Blue Star Enterprises

Yi Na was harder to find than Alexander thought. The first place he checked was the man’s office. It was just a small room with a desk and a little holo terminal. Next, Alexander checked a few of the ongoing construction projects, or at least ones he thought were still ongoing.

The project to clean up the transportation tunnels was complete. At least so far as cleanup went. There was a notice on the wall that construction would begin in a week’s time.

The next project Alexander went to was for the repairs to abandoned sections of the facility. He got to the hallway and found a temporary door had been welded in place with another notice saying ’Closed, No Access’. Scratching his metaphorical head at that, Alexander went to the last major construction project, the central dome.

Unlike the other two areas, the central dome was full of workers and noise. He found Yi over by one of the cranes that was being used to lift the transparent sections into place.

"Yi, do you have a moment?"

The man looked over before nodding and dismissing the men he had been speaking with. "What can I help you with Mr. K– Alexander," he quickly corrected himself.

"What’s with the other projects? When I was looking for you I saw that they were shut down or paused?"

The man nodded once, "Yes. It’s too inefficient to run multiple projects at the same time with so few skilled workers. I understand you were doing the smaller projects to give the workers experience, and that’s fine but also a waste of time. They can get far more experience by tackling a larger project such as this. They will also be far more diligent since they know completing this dome properly will finally seal off the facility enough to pressurize it. Nobody likes the smell of sulfur day in and day out, even the people who have been here the longest."

Alexander wasn’t sure he agreed, but he had given the man control over the construction. So long as nobody got hurt and everything was built properly, he would leave Yi Na to run it how the man saw fit.

"Have you heard that we may get visitors soon?" he asked instead.

"I have heard rumors, yes. Mercenaries if I remember correctly?"

"They are mercenaries, but they are also a customer. That’s not what I’m here to talk about though. They had a bunch of extra refugees tag along. How are we on housing?"

The man pulled out a tablet and flicked through a few screens. "All of the open units around atrium A are habitable. Roughly two-thirds of those are currently being used by families. So in that section alone, we could house another thousand families or individuals. Atrium B is blocked off as that is the most heavily damaged section. I expect we will have to tear a lot of it down and start from scratch. Atrium C has fifty habitable units and another twenty that are being used as storage but could be made habitable in a few days."

"And atrium D?" Alexander asked, surprised the man hadn’t brought up the atrium he was staying in.

The man cleared his throat. "There is an unspoken understanding that atrium D is yours to do with as you see fit. I have done a survey, and if you wish to open it up to habitation, we could fit another eight hundred groups in that area. I would personally recommend against that option though."

"Really, why?"

"As the owner of Eden’s End, it is important to show you are one with the people, but it is equally as important to show people that you are in control. If you suddenly start parceling out what people see as your space, you lose that control."

"That seems like a rather draconian point of view don’t you think?" Alexander asked.

Yi shrugged. "It is not what I think that matters, it is what everyone else will think. Before you decide, how many people do you think are coming?"

"I have no clue. We have eighteen ships of differing types heading our way as well as the Hawks and all the people I asked them to bring along."

"Hmm, eighteen ships. If each has a hundred people aboard, that is only eighteen hundred individuals not counting the people you invited. Without a proper count, I would need to make assumptions. Let’s assume in a worst-case scenario that the maximum number of people I mentioned before are aboard each ship. It’s not likely unless the ships are all transports but it will give us a good idea of what we are looking at. Now in a worst-case scenario, those eighteen hundred people are all single men or women. It wouldn’t be ideal, but we could house them if we used every available space I just told you about."

"That’s good then."

Yi nodded. "We could do that, but it would be a horrible waste of space. Each room can house three or four people. Some could fit even more. Force them to share housing and you reduce the needed units to just what is available in atrium A. It gets more complicated if there are families involved, but I think you get the picture. I don’t believe you will need to give up any of your space. And if you do, assign it to the people you invited personally. This will ensure the rest of the population sees that Atrium D is off limits to anyone who isn’t employed directly through BSE."

"…You keep saying that. Is there something I’m not aware of that I should be?"

The man seemed conflicted about mentioning something. "I normally wouldn’t even bring this up because of how outlandish the rumor is, but I keep hearing people whisper about it. They say you’re an alien."

Alexander had his avatar blink at the man. "That’s it?" he laughed. "Here I was worried for nothing."

Yi laughed as well. "I knew it wasn’t true, but some people like to talk."

"Oh, no, it’s true. Not that I’m an alien, but this body is alien in origin."

Yi stopped laughing and looked at him in shock. "Truly?"

Alexander shrugged. "It’s a bit of a story and I don’t have time to go into it right now. Since people are already gossiping about it there’s no point keeping it quiet. If you’re curious, ask Lucas Laront. He’s the head of my testing department."

Rumors could quickly grow out of hand, so it was best if the people he worked with simply knew the truth.

"I- I’ll do that. Thank you, Alexander."

"No, Thank you. I know this isn’t part of your job, but could you work with the Council to make sure the rooms in Atrium A have basic amenities? Do the same for fifty of the units in atrium D as well." The man agreed to reach out to Damien and the other Councilors to get that done.

With that issue handled Alexander went in search of the Head of Security. He wanted to ensure the man had everything he needed to handle an influx of more than a thousand people at once. The Hawks were going to assist, but Damien needed to be in charge. Much like how Yi said Alexander needed to be seen as in charge, the Head of Security couldn’t be seen as taking a back seat to outsiders. Even if those outsiders were the Hawks.

Alexander doubted this sort of nonsense would have been needed before his arrival but it was clear his being on Eden’s End had split the opinions of the residents. Further alienating the locals by usurping their chosen leaders would not go over well.

He found Damien in the Security wing, which had been moved from near the control center to a few floors down. The new location was both more secure and was one of the choke points that led to the control room as well as the computer core. There were other entrances to the control center, but they could be locked down and the control center itself had blast doors in the case of emergency. Each entrance was also guarded and had cameras on them at all times.

If anyone passed the ’Authorized Personnel Only’ signs to sneak about near those doors, they got arrested and sent to the detention area for questioning. Damien had implemented those rules after people kept wandering into the control center to chat with their friends who were on duty.

Damien was counting racks of pulse rifles when he entered the room. There were far more of the weapons than the man had officers, but he knew it was good to have spares. Alexander waited for the man to complete his count before bothering him.

"You here to ask if I’m qualified to handle the people coming in?"

"Are you?" Alexander asked in return.

The man paused to think about it for a moment. "With the Hawks’ help, yes."

It was good to see the man wasn’t overestimating his abilities.

"Work with Captain Matthews and his people, but you are in charge on the ground."

Damien looked pleased to hear this, but the emotion quickly vanished with a grunt of acknowledgment. "I need to get ready to address the second shift, is there anything else?"

"Not really. I did speak with Yi Na. He should be reaching out to you and the rest of the council to get housing ready for these arrivals. They will all be put in A, except the ones I hired. Those will go in atrium D. Stick them as far away from the noisy workshop as possible. And before you bring it up, I haven’t forgotten our last conversation about arrivals. They will be subject to the same security check as everyone else. I’ll let you get back to your duties." With that, Alexander left the security office and headed back to his workshop to finish some things up.

He still needed to speak with Nancy about bringing on more teachers and expanding the classrooms to accommodate new students but it was still before noon. Classes would be going for a few more hours.

Things were moving faster than he wished for, but he would be ready for the challenge.

***

It had taken Dalton a few months to find the best way to get to Eden’s End, but he had discovered the recruitment drive that the Hawks had set up. He didn’t know they were doing so for Eden’s End, but a hunch and a bit more digging got him what he needed. Alcohol and loose lips have always been Dalton’s favorite combination to extract priceless information.

Using a similar tactic to the one back in that pirate shithole, Dalton started spreading the rumor among other refugees that there was a place they could go and not be looked down upon when they arrived.

He didn’t get as many takers as he would have liked but it would have to do. Dalton needed to muddy the waters until he found his target and escaped. The longer he spent on Eden’s End, the more likely his gene edits would degrade and expose his true identity.

With the additional ships, Dalton couldn’t believe how easy it was to join the caravan following in the merc’s wake. He didn’t even need to switch ships since his ship looked like a small beat-up hauler from the outside and all his weapons were hidden in the shielded compartments. He wasn’t sure exactly how the static field generators blocked scanning or who had figured out this neat little trick, all he knew was that the modifications had cost him quite a bit of credit.

The transponder he was spoofing at the moment was from a ship named Toby’s Pride. It was a ridiculous name, but one that fit this current persona.

He adjusted his neck, still feeling a bit weird by the gene-edit treatment he had gone through. The underworld bio-sculptor cost an arm and a leg, but Dalton couldn’t afford to waltz in looking like himself or even risk having the same genetic profile. He wasn’t unknown to the STO and a quick bio-check would flag over a hundred active warrants for his arrest. He was proud of that number, but it did make infiltration missions quite difficult.

To further sell the image of being refugees, Dalton had taken on over a dozen individuals fleeing from the former Coalition space. He even happily conversed with them and showed their children how to fly the ship. The only thing that kept him from spacing the lot of them was the thought that this mission was almost over.

They finally arrived in the backwater shithole of Eden’s End. Without being able to deploy his optical array, Dalton was limited to normal sensors. Even with normal sensors, he didn’t fail to pick up the hundreds of items in space around the planet and its nearest moon.

"Oh! What are those?" one of the snot-nosed little brats aboard his ship pointed to the screen with his sticky finger.

Dalton’s eyebrow twitched faintly as an urge to cut off the offending digit entered his mind. He quashed that emotion as the kid pulled back his finger and wiped his runny nose on his sleeve.

He cleared his throat to give himself time to banish any anger in his tone before responding. "I’m not sure. We’re too far out to get a clear look, but I’ll let you know as soon as I do," he said with a wide smile, mussing the kid’s hair while suppressing an urge to squeeze the kid’s head.

"Ok, Uncle Toby," the boy smiled before running off to his parents.

"Only a few more days," he said under his breath, "Only a few more days."