Blue Star Enterprises

Alexander stepped onto the bridge and paused. Katalynn's Sub-Commander was having a staring contest with Captain Krieger over the bridge's main display.

Going by the tense expressions of the Hawks mercenaries who were filling in the important roles within the ship, he had just entered after the two had finished an argument.

"Is something the matter?" Alexander asked.

"Tell your Captain that I am in command," the taciturn Vynnson demanded.

"… You are in command of the Valkyrie," Alexander confirmed. He suspected the argument wasn't about the ship though. "Krieger is in overall command of my fleet. If that's a problem, we can send you back to the Lagertha."

He didn't have the patience to deal with overinflated egos and posturing right now. All of his patience had been spent ensuring an alliance with the Asgardians. If Vynnson didn't like that, he could go back to Char.

The man turned to him. "You expect me to follow orders from some honorless STO dog?"

"I expect you to follow orders from the commander of my fleet or is following the orders of a superior not part of the Asgardian creed?"

The man ground his teeth in annoyance but eventually nodded. "I will accept Jarl Kane's decision in this matter."

"Good, now that that's settled, we have a few things to discuss. First off, Krieger doesn't work for the STO, he works for me. I expect all of my crew to be treated with the same respect that they are given in Asgardian society. As for the second part of this discussion, is there someplace we can talk that isn't disruptive to ship operations?"

The Sub-Commander nodded and gestured to a hatch off to the side of the bridge. Alexander nodded and turned toward Krieger's projection. "This meeting will include you as well, Captain. Please head to the command suite and we will reconnect shortly."

Alexander followed Vynnson into the room, there was no signage over the door, but it was clear this was some sort of tactical room based on the star maps displayed on the wall monitors as well as a circular tube in the center of the room that acted as a sort of pre-holo projector to show a 3D map of the area around the ship.

It was an effective, yet crude version of the tac-displays that Alexander had installed into the Eden frigates.

Haldric went over to one of the wall displays, but before he could connect to Vanguard, Alexander stopped him.

"Sub-Commander, I understand the friction between Asgardians and the STO, but I need you to put those differences aside. You will be working closely with Captain Krieger for the next four months at the minimum. I cannot afford any distractions if you want this ship to be completed on time."

The man grunted. "I have already stated my intentions. You will not have any problems with me."

This sounded like the only confirmation Alexander was going to get from the man, so he nodded for Vynnson to continue connecting to Vanguard.

Krieger appeared on the screen a few moments later.

"Now that we are all here, I wish to discuss my plans for our trip home."

"Plans?" Krieger asked.

"Yes. As you are already aware, the Lagertha has asked me to upgrade Valkyrie's weapons to lasers. If I wait to do everything until we get back, I'm not sure if I will have enough time to complete the work. I also want to upgrade Vanguard with lasers as well. As you might imagine, doubling up on the work I'm already unsure of completing on time isn't a smart move. And you would be correct. That's why I want to start the work now."

"You want to take our weapons offline?" Vynnson questioned. "What if we run into Harlow's fleet on the way?"

It was a valid concern, but one Alexander didn't think was likely. "If that happens, we can't engage them anyway. We would need to dispatch a ship to act as a messenger and try to keep our ships out of Harlow's reach. I don't think that's likely to happen though. Do either of you?"

He directed that last question to both men because Captain Krieger had the same look of shocked concern on his face as Sub-Commander Vynnson did.

"What about running into a corporate patrol?" Krieger asked. "We encountered one near that station, who's to say if there aren't more lurking around?"

"I think the rest of the fleet is more than capable of dealing with a few corporate ships if they pop up. If those are the only two arguments you two can come up with to delay this work, I'm going to move forward with my plan."

He gave the pair time to raise any other arguments they might have, but neither was able to come up with anything worth worrying over.

"Good. Captain Krieger, I want you to work with the other ships in the fleet to produce twenty bots. Once we drop out at our next system, maneuver one of the Eden ships near Vanguard and another near Valkyrie to act as control ships for the robots."

"Wait. I thought you were just going to remove some weapon systems. If that's the case, why do you need the bots?" Krieger asked.

"This is not some half-hearted operation, Captain. I need to complete whatever work I can before we arrive in Unokane. That means removing the weapon systems completely and opening up those spaces for the new weapons. I will also be laying new power cabling to handle the extra load. I would start putting in the new capacitors and batteries for the new weapons as well, but the ships aren't carrying an excess of those types of materials on board, and stopping to mine them would be detrimental to our timetable. Don't worry, I will be programming the bots to focus on one turret at a time, leaving the remaining weapons in place for as long as possible. If my calculations are correct, the last turret should be disassembled and removed only two jumps from Unokane. Any questions?"

"What about Valkyrie's main laser?" Vynnson asked.

Instead of answering, Alexander asked a question of his own. "How many issues have you had with the weapon?"

The Sub-Commander grimaced. "Too many."

Alexander nodded his avatar in understanding. When he first looked at the ship's design schematic, he saw many things that could be improved but also things that would improve his own ships once he got around to producing them. The biggest issue on Valkyrie was the laser, or more specifically, the power feed systems that led to it. It had insufficient power cabling from the reactor, an outdated energy management system, and not enough power storage and discharge systems to allow the weapon to fire more than once a minute. He was surprised it worked at all after seeing all those issues. The laser itself was a decent design, perhaps on par with Alexander's first attempt at the weapons when he outfitted the single one on the Fury so long ago.

After having worked with the weapons for over a year, Alexander knew lasers were finicky. They required a multitude of components to function effectively. The power supply was the beating heart of a laser, without it you had nothing, but you also required a sufficiently powerful pump to dump the energy into the amplifying medium. Lastly, you needed ultra-fine optics to ensure a cohesive beam for as long as possible.

If one of those systems was off, your weapon would be severely diminished. He suspected the Valkyries laser had a deficiency somewhere in those components as well.

Alexander could simply correct that and leave the weapon in place, but he suspected it still wouldn't be as efficient or as powerful as his lasers. Especially since he stole half of his upgrades from Dawn's weapons.

"It will likely have to be replaced as well," he added after going over the issues in his mind.

Work began on both ships almost immediately. A few problems quickly arose during the initial survey of the ship.

The main issue was accessing the service spaces where the power cabling ran through. They were far too small for Alexander to fit inside, and even the smallest crewmember aboard had nearly gotten stuck just trying to enter the first opening.

The current cabling must have been pulled through with the help of some sort of guide or laid in while the space was still open. Either way, it was too tight for anyone to crawl through now, and trying to push a guide wire through was proving difficult as it kept getting hung up on the other bundles of cables.

Alexander even tried using his finger cables, but he soon learned they only extended twenty feet. He was forced to turn to the printer and fabrication systems he had brought on board. These weren't the full-size units that the other ships in his fleet sported, so he was limited on what he could do with them. One thing he was able to do was build a smaller robot, that was about half the size of Dog, and remote control it through the tight passage.

He sent those plans to the Valkyrie on their next stop because they were running into similar issues.

Once that problem was taken care of, he was quickly able to determine the length of cabling he needed to produce.

While the ships were flying to the next jump point, he sent this information to them so they could produce the high-energy cable he needed. The cable along with the bots he had ordered were all delivered to the two ships before they jumped again.
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This did push their work back a full four days, but Alexander had known there would be problems trying to modify ships while on the move. He had included the possibility of delays in his planning, as long as there weren't too many issues like this, his timeframe was still on target.

***

Harlow was bored and annoyed. So far his fleet had struck three Asgardian systems, yet there had been no response from their fleets. He figured at least one would come to try and stop him by now.

He had been in their space for over two weeks already, those uptight bastards should have responded.

One of the sensor operators finally lifted his mood. "Emperor, four ships have jumped into the system and are heading toward us."

"Finally," he said under his breath. Four ships weren't a concern to him, but it would give his people the ability to blow off some steam after the lackluster raiding that had occurred so far.

"If they want a fight, let's give it to them," Harlow stated with a grin.

His fleet jockeyed for the best position as they moved to engage the four destroyers that had come to challenge them.

"…Um, Emperor, the four ships are turning away."

"What!" He demanded, pounding his fist on the arm of his throne. "If they were just going to run, why bother engaging at all?"

His question was answered shortly after as a field of projectiles flashed through his fleet, scoring a few hits, but otherwise doing little to damage his ships.

"They have jumped, exalted one," the sensor operator stated, earning a withering glare from Harlow.

The Asgardians were mocking him with these hit-and-run tactics. Well, if they wanted to play, he could play as well.