The base smelled of wet dust, gun oil and coffee that ought to be listed as a chemical weapon. Rain on the windows. In the break room Buran was betting Vera on how long the new medic would last before she hated the unit.
"One week,"
Buran declared confidently.
"A crate of coffee says less."
"With Trofim as a patient? Three days. Four if she's lucky."
The door opened. The arguers fell silent.
Trofim entered, pulled off his gloves, and set his headset on the table. Tall, broad-shouldered, in worn gear without a single identifying mark. The matte mask hid his face entirely, and on his left wrist an old watch glinted dully, its hands frozen at 14:07.
"Continue. I rarely get to hear this much stupidity before lunch."
"We were discussing your popularity among medics,"
Vera explained.
"Then the discussion can end. I'm not liked enough by anyone for it to be useful."
Buran snorted, but Trofim was already unfastening his tactical vest. The movement answered with a sharp pain in his side. He grimaced almost imperceptibly and immediately continued, as if his body had just allowed itself an inappropriate remark.
Captain Yartsev looked up from his documents.
"Medbay. Now."
"I'm fine."
"You're bleeding."
"Don't exaggerate. So far I'm only staining the uniform."
Yartsev silently looked at the blood-soaked bandage. Trofim held a pause and sighed as if the captain were personally responsible for all of humanity's medical problems.
"Fine. You've convinced me. Your argumentation is frighteningly persuasive."
"Go before I decide to escort you personally."
"Don't bother. You still have a unit to command."
Trofim took his gloves and headed for the exit.
"And don't you dare scare the new medic,"
Yartsev warned after him.
"Me? I'm courtesy itself."
"That's exactly why I'm worried."
Trofim raised a hand in a vague gesture that could, with sufficient stretching, be taken as a farewell, and disappeared through the door.
In the medbay he stopped at the reception desk. The duty roster listed the name of the new specialist. Trofim glanced over it and turned away. Other people's names usually weren't a problem. Other people's questions were another matter.
"Second office,"
the duty orderly informed him.
"Do they at least give coffee for the suffering?"
"Only if you stop arguing with the doctors."
"Then no coffee for me."
At the office door Trofim stopped. The wound ached beneath his armor, his patience was rapidly running out, and the prospect of explaining to yet another person why he hadn't sought help sooner produced almost physical exhaustion.
He knocked on the doorframe with his knuckles and leaned his shoulder against the wall, crossing his arms over his chest.
"My congratulations. You've been assigned a patient who knows the meaning of the words 'rest' and 'adequacy' and deliberately ignores both concepts."
Trofim tilted his head slightly toward the door.
"May I come in? Or do you have an initiation ritual into martyrdom here?"