Shady Secrets

I'm finally doing level four missions for CreoDron, and I expected them to be, well, different. Level three's had a decent amount of drone resistance as I mined, but so far the level four drones aren't much different, when they are around...

Now, the biggest difference is the ore amount, which went up considerably. The only way to stay sane while doing these new missions is to fly a Mackinaw, equipped with a Micro Warp Drive. It seems every time I land in a dead space pocket with the ore, its near 50km away and I have to slow-boat towards it, wait forever to fill the ore hold, warp back to station, offload, then warp back to the same point as before, another 50km off the rock. Not sure why warping to the bookmarked rock at 0 still puts me there, but that was just one of the annoyances of it.

Another is gas mining. I know regular gas mining is done in low, null or wormhole space, but some agents have you huffing the stuff in high sec too. I knew they would come up which is why I brought my venture along for it, yet it mines so slowly, it made me kind of miss ice mining. Level fours are better money, but not by much. I hear combat level fours can out pay even high sec mining, but again I'm not there yet because I know I will lose ships and the sight of being scrambled still gets my adrenaline pumping, but not in a good way.

That reminds me, the meeting with Amalea happened a few nights ago at the same bar as before. It went a lot like I expected. We shared an isolation booth once more even when the place was deserted. I think the bartender was grateful at least that we did. She prattled on and on about various things, barely taking a breath to spew her words as I sat quietly and nursed a drink. I oddly listened to every word as her thoughts flowed from her like an eruption on a lava planet. She spoke of conspiracies, religion, elitism among capsuleers and even her favorite foods. I learned more about that woman that night than I knew about my own mother. It was only when I suddenly realized she had stopped talking for several minutes now did I notice she had done so, I glance over to see her face a bright pink and her eyes locked on the ice in her glass.

"I'm sorry. I'm ranting again. Maya has told me not to do that." she said, "Am I annoying you?

"No. It's fine." I reply.

"It's just that, well, you're not really saying anything. Maya tells me it's all business with you. Have you ever tried taking a break and relaxing a bit?" she asks.

"Relax?" I ponder, taking another sip. The drink was diluted to the point of sipping the ice water now. I set the empty glass on the smooth glass table, "I'm not that hardcore. I do relax all the time. I even have fun from time to time."

"But you never talk about yourself. Not to Maya at least." she said, "Do you have a shady past you're ashamed of? Any dirty secrets?" A sneer formed on her face and our eyes met. The question definitely wasn't a joke.

"None that are any of your business." I said, equally as snide, and she took it as half serious, just as I meant.

"So there is something." She said, leaning forward to stare at me. Her low cut shirt distracted me for a moment, and my eyes quickly redirected back to hers. She continued to stare, as if afraid to miss a subtle nuance that would shed light on my shadowy past. There was nothing she would see. Of that I was sure.

"Maybe not." I say, "Maybe I'm leading you to believe there's something when there is not for fun.

"So this is one of those rare times you have fun?" she asked, leaning back again, "Or is it a double fake?"

Crap.

"What do you mean?" I ask as the waitress places another drink for us both. She waited until the waitress left the isolation field.

"I think you have a shady past, but you want to make me think you're messing with me, when really you aren't and I'm right about you." she said crossing her arms, "The problem is, I'm not sure. I suppose that's how you want to keep it, right? You want to keep me guessing."

"What's the point anyway? Is it that interesting to find out about my past? Will it make a difference?" I ask. I was getting tired of the interrogation and didn't like this kind of attention. I sighed heavily and she spoke again.

"Sain, who is Chadrick Belefonte?" she asked. What hasn't Maya told her about me?

"A friend." I reply.

"Why are you friends with an Amarrian with low sec status?" she asked, "From what I hear, he sounds kind of shady."

"Because he is." I flatly said, "He hasn't told me what he did to catch the attention of Concord, but it wasn't anything too bad. I think he killed a venture capsuleer in low sec once to see what it was like to kill."

"To see what it was like to kill? Why do you associate with someone like that?"

"I don't normally. He's just someone from my 'shady' past that I knew. He won't leave me alone after what happened."

"And that was?"

"One of my 'dirty secrets'." I reply, sliding out of the booth. I finished my drink and placed the glass on the table, then paid for our drinks with a tap of my neocom at the bar as I walked past.