Eirik leaned back in his chair, yawned, and looked down at the tiny bump that had started showing on his stomach. He had become comfortable these past 8 months. He would have to step up his training again. But life had been good to him while he waited, first for his arm to regrow, and then while he went through physical therapy, under the strict supervision of Knud.

"I like you with a little stomach. It makes you much softer to cuddle with" He heard Freja behind him and turned around to take the cup of coffee she was bringing. She always brought him a cup of coffee, every day at 5.

"Only a lazy leader gets to be fat. I refuse to be called lazy" Eirik responded as he kissed Freja. She still refused to have children, to Eirik's great dismay, but he was confident he would convince her at some point.

"You are working so hard lately. What is keeping you in this office so many hours at a time? " Freja asked even though she knew the answer.

"I am ready. I have prepared everything, talked to everyone, set up the patrol routes and garrisons, secured the trade lanes, set up an army reserve, made an economic plan for the next 15 years with wiggle room for adaptation to unforeseen things happening, I managed to convince Tina to stay as my advisor for logistics and transport, Las'Tai is putting her second-in-command in charge of the security company to come on board as an advisor for foreign affairs in regards to dealing with the Kloxna

Andreas has agreed to become our main diplomatic envoy, the food stores are secured and big enough to last both us and the 9 planets seceding with us, with enough food for 7 months in case the next harvest fails, We got weapon stores, a more than an adequate pile of cash saved away for a rainy day, I have had enough PESSA* suits to outfit an entire regiment, same with the M134 attachment. I tell you, making it detachable was a stroke of genius by Signe. Speaking of, she finally finished mapping every single part of the prototype FTL fighter-bomber we stole...

oh, and I cleared out the IN pile of contract offers. Going to make a big payday for easy escort contracts for the foreseeable future." Eirik rubbed his temples as he ranted off the things he could remember from the last 3 weeks of intense office work. Junkfood, plenty of coffee, and too little exercise. His new arm was feeling good, if still a bit weak and strangely...foreign, to his body. Like his brain had accepted the fact that it was gone and having a new one was hard to accept, even if he used it almost as effortlessly as before Tai'Tanu chomped it off.

"You need to de-stress, love. Come, I got just the thing." Freja said happily as she tried dragging him out of the chair. Eirik gave a mock resistance before he got out of the chair. Leading him through the part of the station that was under remodeling she soon ended at a large empty room with a high ceiling.

"What are we doing here?" Eirik asked when she came to a stop in the middle of the room.

"If you can catch me..." Freja said as she walked slowly backward, "We can try for a baby."

Eirik stood still and stared for a few moments before he launched himself at Freja. With a laugh, she danced away before she started running as the heavy *THUD* of Eirik's body hitting the ground and his subsequent groan made his lack of regular training obvious.

____________________

An hour later, a sweat-drenched Eirik had to stop and return to the office, after a quick shower. Jesper was returning today, having been on non-stop assignments ever since they returned to the station 8 months ago. To Eirik, this had been invaluable, not just in income revenue, but also because he insisted on bringing an all-new crew with him every time, grading every one of them as a soldier. Eirik knew the real reason though. Jesper was looking to create his own mercenary outfit under Eirik's command, and he would only accept the most ruthless and bloodthirsty into his ranks.

He had also helped increase the size of Eirik's fleet to a total of 43 ships, ranging from giant cargo transport ships to sleek warships. The Terran government had been informed of the large number of ships stationed around the station around a month earlier and he had received constant petitions to hand over the ships to the navy. He was getting tired of having to constantly tell off government officials arriving at the station with demands of being handed control of his ships.

As soon as he showed up and started talking about the ships being the property of the mercenary outfit he was running, they started grumbling and headed back to their ships, but it did not prevent them from keeping up the effort.

But Jesper was returning today and this time he would stay awhile. He finally had enough names on his list to outfit a full 250-man company in PESSA suits, ready to serve as Eirik's Rapid-Response team for any form of incursion. 250 men in PESSA suits would be able to hold or take any objective, push back any enemy advance short of a full military invasion, and would be more than able to see off pirates that might think of the emerging player on the galactic stage, as an easy target.

Eirik knew the value of presenting a strong front and first impressions. Making a brutal example of the first few attempts of getting rich at his expense would drastically lower the amount of piracy they would have to deal with in the long run. Reputation went a long way in deciding what sort of people would seek life in his kingdom and security was a major factor for many colonists.

He had already placed heavy garrisons on the 9 worlds that were seceding with him, planning for the fleet of pirate ships that would form on the horizon, thinking they can smell fresh blood from easy targets. Setting everything up had taken the better part of a week, but a complicated network of radio coverage manned outposts within a few minutes of driving distance from every settlement on every planet, and a sizeable garrison of men.

He had amassed an impressive 21942 battle-ready mercenary soldiers under his command. up until recently, they had been busy with defending outposts, providing security for the Terran supply lines, and running anti-piracy operations in friendly systems, and the Terran government had paid less than the work was worth. But Eirik didn't mind. In a few days, he would be receiving, first, a very angry call from his grandfather. Second, A Terran fleet would be dispatched with orders to bring the *rebels* back into the fold.

However, with all of the ships home in anticipation of this and a solid 1500 soldiers having been placed on each planet with orders to dig in and speed up the pace of the defensive construction. Eirik had ordered proper defenses to be built. Fortified bunkers with heavy weapon emplacements, both anti-infantry and anti-armor, large, thick walls, reinforced watchtowers and gates at the entrances to the settlements, and underground supply bunkers built to withstand anything short of orbital bombardment.

Eirik turned his thoughts to the war. While still in full effect with no winner in sight, Terra had forced the Kloxna advance to a grinding standstill with the Kloxna throwing increasing amounts of soldiers at the problems in an attempt to make them disappear. Just like Eirik had predicted to Tai'Tanu.

As for Tai'Tanu, she was slowly but surely recovering the prestige lost by being taken, prisoner. The massive damage she had sustained during the fight was the cause of a lot of this, as she could truthfully claim to not only have fought back with everything she had, she had even crippled the commander of the enemy. The rest came from her continuing to go against classic Kloxna battle doctrine and was now emulating Terran tactics at every turn.

They were still winning. Not now, not next year, but in a decade or so, they would have won. Eirik was sure. But first, he would have to leave them behind. They were out of touch with how people wanted to live. People craved freedom, true freedom. Terrans more so than most. Restricting them was the same as creating an illegal market through government legislation. Eirik planned to go a different route.

Beyond the basic common sense law like, no killing, no robbery, no rape, stuff like that, Eirik did not care overly much beyond people paying their tax. 20% income tax and 5% commodity tax on every business transaction. Tina had assembled an entire economics company to run the economy. Their main export would be military manpower and transport. His fleet was growing every week. It would grow even more after he had declared independence, from all the pirates. Those ships could be rented out, at quadruple the rate if you wanted to have them manned by an experienced combat crew.

Eirik heard the door go and looked up to see Jesper smiling ear to ear, dragging a bleeding person with him.