Chapter 51 Better safe then sorry.
The next day, both of them woke up past noon, but since they had done almost all of the work the day before they were in no hurry to get out of bed.
Well, they forgot about the cubes, and once they entered the command center, they saw a group of them lined up, and waiting to be connected to the station, while all three substations were on standby, not having anywhere to store the resources.
-I wish we could automate this process.
Andrew said while sending empty cubes to the substations and connecting the full ones.
-We actually can automate it, but we would need to do the research, you don't happen to have a free research module and around twenty thousand tons of resources?
Aelita asked, with a grin.
-I just happen to have it all, so which research do we need?
Andrew asked.
-We need two of them, and each costs ten thousand tons of materials, but their completion time is three hours each.
She said and sent the data to the command chair.
The drone control module CPU upgrade, and the drone software upgrade, would allow them to program the drones with much more complicated instructions, without risking their system crashing.
With that, they could automate and streamline the whole process of transporting, attaching, and detaching the storage modules.
It would also upgrade the guardian drones, making them much more formidable, which in turn would make it harder for anyone to infiltrate the station.
After he was done reading the data, Andrew immediately ordered the research to start on both of the upgrades.
With any luck, by the end of the day, this process would not require his input at all.
-Thank you for finding these.
He said to the girl.
-No problem, but I think you need to go through the technology tree and see what the upgrades can do.
She said, surprising him.
Andrew was so focused on getting to the higher tier of medicine, and military-related research, that he totally forgot about the rest of the tech tree.
-I will do it later, for now, I want to see what's inside the ships we have taken out.
Andrew said, sending a guardian drone inside one of the ships.
The previous two were sold so now he had two ships that were more or less in one piece and the two that collided and exploded.
He didn't expect to get much from the last two, but the others might have some treasures on board.
Unfortunately, it turned out that the first ship's cargo hold was shredded by his cannons, and only one of the ten crates survived with only a few scratches, while the rest was full of holes or in three cases, blown up to pieces.
The second ship didn't fare any better, and only two of its seven crates were in good enough shape to even think about salvaging them.
Fortunately, there were crates present on board the two ships that exploded and he found another three that looked good enough to salvage them, the rest was destroyed.
-I'm going to get the crates.
He said and wore his new space armor, before going to the ships.
Taking the crates out was easy thanks to zero gravity, and once he removed the ones, that he wanted to salvage, he opened the ones full of holes on the spot, to see if anything survived.
Unfortunately, there was only scrap inside at this point, the armor-piercing rounds of his cannons and the merchant ships destroyed everything.
-It's such a waste.
Aelita said through the comms, from over three dozen crates, they only found 6 that were salvageable.
-Nothing, we can do about it, but if there is a next time, we will have much more control over our accuracy, so there is a chance of getting more treasures then.
Andrew responded, knowing full well, that there would almost certainly, be a next time.
This time, however, he would have a combat control module, which offered a much better targeting system and way more control over the station's armaments.
-We can always hope.
The girl said.
She was slowly getting used to the idea of being an equal and voicing her opinions.
In her mind, Andrew was still her protector, but she stopped thinking of herself as a property.
Right now she didn't have enough time to figure it all out, but eventually, she would, and even Andrew encouraged her to take it slowly and think things through.
-All the crates are outside, you can now collect them with the drones, I'm coming back.
Andrew said, leaving the last crate outside the ship.
Before he made it back all the crates were already inside the storage module.
Entering the command center, he saw Aelita in deep thought.
-Do you think, that I could research one of the ships?
She asked, noticing his presence.
-Why not?
They belong to us so nothing is stopping you from researching them or reverse engineering their technologies.
Andrew answered after a moment of thought.
-But if you want to do that, then you would need to wait for the Hangar module so that you could work on it not worrying about the oxygen or anything else.
He added a moment later.
-What's reverse engineering?
She asked, this was the first time she heard this term.
-It's when you take a device apart to figure out how it works and what materials are required to produce it.
Andrew tried to explain the concept.
-I never thought about engineering like that, this is stealing other's ideas.
She said, not too fond of the idea.
-Yes it is, but in this case, it's the technology from our enemies and they wanted to use it to kill or enslave us, so I don't see anything bad in taking their tech for ourselves.
Andrew said, shrugging.
Aelita thought for a moment and agreed with his opinion.
Either way, they still needed to wait for the hangar research to be completed, before she could do anything, and that would take at least two more days.
Not to mention either building the hangar from the parts or waiting for the merchant to buy one.
The second option being way more realistic as the hangar module would be enormous.
During that time, the two upgrades for the drones were finished, so Andrew immediately ordered the production of the drone control module's upgraded CPUs, and all the drones had to return to the repair modules to receive their new software, but this part would be done in batches, as there were way to many drones to upgrade them all at once.
Aelita took the upgraded parts and went to the drone control modules to install them, which took a bit of time.
By the end of the day, all the drone control modules were upgraded, and the first batch of around a thousand drones received the upgraded software, which allowed the drones to form the cubes and attach or detach the modules, without any additional instructions, once they have been ordered to do so.
Andrew also got enough resources to start on the targeting system research for the combat control module, with it, he would be able to target multiple enemies at the same time and control the order in which the enemies would be eliminated, not to mention that his weapons would become much more accurate, increasing the range at which he would be able to engage the enemy.
-When do you plan, to heal yourself?
Aelita asked, that evening while eating their meal.
She was a bit worried because he didn't show any intention of getting into the regeneration tank, any time soon.
The girl was even considering giving him the drug that she received, thanks to the merchants, but decided to ask first.
-I think that tomorrow evening should be a good time to start my treatment.
Andrew said, after a moment.
-The treatment will take 48 hours, so I'll be out the day before the merchants return.
He added.
Aelita relaxed, upon hearing this.
Now she didn't have to resort to drugging him secretly.
-Great, you will finally be healthy again.
She smiled.
-Yeah, I have been waiting for this day to come, but before that, I need to get some preparations done.
He said.
-What preparations?
Aelita asked surprised.
There was nothing she could think of that would be more important than regenerating his body back to full strength.
-I need to do some more research and activate the automatic defense systems, to be sure that nothing will threaten the station while I'm in the tank.
He explained.
-Also could you inform your friends, not to try and visit you at that time?
He asked, almost certain that the other ladies would love to use this opportunity to take over his station.
Luckily only Lanarine was close enough to try something, but if she did, he had a way to take care of her.
-Sure, but even if they wanted to they are way too far to visit me right now.
Aelita said, not understanding his intentions.
-It's better to be safe than sorry, I don't want the defense system to kill one of your friends by accident.
Aelita nodded, she was still not fully convinced, but he was right, it was better to be safe than sorry.