After Captain , Alexander got it into his head that he could just repeat his success from the Omni engines on the Sinorus engines instead.

  After doing some resear the Omni petitor before diving head first this time, Alexander scrapped that pn. Turns out Sinorus wasn’t aer than Omni. He found dozens of articles ning the Coalition-backed manufacturer’s shady business practices. Wheried to find simir articles on Omni, he found nothing. sidering who won the war, it wasn’t hard to figure out why.

  He now uood why everyone orov Station refused to work on Omni ehe few articles he did find were obvious propaganda released by the STO. The Sol Treaty anization couldn’t have made their retionship with the engine manufacturer clearer uhey came door to door and shouted it in your face. It was obvious the STO didn’t want their primary propulsion manufacturer to look bad because it would affect them as well.

  Alexander wasn’t a fool though. Even with his missing memories, he knew no pany was squeaky . Especially one as rge as Omni.

  Knowing both engine suppliers were shady as shit didn’t help him in any way though. Other than to realize he wanted nothing to do with either of them. If he repeated his improvements on the Sinorus design, they were just as likely to e to take his hard work as Omni. So he simply wouldn’t do that.

  That did leave him in a bit of a pickle though. With this Omni cloud hanging over his head, and his ine from the sales of his modifications likely to dry up soon, he needed an alternative way to earn money.

  Omni and Sinorus weren’t the only manufacturers around. They were just the biggest. Not wanting to give up, he looked into all the options. He quickly dismissed those other panies. Some hadn’t e out with a new engine in decades, others were only making one very specific design that the rger panies didn’t want a part of. The rest were either in the middle of bankruptcy or being bought out by the two giants. It reeked of monopolization.

  Alexander did look up ws on monopolies. They existed, but it seems like all the teeth had been pulled out of those ws long ago, allowing these pao essentially do what they pleased and run roughshod over the market.

  He sighed internally as he switched off the terminal. There wasn’t any easy solution to his problem. The future was supposed to be an amazing pce filled with human iy and drive. Not this corporate-owned nightmare that he found himself in.

  There was only one way forward that he could think of without running afoul of the corporations. He o design and build an engine from the ground up. And he o do it all while keeping his pany privately owned. sidering he was w out of a verted ste room and he was barely paying his bills, that was easier said than done. After the versation with Mingyu Na, he didn’t trust the station. They might just as easily fiscate any future designs he came up with.

  That didn’t mean he was going to give up on this idea. He would learn what he could now, and when he was finally free of the restris keeping him bound to this station, he would be ready to strike out on his own. Free of Petrov ma, free of Omni, and free of the STO.

  Wheuro his shop, he stuck the data disk he had purchased into the small holoprojector on his desk.

  A voice started speaking. “Greetings, and thank you for purchasing this tutorial. Today we are going to discuss the basic elements of ventional propulsion design and engineering.”

  Alexander had purchased the full course on the disk, and it had cost him a pretty penny. But if he was going to build his own pany to pete with the big two, he o uand the basics. Something he currently only had a w knowledge of.

  “What’cha wat?” Yulia inquired and she climbed on top of her stool.

  “A css on basic propulsion engineering,” he responded while tinuing the repair he was w on as well as listening to the holo. He was gd he could pay attention to more thahing at a time.

  “Sounds b.”

  She wasn’t wrong, it was indeed b. The man teag the course simply droned on in a monotone voice with absolutely husiasm for the subject whatsoever. But it was the only approved course Alexander could afford.

  “Yours are much more iing,” she stated kig her feet against the ter.

  “What’s the rule about kig?”

  “Sorry.”

  He nodded and pulled out her daily puzzle. “Here you go.”

  While he appreciated her enthusiasm, Alexander wouldn’t really call what he was doing a css. Since Yulia liked to hang around, she might as well get something out of it, so he decided to start building little puzzles for her to solve. They had started out pretty basic, just a simple ft puzzle that she put together. After a few of those, he upgraded her to 3D puzzles.

  She struggled more with those, but after a few helpful hints and words of encement, she got the hang of them. When she fihose and grew bored of them, he started incorporating moving parts like gears and levers into the simple 3D shapes. She loved those because ohey were plete, she could i with them. They held her attention for far lohaher two puzzles, but like any child, she grew bored of those soon enough.

  Retly, he had moved her to more advanced puzzles. Like a frog that could hop around after winding it up, or a little car that used a rubber band to produce motion.

  They were the first things she made that she asked to keep. He didn’t see any problem with that so he had let her take them.

  Today's puzzle was slightly different.

  “Ooh… What is it?” She asked while looking at the box of parts.

  He shook his head. The girl was always trying to get to the end before she even started. “You’ll figure that out when you finish it.”

  “A,” she whined before taking out the instru book and looking at the illustrated pictures. Alexander was on to her shenanigans by now though, and he had only created the first third of the instrus. If she mao get through those today, he would be surprised.

  Seeing as she wasn’t going to learn what the puzzle was meant to be when pleted, she huffed and dug into the box until she found the first part.

  He smiled and the pair worked in silence. Well, they were silent, but the annoying instructor still bthered on in the background.

  ***

  Theo checked his appearane st time in the mirror. He looked immacute, the same as he had ten minutes ago, and ten minutes before that. Today was an important day though, and he was representing OMNI, so he couldn’t afford to look disheveled.

  The four months had gone by rather quickly. Mainly because he had spent the majority of that time brushing up on the local w codes. And while he hadn’t been able to sneak off the ship ahis Alexander Kane for himself, he had paid someone oation to report what they learned of the man. Even in a station that hated OMNI to a fault, there were aleople who would do anything for money.

  The man had little to say sidering the exorbitant amount of money he was offered, but he had stated the ‘dude was a robot.’ Yup, those were his exact words. ly a wordsmith, that one.

  That was fine, his description wasn’t surprising to Theo, it matched everything the other people he had paid told him. However, one did provide a bit more ih breakdown of the man. Apparently, Mr. Kane was sick or something and used the robot as a means of iing with people.

  While he hadn’t heard that particur fact before, it wasn’t all that groundbreaking. His background check of the man had revealed simir information. However, he didn’t believe it for one minute. Acc to Kane’s background, he suffered from some autoimmune disease. It didn’t specify whie it was though, which was the first red fg. The sed was the faanite regen therapy was avaible, even out in this dump. Sure it ricy, but even minimal treatments should allow the man to walk around without too much issue. No, this man wasn’t sick. Theo was leaning toward Kane being an escaped criminal or someone on the run from criminals.

  If true, he could use this information iure. Unfortunately, this knowledge had little impa today’s hearing. He certainly couldn’t bring it up. If the cil hadn’t doheir homework, he wasn’t about to point this fact out to them. Bckmail was certainly a road he could go down if he o.

  Theo checked himself one final time before sliding the ridiculous helmet on to plete his Head of OMNI’s Legal cil persona.

  With a smile, he exited his and made his way to the ship ramp. The OMNI guards didn’t even nod to him before they followed him from the ramp.

  He waited for the hangar doors to open, and ohey did, he saw issar Ivan Wang waiting for him. The man looked slightly less frazzled tha time they met, but Theo could see he was still way out of his fort zone here. Theo didn’t bother improving the man’s mood.

  “Lead the way, issar.”

  The man nodded, his eyes flig to the two guards. The weasely-looking man opened his mouth as if to say something before thinkier of it and simply nodding.

  Theo followed him to the elevator, his guards in tow behind. He didn’t he two burly men, he could defend himself far better than they likely could. But it was a statement. One desigo show he felt irritated by the wait. Not that he did, but it made good set dressing for the uping py.

  He preteo fumble around in the ging gravity, much like he did the st time. But sidering how badly the issar hahe switch, maybe he hadn’t pyed it up quite enough. Theo made a mental o practice looking more i in gravity ges as the elevator came to a halt.

  The room was much busier than it had been the previous time he was there. As he and his guards climbed out of the elevator, four armed station guards approached.

  “Your security detail will o remain here.”

  One of his guards growled and took a step forward, but all four men pointed pulse rifles at him. This little iion ying out almost better than he had hoped. The two guards had been hand-picked by him because they were the two most proo frontation. He wao gauge the station's respoo any threats by him or his team if alternative measures were needed.

  The less-thahal sonic ons were a mild surprise. He would have expected shock batons at most. You were less likely to seriously injure someoh a shock baton. The pulse rifles could still kill you if they were hit enough times or in the wrong spot. He had been on the receiving end of the ons enough times to know. It felt like getting kicked in the chest. Not something he was eager to repeat.

  It seemed like the station wasn’t taking any risks here. He reprioritized pns in his head, throwing some out and moving others up. He had alternatives in pce if this meeting didn’t go the way he suspected. “Stand down,” he stated calmly.

  The guard took a step back, his face returning to a mask of calm. Quick for frontation, but smart enough to know when to back down.

  “I apologize for his rudeness, but you have kept us sequestered in our hangar for four months. It is only fair that my men would be slightly agitated.”

  His plea fell on deaf ears as the station guard only grunted. “This way, and be quick, the Captains are waiting.”

  The smile never left his face as he followed two of the station security. The other two stayed back to keep an eye on his guards. Not that his two guards were of any importance, but he would let the station personnel have their tiny victory. The only thing Theo carried with him was a tablet with his case notes.

  The guards led him over to the same meeting room he had visited the previous time. One of them pressed a button on the wall, and then they waited.

  Theo did a mental sigh, ‘so it was gonna be like this.’

  He patiently waited along with the guards, his smile never faltering for a moment. After twenty mihe on the wall finally buzzed.

  “They are ready for you.”

  He wao ugh at the silly power py, but he kept his feelings to himself.

  With a slightly annoyed huff, he strode into the room with all the fidence of a senior wyer who khey were about to win their case. The seven cilors were arrayed on the far side of a table in fy-looking chairs, while a small metal desk and hard seat greeted him.

  Oh, the pettiness… he loved it. For Theo, this little act spoke volumes. The captains khey were going to lose, and this was their sotion to soothe their pride. He wondered what ifts they had in store for him. He couldn’t wait to find out.

  He sat at the seat without pint. “cil Captains… Shall we begin?”