Maren would wake up somewhen in the evening from her regular sloth-like afternoon slumber, as she still had to fight with the heat of Curacao. Laying on the couch of the bungalow Ezrael had rented for a while now, she would find a PDA on the little table next to her, together with a cream-filled Sunbucks donut. The PDA was active, glowing, while outside the blue sun of Cortez was slowly moving towards the horizon, while the bungalow's air conditioner was fighting the constant tropical heat from outside. Maybe closing the windows would have helped here, but Maren probably wanted the little breeze on her sweaty back.
The PDA showed a transmission. A local-local transmission to her, as only Ezrael called her Sugartits, and only she called him Handsome sometimes.
I just got invited to a meeting on the York in New London. Admiral McIntire won't be there, but Commodore Kaze Dagon will talk with me, the creepy girl I told you about. I don't know how long it will take, probably an hour or maybe a bit longer if they want to scan me again. Will take some stuff with me, though, I don't want to be unprepared. So don't worry.
I first wanted to tell you, but it looked so adorable how the saliva was running down your face while you lay half way on the couch like a ragdoll. I also wanted to put an apple on the table so you eat something good, but I guess you would have acted like you didn't see it, so I put a donut there instead.
If something should happen, don't do anything stupid. Everything will be alright.
:::[INCOMING TRANSMISSION]::: :::[ESTABLISHING SECURED VIDEO FEED]::: :::[VIDEO FEED:LIVE]:::
ID:Maren v. Westefeld Location:CV-Hoffnungsschimmer, Omega-49 Subject:(none) ENCRYPTION:
And people say that I have a habit of sneaking out of the house. What does this woman think she is ordering people around in the middle of the night? And I don't care if it just so happens to be night only on Curacao in the entire universe, ugh.
*She lifts up the donut he's left her.* You know, who says that I can't eat things that will kill me? I do that all the time, like during breakfast, or when I'm not eating. Speaking of which, I'm going to make you eat one of these with me for the comments about my saliva. I'm not adorable. I am venerable...
Yes.
Uh, when will you be back? I don't know when you left, so I'm kinda just going with the time this message got in, and I can't spy on you on some video feed because our places doesn't have these things. Yes. Uhm, just be careful, alright. *She seems a bit hesitant for a moment, which resulted in an awkward little pause, as she didn't know how to end this, and just saying 'I love you' seemed horribly cheesy, yet she still went for it.* Uhm, I love you. *She gave an awkward, toothy smile before realizing that she should probably end the message, and so she does.*
Now that we have been a few days apart I figured it would be a good idea to send a message. Leon and I had had some calls already, he can also read up on this message as I figured he would be interested in it as well. I hope everything on the Apahanta is going well. Are you already occupied with those missions for Bretonia or are they willing to wait until the refit is complete? Also did you get any word from Maren yet to see how the Hoffnungsschimmer is doing? This line alone made me have to encrypt the message even more.
Anyway, these few days on my own allowed for me to get things into perspective and allowed for me to get some actual work done which felt amazing to be honest. I took some work from the Liberty Navy as I wanted to know their opinion about me. Surely they knew who I was, at least the admiral did who questions me for a little while but I was allowed to go again on the condition that I shouldn't show my face again in Liberty. I wonder if any criminal who was put over the border ever complied with that and didn't return.
For now I am laying low on the Junker bases around Liberty, they don't seem too fond of me bringing a Serval around but once I asked for some assistance in patching up my ship and showed the appropriate set of credits they all seemed willing to give me a hand and allowed for me to stay as long as I wouldn't make any trouble.
Now for the actual request I have though, as I have been flying around I thought about my current position. Since you decided that I can not be around you while you're occupied on the Apahanta and I know you value Leon's work and thus need him around as well, I thought of other ways we may be able to keep seeing each other while remaining separated at the same time. All I want is a simple job which doesn't involve you nor Leon. Sorry Leon but I think it's simply a bad idea to be (literally) on each others skin all the time.
Now I feel I have two options here:
1) I start working for the Junkers, they have some distance to the lawfuls and I can probably work in peace without fearing to be apprehended. All I need to do is keep quiet and be useful to the Junkers. If we want to meet then I believe there are enough bases of operations the Junkers have around the houses to be able to see each other on.
2) You figure out a way to get me into the OSC as a pilot without them figuring out my actual identity as I know OSC has close relations to both Liberty and Bretonia. If you manage this then I can be around on Curacao and any of the other places they own. I wouldn't mind being a simple shuttle pilot or doing some security for them. But I will only feel safe doing this knowing I have a good cover story and identity.
I am guessing you would prefer for me to work for OSC so I am going to give you some time to pull some strings (not those strings) here. I will only accept this if I am confident that Liberty and Bretonia won't find out about it so you will have to convince me here. If you can't convince me then I'll go with option one and in the meantime I'll see if I can collect some credits by myself so that I can buy myself a ship that raises less attention. I could also just sell the Gallic ships I own but doing that feels like I am just removing more of my already limited amount of memories of my past which is something I don't really want to do.
That's all for now, take care.
PS. Sorry for walking out like that on Curacao, realising that I am really wanted in Bretonia didn't really benefit my mood. .
Nancy Sweetwater .
.
You can imagine neither Leon nor me were happy about this message, as things happened exactly as I saw them coming. I myself can't help her with that right now, at least not regarding the new ID. Maybe you can do something? After all you know people. If you get her a new ID, I can get in touch with Orbital Spa and Cruise and get her a job and everything. I have the connections for that, luckily.
By the way, the faster you are with that, the better it is. I can't reach Leon right now, and according to his mother, he isn't at home. So if he isn't at home and not at the bungalow, he might have left the planet to get her a new ID. Which is not good, he barely can pilot a ship and he has no idea who is will be dealing with. If you see him, stop him somehow. It's better for him.
ID:Ezrael Vertiga Location: Omicron Kappa Subject: Help ENCRYPTION:
Hey Meowren.
I take it you're busy. I got both the permission of Bretonia and Crayter to move through their space. The latter wanted a fee of 50.000.000 Credits. I guess that's fair. However, I checked the accounts and noticed Leon withdrew 50.000.000 Credits from the insurance account I made for him. Tried to contact him again. Again he didn't respond.
The Apahanta will start the first 24-hours cloak test run tomorrow, so I won't be able to do much as I need to be there. Everything will be fine, don't worry about it. But I need you to get the stuff I asked you to. Get Nancy an ID and if you see Leon, stop him before he gets into trouble.
Love you, Maren. Can't wait to spend the weekend with you.
:::[INCOMING TRANSMISSION]::: :::[ESTABLISHING SECURED VIDEO FEED]::: :::[VIDEO FEED:LIVE]:::
ID: Location: Subject: ENCRYPTION:
Heya, you. Sorry that it's taken a while before I could get back to you. It's been a little hectical, given the Corvo and everything. Haven't been idle, though, no. A friend of mine was able to artifice a new ID for Nancy. While the forgery is not perfect, it will be more than enough. If you take a look at the attachments, you'll see that Lily Austin is from Pittsburgh, which is actually pretty genious, given the conditions on that planet. It wouldn't be too far fetched to assume that occasional people slip through the net, given that it is also one of the major origin points for the slave trade that is directly enabled by Liberty not putting an end to the exploitation. In any case, the ID should withstand standard checks, though no in-depth background checks, likely.
I've been hanging around the Corvo, mostly. Wanted to figure out how the cloak would actually do in a field test, so I took it into the middle of nowhere and kept it running for a bit more than two days straight now. I think Mittens is gaining sentience because he actually beat me in scrabble once. Yes. Also, the engines rumble a lot when they charge for cruise, which is a bit bad if you have stuff on shelves. Haven't yet figured out why. They emit a strange cloud of blue particles that disperse quickly, which is why I haven't yet managed to catch some of that.
Uh, about that weekend. Should we meet on the Corvo, or...? I mean, I could show you stuff I found out. Uhm, yes. Please answer soon, love.
ID:Ezrael Vertiga Location: Omicron Kappa Subject: Help ENCRYPTION:
God, it's good to hear from you, Maren. I already thought you, you know, had problems with the Corvo. But no, instead you decided to be so busy playing scrabble with MIttens that you simply didn't manage to give me a little life sign.
Sometimes I wonder what is wrong with you.
Anyway, I'm glad to hear your voice and see your moon face. The tests on the Apahanta have been successful, although we're not done with everything yet. Like, the ship is now able to cloak for a long time, at least 36 hours without any problem. I guess waiting eight months for the desk criminals to waste my money finally are worth it. The next tests will show us how practicable the new cloak is in simulated combat situations. That will be fun...
Also, Maren, there is something really, really important I need to tell you regarding the Commune and a friend of mine. Do you think we could meet tomorrow already? On the Corvo? I just want to embrace you and keep hugging your for at least 24 hours. If you survive that, we can do other stuff.
:::[INCOMING TRANSMISSION]::: :::[ESTABLISHING SECURED VIDEO FEED]::: :::[VIDEO FEED:LIVE]:::
ID: Location: Subject: ENCRYPTION:
Just before you say anything else: There is nothing to talk about if you want to criticize the kind of people that I keep close. So please, if you want to nag me about that, could you not?
But yes, the Corvo isn't really going anywhere, so of course you can visit. It is currently floating in the Cayman system again, the same place it has always been. You should still know what. I'll see you in a bit.
Maren, if you're not too busy, try and find out where Nancy is. She doesn't respond to comms, and OSC said Lily didn't come to work for a for days now. She might be in danger, maybe she passed out somewhere and lost her memories.
:::[INCOMING TRANSMISSION]::: :::[ESTABLISHING SECURED VIDEO FEED]::: :::[VIDEO FEED:LIVE]:::
ID: Location: Subject: ENCRYPTION:
"Uh, hi," she starts as the feed begins, her voice a bit lame, since she always struggled with the beginnings of such recorded messages.
"I'm afraid I can't really, you know," she trails off, finding this awkward. "It's not like I don't want to, but she could be literally anywhere. I doubt I can do anything if OSC hasn't seen her, too." She tries an apologetic smile but fails miserably. "Uhm, when will you be back? I got a small surprise that I wanted to share with you."
I'd wish I could be around soon, but we had a little accident on the Apahanta. The cloaking device is heavily damaged, our heavy weapon array is disabled and the energy grid on half of the ship needs to be repaired. I can't leave the ship for a while.
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