Best not risk it.

(I plan to go back and add a romance option later but want to get some of the story down first.)

“I am sorry your highness but I must decline. I am afraid I could never settle for a one night stand with a woman as beautiful as you and could never look upon your future husband with nothing but jealously knowing he could have you by his side for the rest of his life.” Hell if her fiancee or her father ever found out I would be a dead man.

“Fair enough thou now I am at a lost. Few people ever say no to me when I want something though none could make it sound like a compliment.” She smiled and raised her glass before downing the bottle. We sat and talked for a bit downing a few more glasses as we just talked as if old friends.

I managed to make it back to the party and meet a few of Mistress Elizabeth's friends who controlled many of the business interest on the planet. I was sure every last one of them wanted to replace the previous lords and ladies who had fallen into disfavor. I was glad when it was over personally. To many hands to shake and to many people trying to kiss my ass. The next morning the princess visited before her ship and her escort ships left. By noon I somehow found myself in the training room dueling against Miranda.

“Son of a bitch.” I said rubbing my side where the shock blade had hit me. It wasn't a high enough wattage to cause serious injury but more then enough to let you know you had been struck.

“I told you to keep your guard up.” She shook her head.

“Remind me why I agreed to this again?” I said getting into fighting position

“You hired me to be your captain of the guard but if you want to do something stupid like challenge three noblemen to a duel this is the best I can do.” She came at me swinging as I managed to block. Where I specialized in military tactics and strategies Miranda excelled in there application. She pushed herself harder then anyone I knew trying to live up to her families military heritage. When I asked her to serve as the captain of the guard I wasn't sure she would have said yes. Hell her family had actually harvested some of her eggs in the event that she died.

“Your still mad about that?” I said before striking back as she parried every swing of sword.

“That you where being a complete idiot.” She said coming back at me.

“I told you...” I said as I thrust and she deflected my sword before striking me in the stomach.

“That it would deter any future attempts unless you end up challenges lord Baptiste again in which case I am pretty sure he will kill you. You were lucky to play on his honor.” She shook her head.

“Fair enough.” I rubbed my belly.

“You said it yourself. You can't take no more memories without losing some of your own so we practice. Everyday if we necessary until you are at least proficient.” She said and came back at me. I deflected her her blade, caught her wrist, and swept her feet out from under her her. I dropped onto my knees and pinned her to the ground.

“How was that?” I smiled. Her breast where heaving up and down in her top.

“Better.” She nodded and glanced down. “But not good enough.” I felt something tap my leg and glanced down to see her knife resting against my thigh. “Stale mate.” She was right. If this was real I would cut into her jugular vein while she would sever my deep femoral artery in my leg as her last dying act.

“So it seems.” I smiled and stood up offering her a hand and helped her up. I walked over and grabbed a towel and tossed it to her then grabbed the other and began to wipe off the sweet from the workout.

“Enter.” I said as a knock came at the door. One of the house servants came in.

“My lord. The representative from the traders guild is here to see you. Mistress Anastasia has shown him to your office.

“Thank you Kim. I didn't realize it was getting so late.” I nodded.

“You are most welcome my lord.” She bowed and headed out.

“Meeting with the trading guild. Should I prepare an orbital artillery strike on their headquarters on planet?” Miranda teased.

“Hopefully not but get the coordinates just in case. Might want to consider a nuclear round just to be sure.” I joked. I put in my dress shirt and jacket and headed to the office where Anastasia was pouring a glass of tea for the two of them.

“Ah, hello gentlemen.” I said walking into the room.

“Aw.” One said pulling an ear piece from his ear.

“Sorry about that. Com Jamming so that we can have a private conversation without anyone else listening in.” I shrugged. It was embedded in the ring I wore and would cause feed back to any wireless communication device. It was broad ban blocking all frequencies except for a few used by my people while still outside of military channels which were still encoded none the less. The fact that it had caused audio feedback meant that the feed was active.

“We understand baron. One can never be to careful in this crazy galaxy we live in.” The older man offered his hand. “Bartholomew Jones. Chief operating officer for the Trading guild in this system and this is my aid Adam Stanton.” The older gentleman said and extended his hand. “Baron. It is a pleasure to meet you in person. “This is my aid. I was hoping to talk to you at the party but things as they where and all.”

“Well I am here now.” I shrugged and took a seat behind my desk.

“Do you want some tea my lord?” Anastasia asked. I saw her touch the locket I had given her.

“No. Thank you Anastasia. That will be all.” I nodded.

“We would like to apologize for the presumption of you wanting the courtesan. We did not mend to offend you. We can always find one...” He began to speak but

“What offends me is trying to buy me off, not the girl herself. She is a very lovely girl but that will in no way affect any decision I make. I will not treat her like a piece of property. Even if I did it no way would influence my decisions in regard to the poor performance of your guild as of late.”

“Our performance. I am...” He started to talk as I put my hand up.

“You charge for the delivery of our goods, make us provide protection for your ships which has resulted in smuggling and piracy in this system.

“Surly you must understand with the war what it is.” He shook his head.

“What I know is the people of this system do the work and your people are reaping all the benefits. It is your fault the last lord died when you suggested the use of synthetic labor because the miners couldn't meet ridiculous demands put on them. That is what caused his **** at the hands of the miners who where all ready angry at him. I have no intention of making his mistakes. The only reason we are having this talk is because of the war. I have ore the empire needs and as I am sure you have heard by now that mining on the moon will produce a sizable income for this system and you want in on the profits.” I put my hands together.

“Yes. My partners and I are interested in assisting the empire in anyway we can.” He nodded. I swore I could hear him salivating.

“Until the Sirius route opens we will be stockpiling ore to deliver directly to earth. The emperor has already pledge to have ships waiting on the other side and requires every last ounce of ore we can mine until the route closes.”

“We would be glad to also commit ships toward this end.” He smiled.

“If we need them. Until then we wish to continue doing business as usual. Afterwards when the route closes we will be willing to discuss shipping rights from the moon with a few changes on your end if we are to continue doing business at all.”

“We have a contract with...” The younger man began to speak.

“You have a contract with the house who ruled over this planet. It became null and void upon the last baron **** and his house dissolved with no clear line of succession. You could of course take it to the courts. Even if they did rule in your favor you will find the contract only covers materials harvested on the planet as you like to remind the off world freelancers. Plus with the war going on I do not think the emperor would look to fondle on any action that would affect the war effort. Don't you agree?”

“Agreed.” Mister Jones said begrudgingly.

“From now on you will pay us full price for the ore and you will cover all shipping charges.”

“Why would we do that?” Mister Stanton asked.

“Because you can charge the buyers whatever you like with the war on. Price of doing business and all. I could care less what you do outside of my system. We will offer a discount per quantity of ore received on your end. The more ships you commit means lower prices for you and more quantity of merchandise to sell to your buyers. With the uranium on the moon this could mean big profits for you and your guild.”

“I will have to discus this with the other members of the guild but I see no reason we cannot make things workout so that we both work out a contract that will benefit both parties.” Mister Jones nodded.

“Please do.” I nodded.

“We could buy back the mining robots if you like as a show of good fate.” Mister Jones said.

“They are being used on the moon to clear a parking lot plus a few have been used in training exercises.” I smiled. The few that had been deployed before the riots had been damaged or destroyed and where now be used by Miranda as target practice. The rest I had sold Mister Anderson at a major discount to do with as he pleased. Last I heard they were picking up ore and rock from the surface leaving his men time to survey the scar. A second ship was expected to land today with a team of miners and equipment who would make their way down hill into the crater.

We talked for a bit longer discuss minor details. I was sure their would be a lot of back and forth on issues but I had something they wanted which gave me leverage. I would need them for now but one day hoped to change that. They made their way out and Anastasia came in.

“How did it go my lord?”

“To early to tell. Might have to use plan B.” I smiled thinking about the joke Miranda had suggested. One of the guardsmen came in stopping at the door.

“Sir. Captain Knight wishes to see you in the war room.” He replied.

“Thank you lieutenant.” I nodded and made my way to the war room. I found Miranda watching a data burst from Jenkins.

“What is it?”

“We got word from Jenkins. He managed to capture a military gun ship when the pirates boarded his ship.”

“Gunship. That isn't standard operations for a pirate. Alliance?” I asked. Pirates would sometime mount guns on their ships but a gun ship was a whole different problem. It was one of the smallest military craft outside of shuttles but had a lot of fire power and armor to boot.

“No.” She shook her head and pulled up a video from the attack. “One of ours.” The ship looked to be an older model that was still in use but was slowly being fazed out for newer craft. “It gets worst. They traced the flight trajectory and determined it's point of origin.” She pulled up the map and then a video image from Jenkins of a ship near the rim.

“That is a battle carrier.” I said. It was one of ours. Dauntless class long range. Eight gunships, twenty four close range fighter drones, four primary guns, eight close quarter guns, sixteen missile platforms, and four nuclear missiles for planetary strike capabilities. Crew compliment of two hundred.

“According to Jenkins it is the Vanguard.” She looked at me.

“That ship went missing five years ago.” I shook my head. It was thought destroyed in the war.

“Someone found it apparently. The pirates are using it as base of operations sending out gunships to hunt down ships then bring back the spoils. It's headed for the leviathan moons. The...”

“Most populated moons in the outer system and home to the ship yards.” I shook my head. The moons where defenseless. Twice the size of most gas giants Leviathan was massive and had around fifty moons. Anderson had turned it into the hub of the system by building his shipyard there on a moon with a high orbit beyond the planets rings.

“Luckily it seems to be moving slower then standard cruising speed. Don't know if it is age or damage but it could buy us time to send in ships. It might be enough to deter them and send them running.” Miranda brought up the map.

“If not it be one hell of a fight. We have no clue it's capabilities. I doubt a group of pirates would have the man power to operate her with a full crew but the guns on that thing could tear the fleet apart at long range. If she has any fighter drones it would be a short fight at close range.” I replied.

Drones had long since replaced manned fighter craft. In a space battle debris from a damaged ship were more deadly then enemy guns or missiles. Fighters could never carry enough armor to protect the pilots and no human could fly through the maze of wreckage. Even if they could a fighter could do little against the armor of a warship. Fighter drones could only target external system. Weapons platforms, thrusters, communication systems, radar.

“What do you want to do?” She looked at me.