The reaction by Kalista was enough to draw the attention of everyone in the garage as well as several of the people who were standing outside, she didn't seem sure how to react at first, looking around at everyone, then when she realized there was a wire attached to the port in her head she pulled it loose closing the port as she turned on Craig. Before the man had time to react Kalista had wrapped a hand around his throat bending him backwards over the table as he fought to both breath and remove her hand from his throat. "What did you do to me?" she snapped. To prevent her from killing the man who had just restored her neural net Daniel reached around from behind her forcibly removing her hand, he had to use enough strength that the servos in Kalista's arm could be heard whining and clicking in defiance. When she spun around trying to punch him in the face he brought his arm up blocking the attack, in a flurry of movement Daniel had wrapped his arms around Kalista's pinning them in place. In a final attempt to break free she head-butted him resulting in a mutual ring of metal from both of their skulls as Kalista nearly knocked herself out in the process.
The blow was enough to make Daniel let go taking a step back to balance himself as he blinked a few times, while all of this was going on Almon walked over to the three of them folding his arms, "Right now, what's all this?" Craig was the first to recover coughing several times, holding a hand out towards Almon he cleared his throat, "Droid job... *cough*... reaction boss," he said. With Craig coughing, Kalista half-conscious, and Daniel trying to clear his head it was quite the scene even for Jen, Morgan, and Valery who were still outside talking. "Droid job, who'd do something like that to this little lady?" Almon asked. Now that his head had cleared Daniel looked over still massaging his brow a little, "I don't know, she was like that when I met her." Instead of growling at anyone Almon leaned forward holding a hand out to Kalista, at first she looked at him suspiciously, but he only stood there waiting. She eventually took his hand and he had little trouble pulling her to her feet, "I can assure you miss that no one here is going to hurt you, in fact the two men behind you are responsible for restoring your mind. I would also appreciate it if you refrained from trying to kill my employees," Almon said.
"I'm sorry, it's just... it's..." Kalista tried to say. Almon just held up a hand to stop her, "I understand, it's confusing, frustrating, you feel like you've been violated and you want to strike out at someone."
"Yes, exactly!" Kalista said, "A droid job? I feel so violated."
"I understand that you're upset and I'm sorry to hear what happened, but please refrain from further violent outbursts," Almon said.
Kalista nodded her head a little leaning against the work bench behind her still trying to wrap her CPU around the entire situation, once Almon returned to discussing chassis designs with Snake she looked to Craig and Daniel, "Sorry," she said. Daniel just shrugged a little in indifference about the whole fiasco, he was just trying to stop her from killing Craig but her reaction was understandable given the situation. Craig was still rubbing his throat a little when he nodded to her, "Don't worry about it, no harm done." Sorting through what few engrams she had stored in her virtual memory she looked to the others outside, her expression anything but welcoming. Morgan was the only one to see her as Jen and Valery had their backs turned, though he pointed to her saying something as she approached. Daniel followed closely behind just in case she decided to try and choke someone else senseless, nearing them she began pointing, "I want to know who did this to me and I want to know NOW!" she said. The others looked at each other nervously for a moment before Jen finally spoke up, "We don't know who did this to you Kalista, in fact most of us didn't pay much attention to you because we were busy with other things. Relix said he found you walking around in the wilderness dazed and confused, we just thought you were a housekeeping reploid that had gotten lost."
"Where's Relix?" Kalista snapped.
"Dead," Jen said, "he was killed before we left... our last residence."
"If I find out any of you were responsible for this..." Kalista let her sentence trail off before giving the group one last glare as she took a few steps back leaning against the wall of the reploid bay. Daniel was content to just stand there and listen to the others now that they were talking about things that related to him, mainly housing and employment.
"Alright, we need to find a place to crash," Morgan said, "since there are six of us it would be best for us to get three double rooms, it would be cheaper than six singles."
"What job skills do we have to offer?" Jen asked, "I used to be pretty good at waiting tables."
"I'm good at fishing," Morgan said.
"I have a nursing license, I could apply for a job at the hospital," Valery said.
"What about you Daniel?" Jen asked.
"Like I said, pick something, geology, biology, physics, mechanics, electrical engineering, find a job I can probably do it," Daniel said.
"Kalista?" Morgan asked, looking behind him.
"Piss off!" Kalista said.
At this Daniel just held a hand up to the group and walked over to her, "Kalista, we're in a bad way here and we need your help. I know you're upset and that you don't trust us, but I promise you that I didn't do this to you and we found Snake after the fact," then he leaned forward a little whispering to her, "and if I find out anyone else was responsible, I'll help you deal with them myself."
"You mean that?" Kalista asked.
"You have my word of honor," Daniel said.
There was a long pause as the two stared at one another, then Kalista pushed off against the wall, "I don't know if I have any job skills considering my entire life was stolen from me, but I do seem to have some combat protocols. I'd imagine I can get a job with local security forces."
"If there are trees around I would imagine they have some sort of preservation department, as I said I used to be a park ranger once upon a long time ago," Snake said walking out of the reploid bay.
"I'll take care of finding us a place to live since I know the town, it's 1:14 right now, let's all meet back here at five and compare notes," Daniel said.
Morgan looked at his watch, then back to Daniel, "Let me guess, you memorized how a clock works too,"
"Yep," Daniel said.
Before they parted ways Valery gave Daniel the money they had so he could rent rooms, then they all dispersed to go about their tasks. With the map displayed in his memory Daniel put the money in his pocket as he made his way down the main street of Bismark. He was actually enjoying the lull in the excitement, it was nice to be able to just walk around without having to worry about mechaniloids, reploids, or soldiers, trying to kill him every other day. The people here seemed like average everyday individuals going about their daily business, even the reploids that he saw were going about their business in a normal fashion not paying him much attention aside from an occasional glance as he passed by. The thing he liked the most was not having people constantly ask him what he was or where he came from, that was getting real old. He came to a stop in front of a building a several blocks away displaying a sign out front with 'Bismark Apartments' written on it, the large two story stone structure was plain in design with five windows on either side of the main entrance and eleven on the second floor.
Daniel pushed the door open carefully as he walked inside, the main lobby of the building was a simple white wallpaper design with a polished hardwood floor, the dull yellow globe lights lining the wall cast a calm and tranquil light over everything inside. The main hall was only a few feet long before it opened up into a larger room with a hall on either side of the room leading further into the building and a staircase allowing access to the second floor. At the far end of the room an old man sat behind a three sided desk connected to the wall behind him quietly reading a book. Approaching the desk Daniel nodded to the man, "Good afternoon sir," he said. The old man had a head full of thin white hair that sat atop a heavily wrinkled face with sad looking eyes, the old brown sweater vest he wore over a long sleeved white shirt had definitely seen better days, as had the man wearing them. "How can I help you young man?" the man said as he looked up wearily.
"My friends and I are looking for a place to stay," Daniel said.
"How many?" the man asked.
"Six," Daniel said.
"Single of double rooms?" the man asked.
"Double," Daniel said.
"One-hundred credits a week per room," the man said.
The price was about what he expected so taking several larger credit chips he paid the man who in turn rose from his seat taking three keys off the board behind him, and handed them to Daniel. After being written a receipt for the room he stuff both keys and receipt into his pocket. He didn't even bother checking the rooms before leaving, right now his main concern was finding some temporary work to help him earn a few credits of his own. The money he earned from any job would be a considerable amount for him if one took into account he had almost no upkeep, food, drink, even housing was optional, and although it was slow going even travel could be on foot as he never seemed to tire. With the housing situation taken care of he next order of business was to see if he could find any work, strolling outside he began by walking down the street and checking out the various establishment. About a block away from the apartments he saw an open front merchant's stall with a wide variety of items for sale, computer parts, jewelry, various tools, holo-movie chips, the proprietor seemed to be selling whatever he hand on hand. The owner's back was turned when Daniel approached as he adjusted some items on a back shelf, then he saw Daniel standing there out of the corner of his eye the heavy set balding man in plain clothes smiled broadly.
"Good afternoon sir, see anything you like?" the man asked.
"Actually I was wondering if you were hiring," Daniel said.
"Nope, I'm pretty much a one man show here," the man said.
"Thank you," Daniel said with a nod.
Another glance around the the street and he located a few other shops, though he decided to not to apply at the store where there were a lot of women tending to the hair and nails of other women, it seemed to be a predominately female occupation so he moved on asking half the shop owners in town regarding employment. No one seemed to be hiring though the last person he talked with suggested he check with a man name Rupert at the butcher shop. The woman at the last shop was nice enough to give him directions even though he already knew how to get there, so when she had finished giving him less a than accurate route Daniel moved on down the road. Turning down a few streets he made his way away from the main road moved into what appeared to be something of a newer section of town, unlike the other wooden buildings most of the structures here were smaller and made of either metal, stone, adobe, or at times a combination of the three. The entire town of Bismark had a very laid back feel to it with cobblestone roads and buildings that gently moved up the hill with the landscape, under other circumstances Daniel could see himself easily settling down here. At first he had wondered why everything seemed to be so ancient in design until he had seen several establishments boasting 'old-fashioned' services, Bismark was a throwback to another era and they used that to promote tourism.
The butcher shop came into view bringing Daniel's thoughts back to the present, a building of simple gray stone and mortar with a single large window and a matching glass door to the right, inside there was a large display case where dozens of cuts of meat were on display. There was a man behind the counter busy at work cutting meat as Daniel walked in, there was a small dinging sound when he opened the door and looking up he saw a small bell thinking what a strange means of alerting the proprietor to the arrival of customers. Rupert was an unusually tall man, at least 6'8" by Daniel's measurements, though it didn't appear to be a growth disorder as his body mass suited his height. Dressed in a plain shirt and pants he wore a white apron that was stained by blood both old and new, his sandy brown hair was slicked back against his head making his already sharp features seem even sharper, especially his nose. "Afternoon, see anything that interests you?" Rupert asked without looking up from his work.
"Actually I was looking for work and someone suggested I come here," Daniel said.
"Have any experience as a butcher?" Rupert asked.
"Considering most food comes in cube form now, no," Daniel said.
"True, know your way around a set of blades?" Rupert asked.
That Daniel did, he had enough knowledge about animal anatomy he could tell Rupert was butchering a flank of beef, and the cuts on display were enough to tell him how he cut the meat. Walking to the side of the display counter Daniel motioned to the meat he was cutting, "May I?" Rupert stopped what he was doing and looked over for a moment, then set the meat cleaver on the counter. For a moment Daniel studied the cuts of meat on display memorizing everything about them, then picking up the cleaver he began to quickly and accurately slice the flank into several different cuts, in fact he cut it so neatly and with such speed he finished the entire job in a matter of minutes. Rupert leaned over inspecting the work, then looked to Daniel, "You a reploid?"
"No," Daniel said, "but I feel I should tell you that I'm not going to be here long term, I'm just passing through town."
"Fair enough, looks like you know your way around a flank of beef, job pays eight credits an hour if you're still interested," Rupert said.
"Eight credits and hour beats no credits an hour, when do I start?" Daniel said.
"Tomorrow morning, eight sharp, one hour lunch at twelve, day's over at five," Rupert said as he wrapped the meat. With a nod Daniel turned on his heel walking out of the butcher's stop, checking the time mentally it was now 4:49, he'd spent almost three hours looking for a job, the others would be arriving back at Almon's by now so he headed in that direction. Things were going well so far, he'd managed to find a job and a place to live offering him some stability for the first time since he'd woken up in Zergos, once all was said and done Daniel was actually thinking about coming back to Bismark on a more permanent basis, it was a quiet little out of the way town, just what he liked... quiet. Cutting through several alleys and backstreets he came back to the town's main road a block away from the reploid bay where he saw everyone except Snake, whom he saw in the shop talking with Almon again as he got closer, the others were gathered in a small group talking and nodding or shaking their head from time to time.
"So how'd it go Daniel?" Morgan asked. Tossing the money pouch to Valery he looked over at Morgan, "I got us three doubles at the Bismark Apartments for one-hundred credits a week and found a job at the butcher shop, you all?"
"Well Jen couldn't find a job, the hospital was fully staffed so Valery's out of luck, I got a job helping an old man and his son run their fishing business, Kalista's working for local security and still not talking to any of us," Morgan said thumbing over his shoulder at her as she leaned against the wall again, "and Snake got his job as a forest ranger, looks like we're all set for the time being."
"Okay so who's rooming with who?" Valery asked.
"I'm with Daniel," Kalista said pushing off the wall as she approached the group, "he was the one responsible for unraping my neural net so he's the only one of you I even come close to trusting."
"You wanna share with me Jen?" Valery said.
"Sure," Jen said.
"Hey Snake, got a problem sharing a room with me?" Morgan yelled over his shoulder.
"No," Snake yelled back.
"Well that's settled," Daniel said as he handed a room key to Morgan and Valery.
"I'm gonna go check out the room, wanna come with?" Valery said. Jen shrugged a little and followed Valery as they walked down the street. "I'm gonna hang here with Snake for a while," Morgan said before walking into the reploid bay. That left Daniel alone with Kalista who looked about as friendly as Geros at the moment. "I think I'll head to the our apartment too, I've got a date soon so I need to freshen up," Daniel said. Kalista just nodded a little and fell in step next to Daniel as he walked down the street in the same direction as Jen and Valery. They both walked in silence for a time before Daniel finally looked over at her, "You're not going to ask if I'm a reploid?" he said.
"Why would I?" Kalista asked.
"Because of the way I pulled your arm back when you tried to choke Craig," Daniel said.
"Whatever you might or might not be I figure you'll tell me when or if you want to, unlike someone I'd like to get my hands on I don't go poking around in other people's business, or heads. While we're asking questions though I do remember some things from my time at the base. Tell me something, why didn't you let me 'service' you in your room when I offered," Kalista said.
"You surprised me, that and I've never has sex before," Daniel said.
"Never?" Kalista asked looking over at him.
"Well at least I don't think I have," Daniel said.
"You don't think?" Kalista asked.
"Long story short I woke up in a stasis pod several days ago, alone, with no memories prior to that what so ever, in fact I don't even know if Daniel's my real name or not," Daniel said.
"Thank you," Kalista said.
"For what?" Daniel asked.
"For giving me my life back, if you hadn't had my neural net restored there's no telling when I might have gotten back to my old self, or ever for that matter," Kalista said.
"No need to thank me, I felt it was the right thing to do and I meant what I said. If we do find the person responsible for giving you that 'droid job' I'll help you deal with them if you want me to," Daniel said. Kalista actually allowed a small smile to creep into one corner of her mouth, "I'll remember that." The rest of the walk back to the apartment was quiet, with Kalista in tow he walked through the lobby, then glancing down both halls to get a look at the numbers on the doors he pulled the key from his pocket glancing at it, four. It was the forth door on the left so he walked down the hall carefully unlocking the door with the key and opening it. Stepping into the room he looked around, it was actually quite nice, a large single room with light brown carpet, a pair of beds against the wall with nightstands to the left, wooden dressers to the right with a small kitchen area at the far end of the room, a door leading to a small bathroom in the far right corner, and a holo-net screen in the middle of the right wall. Kalista wasted no time kicking back on the far bed, snatching the remote from the holo-screen off the table he started to channel surf.
Daniel wasn't paying attention to the holo-screen until Kalista stopped on a channel with the image of General Geros in the corner of the screen, a news reporter was talking about how the leader of the Neo Arcadian Armed Forces had bravely lead a military strike destroying the last rebel splinter cell in a masterful stroke once again proving why he's the right reploid for the job. She then went on speaking of other information about past exploits against other rebels, though Daniel didn't even care to listen. "Would you mind changing the channel, I've seen about all of that overblown tin can I care to," Daniel said. Kalista changed the channel while he thought about the matter at hand... his date with Danica. The main problem he was facing was the fact that he had no idea what he was doing, the idea had originally occurred to him because of a considerable gap in the information files in his memories. While he had files regarding culture and society, there was nothing about how to interact with people so he had decided the best way to learn was to do... perhaps a little research would have been in order. It was 5:15 now so he had less than an hour to get ready, due to an almost complete lack of perspiration on his part when Daniel went into the bathroom instead of a full shower he took a wash cloth and a small bar of wrapped soap from the rack over the toilet.
He was about to start disrobing when he stopped, looking down at the toilet it occurred to him that was something else he'd never done either, use the bathroom. He cast the thought aside as quickly as it had come and then disrobed, folding his clothes and placing them on the toilet lid he wet the wash cloth, then with the soap in hand he began to wash off. Once finished he took a towel from the same rack drying and dressing himself, then threw both cloth and towel into the hamper next to the sink. His reflection in the mirror caught his attention because of the fact he noticed he had the beginnings of a what humans called a five o'clock shadow, so his hair did grow after all. Kalista was still watching the holo-nets when Daniel dressed and exited the bathroom, so he walked out without saying anything intent on a little on the spot research. Having handed Valery the key to the room next door he stopped at the door marked three and rapped on it lightly with his knuckles. Moments later the door opened and Valery smiled when she saw Daniel.
"Hey, come on in," Valery said.
"Thanks, but I can't stay long. I just needed to ask you something," Daniel said.
"Sure, what's up?" Valery asked.
"What do you do on a date?" Daniel asked. Valery giggled a little causing Jen to lean forward on the bed she was laying on and look at the two of them with a peculiar expression. Closing the door behind her Valery leaned against it, "I'd almost forgotten you asked that Danica woman on a date. Okay, let's see now, I suppose it depends really if you're going on a date or if you're looking for a little something more."
"Something more what?" Daniel asked.
"You know, that thing men and women do... with each other," Valery said.
"I'm just looking for a date," Daniel said.
"Oh, well then if you just want to go on a date I suppose you could take her out to eat, maybe go see a holo-vid, keep it simple to start with," Valery said.
"Okay, so what do I talk about?" Daniel asked.
"Her, the one thing that can ruin a date faster than anything, at least for me, is a guy who won't stop talking about himself. Just ask her about what she likes, what interests her, and show interest in what she likes," Valery said.
"Right, I'll... keep that in mind," Daniel said. As he started to walk away Valery stopped him with another question, "Do you have any money?" she asked.
"No," Daniel said.
"Well you can't go on a date without money silly, since you asked her out you're suppose to pay for stuff," rifling through her pockets for a moment Valery pulled out the small bag of credits and counted some out before handing them to Daniel, "Here, seventy-five should be enough." With a smirk Daniel put the credits in his pocket as he walked off tanking Valery for the information, the last thing Danica would have to worry about was him talking about himself too much, in fact it was the one thing he didn't want to talk about. It was almost six when he left the apartment building so he didn't waste any time making his way towards the bank, two blocks down and to the left he thought to himself. The sun had already start to set in the distance casting a dim light over the town so he quickened his pace a little, turning left he made his way down the road enhancing his vision to see if Danica was standing in front of the bank. She was there alright, dressed in a snow white ankle length dress wearing a pearl necklace, and she had even pulled her shoulder length hair back into a loose pony tail. He also noticed she seemed to be having a less than friendly conversation with the trio of girls that had giggled at him when he had walked into town, she was pointing at one of them and didn't have a kind expression on her face. The girls all had long blond hair, were skinny, and wearing tight dresses of assorted colors that revealed more than Daniel cared to see, amplifying his hearing he decided to see what the commotion was all about.
"...information Lauren I happened to have a date," Danica said.
"With who, Dirk the dork? You know that moo-moo is really fitting for a cow like you," Lauren said.
All three of girls started laughing and Daniel could tell it was upsetting Danica. With a confident stride in his step he allowed them to continue arguing for a moment until he walked up next to Danica, then intentionally looking at all three of the skinny girls first he put his arm around his date in a manner similar to the way he'd seen other men do with young woman, "Hey Danica, ready for our date?" Daniel asked. With a devious smirk Danica looked to the trio of girls as well, "Yeah, I'm ready for 'our' date." Leaving the girls standing there wide eyed and open mouthed Daniel walked away, he didn't know why the girls were being so mean to Danica but it really bothered him to see people being cruel to her the way they were. Now for his biggest problem, figuring out what the hell to do on a date...