Respite

Amalea had arrived and spent most of her time in Maya's quarters, as I'm sure they had lots to catch up on. I spent my time running some missions for the owners of the station we were staying in, with hopes to lower the mineral tax for refining here. I've been stockpiling my ore for that reason, but again I hear of more changes to the whole refining and industry systems from the subspace network coming next month. Not sure how I can swing two Plexes this month for the Nao sisters to keep mining with me. Perhaps I will solo it for a while if they don't mind sitting a month out.

Maya's license is dwindling down to it's last couple of days just as she trained up some PI skills. She hadn't deployed anything on any planets yet, probably because of her uncertain future, but I am unsure about letting go of my Orca pilot. I was thinking of flying solo for a bit, perhaps be more involved with corporate fleets, but bad luck seems to follow me again and we were wardecced. Now I'm contemplating jumping back to my private corp, which the management don't seem to mind in this new corporation. It's nice to be a part of a group that doesn't force you to fight if you don't want to, but it still feels a bit wrong. I should at least try.

My sister said she was training to do some manufacturing along with her station trading, but she chose to move to Jita again to trade while she waited for her training to finish. She thinks she can find a station close to the trade hub to manufacture in, but I have my doubts. We all have to learn somewhere, I suppose.

I had the chat after that confirmed my fears. With me having to pay to rescue Amalea, Maya did not want to have me to rush to find the ISK to pay for her PLEX, and opted to let her license expire and contract over my orca and other assets. She was fine to just stay in station with Amalea, or maybe even fly with her on her ships, something I've never considered before. It reminded me of the inside of my Freighter and the concept that our ships are crewed, and I wondered why that wasn't something I contemplated more often. It felt like it wasn't a big deal to me. I'm sure the crew get's compensated somehow. I don't pay them, but maybe the government does? Or perhaps it's a part of the price of the ship? Again, I oddly do not think of it to be important now.

Again Amalea is not speaking to me. I don't think she realized I was in the room when she called Maya right after she woke up. I'm not sure of what it means, but she only seems to talk to Maya. Maybe she's using her internal comms to talk to her while still in the same room, a sort of private conversation. I don't know why though, it's not like they can't trust me at this point.

There seems to be some arguing at times. We normally hang out in someone's Captain's quarters or in the station bar. We normally sit in an isolation booth but when I get up to get drinks, they start chatting feverishly when I clear the field and can't hear, abruptly stopping again when I returned. I played along with the guise of ignorance, making them think that I didn't notice their behavior, but eventually my patience started to wear thin. I caught a glimpse of the true nature of their secrecy when a Gallentian Exotic Dancer entered the bar and began setting up a small stage to work on that caught my attention. When my gaze finally returned to my companions, I was met with expressions of disgust from Maya, and what seemed like hurt from Amalea. No wait. That was raging jealousy. I've seen that before...

How the hell was I supposed to know?!

"What?" I asked, fearing the worst. I had somewhat of a read on what was going on, but I was running on so little information, this situation could go either way. The uncertainty worried me.

"Enjoying the 'view'?" Maya asked sarcastically. I glance over at the Dancer. A couple of Amarrian pilots got up and left in disgust as she began dancing to music he assumed was playing in the bar, but they couldn't hear because of the isolation booth. Apparently, the innocent glance was a mistake, because Amalea looked away from me with a spiteful look and Maya became more annoyed.

"View?" I reply sounding uncertain. I knew perfectly well what she meant, but again, lack of information and whatnot.

"You like Exotic Dancers, Sain?" Maya asked, the venom thick in her voice. I felt like I was in trouble, but not sure why.

"Sure. They're alright." I reply, taking a sip of my drink. I paused then added, "Do you like Male Exotic Dancers? Maybe they'll have some in next week." There was a brief pause and her face flushed red for a moment, then she composed herself. I thought I saw a brief smirk from Amalea, but she quickly went back to the hurt expression from before.

"We're talking about you here, not me." she snapped.

"We are? What for?" I retorted.

"Why are you looking at other women?" she demanded. Amalea remained silent.

"Other? Other than you?" I ask, "What are you talking about? Why can't I look?" I paused and leaned closer as if trying to let only her hear, regardless of the isolation booth, "Are you interested in me? I had no idea."

Again she turned bright red and turned to Amalea with confusion on her face. I could hear their hushed whispers plainly.

"You said you told him!" Maya whispered.

"I said I was going to! When the time was right!" Amalea whispered back. I leaned back and lifted my glass again to drink my eyebrow raising as I looked the two over, pretending not to notice the Dancer's top go flying across the room to land comically on another Gallentian's head. The silent cheers and whistling were a mild distraction as patrons clapped and waved but Sain sat calmly thanking his luck that the girls had their backs to the stage and their view obstructed from the now topless dancer.

"Tell me what?" I asked, setting my empty glass on the table. Maya seemed embarrassed now and the redness on her face hadn't completely gone away.

"I thought....well....aw crap." She sighed, hanging her head in her hands.

"What?" I ask again. It was starting to annoy me now. What the hell were they talking about?

"I like you Sain." Amalea suddenly spat, forcefully it seemed, and with her eyes closed. She kept them closed for a while, wincing, as if anticipating a blow of some kind. I felt a little surge of adrenaline rush through my chest and stopped staring at her. She dared to peek at me and seemed to relax slightly as she saw me sort of freeze in my seat, staring down in my glass at rapidly melting ice. The gyrating motions of the sinful display of flesh on the stage went unnoticed to me as did the rest of the room. I was only brought back to the table by Maya's words.

"Sain, say something!" she demanded. I looked up and opened my mouth, yet nothing came out. I oddly wished there was a skill book I could inject that gave me the ability to deal with something like this, but something like romance wasn't in mind for the capsuleer program.

"I...I...." One letter came out. Nice. It's a start at least.

"Are you okay?" Maya asked, "She needs to hear more than that."

"But why?" I finally said, "We've known each other for less than a month by your point of view. You barely, if ever, talk to me. I know nothing about you besides what Maya says about you. Did you just not talk to me because you were shy?" Amalea turned a deep shade of red and nodded.

"Y-Yes." she squeaked.

"Why are you shy around me? You're acting like a teenager. Haven't you had a boyfriend before?" I ask. She shook her head.

"N-No." she muttered. Maya was looking angry again. What the hell did I say wrong now?

"Sain, Amalea grew up on a backwater world in the Gallente Empire. A planet in low security space." Maya said.

"Maya, you're Caldari and she's Gallente, how are you sisters?" I ask. It's been something I've wondered for a while but I assumed it was like my sister and I. Osiph was Gallente and I was Caldari. It's an odd pairing, since Caldari and Gallente are supposedly at war. I've heard it's more of a 'relative peace', which is why men from all factions can sit here in this bar and partake in the common pleasures of life.

"Getting off topic here, Sain. I was saying that she didn't have the opportunity to meet another boy let alone date. There was segregation and the men and women were separated for everything. It was for population control."

"So you've never met a male before me?" I asked surprised. Maya sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"My family adopted her as a young child and raised her in space on stations. She has Androphobia because of the guards on her planet and we even had to request an all female staff to do the procedure to become a capsuleer. She was hoping that being in a capsule would help isolate her from other people enough to handle at least talking to a male over ships communications. She was planning on becoming a sort of pod hermit."

"So she's been afraid of men all this time?" I asked.

"It hasn't been long. Amalea turned nineteen about six months ago." she said, "When she became a capsuleer.

"So I've been the very first man that she's had any contact with?" I ask. I wasn't sure to be flattered or insulted at this point. Amalea had folded her arms on the table and buried her face in them, but I could see her ears were bright pink. She was probably embarrassed beyond belief. It was oddly refreshing to realize that such things as this were important to people in such a harsh and brutal universe. Wars are fought, lives are lost, factions were gaining and losing sovereignty over space. Ships were build, sold, bought and destroyed. Most people's focus are on their wallets and the almighty ISK, yet human nature prevails after all this time and things like romance and teenage lust remain.

Now, I don't claim to be an expert in this, but taking into consideration the situation I was unsure of the girl's feelings. I felt I needed to be responsible about this as it was a delicate situation from what Maya said she came from. Yet, the heavy silence in their booth hung like a suffocating blanket over them and he had to say something.

"Amalea, I think I know how you think you feel, but I think you're not experienced enough to know if that feeling is love." I said.

"Like! I said like, not love!" she exclaimed without moving. A finger meagerly raised in the air to make her point.

"I know what you meant." I said, "I'm not declining you, but I think you really need to think about what you are feeling and understand it a bit better."

"Sain, what are you expecting from this?" Maya asked suspiciously, "She just said she likes you. She didn't say she wanted a relationship or anything. Why are you making this out to be a sort of confession of love?" A sort of panic washed over me as I realized I may have just read the situation a little wrong. Maybe she just wanted me to know that even with her condition, I've become a male she can trust and like. As a friend. Yeah, that makes more sense...

"Right. You're right. Sorry. I must have thought wrong." I stammered, sipping the melted ice water in my glass. I felt something land in my hair and I slowly lowered my glass to see the entire bar staring at me and laughing. The Dancer on the stage was waving at me and blowing kisses. I reach up to remove the object from my head and the girls at my table laughed as I held up the Dancers thong.

Fun night.

Sleeping Beauty

After the night that I had given the money to Maya, I hadn't heard from her until the next day when she showed up for work and we both attended a massive mining fleet run by the corporation. I was stunned at the amount of ore we brought in. At one point, I think there were twenty six pilots in fleet, all in the one belt which we ate through in about twenty minutes, moving onto the next. I've never been able to clear a field before, or seen it done.

More changes have been released from the governments around New Eden. Much needed and wanted changes to barges were of most interest to me, especially the range boost on the Hulk. Now, one can sit in the center of a belt where you usually warp in to 0m and reach all the asteroids in the belt, assuming you have an Orca pilot with perfect boots. There was a slight increase in yield as well which made it possible for me to clear a belt ourselves without having to split the spoils with others, with a little help.

The day after the big mining operation, Maya had finally spent the money on a PLEX and was on comms most of the day with CONCORD to reinstate her sister's license. The PLEX disappeared and I happened to knock on her door just as it was done. We both held our breath as we watched the communication hail to her hesitate for a very long time, displaying the word "Connecting..." across Maya's Neocom. She almost cried when her sister's face appeared on the screen, or her portrait rather, and her contagious yawn rushed from the speakers.

"Good Morning." she yawned, "Did I fall asleep? I'm sorry what time is it?"

"Amalea? Are you alright?" Maya asked, tears streaming down her face.

"Sure. No pirates in the ice fields." she said, "Wait, where's all the ice? Did other people mine it out while I was asleep? This isn't good."

"Amalea, It's so good to hear your voice!" Maya sobbed. I smiled, granted it was the first time I heard her sister's voice myself.

"Maya, what's wrong? You're acting like you haven't seen me in months!" she asked, confused, "You guys still in Egyfe? I'm docking now. Are you alright?"

"Amalea, we need to talk. " she said, wiping her eyes, "We're down around Dodixie. We've moved and joined a new corporation. It has been a while."

"What?" she gasped, "Aura, what's the date?" Sain heard the familiar AI's voice in the background and then silence.

"Amalea? You still there?" Maya asked.

"Almost four months?! I've been asleep for four months?!!!" she yelled, "How can this happen? My logs show I've been undocked for four months!"

"Yes." Maya said.

"W-what? H-How can this happen?" she stammered.

"We think your Pilot's license expired while you were ice mining. We've only now been able to save enough for an extra PLEX for you."

"You did that? For me?" she asked.


"Of course! You're my sister!" she cried.

"But you could never make enough ISK for a PLEX on your salary. How did you...?"

"Sain paid for it." she said, "It took a while, but he arranged for this to happen."

"Sain Darkwing? Our boss?" she asked, "I can't believe it. I owe him so much. Please give him my thanks. He really saved my life there. All because of my stupid mistake."

"I will. Now please move down here and mine with us. I want to see you." Maya said.

"Give me a day or so to get rid of some things. There's a lot of ore and ice up here in my hangars I need to get rid of. I have an industrial somewhere. Maybe I can fit this Retriever and that Covetor that Sain loaned me in there. I assume he would want them back.

"Sure. I can't wait to see you. Have a safe trip and call me whenever you need to." Maya said.

"Sure thing, sis. Amalea out."

Comms went dark and Maya stood staring into the blank screen for a moment until I moved from over her shoulder to sit on her couch.

"Sain, Thank you so much." she said, lowering her Neocom.

"No problem. I'm happy for you both." I replied, "I'm glad too."

"Thanks."

"Yeah, I get my ship back. And I totally forgot I had loaned her a Covetor. That's a bonus to get that back as well." I said with a devious smile.

A Change of Scenery

The money mark to buy that life saving PLEX was rapidly approaching and Maya seemed to be more determined than ever to hit that mark, although I don't really show her my wallet so she trusts me to tell her when the time has come. It's close, but I'm looking beyond it.

While I don't doubt that her sister Amalea will be rescued by it, I've started pondering my future once again, and decided to stop following in Sisyphus' footsteps, not really getting ahead. I've decided a change in scenery is in order. I've been reading other people's logs, and one that struck my interest was one called "The Eve Industrialist" run by a leader in Manu Fortuis corporation. I thought a change of pace was in order so I applied and was accepted, so now I've begun the process of moving to their home constellation, leaving behind the Metropolis Region and start trading in a more active trade hub of Dodixie.

It took some doing, but I discovered there was a way to put my fitted ships in a freighter, by contracting them to Maya and having her put them in a shipping container by means of a courier contract back to me to move. This worked well so I could move everything in one trip. There was a process to it, however. I had to collect all planetary materials sitting on all my planets then abandon the installations, I had to try and sell what I couldn't take, then cancel sell orders to pick up the things I couldn't sell to take with me, and I had to gather up all my assets in the area to one location for the trek down to Sinq Laison.

I packed everything in my Freighter, with little room to spare and Maya packed her Orca full as well and we started out. Maya arrived much sooner than me since the freighter was so slow, but we made it in the trade hub at Dodixie safely and I began offloading things to sell on the new market. I stood on my catwalk of the new Captain's quarters as I watched cargo containers float back and forth from my Charon above me. Maya was leaning against the rail behind me. Her arms folded and she stared at me unsure of my actions and seeming a little accusatory.

"You sure about this?" she asked, "I did take a risk following you here."

"This will be much better. It's a smaller Alliance and they don't get war decced as much as the old one." I replied.

"We left Amalea back in Egyfe! Can we still even rescue her?" she asked, "Are you even thinking about that?" The last part hurt. I am a Capsuleer, but I'm not entirely heartless.

"Of course I am!" I said, "You do know that because I liquidated alot of items to move here I now have enough for a PLEX? And the PLEX's here are cheaper than Hek! I've thought about it. Don't worry." I let my voice hold a little hurt at the end and she noticed, her head bowing as she felt regret for her words.

"I'm sorry. You just rarely tell me about your plans. I'm not sure what to think anymore."

"You sound like you don't trust me." I snapped, "Am I not supporting you so that you can have the life you want?"

"I'm sorry, Sain! But I'm scared for my sister. I hear nothing from you and have no idea of your intentions! What the hell am I supposed to think?!" she yelled.

"A little faith would be nice." I mutter, turning to stride past her towards the Captain's quarters. I pick up my Neocom and transfer the money for a PLEX into Maya's account, something I've never done before. It left me with mere thousands of ISK in my wallet. She pulled out her own Neocom and saw the money, but remained silent for a moment. I dropped onto the couch and sighed, rubbing my face with my hands, "Look. There's the money. Go buy a PLEX for your sister and see if she comes back. Tell her I'm sorry for what happened and that she can come down here to join us if she wants."

"S-Sain.....I...." She muttered. It was an expression of disbelief and regret again, but she had no choice but to accept it. "I thank you. I suppose this "Player" being did not pull through for us. I admit, I was hoping another miracle would happen from him, but I guess I was wrong."

"On the contrary, Maya." I spoke up, a small smile on my face, "I think he has helped us in more ways that you know." I swiped at the hologram of my Charon on the coffee table, "I haven't paid for, or used a PLEX since I became a capsuleer. My license is always valid as long as I want to be one."

"You've never used a PLEX?" she asked, "Why do we have to use them then?"

"Not sure." I replied, "But for some reason, I don't need them. I think "The Player" is doing something to keep my license active. Maybe it can only support one of us at a time."

"So if you're kept active, then you can make ISK to pay for the rest of us." she said, "I wonder if other pilots are like this?"

"Perhaps."