Blue Star Enterprises

Alexander was surprisingly nervous as the fleet neared their destination. The month and a half in space didn't really bother him, but he certainly could see the toll it was taking on everyone else. It probably didn't help that most of his crew were made up of members of the Hawks, and they had been deployed for nearly a year by this point.

He was sure they would appreciate some downtime, but Alexander wasn't sure that would be in the cards until after Harlow was dealt with.

"Everyone's as ready as they can be," Theo said, sounding even more tired than the rest of the people.

"I take it you don't much enjoy space travel?" Alexander asked.

"I grew up aboard a ship," Pembrooke admitted. "I prefer solid ground under my feet and more than a thin film of metal protecting me from the vacuum of space."

Alexander tapped him on the chest plate of his vac-suit. "A thin film of metal and some cloth."

"How could I forget, now I'm immeasurably more relieved," he said sarcastically.

Alexander snorted internally at the man's discomfort. If Pembrooke hadn't stuck his nose in Alexander's business, he wouldn't be stuck in this situation. Perhaps in time, Alexander might grow to trust Theo enough to leave him in charge while he was gone, but the man needed to work to earn that trust. Until then, he was going to be Alexander's shadow.

"Better go strap yourself in, we don't know what to expect when we arrive."

Alexander did the same, although his seat was more like a metal cage to keep him from flying around if his ability to secure himself to the flooring wasn't sufficient.

FTL travel was a bit weird. You could estimate how long it would take to jump from one system to another, but two ships jumping within seconds of each other could arrive minutes apart.

Then there was the arrival point. Those could be off as well, which was why ships had a jump bubble. That wasn't the same as the warp bubble that moved the ship into and out of FTL. The jump bubble was the safe distance a ship should be from another ship jumping because that ship could arrive anywhere within that sphere of space.

According to Nova, Alexander had experienced a rare phenomenon when he was piloting the Dawn back to Varlen. She called it a warp shift and it had plagued humanity for the first forty or fifty years after FTL travel was discovered. The issue had been mostly eliminated by improved jump computers, jump drives, and better power regulation.

Considering the issue seemed to have been the result of erratic power flow, he was pretty sure she was right in her assumption.

He checked the crew report one last time as the countdown timer ticked down. Everyone had confirmed they were at their stations and suited up in case this meeting didn't go as planned.

The timer hit zero and he waited. After an agonizing ten seconds, the ship's scanners started populating. There was nothing on them at first, but soon the other ships started popping into real space around them.

It seemed the Wayward Soul was the first to arrive.

Their jump landed them well outside the Yggdrasil system and deep into the Oort cloud around the local star. Krieger had decided on this course of action for two reasons. It would allow them to take long-range optical scans of the system to see what it looked like, and it also allowed them to ensure a closer arrival time since short jumps usually had less time drift.

The scans they took would be outdated, but it was better than hopping in blind and hoping for the best.

The fleet sat there for a full hour, checking and double-checking their systems before Krieger gave the order to jump. Read exclusive chapters at empire

The short hop lasted less than a second, but when they came out this time, Alexander's ship was one of the last to arrive. The pilot quickly maneuvered the ship into position as they all turned on their transponders and started a full scanner sweep.

They were still on the outskirts of the system, but now his scanners were seeing unmarked ships, stations, and other satellites as Soul's systems did their best to populate the map.

The two-dimensional view left a lot to be desired and Alexander wished he had had the time to upgrade the new ships with a holographic tac-display like the Eden ships had. He felt practically blind with the half-light second range that this ship's tactical overlay went out to.

The long-range sensors reached out much farther, but the ship only gave approximations of what those entities could be until optical sensors could get a clearer picture.

He didn't fail to notice two large blobs moving toward each other farther inside the system or the fact that the ships on his tactical view were frantically running for the cover of the small stations that orbited the planet that was the closest to their jump point.

As soon as the fleet was back in formation, Krieger contacted him. "Alright, Alex, the show's all yours until shit hits the fan."

Alexander might have laughed if he wasn't so nervous. He had tried to think of what to say when they finally arrived but found himself lacking an introduction that didn't make him sound demanding or weak.

Theo seemed to notice his hesitation and spoke up quietly. "Appeal to her pride."

Alexander nodded his avatar in thanks and opened a radio broadcast. "Katalynn Char, I am Alexander Kane, owner of Blue Star Enterprises and leader of BSE. I recognize the strength and spirit of your people and have come to discuss a matter that could have dire consequences for both our people."

Now he had to wait and see what happened.

***

What the hell are they doing here? Katalynn Char hadn't forgotten Eden's End or her defeat there. She had simply pushed that issue aside to deal with Xin and his encroachment into her territory as well as the damn challenges to her rule, which had only begun because of her defeat.

She recalled the report Loki had given her that stated Kane had a fleet, but that fleet had left for some unknown location. That report also stated they only had frigates, gunships, and an assault ship, which was owned and operated by a mercenary company. It made no mention of two cruisers and two destroyers being part of Kane's fleet.

It seemed that wherever they had gone, they had done so to increase their fleet size. It now outnumbered her fleet and if all of those ships had the same damn lasers that had hit her back when she went looking for the Anazi brat, this was not a battle that would favor them unless they did so in the shadow of the orbital defenses around Asgard. Not unless she could convince Isbjorn to fight alongside her.

"Isbjorn's ships are withdrawing to a safe jump point, Lagertha," Sub-Commander Vynnson stated in disgust.

"Fucking coward," she growled. Of course, that piece of bio-waste would turn tail and run the moment he thought he was at a disadvantage, even though the other fleet was a complete unknown. The man probably had no idea who Kane was considering he hadn't been involved with the attack on Eden's End.

The Jarl might have jumped away for a more advantageous position, but unless that position was to stab her in the back, she doubted it.

She watched dispassionately as the Jarl's ships vanished one by one. Katalynn would have to deal with the Jarl at some point but now was not the time. "Move us so we are covered by the defensive installations around Asgard."

Katalynn would not be meeting Kane on his terms if he came for a fight, nor would she allow Isbjorn to try and flank her to try and take advantage of this distraction.

An hour later, the radio message that Kane sent finally arrived. They must have been loitering in the system for some time to have the transponder ping reach her so much sooner than a radio message.

She wasn't sure what to make of the vague message speaking of a threat. That could mean anything. Hell for all she knew, Kane had finally learned of Xin's attacks and came to warn her. If that were the case, the man's ability to gather intelligence was months behind.

Since it cost her nothing to sit here and humor the request, she sent a response of her own, requesting more information and letting him know that if their fleet moved any further into the system or attacked anyone inside the system, it would be a declaration of war.

A little over two hours later she got her response.

"This issue involves someone we both despise greatly, the Anazis. I will be happy to discuss this further in person if you swear an oath that I will be given guest rights while I am here. If so, only my cruiser will approach the planet so I can land in a shuttle. I would say that I would arrive alone, but I recently rescued some of your people from an Anazi facility and I wish to return them to you. I await your response."

Was this some sort of trick? The man seemed to know at least some of her people's traditions by invoking guest rights but that could just be an elaborate lie to make her let her guard down. Outsiders could rarely be trusted to keep their word, which is why the Asgardians kept their space free of STO interlopers. Then again, if what he said was true and she didn't accept the offer, considering he claimed to have Asgardian natives that he rescued, she would look scared and weak.

"Haldric, contact my aides down on the surface and tell them to prepare for the arrival of someone of Jarl-like status." Her Sub-Commander nodded before turning back to his console and sending the orders.

She had been forced to use Jarl-like because her people did not recognize any authority figures other than Jarls, the King, and the Lagertha. Since she was a woman, she couldn't hold the title of King and there was no title of queen, which is why her people honored her with the title of Lagertha. Not being crowned King was also why any mistake she made was seen as a failure that had some of the Jarls jumping over themselves to try and prove she was unfit to rule the people.

Katalynn had proven them wrong time and time again and would do so until her dying breath if she must. She sent the response and waited.

After an hour, one of the cruisers moved away from Kane's fleet and jumped further into the system. It approached slowly.

She turned to Haldric. "I'm heading planetside. You're in charge until I get back. Keep an eye on that fleet, and destroy it if they so much as try to get closer."

"As you command, Lagertha," the man said, saluting her with a fist to the chest.

The trip down matched her uncertain mood as a wild storm rocked the shuttle. She didn't quite believe in omens, but if she did, this was not a good one.

Her shuttle touched down and she hurried to the transit tunnel, the wind and water whipping across her helmet, making it hard to see even a few feet ahead of her. She followed the orange lights embedded into the tarmac to avoid getting lost.

Katalynn remembered her dad telling her stories as a kid of people losing their way and stumbling into the jungle. It only took one nick of the razor-sharp vines to pierce a vac-suit and the person would be dead from the toxic gas in the atmosphere in under a minute. If you somehow got lucky enough to stumble through the thick jungle without causing a suit leak, the wildlife would get you eventually.

The thickly armored creatures of this planet were not predators, but they were highly territorial. She had never much cared for the sport of hunting, but her father had in his youth. She still recalled the trophy he had on display in their old home. It was of a skjoldulf and her father had it preserved with the wound that had been needed to bring it down, which had come from a small mounted railgun that her father had commissioned.

Katalynn briefly wondered where that gun had ended up. She had never seen it despite the fact that her father had a vast trophy room full of weapons.

An unwelcome figure met her on the train.

"Speak," she said to the Loki as she removed her helmet.

"We were working to present an update to you on Alexnder Kane's activities, but it seems the man has beaten us to it," Loki said with a slight chuckle. Katalynn did not find this situation nearly as amusing as Loki did and glared at the woman.

Undeterred by Katalynn's gaze, the woman continued. "His rescue of a group of Asgardians from a space station that likely once belonged to your father is probably true."

"What do you mean, likely once belonged to my father? How is that even possible?"

"Your father had a lot of secret projects going on and his death came as a surprise for most. During the transition to your rule, Lagertha, we regret to inform you that some of those projects got lost or were deliberately hidden by some of the Jarls so they could benefit personally from them. Now that we know of this one, we will continue digging until we find more information on other possible projects. As for this station, as far as we can determine, they stopped sending courier ships with updates around the time of your father's death. If Kane's words are true, it was probably captured by the Anazis during that transition period. It took considerable digging in the message archives to even find mention of this facility, and we still don't know where your father built it or who was involved."

She wanted to shake her head and curse her ancestors for creating a system where the ruler was chosen by combat. If this much was lost just by her defeating her father, imagine what else might have been lost over the centuries.

"Is that all?" she asked, annoyed that she was learning about this now.

"No, Lagertha. You should know Kane isn't just a normal man. We managed to get one of our Lokis on Eden's End and the man actually met with him in person, though Kane was unaware of this fact. Kane is apparently an eight-foot-tall robot, but that's not all. The persistent rumor on that planet is that Kane is part alien."

"Alien?" she asked, not quite believing the Loki. "What, like a Shican in disguise?"

"We're unsure, Lagertha, but we doubt he has any connection with the Shican."

"So another alien race. That's wonderful. What next? Are you going to tell me Odin is waiting in my reception hall?"

The woman didn't respond to the quip, she just gave her the same blank look that all Lokis defaulted to when they had nothing left to say or weren't playing a role. She guessed she would see what all the fuss was about when Kane arrived.