Chapter 32 Waking up with a beautiful woman in his arms.

When Aelita opened her eyes the next day, she was still lying on Andrew's chest and she could feel his hands around her.

So it wasn't a dream. I got myself a protector, and he didn't refuse to sleep in the same bed with me.

She thought, with a happy smile on her face.

What she never told Andrew was that, by her world standards, she was considered ugly, and her chances of finding a protector among the Cherix were slim to none.

So him accepting her was a dream come true to her.

Of course, she had no idea that by Earth's standards, she was a beauty, and a man like him would never have a chance to spend a night with her.

Andrew woke up when she moved slightly to a more comfortable position.

-Good morning.

He said with a smile.

-Good morning, did I wake you up?

She asked a bit worried, since the property should never interrupt her protector's rest.

-No, I woke up on my own.

Andrew said and yawned.

He felt great, this was the first time in a long time that he had such a good sleep, not interrupted by any nightmares.

Not to mention that any man would love to wake up with a beautiful woman in his arms.

She sighed in relief.

For all her intelligence and education, she had a hard time figuring out that their cultures were greatly different and he would not abandon her just because she had woken him up.

-Did you sleep well?

He asked.

-Yes, I felt very safe and you are also very warm when you sleep, I like it.

She smiled.

-I'm glad to hear that, but I think that we need to get a bigger bed if we want to sleep together every night.

His bed was meant for one person, so the best choice would be to get something bigger.

-I don't mind, this one is very comfortable, but if you want to buy a bigger one I won't oppose it.

Aelita said she was already happy to sleep next to him even if it was a bit cramped.

A bigger bed would be much more comfortable, but she already had nothing to complain about.

-Then it's decided, when the merchant returns we will buy a bigger bed.

He said, with a bright smile.

They stayed in bed for a few minutes longer before they had to get up and get about their day.

Secretly, both of them wished that they could stay like that for much longer, but unfortunately, there were things that required their attention.

After they freshened up and ate breakfast, Aelita went straight to the command center, while Andrew went to the fitness module, for a workout.

When he got to the command center he found Aelita looking through the modules in the engineering console again.

-Why are these modules spaced out so randomly?

She asked when he came in.

-This affects their performance.

 She continued before he could even answer.

-I know, but it's necessary for now.

He answered.

-The layout of the modules is so chaotic to make it more difficult for anyone who would want to attack the station to take it out.

Let's say, that I grouped the modules, by their types and functions to increase their performance.

That way all the modules would work at an optimal level, but an enemy could take the station offline by just targeting the solar power modules and then they would simply have to wait for us to run out of air or water, whichever would run out first, to take the station for themselves and all they would need to do is to get some more power modules to make it operational again.

He explained.

-So this layout is made to make that harder, I understand now.

She said.

-It doesn't make it that much harder, but it would definitely buy us some more time to defend ourselves if the shields were taken down and it also makes it more difficult to take the station in one piece.

Andrew said.

-Then are you ever planning to rearrange them to their optimal configuration?

She asked, curious about his future plans.

-Yes, when the station will have proper defenses and a fleet to protect it.

-That will take a long time to build.

The girl said, thinking about all the modules and research they would need to even have some fighters to protect the station.

-For now, we dont have too much to worry about other than pirates and for them we have enough firepower and shield modules to take them out unless they show up in military vessels, then we might have a problem.

Andrew explained, and he was almost certain that there would not be any military ship showing up any time soon.

-I see, thats good.

She smiled.

Aelita was getting more and more sure that choosing him for her protector, was the best decision she had ever made, not that she had a choice in the matter.

-Can I use the communication, module?

She asked.

-Sure, I don't mind.

Andrew agreed, remembering that she told him about her communication with other station masters in the system.

-But try not to gossip too much with the other ladies.

He teased with a smile.

Before she could even thank him.

This made her pout.

-It's not gossiping, we just like to keep in touch.

She retorted.

-Well, have fun.

Andrew said while laughing, and went to the command chair.

This time he was not planning to study but to use a drone to get the crates and other items from the ship.

Since everything was inside the vessel, he could not use the drone control module to order them to get it and he had to pilot a drone himself.

While he was looking over the drone status trying to find one that was fully charged and close to the station.

Aelita went to the comms console and started typing a message to other station masters.

It was easy as the system changed the keyboard to her language as soon as she sat down at the console.

She wrote to them that she was successfully accepted and now had a protector.

Within a few minutes, she had a reply from the nearest station masters, except for Lanarine who answered almost immediately.

The furthest station master would take a lot of time to even receive her message and then to send back a reply, but most of the ones that were still alive were positioned within a Light hour from Andrew's station so even with the time lag it was possible to communicate with them.

All the other ladies congratulated her on achieving her goal and then proceeded to ask about Andrew.

They might be from different species, but there are no more curious beings in the whole universe than women, and bored ones at that.

While she was having fun chatting with other ladies, Andrew found a drone that he could use and set it on course to the ship.

The idea was to bring the crates one at a time and store them in a depressurized storage module, once he was done, they would be able to pressurize the module and take a look at what was inside the crates.

Other than that he was also planning to try and get to the engineering compartment of the ship to look for some tools, that might be useful.

He was almost certain that this would make Aelita happy.

There were also other items that might prove useful and he intended to spend the whole day gathering as many of them as he could and if he was unable to get them all today, he would continue later.

That also reminded him to check the status of the resource gathering and what he saw was very satisfying as till now he had over 8000 tonnes of resources and all of them were precious, the iron and the other materials were still deposited in the same spot he designated earlier and there were a lot of them.

He didn't know for sure but there were tens of thousands of tonnes of them gathered there at this point, it was a good thing since he would need them later.

Satisfied with the progress he designated a group of drones to collect some uranium as well.

This time he wanted to make a massive purchase and if his math was correct he would need a minimum of 500 million credits or even more, depending on what would be available.

Additionally, he had no idea how Aelita would be classified right now and needed to prepare some funds for her as well if it turned out that she was considered an independent stationmaster.

Another good news came in the form of another Component manufacturing module, which was finally built.

The parts production ended long ago, but since it was a more complicated module, the drones took longer to put together, now, he had two of them and as soon as the merchant arrived he would have many more.

His experience after discovering the condition of his body, made him understand that he was still thinking too small and needed to get rid of that mindset or risk being left behind.