Alexander walked down the hallway, Yulia leading the way as she held his hand.

  “Urgh, hurry up, Alex, we’re going to be te!” she pined.

  He just chuckled. “We’re fihe py doesn’t start for another half an hour. And you’re already in your e. I think you just want to arrive early to show it off to all your friends.”

  “Nu-uh,” she replied unvingly.

  He chuckled once more but he didn’t increase his pace. The py had been Nancy’s idea. She was the Head of Learning for the Eden’s End cil. The woman had approached Alexander about the idea a week after the st attack as a way to get the children’s minds off the close call. He wholeheartedly approved of the endeavor and had even offered to make the es. Yulia didn’t know that though, so she thought she was going to be extra special in her e.

  As they arrived irium, Yulia looked surprised to see all the kids dressed in fancy outfits. Instead of seeming upset by it, she beamed in joy, hugged Alex’s waist, and hurried over to chat with her friends.

  When Alexander looked around the rge open space, he frowned internally. From what Nancy told him, she had invited quite a few people but the chairs that were set up seemed to be rather empty. It looked like only the parents of students here, and eve couldn’t be all the parents.

  He khe drifters were a pragmatic lot, but he thought for sure they would have takeime to watch their kids perform. While some had, it seemed he still had a long way to go to ge their minds.

  Alexaood in the bad watched the kids perform. He had no clue what the py was about as he wao be surprised, but the tent didn’t much matter. This was more of a ce for the kids to express themselves and have some fun, while also helping them fet the dangers out there.

  The older kids seemed less enthusiastic about the py than the younger kids, but Alexander cpped when their part of the py was over. The rge baade of flexible pstic that the kids had drawn ses on rotated to the o appeared to be the inside of a ship with stars outside rge windows.

  Yulia strode onto the stage, doing her best to lal in her “captain” outfit. That image was ruined slightly when she waved at Alexander, but she still looked adorable. He waved back, earning some quiet chuckles from the other parents. He wasn’t the first parent to have a kid wave at them.

  “A new frontier!” she stated loudly and pointed while the rest of her age group chorussed the line.

  As the dialog tinued, he realized they were doing a py about the start of the Great Expansion. She only had a few speaking lines and soon the se ged to a p. Her group hurried off the stage to the appuse of the parents as the group of kids took their pce. One boy pnted a fg and decred the new world to be Borrus.

  Alexander knew Borrus was one of the core worlds, but he doubted it was the first world humanity ized or even visited sidering there were closer options.

  The py went on for another hour as the kids rotated through their roles. It was eaining and the kids seemed to love it so that was all that mattered as far as he was ed.

  “Alex! Alex! we do that again?” Yulia asked, hopping up and down iement.

  He smiled and tussled her hair. “In a few months, maybe. How about you run along with your friends a out of those outfits, then you go py.”

  “Ok!” she excimed as she rao Sarah and Cire.

  “What did you think?” Nancy asked as she approached him tentatively. Like most of the people on Eden’s End, she was still uain about him.

  That was fi least people weren’t overtly hostile or pletely dismissive anymore.

  “I e. I’m pretty sure the kids e more though. It was a wonderful idea.” The slightly older woman beamed at the praise.

  “You said you wao discuss something after the py?” she asked after reigning in her delight.

  “I did. I want to establish a school on Eden’s End.”

  She looked at him funny. “But we already have a school.”

  Alexander shook his avatar head. “Not like the school for kids. I wao establish an academy of sorts. It would be to offer advaraining in engineering, sces, and starship operation.” He had pnned on waiting a few years to implement his academy idea, but he was running into a she of skilled workers and people capable of operating spaceships.

  The woman looked pe that. “I don’t know, Alex. While your learning modules help, most of the people… the drifters, won’t want anything to do with those types of things. You might find it hard to get ao accept the offer.”

  He was aware of the drifter's general dislike of open flict after getting to know them a bit more. It's why some chose to leave STO spaot all of them mind you, but a good k just wanted somepce away from all the politid viole wasn’t that they were cowards, if they were, they would have simply rolled over for the pirates. They were willing to defend what was theirs, they simply didn’t want to get dragged into a fight that wasn’t.

  Alexander could respect that, even if he thought it was rather shhted. If they ever wao set down roots, they o show people they couldn’t be pushed around. Alexander was hoping to ge that attitude, but he k would take time.

  “I’m aware of the issues, but I still wish to do it. This academy would be avaible for kids sixteen and older and any adult who wishes to attend. There will be minimum requirements that they o meet, but I don’t see any issues for most of the people here.”

  Nancy sighed. “It’s your facility, Alex, and you do with it what you want, but I think it’s a mistake. First off, I don’t know anything about engineering, sce, or starship operation so my expertise would be minimal. And your learning modules, while vast, do not cover some of those subjects, specifically starship operations. At best, we could train engineers. I’m assuming that won’t cut it if your pn is to have a crew for those ships in space.”

  “That is one of my goals, yes, but I don’t expect to see as on that front for quite some time.”

  “Then what do you need me for?”

  “Since you are one of the few people on Eden’s End with teag experience, I hoped you would be willing to design a basic curriculum pn. Nothing crete, but something we use as a starting point.”

  While she still seemed skeptical, she stopped to think about his proposition. “I suppose that’s something I do. It’s going to be a rather vague outlihough since I’m not an expert. You have that stist friend of yours, right? Maybe she would be willing to help me? You’re also going to have to find someone else to run this academy of yours. I don’t want to be responsible for training people who might see bat. If that’s fih you, then I’ll see what I do.”

  “Uandable,” Alexander replied. “I’m good with those terms. As for Dr. Lund, you’re free to ask.” He hadn’t been pnning on asking the impromptu teacher to run the academy. This just made it so he didn’t have to hurt the woman’s feelings.

  He was hoping that Captain Matthews would agree to take on the role. That assumed the maired as he had mentioned. Alexander wasn’t willing to actively poach the man from the Hawks, not after they went above and beyond to save Eden’s End from pirates.

  Alexahanked Nancy for accepting the offer ahe atrium. His jovial mood didn’t st long as he spotted one of the STO survivors. The man was staring at him with a scowl. It was the Marihe one he had been forced to subdue during their rescue.

  The Marine had already told Captain Krieger about what happened aboard the ship, which wasn’t a surprise. The fact that Krieger hadn’t seemed surprised by the revetion was though. It seemed Krieger had already figured that part out. Knowing things like this ahead of time was important and Alexander was gd he was rec their versations. While he hoped they would behave themselves, he had been burned ooo many times by things ing out of the STO. It was safer to keep them under surveilnce.

  He ighe scowling Marine as he strode by. Alexander had done a pretty good job of pletely avoiding any of the other STO people as they “got their bearings” as Krieger put it. He khe man and his people were scouting the facility and looking for a way off Eden’s End. Alexander couldn’t bme them. He wahem gooo. It had been two months siheir rescue and their presence was starting to get on his nerves.

  While their as were annoying, they hadn’t stepped out of line or attempted anything, which is why Alexander allowed them to tiheir activities. It kept them occupied and out of trouble. It did slow down his work on the surface a bit since he didn’t want them stumbling upon his engine work but that was fine. He just focused his efforts on his spafrastructure and the salvage operations, both of which were humming along nicely.

  All of the pirate ships had been brought back to the station, and the poor refueli looked like a cobbled-together mess of ships stuto each other. Three of the six ships were in salvageable dition. All of which just so happeo be more frigates. They were renamed Eden’s Resolve, Eden’s Might, and Eden’s Revenge. He probably wouldn’t stick with that naming vention going forward, but it seemed fitting when it came to the defeated pirate ships.

  The other six ships were dismantled and fed into the still malfuning smelter, which he had to fly up and repair about once a week. Even with the additional maintenance requirements, the smelter was still faster and more effit than the refinery. He also fed the gunboats to the smelter. The one he earmarked for Markus wasn’t in any shape to get repaired.

  He mao save the fusion activation sequence, but that was about all that he was able to recover off that ship. Alexander was already w on designing a new gunship for the boy. sidering it would be at least four years before Markus was qualified to captain a vessel, Alexander had time.

  The ser array had also fihe first two yers around the p with awo yers, in a much higher orbit, phat meant there were two hundred and fifty-six on systems up and running. Individually they were weak, but they were also extremely cheap and quiake. Any pirate fleets dumb enough to attack Eden’s End now would be in for a world of hurt especially since Lucas had pleted his multilink program.

  Speaking of his resident puter programmer, they also had his eyes across the system now, thanks to Captain Na agreeing to deploy their asteroid cameras. Now there was no worry that someone would be able to sneak in anymore.

  Alexander wasn’t doh their defehough. He already had pns to put just as many ser satellites around the moon. That would o wait until he could build a new trol ship though. The moon was far enough away that radio g would make trying tet anything frustrating at best. He hoped the trol ship would resolve that issue. Alexander was not taking any ces for a repeat of the st two attacks. This time he was making sure he had enough redundant defences so his other work wasn’t interrupted.

  With these measures, he finally felt like he had some breathing room to get his other projects ba track.