Blue Star Enterprises

“You sure you’re up for this?” Alexander asked the older woman.

Eva gave him a dirty look. “Just because I’m old, doesn’t mean I’m senile. I’ve probably forgotten more about ship systems than you even know.”

Alexander held his hands up in a placating gesture. “It wasn’t a comment on your age. Just the time you’ll be away from Markus.”

She didn’t look like she quite believed him. “My boy will be fine. I should ask you the same. We’re both going to be up there for at least a month. You sure Yulia will be ok without you for that long?”

Alexander glanced back toward the facility and sighed. “It pains me to have to leave her here by herself, but I trust her friend’s parents to take care of her while we are gone.” As it turned out, one of the people on the barricade with Eva during the pirate attack had been Sarah’s father. The man had held a bit of a grudge after Yulia got Sarah in trouble with the Hawks. He didn’t blame the man, he would have probably felt the same way if their positions were reversed. But any animosity the man and his wife had held before the attack had melted away after Alexander had saved him and everyone else at that barricade.

Yulia also had Dog with her.

The robot couldn’t protect her, but if he got an alert that she was injured, you best believe he was contacting Damien and demanding he find out what was happening immediately. And his next call would be for Branston to pick him up and bring him back.

He spotted Shuttle 1 coming in for a landing. It had been picking up some other passengers at the refueling station.

When the ramp opened, the crew of the Destiny stepped off, looking rather worn out from their extended mining trip. They had just spent two and a half months mining. Normally, six weeks was a full tour before a crew got some downtime. Alexander hadn’t asked them to do this, they had done it to repay him for letting them stay here.

Three people approached him, while the rest of Na’s crew headed for the facility entrance.

“Alexander, Eva, it’s good to see you are both still well,” Na smiled tiredly as he offered his hand.

Alexander shook it, but Eva only snorted and pulled the man in for a hug. “It doesn’t look like you’ve been taking very good care of yourself, boy. What will I tell your father when he arrives?”

The man rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. “He and the rest of the family haven’t yet agreed to come out here. Father in particular is still mad that I lied to him to get him off Petrov station.”

“Bah,” Eva waved dismissively. “You tell your old man that if a washed-up old first mate like me can find a place out here, he shouldn’t have any issue. That should kick him into gear finally.”

Mingyu chuckled. “It might be better if that came from you.”

“Oh, don’t you worry, I’ll be sending him a strongly worded letter of my own.”

“Sorry to interrupt the reunion, but we should get introductions out of the way, and then get aboard the shuttle. There is going to be a lot of work ahead of us.”

“Sorry,” Na stated. “Alexander, this is my Chief Engineer, Mikhail Yun, and his Primary Systems Technician, Li Ming. They have agreed to assist us with the repairs. Although I’m not sure how much you expect of us, we’ve seen the scans of the ship. It's pretty torn up.”

“That’s what these are for,” Alexander patted one of the five large crates next to him. “The four robots will be able to cut away the damaged sections, and the shuttle will fly everything to the station for processing while bringing new components to us to fix the damage.”

“And the fifth crate?” Na asked.

“That’s the printer. I plan on installing it on the station.”

“Why don’t we just move the ship and dock it to the station?” Li Ming asked.

“It can’t move under its own power, and we don’t have any ships capable of towing it. The Hawks towed it to the Lagrange point with four drop ships. So until we can fix the ship's structure and safely bring the reactor back online, it’ll have to stay right where it is. So the faster we get loaded up, the faster we can get this done,” Alexander said with a smile.

The Engineer and his assistant walked over to the first crate and tried to lift it. “Just how big are these repair robots,” the Engineer grunted.

“Twice the size of the ones putting the station together. The crates have wheels, so they should be easier to push.”

The men put the heavy crate down. One pushed while the other pulled a handle. It made a racket as it rolled across the pitted landing pad, but it was easier than trying to lift it.

Mingyu and Eva moved to the next one. Alexander thought about telling the older woman that wasn’t necessary, but thought better of it when she glanced at him from the corner of her eye.

He gave himself a mental shake and moved to the massive crate that held one of his precious printers. Production down here would slow for a bit, but he already had the Engineers printing up his next generation of printers to replace the one he was taking. He really hoped the printers didn’t give him the same issues as his engine designs had.

Alexander extended his arms to either side of the crate and lifted it with only a modicum of effort. The printer wasn’t as heavy as the construction robots, it was just big and unwieldy, even in its unassembled state. The five of them quickly got the cargo loaded on the shuttle and secured. Once they strapped in, or in Alexander’s case, magnetized, they left the surface.

This was his first time off Eden’s End since arriving a little under a year ago. He hadn’t figured he would be back in orbit so soon and certainly not to fix a captured pirate ship.

After the shuttle arrived at the station, it took a bit of maneuvering to get the rear of the shuttle in place. Everyone sealed their suits and the air was evacuated from the cargo slash passenger compartment.

From there, Alexander deftly maneuvered the crate off the ship and unpacked it. After ensuring everything was working correctly, he stepped back aboard the shuttle and they headed toward the pirate ships.

“That body really is quite unfair,” Eva muttered so quietly only Alexander could have heard her, and he was right next to the woman.

As they grew closer to the ship, Alexander got his first good look at the damage. He made his avatar wince.

“Yeah… It’s worse than even the sensors picked out,” Mikhail Yun commented. “You sure you wouldn’t rather cut it apart and run it through the smelter?”

Alexander sighed, “If we had any other option, I would do that. But we need a picket ship for the system, one big enough to scare off anyone looking to trouble us. Otherwise, I would have gone for the two other pirate gunboats. If pirates come knocking again, they may just roll the dice against a gunboat. They probably aren’t going to do that if we have a fully armed frigate though.”

Nobody argued that point. Especially since everyone knew the Hawks gunship would be leaving in the next few weeks. Alexander had wanted to get up here sooner, but he simply couldn’t get everything lined up before today.

The shuttle docked to the undamaged side of the disabled pirate vessel and Na and his people went through the airlock and into the ship.

“Looks like we still have an atmosphere in a few compartments,” Eva stated as she checked a wall console that was still running on emergency backup power. “But I would not recommend removing your vac suit until you’re back aboard the shuttle.” The woman turned toward Alexander, her arms floating, but her boots holding her to the deck. “I assume you’re going to be working outside the ship?”

Alexander nodded. “I will be." He handed out four modified radios from his utility belt. “Since I won’t be able to hear you, I added a feature to the radios that will ping mine with a color code. Red means to get back to the shuttle immediately, yellow is caution and I will return as soon as I complete something I’m working on. And blue is if you have a question or need my assistance inside the ship.”

They each played with the buttons and Alexander could see his little light bar go off, indicating which person was calling him.

“That should work,” Na approved. “I guess our first order of business will be to ensure the power and fuel delivery systems are intact unless anyone has another suggestion.”

“Actually,” Alexander spoke up, “I would suggest you find the weapon storage and make sure there are no live warheads.”

He could see the four people's faces pale with realization.

“That- That’s probably a good idea,” Na replied.

Left unspoken was what would happen if there was another nuclear warhead onboard. In that case, Alexander suspected he would be getting a red page rather insistently.

He shut the airlock to the shuttle and secured himself. “Ok, Branston, take me close to the damaged section.”

“Roger that, Alex,” the man stated before the ship gave a metallic clank and detached itself from the ship.

The pirate frigate was actually larger than his refueling station, so it took a bit of time to maneuver to the other side. The air had been sucked out of his compartment on the way over, so there was no waiting. Once they arrived, the ramp opened and Alexander began assembling the first robot.

Thanks to Dog being a test bed to improve the motions of the six legs, the movements of the robots were smooth and precise. He placed the six-foot-long robot on the exterior surface of the ship, where its feet magnetized to the outer hull. It sat there for a moment, scanning its surroundings before moving off to a damaged section of plating a few dozen feet away.

It didn’t take Alexander long to get all four robots assembled and working. He would have loved to make more of the robots, but materials, specifically the chips, were in short supply. He could have pulled some from the space station, but he didn’t want to disrupt the continued construction efforts over there. In another month, there would be an actual hangar for the shuttle if things kept going at the pace they were. It wouldn’t be pressurized at first, but it beat floating across open space or having to try and transfer through an airlock.

Four robots would have to do for now. It would take quite some time for them to fix a ship as large as a frigate, but he only needed the main structure to be intact in order to move it. The rest could be finished when it was docked to the station.

The other issue was of course finding a crew to operate a frigate-sized ship. Alexander had asked Branston if he wanted to be a Captain. The man had quickly turned him down. He said he liked being a pilot, and if he was a Captain, he couldn’t do that anymore.

Since the ship wouldn’t be ready for quite some time, it was an issue he could tackle later. For the time being, the ship would just be used as an orbital deterrent. Thanks to Matthews, they knew how to slave its weapon systems to ground control, allowing Damien’s security people to at least use the turrets aboard the ship.

When the last robot was released on the ship, Alexander pressed a button on his radio to let Branston know it was ok to return to the airlock.

It was weird watching the shuttle slowly float away, leaving him stranded aboard the vessel. It was hard not to feel like he was being abandoned. But he knew he wasn’t. They couldn’t actually leave without him. Not that anyone other than Lucas knew about the recall command buried in the shuttle’s code and linked to a remote sitting in his utility belt. Paranoid, probably. A sensible precaution? Definitely.

Even without that backup, all Alexander would need to do is get into a part of the pirate ship with air, and communicate with ground control or the refueling station. Denying the shuttle docking rights would force it to land on Eden’s End, and the only place to go there was the research facility. He trusted Damien enough to arrest anyone involved with trying to strand him out here. The guy might be a dick, but he was a stickler for rules.

Not that he thought that whole scenario was likely. Branston seemed genuinely happy with his role as a pilot and was unlikely to jeopardize that in any way. But not everyone he hired in the future might feel the same way, this simply prevented any shenanigans.

He clanged across the surface of the ship, taking in the serene beauty and quiet of space. As he looked out at the stars arrayed before him, he got the feeling this wasn’t the first time he had done this sort of work. That made him pause. This was the first time he felt any connection to his lost past. He wondered if any more missing memories would pop up out here.

With a smile, he moved over to a broken section and maneuvered the welding pack he was carrying to cut away the broken section. He whistled a merry tune inside his head as he worked, keeping one part of his mind on the light bar to ensure he didn’t miss anything.