Blue Star Enterprises

Theo waited in the intake area, a vapid expression on his face to greet the new arrivals. A simple persona for when Willard eventually recognized him. Alexander had asked him to act as the STO personnel’s liaison while the puffed-up Vice Admiral was visiting.

The fact that he had been asked to do that didn’t bother him; it was the waiting around that annoyed him. He could have been doing any number of more important tasks that Alex had assigned to him. When he had suggested getting rid of the fleet, he knew Alex wouldn’t take him up on the offer to dispose of the STO people and ships, but he wished his boss had.

Sure it might have led to war, but if Alexander had acted decisively enough, he could wipe away any evidence of them having arrived in the system. Theo saw nothing good coming from this meeting. At best, they were here to make some sort of demand.

Then there was the other complication.

While Theo couldn’t prove it, the interaction stank of Omni’s involvement. The reason for his suspicions was plain as day: Willard was an imbecile. The only reason someone like that got placed in a position of such power was as an expendable and controllable pawn—someone whose sacrifice would be a convenient catalyst for whatever plan they had cooked up.

Frowning at that thought, Theo pulled out his communicator and contacted Alex.

“Are they here already?” Alex asked over the radio. “I thought I had another half an hour.”

“No, they aren’t here yet. I just had a disturbing thought. What if Willard suffers an unfortunate accident while in Unokane?”

“I told you, we aren’t going to consider that plan of action,” Alex responded tersely.

“I know,” Theo responded quickly, “I’m not suggesting that again. I’m concerned that this accident could happen despite us.”

Silence followed his statement and it was nearly a minute before Alex spoke once more. “You mean internal sabotage? Why would they do that?”

Theo almost wanted to laugh at Alex’s naivety. “Why wouldn’t they? They killed off Fletcher without a care. Look at it from their perspective. Willard is a fool, and easily replaced, yet he has connections. Connections who would demand action be taken if he met an unfortunate end. So they send the fool out in old ships that won’t be missed. They probably hope that you will simply kill him, but Omni never relies on only one plan of action. If I were running this operation, I would have two or three backup options to ensure Willard never left Unokane alive, all the while pinning the blame on you."

More silence followed that statement, and a few of the guards glanced his way after overhearing some of Theo’s animated discussion on the radio. He waved them off and moved to a more secluded section of the terminal to continue his discussion.

“If what you say is true, what can we do to stop this?” Alex asked.

Alex was understandably concerned given the situation, but Theo had plans within plans too. While they were talking, he had come up with more than one idea on how to defuse the problem. Had this been an Omni concern, he would have kept those thoughts to himself unless they helped lead to advancement. He didn’t hesitate to share them with Alex.

“First off, this attempt probably won’t happen on the surface, too many unknowns. Even if they had an accurate picture of the security here, it would be too risky to sneak a weapon past it. If they were going to do it prior to the shuttle landing, it would have been done already.” Theo paused to ponder for a moment. “If this were my plan, I would wait until the ships completed their mission and have just reached jump distance to enact it. That way nobody could stop the other ships from jumping. At least one of the other captains, if not all of them, would have to be a shill for whoever concocted this plan.” Theo left out Omni’s name because he wasn’t entirely sure it was his former employer. “Once they returned to Varlen they would report that they were attacked by us while leaving.”

“Without evidence to back it up? That sounds shaky at best.”

“Evidence can be manipulated,” Theo stated.

“And if this agent isn’t as smart as you?” Alex asked in return.

“Well, then it should be easy to deal with them, but I doubt that’s the case. My guess is, they will even transfer ships prior to departure to ensure their survival, which will tell us where the saboteur is and at least one of the captains we cannot trust.”

“That’s all well and good,” Alex stated, “but how do we stop them?”

“First you need to find out why Willard is here, then you’ll need to keep him here. To do that, you’ll need to play politics. I know you don’t like that, but that’s what has to happen. Drag out any discussions that you can and don’t make a firm promise on anything. We need time.”

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

Alex groaned over the radio. “Fine, I’ll see what I can do. How much time do you need and what do you plan on doing?”

“Can you make a robot small enough to avoid the Blueridge’s sensors?”

“Probably not small enough, why?”

“If we can disable the Blueridge before they leave or right after the spy switches ships, it’ll force Willard to return on another vessel. If Willard goes to a different ship than this saboteur, our problem is solved. If he goes to the same ship, there won’t be time for the individual to set up another accident that could be claimed as an attack.”

“You’re asking me to sabotage an STO vessel and all you are giving me are a lot of ifs,” Alex stated. “That being said, if what you say is true, I agree that the Blueridge will likely be the target. Preparing won’t hurt. While I can’t make a bot small enough to avoid ship sensors from that range, I can do one better and simply coat one of my smaller robots in the stealth coating. With it running on internal systems and some compressed gas jets, it should go undetected. Give me an hour.”

Theo looked over as people started to enter the intake area. “Can you make it any faster? Your guest has arrived.”

“No, you’ll have to delay him. Take him on a visit of the facility, I’m sure an STO Vice Admiral would love to see it.”

Theo sighed and stood as the radio cut out. He very much doubted a man like Willard would care one wit about the sights on Eden’s End, but Alex had given him an assignment and he was very much going to make it happen.

***

Ezekiel pulled the face mask off and nearly gagged again as a whiff of the horrendous atmosphere tickled his nose. He spat off to the side of the entrance to try and get the taste out of his mouth, not caring at all what the armed guards might think of his actions.

“What sort of degenerates decide that this is a habitable planet?” he asked nobody in particular. His security detail and Captain Rhys didn’t deign to answer.

When he finally collected himself, he looked around the terminal and spotted the guards wearing light-augment gear and carrying strange-looking rifles.

“What sort of backwater cesspool needs guards armed in augment gear? Let's make this quick, I wish to leave this place as soon as possible.”

“I believe this is the way we need to go,” the captain of the Blueridge gestured.

Ezekiel’s eyes followed the man’s arm to a gentleman next to a small booth. The man looked vaguely familiar, but Ezekiel couldn’t quite place where he recognized him from. He was probably someone of little importance then.

He strode over to the man, followed by the captain and their six Marines.

“Vice Admiral Willard,” the thin and sandy-haired man greeted him. He offered his hand, but Ezekiel ignored it.

“Are you Alexander Kane?” Ezekiel asked without preamble.

The man looked momentarily stunned by the question but quickly recovered and even smiled. “I am to be your liaison for your visit.”

At least this place had some decorum. “Good, take me to Kane, I have immediate business to discuss with him.”

“I’m afraid Alexander is tied up with other business at the moment. It shouldn’t be more than an hour though. If you would all follow me, I can show you around in the meantime.”

“Busy!” Ezekiel squawked in outrage, failing to control his annoyance. “Kane had plenty of time to clear his schedule and prepare for my arrival.”

The man held his hand up and shook his head. Confused by the action, Ezekiel turned to see that the local guards had taken steps to approach as his discussion got heated. The Marines had also placed their hands on weapons, ready for violence.

Ezekiel smothered his annoyance at this insolent man in front of him. “At ease!” he ordered his Marines, who reluctantly lowered their weapons.

Then he turned back to the man in front of him. “Fine. I will wait.”

The man gave a slight smile and gestured to the group to follow him.

Their unnamed liaison took them to an underground tram where they rode around the facility and visited sites that they considered impressive.

So far, the only thing Ezekiel found impressive was the fact that so many people were dumb enough to live on this gastric nightmare of a planet.

Through nonverbal means, he made sure to impress upon the other people in his entourage how they should feel as well. He didn’t want to give these yokels the impression that anything here was of interest to them.

“And here we have the central atrium,” the man stated with a sweeping gesture as they entered a large open dome filled with lush plants, flowers, and even some small trees. It was the smell that really sold it for him.

Ezekiel was hard-pressed to keep the scowl on his face as memories of his family garden back home bubbled up from his unconsciousness. He had very fond memories of the hidden areas in their sprawling estate garden, mainly ones that were linked to some romantic trysts when he was a much younger man. This atrium wasn’t as large as the garden on his homeworld, but whoever cared for it was at least mildly talented.

Then a much more unpleasant memory surfaced of those same gardens and why he had become the black sheep of his family and been forced to join the Navy to prove himself. His scowl returned in full force. “Enough of this nonsense. Take me to Kane, this instant. We will wait outside his office until he’s ready to see me.”

Ezekiel thought the man might balk at the request, but he simply nodded. “Very well, please follow me.”

They were led past a glittering memorial that seemed to draw the eye to it. If Ezekiel didn’t know any better, he would have suspected that massive crystal to be pure diamond. That would be absurd though.

They once again boarded the tram and it took far longer than the initial trip, making him grow even more annoyed. “Why is this taking so long?”

“Oh, we have to travel back to the side of the facility you entered,” their liaison said with a vapid smile.

Ezekiel could feel the vein pulsing in his forehead as he responded. “And why did we not just head back that way?”

“Oh, we just missed the tram heading back in that direction. Since you said you wanted to get to Alex’s office as quickly as possible, I figured waiting the additional time for the next tram would be unwise.”

That was when Ezekiel realized his liaison was a buffoon.