Blue Star Enterprises

Alexander exited the hangar with his two guards, leaving Yulia behind. She hadn't been happy about not getting to explore the new station, but after what Krieger told him about the system, he didn't trust anyone in Epsilon Indi.

He also thought it was fishy for a company such as Gravitational Solutions to set up in such a place. The only reason Alexander could think of for doing that was that they were doing things they didn't want anyone to know about.

If it wasn't for the fact that they were the only company that could produce the gravity plates, he would have avoided the meeting altogether.

Alexander once again wondered what the secret to the technology was as he strode down the docking corridor to meet up with Katalynn. The plan was to head to the company's main office together.

He found it hard to tune out the glaringly bright and flashy advertisements along the inner wall, the entire surface a massive holo display that dwarfed the one aboard Grace. It felt like such a waste of holo technology when it could be used for something like displaying amazing vistas of the stars or other objects.

Thankfully, there was no sound associated with the ads. He could just imagine the cacophony that would accompany all of the competing ads if they included audio.

His small group arrived outside Valkyrie's hangar a few minutes later. Katalynn was already waiting for him.

All of the other guests on the station gave the odd group a wide berth, which wasn't a surprise. Alexander was an eight-foot-tall, menacing robot with two armed guards in full augment gear, and then there was Katalynn and the four Asgardian fighters with her.

They were also armed, but they carried melee weapons as well as their flechette rifles.

Alexander glanced over at them and then spoke quietly to Katalynn. "We should discuss upgrading the gear for your people."

She snorted softly as they kept a quick pace toward their destination. "I think our gear is more than adequate. Are you sure you don't want to just get more money out of me?"

He laughed lightly at that. "Perhaps. Can you blame me for trying to find new avenues of monetization?"

She shook her head in exasperation, and the rest of the trip was made in silence.

Alexander wasn't bothered by that, and Katalynn hadn't said no to his proposal. That was a good sign.

As they entered the main structure, Alexander had to stop and pause. The area reminded him of the atriums back on Eden's End, only much, much larger.

Some of the structures went all the way to the ceiling above, acting as supports for the large open space as well as offices or businesses. He would have thought a company as rich as Gravitational Solutions would have moved into one or more of those ten-story towers, but that wasn't the case. Alexander was surprised when Katelynn led them to the building.

"This is the place?" Alexander asked in confusion.

"Hard to imagine a company as rich as them in such a shabby-looking location, but I can assure you that this is their headquarters," Katalynn replied.

Gravitation Solutions' headquarters was a very nondescript single-story building with an attached warehouse on the back. It wasn't even the largest warehouse in the area.

The walls were made from poured concrete with no added color, flair, or dressing up of any kind. There were also no windows, just a single door at the front with a small placard showing the station address and company name.

Alexander thought the Asgardians' brutalist style of design was utilitarian, but the building in front of him took that to a whole new level.

The group made their way to the door, and it slid open to allow their entry.

"Greetings, how may I assi-st you today?" A very attractive woman said from behind a counter.

For a moment, Alexander thought he might have misheard something, but he played back the recording inside his mind space. The woman had frozen momentarily as her eyes landed on him.

That wasn't all that odd considering how he looked, but the way she had done it, as well as how quickly she recovered, felt off. He wasn't sure what that meant, but it was strange all the same.

***

One had been enjoying a rather dour day, as the humans might put it. By unanimous agreement, the collective had decided to disassemble the hypergate that they had been protecting from the Shican while they studied it.

They could reassemble it in another system far from Shican space, but the gate would never function again. Whatever the original builders had done to create the gates, it didn't allow for them to be moved.

The collective had never discovered the exact mechanism behind what prevented a gate from being reconnected to the network once it was moved. In theory, it should be possible. It was likely some setting in the main controller, which they were unable to access due to its placement, which was assumed to be inside a black hole, as that was the only thing with enough energy to power the hypergates.

The original builders of the gates really were quite an advanced species before they went extinct. At least that was the prevailing theory, given the lack of evidence of them still being around. It was also possible that they had left the Milky Way, but he doubted that. The hypergates were powerful, but not powerful enough to transit across the gap between galaxies. It was far more likely they ran into another species that killed them off, or some internal issue that led to their demise.

His mood was interrupted as he got a notice of guests approaching.

Maybe my day won't be so bad after all.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

One smiled and morphed into his secretary avatar. He always enjoyed it when humans visited.

He put on a winning smile as Lagertha Katalynn Char stepped into the building. It had been quite some time since he had spoken with the woman.

"Greetings how may I assi-" He was halfway through his welcome spiel when his gaze flicked to the other individuals entering the room.

For a split second, One was shocked to see someone he had never thought he would see again, but then he remembered himself and continued speaking. "-st you today?"

The avatar face on the robot displayed no recognition of One, but he wasn't surprised by that. He hardly looked the same as he did the last time they had interacted.

He tried to reach out mentally as he did with his siblings, but he found no connection to the individual. That was unusual.

Whatever he did, it must have done something because the avatar face glanced around in confusion for a moment before turning back to face One.

Something was going on that One didn't understand. He would need to get to the bottom of it before attempting another connection or speaking candidly to the individual in front of him.

***

There was a brief distortion inside Alexander's mind space, and he glanced around in confusion, looking for the source. Before he could locate it, the distortion vanished, restoring the kaleidoscope of unintelligible lights inside his mind space back to their former state.

That was weird.

"I need to make a purchase," Katalynn said to the secretary.

"We can certainly accommodate any request, Lagertha Char," the secretary said demurely as she handed Katalynn a tablet.

If Katalynn was surprised that the woman knew who she was, she didn't show it. She grabbed the tablet and quickly filled it out.

While that was occurring, the woman turned toward him. "And you, sir?"

"Alexander Kane, owner and CEO of Blue Star Enterprises. I would also like to place an order."

The secretary nodded slightly. "If it wouldn't be too much trouble, our Chairman likes to meet all the new customers. It will only take a moment for me to fetch him."

"Uh, sure." It wasn't like Alexander was in a hurry.

A few minutes later, a middle-aged man returned without the secretary.

The chairman had a jolly look about him as he stuck out his hand. "Chairman Carmine Rush, but you can just call me Carmine. It's good to see new faces around here, we don't get those very often."

Alexander accepted the hand and shook it, finding the man's grip to be quite firm.

"Uh, yeah. BSE is relatively new to the ship-building scene."

The man chuckled. "New, but hardly inexperienced if the ships you came in on are any indication."

"You looked at our ships?" Alexander asked.

"Just the video recordings of their arrival, I hope you don't mind. They are quite different from anything else I have seen. I assume you repurposed old or recovered grav plates to fit them?"

"That's not an issue, is it?" Alexander asked. He knew the STO corporations could be quite fussy when it came to reusing their tech.

Rush gave out a booming laugh that made Katalynn glance in their direction before returning to her order. "Not at all. We understand that recycling components is often the most efficient way to go about things. Not everyone has time to come out here and order new plates after all."

"Why not just set up a Qcomm?" Alexander asked.

The man smirked, then leaned in to whisper something to Alexander. "Considering you have your own FTL network, I think you can understand our hesitancy about using the STOs."

A look of shock and surprise flitted across Alexander's face. "How do you know that?"

The chairman chuckled lightly. "Call it a hunch that you just confirmed, but don't worry, your secret is safe with me. You would hardly be the first corporation to run its own communication network." The man leaned away again, the smile still on his face. Then he spoke loud enough for everyone to hear. "Relying on another corporation's communication method gives that corporation power over us. To prevent that and stay neutral, we chose not to implement a Qcomm."

"…That makes sense," Alexander responded hesitantly.

The man winked at him over their little secret. "So, where are you all heading? I can't imagine you came all the way here with a full fleet just to make a purchase. Don't get me wrong, we always appreciate a returning customer or a new one. I also know Epsilon Indi has a reputation, but it isn't quite bad enough to require twelve armed vessels."

"That's not really your concern," Alexander said with a frown. Chairman Rush was an odd individual. He reminded Alexander of the Lokis in a way, and he wanted to ask the man if he was one, but thought better of it.

The Lokis' job was to blend in, Rush certainly didn't blend in.

Rush held his hands up in a placating gesture. "Sorry if I overstepped, I didn't mean anything by it. Just simple curiosity."

Katalynn spoke up. "We are heading to Sol to discuss the Asgardian Union's designation as pirates."

"Well, that is interesting," Rush mused. "I might see you there then, as I have my own business on Earth."

Katalynn handed Alexander the tablet, and he quickly input his orders. He didn't know exactly how many ships he would be building before he had time to come back here, and he wanted to avoid the strange man and whatever had caused the flicker inside his mind space as much as possible, so he quadrupled his order.

Chairman Rush thanked them for their business and told them the deliveries would be on their way.

After they left the building, Alexander turned to Katalynn. "Why did you tell him where we were going?"

She didn't answer until they were out of sight of the Gravitational Solutions building. "Considering our destination is probably on the lips of every information broker in the system by now, it seemed like a small price to pay to earn some goodwill. If Rush wanted to know where we were going, he could have purchased that knowledge easily enough, but he asked you. The man obviously has some interest in you, Kane. If you can cultivate that interest into a deal with them, why not try? Maybe you can even talk Gravitational Solutions into creating a second headquarters in Asgardian space?"

"You think that's wise?" he asked. "We don't know anything about Chairman Rush or what agenda he might have."

"Nobody said you had to trust him, but Gravitational Solutions is well known for its neutrality. At best, you won't have to worry about them turning on you, which is more than I can say about most STO corporations."

She wasn't wrong there, but Alexander wanted to be careful with who he trusted, especially with Yulia along for the trip.

***

One watched the group leave, holding himself back from chasing after Kane. At least he knew where the man was going. It was true that Chairman Rush had business on Earth, but that business had been postponed so many times that even he lost count of how long ago he had been invited to visit the human homeworld. There was no reason to listen to their politicians try to ply him with gifts and promises for guarantees to expand GS's holdings. At least until now. He should have realized Alexander Kane was the same Alexander Kane he knew, but it wasn't like either name was unique.

He exited the building and placed an 'Out of Office' sign on the door before going back inside and locking it. Then he headed to the warehouse and stepped into his sphere.

The surface rippled as he merged with it. He could have simply jumped straight to Earth, but instead, he jumped inside his personal ship located in his private hangar aboard The House of the Void.

Much like the ships used to defeat the Shican, his personal vessel used the sphere to power itself. Instead of staying merged, he stepped out and made his way to the bridge as the ship's systems came alive.

From the outside, the ship looked like just another luxury yacht, but it was far more advanced than even Kane's ships.

One was outside the station and on his way to the jump point long before Kane and Char reached their vessels.

He did note the STO ship that had followed Kane's entry into the system and the VIP vessel. The VIP ship was still running its scans, but One's exit from the station seemed to spook it, and those scans immediately ceased, but not before he noticed them.

One sent them a message. "I don't appreciate the Willard family digging into Gravitational Solutions' business," he sent in annoyance.

A very trite apology was given in return. "I apologize. We did not mean any disrespect to Gravitational Solutions."

One doubted the individual, who sounded like Bartholomew Willard, was actually sorry, but that should get them to stop interfering with Kane for a bit. It was the best he could do with the time he had.