Renovations

[Kes Akiena]

Kes nodded at Captain Meorrrei, then looked to Juta.

"How about we get in touch with our traffic then?"

He gestured to the blank viewscreen with a wave of his hand.

"Ask anyone in those sectors if they see anything, or if their scanners are picking up anything that corresponds with what our sensors are telling us."

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

They were of one mind, and T'yeellaa's experiences as Captain gave her the hungry demand for input. A ship that flew blind was at the mercy of the galaxy around it. It would be every bit as much a liability here. She turned to face the comms banks, and the human officer manning it was already turning to face the senior staff with a report.

"Commander, we're getting chatter from the supply flotilla. They're picking up confirmed contact across the border."

T'yeellaa broke from the dais and headed to the terminal to see for herself. A contact report from the Cizerack galleon Dai'kaarro Norri was beaming live telemetry, roughly corresponding to the grid coordinates they'd seen before. Only now, it was more than just mass and displacement. Course, heading, transponders, everything to confirm what they were seeing was indeed real.

"Commanderr, jyou sshould ssee thjiss."

Dai'kaarro Norri was at all stop, a scant fifty kilometers from the border, awaiting instructions. In the distance beyond visual confirmation, four Imperial Star Destroyers were headed their way.

[Kes Akiena]

Moving from the dais, Kes sidled up to his second, his eyes peering down at the terminal and the concrete evidence that was no being presented to him. It was curious, and not a little bit alarming. Still though, he was not felling any need to cry foul. The treaty was in effect, and he would be damned if her went against it. Instead, the redhead pursed his lips, his back straightening as his head canted to the side.

"Hrm."

It was certainly not an answer for what they were no seeing, and he knew well enough that his subordinates would want more.

After a moment, he finally spoke.

"Isn't that interesting."

He could already almost hear T'yeellaa's exasperated sigh even if she didn't outwardly express it.

It almost made him smile. Instead, he turned to the comm officer, an Elomin with a rather terse expression on his already pinched features.

"Mr. Ek'ette, open our channels."

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

Mercifully, the comms array was in perfect order, and unlike the sensor array, was prepared for prime time on day one. The trilling tones of an outbound hail rang on the command deck, and the senior staff waited for a reply to appear, either on screen or hologram, or simple audio.

Silence isn't what they expected they'd get in return.

T'yeellaa's ears bobbed upward in expectation, her blue eyes frozen in space somewhere above her as she waited for something resembling a reply.

"Arre we trranssmjittjing?"

"Yes ma'am." Ensign Ek'ette's sharp keystrokes dashed across his terminal as he kept his eyes glued to his personal screen. "High energy, all bands."

And yet, nothing. The Captain turned her eyes to Akiena in a grim expression.

"They'rre sstonewalljing uss."

[Kes Akiena]

Kes made a face that was a mix between frustration, exasperation, and a lack of surprise.

"Is that so."

There wasn't an ounce of his previous joviality, and Commander Akiena drew his arms back to clasp his hands at the small of his back.

Another moment of thought, and the redhead finally shook his head.

"Cut comms."

Mr. Ek'ette obeyed, and with a last keystroke he sat back in his seat, paused, then swiveled in his chair to turn his eye upward to his commanding officer.

"What now, Sir?"

For a few quiet moments, he stood in thought. The Empire and the Alliance had signed a treaty it was true, but that did not mean that there were no more hard feelings. And it was certainly not outside the realm of possibility that some disgruntled officer would essentially push the envelope of the new charter. Anything to annoy the Alliance and send some of its' members into a confused tizzy.

Exhaling a long breath, Kes nodded to no one in particular before speaking once more.

"Find the most asinine holo-program on the 'net. Some sort of reality show that just goes on and on without any sort of meaning... "

Another moment of thought.

"... Zeltron Shore. That one."

"Sir?"

"Pull it up and begin transmitting to the lead Star Destroyer."

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

"Commanderr, jI..."

T'yeellaa's mouth snapped closed as soon as it opened. The Captain's left ear flicked, and she turned her head slightly to avert a grimace of self-rebuke. Whatever the rules were in the Alliance about these sorts of things she may be hazy on, but in a Cizerack command you certainly didn't make a habit of questioning an order in public if you wanted to advance your career.

Finished with her self-correction, Captain Meorrrei's stance straightened a bit. There was a right way to address this, so she'd follow protocol, even if it was simply her own protocol.

"A holo-prrogrram, ssjirr?"

The transmission was already beaming, and T'yeellaa's eyes drifted from Akiena to the terminal that directed the content in question. It was tacky, irreverent schlock. More importantly, it had nothing of any relevance to their situation. What looked to be a possible Imperial incursion was treated with flippant disrespect. No orders to assemble commands. No missives to Alliance Command. And yet the look in Akiena's eyes had a twinge of far-away knowing. A twinge T'yeelaa's did not.

"jI don't underrsstand."

A tactful redirection.

[Kes Akiena]

He half-turned to look sideways at her.

"They wish to annoy us, so we will forcibly annoy them."

So many years of standing against the Empire had given him a bit of an assertive passive aggressive note to certain things, and Kes was always more than willing to play the game.

"I'll not be badgered into a standoff, and this station, if it is to succeed, will not be pestered with shows of flippant attitudes to a treaty mutually signed."

He gave a shrug then.

"If they wish to be petty, then we will respond in kind. To an extent at least."

He turned back to Mr. Ek'ette.

"Send broad beam transmissions to the other Star Destroyers. Ancient Sentients if you can find it."

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

Captain Meorrrei's gloved hands clasped in front of her as she turned from the awful holoprogramming on display to view once more the sensor feed from ships on the periphery. The star destroyers were still advancing, and nothing seemed to have changed in their vector.

"jYou beljieve thjiss jiss all jusst possturrjing, then?"

T'yeellaa's tail curled and swayed, and she arched an eyebrow. There wasn't just a gambler's gut feeling at work here. What was there to stop the Empire from dropping hyperlight next to the station, or simply traveling past along the Hydian, deeper into Alliance space? Nothing practical. Then why give up the element of surprise?

"To prrovoke a rressponsse out of uss?"

"Commander, Galleon Dai'kaarro Norri is now reporting visual contact." Ensign Gant didn't wait for the request to bring it up, and brought the second-hand visual contact up on his terminal. It was a vista of blank, deep space, a dusting of stars across the field of view, save for four distant ash-grey shapes.

[Kes Akiena]

"They want their sensors to tell them that we're scrambling some semblance of battle stations or at the very least a high alert."

Kes rolled his shoulders as his gaze shifted to the visual on Gant's terminal. A tap on the ensign's shoulder and a gesture to the main viewer was enough to impart on the young officer that the view he had was necessary enough to be shared with all. And as the main comm screen flickered to like in a glorious display of static, it soon enough faded into the serene starscape around the station, and the more than recognizable shapes of four Star Destroyers.

"Pity, that we are doing nothing of the sort, and they find their own scanners to be picking up, well, garbage."

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

There wasn't anything to say to refute that, and instead T'yeellaa simply watched the approaching ships on the screen. The chatter on the command deck was evaporating away into tense silence, with every pair of eyes on deck fixated on the large main viewer looming above.

"One hundred kilometers until the frontier." Ensign Gant called the ball on the distance, watching the feed from Dai'kaarro Norri as it streamed. Lieutenant Ek'ette continued running trash content on the outbound bands, but chatter was starting to pick up now from the Alliance ships in the area.

"Commander, the Cizerack cruisers are requesting orders."

A new string of data reached the Lieutenant, and he amended his update.

"Dai'kaarro Norri is at battle condition one, sir. They're charging deflector screens and mustering fighters."

Captain Meorrrei's eyes met Kes's, and she gave a faint nod. That was procedural behavior when dealing with unidentified starships. Still, she wasn't sure how much procedure counted as flinching. This was a new sort of game.

[Kes Akiena]

"Tell them to stand down. Cut everything off."

Kes knew this game well, and was hedging his bets on the notion that whatever commander was in charge of the small grouping of Imperial capital ships, would do nothing.

"Tell them to echo our broadbands."

A reassuring look to T'yeellaa.

"Let's flood their receivers with trash."

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

T'yeellaa nodded in affirmation, and Ek'ette went to work relaying the information. Time to see how well Alliance doctrine worked, and if the command structure would indeed override the often-rigid procedures of the Cizerack Navy. A few long seconds passed before the boards showed green. Akiena had won.

"Imperial squadron now at fifty kilometers, sir!"

With Dai'kaarro Norri also fifty clicks from the frontier, they'd soon be within turbolaser range. If the Commander was wrong, and the galleon took the opening attack without shielding...

Captain Meorrrei stepped away from the terminal, standing adjacent to the Commander to keep her voice down.

"jIf thejy crross the ljine..."

It felt like they were writing the book as they went, but keeping a sabacc face would do no good if the Imperials decided not to bluff. They needed a contingency in their back pocket.

"...we need to have anotherr optjion rreadjy."

[Kes Akiena]

"Keep steady," was the only answer given.

To his credit, Kes stood with his back straight as he kept his eyes forward.

"Until they decide to answer our original hails, continue the broadband transmissions."

A look was sent to T'yeellaa, an expression of firm resolve.

"I want everyone to remain as they are."

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

Her eyes burned on his own, jawline tensing. Did he have a contingency? Was he so sure of the outcome? She remained fixed on those eyes another second longer to see if there was anything further, before echoing down his order.

"jYou hearrd the Commanderr."

T'yeellaa turned sharply back to the ops terminal. Gant's warning was sharper now.

"Ten kilometers...nine. Squadron at eight kilometers..."

And then the rhythmic sensor pinging of advancing contact lay still. Lieutenant Ek'ette quickly cycled through his contacts to confirm.

"We have all stop! Repeat, Imperial squadron at all stop!"

A sigh of relief rolled through the junior officers, and T'yeellaa bled off the latent tension with a small roll of her shoulders. The operations deck was awash in murmurs, which Lieutenant Ek'ette had to raise his voice to overcome.

"Commander, we are now being hailed!"

[Kes Akiena]

The was a moment when he did nothing. Instead he stood like a redheaded statue, unmoving and seemingly lost in thought.

Then.

"Is that so?"

He could have dragged out his reply, but Kes figured that it was best to simply cut away the fat, and with a gesture he went on.

"Stop all broadband transmissions and let some static go for a few seconds."

Mr. Ek'ette obeyed, his fingers running swiftly over his terminal's keypad.

And after another thirty seconds, he nodded to the Elomin officer, who quickly established a connection to the hailing Destroyer.

"This is Commander Akiena," he started jovially - as if his entire comms array had not been just been sending out terrible holos.

"How can we help you today?"

[Rolth Wygraant]

A figure of a dour-faced man in an Imperial uniform materialized with a flickering crackle on the holo dais at the forefront of the command deck. A 1:1 recreation, it stared eye-level at Akiena.

"Commander Akiena, of?"

The hologram appeared to look around the command deck, not particularly impressed by what he saw.

[Kes Akiena]

He was used to such looks; one didn't spend most of his life in the cradle of the barely controlled madness that was the Rebel Alliance and not become acclimated to such things.

"Of the Alliance of Free Planets."

Kes gave a rather disarming smile to offset the dour expression of the hologram he now faced.

"And who do I have the pleasure of speaking with?"

[Rolth Wygraant]

"I'm well aware of your faction Commander, just as I'm aware of the imaginary line you were so intently watching just now."

The Imperial officer ignored salutations for the moment, his gloved hands cinching behind his back.

"What I'm curious about is this station."

[Kes Akiena]

Inhaling, Kes took a half-step back. He shot an unimpressed look to T'yeella, but it wasn't long before his eyes went back to the image of the man before him.

"This is Jovan Station, Sir."

Mirroring the man, Kes pulled his arms back behind him, clasping hands at the small of his back.

"Your government is well aware of the intentions for this station. If they saw fit to not inform you... "

He left the rest unsaid.

[Rolth Wygraant]

"Our intentions were for the station to be a diplomatic post. But that was when the station was in the Gordian Reach."

Captain Wygraant's expression thinned even more, and he raised a quizzical eyebrow.

"An interesting place where I should find your station now, isn't it Commander? So far from where you should be. No small feat of engineering to bring you to this place, I should infer."

The crows feet at his eyes became pronoucned as Wygraant attempted an insincere smile.