How are you doing my friend! Said Ian while he came to greet the captain with a handshake. Blackie! Make it triple for this lad over here! Seems his time is more precious than mine!
Sorry if I interrupted any of your important activities mate, I just thought you could be happy to hear from me again. How are things going over here?
"My time's not all that precious. If it was, I weren't here", John accepted the drink and thanked the barmaid with a short nod.
"Thing is, there has indeed quite a time passed, but state of matters are still quite a mess," Frial chose a chair near the fireplace and sat down with a sigh, "I've been doing fine, been through an epidemic aboard my liner and the Hawaii, got my trust betrayed and my personal fighter craft stolen, fell in love and other such trivial things not worth mentioning"
John emptied half of his drink in one go and looked around the hall without paying too much attention to it.
"Tell me, Ian, what have you been up to during this time?"
He sipped slowly, and put a sour face as he swallowed. Things have been pretty rough for my homeland in the course of this war mate. He then put down his drink and crossed his arms. My family had to move from Leeds, and sell almost all the company's ships. We only kept the royal liner and a yatch. All the others, gone.
He looked at the floor as he continued. But then, we are already starting to get better again here at Curacao, and we are slowly re-investing almost all the profit we can make nowadays in ships, we recently bought a bomber to help in patrolling Cortez.
Anyways, things will get better wont they?. He stared at his fellow captain, and asked him: Making a long story short, what are those problems you talk about my friend?
The problem is of what happens when there are problems anywhere," John stood up and walked to the very front of the fireplace, "Having almost no centralized authority whatsoever is splendid while everything goes as planned. When happens what was not planned, when any sort of problems arise to anyone under the Spa colors, it's not all that great to be on your own any more"
John paused for a moment and watched the fire before he spoke again, "Truth is, while a lot of us are fiercely independent in our nature, some events have shown that independence is a double-edged sword. The lack of organization structure is showing quite harshly from time to time"
Ian nodded as John said these last words. You are definately right my friend, I have found myself thinking about that occasionally these last days. We cannot face some threats if we remain as untied knots of a disperse net.
He then lit a cigarrette and as he offered one to the other captain, he stated: We might need to get corporate soon enough. We need that to be discussed through with more Orbital Captains. But for the moment, I can tell you that establishing a Council of Captains is the way to go. There we can discuss the formation of a more organized and practical structure, yet we get to adress the urgent matters that distress us all, quickly.
He then paused. What were you thinking about John?
"Council..." John pronounced the word slowly, as if toying with the sound of it, "That has some chance to work. If making your own voice heard outweighs the risk of being told what to do that so many fear, even the loneliest of wolves out there may be interested"
Frial took the cigarette Ian offered and went to sit back down in the chair by fireplace, "Though, I've seen too many great plans of reunion come crumbling down to invest too much of myself in any. Do what you have planned and you can count of my support. Nothing less, nothing more. For now."
John trifled with the cigarette in his hand, "Strange thing is that I don't smoke anymore," he said as he lit it and blew the first smoke towards the high ceiling.
My friend, you seem troubled. Perhaps I can help you? Said Ian as he helped himself to other of the chairs by the fireplace. Is there anything that worries you, or makes you sad? We can talk about that while we wait for the other captains to respond my call. After all, there is no council formed by two friends chatting by the fireplace.
A silhouette, reminiscent of a bird of prey descends from the clouds. Its body casting a shadow on Curacao's landscape. A Raven's Talon Fighter, the "Quarterflash", gracefully descends upon the landing pad nearby the Lodge. A perfect landing, a perfect touchdown, almost no impact upon landing.
A young man walks out, dressed neatly in a black suit and tie. He had blond hair and green eyes, framed by a pair of black spectacles.
He removes his flying gloves and walks over to security.
"Your ID please." A security guard attends to him. "Think you'd recognize me by now?" The young man says with a slight frown. The young man pulls out his ID card and gives it to security.
The guard smiled. "Just a formality Mr. Geisshardt. You may pass." "Yes, yes. Now if you would excuse me, I have something to attend to."
Ernst Geisshardt enters the lodge and heads straight for the bar. "So guys. Did I miss anything?"
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