More or less hiding his smile as he learned they managed to leave Thunder Bay without any troubles, the Operative meet with Elena once more, leading her to the Bering system, to the merely forgotten Freeport 2. The place was definitely less secured by the lawful entities - thus the Zoners were a bit more careful here, adding a few more security measures than they had on Bethlehem. Many civilians, Zoners and others were here, but also a few Rogues, Xenos and the rheinlandian space punks of the Union.
It was nice to see her again, the Operative thought, as he moved to the bay with Elena's Sabre, as usual suited up in his black leather flight suit, the helmet on his head, sidearm in the holster and a little bag at the other side. Seeing that she noticed him, he left the bay again, heading for the right biodome, as he told her. The freeport was gifted with rather large biodomes, enough to allow a little forest of different plants from different worlds to exist here in a regular climate. The smell of the air was something very unusual for regular space stations, with the plants producing actual fresh air. Most of them. Fresh air mixed with the scents of different plants, dead leafs, probably even small insects, although the Operative hoped that wasn't the case. The last time he saw an insect was on Gran Canaria, where moths two times bigger than his helmet roam around at night, outside the cities. Urgh!
Entering the biodome, he opened the mouth part of his helmet to take in the air. Looking around, he saw some individuals walking around, some sitting on benches, some talking, and there was even one guy with an acustic guitar sitting below a tree, obviously training a bit, as what he did wasn't sounding like it should. Putting the mouth part back on, he turned to Elena who as approaching him from behind. "If I didn't know better, I would have said this place looks like all kind of people are even, here. Much similar to Manhattan, though, those biodomes are the place to go if you want to meet some drug dealers." She wouldn't see it due to his visor, but he smiled at her and offered her an arm to hook up.
After Elena had landed her Sabre in one of the multiple hangar bays of Freeport 2 and had recognized the Operative next to a crowd of Zoner pilots chattering and laughing about presumably unfunny jokes, she followed him silently as always, always staying about 10 meters behind him. In a jog trot way, with her hands in her jeans pockets, curiously looking from the left to the right and reverse sometimes, all in an attempt that it wouldn't become apparent she actually followed the figure clothed in the dark suit. While they went through a few rather big hallways, she even encountered some people that were blatanly obviously looking like Unioners, with a variety of hair colors and piercings in their faces. As the Operative had told her, she tried not to stare too much at the moment, but it couldn't be denied they attracted some attention in general. However, Elena also felt being stared at a little, probably by the Unioners who were wondering how the hell a person with blue-dyed hair couldn't be a punk.
As they entered the biodome, the air conditions abruptly changed completely. Before they had inhaled very cool air, but also one that felt like it wasn't there at all. Here however, Elena could feel every single breath of hers as she'd soak in the extremely sticky air into her lungs and press it out again, a by-product of the jungle vegetation found inside the glassy dome. The faint twitter of exotic birds were audible, and here and there she could actually recognize one flying by, in the most gorgeous colors imaginable. Alongside with the slight buzzing of said insects, it really made her believe she had entered a real jungle, even with the various manmade bridges and paths through this biotope. Of course, the false tones of the guitar player were disturbing the image quite a bit, but in the end it just added another touch to this peaceable location, a location where Elena couldn't believe drug dealers would be hanging around, doing their shady business. All in all, the paths were rather empty, which didn't bother her at all.
After her gaze had gone upwards for a few moments, looking at the star-spattered sky, she looked at the Operative again. "Anyways, nice to meet you in person again, Operative. Red." In a more silent tone, she continued. "Mr. V. Actually, when I think about it, you know what would suit you best? A Guy Fawkes mask." Letting out a content chuckle, she saw how he offered her his left arm to hook up, which she accepted without hesitation, crossing arms with him. With a slight, though very pleased smile, they'd begin walking down the path before them. "I see, I got a gentleman with me this time... well, anyways, Nick will be a bit late I guess, but he's got the information saved, so we'll have to wait for him a little longer." Looking at him briefly, she continued. "Not that this would be a problem, no?"
With her at his side, they moved towards one of the way that wasn't visited currently, which allowed him to at least take off the mouth part of his helmet again. Inhaling the air provided here reminded him of Gran Canaria. A weird déjà-vu, the Operative thought, as back in those days, he had another woman at his side, exactly the way he had Elena right now. Trying to not think too much about it, he focused on the here and now again. "I think everyone who wouldn't like to spend some time with you is an idiot." He smirked slightly while they moved up a ramp that would lead up to one of the bridges. "I have to apologize for leaving you without a proper goodbye, Miss Voigt, but the circumstances caused by Mister Stenn were rather contraproductive for someone who wanted to remain unseen and unheard. I'm afraid the manager of the room I rented wasn't too happy with how we left it, but I made sure it wasn't to his loss."
A bunch of birds from Stuttgart were sitting on the handrails, some of them have left white stains on the metallic ground below them. They were tweeting around but flew away when Elena and the Operative came closer. "By the way, please stick with Red as long as were not in a secured area."
As they were walking down one of the bridges from which one could have an excellent overview of the whole biodome, Elena's eyes widened abruptly when she recognized the bunch of birds that were very well known to her, originating from her old, yearslong home after all. It made her remember a lot of things actually, a lot of good memories, mostly dating back from her childhood and youth. Moments that she'd have loved to re-live a second time. Still with this delighted smile of hers on her face, she turned her look back to the man besides her again. "These birds ... my god, aren't they beautiful?" Her gaze followed the birds for a moment when they decided to fly away from the handrail again, still being fascinated. "This makes me wonder though ... can you recognize anything coming from your home?"[/color]
She couldn't suppress a small blush then. "I'll take that as a compliment as always. You don't seem to be an idiot then, but I didn't doubt that anyways." After letting out a small laugh, she continued. "Apologize accepted, but hey, that's your job, appearing out of nothing and leaving out of nothing again. Being the spooky kind of person..." Just as they were talking, they passed the amateur musician, a young man in his mid-20s trying to hit the right tones with his acoustic guitar while in an attempt to sing a certain melody. Both guitar play and vocals sounded quite awful, but it was the effort he put into it that fascinated Elena. Keeping in mind it was most obviously a love song, it wasn't hard to guess he was exercising to impress a woman one day.
Even though a bit of silence between the Operative and her wasn't at all something she disliked, she decided to talk again. "Anyways, you've asked me about how I've been lately, but what about you? I hope you had a good time as well."
A cute attempt to find out more about his origin, her first question. "Some of those birds are on my homeworld as well, however they don't originate from there. You know how it is. Travelers bring wildlife from one world to another. So there are imports from all worlds of Sirius on my homeworld." That was saying enough nothing, he hoped. "I have had a good time, don't worry. I tend to enjoy every opportunity for joy I can get. How is that with you? I take it you're a hedonist as well?" He didn't want to mention how the other Forlorn members talked openly about her promiscuity. Not that that was a bad thing in her age. "By the way, I don't want to be a spook. It just happens to be that way when you try to give nothing about your personal data away. Or do you feel haunted by me?" Some of the trees were actually pretty big, he noticed. It made him wonder how the hell they got the trees of that size into the biodome. The Operative remembered the trouble his inferiors had when they brought a tree to the hydroponics module of the a certain ship.
The first of his questions made her a bit more silent again, which was also clearly visible to him, as Elena lowered her head slightly then, staring at the bottom rather than at the scenery. This question of his had definitely hit a bull's eye, however she soon moved her head up again, looking straight into the visor of his helmet as she talked. "I'm a Hedonist in a certain way, maybe. But probably not the way you think. I don't consider myself prude or anything, and I've got nothing against doing stuff with men, but there are certain reasons why I don't hop into bed with everybody. That's reserved for one person only. But otherwise, yeah, I try to enjoy every second I can." A reinforcing smile appeared on her face.
About his other question she didn't have to think long. "No, I don't feel haunted by you in any way, don't worry. Giving data away freely is a silly thing, and something I should be working on actually. Or can you tell me why I actually just told you what sort of hedonist I am?"
As she asked him the last question, he stopped for a moment. She would see a smile on his face and he gently grabbed her arms and pushed her to the handrails. "Because you're too nice for the cruel space. You're a jovial young woman, I guess early-mid twenties, and you're naive. In a way untouched by the cruelty of Sirius. It is a blessing, Elena, and you shouldn't throw that away. If I was you, I'd take the ridiculously huge amount of money I pay you for a simple cartography job, move to John and tell him to settle down with you on Cambridge or Los Angeles or Denver. Somewhere where you don't need to be afraid of the current wars. Not that there is a safe place in Sirius right now," he told her with a calm voice, being serious about it and showing her how much he knew by putting the puzzle parts together from the chit chat between Sarah and Troy and her own words. "You were careless and now you're awaiting a baby from your friend, am I right? If your enemies find out about that, you're fuc.ked. You're a nice person, but your enemies aren't. They will use anything they get to hurt you." He was pretty sure Elena wouldn't like to hear all that, knowing he was right, but also because he knew so much more about her just by listening for two hours, while she knew nothing about him. Letting go of her arms, he made a step back, in case of her wanting to leave. His smiled turned into an apologetic one. "Right now you're still protected. Your Forlorn friends will keep an eye on you. If necessary, I'll see what I can do, too."
For a few moments, Elena stood there quite speechless actually, surprised by his suddenly very serious words for her, but also by the plenty of information he obviously had about her. How the hell could he even know about all this, she thought. However what he told her didn't make her exactly worried or anything, especially since these considerations and thoughts had been in her head for a while already, she in fact felt a slight bit of aggression coming up. It sounded too much as she would be a helpless girl that needed protection. Her muscles strained, her facial expressions turned somewhat angry, and she even clenched her firsts for a moment.
With a raised eyebrow, she said: "Maybe you just haven't seen my other side yet, thought about that? Do you really think I'm always such a nice person like I am right now? I'd suggest thinking again, then." She stopped for a second, considering her next words. In fact, she could have told him so much right now, but it should still sound at least a bit diplomatic. "I thought you'd have gotten another image from me than this. Do you, in all seriousness, believe I'll just run away from my trouble whenever it's about to hit me? That's not how you live life, and most certainly not how I'm going to live mine. No idea why you're so keen on making me quit, but from what I've learned of you, you should be one who actually understands why I never gonna jack it all in."
A sigh was hearable, and she closed her eyes for a second, trying to cool herself down again. "You also make it sound like I'm a dumb girl that needs everybody to protect her. Excuse the harsh words, but that is just chauvinistic. Again, is this really what you think? The sole fact that I'm still alive should prove you wrong, I can very well watch out for myself." Another sigh, then speaking again. "I know you only mean it well, but I'm not -that- helpless. And neither am I going to quit. We got a job to do. And so far.." her gaze wandered down to her belly. "...I've managed to do my job even with, well, you seem to know it anyways." She was in no way about to leave, rather she crossed her arms before her chest, leaning against the handrail and eyeing the man in front of her. Even though she wasn't exactly happy with the situation, Elena was quite interested in what he was about to say.
To a certain degree, it was funny. The way of her answering him and the words she chose, it all pretty much reminded him of two other women. While his smile was gone when she used her honest words to express her stubbornness, he smirked again a few moments after she stopped. "I had to try, Miss Voigt." The smirk grew wider. "You really remind me of the people I value the most. They have a similar attitude. They are still alive, too. They aren't able to live their old lifes anymore, though. The world isn't open for them anymore. By all means, I don't want to sound chauvinistic. If anything, I wanted to sound reasonable." For a moment, he looked at the ground between them, before offering her his arm again, smiling softly.
The slight anger of hers vanished quickly again as he explained the reasoning behind his words. With a forgiving smile she gave him, she accepted his offer once more, hooking up with his arm, as they were again looking like a weird couple as previously already. They began walking down the bridge further as the birds Elena knew from Stuttgart made a short appearance again, flying right past their faces.
She cleared her throat before saying something again. "Who said I wanna be able to live my old life again? Maybe I'm just happy being who I am and what I do at the moment?" Turning her head to the right, she looked up to his head that was still mostly hidden by the helmet he wore. "Sounds like you know quite a lot of people with this approach to life. It would actually be pretty interesting to meet them one day. On the other hand ... I'm quite sure you wouldn't want that, would you?"
With a smile, she added: "Also, please, this 'Miss Voigt' has become silly, don't you think? I've always liked the sound of Elena more anyways."