BSE Chapter 3-51

Alexander and Theo arrived at the intake center before their guests had touched down. There was a security room off to the side and he passed his badge to the door controller and stepped inside.

The guard monitoring the cameras for the intake area and landing field looked over and nodded to him before moving aside to let Alexander see the holo-display better.

It wasn’t long before three shuttles landed on the platform.

“Three?” Alexander asked, turning to Theo.

“I assume one is for the Lagertha and her advisors aboard the Wayward Soul. The second shuttle likely contains Sub-Commander Vynnson. I do not know who would be aboard the third, but I assume their inclusion was purposeful,” Theo stated.

It made sense to Alexander when laid out like that. Soon the shuttles disgorged their passengers.

“That’s our cue,” Alexander stated, giving his thanks to the security guard before he turned to leave. Theo trailed behind Alexander as he exited the room and made his way toward the main entrance.

Unlike most arrivals, this one was a bit special and there was an honor guard of Damien’s most trusted people in attendance.

The first through the airlock doors was Katalynn Char, her stride quick and purposeful, but not hurried. She barely even glanced at the armed guards flanking the sides of the entry as they gave a customary Asgardian salute, which was a raised fist pressed over the heart.

Alexander wanted to turn to Pembrooke and tell him, “See, I read some of your reports. I know what that gesture signifies.” Instead, he stayed silent as the group of eight people strode towards him.

“Lagertha Char,” he said in greeting. “I know who your advisors are, but I am unfamiliar with your other guests.”

Before the leader of the Asgardians could speak, an almost equally as tall, but not nearly as bulky woman as Katalynn pushed her way to the front of the group.

“So,” the woman stated dismissively, “you are this new outsider turned Jarl that I keep hearing about. You may address me as Jarl Ylva Bergson.”

Seeing as how the woman hadn’t bothered to address him properly, even though she must know his name, Alexander chose to respond in kind. “You are the first Jarl I’ve met.” He turned to Katalynn. “Are all the Jarls as rude as this one?”

Ylva laughed. “This one has some spine. I approve.”

Alexander didn’t miss the minute upward twitch of Katalynn’s mouth.

“We have much to discuss and little time. We have delayed Harlow as long as possible, but he will be here in a little over four standard days. Why is my ship not yet ready?”

Alexander sighed internally. He had nearly forgotten how blunt Katalynn could be. “I have prepared a nearby meeting room for us to discuss matters. Please, follow me.”

Alexander’s own advisors met them inside the room. Damien, Captain Matthews, and Captain Krieger all stood and nodded at their entrance.

Theo must have messaged someone while he was greeting their guests because two more chairs had joined the others. The table was now quite crowded but they would make it work. He would need an actual meeting room or office at some point if he planned to have more visits like this.

As soon as everyone was seated, Alexander immediately brought up the holo display over the table and switched it to a view of Valkyrie.

“All of the weapons are installed and ready to go,” he said without any preamble.

“Then why the message that the ship wasn’t done?” Katalynn asked as she took in the changes to her ship.

“Further upgrades I thought would give us a bit of an edge. The first was the engines. I upgraded Valkyrie to the much more efficient compressed plasma ejection. I figured since I needed to upgrade the fusion reactor, I might as well do both since the engines had to be removed to get at your reactor anyway.”

The Asgardian leader stared through the projection at him. “And how can you be sure those are improvements?”

“Don’t take my word for it, ask your Sub-Commander.”

A very slight hiss of surprise came from Jarl Ylva on Alexander’s choice of wording, but if anyone else had heard it, they didn’t mention the woman’s response.

A few weeks among the Asgardians had not been enough for Alexander to get over years of speaking like someone from the STO. He had forgotten that calling into question someone's honesty was considered rude and disrespectful amongst Asgardians and he had done it to the Lagertha.

Thankfully, Katalynn didn’t react to his words. Maybe she was just used to dealing with people like him or him specifically. Either way, he was grateful that she hadn’t reacted. She turned to her Sub-Commander. “What is your take on these new engines?” she asked.

“They are an improvement over the Sinorus ones that we had installed previously,” he acknowledged grudgingly. “The ship is now much more responsive, and we can eventually remove the old fuel storage tanks to make way for other improvements. While I am loath to admit anything of Asgardian make is sub-par, I soothe my battered pride over the fact that those engines were not of our design and manufacture.”

Katalynn nodded once and turned back to Alexander. “That means the engines are complete. What other upgrades have you introduced that are delaying the ship’s battle-ready status?”

Alexander glanced at the other Jarl, without moving his avatar to indicate that he was looking at the woman. It seemed strange to give out this information to a third party, but he had to remind himself that the Asgardians did things much differently than the STO and most people.

“I have upgraded your ship with the same tac-display that my frigates had. With that came new sensors, but most of all, the computer core. That last component is what is taking so long to complete.”

“Even if I haven’t yet witnessed them, I can at least understand the significance of the upgraded sensors and tac-display. What is the computer core useful for?” Char asked.

If it hadn’t been for his concern that they wouldn’t have enough ships to hold off Harlow, Alexander would have kept this bit of tech in his back pocket. The advantages of having the supercomputer augmentation aboard two flagships simply outweighed his desire to keep it hidden.

“Once we are done running the new data pathways, you will be able to run Valkyrie on a crew a quarter of its current size.”

He received shocked looks from the eight new arrivals. He hadn’t told the Sub-Commander the exact implications of installing the core, only that it would boost the ship's ability in combat.

“How is that possible?” Katalynn demanded.

“Do you know what a computronic module is?” He asked.

“Of course I do. I’m not some backwoods idiot. I also know they are ridiculously expensive and not worth the cost most of the time. Are you telling me you put a computronics module on Valkyrie? While I am appreciative of the upgrade, this was not in our original agreement. I hope you don’t expect me to pay you back for such extravagance.”

“No,” Alexander shook his avatar, making the woman relax. “Even I agree that using supercomputer computronics is a waste of funding, which is why I made my own pseudo-computronics. And instead of one, I installed sixteen, which is the equivalent of two supercomputer computronics modules.”

The room was so quiet, you could hear a pin drop.

Krieger was the first to snort, breaking the silence. “So that’s what it looks like being on the receiving end of information like this. I can see why you like surprising people like this, Alex.”

“I don’t do it on purpose,” Alexander muttered.

Once the room recovered from their shock, Katalynn spoke up. “We will discuss your pseudo-computronics later. For now, let us get back on track. How long until my ship is ready?”

“Two weeks until we have completed the new data runs, but you can fly it as it is now without any issues”

“Good,” she stated. “Haldric, go back to the ship and get our people transferred over.”

The Sub-Commander nodded once and then got up and left.

“What about the other ship I see at your station?” she asked as soon as the door shut.

“Same situation,” Alexander admitted.

“Would more hands help or hinder at this point?”

“It would probably hinder any progress.”

“Very well, I will leave the completion of those projects to you. Just be aware, any engineers stuck on those ships when Harlow jumps in, will be put to work.”

Alexander hadn’t really thought of that. “I will alert them. Depending on how many want to head back to the planet, we may need to readdress your previous question of additional help.”

“With that issue out of the way, what can you tell me of Unokane’s tactical situation? Harlow will likely force his way into this system and there isn’t much our three combined fleets can do to stop him. That means we have to fight him here.”

That was not what Alexander had wanted to hear. “How large is his fleet?”

“In our last encounter, we reduced his fleet to just below eighty ships,” Vyrik Thornvund, Katalynn’s tactician admitted. “And a large majority of those are destroyers and frigates.”

Alexander’s advisors winced at the size and power of the pirate emperor’s fleet.

“I saw the system scans when your fleets jumped in. You have twenty ships?” Krieger asked for confirmation.

“Twenty surviving ships,” Thornvund admitted.

“Sorry for your losses,” Krieger said in consolation. “That means with our fleet, we are still outnumbered by almost two to one in just numbers, let alone the disparity in tonnage.”

“Which is why we need to know this system's tactical situation,” Katalynn stated.

Krieger looked to Alexander, “I think you understand the situation better than I do.”

Alexander nodded and told the group about the laser satellites and the missile platforms around both the planet and the first moon.

“We noticed them upon our arrival. They seem awfully small, how much power can they output?”

Alexander didn’t take offense at the Lagertha’s words. It was true, the clamshell lasers were small, but that made them hard targets to hit as well. “It takes approximately six of the platforms to equal one laser from a frigate. That number jumps to twelve if we compare them to the lasers on the Valkyrie. I know that seems rather weak and ineffective, but we have a program that can sync a quarter of the grid of lasers to a single point in space if needed. That’s over five hundred lasers. They take over an hour to recharge, but we have enough lasers orbiting the planet to get four devastating shots off. The moon has enough for two of these alpha strikes. I have also started building missile defense platforms. They are capable of firing a full salvo of twelve missiles before they run out.”

Katalynn simply nodded at the report. “Are those the same missiles you had aboard Wayward Soul? If so, can you outfit our entire fleet with them? We also need to resupply our projectiles and point defense. Are you capable of providing this?”

“Yes, those are the same missiles. I don’t know if I have enough to resupply the entire fleet, but I will empty our armory of every missile if I have to. As for your other ammunition, I don’t have any currently stocked, but I will retask my production to ensure we have enough.”

The rest of the meeting was more about the tactics they would need to deploy. Alexander was going to stick around and listen in, but Katalynn asked him to follow her before stepping out of the room to let the discussion continue.