Yi Na was harder to find than Alexahought. The first pce he checked was the man’s office. It was just a small room with a desk and a little holo terminal. , Alexander checked a few of the ongoing stru projects, or at least ones he thought were still ongoing.

  The project to up the transportation tunnels was plete. At least so far as up went. There was a noti the wall that stru would begin in a week’s time.

  The project Alexander went to was for the repairs to abandoned ses of the facility. He got to the hallway and found a temporary door had been welded ih another notice saying ‘Closed, No Access’. Scratg his metaphorical head at that, Alexander went to the st major stru project, the tral dome.

  Uhe other two areas, the tral dome was full of workers and noise. He found Yi over by one of the es that was being used to lift the transpareions into pce.

  “Yi, do you have a moment?”

  The man looked over before nodding and dismissing the men he had been speaking with. “What I help you with Mr. K– Alexander,” he quickly corrected himself.

  “What’s with the other projects? When I was looking for you I saw that they were shut down or paused?”

  The man nodded once, “Yes. It’s too ineffit to run multiple projects at the same time with so few skilled workers. I uand you were doing the smaller projects to give the workers experience, and that’s fi also a waste of time. They get far more experience by tag a rger project such as this. They will also be far more diligent sihey know pleting this dome properly will finally seal off the facility enough to pressurize it. Nobody likes the smell of sulfur day in and day out, even the people who have beehe lo.”

  Alexander wasn’t sure he agreed, but he had given the man trol over the stru. So long as nobody got hurt and everything was built properly, he would leave Yi Na to run it how the man saw fit.

  “Have you heard that we may get visitors soon?” he asked instead.

  “I have heard rumors, yes. Meraries if I remember correctly?”

  “They are meraries, but they are also a er. That’s not what I’m here to talk about though. They had a bunch of extra refugees tag along. How are we on housing?”

  The man pulled out a tablet and flicked through a few ss. “All of the open units around atrium A are habitable. Roughly two-thirds of those are currently being used by families. So in that se alone, we could house ahousand families or individuals. Atrium B is blocked off as that is the most heavily damaged se. I expect we will have to tear a lot of it down and start from scratch. Atrium C has fifty habitable units and awenty that are being used as ste but could be made habitable in a few days.”

  “And atrium D?” Alexander asked, surprised the man hadn’t brought up the atrium he was staying in.

  The man cleared his throat. “There is an unspoken uanding that atrium D is yours to do with as you see fit. I have done a survey, and if you wish to open it up to habitation, we could fit anht hundred groups in that area. I would personally reend against that option though.”

  “Really, why?”

  “As the owner of Eden’s End, it is important to show you are oh the people, but it is equally as important to show people that you are in trol. If you suddenly start parg out eople see as your space, you lose that trol.”

  “That seems like a rather draian point of view don’t you think?” Alexander asked.

  Yi shrugged. “It is not what I think that matters, it is what everyone else will think. Before you decide, hoeople do you think are ing?”

  “I have no clue. We have eighteen ships of differing types heading our way as well as the Hawks and all the people I asked them t along.”

  “Hmm, eighteen ships. If each has a hundred people aboard, that is oeen hundred individuals not ting the people you invited. Without a proper t, I would o make assumptions. Let's assume in a worst-case sario that the maximum number of people I mentioned before are aboard each ship. It's not likely uhe ships are all transports but it will give us a good idea of what we are looking at. Now in a worst-case sario, those eighteen hundred people are all single men or women. It wouldn’t be ideal, but we could house them if we used every avaible space I just told you about.”

  “That’s good then.”

  Yi nodded. “We could do that, but it would be a horrible waste of space. Ea house three or four people. Some could fit even more. Force them to share housing and you reduce the needed units to just what is avaible in atrium A. It gets more plicated if there are families involved, but I think you get the picture. I don’t believe you will o give up any of your space. And if you do, assign it to the people you invited personally. This will ehe rest of the poputiohat Atrium D is off limits to anyone who isn’t employed directly through BSE.”

  “…You keep saying that. Is there something I’m not aware of that I should be?”

  The man seemed flicted about mentioning something. “I normally wouldn’t even bring this up because of how outndish the rumor is, but I keep hearing people whisper about it. They say you’re an alien.”

  Alexander had his avatar blink at the man. “That’s it?” he ughed. “Here I was worried for nothing.”

  Yi ughed as well. “I k wasn’t true, but some people like to talk.”

  “Oh, no, it’s true. Not that I’m an alien, but this body is alien in in.”

  Yi stopped ughing and looked at him in shock. “Truly?”

  Alexander shrugged. “It’s a bit of a story and I don’t have time to go into it right now. Since people are already gossiping about it there's no point keeping it quiet. If you’re curious, ask Lucas Laront. He’s the head of my testiment.”

  Rumors could quickly grow out of hand, so it was best if the people he worked with simply khe truth.

  “I- I’ll do that. Thank you, Alexander.”

  “No, Thank you. I know this isn’t part of your job, but could you work with the cil to make sure the rooms in Atrium A have basic amenities? Do the same for fifty of the units in atrium D as well.” The man agreed to reach out to Damien and the other cilors to get that done.

  With that issue handled Alexander went in search of the Head of Security. He wao ehe man had everything he o handle an influx of more than a thousand people at ohe Hawks were going to assist, but Damien o be in charge. Much like how Yi said Alexander o be seen as in charge, the Head of Security couldn’t be seen as taking a back seat to outsiders. Even if those outsiders were the Hawks.

  Alexander doubted this sort of nonsense would have been needed before his arrival but it was clear his being on Eden’s End had split the opinions of the residents. Further alienating the locals by usurping their chosen leaders would not go over well.

  He found Damien in the Security wing, which had been moved from he trol ter to a few floors down. The new location was both more secure and was one of the choke points that led to the trol room as well as the puter core. There were other entrao the trol ter, but they could be locked down and the trol ter itself had bst doors in the case of emergency. Eatrance was also guarded and had cameras o all times.

  If anyone passed the ‘Authorized Personnel Only’ signs to sneak about hose doors, they got arrested ao the detention area for questioning. Damien had implemehose rules after people kept wandering into the trol ter to chat with their friends who were on duty.

  Damien was ting racks of pulse rifles wheered the room. There were far more of the ons than the man had officers, but he k was good to have spares. Alexander waited for the man to plete his t before b him.

  “You here to ask if I’m qualified to hahe people ing in?”

  “Are you?” Alexander asked iurn.

  The man paused to think about it for a moment. “With the Hawks’ help, yes.”

  It was good to see the man wasn’t overestimating his abilities.

  “Work with Captain Matthews and his people, but you are in charge on the ground.”

  Damien looked pleased to hear this, but the emotion quickly vanished with a grunt of aowledgment. “I o get ready to address the sed shift, is there anything else?”

  “Not really. I did speak with Yi Na. He should be reag out to you and the rest of the cil to get housing ready for these arrivals. They will all be put in A, except the ones I hired. Those will go in atrium D. Stick them as far away from the noisy workshop as possible. And before y it up, I haven’t fotten our st versation about arrivals. They will be subject to the same security check as everyone else. I’ll let you get back to your duties.” With that, Alexander left the security offid headed back to his workshop to finish some things up.

  He still o speak with Nancy about bringing on more teachers and expanding the s to aodate udents but it was still before noon. Csses would be going for a few more hours.

  Things were moving faster than he wished for, but he would be ready for the challenge.

  ***

  It had taken Dalton a few months to find the best way to get to Eden’s End, but he had discovered the recruitment drive that the Hawks had set up. He didn’t know they were doing so for Eden’s End, but a hund a bit more digging got him what he needed. Alcohol and loose lips have always been Dalton's favorite bination to extract priceless information.

  Using a simir tactic to the one ba that pirate shithole, Dalton started spreading the rumor among other refugees that there ce they could go and not be looked down upohey arrived.

  He didn’t get as many takers as he would have liked but it would have to do. Dalton o muddy the waters until he found his target and escaped. The longer he spent on Eden’s End, the more likely his ges would degrade and expose his true identity.

  With the additional ships, Dalton couldn’t believe how easy it was to join the caravan following in the merc’s wake. He didn’t eveo switch ships since his ship looked like a small beat-up hauler from the outside and all his ons were hidden in the shielded partments. He wasn’t sure exactly how the static field geors blocked sing or who had figured out this little trick, all he knew was that the modifications had cost him quite a bit of credit.

  The transponder he oofing at the moment was from a ship oby’s Pride. It was a ridiculous name, but ohat fit this current persona.

  He adjusted his neck, still feeling a bit weird by the ge treatment he had gohrough. The underworld bio-sculptor cost an arm and a leg, but Dalton couldn’t afford to waltz in looking like himself or even risk having the same geic profile. He wasn’t unknown to the STO and a quick bio-check would fg over a hundred active warrants for his arrest. He roud of that number, but it did make infiltration missions quite difficult.

  To further sell the image of being refugees, Dalton had taken on over a dozen individuals fleeing from the former Coalition space. He even happily versed with them and showed their children how to fly the ship. The only thing that kept him from spag the lot of them was the thought that this mission was almost over.

  They finally arrived in the backwater shithole of Eden’s End. Without being able to deploy his optical array, Dalton was limited to normal sensors. Even with normal sensors, he didn’t fail to pick up the hundreds of items in space around the p and its moon.

  “Oh! What are those?” one of the snot-nosed little brats aboard his ship poio the s with his sticky finger.

  Dalton’s eyebrow twitched faintly as an urge to cut off the offending digit entered his mind. He quashed that emotion as the kid pulled back his finger and wiped his runny nose on his sleeve.

  He cleared his throat to give himself time to banish any anger in his tone before responding. “I’m not sure. We’re too far out to get a clear look, but I’ll let you know as soon as I do,” he said with a wide smile, mussing the kid's hair while suppressing an urge to squeeze the kid’s head.

  “Ok, Uoby,” the boy smiled before running off to his parents.

  “Only a few more days,” he said under his breath, “Only a few more days.”