"Yulia!" Alexander said in surprise as he made his way back to the workshop. "What are you doing wandering around?"

"I finished my homework, and I'm bored, Alex. Do you have any puzzles or projects I can help with?"

"Bored? Hmm, I am planning on rebuilding the tactical projector on the bridge. If you're interested, you can help me with that."

Alexander could see the gleam in his daughter's eyes, but she paused to make it look like she was pondering the question before nodding once. "I guess I could help."

He made an after-her gesture, keeping his avatar's expression from showing his internal amusement. Yulia may be a teenager, but she did a poor job of hiding her enthusiasm when it came to building anything. At least she didn't seem to be mad at him for the moment.

Alexander knew she had been helping out around the ship, and he would have encouraged her to do it more often, but she had gotten a bit defensive about the topic when he brought it up. It probably had a lot to do with his overreaction after the battle. Not wanting to sour her feelings on helping where she could, he had chosen to drop the subject.

Now that she was a teenager, he knew he would need to give her space when she needed it and be there when she needed him. At least that's what the books told him.

To be honest, Alexander found the entire idea of the lopsided relationship between parents and teenage children to be extremely odd. Maybe it was because he didn't have any memories of his teenage years, just a few scattered ones from his childhood, and the rest from when he was an adult.

For example, how were you supposed to give a teenager boundaries, yet give them the freedom to be themselves? The first part was easy enough, especially when Yulia was younger. Well… sort of. Even in her younger years, Yulia pushed those boundaries and often ended up in trouble because of it.

Alexander realized long ago that Yulia was going to end up being a bit of a free spirit, which made giving her stricter boundaries necessary, but also much more difficult. He didn't want to make her resent him for being too strict or crush her creativity. He knew he had already crossed the line when he sealed her in her augment gear after the attack, even if it was for her own safety. The only saving grace to that mistake was the fact that she was still wearing the suit, minus the helmet, which was clipped securely to the backplate.

The pair walked down the corridor in silence until they arrived at the cluttered workshop.

Yulia didn't say anything, but Alexander could practically feel the judgment radiating off the girl when she saw the state of the shop.

"I haven't had time to tidy up," he said defensively as he moved some items out of the way so she could fit through the thin aisles.

Instead of commenting, Yulia asked what she needed to do.

"There's an electric cart over on the far side of the workshop. It's probably buried under a pile of stuff. Clear it off and move the cart into the hallway, and I will start handing you the parts we need to make the repairs, as well as some tools."

Yulia nodded silently and walked through the maze to locate the cart.

Alexander lost sight of the girl as she maneuvered behind a stacked shelf. A moment later, he winced as he heard a clatter as dozens of items fell to the ground. He hoped nothing had been damaged, but he blamed himself for not telling her to be gentle with the components piled on the cart. Not long after that, Yulia walked toward him once more with the plastic cart suspended overhead.

"It wouldn't fit through," she said as she walked past him.

He probably should have realized that, given the state of the workshop.

Alexander moved some parts around to access the printer. Most of the components were done and ready for assembly, but the main holo projector still needed to be printed. He handed off the items to Yulia, asking her to be careful with them.

She rolled her eyes at the statement, like that was the most obvious thing in the world, before moving them over to the cart. First published on M|V|L!EMPYR.

While the last part was printing, Alexander collected the tools he would need to remove the old parts.

It wasn't long before the final piece finished, and they were on the way to the bridge again.

Honestly, it would have been faster to cannibalize the holo-theater for the parts to fix the tac-display, but he didn't want to do that. The holo-theater was the only real entertainment/therapy aboard Grace, and the surviving crew had been using it pretty regularly to cope after the attack on Earth as well as the Shican attack.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

They made it to the bridge, the blast doors still stuck open after Alexander wrenched his way out after the attack. They were a low-priority repair and probably wouldn't be addressed until they returned to Unokane.

Thankfully, the door was open enough to fit the cart through.

Katalynn glanced at them as they entered and raised an eyebrow as she saw Yulia. "Here to assist your father?"

Yulia nodded curtly before pushing the cart toward the tac-display console.

Katalynn gave him a questioning look, and Alexander quickly flashed the word 'teenager' across his avatar before making it vanish just as Yulia turned around, which happened just as Katalynn gave a knowing nod.

"What was that?" Yulia asked in suspicion.

"Nothing you need to worry about," Alexander responded. "How about you do the repairs on the display, and I'll only step in if you need something."

"Really?" Yulia said excitedly, completely forgetting her dour mood and suspicion from a moment ago.

Alexander nodded and watched the girl gleefully dive into removing the floor panels to get at the device buried within. He would worry about her touching a live wire or something, but he had already cut power to the display when he had been working to get the bridge back online. Even if there had been power still running to it, her suit was grounded against such things.

Alexander went to stand near Katalynn, who was watching Yulia with a wry grin on her face.

"I remember when my children were around her age. Odin, that was a difficult time," she said quietly.

"How old are your children?" Alexander asked.

"Old enough to be on their own. I had them young because you never know what accident might befall you. Especially for someone like me."

"As Lagertha or as a captain?" Alexander asked as he kept an eye on Yulia's work.

Katalynn snorted softly. "As a captain. I never wanted to lead our people or challenge my father for the role, but he refused to see reason, so I was given no other choice. Then I found out he had been preparing far longer than I had been aware of the issues that made me confront him. He kept that knowledge from me. If he had just told me, I wouldn't have challenged him. Even as he died, he said he was proud of me." The last sentence came out laced with bitterness.

Alexander wasn't sure what to say. It wasn't often Katalynn opened up, and he could tell that last part really bothered her. He also knew that giving her empty condolences would be seen as an insult, so he didn't. "He was right to be proud," he said instead. "Look at what you accomplished."

Katalynn didn't sigh, rebuke, or give him a dirty look. She simply accepted his words quietly.

The awkward silence lingered for a bit before Alexander broke it with a question. "Any changes from our guests?"

"Not much, but the computer estimates they are slowly maneuvering to get to a safe jump distance from Borrus."

"How long?" Alexander asked. The only reason they would move away from the planet was to get to a spot to jump or to wait for someone to jump in. In this case, probably both. Alexander was pretty certain they were coordinating their efforts via a secure FTL communications network aboard their ships. If the sole FTL comm provider in human space wasn't using their own technology to gain an advantage, that would be surprising.

It was against STO law to bypass the regulated jump points within a system, but he had already seen three companies flaunt that law, and those were smaller companies. He doubted a company as large as Qcomm would care about any fine that the STO levied against them. Assuming the STO even took any action. There still wasn't a single STO vessel within the system to stop the corporations from doing what they wanted.

Either Admiral Dufresne hadn't been able to redirect ships to help secure the system, or more than likely, Qcomm or another company had done something to keep them from interfering.

"At the rate they are orbiting away from Borrus, two days and fifteen hours," she replied.

"The first stingray will be complete, but I think we'll have to drop the second one. I wasn't able to knock any appreciable time off the print schedule. Another thing to consider is that the Stingray won't have a missile unless we transfer one from Grace."

Katalynn shook her head. "If it comes to a fight, we've already lost. The Stingray is simply to give them pause, so we can activate the missiles we placed and jump."

Yulia finished up the entire removal by herself. The only help she needed was when it came time to place the new projector because it was too awkward to lift with her small stature.

Alexander helped her put it into place and routed power back to it. He would never forget the grin of satisfaction Yulia had when she saw the system come to life.

***

"Sorry, Alex," Captain Ramirez said. "We're still four days out from the jump point at our fastest speed. We could cut that time by taking an unauthorized jump point, but that will cause even more friction, which is why we avoided doing it."

"It's not your fault, Ramirez, you did the right thing. Stay on course. Once you arrive at the jump point to Borrus, I want you to idle there and wait for us to arrive in case we have unwelcome guests following us."

"You sure you don't want to wait for us?"

"I'm afraid we're out of time. We expect guests in the next few hours, but we don't plan on sticking around for them to say hi."

The man nodded on the screen. "We'll be ready and waiting, sir."

When the call ended, Alexander turned to Katalynn. "How long is the visual delay on the comm sat we sent toward Borrus?"

"Less than a minute," she replied after glancing at the tablet.

"Not exactly ideal, but it's better than the twenty-minute lag we have out here."

"It'll be enough," Katelynn assured him. "No matter how good their jump is, they will need to spend time forming up before jumping out to us. It's more than enough time to activate the missiles and jump away."

Alexander knew she was right, but it was still far too close for comfort. If Qcomm wanted to have a discussion, they would have had it by now. No, they were coming to kill him and eliminate their competition while the STO was too busy to stop them. It was ruthless, but within what he had expected, given what he was doing to their sole source of income. Honestly, if Qcomm's actions matched his expectations, he preferred that. A direct approach to solving issues was much easier to avoid or deal with than the cloak and dagger bullshit that Omni seemed to like.