Blue Star Enterprises

As the door shot open, Alexander sped up his processing speed to take in the startled people inside the armory. There were only a few actual guards, the rest looked to be civilians based on the fact they weren't wearing the tailored armor of the light augmentation suits, but instead simple plate carrier vests.

Three people in particular caught his attention not because they were guards, but because they were three of the four new Councilors. The only one absent seemed to be Sorin.

Alexander quickly scanned the rest of the people, seeing only one guard holding the newly modified flechette miniguns. The rest were still in the process of suiting up.

Seeing no real danger, he dropped his processing speed back to normal. "Councilor Anita, Rowan, and Dax or Dex, I always forget which it is. Funny running into you three here. I suggest you all put your weapons and armor down and come with me."

Councilor Anita scoffed. "And who are you to tell us what we can and can't do, Mr. Kane? You are not part of the Council. If anything, we should demand you explain to us why you have broken into the armory."

Alexander ignored the woman and turned to the other two councilors. "Is this really how you want this to go?"

The two men looked at each other before throwing their hands in the air.

"Good choice," Alexander stated before turning back to the woman who was now huffing in indignation.

She pointed toward him and screeched. "Arrest this man!"

A few of the guards took tentative steps forward but immediately stopped when Alexander spoke up. "Touch me and I will break all of your limbs and leave you like that until the trial is over."

His threat of bodily harm finally got through their thick skulls and an uneasy standoff continued until a group of fully armed Hawks stormed into the room twenty minutes later. Alexander could have subdued the group himself, but that would have meant chasing them. It had been much easier to block the only exit to the room and wait.

"Team Leader Jallen, thanks for responding to my message so quickly. Have you taken the men outside into custody?"

"We have. They did not put up a fight."

Alexander nodded his avatar. "Relieve these people of their weapons and armor and find someplace safe to hold them."

Jallen nodded. "You hear him, team, round these morons up."

The female council member screamed about this treatment being against the law and how could they do this to her until Alexander prompted the mercenaries to stun her for everyone's sanity. From there, it was a quick cleanup of the attempted coup.

Travers appeared an hour later with less-than-ideal news. "We found Damien. It appears like some of the guards lured him to a deserted section of the facility claiming there was a problem. Then those three along with some others jumped him."

"Is he okay?" Alexander asked, not expecting that development.

Travers shook his head. "Damien is alive but in the medical wing. They beat him pretty badly, but he did not go down without a fight. He killed three of the people sent after him and wounded two others. Those bastards got dragged to the medical wing as well so we can question them when they wake up."

"When they wake up? If they were unconscious, then who told you there were eight attackers?"

"Like I said, Damien didn't go down without a fight. He was still partially conscious when we arrived. He said the remaining men ran off, but they were all wearing masks so he couldn't tell us who they were."

In a rare bout of anger, Alexander slammed his fist into the steel doorframe, putting a fist-sized dent into the thick metal and making Travers take a half step back.

Realizing what he had done, he apologized. "I'm sorry, I'm not mad at you, I'm just angry over this entire situation. I don't know who Damien's second-in-command is. Could you find them for me?"

"That might be an issue," the man scratched the back of his head. "He was one of the people Damien put down."

Alexander sighed. "Ok, for now, I'm putting you in charge. Work with Jorvin from intake. I know Damien was using him as an admin. Have him help you get an accurate count of who was involved. Also, work with the Hawks to find those three missing attackers. It's possible they were part of this coup attempt but we can't be certain. I will work with Damien's brother to see if we can pull security footage. One last thing Travers, find Councilman Sorin. If there was even a whiff of him being involved, arrest him. I don't care if people throw a big stink about it, I want every single person involved with this insurrection brought to justice."

The man nodded and hurried off to carry out his orders.

***

A few days passed since the guard debacle and Alexander stood at the center of the remaining Council as the captured insurrectionists were led into the atrium. They had to use the intake area because there were too many people to fit anywhere else.

A few notable people were missing from the people standing beside him. Nancy and Sheila were present, but Damien and Gabriella were both absent. The man was being treated for his injuries and Gabriella refused to leave his side while he was in the medical wing. Alexander could hardly blame her for that.

Sorin's three cronies were here, being led into the room in shackles like the rest of the accused.

Somehow the self-proclaimed Council Chairman had managed to keep his nose squeaky clean during the minor uprising. Travers had found the man asleep in his home. Of course, Alexander didn't buy the man's innocence for a single moment. He knew Sorin was behind this whole plan. It had taken a bit of programming magic by Lucas to prove it which is why this sentencing had taken a few days, but now Alexander had everything he needed to get rid of the man.

Alexander couldn't prove the blackmail or incident with the seeds was Sorin's doing. The man who had blackmailed Gabriella was another one of the attackers that Damien had killed. It seemed more than a little coincidental that the second in command of the guard as well as a direct link to Sorin's misdeeds had died. It was almost as if Sorin was trying to cover his tracks and remove competition.

Alexander kept a part of his attention focused on Sorin as the last of the insurrectionists were forced to kneel in front of him and the Council. The Council Chairman took a step forward and was about to speak as if he was going to lead this sentencing, but Alexander cut him off. He would have put Sorin right with the rest of these people, but he wanted the man to taste victory, only for it to turn to ash in his mouth.

"Councilor Sorin, I will be handling matters from here."

The man spluttered. "Wh- What? But this is Council business."

"You heard me," Alexander lowered his voice dangerously, making the man stumble back a step until he was back in line with the other two.

Alexander had played around with this charade long enough, it was time to end this nonsense so he could focus on real issues and not someone's megalomania. He slowly walked through the groups of kneeling people as he spoke.

"I understand why you did what you did. Based on some of the rumors I've been hearing, you probably thought I was some alien sent to subjugate you. If I were in your place, I would have been afraid as well. The only difference is that I would have taken the time to think about the person these rumors were about. Was that person violent, distrustful, evil? Had they committed acts of violence or depravity that might warrant such fear? Can any of you honestly say I have done anything to you other than to try and improve your lives here?" He continued his slow pace, making sure to walk past each and every person present. Nobody spoke up or said anything as the silence dragged on so he continued. "I won't deny those rumors that I'm an alien."

That statement garnered shocked gasps, the first response his words had elicited thus far, but nobody here raised their voice to shout out or interrupt him.

"That's right. I can't deny my alien nature. Are you truly surprised, look at me," he gestured to his body. "Have you ever seen a robot or any piece of human tech that has ever looked anything like this?"

More murmurs spread through the accused as Alexander started back through the kneeling people. "Despite my body being alien," he tapped his torso loud enough for the sound to get everyone's attention. "What's in here is human. I am not here to subjugate you. You are all so quick to forget that I offered everyone here the option to leave when I arrived. Most chose to stay. That was your choice. Never once did I force anyone to work for me, in fact, I offered generous compensation for those who choose to accept work. Some of you accepted that offer and yet I see you here before me. Had any of you bothered to ask me if these rumors were true, I would have told you the truth. I wasn't trying to hide it, there are plenty of people in Eden's End who already knew about my situation." He didn't name names, because that would just make Damien and Gabriella look even more guilty of being his puppets.

Alexander continued speaking as he slowly walked through the prisoners. "Someone convinced you that I was here to enslave you or do something equally as bad. I know you've forgotten the options I gave you when I first arrived, but are your memories so short that you do not remember my contributions during the pirate attack? How I put myself in harm's way to save people. Once again, I see some of those people I saved kneeling on the ground here as well."

Alexander had to pause as a wave of anger passed through him.

"It disgusts me to believe that after all I have done for everyone on Eden's End, you would turn on me, and the other residents at the drop of a hat. If we were in the STO, I would have shipped you off to a prison colony and washed my hands of every single one of you. Except for you," he stated grimly, stopping in front of the man who had fired the grenade launcher.

Not being able to ship their troublemakers off the planet, Alexander had to figure out a way to deal with them personally. As much as he would like to, he couldn't simply kill them all and be done with it. While their crimes were many, most did not warrant a death sentence.

This was one man who did. He was the man who fired the grenades at Alexander, and if it hadn't been for his disabling of the explosives beforehand, it may have caused harm to others. Even if it hadn't the man's actions were clear, he had meant to kill Alexander. "You have a choice. Firing squad, or you can be banished to the surface."

The shock he heard from Nancy and a few of the accused did not sway Alexander's decision.

It took the shaking man over a minute to respond. "I- I- wish to be banished."

"So be it," Alexander said, walking away from the man.

Two of the Hawks grabbed the man and lifted him to his feet. They would take him via a shuttle to a remote section of the planet, and leave him there where he would be monitored from orbit until his eventual demise from suffocation. Alexander would have taken the quick way out if the choice had been given to him.

Once the room settled down, Alexander stepped up next to the Councilors and turned to address the remaining people. "As for the rest of you, you will be remanded to forced labor for your crimes. Anyone refusing to work will join the gentleman who was led outside by the Hawks. Once your sentence is complete, you will be banished from Eden's End and Unokane. Any questions?"

"What about our families?" one person cried out.

"What about our livelihood?" another desperately pleaded.

"Those are things you should have thought about before taking on these reckless and downright idiotic actions. I know you were fooled, but you are still accountable for your own actions. Don't worry though, the people responsible will be joining you." Alexander gestured and his holo emitter went from showing his avatar's face to a recording of Councilor Sorin discussing his coup plans with his other cronies. The four laughed as they discussed the deaths of certain people, completely secure in the knowledge that nobody would ever know what they had spoken about in that room. Too bad for them that Lucas had a bit of a bone to pick with the people who had harmed his brother.

There had been no cameras in that room, but sound still traveled and the facility recorded all sorts of interesting things like seismic data. The video was a composite of that data, constructed through a program that Lucas had helped him build. Was it perfectly accurate, no, but their tests proved that it was over ninety-five percent correct and that was enough for Alexander.

Of course, Sorin saw this and tried to make a run for it, but Alexander had positioned himself next to the man after he returned to the front of the room. The Council Chairman, and chief architect of this coup made it less than a step before Alexander wrapped his long fingers around the man's neck.

The man gagged as Alexander exerted just a bit of his strength.

"Council Chairman Sorin, being the architect of this attack, will be subject to all of the same charges as everyone below him."

Based on how the man started to struggle to free himself even though it only increased his choking, he understood the implications of those words. Good.

"I will give you the same option I gave the guard. Firing squad, or banishment to the surface?" He let up just enough to let the man catch his breath.

Like a typical politician, Sorin wasted that air as soon as it entered his body. "I don't know what this nonsense is that you-," Alexander squeezed down again, cutting the man off.

"The people here have heard enough of your lies, Chairman," Alexander said in disgust. "If you don't wish to choose, I will allow the people you tricked to choose for you." He jerked the man forward so he was facing the rest of the accused. "Raise your hand if you think this man deserves a firing squad."

No hands went up. Only accusatory glares met the short-lived Council leader.

"Raise your hand if you think he should be banished to the surface."

The only hands that stayed down this time were his three cohorts. Alexander was tempted to pile on the same charges to those three, but the evidence clearly showed that Sorin was in charge, and the man had used them just as much as the rest of the people.

"Looks like the choice has been made." Two more Hawks came over and grabbed Sorin. "Gag him as well, I don't want to hear another word out of his mouth."

As soon as Alexander let go, the man tried demanding his innocence before a wad of some unidentified cloth was shoved none too gently into his mouth. Then Sorin was dragged away, kicking and screaming through the rag as he was led to the shuttle.

He sentenced every other person to a year of hard labor for their role in the attack. The three former councilors got three years. As for the men who attacked Damien, they were still looking through the video records to find who the responsible parties were, at least the ones that Damien hadn't killed or knocked unconscious during the scuffle. Once they did, those people would receive attempted murder charges as well and be given the same option as Sorin.

As for the attackers that survived Damien, Alexander would deal with them once they woke up.

Even surprised and outnumbered, the Head of Security had managed to outright kill three of those individuals before they managed to subdue him. And he did this with his bare hands and a stun baton.

Alexander knew the man was a martial arts expert, but this really put it into perspective for him.

He turned to Nancy and Sheila. Nancy was sobbing, but Sheila was stoic through the whole ordeal. "You are dismissed. Nancy, I'm sorry you had to sit here and watch this. I promise you won't have to do that ever again." He didn't mention it was because he was removing the council's power.

The woman nodded but didn't respond to him before she hurried off.

With this ugliness out of the way, Alexander headed toward the medical wing to check on Damien and Gabriella.

He didn't need to worry about the prisoners. The Hawks had that handled. They were already setting up a prison camp at the far end of Atrium D with the help of Yi Na. The walls going up would keep any curious people away.

Even with the insurrectionists imprisoned, things were going to change around Eden's End. Despite wanting to dissolve the council completely, he couldn't do that. The people still needed a voice or he was just going to run into this issue again and again. He also didn't take any other drastic actions like evicting the entire drifter population. Most of them had nothing to do with Sorin's coup attempt.

Another concern he had was time, Alexander simply did not have time to manage the day-to-day issues of over four thousand people. The Council could still do that, they just wouldn't be able to make any laws or have any actual power. Anything of note would need to come through him until he could find someone competent enough to handle that part of system ownership for him.

That person wouldn't have a leadership title, he learned his lesson there. They would be a BSE employee, ensuring Alexander remained in charge of this facility. If people wanted to make their own cities on Eden's End, or in the system, they were more than welcome to do so. Alexander didn't need to or want to become an iron-handed dictator, but he also couldn't let people do whatever the hell they wanted. He would establish a set of laws for any groups who wished to make their own place within Unokane. As long as they maintained those laws and paid taxes, they would be left alone.

He had a few candidates in mind for that position, but he would need to speak to them first to see if they were interested. For now, he needed to get to the medical wing.

When Alexander arrived, he found Gabriella sitting next to Damien's hospital bed, reading something on a tablet. She looked up as he entered.

"How is he?" Alexander asked. He had only been able to check in once since the conflict had been resolved.

"Lucid, when he's awake," she admitted as she set the tablet down. "Is it over then?"

Alexander nodded his avatar. "Sorin was given exile to the surface."

"Good," the woman spat. "I hope he suffers a good long time before he expires."

Alexander chose to change the subject. "And the other man?"

"He's unlikely to recover. Which is a shame, I would like to watch him marched out of the facility without a mask as well."

Ok, perhaps it wasn't the best change of topic, but he couldn't think of anything else to discuss with the woman. He felt extremely out of place here.

"You shouldn't say stuff like that," Damien's raspy voice saved him.

"And you should be sleeping," the woman said softly, her vitriol fading away to worry.

"Hard to sleep when I have two people yapping next to my bed."

"I'm sorry," Alexander stated. "I probably should have waited until you were recovered some more."

"I've had worse," the man said, trying to push himself up, while Gabriella tried to get him to remain still. The woman eventually won, settling the bandaged man back into the bed.

There was a long drawn-out silence before Damien spoke again. "I failed in my duties. For that, I'm sorry."

Those were certainly not words he ever expected to hear from the cantankerous man.

"That's not nes-," Alexander started to say when Gabriella cut him off.

"We failed. If you want us to leave, we will leave."

Alexander was a bit shocked by the woman's statement. "You both made poor choices, that's true, but I believe you are both still the best fit for your respective positions."

Gabriella gave a tiny nod as she squeezed Damien's hand. "Even so, I don't believe we should be the voice for the people anymore. Our choices are suspect at best."

"The council will change, but it will be the people who decide who their voice is. If you don't want that responsibility, simply tell them. We can discuss the specifics when you've recovered. Until then, I will let you get some rest."

Alexander wished them well and left the medical wing, glad to finally put this ordeal behind him.