A third pirate ship jumped into the system. Much like the previous two who had arrived a few hours earlier, it was venting atmosphere, but to a lesser degree.

  The Epsilon’s Dawn watched all this through its passive sers, the same as it had when the fifteen-strong pirate fleet had been here a week ago. None of the ships had ever detected its presen the system. It wouldn’t have been a very good experimental covert ops ship if it had beeed.

  “Sir, the three ships are finally moving to cross the system.”

  Vitor quirked an eyebrow at that. “Only the three? I wonder what our friends ran into? Wait for them to get deeper into the system's gravity and the an intercept course. I want to find out first hand.” If there was a hreat out here, he o report it to the Navy and.

  The chase was rather anticlimacti the Dawn’s perspective. Three shots from the ship ser disabled the fleeing pirate vessels before they even realized they were being followed. It could have been pure luck, but Vituessed the ships were short-staffed.

  ***

  “e in,” Admiral Clemont spoke as a knock came at his door.

  Vice Admiral Fletcher, the head of Navy Intelligence poked his head in. “Do you have time for a report, Admiral?”

  Clemont cleared the work from his terminal and waved the man in. “I assume it’s important if you came personally?”

  “It could be. Our AI analysis hasn’t determined if it requires a yet or not. Do you remember Project Cobalt?”

  Clemont had to think for a mihe Navy had thousands of projects going on at any given time and he couldn’t remember all the code names. But this one did ring a bell. “The stealth ship made from recovered alien tech? I thought they mothballed that project over a decade ago because of the difficulty and cost of produg the elemental carbon that made up the exterior?”

  “Officially, it was,” the man stated.

  Clemont grunted. “Let me guess, it went into the bck ops budget?”

  “I either firm nor deny that,” Fletcher shrugged.

  “Fi’s your ass on the line if they do a budget review. What of your ent ship?”

  “We deployed a ship for testing about a month ago from Varlen. The initial deployment was supposed to be just a shakedow, but they jumped into a system that had a buildup of pirates. The Captain of the Epsilon’s Dawn decided to shadow the group of fifteen ships ihe system to see what they were up to. We believe the lead ship beloo Arkonis Anazi.”

  “As if his bastard brother wasn’t a big enough headache with him capturing stations and systems. Is this a prelude to another incursion?” Clemont asked.

  “I don’t believe so, Sir. The report I got this m says the pirates jumped out of the system heading farther from STO space. It's not unheard of for pirates to do that to skirt our border patrols, but they were already three systems out. And you don’t normally see fifteen pirate ships together uhey are raiding something big.”

  “Raiding something? What’s even out there?”

  “Nothing but a few leftovers from the Expansiohought maybe they ran into the Shi, but the pirates my people captured cimed they assaulted a p and were driven off by a rge ship and pary defenses.”

  “Someone's building an outpost beyond the rim?” That seemed like a foolish venture, but every few decades, someo it into their mind to strike out on their own. Most either came crawling back or never returned.

  “I believe so. Varleed that a merary pany by the name of the Hawks of Ganos was tracted a little over nine months ago. They were seen esc a small freighter by the name of the Zephyr. That freighter and the Hawks’ scout ships have been seen multiple times sihen in Varlen. It's pretty obvious that the gunships were keeping the route from Varlen to this Y6X-3H2 system clear for transport. An Alexander Kane purchased the old research facility on Eden’s End, formerly known as Y6X-3H2-4 so they must have deep pockets.”

  Clemont frowned and pulled up the system, flig it over to the holo dispy so he could get a better idea of its location. He zoomed in on the dispy until it showed the system along with the edge of where STO spaded. “That system is almost two weeks travel outside of our border. Is it possible this person is funding one of the other pirate families? Maybe the Anazi decided to cut them off before they could get started?”

  “It’s possible, but unlikely,” Fletcher noted. “The Hawks would have followed STO mandate for pirates. They are the premier merary pany fanos so I doubt they would risk their reputation by doing anything illegal.”

  “If they are so important to Ganos, why are they still out there? Surely they got recalled when the pary governor started g about the pirates at his border. As if there weren’t ten systems between him and the systems the pirates attacked.” Clemont shook his head.

  “They were, acc to the Qessages we intercepted. It seems like their inal six-month deployment was extended before the recall order. They should have passed through Varlen a few days ago but they didn’t. The pirate attack could certainly expin their dey.”

  “What do we know of… what did you say his name was?”

  “Alexander Kane.”

  “Yes, what do we know of him?”

  “Nothing. His background is a plete fabrication. I didn’t evehe AI to tell me that. There was some issue between him and Omni, but Omni ordered all records to that deal sealed. The only other information we have is that he adopted a little girl from Petrov Station around eleven months ago and thehe station shortly after.”

  “I don’t like it,” Clemont stated as he sat ba his seat. “Kane may not be a pirate, but Petrov statioo Harlow around the same time. And now this man is attacked by Harlow’s younger brother even though he relocated to the opposite end of STO space? That is no ce. They want this man, why?”

  “We’re not sure. The AI doesn’t have enough information to produ answer.”

  “Get it,” Clemont ordred. “Put the Epsilon’s Dawn to use and find out why the rgest pirate family wants Kane.”

  ***

  Harlow was in a foul mood for a variety of reasons. The first was that his push into STO space had been stalled for the st few months. There had been a few skirmishes between his fleets and the STO, but the battles had been rather even sihe STO Navy had reinforced their fleets with newer ships.

  That wouldn’t st long, soon his first real warships would be ing off the secret shipyard he had built. Those ships wouldn’t be deployed to the frht away though. He o solidate his power among the family and finally take trol of all the pirates from Haven. Ohat was done, he could triple his fleet size and start hammering the STO fleets back.

  That just left his other problem. His bastard brother Arkonis had yet to tact him. He should have been back by now. Harlow reached out to his spies oher pirate worlds and outposts, but they reported no sign of his brother. “If that scum-sug shit ran off with my prize, I’ll scour the fug gaxy until I find him, then I’ll fy him alive and string him up as a warning to others not to fuck with me!” he cursed. Arkonis running to one of his hideouts was a definite possibility if his brother had learned about how useful Kane could be.

  His guards didn’t ent on his outburst. They knew better. It had only taken a few removed tongues until the rest learo keep their mouths shut, but they learned.

  While Harlow would love nothier than to chase his brother down personally, he had more pressing matters to deal with. He flicked through his and brought up a tact.

  “What do you want?” the haggard voi the other end responded.

  “Get your ass up, I have a job for you.”

  There was a grunt from the other end. “Ten million, noiable. And I want my payment upfront, Harlow.”

  “Fine, but if you fuck this up or think of running, I’ll e find you myself, Dalton.”

  “Whatever. What’s the job?”

  “Find my brother Arkonis. If he’s still alive, find out what he did with a man named Alexander Kane. If my brother is dead, find Kane and bring him to me alive.”

  “Is that all?” the man asked in annoyance.

  “The information on his st known whereabouts will be in the info packet along with your payment. I want this done as fast as possible.”

  The li dead and Harlow ground his teeth. Dalton rick, even by pirate standards but he went at a problem until it was resolved.

  In an even worse mood, Harlow stomped out of the residence he was using as his base aboard Petrov. The pce was almost niough to make him fet he was in this shithole of a station, almost.

  He made his way to the Q room to see if the engineers he captured aboard Petrov had any luck with their little project. The station Q was still offline, but he had access to the one his people stole and modified years ago. Otherwise, he would be just as cut off as everyone else in this station.

  “Give me some good news, or I’m sending one of you out an airlock!” he yelled as he ehe room.

  He smirked when everyone shot to their feet and stiffe his decration. Harlow picked one poor bastard at random and poio him.

  The man swallowed. “W- We mao pull a few schematics from the system before they shut the work off.”

  Harloed his fingers and two of his guards grabbed the man and dragged him out of the room. It wasn’t that he set, he was happy they mao get anything, but he o break the will of these new sve engineers. He preferred his sves to be too afraid of disappointing him to think of rebelling. Getting rid of o the others in line was a cheap expense. “How maly?” he asked another man.

  This wasn’t the first time he had tried pulling schematics from the . His first test had been in a tiny mining outpost. Ohe sves out there bricked that work and failed to gain any useful knowledge, he spaced that eation along with the crew he sent over. Mostly to cover up what he had been up to. Not his wisest decision, but he had been rather irate at the time.

  “A- A dozen or so. We even mao get a Css 4 engine design from Sinorus,” the man added hastily as Harlow turned his way.

  Everyone khe Sinorus designs were junk but an engine schematic was an engine schematic.

  “gratutions, the rest of you get to live another day. Trahe schematiy ship. I have business elsewhere.” It was finally time to trade in his cobbled-together ship for a new one his people were building based on the ship the Shi had gifted him twenty years ago.

  Who would have thought a drunken one-on-one fight in an interceptor vs whatever the Shi equivalent was would have earned him the respect of the elusive aliens? Turns out they respected personal strength and not the useless ptitudes and peace gestures of the STO. As far as he could tell, the Shi didn’t even have a word for pea their vocabury. Not that they unicated with him much.

  It was no wohe STO had never made any progress with the feline aliens. And they likely never would. He chuckled at that thought. His fortuitous enter with the Shi twenty years ago was a secret he would take to his grave but only after he used that knowledge to carve out an empire in his name.

  MJMarkgraf