Assured of Andrew's safety, Aelita went straight to the design module and started to work.
She didn't even allow Nairin to follow her this time, nor did she answer any questions which she was flooded with by the others.
-I'll explain everything later, for now, I'm busy.
She said and ignored their scowls as everyone was worried about her and they were rewarded with such an answer.
The engineer didn't stay long in the design module as she had left only an hour later, directing her steps to the command center.
Aelita was impressed at what Andrew had done with the place and she approved wholeheartedly since the combination of two modules made everything way more efficient and saved them the necessity of going to the combat command module every time there was a battle on the horizon.
She took her spot at the engineering console and uploaded the schematics of the devices she had just designed and ordered them to be constructed.
The process would take 2 hours to complete, so she had received the logs, finding out what was going on while she was asleep.
-Nairin, You make me proud with your work.
Aelita said to her student, totally surprising the girl as it was the first time she had ever praised her or her work.
The student was touched and happy beyond measure, she had learned from the start that Aelita was a strict teacher, and even though she never criticized nor praised anything, she expected her disciple to learn and improve every day.
So receiving such praise was the best reward she could have ever asked for, and it also motivated her to work even harder.
-Thank you, I'll do my best to always make you proud with my work.
Nairin said, trying to hold back her tears.
At this moment Aelita stood up and hugged her.
-Don't overdo it, you are already much more than I could have ever dreamt of as my first student.
-I won't, but can you tell me now what you are working on?
The girl asked, intrigued at what Aelita was planning.
-It's an upgrade to our communication relay and a data storage module.
She explained, showing her designs of the two devices.
-The relay upgrade will increase its range from 50 light-years to 500 light-years and allow us to monitor everything at this distance in real-time.
Aelita explained.
-Then why do you want a data storage module, wouldn't it be easier to just buy another computer core module?
Nairin asked, curious about the new module which as far as she knew was not on the tech tree for research.
-This module has much more data storage capability and the computer core module is mostly there to do research which requires a lot of computing power.
Besides its data storage is meant for storing an AI, when we can get them.
As for the module, I'm making it's meant to store up to 1000 petabytes of data and I ordered 10 of them to be built.
-Why would you need so much data storage?
The confused student asked.
She had a hard time imagining anything that would require so much data storage.
-You'll see when it's ready.
Aelita said with a smile while looking at the progress of her project.
With 100 component manufacturing modules and full storage of materials, the production of parts went smoothly.
In less than 2 hours all the parts were produced and it only took another 15 minutes for the drones to assemble all 10 data storage modules and two communication relay upgrades.
After connecting the new modules to the station, namely to the communication modules.
Aelita instructed the drones to upgrade the relays, which resulted in their sensor range dropping for a few minutes, only to be restored and gain 10 times the range once the upgrade was installed a few minutes later.
This showed ten sectors of the galaxy in every direction with the station as the center.
The update of the scan data was slow as it was a vast expanse of space, but once it was fully scanned, they would know what was going on within halt a thousand lightyears around them in real-time.
A moment later the two elf merchants came to the command center, demanding to know what was going on as they had just received updates from the guild, which should be impossible since the nearest relay that could connect to the guild was over 200 lightyears away from the station.
-I just upgraded our relay, giving it 10 times more range.
Aelita said, calmly like she was talking about the weather.
Both elves were stunned at this revelation.
-Then what are these modules you just added to the station?
Tanera asked once she got over the first shock.
-I didn't find them in our database.
-These are the data storage modules I designed, so it's natural they are not in your database.
Aelita smiled, amused at the expression of shock on the two elves' faces.
Just then there was a ping sound coming from the communications console.
The engineer went there and just as she was promised there was an incoming data stream.
Without wasting even a second, she accepted the data and redirected it to the new modules.
A progress bar appeared on the holo screen along with the estimated time to finish the download.
-What is this?
Nairin asked, surprised that her teacher would allow an unidentified data stream to be downloaded.
-This is a gift I was promised.
Aelita smiled happily.
She knew that everyone would be shocked at what this gift was, especially the merchants and Andrew.
Only then did the student notice the time remaining to finish the download and her jaw almost dropped.
At the speed of 200 terabits a second, this data still would take over 12 hours to be fully downloaded.
Nairin did the math in her head and was surprised to discover that this data stream had nearly 8500 petabytes of data in it.
Now she understood why Aelita created the data storage modules, but she got curious to know, how Aelita knew about the data transfer and how much storage was required to download it.
-Don't ask for now, I'll explain everything once Andrew wakes up and we have a meeting.
Aelita said, seeing her student's inquiring gaze.
Talking about a meeting, she remembered something and left once more for the design module, only to return a few minutes later and order the production of a new module.
It was as big as a hangar, but its purpose was different.
She designed a conference module, which could easily accommodate 50 people and was equipped with holo displays surrounded by a large table going around the module, with seats for everyone.
Ever since her evolution, she could think faster and work much more efficiently than before, not to mention that she had a ton of ideas that she wanted to try, but to go through all of them would take months, so she decided to focus on what was needed right now and left the rest for later.
Both elves wanted to ask her some questions but decided to wait since she was going to explain everything later, there was no need to rush things.
A few minutes later, Lanarine came back to continue her scans and was surprised at what was going on.
-Sorry Lan, you won't be able to do scans for now.
Aelita apologized, knowing how much her friend liked her work.
-What is going on?
The geologist asked, not too happy about being unable to continue her work.
It took a moment to explain everything, but once she heard what Aelita was doing, she simply sighed.
-I would appreciate a little warning next time.
She said, looking at the engineer.
-Sorry about that, If something like this happens again, I'll let you know earlier.
Aelita apologized again.
With nothing better to do, for now, Lan took out a chessboard and challenged Nairin to a game.
It was Aelita's first time seeing this item, so they explained the rules to her and then played a round to let her see how it looked.
A few minutes later, Aelita was playing with Tanera, leaving Terelen to spectate as there was no one else that he could play with for now.