Andrew spent the next few hours in meetings with the captains.
This turned out to be a good idea, as it showed his new subordinates what kind of lord they had chosen and he also gathered a lot of information about them and the fleet as a whole.
While he was busy with the meetings, the ladies were also busy with upgrading the station and producing parts for the two new stations.
At the same time, his new subordinates were not idle at all, the first two modules had reached their destinations and got assembled by the drones, while all the ships went around the systems collecting the remains of the stations that were there before.
Most modules were damaged, but few were still in working order.
After separating them, the intact modules were connected and it helped a lot as now they could recharge their drones, not to mention that they also managed to find some intact drones belonging to the former occupants of the system.
Aelita took charge of producing modules for the stations and right after the beginning modules, she sent life support and solar power modules for both stations, followed by shield and resource processing modules, along with some more drones, to speed things up.
She also asked Sarill to contact the two stations and ask for the list of modules they had found, to avoid sending ones they didn't need at the moment.
Both new station masters complied and soon she knew what they had and what they needed.
with 26 ships going back and forth, the modules were delivered as fast as they were produced and loaded, leaving some time to refuel the ships and do some maintenance on them while they waited for the next batch of parts to be produced.
At the same time, Nairin took over the upgrades to the station and decided to upgrade everything in batches, to avoid stopping the production or upgrades even for a moment.
During this time Ilia had woken up only to find two aliens in her medical module, one of which was in a regeneration tank regrowing a limb and the other one was in a medical capsule, being treated for a space equivalent of the flu, which was left untreated for a bit too long.
When she contacted the command center, Lan explained what happened while she was sleeping, and the doctor had a hard time believing so much happened during just a few hours.
However, the only thing that worried her a bit was the information that Andrew wanted to have a little chat with her once he had some time on his hands.
She was more than sure that he would scold her for overexerting herself.
On the other hand, after receiving permission from Andrew, Arien took a walk around the station and was impressed by what she saw.
The production capacity of this station shocked her a little, and the defenses she saw were impressive.
Like her friend told her when they arrived, this station was a fortress and anyone who attacked it would suffer heavy losses.
But what surprised her even more was the small crew of the station.
Other than Andrew, she didn't see any males, and the small group of females from all the different species, were now working to help her fleet build their homes in the neighboring systems.
Which didn't stop them from chatting with her once she approached them.
Through these conversations, she learned that most of them were from this system and even at some point they were trying to subdue the human but were defeated in the end and became his slaves.
What surprised her the most however was that their master never touched them nor did he torture them or even treat them harshly, if they didn't give him a reason to do so.
The more she learned about this man, the harder it was for her to figure him out, which frustrated her a bit.
After a few hours of work, Andrew entered the command center.
-Alright everyone, let's call it a day for now, and get some rest, if there is something that still needs to be done, set it on an automated system or leave it for tomorrow.
He said, making everyone stop what they were doing for a moment, before complying.
While all the ladies were busy with finishing their work, the human sat in the command chair and started reading reports.
-Why do you want to stop now?
The Commodore asked, surprised at his arbitrary decision.
-I dont know about you guys, but we had a long day and need to get some rest.
He explained, not even bothering to stop reading the resource consumption report.
-But there is still a lot of work to do so how can you simply take a break and leave everything for the next day?
She argued.
Only after saying these words did she realize how childish she sounded.
-Listen, I know that you want to build the new stations as fast as possible, and I also want them to be ready in the shortest possible time, but I'm not willing to overwork everyone, just to make it faster by an hour or two, which would be the case if we didn't rest for a few more hours, but there would also increase the possibility of someone making a mistake which could cost us a lot more time to fix.
So it is better to get some rest and start working again tomorrow, and the same goes for you and the fleet.
Andrew explained everything like he would to a total novice, which irritated Arien.
-Aelita, how is the progress on the new stations so far?
He asked before the commodore could argue again.
-They are already starting to gather resources and build their own drones.
Both stations are placed on the edge of the asteroid belts, so they should have more than enough resources for now.
I'm even thinking of sending them the component manufacturing modules in the next shipment along with some more solar power and shield generator modules.
-That's great, they progressed much further than I anticipated on the first day.
Andrew nodded in approval.
-Sarill, contact both stationmasters and inform them that we are taking a break for some rest and advise them to do the same.
The pale alien simply nodded and started contacting the two station hamsters as well as the ship captains, to pass along the information.
Nairin, did you prepare the module for Arien, as I asked?
-Yes it is ready, but it's only the living quarters module for now.
The girl said apologetically.
-Thank you, and dont worry about it, I'm used to sleeping in a cramped little compartment on a ship so this will be a lap of luxury, for me.
Arien said, with a smile.
-Alright, since everything is ready, then lets get some rest.
Andrew said and everyone left the command center, except for Lanarine who wanted to finish the scan she was working on.
With all the events that happened during just one day, everyone went to sleep right after a shower and some food.
Even Andrew and Aelita only embraced each other, before they wandered into dreamland.
The same thing happened at both new stations and in the fleet, however, they left some people to stand guard as the stations were defenseless at the moment and the last thing they wanted was to lose their new home by being surprised in their sleep.
Thankfully the next few hours went by without any incident and everyone could have some well-deserved rest.
In the morning when Andrew and Aelita came to the command center, they were shocked by the sight outside the station.
Right next to the component manufacturing modules, there were at least 40 new modules of the same kind, all of them already upgraded and next to them there were 5 hydrogen generator modules.
All of them were assembled and ready to be connected to the station.
Additionally, there were many parts for new modules still waiting to be assembled, all of which were sitting in space with some distance between the sets.
-It worked.
Suddenly they heard the voice of Nairin from behind them and the girl rushed to her station to take a look at the results of her little experiment, which she didn't tell anyone about.
-Nairin, what did you do?
Andrew asked.
Still a bit surprised as usually they at most ordered the manufacturing of modules but their assembly required them to command the drones to do so.
-I wrote a program for the drone control or I should say, that I changed the existing one, adding some new functions.
The student said cheerfully, happy that her small project worked.
-And what new functions did you add to the drones?
Aelita asked, as surprised as Andrew at this development.
-The drones can now be ordered to assemble a module the moment its parts are ready and then move the finished module to a predetermined place.
Additionally, they can also place the whole sets of parts at a predetermined location.
Nairin explained.
-But the drones already had that capability, so what did you change?
Andrew asked, wanting to know everything.
-I simply added the timer, and the counter for these functions, so we are no longer required to order them to do so, all we need to do is specify, which modules, should be assembled and when, or which set of parts should be put aside and where.
That way, we can now build new modules even when we are asleep, but I couldn't figure out how to order the drones to connect the new modules to the station after they were assembled.
The girl said the last part apologetically as if she had failed somehow.
-Alright, this might be useful for us, but in the future, if you are trying to do something and implement it, at least tell us that you are doing it.
Andrew sighed in defeat.
No matter how pissed he was that she did this behind his back, he could not force himself to scold her for trying to help.
-So can you explain why you built 40 new component manufacturing modules, and what are the modules that are still in parts?
Aelita asked trying her best not to laugh, seeing Anderws defeated expression.
-Well, the upgrades to the station are fully occupying the 50 modules that we have, and the other 50 are producing modules for the new stations, so I decided to add 40 more to start producing the tier 3 upgrades and modules, and also to start building the shipyard and jump gate, Andrew was talking about earlier.
We also need to build more storage modules if we plan to start research again any time soon.
As for the module parts, they are for the two new stations, the tier 2 shield generator modules and railgun modules.
I thought that it would be a good idea to arm them and send them better shields.
Hearing all this Andrew only shook his head.
-Nairin, this was the plan for today either way, and I thank you for your efforts, but seriously before you try doing anything similar in the future ask us about it.
You see, at the moment, they only have a few solar power generators, which can support their stations, but there is no way for them to be able to power these shields or even the railguns.
For that, they need the hydrogen generator modules and for these to work they need the gas separation modules and gas storage modules, which also need power to operate before the hydrogen generators have enough fuel to come online.
Andrew explained everything patiently.
This whole situation was a bit comical as he knew that she wanted to help but she also tried to do so in the wrong order.
-Now since you are already here, you can order the production of all the modules I just mentioned and some solar power modules for both stations, so we can do this in the correct order.
Andrew said with a smile.
Nairin on the other hand was blushing in shame for making a fool of herself in front of not only Andrew but also her teacher.