“Fight checks, ok,” Branston said over the radio.

It had been a few weeks since Alexander had met the man, and his speech had improved quite a bit since then. His ‘fight checks’ were the startup flight checks for the first converted shuttle.

Everything had been stripped out of the ship, repaired, or replaced. This wasn’t the first ship he had inspected. The reactor on that ship was far too badly damaged to repair. But two out of the sixteen shuttles had reactors that were in repairable condition. That wasn’t great, but two were still better than none. Right now, he focused all his efforts on a single shuttle since he only had a single pilot.

A few of the other shuttles might see repairs when Alexander’s ability to manufacture more sophisticated parts improved, but he wasn’t holding his breath. They were so bad it might just be better to start from scratch. He learned his lesson about trying to fix stuff that was far too gone from his attempts at trying to fix the low-orbit launcher.

While the small craft’s reactor had been repaired, almost everything else was replaced. The only items left from the original shuttle were the frame and the flight system. Some of the flight system components were pulled from another shuttle because Alexander didn’t have the resources to manufacture the electronics from scratch. He could have cobbled together enough working components from the other shuttles to make a second shuttle operational – that seems to have been what the pirates had done – but that simply wasn’t acceptable. The only reason he agreed to transfer the flight system components this time was to speed the process along and the fact Branston said the replacement system was working properly.

While most of the components were replaced with reverse-engineered duplicates, the thrusters were an original design based on his other thruster work. It was a bit of a risk using a set of experimental thrusters, based on a third-generation design of the ones he tested a few months back, but he had high hopes for these. They still didn’t match up to the Omni thruster as far as output, in his tests, but Alexander’s new engine design was nearly ten percent more efficient than the Omni one he was comparing it to.

It seemed he was slowly but surely figuring out what design tweaks worked and what didn’t. His fourth-gen design was already in the works. With any luck, he would finally figure out the piece he was missing to surpass the Omni design. It would be a month or so before he got to test it though.

“Launch at your discretion, pilot,” Alexander responded.

Despite Alexander’s reservations about using the thruster, Branston had been thrilled about getting to test an experimental engine. He said the only thing better than flying, was flying experimental ships. He may get his wish one day, but designing and building an entire ship was a ways off for Alexander and Blue Star Enterprises. A new shuttle design might be something he could complete in a more reasonable time frame though, so that went on Alexander’s list.

“Copy that, control.”

Alexander focused on the holovid showing the landing pad. The shuttle’s thrusters sputtered to life for the first time, going through a quick cycle test before the takeoff thrusters all came to life simultaneously, pushing the craft slowly off the landing pad.

The ship hovered in place for a moment before rotating away from the facility. The landing thrusters tipped backward, sending the ship angling up. Once the shuttle was far enough from the facility, Branston fired up the main drive and streaked toward outer space.

“How's it going?” Alexander asked.

“Faster than expected,” he heard the man grunt over the radio through the sustained acceleration. “Reducing speed.”

“I did warn you,” Alexander admonished. “We removed nearly half the weight of the ship to make room for more cargo.”

“I needed to know what it was capable of,” Branston replied back.

“Once it’s full though, you’ll likely experience the exact opposite. It's going to feel really sluggish. Try not to break it or run into any debris.” Most of the debris left over from the battle had fallen into the planet's gravity and burned up, but they knew some pieces were still out there thanks to Lucas’s satellite cameras. The shuttle’s static field should protect it once it is outside the atmosphere but that transition zone was where most of the danger lay.

Speaking of satellite cameras, the view on the holo switched from the facility camera to one of those as the shuttle got close to exiting the atmosphere.

They also had a view from the Hawks’ gunship as it fed them a second angle. The ship was on standby in case of a critical failure.

It wasn’t needed though. The ship that Alexander had simply renamed Shuttle 1 exited the atmosphere without issue and continued to its rendezvous with the refueling station.

“Docking successful,” Branston stated happily.

“Alright, time to move on to the second part of the test. Let’s see if the robots can load the processed ore.” Because the initial flight was the most dangerous, Alexander hadn’t wanted to have any cargo aboard on the way up. Seeing that the ship made it into orbit without any issues, it was safe to try bringing material back down.

“Alex, we have a new contact in the system,” Lucas stated.

“Wing One confirms contact. We are moving to intercept.” Wing One was the name of the Hawks’ gunship. It wasn’t the most original name, but they did sort of have a theme going. And it wasn’t like Alexander’s naming sense was any better.

Before Wing One had even left the orbit of Eden’s End, it confirmed the target had an active transponder. The facility received the signal shortly after that.

“Ground command, the ship Captain claims they are transporting passengers. A scientist by the name of Nova Lund. I cannot engage a civilian vessel unless they make a hostile move, how do you wish to proceed?”

Dr. Nova Lund was aboard this ship? What the heck was she doing way out here, and without any protection? The single gunship provided by the Hawks had been kept in the system ever since they returned from their last patrol. Which had them away while that unknown ship was prowling around. Alexander didn’t want a repeat of that feeling of helplessness. The gunship may not scare away a ship like that, but it may give them pause. It was too bad they didn’t have their assistance for much longer. In a little over a month, the ship would need to return to Ganos.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Rendevous with the ship and escort them to the station. Let them know they may have to wait in orbit for a few days until we prepare a shuttle capable of bringing people down. Unless their ship is capable of landing on its own. Actually, scratch that last point. I don’t want them landing down here, even if they are capable.”

“Acknowledged, ground command,” the Hawks’ pilot stated.

“Do you want me to cut my trip short?” Branston asked. The line was open, so he had heard everything discussed in the conversation.

“No. We need those materials. It’ll be a few days before the ship arrives anyway.”

***

Alexander waited on the landing pad as he watched the shuttle descend. He felt like he was waiting for people out here far too often. It was getting quite annoying actually. What he needed was someone who could do it for him. Eva was a possibility, but she was quite busy with Markus.

While he would keep track of people coming and going, he decided he was going to pass this duty off to Damien and his people.

Unless there was specifically someone here to see him, Alexander really didn’t see the need to be involved per his agreement with Damien and this council they formed. With this place being a sort of drifter haven, he expected more would show up eventually. He suspected the only reason he hadn’t seen any so far was the fact the pirates were so active right now.

He had gotten a description of Dr. Lund from Jasper the last time they spoke of the enigmatic scientist. So when a slightly overweight man stepped off the shuttle, followed by a wife and kid, Alexander was a bit confused. A few more groups of men and women stepped off the shuttle, all looked rather tired. They looked more like refugees than drifters.

It was perfect. While Damien had kept the place relatively free of criminals before his arrival, Alexander hadn't seen how he dealt with them firsthand. This would be a good test to see how the man dealt with outsiders. If he couldn’t handle a few new arrivals, it would be good to know sooner rather than later. He radioed the security room and told them they better send someone out here to sort these people out. While he believed they were refugees looking for a new place to live, he couldn’t discount the possibility that they were spies.

If they were spies, they may not even be here for him. They might be here following Dr. Lund. She was a very prominent theoretical scientist even if she had shunned the STO to create her own foundation of scientists.

The fact that she was here, and not aboard her research vessel probably meant something had changed. Alexander simply watched the new arrivals. They shielded their eyes from the glare of the star as they came down the ramp, panting in the thin air.

Whoever they were, they had not come prepared for the thin atmosphere. They could survive for around half an hour before the reduced oxygen started to affect them, so Alexander left them to wait for Damien’s people.

The group of people shied away from him but were unsure of what to do until one of Damien’s security people came jogging out of the facility a bit out of breath. “S- sorry I’m late,” he huffed as he caught his breath, which wasn’t easy even with the breathing mask. “If you folks could follow me, you need to go through a security scan before we release you.”

Alexander took in everything as the people went past. A subtle smirk here, a slight glare there. Yeah, there were definitely people in this group who were here to cause trouble. Thankfully no Qcomm messages could go out. Not without his say-so. And the gunship only made the trip once a month, with the next trip being the last. Once it was gone, their connection to the greater galaxy would be cut off for the next nine months. That was plenty of time to sort out any troublemakers amongst this group.

After the unknown people streamed past him, a short elderly lady of African heritage tromped down the ramp. Alexander immediately recognized her from Jasper’s description. Despite her advanced age, she had a different bearing than the other shuttle passengers. Behind her came a skinny teenager who looked less than happy to be here. Both had breathing masks, unlike the other arrivals. That was interesting. That meant she knew what to expect, and the other folks hadn’t.

“Dr. Lund?” Alexander asked as the woman strode right up to him.

She took in his form with a steely gaze that defied her advanced years. “Yes. But call me Nova. And you must be Alexander. I must say, I’m fascinated by this robot body. I don’t think I’ve seen anything quite like it. I would ask to study it, but robotics is far from my specialty.”

“Ugh,” the teenager behind her groaned in a way that conveyed his utter disdain for this conversation and your existence in general. Alexander remembered this as something only teenagers were capable of. “Can we move this along, Gran, this place sucks.”

“Thomas… I told you to be on your best behavior.”

“Ugh, fine. I’m going inside. This place better have something interesting to do.” With that declaration, the teenager dragged his feet across the landing pad.

Lund cleared her throat. “I apologize for my grandson’s behavior. His deadbeat of a father, my son, did not do a good job of raising him.”

“So you took him in?” Alexander asked as they slowly walked toward the entrance.

“Not by choice, I’m afraid. His mother wasn’t much better at raising the kid than my son, but at least she was present in his life until she died in an accident. When my son brought him to ‘visit’ he simply left without the boy. I haven’t seen him since.”

“That’s awful.”

She nodded.

“So… what brings you here, Nova? I thought everything was going well for you the last time we spoke.”

She frowned in disgust. “It was. Until we had to stop in STO space to refuel and do maintenance. Some Navy man was waiting for us. They claimed that since there was a war going on, they were drafting scientists to help with the war effort. Anyone who refused was being blacklisted from the scientific community. My so-called colleagues, who had claimed to despise the STO’s rules and technological stagnation as much as I, flipped at the drop of a credit chip.”

“I take it that wasn’t the case for you? Also, wasn’t the STO downplaying the whole pirate thing as just an attack and not a war? When did that change?”

“No. Those bastards tried all sorts of tricks to get me to bend to their whims. I simply hired a ship, told the Captain where I wanted to go, and here we are. As for the war part, publicly they deny it is a war, while privately they use the word like a bludgeon to coerce people like myself into working for them. Typical STO behavior.”

“I see… While I would prefer not to have our location publicized, I’m glad you are here. What about those other people?”

She snorted at his comment. “I would normally agree that maintaining privacy is important. I think that ship’s sailed for you, Alexander. I heard about Eden’s End from a few different stops along our route. They may not have known the name or the location, but you could tell they were talking about the same place. Face it, Alexander, your secret’s already out there. As for those other people, they were looking for some new place to settle after losing their homes to the pirates or being prevented from returning home because that home was under the control of the pirates. They joined up at multiple different stops along our route, it seems most places in the STO aren’t keen on taking refugees in.”

“Word is already spreading? That’s not ideal. What did you hear?”

“Not much. Some people were calling it a safe harbor. Most people simply discount the rumors since it's so far outside of STO space. But if the conflict between the STO and pirates grows any more, you may start to see more people looking for a safe place. Especially since the STO doesn’t seem too concerned about actually doing anything about the problem anytime soon.” He wanted Eden’s End to grow, but he didn’t want it to become a refugee haven. He needed the right kind of people.

“Thanks for the warning. I might end up turning people away though.”

Lund shrugged. “That’s up to you. I assume it’s ok if my grandson and I stay so I can continue my work?”

“I don’t know. What could I possibly gain by having one of humanity's most renowned scientists staying at my facility to further her advanced research?”

She chuckled. “Don’t think I forgot what I asked you. I may need your skills to turn my work into reality.”

He nodded and waved her to enter the facility door ahead of him. When he was finally inside, he was greeted by a whole lot of shouting.