Chapter 43 Ladies Plans.
After the battle concluded, the excitement of the fight died down.
Andrew felt drained.
The first thing he did was to look at Aelita. He remembered how afraid Lanarine had become of him after he destroyed the first ship.
To his surprise, the girl's face and eyes showed no fear; instead, they were filled with fascination and admiration.
Additionally, he remembered that she wasn't even afraid during the battle.
She was calm and focused on her duties for the whole time, a total opposite of Lanarine who almost peed herself from fear.
- How did you know, that there would be more ships coming?
She said, after a moment of silence.
It was something she really wanted to know.
If it was her alone, she would have thought that the first ship was the only threat.
-This tactic was used many times in my world, and you can find it in our history books.
He answered, surprised at the question.
This was the truth, and the reason that he remembered about it was that he learned about a similar tactic used by Alexander the Great when he was studying not long ago.
Andrew never suspected that a wet navy tactic would be used against him in space.
Now he knew better and decided to spend more time studying military history, to not be caught off guard if something similar ever repeated itself.
Hearing his answer, Aelita's admiration rose even more.
She was taught from her youngest years that knowledgeable and powerful protectors were to be honored and admired, and if she ever found herself as the property of one of them then she should consider herself lucky as they only choose the prettiest, and best educated Cheroni as their properties.
Right now after witnessing Andrew's behavior and personality change during the battle, she was sure that he was one of such protectors, and the best part was that she had him all to herself.
Andrew ordered the drones to tow the two ships into the vicinity of the station and he also ordered the salvage of the third ship, after he saw the footage from the scout drone he sent to see if there was anything worth taking from it.
Unfortunately, the crash with the giant asteroid destroyed it, so the best he could get from it now were the materials.
-Let's go get some sleep.
He said to the girl when he was done.
She nodded and blushed, turning her face orange when she thought about their activities just before the attack.
If not for the pirates, she would most likely already lost her status as the untouched, and she hoped that her protector really wanted to go to sleep, and not continue their interrupted activity that night.
Fortunately for her, Andrew was too exhausted after the battle and had no intention of continuing to make love to her.
Instead, they just went to bed, embraced each other, and immediately fell asleep.
What neither of them considered, was that the rest of the station masters also got a warning about the incoming ships, thanks to the really and they watched the whole battle in real-time on the sensors.
All of them were now terrified, after witnessing three ships being destroyed, without the human station even losing its shields.
Not to mention that Andrew's actions looked like he was expecting the two ships that arrived later.
They tried to contact Aelita for some information but the girl had a habit of taking the communication bracelet off, and muting it, before going to bed so they were unable to reach her.
After that failed, they contacted the next best source of information which was Lanarine.
-Have you seen what he did?
The fleet commander asked when Lan opened the channel.
-I did, and I'm not surprised.
Lanarine said, trying to keep her cool, but she was terrified right now as the situation reminded her about Andrew's personality switch, when he was in a combat situation.
-What do you mean, you're not surprised?
He just wiped out three armed ships like it was nothing and even used an asteroid to deflect the one who was trying to ram his station.
The fleet commander said, not believing what she just heard.
-You might want to notice, that the first ship he destroyed, managed to open fire on his station, while these three couldn't even do that.
Not to mention that he had only 8 cannons back then and now he has 24 of them plus a railgun.
Considering all this, why should I be surprised, that he wiped them out?
Lanarine explained.
-So you're saying that…
-I'm saying that he is becoming more and more powerful, not to mention that as far as I know, he is the only one in this system with any combat experience and he just got another dose of that.
Lanarine cut the fleet commander off.
Other ladies were not happy with what they just heard as it indicated that subduing the human might be much more complicated than they previously thought.
-So what do you suggest we should do about it?
It was the doctor who spoke this time.
-Nothing, we can do exactly nothing about it at the moment, other than being happy that he won, or we would most likely be the pirate's next targets.
Lan said, shrugging.
By now she calmed down a lot.
-I don't see it as anything to be happy about.
The third alien woman said, she was a diplomat and usually stayed quiet, so when she spoke the others listened.
-Why not?
Lan asked, surprised by her words.
-Because when it's time to convince him to submit to us, this will give him a powerful argument against that.
The diplomat said she was the first one to suggest that they should make Andrew submit to them, preferably by diplomatic means.
-I don't see a possibility of him submitting to us at all if we don't have the means to threaten him.
The last woman spoke, she was the second youngest among them only a year older than Aelita and until she became a station master, she was just a student who liked to play the Star Emperor in her spare time.
-And right now he has nothing to fear from any of us, even if we join forces.
She added.
-We can always go for the drug option.
The doctor said.
She had the idea of drugging Andrew and then taking his station and him as a prisoner, quick and clean.
-You know we can't, there is no way to deliver the drug to him, and even if we managed to convince Aelita to drug him for us, which is almost impossible since she is now his property, the problem remains the same, we just can't deliver the drug, not to mention that there is no way to know if it would even work on him.
Lanarine opposed.
She was sure that if they failed, then they would pay for it and the price would be steep.
-I'm still convinced that the diplomatic solution is our best bet right now and even if it fails, we should be able to convince him to coexist in this system at the very least.
She expressed her opinion.
-I actually found a way to deliver the drug to Aelita..
Additionally, thanks to all the medical data she sent me, I'm sure that it will knock him out for three days if not longer, without doing any permanent damage to his body.
The doctor said with a cunning smile.
-Good luck with that, she told us that there is no way she would do it.
The student said.
-She won't do it if we tell her what the drug is, but if we tell her that it's something that would help him and ask her to give it to him secretly, as he has no reason to trust us, I think she will do it.
The diplomat chimed in.
-That still won't work, we won't be able to get there on time, the only one who can is Lanarine, the rest of us will take a minimum of a few days if not weeks.
The diplomat said.
-Then why don't we start moving closer to Lanarine's station right now and use the drug plan when we are close enough?
The fleet commander said.
-Also, what's the way to send the drug to him?
She asked, curious about the delivery method.
-We can use the merchant, the last time he was here I asked about it and if we pay for the service, the package will be delivered as soon as possible.
The doctor explained.
-If that's the case, then we need to convince Aelita to give him the drug before we arrive in the vicinity of Lanarine's station.
The Fleet commander said with a smile.
If this worked, they would be able to save a lot of time and effort while still achieving their goal.