The rest of the meeting went fast.
As soon as the three chips were implanted and activated, Iliana insisted on taking all the new ladies to the medical module and scanning them.
She had two reasons for it.
The first one was to make sure they were all healty and the second was to get some medical data on their species.
To her surprise, everyone agreed to be scanned, and they also wanted to see Therese off when she was placed in the tank.
While the ladies left for the medical module, Andrew went to the command center to oversee the preparations for the upcoming engagement.
The problem was that there was nothing to oversee as the preparations were already finished.
The Jammer was already activated, and it worked.
All the weapons were at the ready the shields were charged, the two ships were already hidden, and even the station's sensors were unable to detect them at the moment.
Everyone in the command center was doing their own thing at the moment, with Nairin being the busiest of them all, working on her assignment, which was doing great.
The student didn't immediately begin to produce parts for the main objectives of her task, but instead, she was expanding her production and resource-gathering base to make it all go faster once she started building the shipyard and the jump gate.
Additionally, she also dedicated part of her production to help upgrade all the stations as much as she was able to.
Seeing all this, Andrew was very impressed with her work.
This also confirmed his earlier suspicions that the best way for Nairin to learn was to give her a challenge, something that was difficult to achieve but not out of her reach.
With that, she had an opportunity to show everyone her talents and earn their recognition.
Which was very important to her.
She was especially trying to win Aelita's approval, unaware that the greatest form of approval from the engineer was accepting her as her student.
His thoughts were interrupted by Nairin.
-Andrew, can you look this over?
The simulations show that these two designs will work, but I want to know your thoughts about it.
She said, sending him two sets of blueprints and another two sets to Aelita's console for review.
With nothing better to do at the moment, He opened the files, and his jaw dropped at what he saw.
Before his eyes were blueprints for a heavy fighter, armed with a railgun instead of cannons, and it even had pylons for bombs and missiles.
It was a bit larger than the standard drone fighter, which made it a bigger target, but its firepower was also increased, and it solved one of the biggest problems he was worried about at the moment: lack of materials to produce the ammunition for the cannons.
The second blueprint was an upgraded version of a pirate ship, with railguns instead of cannons, which would make them much more formidable in battle.
-How did you come up with these?
Andrew asked, still shocked.
-I know that we are short on materials for cannon ammunition, but we have plenty of rounds for the railguns, so I thought about using them instead.
She explained.
Making Andrew chuckle while shaking his head.
This made her worried that he didn't approve of this idea.
-You are a genius.
We had the answer right under our noses all this time, and we never even thought of it.
Andrew said, still laughing.
-How fast can we build them?
He asked, excitedly.
-With the ten drone fighter production modules on the main station and another ten on my substation, I'd say we could make 20 of them in about 12 hours, but I would need access to the main resources for it to work.
As for the ships, we would need to try it on one of them to see how long it would take to upgrade them.
Nairin said after looking at the data on her console.
-You have full access to the resources; just make sure that these heavy fighters are ready before our guests arrive.
-If it takes 12 hours to build one, you will have around 2 to 3 hours to arm them before the three ships arrive.
Lanarine said from her console.
-That's plenty of time.
Aelita chimed in, finally finding her voice after her student shocked her with her new design.
-It seems that you are more talented in weapons design than I thought.
She smiled at Nairin with a proud look in her eyes.
This one look made the student smile happily as she finally got what she wanted, the recognition of her teacher.
-But don't let this deter you from your task, and once you complete this one, I'll have one for you as well.
Aelita said, reminding her that she had to stay focused.
-I'll do my best not to disappoint you.
Nairin said as she got back to work, with much more enthusiasm than before.
It didn't escape Andrew's attention that she had built 10 additional drone fighter production modules.
Curious about what else she added to her production substation, he opened the module list for it and was speachless at what he saw.
She doubled her component manufacturing modules from 40 to 80, nearly achieving the same production output as the main station. Other than that, she could produce her own drones with 30 drone manufacturing modules at her disposal.
The ship parts were now being produced in 10 modules, and she was also providing her own fuel for generators.
Her station was shielded by 30 tier 3 shield generator modules and protected from any attack by 20 railguns. with ten modules providing ammunition to her defenses.
The resource-gathering substations she created were also shielded and armed, not to mention the 200 midsized storage modules she used as cubes to get the resources she needed for her assignment.
With all of this in place, Andrew was not only shocked, but he also started to believe that she would be able to achieve both objectives he had placed before her.
Additionally, this also reminded him that he should start to build up his station, which he was neglecting a bit, focussing on building the new stations, and now he would have a third one to build.
Thinking about it now, he made a mental note to focus on this right after he was done with the frigates.
His thoughts were interrupted by Iliana's voice coming from his bracelet and asking him to come to the medical module.
Andrew arrived only to see the grave atmosphere in the medical module, which told him that it was something serious..
-Andrew, we have a problem with Theresa.
Iliana started talking the moment she saw him.
-What's the problem?
He asked, looking at the woman in the wheelchair.
-The bastards who did this to her used plasma cutters to cut off her hands and legs, which cauterised the wounds immediately but also fried her nerve endings in those areas.
Our tank won't be able to regenerate these damaged parts, so there are only two options left.
One is to amputate the affected area before placing her in the tank.
This will allow her body to be fully regenerated, but it will most likely be painful as all hell since there is no way to numb her nerves in those areas.
The second option is to wait for a Tier 4 regeneration tank, which will be able to repair this kind of damage.
Iliana explained.
-As a doctor, I would recommend the second option, but it will take at least a few months before we reach this research.
But she insists on using the first option.
-If there is a chance for me to get my hands and legs back, I want to take it as soon as possible.
I dont want to be like this for another few months.
Theresa said in a pleading voice.
-I can understand your desire to be healthy again, but this procedure can kill you.
The blood loss is not a problem, but as you heard, there is no way to do it without you feeling all the pain that comes with it, which can cause you to die of shock.
Andrew tried to persuade her.
-Do you think that the bastards who did this to me bothered with anesthesia?
The woman replied with a darkened expression, remembering the ordeal she went through.
-I survived it once, and I will do it again, this time to regain my freedom.
She said stubbornly.
-Ilia, how long would you need to do the procedure on all four limbs?
Andrew suddenly asked.
-With some help, I could do it within about two minutes.
She answered, not happy with the direction this was headed.
-Would it help if she was unconscious during that time?
He asked.
-It would be great, but you know that we can't use anesthetic before placing her in the tank.
Iliana reminded him.
-Who said anything about an anesthetic?
Sorry about this.
He said and quickly choked Theresa out, making her lose consciousness in a few seconds.
-What have you done?
All the other ladies rushed at him before being stopped by Zira.
-He just made it possible for our leader to go through the procedure without feeling the pain that comes with it.
She said seriously.
-Am I right?
She turned to Andrew.
-That's correct, there are faster ways to knock someone out, but if I messed up, I could have injured her, so this was the safest option.
Andrew explained, then turned to Iliana.
-Start the procedure immediately.
I'll prep the tank.
It would be best if we put her inside before she woke up.
He said while insert the new solution container into the tank and activate it.
Iliana didn't need to be told twice, as this was the best opportunity she could get at the moment.
-Ladies, put her on the table and hold her down, she said, preparing the tools she would need for the operation.
There was no time for a sterile environment, but the tank would take care of any infection they might cause, so she didn't worry about it too much.
The procedure itself was quick and extremely bloody.
Iliana used the simplest and fastest way possible by putting a tourniquet above the damaged area and directly cutting that area off.
The tourniquet ensured that Theresa would not bleed out, but it would need to be removed before placing her in the tank, so speed was of the essence in this case.
In less than 3 minutes, she was done, and the ladies helped her place still-unconscious Theresa in the tank.
As soon a she removed all four turniquetes, the blood started spraying all over the tank, but as soon as she was out of the way, Andrew activated the tank, and it started to fill up with the solution, which turned pink from all the blood but before Theresa was even anasthesized, it became clear again and her wounds stopped bleding.
Then it all went as usual; the anesthetic was injected, and the tank started the process of regenerating her body, which would take approximately 96 hours to complete.
At first, Iliana was worried about Theresa's vitals, but her state soon stabilized as the machine did its job.
Once the doctor was assured of the human's condition, she turned to Andrew.
-I'd appreciate a little warning next time.
She said, not amused at what he just did and forced her to do.
-I hope there is no next time.
He answered before leaving to take a shower and advising everyone to do the same as all of them were sprayed by blood.