Tense was how Mingyu would describe the trip on the shuttle to the STO ship. It didn’t help that the STO ships had their ons actively trag Fury. They had dohat sihe moment their ships got within rahe Fury’s ons were doing the same, so he couldn’t really bme the opposition Captains for all the tension.

  As he got close enough to see the Blueridge, he noticed it was an older model. Thanks to his time in the Coalitio, he was familiar with most of the STO’s ship csses during that time. He didn’t reize the Blueridge’s hull figuration. It certainly wasn’t a new ship. He could tell that much by the dents and dings in the armor as he flew alongside it to reach the hangar. Had they pulled the ship out of mothballs?

  If that was the case, he wondered where the picket ships had gohat were normally in the system. If the pirates were truly pushing the STO enough for them to redirect forces, that wasn’t a good sign.

  Wheuro Fury, he would bring it up with Alexander. Now that they were ba STO space, they might be able to visit the Q. Then he could reach out to his tacts to get a better picture of what was happening.

  Their access to the Q depended entirely on how seamlessly this transa went.

  The shuttle passed through the open hangar door aly set down on the deck. This was his first time flying Alexander’s shuttle. While the flight trols were a, they worked well enough. Even with those old trols, the ship was snappy and respo obviously had something to do with the improvements Alex had made. He hoped the man got around to making the yle of thrusters soon. Mostly because The Moonlit Destiny could use a full overhaul in the year or so.

  While he was shutting down the shuttle, he started to hear the sound of poppial as the ship cooled. It was a clear sign that the hangar was nearly pressurized. He finished his shutdown procedure and waited. Mingyu could have just left the shuttle powered on, but that was rude, and he suspected they were going to have questions for him. So instead of causing problems, he prepared for the iable.

  Soon the hangar light turned greeing him know it was equalized. It didn’t take long after that for Mario ehe bay.

  He moved to the cargo area and the waiting STO people who were all still seated. “Looks like you have a weling ittee,” he stated as he pressed the button to lower the ramp.

  Mingyu stepped to the back wall and held his hands up as the Marines aggressively boarded the ship. He didn’t bother to resist as they checked him for ons and handcuffed him. All the while the remaining Marines checked the other passengers and quickly escorted them off the ship.

  “Why did you shut the shuttle down?” the Marine holding him demanded.

  “Courtesy,” he replied.

  “Reactivate it!” the man demanded.

  And that was the other reason Mingyu had shut the ship down. It prevehe STO from using it to sneak back aboard Fury. Not that they would have a good time if they tried that. “I ’t. The activation ust e from Eden’s Fury. And I will not tact them until I’m free to leave.”

  The ma him, but Mingyu was unmoved. He had faced off against some of the most demanding officers during his time in the Coalition. An angry Marine hardly eveered.

  After a while, the man jerked his head to the side and the other two Marines led him off the ship. “Our Captain wants a word with you.”

  They weren’t dragging him or marg him by gunpoint so that was a good sign. He didn’t hold their other as against them. Marines were Marihey were not diplomats, they were a blunt instrument of war.

  He was led to a feren where a hologram sat at the end of the table, with the Captain off to the right, looking annoyed.

  The hologram sighed. “Remove his cuffs, he isn’t under arrest. And then wait outside.”

  The Marine who questioned him looked like he waue the point but saluted instead. “… Yes, Vice Admiral.”

  That expihe Captain’s annoyed expression and their retive positions at the table. Mingyu hadn’t been able to see the man’s rank clearly because the holo tech, much like this ship was old and the man’s form was quite blurry.

  Once his cuffs were removed, the Vice Admiral gestured to the seat across from him. “Please, sit, Captain Na.”

  “You know who I am?” he asked in surprise as he sat down.

  “I do. I make it my duty to know outliers and those w with them. I would ask you how you ended up w for Alexander Kane, but I assume it has something to do with what happeo your other ship?”

  “I don’t work for Alex, I work with him,” Mingyu replied.

  He saw the face move on the hologram, the man might have been smirking, but it was hard to tell.

  “I apologize for my assumptions.” The man glossed over the fact that Mingyu didn’t answer his other questions. “I’m curious though. How is it that Kane mao get Arkonis Anazi’s frigate rebuilt so quickly?”

  “You’ve been spying on Eden’s End for who knows how long, you tell me?”

  “Fair enough,” the man chuckled. “I suppose I should get to the real reason why I brought you here. I o debrief you. While I would have preferred to debrief Mr. Kane, maybe this is for the best since he was never in the military. you tell me what happehat caused one of our ships to bee so damaged?”

  Mingyu reyed what happened itle that took down the Dawn. While he hadn’t bee for most of the enter, he had watched the rec of the event afterward. He also talked to Alex and Lucas Laront about the event.

  When he was fihe Captain of the Blueridge looked shocked, while the Admiral leaned bad looked thoughtful.

  “Vice Admiral, why wasn’t I informed of these covert ships? I am the Senior Captain in and of the fleet in Varlen.”

  “You were not made aware, Senior Captain, because you do not have the security clearance. And I shouldn’t have to expin why you don’t have that type of clearanymore,” the holographi stated pointedly, immediately sileng the Captain.

  Mingyu remained quiet at the exge. There seemed to be some fri between the Vice Admiral and Senior Captain.

  “Everything that happeoday is to remain top-secret,” the Admiral tinued. “I expect every single person in your fleet to sign the dot aowledging this. If I find word of the Dawn, or this battle leaking out, I will assume it came directly from you, Captain Wilrd. And you will be subject to whatever punishment the STO deems necessary for leaking cssified information. Am I clear?”

  Captain Wilrd visibly stiffe the rebuke. “Yes, Vice Admiral.”

  “Good. Your eay have gotten you out of a court-martial the st time, but I assure you, it will not happen a sed time.”

  Mingyu couldn’t help but g the disgraced Captain. The man looked equal parts embarrassed and angry with the fact that the Admiral was airing his dirty undry to an outsider. Mingyu couldn’t quite believe it either.

  When he first learned of the power dynami this room, he felt sympathy for the Captain. Nobody wants their and usurped on their own ship. Now all he felt was disgust for the man who was obviously out in this picket system as a form of punishment. He kept his face from showing how he felt though. It was clear the Vice Admiral was doing this for a reason. Likely to show who had actual trol in this system.

  “Now for the perti questions,” Fletcher tinued as if nothing had happened. “Did you board the Dawn?”

  “No,” Mingyu answered holy.

  “Did anyone aboard your ship, the Eden’s Fury, board Epsilon’s Dawn?”

  Alexander had told him not to lie about anything that didn’t revolve around Eden’s End but he still hesitated to ahis question. In the end, he told the man what he wao know because they were likely to learn of it ohey questioheir own people.

  “Alexander Kane is the only person aboard the Fury to have stepped foot on the Dawn.”

  The hologram was quiet for a bit before responding. “…I see.”

  That was not the response Mingyu had expected. This exge was odd and it seemed like the Admiral had some agenda that Mingyu couldn’t quite figure out.

  Captain Wilrd looked like he wao say something, but the man mao remain quiet.

  If Mingyu had to guess, the way Fletcher was ag had something to do with the cssified nature of the ship and whatever mission it had.

  “Captain Na, If I extended an invitation for the Fury to dock at the Naval yard, do you believe Mr. Kane would accept?”

  It seemed like this was too much for Wilrd. “What!? You ’t seriously be sideriing some unknown military ship dock.”

  “You would do well to remember who you are speaking to, Captain. Or I will remove you from and.”

  The aggrieved Captain snapped his mouth closed so fast Mingyu heard his teeth crack from across the room. There was definitely some weird politionsense going on in this system. If Mingyu had spoken to a superior like this during his time in the Coalition, he wouldn’t have received a warning, he would have beeed and stu some menial position until he for promotion again, assuming that day ever came.

  Mingyu cleared his throat to get their attention. “I don’t know if he will agree to dog, but he might be vio head that way. I will o speak with him personally to find out.” If anything, it would allow them to use the Q array without the huge dey from being so far out.

  “Please do, Captain Na. And express my apologies to Mr. Kane for the rude wele. As you imagihe pirates have been rather active, so some of us are a bit on edge.”

  After that, Na was led back to the shuttle and released. He would mention the Vice Admiral’s words to Alex, but he doubted his friend would take Fletcher up on his offer, especially with his unique circumstahat he seemed to be trying to hide.

  ***

  Fletcher kept his face passive as he watched the room, then watched on video as he flew back to the dead pirate prince’s old ship. He was able to have a real-time versation thanks to the secret Q satellite that just so happeo be in the viity. It did take a bit of maneuvering to get it close enough, but he made it happen when he reized the opportunity and issues at hand.

  He focused on the BSE ship. Calling the thing he saw through the video feed ‘old’ was not accurate at all. The ship was ugly, that was true, but he he vessel didn’t have the traditional autoons, railguns, auss ons. Those ons were rather distinctive due to their requirements. Instead, six ser turrets dotted the pristine and painted hull.

  Fletcher had read the first report of Eden’s End. Coupled with the sed report that Captain Greaves brought back, the puters were able to use that information to give him aimate of Eden’s End’s produ speed. So seeing the rebuilt ship wasn’t all that surprising to him. It was withiimated window. What did surprise him was the sers.

  Even if Kane had access to the Dawn si had gone missing in a, they shouldn’t have been able to reverse engineer and design aire system for a wholly new ship in that timeframe. That meant they already knew how to produce military-grade sers prior to that. bined with what Krieger reported, it troubled him.

  It wasn’t the ons in and of itself. The pirates had proven they could and would reverse engineer or design their own homegrown tech. It was the fact that Kane and his pany were plete unknowns, and Fletcher didn’t like unknowns.

  While it was in position, Fletcher had also used the satellite to visually s Kane’s ship. Along with the s data from Eclipse, the AI reported yet another disturbing fact. It was telling him the engines didn’t maty known design. The only two corporations that built Css 4 engines were Omni and Sinorus, so this was unheard of. Even the pirates hadn’t bothered designing and building their own engines due to how superior the existing designs were.

  If the pirates knew Kane was capable of this level of engineering, it was no wohey had attacked Eden’s End.

  All of those points vinced him to intervene and prevent that idiot Wilrd from turning a bad situation into an unrecoverable one. If he could vince Kao work with them, he could reduce the Navy’s relianni. Fletcher would o hahe iations with a light touch though. He also expected that the bck ops budget was going to have a signifit k taken out of it.