Blue Star Enterprises

"No, this is all wrong," Benning scolded the junior engineer. "Redo all of this and don't bring a project this sloppy to me ever again if you wish to keep your position. Do you understand?"

The young man across from him hung his head in shame. "I'm sorry, sir, I will do better."

"If you don't I'm busting you back down to entry level," Benning stated.

A soft chime rang before a melodic voice spoke. "Chief Engineer Benning, there is a matter that requires your attention."

"Leave me," Benning waved to the other engineer.

The man grabbed his tablet and hurried out of the room.

Benning waited for the door to shut and lock before he responded to the AI. "What matter?"

"There is a news conference involving one of your assets."

One of his assets? Instead of asking the AI twenty questions, he might as well see for himself. "Put it on."

Benning expected a normal holo report, but instead, the overhead holo turned on, and he found himself staring at a full-immersion replay. It was paused, but he recognized the man standing off to the side wearing an unknown uniform with what looked like an Admiral insignia on it.

"AI, who do those flags belong to?" he asked, studying the scene before playing the recording.

"The blue and white flag are the colors of BSE. The other flag is not in the STO database."

"BSE, hmm?" That along with Krieger's appearance was probably what flagged the AI. "Play the recording," he stated.

Benning watched as two differently suited soldiers dragged someone else he recognized onto the stage and chained the man to a podium. He stared at Harlow's crazed expression. The man raged through the gag as Krieger read off a long list of crimes, all of them likely true. Harlow looked like a ghost of his former self and nothing like he had when first set loose.

"It seems the changes we made to steer him away from the STO temporarily had a more deleterious effect on his mental state than we expected," he muttered quietly. "We will need to be careful of that issue if we use that method in the future. And why didn't our operative notify us of the man's condition?"

Benning would have questions for that operative, assuming he was still alive. Considering Harlow was in chains, that wasn't likely.

The trial and execution didn't last very long. As soon as Benning saw Harlow being dragged onto the stage, it ended much as Benning predicted it would.

"AI, calculate the chance that Operation Nightfall will be successful after this latest setback."

"Chances for success are less than five percent," the melodic voice responded after only a moment.

That was unacceptable. The Assembly would have his head if their entire decade-long plan collapsed. He also wasn't willing to let ten years' worth of preparation go down in flames because one man had gotten himself killed. There were always other options and backup plans.

"AI, give me options to turn Operation Nightfall around."

"Option One: Involve another party in the conflict. Option Two: Weaken the primary opposition. Option Three: Involve corporation assets on the side of the aggressor."

Benning didn't like any of those options.

Option One meant trying to get either Char or Xin involved, but the Assembly's sway over those groups was quite a bit less than with the pirates. The only other entity that he could think of that could elicit the appropriate response was the Shican, but the STO wasn't ready to take on the alien's true military forces.

Option Two was too open for interpretation. It also had the biggest chance of failure. Without Harlow to hold the pirates together, they were likely to turn to infighting very soon. Weakening the STO now wouldn't help that.

Option Three was probably the easiest way to ensure their plans went forward, but it also posed the largest risk. Even with covert Omni assets in play, someone was going to ask why the pirates suddenly got such a huge leg up in combat capability. That question would eventually lead back to Omni no matter how well he was able to hide it. "However…," he mused. "What if it isn't Omni tech they are using?"

Benning tapped at his lips as he thought over the problem. It could work, but he would still need to find someone to keep the pirates united until they could at least deploy the new technology.

"AI, is our asset still in place in Varlen?"

"Yes."

Benning had put a pause on the plan to remove Vice Admiral Fletcher from the picture. He had planned to push it forward once Harlow returned to the front so the events around Fletcher's death would be overlooked as the war drew the fleet's full attention, but that option was no longer on the table. Now that he needed access to tech that couldn't be traced back to Omni, it was time to reactivate that plan.

"AI, send the activation signal to our Varlen asset."

"Signal sent, Chief Engineer Benning."

Once Omni got their hands on the alien ship and the research documents, they could send a copy to Harlow's supporters. He knew the man had his secret base out on the fringe of Anazi space and it had a convenient Qcomm. Falsifying the sender to make it look like the information had come from Harlow before his death would be trivial with the Omni AIs.

"Yes, that will work wonderfully," he chuckled.

"Now, what to do about BSE, hmm?" The small company had become a much bigger thorn in his side than he had imagined it could be.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Sending out a fleet to wipe the entity out would be trivial with all of the Omni assets at his disposal. The problem was it would bring questions and scrutiny that Omni couldn't afford at the moment, especially now that BSE was a sovereign entity instead of just some upstart company.

Nobody gave a shit when a company vanished, but the first recognized human political entity outside of the STO and the defunct Coalition, going missing, would be noticed. There was a lot of chatter in the political scene around BSE right now and with their newest stunt, it would only increase. Benning needed to approach the issue with caution or find a way to ensure no blowback came Omni's way from removing them.

Taking out Fletcher might actually help things there. It's possible he could fabricate evidence to pin the Vice Admiral's death on the new power which was conveniently located nearby and had ties to the man. Explore stories on My Virtual Library Empire

"A deal gone sour, perhaps?" Benning thought out loud. That would certainly fit the narrative perfectly.

An investigation would be launched and he knew exactly whose company would be responsible for carrying it out. He sent a quick ping to Omni's sister company Dynamic Energy Solutions, specifically their CEO, Mrs. Cho Xiyu.

"Mr. Benning, to what do I owe the honor of this call?" the woman said, picking up almost immediately.

"Have you seen the news?" he asked.

"I have. Tragic really."

"Yes, highly unfortunate for those individuals over at BSE," he stated flatly. "I'm also concerned about how Vice Admiral Fletcher seemed to miss yet another attack by Harlow. The man is advancing in years, perhaps he should retire," Benning said, the coded phrase being immediately understood by his counterpart.

The woman tilted her head minutely in the screen but otherwise kept her face calm. "That is definitely something the STO should consider."

"You are right, obviously," Benning smiled as the woman responded with her own code, wondering if the responsibility to get rid of the man and pin it on BSE was to fall to her company or not. "We should stick to what we know best, like building powerplants and providing comprehensive reviews when issues arise."

Cho Xiyu nodded. "That does seem wise," she admitted.

"It's been lovely catching up, Mrs. Xiyu, but as you well know, I'm a busy man."

She thanked him for the call and disconnected. Benning normally wouldn't have risked even a coded message across the Qcomm, but he simply didn't have time to send a courier to Dynamic Energy System's home planet with a situation as fluid and fast-moving as this one needed to be.

The operation was already in motion and he needed to ensure that whatever investigator they sent was apprised of the role they needed to play before they went in and screwed it all up.

***

Fletcher was in the middle of paperwork when his comm chimed. It wasn't the Navy issue comm either, but the one linked to his private comm network. The same one he used to communicate to the stealth ships and some other off-the-books Navy assets, but not much else.

His people reverse-engineered the Qcomm decades ago and implemented their own secure distributed node network instead of the single node network that Qcomm used. It wasn't quite as fast at transferring large amounts of data as Qcomms, but it allowed for completely safe communications, unlike the unencrypted Qcomm links.

A bonus was that he ran an actual Qcomm link through their AI to the secure network, allowing for his off-the-grid network to still connect to Qcomm and monitor all base traffic.

That was what the ping was for. The AI had flagged an activation signal to one of Omni's agents.

He sighed. "I didn't think they actually had it in them," he muttered as he signed off the work order.

Fletcher brought up his schedule and saw he had an inspection tour in three hours aboard one of the retrofitted derelicts that had been pulled out of mothballs for the war effort. If he were planning an assassination, he would do it there. 'How' was the real question? They couldn't simply shoot him or poison him. That left evidence. They would have to ensure there was nothing left to point to a culprit. An explosion would be the easiest way to ensure a kill.

Fletcher shook his head in annoyance as he sent out a few messages on his private comm network. He could simply have the traitor arrested, but if they were finally willing to get rid of him, they would simply just try again if this attempt failed. It was best just to face his death so it didn't end up dragging more people in. To be fair, he had survived much longer than he had ever anticipated.

At least they were sending him out in a blaze of glory instead of poisoning him in his sleep.

He finished up a few more bits of paperwork to ensure it didn't look like he knew his death was fast approaching.

When the time came, he stood, grabbed his jacket and hat, checked that everything looked in place in the mirror, and stepped out of his office.

His two Marine guards instantly joined him as he made his way to the ship. They passed the man dressed as a technician that Fletcher had identified as the Omni agent. The man glanced his way as they passed, but Fletched paid him no mind. It was just another confirmation that he was right and that was all that mattered.

As they arrived at the airlock, Fletcher paused and turned to the two guards. "You two remain here, I don't need an escort aboard ship."

The Marines looked hesitant to follow the order. "Are you certain, Vice Admiral?" one of them asked.

Fletcher smiled. "Don't worry, I'll be fine."

With great reluctance, they nodded and took up positions at the airlock to await his return.

Fletcher would have sent the entire crew off the ship if he could, but he couldn't risk tipping off the agent. He had sent a list of the crew manifest along with everything he knew to his contact through the comm. One day Omni would get their reckoning, but that day wasn't today, nor would it come from him.

The hatch closed behind him as he boarded the ancient ship. It smelled of grease, oil, and rust, despite the upgrades made to it.

He was greeted by the young and inexperienced captain.

"Vice Admiral," the man saluted.

Fletcher saluted the man in return. "At ease, Captain. Take us out when you are ready and do a standard patrol route. Oh, and pretend I'm not here. I'm going to walk the ship."

The young captain looked concerned by that but nodded anyway.

Whatever charge had been set aboard the ship, it probably wasn't set to go off near the station, so he had some time, hopefully.

Soon after the ship was undocked, he got the ping he had been waiting for on his private network.

He spent the next hour familiarizing himself with the small frigate. Mostly he wanted to know where the docking hatches were.

Fletcher also spent the time speaking with the crew and getting them to take off their Navy-issued Qcomms and follow him. Most people didn't question a Vice Admiral when they gave commands, which made it easy for him to collect over two dozen crewmembers near the hatch before the ship shook slightly as another vessel docked.

The people looked around in confusion, but Fletcher simply shushed them and told them to exit the ship and step aboard the new one.

The overhead radio crackled to life as the Captain tried to get ahold of anyone who could tell him what had caused the shaking. Since Fletcher had taken the entire lower decks, there was nobody left to report back. He quickly sent a response letting the captain know he was in engineering and it was just a faulty power relay causing an intermittent fault in one of the thrusters. The captain seemed surprised to hear the news coming from Fletcher but soon acquiesced.

Fletcher wished he could save everyone aboard, but it simply wasn't an option. It didn't matter that the captain and half his command crew were on the Omni payroll. They were still Navy personnel.

He said a quick prayer for the remaining crew before stepping through the airlock and onto Long Night's bridge. It was one of the three new Nyx light frigates that had been completed with Kane's help.

The airlock closed and the ship detached itself and moved away, invisible to the ancient ship's sensors.

They were less than ten thousand meters away from the refurbished warship when it turned incandescent. Fletcher watched from the bridge. "I should have guessed a reactor overload," he said with a sigh. "It's easier to make that look like an accident instead of trying the faulty missile approach."

"Where to, Vice Admiral?" Captain Quain asked.

"You might as well call me Scott, Captain Quain, Vice Admiral Fletcher died in a tragic accident."