He chuckled. She really was curious. "Right, I wouldn't want that. After all, you would be more of a security risk the more I let you get in touch with me and my surroundings. Right now, we're business partners, Miss Elena. That should suffice," he told her, being a bit more serious with the latter sentences. "At least for now." Continuing their little walk, they eventually reached a little viewing platform. Moving to the handrail to take in the sight, the Operative leaned against it. Nobody else was here, but they got a good overview over the biodome and the entrance. They couldn't miss Nick this way.
"What are your future plans, personally and for the Forlorn Hope?" he asked her, finding that an interesting topic.
As they had spoken about keeping personal data secret and all that stuff, Elena began wondering if all his former questions and now the one about her plans had just been out of personal interest, trying to converse - or was there a hidden agenda behind them all as she was apprehensive of at the moment. Therefore, her choice for words stayed rather vague as well. "As for me personally, I've made the experience life tends to care not a single bit about the plans you make. There's always something that just doesn't work. Like, only small factors can change an outcome drastically." She shrugged with her shoulders. "Trying to live my life, not worry too much about the future, these are my plans." With a quieter tone, so that the Operative nearly couldn't understand her words, she added: "Easier said than done."
A secretive grin appeared on her face. "With the Forlorn Hope ... hm ... let's wait and see I suggest. A story gets boring when you know the spoilers, right?" Accompanied by a laugh, she took a quick look at her watch. "Asking you the same would end in the same answer as always I suppose?" Pretty much unnoticeably, she shook her head before she stared at the ground, mumbling something he was once more only slightly able to hear. "I wished the circumstances were different, really."
He did hear it and knew all too well what she was talking about. "Not only you do." There were a few moments before the silence would be broken again by him. "I take it this conversation will from now on only contain emptry phrases until I start telling you about myself, huh? I'm afraid I can't, which I am sorry for. You know why I can't. We're here for the business, not for becoming friends, although it would be nice." She would hear him sighing silently, as he looked down at the entrance to the biodome, expecting Nick to show up any moment - otherwise, Elena and the Operative would bore out each other. Daring it for a moment, though, he slightly turned his head towards her, just to look at her out of the corner of his eyes. Good thing she couldn't see it through his visor.
Approaching Freeport 2, Nick could only smile to himself as the crew on the bridge moved around him quietly and efficiently. "Sir, we're coming in to moor now. Clearances have just been granted." One of the men near the helm console called back to Nick. Nodding Nick speaks calmly, "How are the systems holding up? Given the lack of alarms, I assume the Core is running as expected?", prompting a nearby crewmember to flick through some readouts. "Core is at 80% efficiency sir, and all systems are green. She's running above projected expectations." A smile betrays Nicks true emotions as he stands amidst the bridge crew of the Haven, seemingly calm and focused, but inwardly barely capable of restraining his excitement and joy as he commands the massive ship. "Alright, helm, take us in. Carefully, we just painted her." Nick says with just a touch of amusement in his voice.
Standing inside the biodome below, Elena sees the ship first, and even then it takes her a moment to connect what she's seeing with real life. As far as she had known, Haven was still undergoing repairs at Taba, and had not yet been cleared for test flights. At first she dismissed the ship as merely being a coincidence, but as it moved closer to the mooring point, she could see the clearly emblazoned symbol of the Forlorn Hope on its hull, and all doubts were dispelled. Nick had brought the Haven.
The ships mooring to the Freeport proceeded without incident, and shortly afterwards, Nick was on his way down to the biodome where Elena and Red waited for him. Casually flipping the datapad around in his cybernetic left hand, Nick moved with the easy confidence of a soldier, as he navigated seemingly effortlessly through the corridors and open spaces of the Freeport. Arriving in the biodome, he glances around the area, admiring the contrast of vegetation with a starry backdrop, before scanning the faces in the crowd and locating his waiting companions with ease. To be fair, a helmeted figure and a blue haired woman stood out, even in the crowd of punks and unioners. Grinning to himself, Nick would approach them leisurely, still flipping the datapad idly, before being stopped by one of the punks. His grin never faltered as he casually laid a hand on the pistol on his hip, his eyes almost daring the punk to try anything. After a moment, the kid realized that he had bitten off more than he could chew, and moved out the way, as Nick continued his approach towards Elena and Red.
Arriving moments later, Nick simply smiles at the two, leans against a nearby railing, and eyes the two of them with their arms hooked curiously. "And here I thought we had something special." he says after a moment. "Well, anyways, sorry for making you both wait, I trust the conversation wasn't boring while I was away?" Nick says with a smile. Holding out the datapad he had casually been flipping, he continues "Here's what you wanted."
As Nick entered the biodome, the Operative followed his every step with his eyes, and when the punk stopped Nick, his hand was moving to his own sidearm as well. He surely wasn't a sniper, given the distance, but a shot would at least remind people they are not necessarily in the best position. However, seeing how Nick solved the situation, the Operative smiled and moved his hand back to the handrail. When Nick arrived, the Operative let go of Elena and turned towards him, taking a few steps in his direction as Nick was obviously holding what he wanted. "Miss Voigt was a decent company, as usual, don't worry." Taking the PDA from him, the Operative eyed it for a moment, then looked around. Right now, it still was only the three oft them here. So he activated the PDA and read the report while the bunch of birds from Stuttgart was sitting at the railing on the other side of the viewing platform right now, one of them dropping a fresh ball of white color straight from the rectum. "You sure got damn close to the lair. Did you or someone of the crew sense something weird when being that close to it? Visions? Voices? Headache? Nosebleeding? Paranoia? Anxiety? Suicidal tendencies? Aggressions?"
Nick throws his head back in laughter. Even though the Operative had his helmet on, Nick could feel the questioning eyes as he continued laughing, before gaining control of himself after a few moments. Taking a few deep breaths, Nick begins to speak, traces of amusement still apparent in his voice, "And here I thought everyone thought I had suicidal tendencies. No, there were no reported cases of any of the anomalies you mentioned. The crew was fine, mostly because I took her in alone, with the help of some autonomous units, so I was the only living thing aboard for once. As for my own symptoms, lets just say a minor headache that has long since passed. Notably, it was strongest when near thoses orb structures. Coincidence or not, I'm fine now." Pausing momentarily, Nick chuckles for a moment, clearly still thinking about Red's words. "To be honest, the most interesting part about the whole survey was the lack of resistance at the actual structure itself. Nomad patrols were present all over the place, but at the structure itself there was nothing besides those that had followed me to it. If not for the active cannons and orbs, I would of tried to land on it."
Turning his attention back to the people in biodome, Nick glances around idly, his eyes constantly moving, searching. Looking up at the Haven, visible even now where it is moored to the station, he begins to smile once more. "Elena is always pleasant company, even if she does think I'm too direct at times." he says after a moment.
For Elena, it had never been much of a big secret that Nick was a man made for the big entrances and attention, and she just felt vindicated once more by the way he had decided to attend the meeting. This is definitely low profile, she thought, even though she was glad to finally see the Haven in action after so many weeks of repairs and reconstructions in the drydock of Taba. It was an imposing ship for sure, and she couldn't hide a joyful smile when she recognized the carrier above her head.
As soon as Nick had joined the two of them on the observation platform of the biodome, she decided to take a few steps back away from the Operative, as well letting go of his arm, and for a while merely observed the situation between Nick and their contractor. She often heard from him to act more serious and professionally - and having arms hooked with one's contractor probably wasn't in his eyes. It even made her a bit ashamed. Her arms crossed in front of her chest, now and then tapping with her feet on the ground, she responsively looked down on the ground, checked out the still astonishing scenery - with her eyes following the various birds, and observed the talk. A smile on her face became visible when the Operative mentioned the various symptoms, some of them definitely weren't weird for Nick's standards. Nearly she'd have said something, though she kept her mouth shut - should the two of them handle the business now. She however also listened carefully to Nick's words, as she hadn't yet known the results of the scans herself and was interested as well what this structure was all about.
Elena catched herself more often than not staring upwards, through the glassy dome right at the hull of the Haven, the big fat logo of the Forlorn Hope not to go without notice. Anywise a sense of proudness sprouted in her, not particularly because of the Haven as it had been mainly Nick's business, but to a greater degree it allegorized everything they had achieved in such a short amount of time. Again, she couldn't hide a broad smile then.
However she couldn't help but say something about Nick's last comment, with a grin. "Now this is unfair, don't put words into my mouth. You're not exactly -direct-, one just needs to get used to you."
"At least only words," the Operative mumbled absolutely mind-absent into himself while reading the report and looking at the pictures. Nothing really about Cannish, but that would only mean that there wasn't anything interesting to see. It sort of disappointed him a little, as he thought they would hide something in the atmosphere. It opened space for other theories, though. "Don't land on nomad structures. While most people are aware of their ability to infiltrate human society in form of incubi, they can also alter machinery such as ships. Apart from that, you shouldn't collect nomad remains. If you got some, sell them to the Order or to the Core, whoever of those idiots you trust more, or just drop them somewhere in the Omicrons. The nomad bacteria on their hulls is extremely hostile to humans, and getting in touch with it will kill you within twentyfour hours." How could that lair be there? It made no sense, he would have noticed it when he was there the last time. Auxesia would have noticed. The Order would have noticed. Or they did already. But why wouldn't they remove it when it is active? The lair in Magellan was destroyed rather easily, too.
Turning the PDA off, the Operative sighed, still looking at it for a moment before looking up to Nick, then to Elena, smiling at the latter, before looking back at Nick again. "Good job. Payment will be transfered asap. I think that is all I need for now, although I have one final question. Does the Forlorn Hope have a logistical wing? As in, would you be willing and able to do some smaller one-time transport jobs if necessary?" While asking, he let the PDA vanish in his bag at his side.
Still smiling, Nick nods at Red. "Yeah, we have a logistics corp. As to whether they're willing or not, that depends on what the job is. If you have need of their services, you can get in touch with either Elena or myself to arrange it." Nick shrugs, stretching slightly. "If there's anything else you still need, lets cut to that part. I have several dates with the workshop and med-bay coming up."
Getting in touch with Elena sounded good. "For now we're done here. The final payment will be send to Miss Voigt once I reach my ship. You will hear from me if I need you again, but for now I have everything I wanted." One last time he smiled at Elena before his mouth was hidden again by the mouth part of the helmet. "A pleasure to do business with you. I bid you a good day."
With a nodding at Nick and Elena, the Operative began moving, walking down the way to the lower level to leave the biodome. Other than Nick, he didn't attract the punks to move into his way. A few minutes later, he was out of their sight.
