Chapter 45 Worth more than the whole station.

Andrew's idea about getting the other station masters jealous worked like a charm.

When Aelita, informed them about it, Lanarine was surprised at the gift while the other girls were upset that they would need to wait and do research to get theirs.

Moreover, they never thought that by relocating they would not be able to collect as many resources as normal, which gave the human another advantage.

So without knowing anything about it, they were getting closer and closer like moths to the flame.

Aelita also was informed that they were grouping closer together for protection after the previous night's battle, which was a great excuse.

Other than that, they also told her that the doctor made a drug that would help Andrew recover, but since he had no reason to trust them, she would need to find a way to give it to him, without him noticing.

The girl took the bait, hook, line, and sinker.

She would do anything to help him recover as soon as possible.

At this moment she wanted to tell the others about the regeneration tank, but Andrew told her to keep it a secret for now so she did.

-It wouldn't hurt to have another solution if the tank failed.

She thought to herself.

After that, their conversations returned to their daily lives, and the questions about the pirates.

Soon Andrew returned from his workout and found Aelita at the engineering console, checking each and every module for any possible damage.

-Do you want to go open the crates, from the ships?

He asked when she noticed his presence.

-Sure, just give me a moment to finish this.

She said excitedly.

Last time they found a lot of treasures and she hoped that this time would be no different.

It took her several more minutes to finish her work, but as soon as she finished, they both got into their space suits and went to see what they got this time.

Altogether they had eight crates and six small boxes this time.

Let's open the boxes first.

Elite proposed and went to translate the writings.

-It says, the gravity compensator 4 pieces.

Aelita read the translation.

-Are these the same as ours?

She asked surprised.

-Let's see.

Andrew said, cutting the box open.

There was something like a jewelry box inside, after opening it, he found two bracelets a pendant, and earrings, that looked luxurious, along with the manual explaining their use.

Each piece of jewelry was a gravity compensator and the jewelry box served as a charger.

-Let's open the rest of the boxes, 

Andrew said putting the jewelry aside.

Each box contained a different set of jewelry, and he didn't even want to think about the price for each of them.

-They are all so pretty.

Aelita exclaimed looking at the six sets of jewelry.

-And as of this moment, they all belong to you.

Andrew said with a smile.

-What?

She asked surprised, looking at him like he had just said the biggest joke in the galaxy.

-You like them, so they are yours, I have no use for them.

He said, amused by her reaction.

-But these are too precious.

She said, trying to resist the temptation.

-These are only precious when worn by a beautiful woman, like you, otherwise, they are just worthless trinkets.

Hearing his words, made her blush again and tears went down her cheeks.

He was the first one ever to call her beautiful and this meant a lot to her.

-Thank you.

Aelita said hugging him.

She had no idea who to thank for letting her meet Andrew, but whoever the creators were, she thanked them for sending her to this wonderful protector.

They hugged each other for a couple of minutes, before setting the jewelry aside and continuing their work.

Now it was the time to open the crates and see what treasures they contained.

The first one was marked as medical supplies and contained metal containers filled with supplies for the tier 3 pharmacy module.

-We can use these.

Andrew said the moment she translated the list of materials inside.

The girl nodded.

The next crate was the same, giving them enough materials, to last them a very long time.

These two crates would also save them a lot of credits as the supplies for the pharmacy modules were always expensive irrespective of their tier.

The third crate was marked simply as a drone.

But once Andrew saw its contents, he was almost jumping with joy.

He found a guardian drone, along with its blueprints, so he could produce more of them.

-What is this drone, and why is it so small?

Aelita asked, seeing the device for the first time.

-This is an internal security drone, it can't kill an intruder, but it can incapacitate them.

Andrew explained.

-With these, we won't need to worry about intruders anymore.

He added with a wide grin on his face.

This was exactly, what he needed to avoid losing his station, even if the other's plan worked.

Additionally, it could fit into the corridors of the pirate ships to look for anything of value.

The next three crates all contained a guardian drone inside, leaving them with only two more crates to open.

-This one is marked as a jetpack, what is that?

Aelita asked since she never heard about anything like that.

-Let's open it and see.

Andrew said, praying silently, for a jetpack that would be usable by him.

This was one of the things he had been looking for the most, ever since this whole event started, but jetpacks were a tier 5 technology, so it would take a very long time to get one, but now he had a chance to get one and for free to boot.

Unfortunately, the one inside the crate was useless to him.

Whoever it was designed for, he was much bigger than Andrew.

-What is this thing?

Aelita asked, seeing disappointment all over Andrew's face.

-If this was designed for us, we would be able to fly in space with it strapped to our backs, but this one is for something much bigger than us.

Andrew explained.

-Can't you trade it for one that would fit us?

She asked.

-I can try, but I doubt that the merchant would be willing to trade like that.

-You can always ask, and if he refuses, then just trade it for something we need.

Aelita, said while shrugging.

Andrew only nodded.

-Let's see what's inside the last one.

He said, hoping for something that would uplift his mood.

-The sign, says fuel.

Aelita translated the writing.

They both looked at each other, puzzled by the translation, but it became clear once they opened the crate and saw nine metal containers with markings, that translated to

Helium 3, 20 liters.

-These are the canisters for the helium 3 reactor.

Andrew exclaimed, gasping.

This one crate was worth much more than the whole station along with the resources it stored.

One of the next research he wanted to do was a gas separation module.

On tier 2 it would not be able to extract helium 3 but once he upgraded it to tier 3, that would change and he would be able to get some helium 3 and use it either as a fuel or to trade.

Considering that it was the highest-priced resource on the merchant list, since the beginning.

Andrew would be able to buy whatever he wanted with this crate and could focus his resources on research.

This alone had given him a huge advantage over the rest of the station masters.

-Aelita, don't tell anyone that we found this or the new drones, you can tell them about the rest, but this has to remain a secret.

He said, seriously.

-As you wish.

She said, surprised at his serious tone.

Aelita didn't even ask, why he wanted to keep it a secret, if this was his wish, then she would oblige.

After closing all the crates, they returned to the command center, carrying the jewelry and the blueprints for the guardian drones with them.

Aelita went to show off to the rest of the ladies, while Andrew added the blueprints to the drone database, right before ordering 20 of them.

At the same time, he noticed that there were enough resources to start another research.

He decided long ago, that he would invest in medical technology so he began researching the pharmacy module for his first medical module.

Even if he had the third-tier module already, he could not produce more of them without finishing the research and there was no way of upgrading it.

The same was true about any other module, which was the reason why he had only one railgun module at the moment and only ten tier 2 shield generator modules.

Andrew would love nothing more than to turn his station into a fortress, but unfortunately, there were many more things to research before he could do so.

Right now two of his research modules were doing their work, which meant that he only had one more spot available for now.

Luckily for him, the whole idea with substations worked great, and in no more than six more hours he would be able to begin researching the gas separation module, which was the first step to stop relying solely on solar power, but all he could do for now was wait, so with nothing better to do, he decided to catch up on the ladies communications.