Blue Star Enterprises

Before they left Varlen, Alexander had to declare his route. Civilian ships weren't required to do that, but his ships were armed and fell into a grey area within STO law. The poor crew left behind to man the station while it was being decommissioned were just trying to cover their own asses. He could hardly blame them for that.

Alexander wasn't bothered by the request. Willard was already aware of where he planned to go, and the man could have passed that information on to anyone by now. Alexander didn't exactly have control over communication anymore. He could only intercept radio signals sent their way.

His little spy bot had also removed itself from Willard's ship after they left Unokane, leaving Alexander without any way to keep track of the information aboard the Blueridge. It felt like the early days of Eden's End when he lacked reliable intelligence-gathering options. The lack of information annoyed him and he almost felt like he understood the Lokis, but he quickly came to his senses.

At least he still had the stealth satellites, which covered the next five systems along their route. Thanks to that, he had known about the lack of STO ships in Varlen months ago, but not the reason why they had departed. It still surprised him that the STO would simply decommission the system. It wasn't like there weren't still pirates flying through the intervening systems on occasion. Then again, those would probably stop completely once the Swordfish class corvettes were deployed.

Once he declared their route, the technician awkwardly thanked him and the fleet proceeded through Varlen.

***

LOCATION: GANOS

SYSTEM: ROSS 128

DATE: 2402

With a flash, all twelve of the ships in Alexander's formation appeared on the outskirts of Ganos.

He hadn't told Willard that they would be stopping at the core system because he hadn't planned on doing so until his return trip. He changed his mind a week ago. When he glanced around at the crew, they looked like they could use some time off the ship. It had been nearly two months since they left Unokane, and they had not stopped even in Varlen.

As with the previous systems in STO space, ships scattered as they approached. Transponder or not, smart people got out of the way of armed vessels.

Alexander noted a few transponder signals from STO Navy ships in the system, but none of them reacted to their presence. They had likely been alerted soon after he departed Varlen.

He filtered through the thousands of transponder IDs that flooded the system until he found the one he had been looking for. Then he smiled. The Talon was there.

It was time to pay the Hawks of Ganos a visit and show them what they could expect when he replaced their lost frigates. Since Alexander decided to move away from frigates as a viable ship class, he saw no reason to design a frigate specifically for the Hawks. That would have been a subpar vessel, instead, he would be offering them Orcas.

Alexander sent a comm message to the Talon to prevent anyone from intercepting the communications to his allies.

Captain Bloomright quickly picked up. "Mr. Kane? What can I do for you?"

"Sorry to bother you, Captain Bloomright, but I thought it best to let you know that I am currently in Ganos and plan on stopping for a visit at your headquarters."

She looked slightly surprised by that. "You're in Ganos?"

He nodded.

"Alright. I will contact Mr. Baru and let him know you are on your way. How long until you reach orbit?"

He relayed the information to Bloomright, and she nodded. "Very well. We look forward to speaking to you in person."

Arranging a parking orbit around the heavily trafficked planet was harder than Alexander expected. In the end, it was just easier to leave most of the fleet, along with Katalynn, near one of the moons. She had turned down his offer to visit the Hawks' headquarters. That meant his only passengers were Yulia, who sat in the copilot seat looking ecstatic and kicking her legs back and forth, and their security detail.

They would remain in the system for a few days to allow the rest of the crew to have some downtime after their business was concluded.

"It's so blue!" Yulia said in awe.

Alexander chuckled softly. While Ganos was indeed a beautiful world, it still didn't compare to what he recalled of Earth. The star was a bit smaller and less bright, and the atmosphere on Ganos was a tiny bit thinner, leading to a more diffuse blue. The planet also didn't have as much water as Earth, being only forty-eight percent water. That did mean it had a whole lot more landmass, though, since it was nearly the same size as Earth.

He could see strips of green and large forests as they descended, but it all looked cultivated instead of naturally occurring. The cities were massive, covering enormous areas of land, their skyscrapers reaching well beyond anything Alexander had experienced back on Earth, except for maybe some of the tallest buildings of his time.

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Yulia took it all in, her eyes wide as saucers as they cut through the upper atmosphere. The shuttle was on autopilot, following the flight path given to them by Ganos' traffic control.

Alexander quickly realized the roundabout route was designed to show off the planet's natural beauty. He wasn't much impressed by it, but Yulia had never seen an ocean or even a lake for that matter. To her, those things truly were amazing.

"I'll see about getting us a tour of some green spaces. Maybe even a chance to see some animals?"

"Real animals?!" she squealed in joy, which caused Dog to give out an annoyed bark from the passenger compartment. "I didn't mean it like that," she apologized. "Of course, you're real too," she called back to her erstwhile companion, which earned another much happier-sounding bark in return.

The spaceport was a busy place, but thanks to the Hawks, Alexander was able to set the shuttle down in a private area. He saw two individuals in Hawks colors waiting near a large vehicle off to the side. It looked like a limousine.

It sometimes amazed him what sort of things survived the test of time.

They touched down, and Alexander secured the ship. Their security team was ready and waiting for him by the time he entered the passenger area of the shuttle.

The group of four nodded at him, and he nodded back. Then they exited the shuttle to check the area.

"All clear," came the radio message a few moments later.

Alexander strode down the ramp ahead of his daughter and her security detail.

As the group approached the much-modified-looking limo, he realized he recognized the two mercenaries waiting for him. "TL Vochenek, Zorina. I hadn't expected to see the two of you."

"Zorina?" Yulia said in excitement, before bolting across the remaining space to greet the woman.

Her security detail was hot on her heels, and Dog loped behind at an easy gait. At full speed, Dog could run nearly as fast as Alexander.

Vochenek's eyes widened slightly at the nearly waist-tall robot charging at him, but thanks to his excellent training, he didn't budge.

Zorina on the other hand, scooped Yulia up and spun her around to the delight of the teenage girl, before putting her back on the ground. She then gave his daughter an admonishing glare. "It is not wise to run from your security detail," the no-nonsense woman stated

Yulia blushed in embarrassment. "Sorry. I was just excited to see you. I never got to see you the last time you came to Eden's End."

"A few seconds wouldn't have changed anything. Please be mindful to not put your guards at a disadvantage. They have enough to worry about without having you run off."

Yulia nodded sullenly.

Seeing that her point got through, Zorina looked up at Alexander. "It is good to see you as well, Mr. Kane. When we got word of your arrival, I volunteered to be one of the people to pick you up. TL Vochenek was the other to volunteer."

The other man nodded. "I wanted to thank you for assisting my team during the pirate clearing operation. You likely saved a few lives that day."

Alexander didn't feel like he had done anything out of the ordinary, but he nodded toward the man. Then he looked toward the car. "Are you sure that thing is going to support me?" he asked.

Zorina nodded and clicked a remote in her hand. The entire side of the vehicle opened up, leaving more than enough room for Alexander to climb inside.

"The Hawks had this vehicle commissioned in case you ever chose to visit," Zorina said with pride.

"Wait, you commissioned this just for me?" Alexander asked in shock.

"The Hawks commission and keep vehicles for all of our esteemed guests to ensure they have the best experience they can possibly get while they are here. Normally, we provide the customer with the request form so they can build the vehicle to their specifications, but our leadership wanted to surprise you."

"Tell them they succeeded," he said with a wide smile as he climbed into the large vehicle.

There was a seat in the back designed for him, and so he sat in it. The other seats were taken up by Yulia and his security team, leaving four open seats. Zorina folded those down, leaving a nice flat area in the center for Dog to sit. His additional weight did make the vehicle bottom out, but the suspension adjusted, and soon it was level once again.

"We are probably a bit over capacity with Dog, but that should be fine, we don't have far to go," Vochenek said as he took the front passenger seat as the side slowly closed.

Zorina stepped into the driver's seat, and soon they were off. The soft whine of the electric motors and the hum of the tires on the concrete were the only sounds to indicate they were moving. The vehicle was the smoothest ride that Alexander had ever experienced.

As impressed as Alexander was with the engineering behind the vehicle, Yulia was more so. She kept asking Vochenek questions about how the suspension worked. She had tried asking Zorina, but the woman simply told her not to distract her while she was driving.

Soon, they pulled into the parking lot of a five-story building. It was one of the smaller buildings in the area, even on the outskirts of the massive city.

Unlike the other buildings nearby, the Hawks crest was front and center on the building, and the entire structure had a ten-foot-tall chain-link fence surrounding it and a large compound toward the rear. There was also a constant patrol of armed mercenaries inside the fenced-in compound that they drove into.

The car pulled up to a literal red carpet and an honor guard. Alexander wanted to roll his eyes at the extravagance of such a greeting, but he would never belittle the efforts of the Hawks after their help.

The first to exit the car was Dog, because nobody else could get out with the robot taking up most of the space. Then Alexander exited, followed by Yulia. The four guards came out last since there was more than enough security inside the Hawks' compound to prevent any outside nonsense.

Anthony Baru and Captain Bloomright strode to meet them.

Alexander reached out and shook Mr. Baru's extended hand as well as Captain Bloomright's.

"I'm glad to finally get the chance to meet you in person, Mr. Kane. What brings you to our neck of the galaxy? I hope you don't need our support for something. While we have made good strides to restore our diminished company, we are not yet combat-ready."

Going by the man's light chuckle, he had meant it as a bit of a joke, but Alexander still winced internally at the reminder.

"No, thankfully, we don't have any pressing need for the Hawks' service. I was heading to Sol for some business, and since I was coming this way, I decided to come pay my respects and discuss the compensation I promised Captain Bloomright before she left."

Baru nodded and smiled. "Let us head inside and discuss matters. Your daughter can join us if she wishes, or we have an entertainment room for guests."

Alexander turned toward his daughter.

"I'll go to the entertainment room," she said.

Baru nodded again. "Zorina, would you show our guests around?"