Chapter 61 Sudden change of plans.

That day both ladies spent a lot of time in the medical module, talking about everything and they even got themselves scanned.

The results showed some problems, but nothing serious, so they didn't need the regeneration therapy and just an hour or two in the medical capsule did the trick for both of them.

Andrew on the other hand, spent about two hours in the fitness module getting rid of his anger.

After which he went back to the command center and took a look at the neighborhood.

To his surprise, there were even more ships present than before.

He had no idea if it was caused by the elimination of so many of them by him and the merchants, but it was definitely not a good development.

No matter how much he liked the treasures he got from the pirates, there was no way that he could take them all on, with just his station armaments, considering that he saw over 50 ships on the sensors.

They were all dispersed over a 50-lightyear scan range, but if they decided to come after him all at once, then he would be done for.

Right now he could only hope, that they would leave him alone until he subdued all the ladies and could get more railguns along with the stronger shields.

Just as he was thinking about it, the power distribution upgrade, finished being researched, unlocking the tier 2 shield generator module for the research as well as being the first of two researches needed to unlock the railgun module.

Without wasting any time he started to research the tier 2 shield generator module.

Thankfully he had more than enough resources for that.

Andrew also noticed that his gas storage modules were topped off with hydrogen and oxygen.

Unfortunately, the hydrogen generator was not yet fully researched, but it would be in another twenty hours, so he had to wait.

When he was finished, with his work, he decided to test the new education module.

It was not so different from his gaming capsule back on Earth, and the virtual training was almost identical but offered many kinds of training scenarios instead of games.

Remembering that Iliana almost mopped the floor with him, he decided to start with the hand-to-hand combat training which offered dozens of martial arts.

Not knowing which would be the best for him, he decided to go from the top of the alphabetically set list and the first one was the Aikido.

The whole theoretical knowledge of this martial art was downloaded into his brain and after a few minutes of assimilating the new knowledge, the combat simulations started.

One after the other the scenarios played out, increasing difficulty, with each one that he passed.

Sometimes he would need to replay the simulation a few times before he cleared it

But the goal of this simulation was to make him remember what he had learned and teach him practical knowledge about the martial art.

The rest would need to be trained in the real world, to make his body adapt to the new movements and create the muscle memory which would allow him to fight without thinking about it.

The whole course had 200 simulated scenarios, and Andrew cleared 50 of them before he decided to take a break.

When he got out of the capsule, he noticed the time, and it turned out that he spent a few hours inside, not even realizing it.

By that time, both ladies were already sleeping, sharing his old bed.

He also decided to get some sleep and went to the bedroom module.

Andrew's only problem with this place was that he could not get used to sleeping in the gigantic bed alone, he missed Aelita, who would usually snuggle up to him and use him as a pillow and her personal teddybear.

But with any luck, he would only need to endure this for a few more days before she came back.

His only worry was if she would even want to sleep with him after her trauma was taken care of, but there was nothing he could do if she refused so he decided not to dwell on it too much.

The next morning he went to the fitness module as usual, but his workout was interrupted, by Lanarine.

-The fleet commander stopped moving her station, and I can't find a reason for it.

She said.

Andrew told her to keep an eye on the movements of other station masters before and contact him if anything changed.

-I'll be right there.

He said and went straight to the command center.

-Should I contact her to see what's going on?

Lan asked the moment he entered.

-that might be a good idea, whats the status of the others?

He asked.

-Both diplomat and student are still moving towards the station, only the fleet master has stopped.

Andrew thought for a moment.

This was unusual behavior since their communications indicated that they wanted to reach the station as soon as possible.

-Call her, and ask what's going on.

He decided the last thing he needed right now was some kind of a surprise.

Lan also wanted to know what was going on so she contacted the fleet commander immediately.

-Is something wrong?

why did you stop suddenly?

Lanarine asked, a bit worried.

-Nothing is wrong, I just decided to wait for the diplomat and we will arrive together.

The fleet commander answered.

-You could have informed me about it, I was worried that you had some kind of problem.

Lanarine said.

-Sorry about that, didn't think that you would notice.

The other woman said.

-You do know that I'm working on the scans, so I see the data all the time, of course I will notice if you stop.

-Alright, Nothing happened, we will just arrive together, and that's it.

-Alright, but if you change plans again, please inform me.

-I will.

The fleet commander said and disconnected.

-This will be a problem.

Andrew said the moment the connection ended.

-Why would this be a problem?

Lanarine asked.

-Because there is a difference between capturing them one at a time and both of them together.

Let's just hope that they won't want to get docked separately in different parts of the station, or this will really get tricky.

Andrew said, thinking about the best solution for the problem.

He had no idea if any of these two knew martial arts like the doctor, or will they be armed.

With all of this to consider, he had a hard nut to crack.

-If they come to the same part of the station, then that should not be a problem.

You will just need to tase them, like you did with Iliana.

Lanarine said with a shrug.

-Wait, not long ago you wanted me not to hurt them, and now you are proposing that I taser them both?

Andrew was surprised, hearing the proposition that came from Lanarine.

-Iliana scanned herself yesterday, and it showed that other than the pain, this device didn't hurt her at all, so I prefer you use that on them as opposed to shooting them with your weapon.

Lan explained.

The idea made a lot of sense, especially since he had two tasers, at his disposal.

-I'll take it under consideration, but to be honest, I hope that they won't cause any trouble.

Andrew said.

-I also hope that will be the case.

Lanarine sighed.

While he was there he took a look at the research progress and the hydrogen generator was just two hours away from completion.

This made him ecstatic as one of these generators could produce the same amount of power as 20 solar power modules if it was working at full capacity and with his storage of 240 tons of hydrogen, he could use twenty such generators to power the station for at least three months, without any need to restock on fuel.

With nothing else requiring his attention for now he decided to continue with his workout.

Before leaving, he asked Lanarine to have an eye on the sensors, and if there was a ship that was coming their way, to inform him about it immediately.

The last thing he needed right now was another bout with the pirates, but these things tended to happen when he least expected them.

After the workout, he returned to the command center to wait for the research to finish.

In the meantime, he took a look at the resource capacity of the station and discovered that thanks to Lan's work, the cubes were now getting filled much faster.

He had only 15% of the storage capacity left and the cubes were being brought back all the time.

-Andrew, I wanted to ask you about the sub-stations.

Lanarine turned to him.

-What would you like to know?

He asked.

There was no reason to keep it a secret any longer anyway so he could satisfy her curiosity.

-Why did you ask Aelita to say that this was an experiment in progress?

She asked, curious, as it was evident that the idea worked way better than just collecting the resources next to the station.

-I was hoping that you all would want to wait and see if it was beneficial, before copying the idea, and it worked better than I have ever imagined.

He explained.

-Ok but what was the point? and why did you tell her that it would take 20 days to get the results when you clearly had them from the beginning?

Lan asked more precisely.

-The point was, that after the twenty days, I would have been so far ahead of you all, that it would not matter anymore if you copied my idea or not.

He explained.

-So that's what you meant when you told me that we never stood a chance to win against you?

She asked, connecting the dots.

-That's one of the reasons.

With my advantage in resource gathering, research, and firepower, even if we waited until we started building our fleets, I would have my fleet long before any of you, so the result would be similar.

But you ladies got impatient, so the whole thing will be resolved within a week rather than another one or two months.

He explained the situation.

Lan thought about it for a moment and had no choice but to agree with him.

No matter what they did, there was no way they could win this, and certainly not with him intercepting all their communications and knowing all their plans.

While they were talking the research was finished, and Andrew immediately ordered the production of parts to assemble the hydrogen generator module.

With 32 component manufacturing modules on the job he ordered 5 modules to be made, and it would take over 30 hours for the order to be completed and an additional 5 hours to assemble the modules.

After that, he ordered the research of the railgun ammunition production module, which was the last research he needed to unlock the railgun module.

Once he had that, he would not need to worry about lack of ammunition ever again.