Alexander flew down to the surface for the third and probably final round of negotiations. While he was pretty sure he knew what he was going to do, that could change. He wanted all of his questions answered before he made his final decision.
As much as he would like to just accept this title and join the Asgardians so he could be done with politics for the foreseeable future, this was a huge decision to make. An even bigger one than when he decided to form his own nation since that choice had been purely designed to protect him from soone within the STO from coming in and making the claim themselves. Had he known what he knew now, he probably would have reached out to the Asgardians sooner and avoided that hassle entirely.
His decision to claim the system had probably garnered attention among the political heavyweights within the STO. Sothing he would have preferred to avoid until the foreseeable future but it had seed like the best choice at the ti. Once it got out that he had dealings with the Asgardians, it would likely cause a similar ruckus.
It would put Unokane back in the political lilight, which is sothing he could do without. Honestly, if Alexander had been given a choice, he would have remained on the sidelines and slowly chunked away at Omni's market share for a few decades. Unfortunately, forces beyond his control had forced him to act.
At so point, he was going to need to go to Earth to smooth things over with the STO. Maybe even act as an interdiary between them and Char to finally end this stupid pirate classification that they had heaped on them. Char may not seem all that concerned about it, but Alexander could see it slowing his ability to disrupt the corporations' stranglehold over innovation within the STO.
When he arrived at the train station, it was the sa as the first few tis. He followed Loki to the train where they rode in silence until their destination. Once they arrived at the sa tower as on the first trip, Loki took Theo away and Alexander went to Katalynn's office.
As he entered the office, he found the room empty, but he could hear noises coming from sowhere within the room. He followed the sounds until he arrived at a side door that led to a training room. Katalynn was sparing with two androids, the machines whipping around with impressive speed.
If this was her practice routine, it was no wonder Alexander had so much trouble in their little exhibition match.
As he stood there and watched, he even saw one of the androids perform the sa move that he had used against her to finally land the hit. This ti, she shoved the end of the staff close to her off to the side instead of down and her kick landed heavily against the android's lightly padded chest, sending the bipedal robot stumbling back hard enough that its stabilizer failed to keep it upright.
The second robot was ready to step in but she held her hand up and it stopped moving.
Alexander clapped. "Very impressive," he said, aning every word.
She took a towel from a rack and wiped the sweat from her face before responding. "It is not as impressive as it seems. I am simply building muscle mory in case that sort of situation ever presents itself again. Have you finally decided on a course of action or have you co for a sparring match? You are quick, but you lack technique. It would be interesting to see what you were capable of if you were actually trained."
"I prefer to focus my ti on building things instead of breaking them," he said diplomatically.
Katalynn snorted softly at that. "Fair enough. There are far too few of my people who see the benefit of focusing their minds on the pursuit of knowledge over glory in battle. Both have their places but a society can't grow without science and technology."
Alexander just stared at her, not expecting this sort of statent from the woman.
She must have read his avatar's expression. "Do not think us ignorant because we value martial strength. It takes a strong leader to ensure strong personalities stay in line. And even then it is not always the case," that last part ca out with a bit of bitterness.
"That is one of the issues we need to speak on," he stated, stopping the woman from taking control of the conversation. Alexander needed to remind himself to look past the woman in front of him. This was soone who not only had personal power, she had political power that rivaled the Chairman of the STO. In so cases, it might even exceed that because she was also a captain over an entire fleet.
"You want to know if Isbjorn will cause issues for you?" she asked as she put the towel down.
"I assu what we saw here was his entire fleet and that his level of technology rivals yours?"
"Not all of his fleet, but most of it. And perhaps."
"Then no," he admitted. "I'm not just saying that to be condescending or to belittle your technology. It also isn't because I think my defenses or abilities are insurmountable and that he couldn't succeed if he tried hard enough. I simply don't think he has a reason to cause issues for . I was more worried about what my people's role would be in a conflict against him."
"Don't be so sure that he has no reason to cause issues for you. As for your role, I would like to say that open conflict within Asgardian space is unheard of, but it isn't. It probably isn't as widespread as you're imagining though. I can count on one hand the number of internal disagreents that have led to open war since our founding. I can count on both hands the number of disagreents that have led to single combat amongst Jarls and upstarts who have either taken their place or been put in their place. That is not a euphemism for death either. Most trials by combat are to first blood, they rarely end in the death of either side."
"Rarely is not never," Alexander reminded her.
"That is true. While death amongst Jarls is rare, if they challenge the King or Lagertha, in my case, only one can remain."
"Why do it at all?" Alexander asked, not understanding the tradition.
"When the Asgardian Accords were first signed, nobody could agree on who should lead them. They tried forming an assembly of all of the signees like the STO, but that quickly led to infighting and backstabbing as people jockeyed for positions within the new governnt. Sound familiar?" she asked.
He bobbed his avatar slowly and she smiled slightly before continuing.
"What the STO had done to us was still fresh in everyone's minds back then and the majority quickly saw this new governnt turning out to just be another copy of what we were trying to avoid. Fear of falling into that sa trap and the threat of the Shican still lurking within the tentative borders of this new alliance forced the mbers to take drastic actions. The rule of rit was eventually created. That changed over the years into the rule of the strong as our fleets were slowly whittled away by the Shican and it has remained in place ever since."
Alexander was confused by that. "I thought the Shican pulled back after five years?"
"No, the STO abandoned us after only two years because they had lost too many ships to the Shican. They probably still fought them along their border for the remainder of what they dubbed the Shican War, but they did not once lift a finger to help those they abandoned. That was the spark that caused the formation of the Asgardian Alliance. The Alliance fought until the few remaining Shican finally withdrew a full eight years after that. Most of our fleets were decimated by that point and the worlds withdrew to lick their wounds. It wasn't until a full decade later that the original alliance mbers ca back together to sign the Accords which eventually turned into the Asgardian Union that you see today, although, everyone just calls themselves Asgardians. Even then, the Shican threat never truly went away until a little over forty years ago. My father even fought against them a few tis in his youth."
That certainly changed Alexander's opinion about this alien race returning. It was more like they hadn't gone away at all, they were just pushed out by the Asgardians.
"I can see why your people chose to avoid the STO after that," he stated. Your next journey awaits at empire
She shrugged. "That is ancient history, but you haven't co here to discuss that. As much as I appreciate your concern for , I would be a poor leader if I needed to turn to the Jarls to help deal with another Jarl every ti one got rowdy. I will handle Isbjorn as is my duty. You and your people only need to step in if he does sothing underhanded, which is a possibility with him. Does that answer your question?"
Alexander nodded his avatar, happy with the explanation.
All that was left was learning all the rules and responsibilities he would need to follow. He had perused the docunt she had shown him the last ti, but certainly, that couldn't be all of it. When he studied her slightly annoyed expression. He got the distinct impression she knew he had gotten her talking about history to delay so decision. With a heavy internal sigh, he asked her about the last two items that concerned him.
"As I ntioned before," Katalynn said in annoyance. "Jarls rule their territories as they see fit, with a few exceptions for Asgardian law. That is different from local laws. There are only a few Asgardian laws, and we keep them that way because each territory has its own issues. Think of them like STO laws and planetary laws if that's easier for you. They cover how to treat populations as well as criminals. These laws cover what constitutes a cri and the types of punishnt that can be applied to them. This ensures fairness across all of the territories and prevents people from migrating to a world with softer laws where they can continue to commit cris. You can read the docunt at length on your own ti," she said, shoving a data disk at him after they had reentered her office.
Alexander took the disk and stuck it into one of his pouches.
"I get your hesitancy, Kane, this is a big decision to make, but we aren't the great evil that the STO had portrayed us to be. We require very little of the union mbers. That being said, there are so ceremonial issues we need to discuss."
"Like the greeting ceremony?" he guessed.
"That was one. You already passed that one so we will not need to do so again. The other is a ceremonial oath to be there for the protection of the other union mbers. This will be done in front of and my advisors. Normally this would also include the Jarls but we are at war and they cannot be summoned to oversee the joining so a substitute will stand in for them."
He wanted to say that didn't sound so bad, but sothing in the way she said it made him think there was a catch. "It's not another ceremony by combat is it?"
"No, but you will need to demonstrate you can handle a weapon. The original intention of this ceremony was ant as a symbolic sharing of the joining side's fighting styles to further strengthen the Asgardian people."
"I'm sure I can swing a weapon around if you need to," he said uncertainly.
She shook her head. "That won't be enough. You need to show you understand how to wield the weapon. If you can't wield sothing as simple as a blade or spear, why would anyone trust that you could lead a fleet?"
"But I'm not leading my fleet, Captain Krieger is."
"It doesn't matter. By Asgardian law, you are in charge of your fleet, and ultimately responsible for its actions, good or bad. This law was established to prevent Jarls from claiming ignorance as a defense if their fleets attacked the STO or pulled so other foolish actions."
"Ok, but I don't know how to fight."
She glanced back toward the training room. "I've heard you're a quick learner. Go pick a weapon and train. You have three hours until the ceremony."
"What? I haven't even said yes to your proposal yet."
She turned back to him. "Are you telling you flew back down here to ask a few questions you could have asked over the radio?"
"Well, no."
"Then it sounds to that you have already made a decision, otherwise you would have left the system by now or simply turned down and asked for the original alliance you proposed. I suggest you hurry, tis ticking away and there are issues I need to discuss with you after you're sworn in."
Alexander had to admit the woman was correct. Given everything he had learned and the facts that were laid out, the best option was joining the Asgardian Union. Hesitating now was just him dragging his feet.
He nodded in acquiescence and made his way into the training room where he grabbed the first practice weapon that he saw. It was so sort of bladed weapon on a stick. He wasn't familiar with lee weapons so couldn't say exactly what it was, but it was long enough to work with his lanky form so he figured it would be fine.
He gave the practice weapon a few test swings, finding it heavier than he originally thought considering it was made from so sort of wood. The weight wasn't an issue for him though.
"Are you voice or motion-activated?" he asked the stationary androids.
"User preference," they replied in a tinny voice.
That response probably ruled out self-learning. "I need to learn how to use this weapon."
"Please state the weapon type you wish to learn as well as instructional training or sparring as your preference," they said in unison once more.
He sighed. "I don't know what it's called, it's a blade on a pole."
"You have selected polearm training. Please select instructional or sparring."
Polearm? Eh, it was probably close enough. "Instructional, at maximum speed."
"Recomnded instructional training speed is ten percent, are you sure you wish to increase it to one hundred percent?"
"Yes." He didn't have ti to waste watching these androids try to demonstrate a weapon at slow speed. He would simply record the lesson or jack up his frarate as needed.
What followed was a rapid-fire of back-and-forth movents between the two androids as they demonstrated both attack and defensive moves with similar training weapons.
Once they finished, Alexander went through the motions himself, finding it a bit harder than he realized. Most of that was because his body wasn't built like a human one. He didn't have the sa explosive movent with his arms and legs because he had no knees, elbows, or even shoulder blades, he only had segnts for his arms and legs. After a bit of trial and error, he could mimic the movents well enough to continue the practice.
When he felt he had the movents down, he restarted the training, this ti setting the androids to defensive sparring mode.
Alexander quickly found himself frustrated as the humanoid robot blocked or dodged every strike. It seed that while he understood the motions, he failed to grasp how to implent them in a way to actually hit the damn machine.
He was growing more and more frustrated until a voice interrupted his session.
"End session," a voice said and the androids stepped back to their waiting positions.
He had been so focused that he had completely missed Loki entering the room.
"Lagertha has sent to escort you to the ceremony."
"I thought I had three hours?"
The man smiled slightly. "It has been three hours."
He looked at his internal clock and cursed. Not only had he completely lost focus on what was around him, he had lost track of ti.
Alexander set the weapon back in the rack and followed Loki out. He would just have to hope his efforts had borne so fruit. It would be extrely upsetting if this entire trip ended in a failure just because he couldn't swing a sword around well enough.
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