Prince Richard Varus of Aurora

You'd known you were going to be king someday. It had been a fact of life that you'd been training for from birth. You just wished it hadn't been thrust on you so suddenly. While technically you were still not seated on the throne for all intents and purpose you were in control, your father having appointed you as his regent as he fought his final battle. If the doctors were to be trusted then your formal coronation would be coming within the next few months.

You had no time to pre-emptively grieve though. Not with the gate opening again. According to old historical records it should have opened up to a sector that was only a few jumps away from Sol. Your mentor had poured cold water on that though.

"The Gatesssss realign on occasssssion." The Teladi had told you, their species was very long lived, it was one of the things that made them so good at finances, they could afford to take both the short and long view. "Thisss just means there are new chancesss for profitssssss." They could also however be a bit single-minded on them. You on the other hand had to consider what was beyond the gate in more than just economic terms. Prior to the shutdown your country had been on the path to being formally annexed by the United Space Command. It had pretty much been considered a done deal even to the point where they'd started building a wharf to let your sector act as a forward base in their confrontation with the Argon. You weren't entirely certain why your homeworld had aligned away from the Federation in the first place but the enmity had gone both ways to the point that they'd practically shoved you in the arms of the Terrans.

That wharf had become the headquarters of your navy. It had been a blessing that the Terrans had a full battlegroup protecting it when the gate went down, especially when after three years they'd realized that the gate wasn't going to turn back on and had submitted themselves and their ships to your grandfather's authority. More importantly though that had also applied to the ship that had been building the station in the first place. Your industry though had still been at a bit of a standstill. The production lines were complicated and there hadn't been the money in the budget to build out an entire chain of factories from scratch. Also while the Wharf had been completed it hadn't come with very many blueprints, they'd been meant to be uploaded afterward as a standard data security measure. The only ships that could be manufactured were the most basic sort and they had their own entire supply chain of needs.

Then you'd gotten the transmission. It was during your father's reign, nobody was entirely sure when as it's date was muddled from it's journey across the stars but it had presented a completely new way of building things. Advanced materials that were highly adaptable that cut down the complexity of construction severely. More importantly the transmission had also included a full set of blueprints for a series of medium ships, including three different warships. The only message that accompanied it had been 'Update Successful'. Your father had immediately put them to work, converting all factories to construct the metallic microlattice, computronic substrate and silicon carbide alongside their energy cells. Your aging fleet had also gotten the boost in the form of four new ships over the course of his reign.

There was still a bit of a gap. Your fighters were limited. The only ones you could construct were the Rapier class which were more scouts than actual combatants. They were almost completely useless in a fight even an absolute beginner in any other ship would beat one in a fight. They were so pathetic that-

"You REALLY need to tell her." You were snapped from your thoughts by someone barging in through your bedroom door. There were very few people willing to do that. "I beat her with a Rapier!"

One of those people was your younger sister Maria.

"I have no idea who you could be talking about." You lied, gritting your teeth as soon as you finished. You were trying to work out in your mind how that was even possible. "But if I did I wouldn't be surprised. You are our best."

"Oh my dear brother. I'm good. I am not kill a Katana with a laser pointer good. It took forever. All she needed to do was bring the turrets to bear. One of the Bolos could have done better with a mining drill. "

"I'm sure you're exagerrat-"

"I confirmed it with Alex right before coming back down." She was of course referring to your younger brother Alexandre. He'd always had an affinity for mining ships, to the point where he'd run off and secretly joined one's crew. You knew your father had secretly given his blessing but when the captain of the ship had started taking more risks he'd put an end to it. Just in time it seemed considering that their luck ran out almost immediately afterward. You knew he felt guilty about that. He'd been pushing for dedicated operation to locate and destroy the hive ever since. Not that you disagreed with the idea in principle. The main issue was he wanted a boarding operation first.

You did have Marines. The issue was you only had a grand total of 16 trained for operations in space. Furthermore none of them had any actual combat experience. If you tried to use them to **** a Kha'ak breeding chamber you were more likely to end up just giving them more incubators rather than managing to rescue anyone. Which didn't even consider what the cost would likely be to eliminate the station's exterior defenses before launching the boarding pod. There was no way to do that without losing ships. Especially considering they'd be sending every fighter they had at you in addition to those guns. Not to mention...

"We don't have enough pilots to take her off the line." You said, it was true too, in fact it was a bit of a problem. You had a grand total of thirteen active pilots. Using the old star rating system only three were considered three star pilots, three were two stars, three were one star and the final four had... well they were slightly better than the autopilot. With one exception.

"Do we have enough ships to keep her on it?" Maria asked, sighing and walking over to your bed, taking a seat on the edge. "Look. I get it. I know she lets you do anal but if she has another incident with turning off the collision avoidance system we could lose a lot more than a coat of paint. I talked with the crew afterward and none of them want to go into combat with her at the helm."

"They actually said that?" You asked

"Not directly but I could tell. They were way too distracted during our morale session. I only came twice." Right. That was what she called them. If anyone dared call your sister a whore you could have them thrown into prison for slander and still be in the bounds of the law even beyond the fact that you were practically the king. After all, whores got paid.

"You know why I can't." You said after a moment, "Even if I wanted to her family wouldn't be happy." Naturally you'd not married just anyone as part of your harem. Stephanie Varus had formerly been Stephanie Santiago. Her grandmother had been the captain of the Katana the United Space Command had left behind. She was considered by many to be the mother of the new Auroran Navy and her line had been ennobled by your grandfather in recognition of her efforts. When it came time for your betrothals Stephanie had been a natural choice to tie to the royal family. You'd certainly had no objections when you'd been a teenager and even fewer after you'd entered adulthood and found just how dedicated she was to her wifely duties. The problem had started after Maria had formally joined the navy. It inspired Stephanie to do the same and her family had gone on and on about how it was an honor to have a daughter who followed in her grandmother's footsteps. Your father and the admiral had thought it would be great PR for the Navy and an easy way to keep a supportive family happy.

Maria had proven herself to be a natural pilot and leader. Stephanie... nobody was able to prove that her exam simulations had been hacked. You knew for a fact that she never would have done it herself. You'd certainly not questioned it at the time considering how enthusiastic she was in celebrating the achievement. It was no coincidence though how afterward your sister had become her lone training partner.

"Then give her command of the Shiroganne and keep it on home defense. That should make everyone happy." The Shiroganne was the oldest Katana in your fleet. It had more firepower than the newer ships but it was far slower and needed more crew to operate as well as having a weaker hull. It was the one her grandmother had been in charge of even. Maria was right, that would make everyone happy. As long as a threat didn't come along actually needing it to do its job. Which brought you to the elephant in the room.

"With the gate I'm not sure if we can afford to have a corvette sidelined." You said, "Especially if we're going to start sending the mining ships out."

The asteroid belt was the most vexing part of your new reign. The survey records from the United Space Command showed you had everything you needed to feed your industry in space. The problem was getting to it. You weren't completely bereft of mining ships but the problem was that none of them wanted to go out that far. Especially after what had happened to the Bountiful Morning. Pilots preferred to be on ships with guns and putting them on a mining ship and sending them into Kha'ak infested space without an escort was just asking for trouble in three different ways. In the past your industry could get by on the occasional drifter or the closer but less rich asteroids. With the gate now opened that was no longer a realistic option if you were going to build up to meet the galaxy.

"And that choice is why I'm glad you were born three months before me. Have you thought about what Lexi asked?" Your youngest sister Alexis had been wanting to set up a research program for years. She was close with the small Boron community of the kingdom and they were evidently itching to work on new technologies. The cost of development hadn't previously been considered worth it, now things were different and looking into how you could improve on the technology you'd been given was less a whim and more of a need. The problem had been with how complex the material was an how expensive it was in terms of raw materials to produce. The ability to waste it in inevitable failures hadn't been considered worth the cost. It was worth the consideration now.

"I have and I'm not quite done yet. I was still finishing going over our budget figures." You confessed, causing your sister to cover her eyes in a traditional 'see no evil', you rolled your own. "We've got a decent stockpile of raw materials but we're going to be going through them fast if we start up production."

"We'd be better in-sector if dad hadn't bought that Falx. Do you think folks are right about him knowing the gate was coming back?" Your sister was gazing intently at you as she asked, clearly hoping to glean out the reason your father had decided to build a frigate in an era where most of your needs were better served by corvettes and a gunship would have been more suitable for swatting Kha'ak. As you sister had pointed out there had been intense discussions about it ever since the gate had gone active. A frigate that could launch a fighter was a wonderful tool for exploration into the unknown.

Only you knew the truth. Your father had gotten the Falx and Jian mixed up. He'd admitted it only to you and you were going to let him continue to look far-sighted.

"I couldn't say." You said vaguely.

"Richard I'm back!" Said another of the only people allowed to burst into your room unannounced. In this case because it was her bedroom too. "Were you talking with someone?"

You looked back over and found that your bed was mysteriously vacant. You had a feeling if you went under it you might figure out where your errant sister had gone off to.

"Just considering national politics and the needs of the navy." You said.

"Anything I can help with?" She asked moving to look over your shoulder at your console. "If you need I can run escort duty for the mining ships. I'd love to take one of the Katanas out for a real mission! You should have seen me earlier! I had another spar with your sister. She won but it was really close this time! The Kha'ak wouldn't stand a chance!"

Now was as good of a time to make your decisions as any.