Blue Star Enterprises

Alexander had hoped to build a bit more rapport with the woman before discussing this subject, but it seemed that Katalynn was done humoring him.

He steeled himself before responding to her question. "As I said in my radio reply, this is about Harlow."

"I'm aware of that bottom feeder, get to the point."

Ignoring the rudeness, Alexander pushed on. "I believe he's coming to attack Eden's End. To do that, he needs to come through Char territory."

That got her attention.

"What makes you think he would waste his time traveling all the way out to your system?"

"He's after me," Alexander admitted.

"Why? Does he know what you are? Is that why Arkonis attacked? I always thought it weird that Arkonis Anazi had risked my ire to come deep into Asgardian territory for a simple score. There are far easier and safer targets on the border of STO space."

Alexander waited for the woman to stop before he responded to her questions. "I don't know if Harlow knows or not. As for Arkonis, I assume he attacked for the same reason that Harlow wants me, and that's for my skills as an engineer."

"The laser on Arkonis' old ship. That was your design wasn't it?"

Her words were more a statement than a question, but Alexander nodded anyway.

"So what, you've come here to ask us to protect you? Why would I risk my people for something like that?"

"Not exactly."

"If not protection, what is it you want? You came here with a fleet to either attack or make a statement loud enough to get my attention. Now you have it and you are dancing around the issue like the oily little politicians in the STO."

"I want to propose an alliance to take down Harlow."

The woman chuckled. "That is quite bold of you to suggest. Do you think we need to ally ourselves with outsiders to drive Harlow off?"

Alexander's next response was a bit of a long shot since it was a complete guess, but he said it anyway. "From what I saw, you can't even send other Asgardians packing. It seems you could use an ally if you have trouble within your own ranks."

The woman's face turned into a mask of stone, but she didn't direct any anger at him. "I'll deal with that treacherous little shit in due time." Her anger quickly vanished as she addressed him again. "Let's say I entertain your offer. What's in it for my people? So far all I see are benefits for you."

"If you think Harlow will simply stroll through your space without killing people and destroying infrastructure, you're delusional. I don't think you are and I don't think you would allow him to do as he pleases in your space. As for what I can offer, I think you already know."

"You're saying you would give my people access to your technology? How kind of you," she said sarcastically.

"Not give. I would sell it to you for a fair price, but only after Harlow has been dealt with and it comes with some other stipulations."

The woman quirked an eyebrow at that. "Stipulations? You come into our territory and claim a system as your own and now you offer stipulations? I have every right to imprison you and everyone in your fleet for violating Asgardian laws," she stated, waiting to see how he would react.

Alexander knew something like this might come up in discussions ever since he learned that the Asgardians had actual laws and people in charge. He wasn't deterred though. "By imprisoning me, you would break the oath you have given, thus proving you can't be trusted. And I would never tell you a single thing, assuming you could even hold me. As for my fleet. We both know my ships now outnumber yours, so unless you expect your dance partner to return and back you up, my people would be able to get away."

She smirked. "I'm glad to see some people from the STO still have a spine, even if it had to come from an alien robot. You may go back to your ship while I speak to my advisors and consider your proposal."

"I'm not from the STO," he stated at the woman's dismissal.

Other than the little test, there was no bloodshed and his fleet wasn't attacked. All in all, this meeting went far better than he had expected.

When he returned to the ground floor, Theo was there waiting for him. There was another person dressed in black, waiting off to the side. He supposed it was Loki, even though it was an entirely different person. That had to get confusing.

"How did the information exchange go?" Alexander asked as he followed the female Loki down the stairs.

Pembrooke looked slightly disturbed, so whatever he had learned must not be good. "Grand Admiral Xin is on the move. He controls the thi–second pirate faction," he corrected himself after glancing at Loki's back. He controls the area on the far side of Char space. Technically Xin space butts up against Anazi space as well, but there are so few stars in that area that it is essentially a dead zone, and only the desperate travel through there. It's usually where independent pirates dwell."

"Xin? I'm not familiar with them." Alexander had been filled in on the Anazi pirates and Char by both Mingyu and Archie but hadn't heard much about the Xin. Considering where they were located, it was a good chance that neither of his friends knew anything about them.

"Xin was the Grand Admiral for the Coalition fleet before taking his supporters and abandoning the Coalition to their fate. They are also the most depraved pirates you'll ever run across. If you think what the Anazis do is despicable, you haven't seen anything until you come across a ship hit in a Xin raid. Let's just say it's bad, really bad. If the Xin clan is pushing into Char territory, it's likely a probing test for a lead-up to a major offensive. You do not want the Xin anywhere near Eden's End. Grand Admiral Xin and his ilk have no morals or scruples. If they want your planet, they'll literally throw ships at it until they win. And they have more than enough ships and people to do so from what I've heard. Estimates state that the number of ships Xin has might even outnumber the STOs now."

That was highly disturbing news, but Alexander needed to focus on one issue at a time. They returned to the shuttle and Alexander was forced to make repairs in the pouring rain. The patches were messy, but they would hold. He purged the ship's air a few times to ensure no harmful gasses were lingering before taking off and heading into orbit. The flight back up wasn't quite as rocky, it seemed the worst part of the storm had passed in the three or so hours they had been on the planet.

Soon enough they landed in the Wayward Soul's hangar. The ship would remain at its current location, but he needed to have a conference with the other Captains and fill them in.

***

Katalynn watched the towering robot leave and finally allowed the shiver of fear she felt when she first looked upon the obsidian nightmare to roll through her body. "Terrifying," she whispered, a faint smile tugging at her lips. "Exquisitely terrifying."

She couldn't recall the last time she had felt so alive when facing a single opponent. Her leg throbbed in pain, giving her a gentle reminder of Kane's strength. The bastard had been holding back until she had forced him to show at least a little bit of his capabilities. It wasn't trickery, it was tactics she reminded herself.

As much as she would like to reminisce about the fight, Kane's words were a grim reminder of what was to come. She had been keeping track of Harlow's activities. When he pulled back from the front, she had been sure he was heading toward the heart of Asgardian space. It was really the only logical option. Maybe to open up a new front against the STO or simply cause chaos in her space, she didn't know.

With that in mind, she reinforced her border with the Anazis with whatever ships were out that way. Unfortunately, with the war against Xin's people, she couldn't spare much and that area was lightly populated.

When Harlow didn't attack and instead returned to Haven to deal with an uprising, Katalynn had assumed her people had dodged a bullet. The logical choice would be for Harlow to finish subduing his people and then return to the front to keep pushing the STO back, but she knew that wasn't the case. Now she knew his true destination and that changed things slightly.
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If what Kane said about Harlow's motivations was true, it made no logical sense. There was nothing about Kane that could justify sending a fleet of over a hundred ships to capture one man, no matter how talented an engineer he might be. Even if he did have alien roots, his technology didn't scream advanced enough to warrant this mustering of force. Then again most of Harlow's actions made little sense. He had the fleet strength to easily push the STO back to their core worlds yet he seemed to be pacing himself.

Those were questions for the STO to answer, she had her own concerns. The main concern she had was the fact that the border with the Anazis did not have enough ships to deal with him without weakening her other border. A border that was now already weakened thanks to Isbjorn abandoning his post to try and claim her like some prize.

She needed to deal with that pathetic weasel before he caused more problems, which she knew he would. Jarl Isbjorn was not the kind of man to take kindly to losing. Katalynn feared leaving the man to his own devices would lead to a new Asgardian schism, which hadn't occurred since the early days of the union.

"Short-sighted fools can't see past their own pride. Loki, get your ass in here!"

The same black-clothed man that brought Kane to her soon stood in front of her desk. "You called, Lagertha?"

"How much of the conversation with Kane were you present for?"

"None of it, Lagertha. We decided to err on the side of caution since we did not know or understand the alien robot's capabilities. We did however watch through the hidden cameras and listening devices."

She growled. "I thought I told you to get rid of those when I became Lagertha."

"We did, but when you announced our visitor, we thought it wise to cover all our bases. They will be removed in short order, I assure you."

She glared at the man before motioning for him to speak. "What are your thoughts on Kane?"

"His story and Pembrooke's match. Pembrooke did seem surprised to hear that Xin was attacking our border though. It seems the former Omni employee is no longer in high standing."

Katalynn stopped the man there. "I don't care about this Pem character. Tell me about Kane."

Loki was unruffled by her dismissal. "If what we gathered from our contact on Eden's End and what Pemrooke has revealed is true, we would label Kane as frightfully competent, at least when it comes to engineering. It seems he lacks in other areas like politics, management, and people skills in general. However, he is learning, and he learns quickly. Kane does not appear to be the type to make the same mistakes over and over. If he hadn't produced so many new inventions, the Lokis would have assumed Kane to be an advanced form of self-learning program. As it stands, the rumor about him being a human mind stuck inside a robot body may very well be true."

"You don't sound all that convinced," Katalynn commented.

Loki shrugged. "We lack enough information to make a more accurate guess."

"What of Harlow?" she asked, changing the subject.

"Our last report from Haven stated that Harlow was indiscriminately bombing the planet with nuclear weapons. We lost contact shortly after that. Either Haven's Qcomm was hit, or our agent was. We have already ordered scout ships out to that region to keep an eye out for Harlow's fleet, but without FTL comms, we may not know he's inside our territory until it's too late."

She cursed her people's lack of Qcomm access. Asgard had one it had purchased off the black market, but none of the other worlds in Asgardian space had access to the devices. They just didn't appear for sale often enough, and when they did, they went for obscene amounts of money. It was also suspicious every time they did show up.

The leading theory from the Lokis was that Qcomm was bringing the devices directly to the black market to sell them for far more than they were worth. The reason behind this theory was that there were little to no reports or rumors of ships carrying the devices being attacked or other places losing their communication devices. She knew Harlow had stolen one some years back, that was what had first garnered him so much attention from the STO, but that was quite some time ago. No, she believed the Lokis' theory, Qcomm was playing both sides, just like all the other big corporations.

Katalynn couldn't concern herself with the shady actions of some corporation within the STO right now. She needed to decide what to do about Harlow and whether she should accept Kane's offer. She had to admit that the man had shown up with an impressive fleet considering the last time she had been to Eden's End, the man had one half-torn-apart frigate with a single laser.