Chapter 16

"So, what did you think of him?" Mingyu asked as they walked through the garden district that ran along the shopping center of the eighth ring. This was one of his rare visits to the station, and he intended to enjoy it. It had been about three weeks since he had asked Eva to check up on Mr. Kane."He seems like a genuinely nice fellow." She responded, but Mingyu had known her long enough to know that she had more to say.

"But…"

"But he's obviously hiding something or hiding from someone. You already guessed as much though didn't you?"

He nodded. "His story has holes and reeks of being fabricated."

"What do you intend to do about it?" she asked, concern evident in her tone.

This made him pause.

"You like him don't you?" It was shocking. Eva was a generous woman, but she had a very discerning eye when it came to people. Being able to pick out the best crew was a talent people would kill for, and she had a knack for it. It was what had made her one of the best first mates around.

"I do. He is talented, easygoing, hard-working, upstanding, and… he gets along well with children. Or at least one little girl that seems to have taken a shine to him." She relayed all this with her signature smile that put most people at ease. But Mingyu wasn't fooled. He had seen her smile like that while berating someone for shoddy work. It was worse than if she had just yelled at them because deep down they knew they had disappointed her.

"An orphan girl? What of the other orphans?" There had been issues in the past with people trying to take advantage of the children. If there was one thing Petrov Station took more seriously than weapons, it was the safety of children. Anyone who thought it was a good idea to mess with them quickly vanished.

That being said, Mingyu knew the system wasn't perfect. There was never enough money or resources to go around. They did their best to make sure the kids who lost their parents had a warm bed and enough food to keep them healthy though. They also provided basic training. This way if they didn't get adopted – which happened far too often out here – they could at least find work once they came of age.

"You don't need to worry about little Yulia. She's taken quite the fancy to Alexander. And I think he is warming up to her as well. It seemed he was even giving her tutelage… of a sort. As for the other kids I spoke with, most seemed afraid of the 'scary robot' as they dubbed Alexander. Truthfully, that body is quite imposing. Especially with the damage. But I somehow get the impression he didn't pick it by choice."

"Your observations are as impeccable as always. Thank you for doing this, Eva." Searᴄh the nôvelFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

"You never did answer my earlier question. What do you plan to do?"

He sighed. There was no slipping that past her. "For now… nothing."

"Does this have to do with the ship in the VIP dock?"

This damnable woman really didn't miss anything. "Yes." He told her who it was and what they wanted. There was no point hiding it from her. She would find out one way or another if she wanted to.

"Have you tested these improvements of Alexander's?" She asked.

There was a distinct hint of surprise in her tone at the efficiency increase. Mingyu had the same feeling when he first studied the plans. Unfortunately, he couldn't afford a full set of Omni Class 5 engines to test out this supposed discovery with his own ship. And he didn't own any vessel with the smaller Class 4 engines.

"Unfortunately, no. But I have Chen testing to see if he can somehow apply these new improvements to Destiny's Sinorus engines. It's why I'm free to chat in person."

"You could just ask Alexander," Eva stated as she sat on a nearby bench.

"I wish it were that easy," he sighed as he sat next to her. "This trial is important. More important than anything to happen to Petrov in my lifetime. We can't be seen as showing favoritism toward either side."

She shook her head. "I don't understand why Omni didn't just file their case back in the core systems. Why send someone all the way out here?"

"That's easy to answer," he stated. "Someone at Omni realized the same thing we did."

The older woman sighed. "That Alexander is special."

"Precisely. Despite the billions of credits they spend on research and development every year, some nobody from the fringe was able to improve upon their design. The fact that Alexander showed them up must gall them."

Eva chuckled.

"What's so funny?"

"Oh, I just wish I could see their representative's face when he finds out Alexander beat their best engineers and billions of credits all the while working out of a dingy little shop and using some wildly outdated printers."

Mingyu paused to picture the scene and burst out laughing as well. If they didn't manage to save Alexander's work from these corporate thugs, at least they would get a good laugh out of it.

***

Alexander sighed internally. The last three weeks had been rather boring. For some reason, his business had dried up. At first, he attributed it to another repair shop moving in. But after wandering around the second ring for a full day, he didn't find any new competitors and even Maxim had closed his doors. Good riddance. He did hear rumors of some corporate big wig from Omni visiting the station. Hard not to when it was all everyone seemed to be talking about. Maybe that was why work was slow.

Since he put no stake in gossip, he had dismissed the information. After the second week of no work, he looked into the rumors further, which was easier said than done.

Not very many people were keen to chat with him. And Yulia, while a decent enough conversation partner, was still a child. She didn't know and didn't care about some random visitor. He had asked her if Markus knew anything, but the boy only told her to keep her nose out of adult business.

That was probably for the best.

Alexander wished he had gotten Eva's contact information. She might know what was going on. Then again, she was a retiree, so maybe not.

He didn't know why he was so invested in knowing in the first place, it was just some thoughts percolating in the back of his mind that told him his lack of work was somehow linked with this stranger's visit.

If there was one thing Alexander was good at, it was putting information together. They were like little puzzle pieces to him. He just saw something, and instantly thought, 'Hey, what if I did that instead?' This intuition is what allowed him to improve the Zephyr's engines.

While he would like to consider himself smart, the idea to improve the flow rate wasn't an original idea of his. It came from one of his other repair jobs. A simple housing designed for the laminar flow of some thick lubricant sparked the idea. He simply adjusted the printer to provide a smoother internal surface for the fuel and combustion systems on the Zephyr. A smoother flow meant better combustion. At the time the improvement just seemed obvious to him.

It was the same with the interrupter he made for his printers. Alexander simply applied principles from other things in new and unique ways. Given enough time someone else would have realized the same thing he had and implemented the same idea. He just happened to be the first.

He did feel like a bit of a fake when all he did was steal other people's designs. But then again, he also needed to make a living. And right now, those designs were the only thing keeping him from losing his lease.

The rhythmic tapping he was doing with his fingers stopped. Maybe that was why he was so invested in knowing what was going on. His design was built to improve an Omni-designed engine. And while it was mostly rumor, the rumor was that this visitor was from Omni.

Had he rocked the boat?

There was one way to find out. He headed toward the kiosk and brought up his sales menu. Thankfully nobody could purchase something anonymously. Alexander scrolled through the list of purchases. It had increased since he had last looked, but it wasn't nearly as large as he wished it would be. Two purchases stood out to him.

One was from a Captain Mingyu Na. The name didn't ring a bell, but the purchase location was Petrov Station. From what he knew, nobody here ran Omni engines. It made the purchase stand out. He would have to look into this person, but first, he flicked to the next name on the list. Hobart Holdings and Trust LLC.

Geez, even to Alexander's untrained eyes, that looked like a fake name. He flicked to the personal lookup and paid the cost to see who Mingyu Na was first. Or at least his history.

And what a history it was. It went back to the founding of Petrov station. With each word Alexander read, his sinking feeling grew.

Next, he searched for the LLC. There wasn't much to find, other than it was located in the same core system as Omni's headquarters. Even the name of the CEO sounded fake, Theodore Pembrooke. Really?

It was pretty clear this holding company was involved with Omni and the fact that Omni showed up less than a month after that company purchased his design. This was no coincidence. They were here because of him.

Somehow, someway, his tiny little improvement had garnered the attention of this massive organization. All he had wanted to do was make a bit of extra money and stay under the radar. But he couldn't even do that properly.

He headed back to his shop. If he could feel something, he would likely be very anxious right now. Without knowing why Omni was here, all he could do was wait and hope someone told him.

A few days later someone did show up.

A simply dressed man of mixed Asian heritage entered his shop and glanced around. Alexander had never seen this man before, but he carried himself with purpose. If he had to guess, this was a Captain. They all seemed to act similarly, even if they dressed wildly differently.

"Hello, may I help you?"

"Alexander Kane, I presume?"

"I am. And you are?..."

"Captain Mingyu Na of the station Council. Do you have a moment?" Of course, Alexander recognized the name. It had been one of two on his mind constantly since he put the pieces together.

He sighed mentally and motioned toward Yulia's stool since he didn't have any other place for people to sit. The girl was absent, so she would have to forgive him for letting someone else take her seat.

"I assume you are here in regards to the Omni ship and my patent?"

If the man was surprised by Alexander's deduction, he didn't show it.

"I am. In fact, I am here representing the station in this arbitration matter."

"Arbitration? You mean like court?"

"Not exactly. Litigation would imply some law or another was breached. We concluded that no such thing occurred. We are simply here to ensure both parties reach an agreement."

"I don't understand. If no law was breached, why would I need arbitration? I don't want anything from Omni, and what could they possibly want from me?"

"Therein lies the problem, Mr. Kane. They want your design and the method you used to craft it. They claim that you breached their intellectual property rights."

"That's ludicrous. I simply purchased the designs like I do everything else. If they didn't want people using their designs to fix or modify their engines, they shouldn't have made them available."

"I agree, Mr. Kane. But that doesn't change the fact that they are here. And they will fight to take what they think is theirs. …I suggest that you let them."

"What!" Alexander wasn't angry, he was just shocked by Na's statement.

"Hear me out, please."

Alexander took a mental pause and thought about it. Then he made his holographic face nod. "Fine, I will listen to what you have to say." It didn't mean he would agree though. Something about this situation was ringing alarm bells in his head.

"Thank you. Are you familiar with Omni at all?"

Alexander nodded again. "Only that they manufacture engines."

"While that is true, that is a very limited view of the company. They are one of, if not the largest company in human space."

"I knew they were large, but I didn't know to what extent." What could a company like that want with him? Accusing him of IP theft seemed like a thin excuse. Is this why Jasper had warned him to file the patent? Alexander thought that was to keep small companies from stealing it, not the parent company.

"Now you see what we are up against. You have a few options but only one good one. I suggest you let them buy out your patent. Allowing them to have it will save you years, or even decades of legal issues that they would throw your way."

"What? Why would I allow that? That just sounds like letting the bullies win," Alexander replied flatly.

"You would be right," the Captain responded evenly. "But sometimes it's better to give them your hard work than to let them beat it out of you. The Council will do its best to ensure a fair deal for you."

"Why?"

"Pardon?"

"Why, Captain Na, does the station care about me? Why even come here if you aren't giving me a choice? I can't imagine the Council involves themselves in every arbitration that comes around."

The man hesitated for a moment and that told Alexander everything he needed to know.

"You get some of the settlement don't you?"

"As your arbitration representative, the station does take a cut."

A cut? Probably more than a small portion if they were so eager to represent him.

"Well, then I wish to represent myself. Or better yet I wish to speak to this representative in person." If he was gonna get bent over, it might as well be on his terms. Having the station decide his fate just made him feel like he was back in Yuri's scrapyard.

"I'm afraid we can't allow that."

"What do you mean you can't allow that? There has to be some law that states I am allowed to request this. I never asked the station to get involved on my behalf, and I don't want it."

"This is exactly why we don't let civilians represent themselves. If you were aware of the laws, you would know that there isn't any such stipulation aboard this station. And the Council has already voted. But like I said earlier. We will get you the best deal possible. I know this isn't ideal for you, Mr. Kane, but this is your best chance of getting Omni to pay. Trust that we will do right by you. You are a talented individual, Alexander, and the station would very much like to work more closely with you."

"Trust you? How can I trust people who waited weeks to inform me of what was going on, only to blindside me by telling me that they were going to decide my fate for me?! I may not know the law, Mr. Na, but I'm a quick learner." Alexander had to pause for a moment, realizing he was getting angry. The feeling faded away too quickly for him to explore the cause. "I think we are done here, Mr. Na. Unless you change your mind about allowing me to arbitrate for myself, I don't wish to speak with you any further on this topic. Good day."

The man stood and nodded. "We are not your enemy, Mr. Kane. Please think about what I said. Eva thought you had potential. I would hate to see you waste it away down here."