Blue Star Enterprises-Chapter 226 - 4-42

"This is unacceptable!" Willard screeched over the video call. "The orders specifically stated that you were allowed to bring a diplomatic vessel. Normally, that is an unarmed vessel, but I let that slide. Bringing an entire fleet is out of the question."

Alexander was glad Yulia wasn't on the bridge to witness the grown man's meltdown. It truly was embarrassing.

He sighed internally and responded calmly to the idiot. "Vice Admiral Willard. I will remind you that I am not under the authority of the STO. Those so-called orders that you are so keen to reference are simply suggestions. While I have agreed to attend this inquiry as asked, I will do so in the way I see fit. If you don't like that, you can leave. Otherwise, shut the hell up."

The second rant the man was about to embark on sputtered and died as he processed Alexander's final statement.

"Now that you are quiet, let me tell you how this trip is going to proceed. You will not be allowed to follow behind my fleet. I want the Blueridge to be off our port side between a quarter to a half a light second. If you start falling to the rear of my formation, I will assume you intend to attack. That won't end well for you or the Blueridge."

As Alexander spoke, the man started making astonished fish faces as if he couldn't comprehend someone speaking to him in such a way. Alexander chuckled internally at the mental picture of Willard as a fish washed up on shore and gasping for air before continuing as if he were unaffected.

"Are we clear, Vice Admiral?" Alexander demanded calmly.

The man took another moment to collect himself before responding. "I understand," he ground out between clenched teeth.

"Good. Our first destination is Epsilon Indi, so buckle in for a long trip."

Before the man could complain about not heading directly to Sol, Alexander disconnected the call and forwarded their flight plan to the Blueridge. A few quiet chuckles broke out amongst the bridge crew, and Alexander mimicked the sound of clearing his throat, silencing their laughter.

He understood how ridiculous the situation was, but they needed to act professionally. Not everyone in the STO would be as monumentally stupid as Willard.

The flight plan Alexander created would take a little over two months for them to arrive in Epsilon Indi, and that was only because he planned on taking the fastest route, which led through Ross 128 and the hypergate near Ganos. It wasn't free to use the hypergate, but it would save over a month of travel time, so the expense was worth it in his eyes.

That gate would drop them off in Epsilon Eridani near the core world of Borrus, and from there it was only a single jump to Epsilon Indi.

Alexander was aware of the system's less-than-stellar reputation thanks to Krieger, but he had to go there if he wanted to purchase gravity plating. The system's reputation was one of the reasons he decided to double up the ships in his task group. He doubted any of the lowlife scum who made their home there would be brave enough to tangle with Grace, even if it was alone, but why risk it.

Alexander turned to his XO, a man by the name of Vigbrand Leikulf. He had been the Sub Commander aboard one of Katalynn's ships. The man had survived the destruction of his ship when most hadn't because he was assisting with emergency repairs just outside the bridge when the second missile struck their frigate.

Despite his near-death experience, Vigbrand was a rather laid-back individual, completely at odds with most Asgardians Alexander had met so far.

"XO, is everything ready for departure?" Alexander asked.

"Green across the board, Captain. All ships in the fleet have checked in as well."

He nodded his avatar at the man. "Very well, get us underway, pilot."

A confirmation came from the woman at the helm, and Grace shook slightly as she detached from the orbital ring and slowly backed away to join the rest of the ships.

He saw Valkyrie detach a moment later to join him.

Their formation was a bit odd with him taking point since Yulia's Grace was much smaller than Valkyrie, but that was fine. Katalynn's ship took up a position slightly to his rear portside, while the two Shark corvettes took up position to his flank and underside, forming a lopsided triangle with Katalynn's cruiser.

The Stingray gunships formed a circle around that, ensuring they could respond to any threat long before it got near the only non-automated ships in their formation.

The Blueridge was slow to take position far to the port, but it did eventually make it there before they reached the jump point.

Captain Rhys was going to need to pick up the pace. It was the only ship present that wasn't jump-synced.

Alexander sent them a message that they should jump first. It wasn't like there was any risk of running into pirates. Captain Ramirez and his fleet had cleared the route a few weeks ago. They scoured the system where Omni attacked that ship, but found no signs of the ships responsible for the attack. The only thing they did find was a strange gravitational echo near the planet.

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

Considering there was no sign of those ships entering or leaving that system the normal way, Alexander had to conclude Omni had another method to jump through FTL. He filed that information away for further study before focusing back on the Blueridge.

He expected it to jump within moments of his message being read, but it took a full ten minutes before the Blueridge finally transitioned into FTL. Either the older ship's FTL drive took way longer than normal to spool up, or there had been some disagreement aboard the ship.

He doubted their FTL drive was having any issues, and any internal problems within their command structure didn't concern Alexander. He gave the order to jump, and only seconds later, the entire fleet vanished into FTL as one.

***

When Kane first decreed what he was planning on doing, Ezekiel had the urge to dismiss Rhys from duty and take command of Blueridge so he could turn his guns on that damnable robot.

Who did that bastard think he was? Giving him orders and treating him like some common buffoon?

It was infuriating, but Ezekiel swallowed his pride. He was finally heading back to civilized space, that's all that mattered.

He did have a heated exchange with Rhys when Kane told them to jump first. Kane was really testing his patience by using them as sacrificial bait in case a threat lingered on the opposite end of their jump.

The captain tried to claim that wasn't what Kane was doing at all, but Ezekiel refused to believe that. He knew that's what Kane was up to because if he were in a similar position of power, he would have done the same thing. He had done the same thing on the way out here, ordering one ship to jump slightly ahead of the fleet. That didn't make him have to like being on the receiving end. If Ezekiel's orders weren't clear that he needed to stick with Kane the entire way to Sol, he would have left long ago.

Ezekiel told Rhys that if Kane wanted to jump so badly, he could go first. When nearly ten minutes passed with no movement from Kane's fleet, he lost his patience and simply ordered them to jump before he stomped off to his quarters. He had better things to do than sit and wait around for Kane again. He had done that for months already.

He almost wished a pirate would come along and destroy the hunk of junk he was aboard so his death could be blamed on Kane. At least then, all of his wasted time out here would have been worth it.

***

SYSTEM: VARLEN

DATE: 2402

Blueridge transitioned into Varlen three weeks later. The system was just as bleak and empty as it had been when Ezekiel was last there.

Thanks to getting permission to accelerate ahead of Kane's fleet, he was hoping that their arrival in the system was far enough ahead that he could swap out of the derelict Blueridge and into his new cruiser for the rest of the trip.

"Where are the picket ships?" he asked in a bored tone.

The rest of his fleet that had entered Unokane should be here in Varlen. He planned on disciplining each of those captains once his current assignment was complete. They may have abandoned him on the Admiral's orders, but that didn't mean Ezekiel was about to forgive their actions.

"I am not picking up any other transponders in the system, Vice Admiral Willard," Rhys responded with concern.

"What?" Ezekiel sat up in the command chair and pulled up the transceiver logs. Sure enough, there wasn't a single transponder ping. That shouldn't be possible. Even if the ships were across the system, the ping was a constant signal. "How far out from the station are we?"

"Six more hours at our current speed, sir."

"All ahead full. I want answers as soon as possible."

Rhys nodded and issued the orders to his people while Ezekiel wondered what was going on. Even if the STO transferred those ships for the war effort, his new flagship should still be here. If it were offline, it wouldn't be transmitting, but with no other ships in the system, it should have been crewed and used as system defense.

They received a ping a few hours later, but it came from Kane's ships as they arrived all together. Finding out the man had jump-synced his entire fleet was annoying, but it did explain why he had wanted the Blueridge to jump first.

"We're receiving a hail," Rhys stated a few minutes later.

"About damn time," Ezekiel muttered. "Send it to my console."

A rather young ensign appeared on screen, looking nervous. "Welcome back, Vice Admiral. I've been ordered by the Admiral to transmit a new set of orders to you."

That was all the ensign said before the video cut out. Frowning, Ezekiel pulled up the attached document and ran the STO decryption on it.

As he read through the information, his eyes grew wider and his face paled slightly. "They can't do this to me," he whispered.

"Vice Admiral Willard,

Upon receiving this message, you are being relieved of command in Varlen. STO Command has decided that the system is no longer strategically viable, and we are decommissioning the site. All of the ships have been reassigned to other locations and captains. As we have no other sites in need of another Vice Admiral, your lack of progress with your current assignment, and the fact that you were unable to carry out your orders without contacting command, we feel you are unfit for your current position and title. Your rank will be demoted back to Senior Captain after your current assignment is complete.

Any further failure or delay with your current orders may result in further demotions or punishments.

-Admiral Dufresne."

With a shaking hand, Ezekiel closed the orders and got up from the command chair. "I will be heading to my cabin, don't disturb me unless it's critical." Without waiting for a response, Ezekiel left the bridge, his body numb with anger. Everything he had worked for was falling apart, and it was all thanks to Kane.

***

"Well," Alexander said as he read the intercepted communication to Willard.

"He's not going to be a very happy man," Vigbrand stated with a chuckle.

"No, no, he isn't," Alexander said with a sigh. "Keep an eye on the Blueridge, if they try anything funny, I want to know."

"You think he would risk firing on us now?" Vigbrand asked.

"Not unless he wants to end up being court-martialed and executed, but he is following us all the way to Sol. That gives him a lot of time to scheme and plan. Even a disgraced asshole like Willard still has a lot of connections."

Vigbrand grunted at that. "We will keep a close eye on him, sir."

Alexander thanked the man and composed a message to Char, which he sent across the comm node. She was likely aware of the same situation since Valkyrie had the same powerful computer core as he did. Even if she didn't have the STO's encryption keys that he stole while repairing the Blueridge, the supercomputer on Valkyrie would have been able to crack the weak encryption on the message by this point.

She acknowledged the message and concurred with his assessment of the situation. They would now both be keeping a close eye on Willard's actions from this point forward.