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The Martian Cat<br />
The Mad Medic, Maddy<br />
Inside the Surgery, there is a medic, a woman who is unusually fit<br />
and healthy for a Mars dweller. For the past week, since the<br />
explosion, Maddy has been wired, unable to sleep, and always busy.<br />
She works quickly, preparing a surgical procedure on a dead man who<br />
is lying on the floor. She is getting ready to cut open the head of the<br />
cadaver to remove the brain. She has laid out all the tools, and is set<br />
to go.<br />
Before she sets to work, she unzips her jumpsuit and drops it to the<br />
floor, revealing a well formed and completely naked body. She squirts<br />
a thick dob of hand sanitiser on her palm, and then rubs it all over<br />
her hands, arms, neck and face, under her arms and on her belly and<br />
all the other places she can reach. There is no running water on Mars,<br />
you see, and this ‘Mars Wash’ is the an extremely effective way to<br />
maintain high levels of personal hygiene. Maddy performs this ritual<br />
at least five times a day: after wake-up, at least three times during the<br />
day, and full body wash, including all the nooks and crannies (and<br />
behind the ears) before bed.<br />
There was never enough sanitizer for the hundred or so Mars<br />
Colonists, so Maddy, being fastidious about hygiene and profoundly<br />
greedy, stole the lot for herself.<br />
An added benefit of the Mars Wash is that it is accompanied by<br />
mild inebriation, what with all the ethyl-alcohol in the sanitiser fluid<br />
seeping through the skin. As a result of this frequent ritual, Maddy is<br />
permanently sozzled, and this only adds to her erratic behaviour.<br />
Besides being pissed all the time, she really is quite mad.<br />
Her long chestnut-coloured hair is tied in a pony-tail, and curled up<br />
under her Inter-Planet baseball cap. She wears an intense look, and<br />
this, coupled with the crescent shaped scar on her cheek, give her the<br />
appearance of a tough, cranky bitch, which she is.<br />
Despite her serious personality issues, Maddy moves across the<br />
surgery in an effortless, lolling dance that is caused by the low 0.38G<br />
gravity on Mars. It is not the same as the way astronauts move on the<br />
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