Celia woke up from the persistent ringing of her alarm.
<beep beep beeep!>
She stretches her arms with a big yawn and slowly opens her eyes.
-What time is it?
<beep beep beeep!>
-I'm awake already! Well kinda... Shut up and give me the news!
A soft automated voice replies
- It's 3:25 pm Celia. It's 35 degrees in Jobe. Athen is clouded and they are expecting a sandstorm. In Borealis...
-I don't care about weather.
-Clans got three new minning sites while you were sleeping. One from the Neutral organization "The Defiant" and two from the Omni Tek "Punk"
-Good! I do not like the Punks.
-Aaand... You're not alone if I may say.
-You may not!
She blindly grabs a cigarette from the desk near her head and lits it up while relaxing a bit before she stands up to face reality. Who is with her? And most importantly why? What happened?
Ten minutes later the cigarette is over and she stands up from the bed to realise that she's bare naked...
-Great! She whispers."Just another lovely night..."
She walks across the room to enter her bathtub and after pressing the small button on her left she lit up another cigarette while the bathtub was filling with fragrant foam.
Ten minutes and one cigarette later she slid into the bathtub and closed
her eyes to concentrate on her immidiate problems. The guy that was entering the bathtub room right now. He was short but handsome. Blue eyes, steady build, long dark straight hair.
She looked at him wondering for a while until he broke the silence with his deep and soft voice.
-Good morning beauty. Care if I join you? I have the coffee ready as well as a couple of bronto steaks.
She coughed a bit trying to remember last night but it was impossible so she just mumbled.
-Who...Are you?
-Jonothan. Jonothan Rheis at your services madam, he adds while playfully chuckling in a deep comical curt.
-Did we...?
-We did.
-Good... And now that we settled that, what are you still doin' here? she asks while getting off of the bathtub and dries her short, black hair with a towel.
-I thought...
-You thought wrong. Now off you go...
-If you say so... Expecting you'll honor our randez-vous in Newland today. Not good to let us all wait, he replies while walking off of the buthtub to the grid device, located in the hallway.
Celia after drying her hair to an accepted degree walked out of the room and into the kitchen and grabbed a cup of hot, black coffe that the musterious man had prepared. She then reached her window that overlooked Jobe and shrugged.
"Stupid Celia, you've done it again didn't you? You let whiskey lead you to someone's hug again."
She opened the window and walked out to the small balcony. Her nakedness didn't bother her much. She was confident about her opifex beauty, plus... Besides some random Jobe scientists that'd shy away if they accidentally look at her, noone really had a way to see her up there.
"Now, what did he mention about a randez-vous?"
Celia wondered. She reached her comm and ordered a list of planned meetings. First in order was a meeting in Newland with some strangers signed "Fun!". She opened it and the details mentioned a raid on some lunatic's den called the Steps of Madness. It was planned in three hours from now.
She got inside, sat on the sofa, lit another cigarette and opened news gridfeed. The white wall suddenly turned to a giant TV and started projecting the news from all around Rubi-Ka in small thumbnails.