Star Emperor

Just Like the elf said, around five minutes after he left the droid came in.

-Greetings station masters.

-Do you have materials for trade?

It asked as usual.

After Andrew showed it the list of materials it took a bit longer to calculate their value.

-Added with the materials sent to the ship that will be 116 650 000 credits.

-If you wish to purchase anything, the list of available items was downloaded into your console.

The droid said as usual and left.

-Like I said you get 20 000 000 credits to buy the modules you need or want.

Andrew said looking at Lanarine.

-I have already decided which modules I want to buy.

 She said while inputting her order.

He didn't much care for her choices so he got busy with his order and it was quite big again.

The first thing he bought was the ammunition replenishment for his cannons since they used over 20% of their ammunition, taking out the pirate ship.

After that, he got to buy more modules and most of them were the storage modules which he bought 48 off.

Doubling his storage capacity.

Next on the list were the solar power modules and he got 20 of them this time.

Then he bought a newly developed basic component manufacturing module and the basic medical module.

Finishing his module shopping with two more cannons and five more shield modules.

After that, he bought some more ammunition for his assault rifle and handgun, along with the basic body armor.

Andrew would love to get his hands on some grenades, but for that, he would need to do research.

Sadly there were no new drone blueprints or upgrades available other than the battery upgrade for the drones he was already researching so there was no need to buy it.

Once he was done shopping he still had over 50 million credits left and nothing that he wanted to buy for now.

He thought about buying more research modules, but there was no way for him to supply enough materials for them so he decided to just save up the credits for now.

Lanarine bought all the modules she had previously and added many more, using the 20 million she could spend to the fullest.

Along with the modules she would take when she left, her station would be quite big and equipped with everything she would need to restart her life as a station master.

As usual, the moment they both finished shopping and confirmed the payment, the droid entered with Andrew's items as Lanarine didn't buy any this time.

-The modules you ordered will arrive within the hour.

It said and left.

Andrew took his things and stored them in his armory while waiting for the modules which arrived in less than 15 minutes this time.

-Use the construction drones to assemble your station first.

He said to Lan, the moment the modules materialized right next to his station.

She only nodded and got to work, not wanting to stay there even a moment longer than she had to.

Remembering his expression during and after the skirmish with the pirates she was terrified.

None of her species would look so calm and excited at the same time.

Not wanting to stay close to such a being she just wanted to get out of there and move her station as far away as she could.

It took her an hour to assemble her new station, thanks to the construction drones and it was soon time to move her beginning module as it was the last one to be moved.

She programmed the drones to detach it from Andrew's station in three minutes and then attach it to her own.

Lanarine turned to the human who was busy reading something on the display of the command chair.

-It's done.

She said, getting his attention.

-This is farewell, goodbye.

She said and went to her module as she didn't have much time.

-Goodbye and good luck.

He said before the airlock closed behind her and the modules got separated.

A few minutes later, her module got attached to her new station and she began to transfer the controls to it.

It took a while but the moment she managed to get control of her station and transferred to her beginning module, she used her drones to move the station away.

Andrew watched as the distance between the stations grew and sighed, before returning to his work.

He had no time to waste and as soon as Lanarine started to move her station away, he began to connect the new modules to his.

The task was easy as all he needed to do was select the module on display and move it to the spot he wanted it to be attached to.

He quickly did that and left the rest to the construction drones.

After that, he turned his attention to the scout drones which at that time were scanning the pirate ship.

The hull was riddled with holes left by his weapons and there was a sizable hole near its engines at the aft section of the ship.

The readings didn't show any life signs on board and there was no detectable atmosphere,

The power readings showed that the whole vessel was powered down.

However, the drones detected an organic matter inside, which meant that the crew was comprised of some kind of aliens, or as he realized just now, there were captives on board.

Whatever the case, they were dead now and he could do nothing about it.

After he made sure that the ship was not a danger to him anymore, he ordered the drones to bring it back and park it a few hundred kilometers away from the station.

He had no idea, what he should do with it so he decided to keep it for now.

Once that was done, the merchant ship was also more or less repaired so it left.

Andrew looked at the now empty command center, feeling a bit sad that he made Lan leave.

-It was fun while it lasted.

He said to himself and went to get some rest.

The next day he got to the command center to see the progress in the resource-gathering, and to his delight, the materials required for the next research would be gathered before noon and to add to the good news, the drone's battery upgrade was ready.

Now all he had to do was send them to the drone repair module and all his drones would get the upgrade, as long as he had the materials to produce the parts, which he had.

So without thinking too much, he ordered his scout drones to get upgraded first.

Other than that he added more asteroids to the target list, now that Lan was gone, he used the geological scanner in an automated mode.

It was less accurate than the manual mode, but he didn't have the time to scan asteroids by himself so that was the best he could do.

After setting everything up, he continued with his daily routine, with the difference being that he didn't use the education module and instead, he studied in the command module since he needed to be present in case of an emergency.

Not to mention that the command chair was much more comfortable than the one in the education module.

Before he buried himself in his studies, he also checked on Lanarine's progress of getting further and further from him.

Her station was now around five thousand kilometers away from his.

Andrew quickly did the math and figured out that she was moving at approximately 450 to 500 KPH, which was a snail's pace in space standards, but it made sense when he considered that she was onboard and didn't want to damage her new station or injure herself by going to fast.

-It's not like she doesn't have the time to find a good spot for herself.

He thought and started to go through his study materials, which were getting more and more challenging for him.