BETHLEHEM STATION, Pennsylvania - early in the morning
Hopping out of her Sabre and taking off her helmet, Elena quickly had to fix her hair. It was still quite early in the morning, as she saw only a few people walking around the hangar of Bethlehem Station. Usually, it was much busier around here, she remembered. And frankly, the only reason Elena was awaken at all right now and wasn't laying stiff in her bed was the fact she had got a comm message from Nick, who had told her to meet him here.
Still tired, she walked off the hangar to the next best bar available, with her weariness being writ large in her face. Yesterday had been a very busy day for her, both positively and negatively. On the one hand, she had been able to explore nomadic relics in the Kansas system - which literally had blown her mind -, but on the other hand, what happened later that day was still eating away at her. Just now, she realized what a dick she had been to Nick, first literally dumping him and then just flying away when the situation got heated, leaving him alone to deal with it. By now, she could have already started crying about it again, but no, that wasn't what she planned, no matter how sorry she was.
Taking a seat in the first available bar she had found, Elena sighed. It seemed Nick was late - as always. And god, she wanted to get this meeting done as soon as possible, without much hesitation. Because she definitely wasn't looking forward to this, as she knew exactly what the matter was. The way Nick sounded in his comm, he wasn't pleased, and Elena was sure she would be shouted at soon enough.
So this was how the day should start for her: Ordering a glass of cheap vodka and downing it quickly after.
Those who could be found in the bar at 5am noticed the door slide open, and Nick storm in, almost gliding along the floor, still dressed in his flight suit and wearing an expression that would of made a thundercloud look friendly. Barely stopping to wave away an eager server, Nick sat down opposite Elena and taking a deep breath, looked her straight in the eye. "Now, before you say anything. I want you to understand that I do not enjoy or look forward to what is about to happen. Another breath, as his fingers play gently across the table for a moment. "Alright, since there is no easy way to say this or a diplomatic way to present it either, I'm going to be blunt. Your actions have consequences, and as a member of the Forlorn Hope, those actions and consequences effect us all. If it were not for the fact that we've been let off with a warning for the slip of the tongue you experienced, I doubt we would be having this conversation in Liberty space."
Nick paused for a moment, holding up a finger to silence Elena as her mouth opened to speak. "Look, I understand you were angry, I was too, but we can not interfere with operations outside of our own organization, unless specifically contracted by the CORRECT authorities to do so. The matter is over, the situation handled, and we need to prove that our methods lie within the bounds of the law. To this end, I need you to do me a favor. In addition to leaving this whole affair behind us, I want you to find us new contracts, specifically from the Liberty Navy and Police, in an effort to mend bridges." Nick finished speaking and looking at Elena expectantly, he allowed himself to relax slightly, still feeling bad about having to reprimand her like this. "Look, everyone makes mistakes, and things will be ok, we just need to be a little more careful in the future." Nick said in a softer voice, and beckoned over a waiter, paying for two meals and drinks to show that now that the imposing matter had been addressed, they could leave it behind them as friends.
After Nick had ended his speech, the whole bar was filled with an awkward and unpleasant silence. Elena didn't dare to say a single word at first, completely caught off-guard by his sudden outburst. Frankly, she had expected him being angry, but not that angry. With a slighty opened mouth, she just sat there, staring Nick into his eyes, trying to read what he thought. The situation was even more awkward as all the guests in the bar had stopped their conversations to turn their heads to what was going on at the other table.
Finally, Elena gathered enough courage to speak again, even though she still felt pathetic compared to Nick. With a somewhat fragile voice, she said: "Okay, so let's get over it, shall we?" Downing another glass of whisky as a first, simple answer, she touched her front with one of her fingers, while nearly closing her eyes. "You can believe me, I don't feel like talking about this crap in any single way, too. But what must be, must be. So...." She made a small pause to catch her breath again, as she knew the next sentences would be long. "I know what I did was wrong, it was an unintentional act of mine that I didn't think of beforehand, and I'd have never thought it would have that heavy consequences. In this moment, the only goddamn thing I worried about was my friend, you gotta understand this. And whatever the consequences would have been, I felt myself unable to just watch and eventually see her getting killed without a solid reason."
After Elena had ordered another glass, she went on. "But don't worry, I've learnt my lesson nonetheless. Never threaten house officials, okay, okay. And for the contracts, yeah, I will have a look. And just that you don't misunderstand something - it's not like the whole Navy and Police hates me. I've got farely good ties, especially in the 5th." She stopped for a moment, as she saw Nick's face turned thunderstruck. She quickly added: "And no, I don't just mean that one person you probably think of. The admiral and some others know me quite well, too."
Still quite feeling like a piece of crap, she now rather applied her attention to the meal that had just been served. She didn't really care whether Nick wanted to add something to it, as she hoped this explanation would finally settle the case.
Nick sat quietly eating food for a short while, and eventually the bar returned to normal, as the commotion had died down. Chewing his food thoughtfully, Nick started to speak again. "This isn't all bad you know. It gives us a good opportunity to work with the Navy and Police, to make amends, and if you truly do have friends in the 5th, we can utilize those connections as well." Pausing momentarily to pull his datapad out, Nick flicks through a few menus and screens before smiling. "Either way, we do have a job on our hands, an open bounty on nomads and their remains, over in the Crons. Its flagged as low priority, so we have a job for whenever things get slow in house space." Munching on a piece of steak, Nick suddenly sits up right as a thought occurs to him. "We have fighters, and gunships flying the Forlorn Hope tag, but do we have any bombers? If not, perhaps you or Sarah might want to expand your ship hangers, we can assign some funds from the group reserve to outfit them as needed." Nick smiles as he waits for Elena's response.
Elena didn't even raise her head as Nick began speaking again, slowly chewing her food and thinking about thousand better places she could be in right now, preferably her bed on Trenton. This conversation was dying from a horrible desease, and she had actually decided to just let it die, horribly, not speaking any word at all anymore. Nick on the other hand seemed to hope he could still resuscitate it, somehow. Elena wasn't too pleased about this, and frankly, his attempts to get the conversation back on track were annoying her.
Still not looking up, she swallowed what was in her mouth and said. "Yeah, I know about the job. I already got some stuff Iona needs, will be quite a cash-flow." Abruptly, she started grinning slightly. "Oh, and about the bombers. I guess that's a good idea. So many big baddies around lately I can't do anything against. I hate it." She took a sip from her glass. "I'll grab one as soon as I'm in Magellan again. As much as I hate this big clunky mess of a ship, the Waran is the best bet for us civilians."
Believing she had said enough again to make Nick happy, Elena quickly finished her meal. She truly wanted to get out of here quickly, as she didn't see any use in talking further about stuff today. Nick was probably still angry, she was angry.
As she saw the empty plate in front of her, she stood up. "So, please excuse me, if you got nothing else to say, I'm going down to Manhattan now. Gotta take care of some stuff there."