Inform her there's been a Misunderstanding

"It seems there has been a misunderstanding. I am Prince Richard Varus. Our world was never part of the Argon Federation. We were a colony founded prior to the formation of the Federation and the Federation never claimed dominion over us." You explained, "I would like to extend you a welcome to come visit our world. You must be tired to have come so far." Given that Ethan didn't have any other gates within sensor range she'd probably been traversing the sector for at least a day if not more. Autopilot could handle a lot of things but if the era of the software matched her ship then she was likely having to keep it constantly monitored. Elizabeth had mentioned before that the greatest boon of the upload had been the fact that the software upgrades had come through. Your Sabre pilots were probably especially grateful given that it meant they could rest during the journey.

"Never part of the Federation?" Vivian asked, your intuition about her tiredness seeming to be right on the mark. "I- should- Thank you for your invitation Prince Varus. I accept."

"I'm glad to hear it. Ethan will you please escort her?" You said

"Of course your highness." As they began the process of transiting the gate you sent a message to the palace staff to ensure there was a guest room prepared. The transit back was fortunately just as successful as the one going out. Both fighters appearing on the star map that had been fleshed out by the new satellites. You took the opportunity to check on the miners as well while you waited and saw that there hadn't been any problems thus far. The gathering going apace and the combat ships suitably bored. The Kha'ak not showing their faces.

That made you think of the ones that Selina had fought. One thing that had made the Kha'ak so difficult to deal with was the fact that they didn't rely on the jump gate network. They did tend to place their hives and outposts in such sectors but when traveling as individuals they could use small jump drives. Given the fact that there wasn't anything in your sector that could have caused the damage you had to assume it had come from somewhere else. The hive being willing to send out ships with combat damage wasn't a sign of strength. It was one of weakness. The fact that they hadn't tried to harry your miners after attacking the Katana just proved it.

There was the disturbing question of what they'd been fighting and just how close it was but you suspected that you weren't going to be troubled by the Kha'ak for at least a short while. Not until they could rebuild at least. (Double 100s)

Vivian's communicator came to life again.

"Is that a... wharf?" She was presumably asking Ethan, there really wasn't any hiding what the structure was, it did give you an idea though.

"Yes it is." You replied, "Would you like us to take a look at your ship while you're here? Just to make sure nothing is amiss? You can catch a lander from there to the planet."

"Really? That would be wonderful! I uh, don't really have a way to pay for repairs though. I don't suppose you take WorkCreds?" Vivian replied reluctantly.

"We can consider all of that later." You reassured her. Already thinking through the implications of currency conversion and potential trade. This True Argon Federation seemed to be a bit heavy handed in their foreign relations but that could just be some remnant of pre-reactivation policy. You hoped the meeting with Vivian would be able to fill in some of the blanks. There didn't seem to be anything else happening fast so you took the opportunity to leave the situation room to the far more comfortable waiting room outside.

"Did things go well?" Elizabeth asked, you wondered how long she'd been there.

"To be determined." You said, "The gate works both ways but we've encountered a pilot from some place called the True Argon Federation. She's coming down for a social and what I suspect will be at least a day of sleep."

"That would explain the guest room. Do you have her sizes by chance?" Elizabeth asked

"Huh?"

"I hardly think anything that she's brought will be appropriate for meeting with royalty. You wouldn't want her to feel embarrassed for being so underdressed would you?" Elizabeth said, giving you a hard look that told you that it would be bad for your health to respond otherwise. "I'll have Anne ready to meet her and get her something proper. I'll also let Stephanie know to wear her dress uniform, it would probably reassure her to have another pilot around in your company."

"What would I do without you." You said, moving in and giving her a kiss on the cheek.

"Commit faux pas in abundance and leave far too many ruffled feathers in your wake." She replied, "I'll be expecting full payment for my services later."

"She collapsed the second we hit gravity your highness." Ethan reported, in person this time. "The doctor said it was exhaustion. Her other vital signs were normal so she should get better with rest."

"I suppose we'll be putting off her small reception then. Anne will be pleased with the extra time at least." You said, you'd suspected she was tired but she must have been going entirely without sleep for a good while for something like this to happen. From what Maria had told you even Rapiers were designed for the pilot to be able to get at least a bit of shut-eye when outside of combat operations. "So that you don't do the same you can borrow Maria's room tonight before you continue your mission. We'll need you to find whatever gate she came from and a better look at that sector.

"Thank you Your Highness." Ethan said, snapping a crisp salute before heading out to follow your command to rest.

A large piece of the puzzle was solved early the next day.

"Richard. You can't let her fly home in this thing. Not in its current state." Jessica said, she dressed quite a bit differently from back when you were courting. After Elizabeth had become your wife she'd joined the Royal Marines. It would have been awkward for her to be on one of the royal protection details so she'd become one of the space trained members of the Corps. With so many of the crew busy on other duties or installing the simulators you'd asked her to help out with examining the Discoverer. As it was just the two of you on the call down from the wharf you'd naturally dropped the formalities. "The chassis is bad enough, it's clearly had some micro strikes that weren't properly repaired, which only happened because it's power isn't feeding to its shield properly. It's an old 1MJ model so that means that the reactor has to be fluctuating. It should be similar enough to the Sabre's 5MJs so we can probably fix it but now we're getting to the engines. It's clear that they haven't been even looked at since they were installed and they've taken some of those same micro strikes."

"So the reason she was staying awake so long was because she couldn't trust her ship." You guessed

"Her eject suit either." Jessica confirmed

"Eject suit?"

"It's what gives you a last chance on a fighter if your ship goes boom. It's supposed to provide enough air and thrust to get you somewhere safe. Problem with her's is the propulsion unit is completely fried. If something went wrong she would have been dead in space. I can't examine the distress beacon without making it obvious but I'd give it a 50/50." Jessica explained

"Can you draw any conclusions about their tech base?"

"All I can say for sure is that they're not great but they can make new plates. We could fix it but it's going to need a full refit which is going to cost some materials." She explained

"Thanks for the help Jessica."

"Not a problem. Give the others my best. Out,"

"Lotus, finally let the cat release your tongue?" You teased

"Ugh, never let her hear you call her a cat. She had another incident with the royal mouse catcher." Lotus said, apparently far too pleased by that fact. Yala was great with finances but when it came to felines they tended to run from her at the slightest opportunity. It annoyed her to no end that Lotus seemed to attract them and had even been granted the coveted belly rubs for the palace's pet. "What up? Here for tea or business?"

"Business this time. You know our guest?" You got a nod in reply, "Well according to Jessica her ship is completely banged up. Based on this estimate do you think you could figure out what the cost should be in credits for a repair like that?" You quickly sent her the data.

"Betrayal. You were the chosen one Richard! You were supposed to defeat the homework assigners not join them!" Lotus complained but immediately her mind got to work and her fingers began tapping. She then gave you smug smile that sent your alarm bells ringing. "Well your highness. From a simple materials calculation I would put the value at around 27,000 credits. What that doesn't take into account is the work time of the wharf. And that cost is a purely political consideration. If only there was someone whose job it was to make those."

"Ouch." You said, "So basically the cost is low but the infrastructure is what makes it valuable?"

"You were in the same opportunity cost classes I was." Lotus said, rolling her eyes

"It's not my fault you're sexy when you explain economic concepts."

"For your information I am always sexy!" She protested with a cute huff, her tail tip moving slightly as you were **** to head out to deal with the next matter.

Spoiler: Vivian

"I am so sorry."

She'd been out for two days straight and could probably use another one but she seemed alert enough at the small social. Only your inner circle and the obligatory guards present.

"Don't be. I'm just glad you were able to rest." You replied with a smile.

"I wanted to thank your wife for this lovely dress too. Is she here?" Vivian asked

"Anne had a prior engagement." You said, which wasn't necessarily a lie. Anne was your most recent wife but she was also the oldest. Your courtship had been far more hasty than the ones you'd had with Stephanie and Elizabeth. There'd been an accident that had rendered her as the last of her family line. There'd been initial talks of her marrying your father for her family's service to the throne but his illness made that unviable. That naturally meant you were the next logical choice and you weren't about to throw her to the wolves by rejecting her. She could be a bit standoffish and you honestly weren't sure how she truly felt about you. Especially considering she often used an old Japanese word when she referred to you. The exact translation of 'baka' continuing to be elusive.

"One of my friends took a look at your ship. How many jumps did you have to get here?" Stephanie asked, naturally she and Jessica were close. As one of your potential wives part of your courtship had been the two of them getting together for outings as well. Then with Jessica's posting on the wharf they'd had plenty of time to get lunches and other after-work encounters.

"Oh just three. Not including yours at least. I was on mapping duty." She said, seeming proud of that, "This is the third new sector I'm the first one in!"

"Yikes! No wonder you were tired."

"Ah yeah, you know how it is. The battlefleet gets the good stuff and the explorer corps gets the shaft. Not even literally considering the battle-bitches keep all the men to themselves." She immediately slapped her hand over her mouth. "Uhm so smuorry."

"Relax, you're allowed to curse around royalty here. As long as you're not directing it at them." Stephanie said with a small laugh, "But honestly I don't get that. Why wouldn't the ships going out of sector get priority? They're a lot further from help if something goes wrong."

"I ahhh probably shouldn't talk about that." Vivian replied, lowering her hands as she realized an errant word wasn't about to have her thrown in the dungeons for 'offending your tender sensibilities'.

"We don't have to but I was hoping to learn more about your home. Is True Argon Prime the same world as Argon Prime before the shutoff?" You asked

"Hardly. Those cowards had abandoned the Federation's ideals long before the network went down. They started a pointless war with the Terrans when they attacked the Torus and then had the gall to pretend like they had ****." Vivian said bitterly, you were a bit shocked considering how closely that aligned with what you'd been taught about the start of the war. You were aware of historical records from the time and the Argon had called it a necessary response to Terran aggression and interference in their internal affairs due to the opposition to Artificial General Intelligence research. The Torus Aeternal had been the massive defense station in charge of protecting earth against all threats. The Argon had sent an agent who managed to covertly destroy the station. There were mixed reports on the casualty numbers but there was no doubt it had been the causus belli of the war. "The True Argon Federation represents everything that the Federation is meant to stand for and we're trying to use this opportunity to create a better future for all Argon."

"Even if it means undoing their elections?" You asked

"That's... just a necessary measure. They were put into place prior to their return to the true Federation. The people deserve to have their voice heard under the new circumstances. If the Free Argon Directorate had merely listened to reason- I mean. Agh. I suck at this. I should have run home the second I met you to get the diplomats involved." Vivian said, clearly frustrated with herself. "I can probably get them here in a month or so. I'm sorry. I just really don't know what I'm allowed to say or even what I should say. I'm technically supposed to lay claim to every sector I've been to but I don't know how that interacts with the fact that its your only gate out. I can leave tomorrow and go to get official word-"

"Your ship is barely spaceworthy." Stephanie protested.

"It got me here, it'll get me home. Like I said, I don't have much to pay with. With people like you and Anne on his arm I doubt I could even use my body."