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37th Tau system, 10th Freeport, a home for some, a place to rest for others. Nicole has been administrator for years, but only a few days she has been the administrator of Ten. The action she saw was something unusual for a person like her. She used to solve problems with guns, guns usually helped to solve the problem Delta, but since then a lot of things have changed, some to better, some to worse. But she liked it. After all she doesn't have to deal with bloody nomads and she can take a little rest these days. With heavy and difficult situation resolved, Nicole got in touch with Ten's sister, Six and invited Administrator Chara to Freeport 10, in order to discuss possible alliance between Six and Ten.
Nicole made sure one of the docking bays remained unoccupied so Blaine could have a place to park his ship. She also had to make sure nobody on board knows about this meeting, it was more or less the most important thing for her, privacy, interruptions during important talks always make her mad. One thing only. Nicole walked lazily towards the docking bay, it was almost time for Blaine to show up.
The gunship entered Tau 37 to the usual skirmishes between miners, Outcasts, Bounty Hunters and other assorted parties. The ship engaged it's cruise engine and headed for Freeport 10 with no issues. Unless a Zoner ship was being harassed, orders were to go about it's mission.
Only recently had Blaine dropped the term Commander from his name. He was long retired from his planetary special operative ground-work and piloting wasn't his thing. Freeport 6 gave him some quiet from his former life with Liberty ground troops. He simply took the usual term of Administrator as so many before him had.
He knew little about Nicole Malakai herself but they had many of the same issues around both of their bases and they were the only allies they would have, each other.
"Freeport 10 this is the Freeport 6 security ship MacDonough requesting permission to dock," asked the commander Mark West. "MacDonough this is Freeport 10 permission is granted," was the voice in the com.
Blaine himself wasn't one to dress professionally. He wore his old campaign hat everywhere and dressed neat but casual. He was a huge, muscular man and couldn't hide his mass. He departed the ship alone as his crew would resume it's patrol while he had his meeting. Stepping into the docking bay, he put on a smile and awaited his host to arrive.
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Nicole was patiently observing MacDonough's docking sequence, she nodded at the docking master and gave his shoulder a gentle pat. Both Nicolethen proceeded to the hangar bay where Blaine was already waiting for her arrival. Nicole walked in with neutral facial expression, however it was about to change to positive smile as her eyes found smiling Blaine standing in front of her. "Administrator Chara, welcome to Freeport Ten, I hope your journey was without any major problems."Nicole asked Blaine during her walk closer to him with her hand extended to him. "It's nice to meet you in person, it's the first time I am meeting one of the fellow administrators in person, so I hope there is no obstacle ahead of us.". A kind smile remained on her face as she was hoping he will accept her handshake offer.
As he returned her greeting, he accepted her hand being careful not to be too strong with his own. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you. It is also a first for me meeting a fellow freeport administrator."
He released her hand and walked beside her to where they would meet. "I don't see where we would have too many obstacles at least, not between us anyway. We have a lot of the same problems. Outcasts, Gallics and Bounty Hunters are just a sample, business for us but they would rather kill each other. Our Freeport laws are the same, really. I think the biggest obstacle will be keeping the Taus patrolled and our operations financed."
Not sure where he was headed, he kept pace with Nicole while they started with light discussion.
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Nicole was carefully but steadily walking with Blaine to the local bar, it was supposed to be crowded at this hour, but more or less everyone was busy at the time. His words made sense, but she was ready to tell him a bit more, but not before they arrived to the wooden dar, located in the corner of the almost empty bar. As she opened the door a view of well rounded wooden table and four chairs was displayed. It was a simple room with some flowers,
a window turned to Tau-53 anomaly and ice asteroid field. Nicole slowly walked to the chair and took a seat. "Chara, can I offer you some drink or meal for the start?."Nicole asked Blaine as she was getting into more comfortable position, crossing her legs in the process.. "We've got the same rules, for now. I will have to fix some mistakes my predecessor left behind. For example with recent ban of Maltese ships, I noticed the NoFireZone collides with Sun corona, so it makes the path to Tau 23 a bit more problematic. I was thinking about reduction of the radius from 10k to 7k, obviously range of capital weaponry was taken in consideration. And I am probably going to forbid loitering in NFZ unless necessary reason is present. That way I believe everyone will be happy and it will prevent such shenanigans from happening.". A kind smile remained on her face.
Blaine took his seat,his right forearm resting on the table. He removed his hat, placing it on the empty chair to his left.
"Since we're working, I'll just take an orange seltzer for now," he replied to the drink request. He took a look at the menu and ordered a turkey club sandwich and a plate of nachos for him and Nicole to share. Big he was but he didn't eat heavy.
"When I was given administration of Freeport Six, I didn't really change the laws there," he explained. "We don't have the same issue with the sun corona so I can keep it at 10k. With the ships coming and going and our storage depots somewhat off the base, 10k keeps the peace." He shrugged, "I guess that the no fire zone is not just up to the base but whatever intangibles it may have, in your case, the sun. I COULD reduce ours to be more uniform. I just keep it more than it has to be keeping in mind maximum ranges of some heavier weapons."
He continued. "For now, it's been quiet, especially since the war between Gallia and Bretonia ended and before that, Kusari. Our problem was more of all three mentioned houses telling us...." He held his fingers up like quotations, ".......we tell you what to do. You are the border between our houses." He gave a chuckle, "Or my personal favorite from a Gallic Admiral, "Your compliance isn't requested. It is expected."
His drink arrived and he took a sip to wet his palate. "Outcasts? We settled that problem. One of their ships tried taxing our cruiser outside the base. We destroyed it and haven't had a problem since. Our patrol routes go right by Cadiz and they don't bother us."
He took a sigh. "If we have one problem, it's patrols. One gunship and one destroyer is all we have due to budget constraints and crew availability."
The food arrived. He had the nachos set between them and his sandwich before him. "Help yourself," he motioned to the nachos.
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