June 19th, 2003
~Skydagger(D),

Darkmount - Repair Bay

     Much like the adjacent research lab, the equipment here is showing signs of age, but is kept in a serviceable condition. Two automated repair drones lie against the far wall, though each is obviously missing a few parts...apparently they've been salvaged for someone else's benefit. The once well-stocked parts closets now contain mostly empty shelves and bins. Several dozen repair tables of various sizes are arranged in rows in the middle of the room.


Skydagger [Robot] [D] 
Drone Medic 
Redline's Side Office 
AutoMedic 
Dartboard 
Serdidymus 
Medical Terminal

Obvious Exits:
 -S- South leads to Darkmount - Regeneration Spa
 -E- East leads to Darkmount - Medical and Science Level
 -W- West leads to Darkmount - Cryochamber

-Moonlight drags herself belatedly into the repair bay. She's looking pretty beat up and rather dispirited by the recent encounter with the Bots.
-Skydagger enters the medbay ahead of Moonlight. She walks over to a basin with a solvent fountain and washes her hands. As she does, she says, "Moonlight, lay on that table over there."
-Moonlight sighs and does as she's told. She's always been a fairly easy patient for the medics...she figures everyone else gives them enough grief she doesn't need to jump on that band-hoverwagon.
-Skydagger finishes cleaning herself and goes to fetch the toolcart. Once she's standing beside the table, she takes a scanner and proceeds to examine the structural integrity of the various armour panels on the molecular level. Thinking aloud as she often does, she says, "I hope you will be a more cooperative patient than Dirge."
-Moonlight shrugs and winces. "Well, that just depends on whether you start insulting me first." She grins despite her discomfort.
-Skydagger glances up at Moonlight as she finishes the scans and types on a datapad. She hands the datapad to a drone (who immediately scurries off) and says flatly, "Dirge started it." She takes a spanner and removes the main armour panel on the chest and throws it into the scrap cart. "If you do what I say, when I say it, we shall have no problems."
-Moonlight stays still despite the fact she likes to gesture as she speaks. "Well, they do say that medics are the bosses of the medbay. Of course, that shouldn't be a comfort to you because I rarely listen to Solar..."
-Skydagger disregards Moonlight's comment, or more accurately doesn't answer because she has nothing to add to it. Inspecting the assemblies inside, she says, "How are your motor functions in your limbs?"
-Moonlight sighs. "All that seems to be fine I guess. I'm just in a big world of hurt."
-Skydagger nods and turns her attention to something else inside. Curtly, she understates, "This may hurt a little," as she tweaks with the circuitboard governing physical sensation. Quick test.
-Moonlight eeps...that didn't feel good. "Thanks for the warning," she says a little dryly.
-Skydagger nods. "Now you shan't feel anything," she states as she does the opposite of what she did before. To test it, she takes a hammer and hits Moonlight's finger.
-Moonlight relaxes. It's a good thing she's not paranoid about medics like half the faction is...and she's glad that whatever Skydagger did worked.
-Skydagger watches to see if the patient reacts to the hammer blow. Satisfied at the lack of reaction, she begins to remove the damaged armour panels. Now and then she mutters a curse when the damage made it difficult to remove a piece, sometimes she even resorts to using a tire iron to almost literally tear the piece off. "I hope you won't be an idiot like Dirge and run off into a fight as soon as you're repaired."
-Moonlight shakes her head slightly, so as not to disrupt the medic. "I never plan on fighting...avoid it at most costs actually. I'm no warrior."
-Skydagger grunts as she pries an especially recalcitrant piece of armour off. "Good," she says. "While I enjoy my work, I do not appreciate people going out of their way to give me more to do." The drone has meanwhile returned with a cart full of new armour plates. She quickly tests the internal circuits, making the occasional adjustment and replacing a diode here, a capacitor there. When that is done, she fills the reservoirs, after inspecting them for leaks.
-Moonlight grins. "Well, it seems to me that there's two sides, the medic side and the warrior side, and the two don't seem to like each other at all."
-Skydagger glances curiously at Moonlight as she turns to the parts cart and takes a new armour panel. She snorts and says, "Without medics, where would the warriors be? All dead."
-Moonlight arches an optic ridge. "And without the warriors the medics would be happy?"
-Skydagger snorts again as she installs new armour panels on the legs. "Without warriors we would still have work to do." Finishing with the legs, she moves to work on the arms. "I have no problems with anybody, so long as in here, they do what I say."
-Moonlight nods. "Which kinda makes sense. You say you have no problems with anyone...you seem to have one with Dirge."
-Skydagger finishes with one arm and moves to the next. "Dirge is an insolent sludgetub, and an idiot too. Earlier this cycle, when he left from here, I told him to rest for a cycle before returning to duty. Next thing I hear, he's on the radio calling for backup." As she speaks, she works, attaching the new pieces.
-Moonlight grins. "I guess no one listens to the medics. But I really think you medic-types have the power around here."
-Skydagger nods, reattaching the main chestplate now after resetting the sensory systems. She taps on Moonlight's shoulder. "Do you feel that?"
-Moonlight is slightly startled at the sensation after not having any sensation at all. "Um...yeah."
-Skydagger finishes reattaching the armour and says, "Good. Your repairs are now complete. If I can trust you to do as I say, you may leave. No fighting for at least two cycles, understood?"
-Moonlight nods her head emphatically and swings herself off of the repair table. "Yeah, I gotcha. I'm not so in love with pain that I'm in a hurry to come back." She chuckles. "I dont' know what Dirge was talking about...you don't seem that bad."
-Skydagger nods. "Dirge is an idiot," she says with a dark smile. "An arrogant idiot. At any rate," she says as she goes to clean herself up again, "If you need me, you know where to find me."
-Moonlight grins. "Right here?"
-Skydagger nods. "Usually, yes."
-Moonlight stretches as she always does after getting fixed up. That period of numbness always feels strange to her. "You seem rather short staffed around here lately," she comments.
-Skydagger nods. "I was recalled from my off-world posting due to that," she says unemotionally, not knowing whether Moonlight knows the details about Redline, and not wanting to say anything she's not supposed to.
-Moonlight tilts her head slightly. "And you would have rather stayed off world?"
-Skydagger shrugs. "I go where I'm needed," she states matter-of-factly. "If they say go here, I go here. If they say go there, I go there."
-Moonlight arches an optic ridge. "So you don't have preferences? Just because you /will/ go anywhere doesn't always mean that you /want/ to."
-Skydagger shakes her head. "When it comes to duty, what I want is irrelevant."
-Moonlight sighs. Everyone takes duty /way/ too seriously. "So even deep down you don't want anything differently than what you're told to do?"
-Skydagger nods slightly. "I may do...but does it matter?"
-Moonlight grins broadly. "You see, most people think that the people are there to do their jobs. I say jobs exist to make everyone's lives better. What we want is important because it makes us who we are. Of course we all have to do our jobs, but if we live for our jobs only, we aren't really worth much at all. Well, that's my opinion anyhow."
-Skydagger raises a ridge at that. "Indeed." After a moment's contemplation she says, "My opinion is that a person's value is determined by the function they serve and how well they do it. More the second part. A manual labourer who does his job well is worth more than a medic who is incompetent."
-Moonlight shrugs. "Well, the general consensus from both sides of the line is that I'm pretty much useless." She doesn't seem overly bothered by this.
-Skydagger snorts. "What is your function?"
-Moonlight taps her chest. "I'm a smuggler."
-Skydagger looks curiously at Moonlight, a ridge raised. "Is that so? Does it serve the Empire well, and do you do your job well?" She turns to face Moonlight fully. "That is all that matters. Do something useful, and do it well. What others think is irrelevant."
-Moonlight grins. "Oh, I'm good at smuggling. The problem is is that most people don't see me /doing/ my job. That and my job isn't really an every day sort of thing. I'm only called when I'm needed, which isn't as often as it would be if I was a medic or a warrior."
-Skydagger looks puzzled. "Then I don't see your problem. You know you're doing something and doing it well. Why do you care what others think?"
-Moonlight shrugs. "I'm just the kind of person who cares."
-Skydagger shrugs. "Your prerogative," she says indifferently, stepping over to a table and beginning to sort through various parts. "Smuggler, eh? Can you get me some capacitors?"
-Moonlight doesn't blink. "What kind and how many?"
-Skydagger nods. "All kinds, for high-voltage systems, as many as you can get. But make sure they are of the highet quality." She looks at Moonlight for a moment, then says, "actually, bring me some samples first so I can see them."
-Moonlight nods. "I suppose I could do that."
-Skydagger nods. "Thank you. What do you want in exchange?"
-Moonlight considers it for a moment. "Not really sure yet. I'm doing pretty well for myself lately..."