The tract was a rather simple affair, all things sidered. There were no gotcha cuses in it that he could find. Alexander was gd he had spent time over the st year and a half getting to know all the ins and outs of STO w. He even covered some of the pary ws on the core worlds thanks to Jasper’s urging.

  If it wasn’t for his friend’s suggestion, he might not have made it a priority. Jasper had been adamant about learning the ws inside and out during their trip through STO space. “Alexander, with what you pn to do, you ’t be ignorant of the rules and how corporations twist them to their be. You o figure out how to do the same.”

  Alexander had taken that to heart and studied a bit wheime preseself. And while he couldn’t recall his past, he didn’t seem to have any issue remembering anything since he woke up orov Station. That being said, uanding and knowing something are two very different things.

  To say he uood all of the little legal loopholes would be aatement. He knew all of the w, and he uood a great deal of it but he wasn’t a legal expert by any means. Luckily, what he was looking for in the tract was a simple enough ht that even he could take advantage of it. The Admiral had left a field open for Alexao fill in the engine model number. From experience, he knew Omni and Sinorus both maintained a model catalog, which they teo carry over to any new geions. Fletcher probably assumed he did as well, which wasn’t the case.

  He didn’t know what agreements Omni had with the STO, but he doubted it specified a model. It robably specific to a css and year or a certain timeframe. From what he could see of the agreement, it was likely the Admiral thought he could lock Alexander into signing over that model for its entire lifetime, and he was more than happy to oblige.

  Alexander didn’t use any model specifications on his engines. Despite the engines being pleted and w better than Omni’s models, he was still in the initial design phase. The engines on Eden’s Fury were only the fifth geion and the first to get field tested beyond the shuttle ones he built. Fury was also the only ship in his fleet with those engines. So losing out on being able to sell them to anyone else was a small price to pay.

  Having that geion locked to the STO’s tract wouldn’t even slow him down. Alexander had a sixth geion of the engine already ier design phase. The sixth geion didn’t have any thrust or efficy improvements, it was more to fix design issues and improve certain maintenance problems that were cropping up.

  He quickly amehe tract with a made-up model hat he would update in his dotation on the fifth-geion design on his end. Did he feel bad about trig the STO? No, not really.

  They would get their engines as agreed upon in the dot, as well as an STO-level sped repair catalog to service them as required by STO w, a a whole lot of money. Only a third of it front, but that was fine.

  Fletcher would likely be annoyed when he figured out the ht, but the man shouldn’t have ever tried to get one over on him in the first pce. Alexander sighe dot and waited for the Admiral to go over it and sign it as well.

  “Excellent, Mr. Kane. You won’t regret w with the STO, I assure you of that. When do you think you could have the first engines shipped to Varlen?”

  That was aipution of the agreement. Alexander had to provide transport. That was fine since he didn’t want the STO poking around Eden’s End anyway. He had to do some calcutions to see how many of the massive thrusters would fit ihe Fury’s shuttle hangar. The answer was only one. And that was if it ced at an angle. Css four thrusters were not small things. And Fury’s hangar was barely rge enough for the shuttle.

  “The first could be here in a month, maybe.”

  “Maybe?” Fletcher asked in . “You don’t souirely sure.”

  “I’m not. Captain Na is the only qualified starship captain avaible to me, and he did this trip as a favor for me. I’m not going to ask him to do it again.” Alexander felt fortable saying this because the traly specified a date when it had to be fulfilled, not when the first product had to be delivered.

  The man leaned ba his seat and threw his arm over the back of the cushioned side. Fletcher tapped his fingers as he mulled over the problem. “That’s not ideal. I was hoping to have the first Nyx frigate up and operational in three months. Are you sure you ’t vina to stay on as the captain of Fury? Most captains would jump at the ce to pilot a warship as grand as this.”

  “I think I have about as much ce of ving Captain Na to agree to that as you do of ving the people in charge of the STO to remove the quaraatus on The Moonlit Destiny,” Alexander responded, earning a sour look from the man that told him all he o know.

  “That is a decision beyond my paygrade I’m afraid. I tell you that the people in charge don’t like their decisions being sed-guessed, so I am uo ge their mind.”

  Alexander shrugged. “I will do what I , but I ’t guarantee anything within a month. In three months, I could get you at least three though.”

  “Three, really?”

  Alexander made his avatar faod.

  “Are they standard install? If not, that could be an issue.”

  “They have all the standard mounting points of any css fine so you don’t o worry about that.”

  “I suppose having a full ship plement at the same time might be better. If we get all three at o shouldn’t take more than a week to install them on a fresh ship.”

  Not that the man had many options, he already sighe tract. If Alexander wao be a jerk, he could simply deliver them all at the end of the year. He wouldn’t do that though. He did need a friendly ta the STO. “Before you leave, I meant to ask you about Captain Krieger. I heard some of his people say he might receive a court-martial?”

  “Another issue that is out of my hands, I’m afraid. A captain without a ship is not worth mud makes an easy scapegoat. I believe the STO leadership pns to use him to make a point.”

  “And you ’t stop that? He lost his ship and most of his crew by defending Eden’s End.” While Alexander didn’t care fer’s pside antics, he admired the man’s as when it came to defending the p.

  “I ’t stop it, but I’ve called in some favors to hopefully reduce his punishment to a dishonorable discharge. That’s the best I do, I’m afraid.” Alexander had nothing to add to that.

  You would think that with a war going on, they would simply demote him, or send him to the front in a new ship, instead of pulling this whole circus act.

  With talks cluded, they both shook and Alexander led the Vice Admiral back to the airlock where he watched the ship depart. Alexander made one more trip back to the sole room and told the Hawks to keep their eye out for a retly disgraced Captain looking for work. If the STO didn’t want Krieger, he would take the man off their hands.

  The man would probably be a spy for Fletcher, but Alexander could hahat. Holy, he would prefer if the man did turn out to be a spy for Fletcher, that way he could have a back el to the man.

  That being said, when they got back to Eden’s End, he would o speak with Lucas about purging the entire puter system and adding additional security above and beyond the version of Dawn’s security that Fury already possessed.

  Lucas had beeatic when Alexander had presehat program to him. After two months, the man had mao break apart that code and reverse engi into something of his very own.

  While he might like Krieger and Fletcher, they hadn’t yet earned his trust. Alexander would do everything in his power to ensure none of BSE’s ships could ever be used against Eden’s End or stolen from them.

  Time would tell if this was a good idea or a bad one, but Alexander o make inroads with the movers and shakers of STO space. While he could produce the best engines humanity had to offer, it wouldn’t do a lick of good if one of Omni’s or another corporate fleet came down on them like a hammer. With friends in high pces, Alexander hoped to curtail the corporations' more bloodthirsty impulses.

  The few days went by rather ufully. It gave Alexander plenty of time to spend the new funding he had just gotten. Since he had already mao purchase the learning module oatic field on the first day he arrived, there was really only one more module he wanted. Unfortunately, even this influx of cash wasn’t enough to tip the scales into being able to purchase the module pertaining to artificial gravity.

  It was a shame, he just knew he could do some iing things if he could just uand how the teology worked. He had taken apart some of the ptes ba Eden’s End, but they made no logical seo him. sidering their alien in, he probably shouldn’t be surprised, but he still thought he would be able to glean some insight from them. That wasn’t the case.

  He couldn’t even recreate them in the printer. Fury had beeed with sged ones from three separate ships, including a few from Dawn, they were just touched up to look like new.

  Seeing no other learning modules within his budget that would assist his people, he scrolled through the local listings for items for sale. It seemed like eveO Navy sold stuff. He stumbled upon some used smelters. They were smaller than the smelter he had ba Eden’s End, but together they could handle more volume. They were in the list he sent Jasper, but Alexander could still use more. So he purchased the two units ahe shuttle to pick them up.

  It was too bad he hadn’t been able to find an affordable station pn to purchase. Anything that handled people, trade, and dog cost a ton of money. Probably because they were modur and could be expanded with ease. And none of the non-modur designs were anywhere near his budget. The STO’s naval base gave him some ideas though, so he was going to work on the design of his own station on the way home. With the prices, it simply wasn’t worth waiting until he could afford something.

  Eventually, Mingyu’s family arrived in the system. Alexander was gd to see they were on time because he was getting homesick. Making deals and positioning himself in an advantageous position was exhausting. He would rather be bae, building new aing things.

  He now knew hoer felt and why the man had hired Naomi to be his port liaison and er support representative. Maybe Alexander needed someone like that too?

  When the Captain of the transport ship realized they would be dog with an unknown warship, they were uandably relut. A quick call from Fletcher cleared up any misgivings though. Alexander couldn’t help but smile at that, his es were already w.

  The transport was about half the length of Fury, but it looked a lot more futuristic thanks to its smooth design that sisted of a fttened oval body with a tapered nose and a ft aft where the engines poked out. The only things that stuck out from the smooth hull were the engines and the sensor antennas. It also had actual windows like some old-school airpne from ba his time.

  Alexander hadn’t seen windows on anything other than shuttles so it was a surprising enough feature to ent on.

  He watched the reunion from his suite, not wanting to startle their new arrivals. Mingyu’s father was an older, much more serious version of Destiny’s Captain. There was no hugging, Mingyu bowed politely and the maurhe gesture with a light nod.

  His mother was a tiny woman, and couldn’t have been taller than four foot three, but she had a regal bearing about her. She hugged her son, but it was a tentative thing. The rest of his family came soon after, but Alexander didn’t know the names of the rest of them and he quickly turned off the video feed to give them their privacy.

  Half an hour ter, he felt the transport undod depart. He sighed in relief, it was finally time to head home.