''Perhaps she was scared? people act differently when they are afriad and from what you have told me, i dare say she had every right to be afriad.'' He paused, wrote something down, took a sig of water and continued ''How is it lonely? obviously there isn't much permenant contact with anyone but is there anything else?''
He reached over and pushed the 'Pause' button on his recorder ''I do feel sorry for you mis Veraz...No one should be alone, especially not in these dark times'' He gave her a breif sympathetic smile before pushing 'Play' and waited for her response.
She didn't seem really affected by his words but in the end got herself to give him a weak smile back before replying.
"She was afraid, so am I. I still fear for her life, I fear that someone will attack the vessel she is onboard and the cryo systems fail due to it."
She sighed then and leaned back..
"It is just lonely because you just can't simply enjoy life, how to enjoy anything when you have only a war left to exist for? If I don't get my sister back I stand there with nothing but hatred and loyal men. I am thankful for all of them, they believed me when others looked away and decided to fight for an entire.. race. Yet it's a heavy burden to be the one who leads this all. You see, I am hunted for such a huge sum of money it's ridiculous. Trust is just a word for me, this makes things even harder. I trust the people who follow my command, everyone else likely betrays me. I trust you as well, right now atleast and to some extent only.. but yes."
He tapped his pen on the table while he thought letting out a quite ''hmmm'' as he thought. 'Why isn't anything simple anymore?' he thought to himself. He could relate to her thoughts all to well, War being the destroyer of all things, trust included.
''Firstly'' he began ''I am glad i hold at least some of your trust. I do know how hard it is to gain it, and how easy it is to loose it. Secondly, Are you alone in leading the exiles? I mean truely, do you not have your second's and third's? Thirdly, you seem to have a choice, fight and possibly die or...stay away. You'll forgive me if i ask, do you think there is any hope for Malta''
He asked the last question quite seriously, if she was as exhusted as he thought then he would assume that she would rather start anew someplace else, rather than fight what seemed to be a loosing battle.
She took her time thinking about his words, paying special attention to the last part. It was a question that bothered her ever since their second exile..
"I don't lead them alone unlike many believe, there are others as well yet I won't name any of them. As long as I am the hunted one they can act rather freely, making things a little easier for us.
Hope for Malta.. there still is hope left, I know the weakpoints of the one person who will end up as their leader sooner or later, she will be easy to remove, I just have to wait. And I am sure that the numbers who are displeased by the current system will just keep growing as well, we aren't the only Maltese who look closely at what the National Council does. Together we could clean Malta even faster, yet some of them are leaded by stubborn people believing they could face the entire Maltese Navy on their own with their little planetside assets remaining from a glorious time decades ago."
''So there is discontent. Interesting'' he noted her words down. ''I'm also curious on a few other topics, namely children. Are there any? if so where do they go? are they taught? If so what?''
An unusual question, he had to admit. But he was alwasy curious about how people looked after their children, and how pirates in particular managed it. He took out a fresh sheet of paper and jotted a reminder down for later.
Enquire about Pirate's welfare for children was all that needed to be written. He folded the paper and put it back into his briefcase before turning to Rosa and waiting for her response.
An unusual question followed by a rather interesting reply...
"The few who had a family either had to leave them behind or were brought to a safe place where they can live in peace, yet have access to all goods they might need. So no children reside with the Exiles right now, they would just be an easy target for our enemies and we cannot afford any agent of ours giving in to an enemies demands."
''That is a sad situation to be put into'' he said ''What happens if you loose people? who replaces them? and what would be considered a 'safe place'? Freeports?''
"Safe places can be anywhere planetside, Freeports are just temporal alternatives. You know, forging identitys isn't just a thing organizations like the Lane Hackers are capable of doing. About people we lost.. they cannot be replaced, you just cannot replace someone's personality with another. But we still have people coming to us, joining us. Few but enough, I am happy that I can say that we very rarely lose anybody at all."
He was most surprised at her answer, at the begining of the interview she seemed so aloof, so distant regarding her people, it was nice to see she cared. ''I assume then, that your wounded are given the same treatment? that is to say, if they are so badly maimed, you leave them in these safe places as well? or do you give them a 'pension' so to speak?''
She remained silent for a few moments, wondering how to explain this without telling him too much.
"If their status allows us to transport them to the few people we can consider allies they will receive medical treatment there. If not.. we usually manage to arrange something around the safe places I've mentioned. It's all a question about where they are and how badly they are wounded. Mind you, in some areas where some of my agents operate we lack any friendly retreat point."