Alexander had only pnned on spending a day in Varlen initially. Just enough time to let people verse with their families a responses back. That ged when Captain Na approached him in the engineeriion.

  “Alex, do you have a moment to discuss something?”

  He paused the simution he had been w on to give Mingyu his full attention. “Certainly, what is on your mind?”

  “You recall that I was trying to get my family to e to Eden’s End, right?”

  “I do. Your father wasn’t quite sold on the idea if I recall correctly.”

  Mingyu ughed lightly. “You could say that. Anyway, I’ve vinced him and the rest of my family to finally make the trip. But he will only do it if he do so with me as the Captain. Teically, he said ‘my ship’ but I didn’t tell him I wasn’t on the Destiny.”

  “We certainly have the room. Are you sure he won’t be upset when he learns you aren’t Captaining the Destiny?”

  “I’m sure he will be, but I deal with that when he arrives. That’s the other thing. The ship he chartered won’t be here for another week.”

  Alexander paused to think it over. He assumed, incorrectly, that Na’s family would arrive in Varlen and wait for the Fury to return. sidering there were only military facilities in Varlen, that retty stupid assumption on his part.

  Ara week of hanging out in the system wasn’t the worst thing, but it was stretg the time he had allotted to be here. Then again, Na had been instrumental in helping to secure Eden’s End. And from what little he knew of Mingyu’s father, the man would likely be another valuable asset.

  Even then he might have deed to stick around. It wasn’t that he didn’t want Mingyu’s Father and the rest of his family. It was simple practicality. He wao return to Yulia as quickly as possible.

  The only reason that he was sidering stig around a bit longer was he still believed Vice Admiral Fletcher would reach out. From what Mingyu told him, there seemed to be some politics at py here that Alexander wasn’t privy to, which might be keeping the man from ag.

  “Very well. We remain for a week, but no lohan that. If their ship is te, they will have to wait in a nearby system until you return to pick them up on the rip here.”

  Mingyu bowed slightly. “Thank you, Alex. I assure you that you will nret this dey father may seem a bit cold when you first meet him but don’t let his demeanor fool you. Get him talking about a subject that is him, and he es alive.”

  “I suppose I’ll o know what those subjects are then,” Alexander quipped.

  Mingyu chuckled lightly. “Those are easy enough. He likes talking about minerals, mining, and all things ship-reted. I think you two will get along just fine.”

  It did sound like they had some things in on. “What of the rest of your family?”

  Mingyu sighed. “It will just be my parents, my siblings, and their families. Most of my extended family have goheir own way. Not that I bme them. It has been over a year sihey lost their homes and everything they cared about. I think some bme me as well since I art of the cil that was supposed to protect them. They know where to find me if they ge their mind though.”

  “As long as they're willing to work, they will always be wele.”

  ***

  Alexander had all but given up on Vice Admiral Fletcher reag out after days of waiting, but he did eventually receive a short message, asking if an official shuttle could dock with Fury. The message didn’t specify that Fletcher would be on this shuttle, but Alexander couldn’t think of anyone else who might want to visit.

  Captain Krieger had likely been debriefed by now, so if this was Vice Admiral Fletcher there was no point hiding. He accepted the visit and waited.

  Eden’s Fury only had a hangar rge enough for one shuttle, so the STO shuttle had to dock at one of the airlocks. All of Na’s crew were in their assigned areas, with the bst doors locked down behind them. If this was some weird attempt to take the ship, The STO was going to find out they made a big mistake.

  When he saw a man with greying temples step out of the airlock, fnked by a pair of Marine escorts, and only a pair, the tension he had been feeling faded away. While he was willing to defend what was his, starting a fight with the STO was not on his agenda.

  The two Marines locked eyes on him as soon as they stepped out of the airlock. The pair stiffened slightly but otherwise remained quiet and alert as he approached.

  “Vice Admiral Fletcher, Wele aboard Eden’s Fury.” The man didn’t even flinch at Alexander’s appearance as he accepted his outstretched hand with an easy smile.

  “Thank you freeing to meet with me. After hearing Krieger’s report, I wasn’t sure you would be willing. I apologize if any STO personnel overstepped their bounds while in your care.”

  Alexander was surprised by the apology but happy to hear it as Fletcher sounded entirely genuine.

  “Apology accepted, Vice Admiral. I’m sure they were just anxious to go home,” he said awkwardly, feeling a bit bad about how he treated the rescued crew of the Dawn now. Instead of dwelling on it, he gestured down a corridor. “If you would follow me, I’ve prepared a meeting room.”

  The man gave a curt nod and followed along. “I must say, this ship is quite nice. Did you design it yourself?”

  “Thank you. And no, ly. I simply restored it to its inal dition.”

  Fletcher ughed. “There’s no reason to be modest, Mr. Kane. I doubt this old ship was ever this nice when it came off the produ line, inside or out.”

  Alexander cleared his ent throat. “Yes, well, I did add my own fir to things. Here we are,” he said gesturing to the door. “Your men e inside or wait out here, whichever you wish.”

  Without even a nod from the Admiral, the two Mariook up positions oher side of the door with their flechette rifles held low, but ready as they sed the corridor for danger.

  Alexander followed the Vice Admiral into the room, which was rge enough for ten people if the inal table were still i had been removed and repced by a smaller table, surrounded by three curved and cushioned behe fourth was left out and a short box was in its pce so Alexander could sit without looming.

  The admiral pointed his thumb to a pot off to the side. “Is that real coffee?”

  “I’m afraid not. It’s just caff.”

  The man poured himself a cup anyway and inhaled deeply befrabbing one of the pastries from the small sele. He sat on the padded bench opposite him and took a sip of the hot beverage before sighing. “That may only be caff, but that’s better thauff we have out here. And the pastry as well,” he added after taking a bite. “I tell the fruit was made from freeze-dried product, but we don’t even have the luxury of that most times in Varlen. I might have to see if we trade you for some,” he said with a smile.

  “I’m sure you didn’t fly all the way out here just to trade food and drink with Eden’s End.”

  The man dabbed his mouth with a napkin before responding. “You would be correct. There’s no point hiding this sidering yed Dawn back here for us. Thank you for that again. I’m sure you’ve mao figure out we’ve been keeping tabs on your system. And you specifically.”

  “It crossed my mind,” Alexander replied. “May I ask why?”

  “I think you guess why, but I’ll tell you anyway. We were monit Arkonis Anazi. When his fleet disappeared aurned with only three survivors, the upper brass was uandably ed. We sent the Dawn out to figure out what happehey found you and when we realized you had e from Petrov Station, some of the pieces started to e together.”

  Alexander frowned. “So it was this Harlow character that sent his brother after me?”

  “We don’t know that for certain,” Fletcher stated. “But it’s the most likely expnation. We just couldn’t figure out why Harlow would do something like that. At least until a few days ago.” After he said, that, he looked around at the painted walls of the ship with a knowing smile.

  “Yes, he likely wanted me for my engineering skills. I assume you want me for the same thing?”

  The man chuckled. “If I thought I could offer you enough moo vince you to work for the STO, I would. But my budget isn’t that rge and I doubt you would agree anyway. I do have to ask, did you work for Omni or Sinorus at any point?”

  That seemed like a strange question sidering Alexander’s previous run-in with Omni. “No, why?”

  “No reason, I just had to ask. The engines on this ship. Are they your design?” He was right, the man had sed his ship with that satellite.

  “Yes. And before you ask, they are better than what Omni currently offers for this css of engine.”

  It seemed like that wasn’t what the Vice Admiral was going to ask, since his eyes went wide and he choked slightly on the caff. Alexander waited for him to recover. The man coughed a few times as he spoke. “Do you have data to back that cim up?”

  Alexander reached over to the holo embedded iable and activated it. Then he quickly pulled up the file paring his eo both the full-sized Omni one and Sinorus one.

  The man quickly studied the dot before colpsing bato the cushioned seat. “That expins why you wanted out of STO space,” he muttered. “You do know this will put a target on your back?”

  “I appreciate your Admiral, but I’ll be fine. Perhaps we get ba track?”

  “Yes, sorry. I wao offer you a tract to help build a Nyx css ship.”

  “Nyx css? I assume that is the designation of your stealth ship?”

  “Not the same as the Dawn. These would be light frigate css ships instead of the heavy destroyer designation that the Dawn falls into.”

  “I holy don’t know what to say.”

  “You could start with, yes,” the Admiral smiled, earning a deadpan look from Alexander.

  He knew what the man was trying to do. He was trying to speed the versation along so Alexander didn’t have time to think about it. On the surface, it sounded like a good deal, but he didn’t have aails yet. For all he khis deal could be a poisoned apple that brought Omni and the STO down on Eden’s End. While he believed the new defenses were strong enough to repel pirates, he doubted it would be enough to survive a certed effort by either the STO or Omni.

  “Why are you askio take on this tract? You hardly know me and it isn’t like Eden’s End is equipped to handle produ for a ship like that. Not to mention the obvious cssified nature of such a project. I’m not even sure you should be telling me about this.”

  “You would be correct. The Nyx project is cssified. As was the Erebus project that the Dawn came from. But you’ve already been aboard the ship and have had months to study it at your leisure. I’m sure you’ve learned a few things from it. Not that I bme you. We would have dohe same if we found Eden’s Fury. That being said, it does put you in a uuation.”

  “Oh? How so?”

  “You are privy to cssified information without beiered iO database as having such clearand you are outside our jurisdi. To put it bluntly, you’re a ghost, Mr. Kao someone like me who runs covert ops and bck ops, I will always have a pce fhosts. Now, before you turn me down. I’m not asking you to build the entire ship. We have shipyards for that. What I would like from you is engines. If you weren’t blowing smoke up my ass with those numbers. I would like fifteen engines delivered to Varlen within the year and for eagine delivered, you will earn thirty millios. What do you say, is that something you could do?”

  There were times Alexander was gd he was a robot, this was one of those times. The thirty million price tag was ludicrous. That was easily three times the price of a parable engine from Omni on the open market. If each frigate took three ehat made the engines on one ship worth more thaire sum he spent for Eden’s End.

  He didn’t want to ask, but he had to. “Why is the price so infted?”

  “That’s just the way everything works in the military, Mr. Ka’s the price for having the best, and keeping it from others.”

  “So if I took this deal, I wouldn’t be able to sell to anyone else?” That sounded like a really shitty deal to him.

  “Not for that model for at least a year after your st delivery. It will all be in the tract.”

  Alexander almost wao ugh at that. As soon as Omni got wind of a better ehey were going to one-up him, making this sale to the STO look like a bad deal on their part. And he erfectly ok with that. If the tract was worded like he hoped, then all he o do was release a new model as well.

  “I o see the tract before I agree.”

  The man smiled and pulled out a data chip which he pced into the holo. If Alexander hadn’t had Lucas harden the Fury’s systems with his own brand ramming wizardry, he might have been worried about Fletcher stig an unknown chip into the ship’s system. Still, that wasn’t guarao be one hundred pert effective. Whe back, he was going to separate the meeting spaces like this oh a hard-coded e that would prevent any data from passing back through it.