - Commissary.

Bowie tries not to put too much weight on her. He's not exactly the lightest of androids. "No...Ah went after the rukus on Saturday...long story."

Kalinka grunts and helps along/drags Bowie toward one of the med tables. It's a labor of love, though, so she doesn't complain. "Saturday? And just now you made it back? I feel so bad. I want to yell at someone."

Bowie sits down wearily on the table, some of the mud crumbling off around him. His hair is plastered to his head with more of the same, though at least it keeps it out of his face. "Ain't yer fault, sunshine. An no, Ah wusn't thare Saturday. Snuck down Sunday mornin..."

Kalinka takes out a medical scanner and scans Bowie.

Kalinka sighs, running some preliminary scans and pinpointing the damaged areas. "I have not seen this much mud since I helped sandbag river near Moscow," she exclaims, moving over to another station to get a few repair tools.

From the looks of it, Bowie has been severely pummeled, though his subdermal armor absorbed most of the punishment. He's also been stabbed a few times in the back, though luckily they missed anything extremely vital. His knee joint has completely seized up, hence the limp. Under the bandana, his hand has been completely sliced open, apparently by something jagged by the marks. And, he's filthy, but one doesn't need a scanner to tell that. At least it's clean mud, except for where it's mingled with mechfluids.

Kalinka concentrates right now with fixing the worst stab-wounds. "I think that knee is probably full of mud," she admits. "What I would like you to do, when I am done with fixing the stabs, is to go in the high-pressure shower. Then I can set the knee in the way it should be set. Okay?"

Bowie simply nods in answer. His expression is stoic, perhaps moreso than usual for him when undergoing repairs. He remains silent for a time as Kalinka begins tending to his wounds, after a moment unwrapping the makeshift bandage from his hand. Whatever's on his mind, he's not quite ready to share it yet.

The stab wounds are deep, made with a large knife. Like the kind of knife he normally carries.

Kalinka tries to thoroughly clean the damaged areas, except for the knee, as she works. And every time she works on a stabbed area, she uses the pain blocking devices. While she's curious to know who did this, she knows that now isn't the time for storytelling...that will come later. She works for some time on each stab wound, filling each one in with a special microtool.

Bowie holds still. He might as well be a rock. A very muddy rock. A bit later, Bowie finds his voice again. "Ya remember Hank?"

Kalinka nods. "Of course! I remember him from Midland, yes. What about him?"

Bowie says "He's got a kid brother, Luis. He an his wife an kid live in Mexico, up in the Sierra Madres..." He scratches his cheek with his good hand, more mud flaking away. "...Hank called me Saturday night. Asked me t'try an get 'em out. He'd have gone himself, but thay got every able-bodied officer in Texas tryin t'keep the east coast frum floatin away."

Kalinka ahs, nodding. "I see. Now I understand why you are so caked in mud..." She hesitates. "Did...you find them?"

"Yeah. Thay're fine." Bowie says. "Thay should be in Midland now."

Kalinka smiles warmly at that bit of news. "Very heroic, I am so proud." She finishes filling in the last stab she can locate, then she says... "Okay. Now if you could take pressure-shower, I will fix the knee very easy when you come out. It might sting, but it will get all of that mud off and you should feel better when it is done."

Bowie flexes the fingers of his bad hand, frowning faintly as they protest the action. "Yeah, a real hero," he says flatly. He hops off the table and limps over to the aforementioned shower. After a moment or two, the sound of hissing water can be heard from inside.

Kalinka sighs, realizing that for whatever reason, she's probably making him feel WORSE. (I do need to shut my big fat mouth,) she thinks. "You only have to be in there for two minutes or so," she adds.

A few minutes later, the hissing stops. Another minute passes, and Bowie emerges, damp but much cleaner than before, and sans shirt. It's not like it wasn't a complete loss anyway. Back to the medtable.

Kalinka smiles cheerfully. "Okay, much cleaner, I see. Now, let me take GOOD look at the knee, what happened here?" She begins scanning the knee before even touching it with any instruments.

Bowie says with a sigh, "Either a tree branch or a steel-toed boot. Not sure which." The scanner reveals that the joint's been crushed in on the outside of the hinge. Now that the mud has been washed out, it moves a bit more freely, but not by much.

Kalinka carefully applies pain-blockers to either side of the joint, then very carefully and lovingly begins working on dismantling the knee, to rebuild it tiny piece-by-piece. She has a great deal of patience. "Are you feeling somewhat better now that the mud is gone?"

Bowie lies back as Kalinka works, gaze wandering to the ceiling. He's been through this enough times that watching himself being reassembled is no longer terribly interesting. "Yeah..."

He lapses into silence again for a time. Just when she might think that he's going to stay that way, he continues with his explanation. "Got out to their place all right. Never seen so much rain in mah life. Got them packed up in their car an headed fer the border...ran into a mudslide along the way. Another group a people headin fer higher ground got caught in it, an one a their cars got partway buried..."

Kalinka continues working, but her eyebrows shoot up. "Oh my god, I cannot imagine how scary that must be...not being able to move out of a disaster like that, just getting stuck in it!"

"Real frightnin," Bowie agrees. "Kind a stuff that makes yer hair stand on end." A pause. "Ya know me. Luis an Ah went out t'help, while Miss Carmen sat tight in the car with the boy. Thare wus no way t'get their car unstuck. Couldn't even get the doors open. Ah ended up havin t'tear open a hole in the roof t'get the passengers out."

Kalinka continues to work, removing the damaged hinge and replacing it with one that seems much smaller and more flimsy. But looks can be deceiving. "This is latest in knee-joint technology. I think that you will feel definite difference. If you like it better, I will replace the other one, also." That said, she does a final cleaning-out of the joint area. "So you guys DID get those people out of that car."

Bowie pulls himself back up into a sitting position to have a better look. It's definitely not like his old knee, but he'll trust her judgement. "Yeah...sliced mah hand open doin it, though." He holds it out, palm up. That would explain the jagged cuts, right down to the endoskeleton. "We got them out an back to their friends' car on the other side. An then they noticed mah hand..." His expression takes on a chagrined cast. "an then thay knew Ah wus a reploid."

Kalinka furrows her brow, pausing in her work to glance upwards toward Bowie. "Were they scared when they found out?"

Bowie gives a small shrug. "Scared? Probably. Angry? Definitely. Thare wus ten a them, an jus Luis an me. Ah don't know which a them started it, but next thang Ah know Ah wus hit by a good sized rock..." His brow furrows, looking at but not really seeing her. "Lost mah footin...an thay weren't about t'let me up. If Luis hadn't gone back fer mah guns..." He shakes his head, as if trying to dislodge his thoughts. "...Ah'm sorry. All Ah'm doin is upsettin ya."

Kalinka is, indeed, upset. She just can't comprehend what kind of mindset people have to try to hurt someone who's just saved their lives. Her eyes get watery as she finishes setting the new joint into place...then, she places her tools down, stands up and hugs Bowie gently. "I am so sorry," she murmurs softly, her head resting against his shoulder.

Bowie wraps his arms around her, completing the hug. "Ain't yer fault," he says softly. "Ah knew the risks." A smile forms, albeit sad. There are times he can forget just how many differences there are between reploids and humans, but now he is all too painfully aware of them.

"I know you did, I just...cannot even think that they treated you like that," Kalinka murmurs, still clinging gently. "I love you, and I know what a good person you are. If they had only...taken moment to see that, too."

Bowie says "Ah thank it's easier fer people t'hate whut thay don't unnerstand. Wish it wusn't that way, but it is." He tightens his embrace for a moment, squeezing her gently. "Ah love ya, sunshine."

Kalinka returns the hug for a long moment, only pulling away very gradually to complete the 'finishing touch': the quick job of replacing the kneecap and securing it. "You are done," she says. "If you want me to stay with you, I will. I think you have had a very hard time, and if you do not want to be alone, I will understand."

Bowie flexes his knee a few times once Kalinka's done, thus proving that once again she's done a supurb job of putting him back together. The new part seems to be comfortable as well. If only other things could be so easily mended. "Thankee. Ah...Ah thank Ah druther be alone fer a bit, if that's okay."

Kalinka only means well, of course. She bobs her blonde head. "Okay. I will be in Commissary, pulling an all-night study session if you want to stop in later. And you are quite welcome."

Bowie musters a small smile for her benefit. "Don't stay up all night," he gently admonishes. "Ya still need some sleep."

Kalinka yawns, ending it with a cute smile. "Okay, I will get some sleep in there too, somewhere. I promise. Have a good night, handsome. Do take care."