Chapter 14

Theodore Pembrooke smiled when the ramp to his ship finally closed. There were two reasons for his happy mood. The first was he could finally remove the ridiculous helmet and vac-suit. Despite the tailored fit, it was still annoying to move around in and it had served its purpose anyway. Now the Captains would think of him as some scared planetsider. A bit of simple misdirection to throw them off and get them to underestimate him. Theo was born and raised aboard a starship. He didn't even step foot on a planetary body until he was seventeen.The second reason he was smiling, a real smile and not the fake one he used to sell his persona, was this assignment would likely be over in as little as four months. He had planned to be out here for a year. And even with the travel time back and forth, he was going to be back home in less than six months.

It was always nice when things went according to plan. A little bit of acting, throw in some faux annoyance, and voilà. They agreed to arbitration instead of demanding he leave. People outside of OMNI might think the name granted him weight, but more often than not it simply annoyed those in charge. That didn't mean it was all for show. Had they demanded he leave, well, it would have gotten ugly. Just probably not the way the captains might expect.

The gunships were simply another set piece. They didn't even have working turrets because they had been requisitioned before completion, not that you could tell by looking at them. Theo wasn't a fool. He had grifted in the outer fringes with his family for years. Places like Petrov Station weren't nearly as benign as they let on. The scans may have not picked up on the hidden weapons mounted to the massive structure, but he knew they were there, hiding and waiting in case of an attack.

But he didn't need to go down that route.

Some might feel like acting this way was beneath them. Theo just scoffed at that. This was hardly the lowest he had stooped to ensure a successful mission. He was many things for OMNI, but he much preferred the legitimate side of his personas. And it was always better to secure new discoveries than it was to destroy them. Not that he wouldn't if he had to. It just got much more messy in those cases.

If he could, he would actually thank Alexander Kane for his foresight to register his work. Doing that took most of his boss' preferred methods of acquiring improvements to their designs off the table.

Theo had looked this man up. A literal ghost with just this one invention to his name and a weak trail that anyone with half a brain could see was fake. That only intrigued him more though. There were very few geniuses running around in hiding. Because they knew they could simply join one of the corporations and make money hand over fist.

And despite everything else going on with this arbitration, Theo knew this Alexander Kane was a genius. While the engine he had submitted the design improvement on wasn't their flagship model, it was one of the workhorse designs that they sold a ton of. A two percent increase in efficiency on an engine that was designed and built by Omni's top engineers, along with input from AI, was nothing to sneeze at.

When he had been handed this assignment, Theo floated the topic of offering the man a position within the company.

The board shot down that request, citing Kane's unknown qualifications and sketchy history. That almost made Theo laugh. Having a sketchy history was fine for someone like him, but not for regular employees.

As he was rinsing off, there was a quiet knock on his cabin door. "Come in," he said, donning his persona again.

"Mr. Pembrooke," the crewman stated as he stood in the doorway. "We have received a hail."

Theo quirked an eyebrow. "From who?"

"The STO Destroyer, Terra Bound, Sir."

Theo let a frown show on his face. He had expected something, but not this soon. This just proved he had chosen the correct approach here. Someone on this station had powerful connections. Perhaps multiple people.

"Did they hail us directly?"

"Um… No, Sir. They hailed both O.M.N.I. Huginn and O.M.N.I. Muninn. The Captains of those ships passed on the message."

He really wanted to sigh. Couldn't the young man just spit it out without him having to ask? "And what was that message?"

"That they will be doing a fleet exercise in the system for the next four months, and that both ships should lockdown and keep their weapons systems offline. Any actions otherwise could be seen as hostile intent."

This time he did let out a sigh. "Very well," he answered adding a tinge of annoyance to his words. "Tell them to follow the Navy's orders. Better yet, have them dock. It seems we will be here for some time."

The crewman nodded before turning and leaving.

Theo corrected his assessment, very powerful connections. It wasn't just anyone that could get a task group of STO ships reassigned for 'training maneuvers'.

Once the door was shut, Theo lay on his bed and pulled up the station laws. He knew most of them already, but it never hurt to brush up. It wasn't like anyone aboard the station was likely to work with an OMNI representative.

He hummed contentedly as he scrolled through the legal red tape. Meanwhile, another man was looking into Alexander.

***

Mingyu perused the displayed information as he sat in a comfortable chair in his cabin aboard Destiny. They were making their way back to the belt to mine as much as they could before he was forced to return for the arbitration. There was no way he was wasting the next four months staying docked in the station.

As he perused the data dump of this Alexander Kane, he began to see inconsistencies. They weren't things most people would notice, but Mingyu had been no stranger to dealing with less-than-savory individuals over the years. That tended to happen when you were the last stop for humanity.

There was an unspoken agreement between the criminals and Petrov station. They kept their illicit activities outside Gliese 667, and when they came to the station, they were allowed to buy and sell instead of getting tossed out of an airlock. It was a very one-sided agreement, but it worked.

He would have preferred not to deal with their kind at all, but Petrov Station didn't have the luxury to turn any business away.

Kane's documents were forged. He would bet an asteroid stake on it. While there was nothing that screamed fake to a passing observer, Mingyu could see it. There was a clinical quality about the man's record. Not so much as a ticket or infraction on any database. Until this issue with Omni, there wasn't even a single complaint filed against the man.

No... that wasn't quite true. A few months ago there was a complaint filed by a man by the name of Maxim on the second ring. The complaint never mentioned a last name, but it did state that Alexander's Repair Shop had defrauded him and stolen his customers. A quick look into the complaint and resolution told Mingyu all he needed to know. Maxim was a shady piece of shit that had a laundry list of complaints, foreclosures, and other charges leveled against him.

Mingyu made a note to have station security arrest the man. Not for anything he did on the station, although that did leave a bad taste in his mouth. No, the man was wanted for murder in another system. Turning him over to face charges would likely net Mingyu a favor. The man's crimes would have probably gone unnoticed if he hadn't dug deep into all of Alexander's known connections.

And that was another red flag. Kane had no known connections until a little over six months ago. That started with the sale of a robot from the late Yuri Sokolov. All of the Captains knew of that ornery old goat. He had been here since before they were all born. You needed a part, he was the man you went to.

The official statement was the Livera was lost with all hands on deck. But Pirates didn't destroy ships unless they had a damn good reason to. Bad for business, and it caused their next targets to either fight back or flee instead of surrendering. The fact that Yuri was aboard that ship couldn't have been a coincidence. He made another note to look into that case deeper. If a pirate that frequented Petrov had done the deed, they were going to experience a cold walk. The pirate families were getting entirely too bold lately, they needed a reminder not to screw with Petrov's interests.

He flicked his finger, turning to the next page of the report. It claimed Kane was in some sort of medical pod for an incurable auto-immune disorder. Although it failed to list where that pod was stored. That was the biggest load of bio-waste Mingyu had ever read. The man might be in some medical pod, but there were plenty of treatments for all sorts of auto-immune disorders. Not cheap, certainly but they were there. No, if he had to guess, it was a cover to keep out of sight.

That meant his face was recognizable. Maybe an escaped engineer from the Haven? The pirates didn't like their slaves getting free. And losing one as valuable as Alexander would be a huge blow. That could also explain Yuri's death. It was pretty clear the man had some connection to Alexander. Maybe he even facilitated the fake identity and the use of the robot as a way for the man to keep out of sight.

He leaned back in his chair and crossed his leg over his other. "Just who are you, Alexander Kane? And more importantly, are you an asset or a detriment to the station?"

Mingyu needed to know more. He needed someone he trusted to take a measure of this man.

After thinking it over, he pulled up his comm and scrolled through his contacts before stopping on one. It didn't take long to connect.

"Mingyu, Dear, how are you?" Eva Wu's voice was transmitted through the device. "I haven't heard from you in some time. How's the Destiny treating you?" He chuckled lightly at the older woman's questions. She had been his father's first mate until the man retired and turned over the ship to him. She retired not long after.

"It's good, Eva. Are you busy?"

She laughed. "Hun, I'm retired. I have nothing but time. You need something from this old woman, just ask instead of beating around the engine bay."

"Fair enough," he smiled. "I was wondering if you could talk to someone for me?"

"Oh? A new crewmember for the Destiny?" seaʀᴄh thё Nôvel(F)ire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

"Not exactly." He told Eva some of what was going on.

"Hmm… So you just want to see if he's a good man. You know I've never been one for subterfuge."

"I know, Eva. And I don't expect you to be. Just take something broken down for him to fix and have a friendly chat with him. Then tell me what you think."

"Alright, Dear. I will do this for you, but I expect you and your lovely wife to come visit me when you return."

"How did you know I was off station?"

"I may be old, Dear, but I can still hear just fine. And I hear the hum of the Destiny in your comm. Although you may want to get that rattle in the air system fixed."

He looked up at the vent. There had been an intermittent rattle in it recently. How she had heard that over the comm was anyone's guess. "I'm putting it on the repair request as we speak. Thanks, Eva."