Two hours later, Andrew came back to the command center with two unconscious aliens in tow.
To everyone's surprise, apart from the injury they saw Andrew inflict on one of them, they looked like he hadn't even touched them.
-Tanera, when did you say this galactic supervisor will arrive here?
Andrew asked, dropping the two beings on the floor and not exactly being delicate about it.
-In around two days, why?
The elf answered, surprised that Andrew asked for his.
-Well, the guild will have to explain to me why the two high-ranking officials black listed me without a reason, tried to assassinate me, and tried to take over my territory for their species.
They can additionally explain how they knew that the crystal treasure box was in this system and how a small fleet of their species' ships managed to get into this universe when the invasion hasn't even started yet.
Andrew said, leaving the girl stunned.
-Did they tell you all of this?
She asked.
-Yes, they did.
After you ladies left, they became very talkative.
The human said with a grin.
-You used us to interrogate them.
Nairin gasped, finally connecting the dots.
-Yup, and it was super effective.
He admitted.
-The moment you left, they assumed I was holding back because of your presence.
Not wanting to see what will happen to them once you are gone, they told me everything.
Andrew explained.
-Oh, and they were also planning to kill you and push the blame on me to justify their attack on the station and remove the only witness.
He added, looking at the elf who turned way paler than usual.
-I have to admit that their plan was quite good, and if you hadn't warned me, it might have worked, at least as far as killing me goes.
Andrew said with a hint of respect in his voice.
-What do you plan to do with them?
Tanera asked, wondering if they would be killed or imprisoned.
-I'm going to put them on ice until the supervisor arrives, and then I'll hand them over with all the evidence.
I'll let the guild take care of their own mess, but I will demand reinstatement of my trade privileges as well as compensation for their actions.
-Lan, how far away are the pirates?
-At their current heading and speed, they will need more than a day to get here.
Came the answer.
-Alright, it was a long and exciting day, and I think it's past time for us to get some rest.
Sarill, contact Aelita and Jalina.
Ask them if they want to come back or rest there.
The rest of you, finish your tasks if you have any at hand and get some rest, the same goes for everyone.
Andrew ordered and left the command center, dragging the aliens with him to the cryogenic storage modules.
The next morning, he woke up alone in the bedroom as Aelita opted to stay at the shipyard.
After getting ready, he went straight to the command center.
To his surprise, there was no one inside.
After checking the internal sensors, he found out that all the ladies were in their modules except Iliana, who was walking between the new medical modules, most likely to check on the injured Adurians.
-Ilia, did you get any rest when I ordered everyone to take a break?
Andrew shed through the comms, making her jump in fright.
-I had a lot of work to do, but I got a nap when I was done.
She answered.
-Are the injured in any need of your medical assistance now?
The human asked, feeling frustration rising inside.
-Not necessarily; why?
-Because you have exactly 15 minutes to get to your module and go to sleep, or I'm going to keep my word from our last conversation about overworking yourself.
Additionally, if there is not an emergency you are needed for, I don't want to see you moving around for at least the next six hours.
-But..
-I have spoken.
Andrew cut off her excuses.
-Alright, can I at least finish checking on everyone before I go?
It should not take longer than 30 minutes.
She asked in a defeated tone.
-Alright.
But if I see you there after that, I swear I'm going to drag you to your bed and cuf you to it until you get some rest.
He warned her.
-Alright, I get it. I'll get some sleep.
She sounded not only defeated but also frustrated with his nagging.
With this done, Andrew got to looking through the system reports about the state of all the stations, and now it also had two shipyards on the list as Nairin finished building hers, ahead of time.
Taking a closer look, Andrew discovered that all 300 component manufacturing modules were now spitting out parts for the jump gate, with the estimated time of completion within the next 6 hours.
At the same time, there was a notification informing him that all the drones were upgraded to tier 3.
Other than this, there was nothing much that happened while he was sleeping.
Just in case, he also took a look at the alien ship to see if anything was going on there, but there was nothing, no movement, no alien, nothing.
If he didn't know any better, he would have thought that it was just a crashed ship, like he did before.
While he was busy reading through everything, Lanarine and Sarill joined him in the command center.
After some usual chatting, both ladies got to work.
Sarill didn't have much to do at the moment since there was no traffic in the system at this time, and there was no chatter going on, but she had learned to check every frequency just in case there was something the system didn't detect.
Lan, on the other hand, started scanning another asteroid.
With all the upgrades to the sensors, she could now do a full scan in half the time while still maintaining her usual precision when it came to finding resources.
When half an hour was up, Andrew took a look at the internal sensors to find Iliana on her way to her module.
He smiled seeing this, and made a mental note to have another chat with her about overworking herself.
The next one to arrive was Tanera, who wanted to know what Andrew intended to do with the captured merchant ships.
-I'm not planning to do anything with the ships for now.
I'll wait for the big shoot from the guild to arrive, and then we can negotiate.
As for you, you can wait here with us, or you can go back to the guild; it's your choice.
-I'll wait. I want to see what the supervisor is going to do about all this mess.
The Elf said.
-As you wish, in the meantime, you might want to take a look at what we found in the crates during this time.
I'm sure you will find many interesting things, and if you could identify the things Jalina couldn't, it'd be great.
-Thanks, it sounds fun.
The merchant lit up at the mention of the treasures from the pirate crates.
She knew from experience that these things were usually precious and she could get a lot of recognition securing them for the guild.
A moment later, she went to the storage module to look through the items.
-Andrew, come in. Are you awake?
Aelita's voice came through he comms.
-I'm here, whats up?
He answered.
-You can send the heavy frigates for repairs.
The droids managed to prepare over half of the docks overnight.
We will also need some resources to repair them, but I need the ships here to know which materials and how much of them we need.
She said, with happiness in her voice.
-I'll send them immediately.
Andrew said and started to arrange for the drones to transport the ships from the hangars.
-That's not all; this place will need a crew, preferably enough to keep an eye on things around the clock.
-I'll take care of it.
There should be enough people in the fleet who would want to have a post on the shipyard instead of crewing the ships.
-The sooner, the better. I don't want to spend all of my time here.
She said, not thrilled by the possibility of being forced to stay as the shipyard engineer.
-I'll get right on that as soon as I send the ships.
Andrew promised.
Finding the crew for the shipyard was easier than Andrew thought, as all of his subordinates wanted to have a chance to work there.
The three station masters quickly agreed that the ship crews would spend a week on the installation as a form of R&R, which would help a lot with the crew's morale.
The three new stations still lacked enough space to house all the people they had, so this would help a lot.
The first four ships were dispatched immediately to take over the duty on the shipyard allowing Aelita and Jalina to return to the station way faster than they thought.
Not long later, Nairin came to the command center.
-How do you like the shipyard I built?
She asked the moment she saw Andrew.
-Good work, but how did you manage to shorten the construction time so much?
Andrew asked.
He was curious about this part.
-It's simple, I deleted the production of the outer plating, it takes the longest time, and since the shipyard is fully automated, and has shield generators, it does not need the plating for now.
We can add it later if we want or simply leave it as it is.
She answered, proud of her idea which allowed her to save a lot of time.
-Is the jump gate being built the same way?
Andrew asked, a bit surprised and worried about the construction.
-No, the jump gate needs its outer shell to work, and there is no way around it, at least none that I could find, so it's being produced as a whole.
The student explained.
-With any luck, we should be able to activate it today, making it my win.
She smiled happily at the thought of completing not only the main task but also the additional one Andrew had placed before her.
-That's great, but I need you to rearrange the production of parts.
We need at least one-third of the component manufacturing modules to start making parts for the helium 3 collectors.
He explained.
-But I will fall behind the schedule if I do that, and you permitted me to use our full production capability to accomplish my task.
Nairin complained.
-You have already won; you accomplished everything I asked you to accomplish and even more.
The few more hours we will need to wait for the jump gate are irrelevant now, but we need to start collecting the fuel for the shipyard and the ships it will make.
She looked at him with surprise plastered all over her face.
-You mean…
-Yes, you will get your wish if it's something I can grant.
Andrew confirmed with a big, proud smile on his face.
-Once Aelita is back, she will give you another assignment to accomplish, but for now, get to work on rearranging the parts production.
The girl smiled and got to work without another word.
Andrew's whole day was filled with many such small things that he needed to take care of.
It was exhausting but rewarding as with each small decision he made, everything started to fall back into place, making everyone's lives easier and their work more efficient.