Chapter 41 Misinformation.
Of course, Aelita didn't spend all her time chatting with the ladies, and she also didn't come only to ask Andrew about the experiment.
After talking with the ladies, she went to the workshop module to begin working on her project.
She remembered that she promised to build an education capsule for Andrew.
-Do you have a moment?
She asked entering the command center.
-Of course, how can I help you?
Andrew asked.
-I compiled a list of materials, I need to build the education capsule for you.
She said and sent the list to the command chair.
The list wasn't long and most of the materials were common so there was no problem with the supplies she needed.
-Would you like the materials to be transported to your airlock?
He asked jokingly.
-That would help a lot.
She answered, not understanding the joke.
Andrew quickly understood his mistake, but since he offered then he would deliver.
-I will get the drones to deliver it at once.
He said with a slight smile.
-Thank you, by the way, how is your experiment coming along?
She asked.
-You frightened the others, by sending another small station even further.
She explained.
This made him understand that they were using fear as an excuse to make her ask about his progress.
-That was another part of the experiment and there will be another substation going out tomorrow, so you can tell them in advance.
I don't want to scare them.
He said, trying his best not to burst out laughing.
-As for the experiment.
It shows promising results for now, but I need more time to be sure that it's not just dumb luck.
I think that it will take around 10 to 20 days and at least two more substations, to see if this is worth the effort.
He said, almost certain that she would share this information with the others.
This was his first attempt at disinformation, as the project had already proven its worth, but if the ladies believed his lies, then he would be way ahead of them before they could figure out what was going on.
After this conversation, Aelita sent a message to her friends, with the information she received and the message from Andrew about sending another two substations the next day.
By that time, they all believed without a shadow of a doubt her as everything she had told them till now turned out to be true.
Not wanting to invest in something that could be just a waste of time, they decided to wait and see the results first.
With that done, she went to the workshop module and found all the resources she asked for in double quantity.
Andrew sent double the amount just in case something went wrong.
When she figured this out it made her really happy.
Just as she was moving the materials, from the airlock, Andrew got the notification that the space engine upgrade research was now completed.
Not wasting any time, he added the upgrade to the drones that were still being produced, while recalling all the other drones to get the upgrade at the drone repair module.
With the three modules and a lot of resources, he got 60 drones upgraded every hour or so.
After thinking about it for a while, he decided to wait till he had enough to swap the complement of drones at a substation to recall them, that way the resources would still be gathered while he upgraded every drone he had.
With nothing better to do right now, he decided to see the recording of the ladies' video call.
It was then that he discovered that he could access the communications that were sent through the relay.
The best part was that only he could do it since he deployed the relay and was added as its administrator.
Even better news was that the relay also stored the messages and video call recordings in its memory bank, which only an administrator could access.
With all this, he would know everything that they were talking about, without storing the recordings on the station and risking that Aelita would find them by accident.
The recordings from their talk with Aelita were not so interesting, but the ones he found after she left were a different story altogether.
It turned out that they were not as united as he previously thought, with some of them questioning the necessity of using the girl as a spy.
To his surprise, Lanarine was one of them and she advocated to stop asking Cherone for information before Andrew figured it out and punished her.
Unfortunately, it was only she and the doctor, who opposed this while the others insisted that it was necessary for now, and the moment they could, they would make the human submit to them, eliminating the risk of Aelita getting hurt.
Another argument for their case was Andrew's reaction to Aelitas's seduction attempts.
-If she can make him fall in love with her, then it will be easier to convince him to submit.
The Fleet commander said.
She resembled Sophia, Alex's sister who got him into trouble many times.
The girl loved to manipulate others to achieve her goals, and this alien beauty was similar in that regard.
After some more discussion, Lanarine relented, but she wanted to save Aelita as soon as possible before something went wrong.
She was the only one who had some experience with Andrew and she remembered just how ruthless he could be when angered.
Other than that, he also heard about their plans to wait for his experiment to conclude before trying to copy it and some other information, but most of it was not useful to him.
He turned off the recording and thought about what he just heard.
The ladies were counting on him falling for Aelita and submitting as their preferred plan, or using force to make him submit as their plan B.
Unfortunately, for them, neither of these ideas would work if he had anything to say about it.
He had more than enough time to think since right now all he was doing was attaching the filled storage modules once they arrived and sending back empty ones in their place.
Before he knew it he already had more than enough materials to start the combat command module research, while at the same time, he had more than half of the drones he needed to swap out the ones at the first substation already refited with the upgrade.
At this rate, he would be able to swap them out in a couple of hours, or he could wait and do the swap in the morning, replacing the drones on both substations simultaneously.
He decided on the latter option since it would be easier to do and by that time he would most likely have enough drones to launch the third substation.
With that, he decided to do some studying, since he still had a few hours before going to sleep and he had nothing to do at the moment.
His studies were so absorbing that before he knew it, another four hours went by.
Noticing the time, he took a quick look at the resources and he was more than satisfied seeing another four cubes, filled with materials attached to the station.
while the next ones were being filled already, so he detached more of the storage modules and made them into ten cubes, five for each substation, after sending them, he called it a day, and checked where Aelita was.
Predictably, she was in the workshop, working on the education capsule.
-Aelita, It's late already, so leave the work for tomorrow and let's get some rest.
He said through his communicator.
-Just a moment longer, I need to finish this part.
Came the answer.
-Ok, I'll go ahead, you can join me when you finish.
He said, before leaving the command center.
This day was both enlightening and successful, now it was time to see how would the night turn out.
Andrew thought with a grin on his face.
After learning Aelita's intentions, he decided that if she gave him a break tonight then he would play along, but if she still tried to seduce him, he would not hold back anymore.
Especially after reading their comments about him.
He was a man and no man would allow his pride to be trampled like that.
So even if she didn't know it, it was her decision that would decide, how they spent their night.