Blue Star Enterprises

Ganos City was a few hours away if Alexander traveled along a conventional flight route. He didn't plan on wasting that much time, though. One of his stipulations for meeting with the governor was the ability to transition using a quicker sub-orbital hop so he could take advantage of the shuttle's much faster speed outside of the atmosphere. That would cut over an hour off the trip.

While traffic control wasn't too thrilled about the change, they sent him the flight plan. Soon, Alexander was heading into orbit, and shortly after that, he was descending again near the spaceport for Ganos City.

Unlike the large metropolitan city of Ormaxis, where the Hawks' headquarters resided, Ganos City had much shorter buildings and far more green space. Despite it being the capital of the planet and the seat of power, the city was less than a quarter of the size of Ormaxis. Even the spaceport only had a dozen landing pads, one of which held a rather large and ostentatious shuttle.

Alexander landed on the specified pad, his shuttle looking small next to the other one, which he assumed was the official governor's shuttle. What his shuttle lacked in size, it made up for with elegance, however. Even someone with only basic knowledge of shuttles could see that the smaller of the two was the more advanced vessel.

As Alexander stepped off the shuttle, he was greeted by a well-dressed man. The man bowed. "Greetings, Mr. Kane. My name is Jamal, and I will be your attaché during your visit. We have prepared a vehicle to bring you to the Capitol Building. If you would be so kind as to follow me." The man gestured to a vehicle that looked simi- no, it was identical to the vehicle that the Hawks had, only it held a different livery from the Hawks' version.

"How is it that you have a car for me?" Alexander asked.

"The Governor likes to keep track of what important entities on the planet are up to. When one of them requisitioned such an odd vehicle, he felt it prudent to look into why such an august group such as the Hawks of Ganos would do such a thing."

It appeared that the governor had done his homework. That was certainly a change from most STO people Alexander had met so far. Normally, they didn't know anything about him. He wasn't sure which he preferred.

The trip to the office of the planetary governor was a short one. Mostly because they got a police escort. It was all a bit ridiculous to Alexander, but he suspected the governor was using it as a way to impress upon him the importance of his visit and to flaunt his power a bit.

Alexander sighed internally and got ready to play politics.

***

"What is that?!" Yulia asked in excitement as she pointed at the animal jumping from a tree. The Zoo was amazing! Who knew there were so many different types of animals?

"That," Zorina stated, "Is a ring-tailed lemur. They are a native species from Earth, or so I recall."

Yulia turned toward the woman. "You don't know?"

Zorina shook her head slightly. "I have never been to Earth."

"Oh," Yulia said. "Are there any animals native to Ganos?"

"If you stop asking me a bunch of questions when we stop at every new exhibit, you may find out," the woman said with a smirk.

Yulia stuck her tongue out at Zorina, and the group continued their tour. It was a bit weird having the entire space around her cleared by the Hawks and her bodyguards, but it did afford her the best spots to view the animals, so she was conflicted on whether or not she should be happy about it or upset that she couldn't experience it like the other children she saw.

She chose to go with happiness since it allowed her to see all these new animals. The smell she could do without, though. Animals were stinky.

There was a screech as they neared the next exhibit. Before Yulia could even ask, Zorin spoke up. "That is a common flying raptor."

Yulia glanced through the cage where Zorina was pointing and spotted a lump pressed against the side of a tree. As she stared at it, the lump moved, and a small triangular head looked around before screeching again.

"Ganos had other flying raptor species, some as big as shuttles. Those went extinct shortly after humans settled on the planet. If I recall correctly, it was a combination of the larger raptors' food supply dwindling and their propensity to try and eat Earth species, which turned out to be incompatible with the local fauna."

Yulia scrunched her face up and turned to Zorina. "What does 'extinct' mean?" It was a word she had never heard before.

"It means the last of the species died out and is gone," the woman stated sadly.

"Can't they bring them back?" Yulia asked.

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Zorina shrugged. "Maybe. Most of the species in this zoo were once extinct. I don't think anyone who lives on Ganos wants to contend with shuttle-sized flying predators anymore, though."

Maybe that was for the best. Having to watch the skies constantly sounded rather terrifying to Yulia. She still got vertigo occasionally when she looked up at the sky.

The tour continued.

***

As Alexander entered the governor's office, the man stood from behind an ornate and richly veneered wooden desk and greeted him with a big smile and a handshake.

"I'm so glad you decided to visit me during your short stay, Mr. Kane. It isn't every day that a new CEO and friend of the Hawks graces my humble office. You can call me Bellos, all my friends do." Despite knowing the man was a career politician, Alexander was still surprised that the man managed to spout all that nonsense with a straight face.

As for the office and it being humble, that was a vast misrepresentation. Much like the shuttle, the office was grandiose, with filigreed wood paneling accented in gold. Considering what Jasper had told him about wood, the office alone must have cost a fortune to decorate. The wall behind the governor held a holo display, making it appear like the man was sitting in front of massive windows overlooking rolling hills. On the left wall was a massive portrait of a very modest settlement. Alexander assumed it was a recreation of the city's origin.

On the right wall were three portraits of people, with the current governor's salt-and-pepper visage the closest to the desk. The others must be previous governors, much like the line of portraits in the hallway.

The extravagance on display was pretty much what Alexander expected from a sitting official within the STO, but it still soured his mood toward the man just a bit more.

Thankfully, the meeting should be mainly a meet-and-greet.

Alexander was disabused of that notion a moment later when the salt-and-pepper-haired planetary governor immediately tried to make a deal.

"If you haven't found a distribution center for your products, Ganos would love to be your exclusive partner. With our location and access to the hypergates, we could guarantee universal distribution in months," Bellos rattled on, not even knowing what products BSE offered yet.

"I'll take your request into consideration," Alexander stated noncommittally.

He may have considered the offer, but it was clear by the conversation that Governor Bellos was trying to get exclusive contracts, and Alexander wasn't having any of that. An exclusive contract would be great for Bellos, but it would be awful for Alexander since it would give the governor all the power in any negotiations.

The man was audacious, Alexander had to give him that, but that didn't sway him into agreeing with any of the governor's proposals.

Despite the rejection, Governor Bellos seemed undaunted by Alexander's lack of commitment as he kept trying to push his agenda. Thankfully, the meeting ended an hour later when the governor had to go to another appointment.

With an internal sigh of relief, Alexander exited the Capitol building.

It wasn't as onerous as he suspected it would be, but he knew this was only a small taste of what he could expect when he arrived on Earth. He hoped Yulia was having a better time than he was.

***

Yulia stared in open-mouthed astonishment at the ocean. She had seen it on the way down, but she thought it was like a large, really shallow puddle.

That wasn't the case. She watched as another massive wave crashed against the curving cliff face they stood upon. When the wave subsided, the water withdrew for hundreds of feet, exposing a shelf of rock that fell dozens of feet before the next wave rolled in to do it all over again.

According to Zorina, the Ocean was deeper than the tallest buildings in Ormaxis. She also claimed that there were beaches where it was safe to swim and where you couldn't touch the ocean floor.

The thought was a mildly terrifying one until Yulia realized it was probably a lot like floating around without gravity. She had experienced that aboard the Zephyr when they first traveled to Eden's End. She didn't mind the feeling of weightlessness, but seeing the water slam into the rocks, she doubted that it would be as enjoyable.

Yulia also had no idea how to swim.

Their last stop was a nature preserve. She found the trees to be fascinating, but the darkness under their canopy made her feel small and a bit scared. That feeling wasn't helped by the sounds. Zorina explained to her that those came from birds and bugs.

She had seen a few birds in the zoo, and she knew about bugs. Petrov had them, and so did Eden's End, but not to this extent.

Yulia waved her hand as one of the bugs buzzed past her. As much fun as her visit was, she was ready to head back to the ship.

***

Alexander chuckled as an exhausted Yulia climbed from the car. "Did you have fun?" he asked.

The girl mumbled something unintelligible before shuffling aboard the shuttle, followed shortly by her guards.

He turned to Zorina to see what that was all about.

"We visited the zoo, a series of cliffs near the ocean, and then a forest preserve. I think it was a bit too much for one day," the woman admitted. "She fell asleep on the ride back, and we woke her up once we arrived."

"Ah," that explained her current attitude. Yulia was a pretty heavy sleeper, and she never did well when that sleep was disrupted. "Thank you for showing her around."

"That's not necessary," Zorina said. "I'll be honest, I missed the little troublemaker."

Alexander chuckled lightly at that. "As I told you before, there is always a job on Eden's End once your contract with the Hawks is complete."

Zorina nodded. "I'm aware, but Yulia will be grown by the time that happens. While your offer was generous, I decided to extend my time with the company for another five years. With so many senior people lost during the fighting, the Hawks need experienced people to take the now vacant team leader positions."

"Is that why you are with TL Vochenek?" Alexander asked.

"Yes. He is training me for my new role."

"Congratulations, Zorina. I'm sure you will be an excellent team leader."

"Thank you, Alex." She paused for a bit before continuing. "Do me a favor, don't tell Yulia about my decision. I think she still believes I plan on coming to Eden's End soon, and I don't want to break her heart."

"It will be our secret," he stated. "Thank you again, and good luck." Alexander held his hand out, and the pair shook.

He waved to Vochenek, who had remained by the car. The man gave a curt nod in response, and the pair left. Alexander wasn't sure how Yulia would take Zorina's news; she looked up to the woman quite a bit.

Zorina was probably correct to want to keep it a secret, hopefully, Yulia wouldn't ask about the woman or find out until she was older. With a quiet sigh, he stepped aboard the shuttle. They had a few more days in orbit to allow for the crew to enjoy some downtime, then it would be off to Epsilon Indi.