"Kai! Can you give me the electron collider?" David yells. Kai walks out of ceiling office in the shop. The shop that they are in is made out of old shipping containers that David had found in the old Monterey regional waste management district. Using the old arms of a gantry crane that was attached to a makeshift hovering excavator, David brought the containers to the coast where Salinas, CA used to be. The shop itself is about 75 by 75 feet and fits right into the base of an old broken mountain just 5 miles off the highway. Filled with all sorts of machinery and tables the only point of order in the place was the ceiling office that can only be accessed by the lift that brings you up to it.
Kai picks up an object that is a circle in shape, it has a base that holds a circular pipe that goes into the cube. Getting off the lift from the ceiling office, Kai brings the electron collider to David. David is wearing his normal work gear which was a pair of old synthetic jeans and the long sleeve jacket that he rolled up. He's got blue eyes that you can only see if he looks at you directly because his goggles cover them almost all the time. When Kai comes up to him, Kai sees that David is working on a hover vehicle that he calls his secret project. David turns around to yell for Kai again and finds that Kai is already coming up to him.
"I got you the electron collider," Kai says as he looks up to David. 'Does he have to be so tall; I am literally 4 years older than the runt,' Kai thinks to himself. David looks down to see Kai looking like he usually does. Wearing black synthetic jeans and a plain black t-shirt. Kai's got medium hair on top his head that spikes out but his sides are cut and faded to the top so he doesn't look like a porcupine as Kai would say. Other than the dog tags that Kai wears, there were really no other accessories to the guy. Kai grew up in United America, but he was still built like his islander roots. He's a big guy in the sense that his body type looks like he can be a bodybuilder if he really wanted to. Even though he was 5'7", David thought that he wouldn't want to be the one who messed with the guy.
"Thanks man, I really needed this," David says while wiping the coolant that got on his hands. "Yeah, no problem," Kai says. "So, are you going to tell me what you are working on or are you going to wait and then tell me at the last minute you need me to fix another energy field for you?"
Feeling the sarcasm dripping from Kai's tone David laughs and says, "Okay, I'll tell you but it's a work in progress."
"What do you-," Kai's voice falls away as David clicks a button on the worktable. The hover vehicle that was in front of him disappears. In its place is an 8-foot-tall war droid. The color of it was metallic grey, but it had a bit of rust here and there. It was missing a whole arm and the area for the visor was completely torn off. Despite that, it was still a war droid. Old and out of date as it was, it could still warrant a bit of an issue. Only because things like this would need licensing to keep as an antique of sorts. Not like anyone can get the proper fuel and ammunition for them anyways without being flagged.
Seeing Kai's mouth drop to the floor, David laughs hard then says, "It's an AR-215, Series: K war droid that was discontinued by Arise Corp. The kind that was discontinued about 40 years ago. I found it 20 miles out from old Salinas when I went to find material 2 weeks ago."
"You cloaked it with a hologram for two weeks?" Kai says slowly. "How did I not see you bring this in?"
"Hehe, it's okay that you didn't. I just wanted to surprise you," David says. "Kai, I think I can actually fix this and make it our little mascot."
'I should say no to this but…' Kai thinks to himself. "Okay I'll help, what do you need." David, being glad to see his best friend agree, starts to speak when they both hear the entrance door open. Freaking out, they both rush to click the button for cloak it. As they are stumbling to do this, a chubby Pilipino dressed in a suit comes into view.
"Hey what are y'all working on?" Seeing who it was, both Kai and David breathe a sigh of relief and glares at this intruder.
"Zack, you gotta learn how to use the com before you come in," Kai says while standing back up from when he tripped trying to click the cloak. "You can give someone a heart attack," David says. "Ooookaay, anyways what you guys working on. Need any designs?" Zack says.
David and Kai look at each other before Kai turns around to the worktable and clicks the button to uncloak the droid. As soon as the hologram drops and Zack sees what it is, he jumps back immediately. "What the-," Zack is interrupted by David as he cuts in to explain everything to him.
Calming down finally Zack looks at the two of them and says, "You two are going to kill me one day with what you guys do in this place." Even though Zack says that Kai and David both know that they got Zack hooked. Zack knew these guys wouldn't do anything to endanger anything or anyone anyways. This would probably be a cool project for them to have on the side.
'Besides,' Zack thought, 'Not exactly the most dangerous thing I have seen them work on,' he smirks to himself as he fixes his blue tie.
"Oh hey, why are you dressed up?" Kai asked.
A moment of silence passes. "You're kidding right?' Zack asks. "Did you two forget that you guys are going to the Meeting of the Minds... Like tonight? It is literally the biggest event that goes on here in California for y'all but y'all forgot that you two were invited to attend?"
Immediately after hearing this, both Kai and David's eyes widen in realization. "Damn it!" Kai yells as both of them bolt to the lift to the ceiling office.
"When does it start again?" Kai yells. "It starts at 8 so you both got 40 min to get that grease off your face and while you're at it get that smell off you too!" Zack says. 'I know they're smart and all but damn they are stupid,' Zack thinks to himself while shaking his head with a grin on his face while looking at his wrist com. The time was 6:30.
Looking at his com he sees that he has a call. He touches it with his finger then brings the video message from his com to the big T.V. screen that is in the wall in front of him. The video shows a young Asian lady in a nurse outfit. Long, black, and wavy hair that is tied up in a ponytail, she presents the presence of someone about business. The young lady has light freckles that dot around her cheeks and her face is roundish but, in the way, that she just looks nothing short of gorgeous. 'Woah,' Zack thought.
"Hello, I'm Hana, a nurse at California Medical." The nurse said. "I am calling because someone who had his cybernetics fixed at your company's place said you would be best to help?"
Immediately seeing that this was a business call, Zack straightened his back and put on his manager's face. "Well, that would be based on what you mean by help. Our engineering shop can only do so much in that regard," Zack says as if he was used to this type of call. "If you are talking about the last guy that came in, then I have to tell you that the only reason why he was able to get his leg fixed was because of the fact it was a pure tech issue that my bosses were able to fix." Truth be told there has only ever been one person who came into this shop to get his cybernetics fixed, but Hana didn't know that, so Zack was using this as an opportunity to make some money.
"No, there isn't any need for that type of help, but my coworker said that the reason why that patient was having trouble was because his body was rejecting the cybernetics. He was wondering how your boss managed to fix that issue?" Hana asks.
Before he could answer, David came into view of the screen. David is now wearing an all-dark navy-blue suit with a black shirt that's buttoned all the way up to his bow tie. His hair which was all-out wild and shaggy is now just... the same honestly. He did not even try with his hair. 'Can't win it all I guess,' Zack thinks. Zack appreciates that David tried but is still worried about how David is going to talk to other people. David was more I.Q. than E.Q.
David then replied, "It wasn't his genes, but it was a tech issue. The tech that was used in his cybernetics was clearly an off-brand Amp 22 model. It had lead mixed into the copper wiring on the inside. It was giving him lead poisoning. Luckily it was only the second day otherwise necrosis would have already started to set in and by then it would be too late."
"Hi, I'm Hana and thank you for fixing him up. My colleagues and I would like to talk to you about sending more people with the same issue if that's okay?" Hana asks.
"I don't mind doing it, I can do it for fr-," David starts to say as, "A set price that we will have to discuss with the other boss to see how much such things will cost." Zack interrupts while smiling forcefully. "I'm assuming this is a fund that would be backed by California Medical?"
Hana says, "Yes, it's going to be paid for by the department my friend works in. We were put as the head of this. Would it be fine if we were to meet up and talk about this?" "Of course!" Zack exclaims. "Sure! Any day besides today, as my bosses and I are attending the Meeting of the Minds convention."
"That's brilliant! We will also be there." Hana says.
"Then that's settled. We will meet you there Ms. Hana." After saying a bit more conversation, they all said their goodbyes before Zack turns off the screen and looks at David.
"'We could do that for free,' was what you wanted to say right," Zack eyes David.
"We really can, it isn't much for Kai and me to fix that type of problem."
"Kai would also agree with me in saying that this is perfect for making money. We don't even have a name for the shop and the only customers we get are the random people who break down in the middle of the road. It wouldn't be much for California Medical to pay us to do that either so don't worry about it," Zack tells David, trying to make him understand the point of having a business in the first place is to make money.
It's about this time that Kai comes down from the lift. 'At least one of them did good,' Zack says in his head. Kai comes down wearing long black synthetic slacks with a fitted black blazer. Kai also wore his black dress shoes, a thin wrist communicator and slick black eyeglasses that fit with his gelled hair.
"What are you guys talking about?" Kai asks.
Zack smiles and says, "We got ourselves a date."