Chapter 406: Survey World M-17

For the next two days, Annex Seven became an engineering problem instead of a military one.

Aurelian preferred it that way.

The station remained under Lysara’s temporary command while Selvarin and Veylora worked through the old systems with her.

None of them tried to restore everything at once. The outer sections were too damaged, and there was no reason to waste materials making empty corridors look better when the strategic systems mattered far more.

The first priority was the long-range relay.

Meridian could not reach Annex Seven quickly, but she did not need to travel there immediately.

Lysara’s expedition carried enough maintenance drones to inspect the relay while Meridian guided them remotely from Helion Bastion Twelve.

The communication delay through Mournveil slowed the work.

It still worked.

By the end of the first day, Meridian had identified the worst problems.

Two burned power regulators.

A damaged transmission spine.

Three failed cooling systems.

One completely useless emitter.

The rest could be repaired with parts Annex Seven already had in storage.

Aurelian looked over the report with Eirenne.

"So we do not need to send half of Helion’s engineering stock into Mournveil."

"No," Eirenne said. "Meridian estimates the relay can reach limited operation using existing station material."

"Limited meaning?"

"Enough to establish one stable high-capacity connection between Annex Seven and Helion."

That was exactly where they needed to start.

Once Helion could communicate properly with Annex Seven, extending the network toward Sanctuary Ardent would become much easier.

Aurelian approved the work.

The Adaptive Strategic Cognition Matrix remained untouched.

Eirenne had inspected its basic architecture and confirmed that it was still functioning, but she refused to connect herself directly until Meridian could inspect the physical systems more carefully.

Aurelian agreed.

That meant there was nothing else for him to do there personally.

For once, finding something valuable did not immediately require him to cross half the frontier and stand beside it.

He left Annex Seven to Lysara.

She seemed perfectly comfortable with that.

Rhoswen was less happy.

"So she gets an ancient strategic station."

"She gets responsibility for an ancient strategic station," Aurelian corrected.

"That sounds like the same thing with worse advertising."

"It has missing sections, damaged relays, unstable power systems, and machines that spent centuries dismantling ships."

Rhoswen considered that.

"Still interesting."

Astra looked at her.

"You would become bored with the repairs within a day."

"Probably."

That ended the argument.

Aurelian turned back toward the Crownward logistics display.

With Annex Seven secured, another problem had become easier to see.

Neris was overloaded.

Not physically.

Logistically.

She had been managing fleet supply since the early days of the Crownward March, when the territory was much smaller, and most operations revolved around a few ships moving between known locations.

That was no longer the situation.

Sanctuary Ardent needed regular medical deliveries.

Larkspur Haven was rebuilding and increasing food production.

Helion Bastion Twelve was manufacturing parts, repairing captured ships, and supporting Mournveil patrols.

The neutral stations had started trading through Crownward routes.

The protected station added another destination.

Survey World M-17 needed equipment.

And now Annex Seven sat deep inside Mournveil, far enough away that every supply run required careful planning.

Neris could manage it.

The problem was how much time she had to spend doing so.

Aurelian opened a channel to her.

She answered from one of the logistics offices at Sanctuary Ardent.

Her hair was slightly messy, and there was a cup beside her that looked as though it had been sitting untouched for hours.

"Commander."

"Busy?"

Neris looked at the wall of transport schedules beside her.

"A little."

That meant very busy.

Aurelian knew her well enough by now.

"How bad?"

"Not bad."

"Neris."

She sighed.

"Manageable."

"That is not what I asked."

She looked at another display before answering.

"Too many routes are still being planned individually. It was fine when we had fewer destinations, but now I keep adjusting one convoy because another changed, then that affects fuel planning somewhere else."

"Can Eirenne help?"

"She already does."

Eirenne appeared beside Aurelian.

"I can calculate the routes. Neris still has to decide priorities, emergency reserves, cargo grouping, and which delays are acceptable."

Aurelian understood.

More processing power would help Eirenne once Annex Seven came online.

That did not solve Neris’s side of the problem.

"Come to the command room when you finish your current schedule."

Neris looked suspicious.

"Why?"

"Because I want to talk about your role."

That got her attention.

"I am not being replaced."

"No."

"Good."

Aurelian almost smiled.

"Come when you’re free."

"I’ll be there in twenty minutes."

She arrived in eighteen.

Neris sat across from Aurelian while Astra remained near the main display. Eirenne brought up several records from Helion Bastion Twelve.

Among the equipment recovered from the old Vhaloric archives were designs for specialized fleet-support modifications.

Most were useless to them.

A few were not.

One design had originally been developed for long-range logistics vessels attached to strategic command groups.

It increased cargo coordination, improved fleet resupply control, and added heavier automated transfer systems that allowed the support ship to move fuel, ammunition, and repair supplies between several vessels at once.

More importantly, Meridian believed parts of the design could be adapted to Neris’s ship.

Neris read through the summary.

"This would be a large refit."

"Yes," Aurelian said.

"How long?"

"Meridian estimates twelve days for the first stage."

Neris frowned slightly.

"That is a long time to remove me from transport duty."

"Which is why I’m asking, not ordering."

She looked up.

Aurelian continued.

"Your current ship can still do the work. The question is whether you want to keep doing it with the same limits."

Neris looked back toward the design.

Her upgraded engine from Halcyon Vault had already solved one of her old problems. She could now keep pace with more of the fleet instead of arriving behind everyone whenever the formation moved quickly.

But speed was only one part of logistics.

The Crownward March had outgrown the simple system she had started with.

"I could manage more ships with this," she said.

"Yes."

"How many more?"

Eirenne answered.

"Hard to estimate because the design needs adaptation, but Meridian expects your direct resupply capacity to increase by at least forty percent. Automated cargo transfer would improve more than that."

Neris became noticeably more interested.

Aurelian saw it immediately.

"You want it."

"I want to read the full engineering report."

"That sounds like yes."

"It sounds like I want to read the report."

Astra glanced toward Aurelian.

"She sounds like you."

Neris looked between them.

"I am going to pretend I did not hear that."

Aurelian sent her the full file.

"There is no rush. Finish the current transport cycle first. If you want the refit, Helion can start preparing the dock."

Neris nodded.

"I probably want it."

"Probably?"

"I want it."

That was more direct.

Aurelian approved the preparation order.

The conversation did not end there.

Neris had another request.

"If I take the refit, I want a permanent logistics group."

Aurelian leaned back slightly.

"What kind?"

"Two cargo ships, one fuel carrier, one repair tender, and proper escort."

"That is more than a refit."

"I know."

"You planned this."

Neris took a slow drink from the cup she had brought with her.

"Maybe."

Astra looked almost amused.

Aurelian opened the available ship list.

They had enough captured Compact hulls to support the request without taking anything important away from combat operations.

Two cargo vessels were already waiting at Helion. A repair tender could be rebuilt from one of the captured support ships.

The escort was the only question.

"One destroyer and two patrol ships," he said.

Neris thought for a moment.

"Two destroyers."

"One."

"One destroyer and three patrol ships."

Aurelian looked at her.

"You have been talking to Rhoswen."

"No."

Rhoswen’s voice suddenly came through the open command channel.

"I support her."

Aurelian turned toward Eirenne.

"Why is she on this channel?"

"She joined when Neris requested escorts."

Rhoswen continued.

"Give her two destroyers."

"No."

Neris looked toward the display.

"One destroyer and three patrol ships is reasonable."

Aurelian considered it.

The routes through Mournveil were dangerous enough that a logistics group should not depend entirely on speed and secrecy.

Losing a supply convoy deep inside the nebula would be far more expensive than assigning another patrol vessel.

"Fine."

Neris nodded.

"Good."

Rhoswen sounded pleased.

"I helped."

"You did not," Aurelian said.

"I clearly did."

The channel ended before she could argue further.

Neris left with the refit plan and enough work to keep her occupied for another week.

Aurelian spent the rest of the morning clearing smaller decisions.

The first protected station had completed its security integration without major problems.

The civilian administration remained in place.

Crownward patrol codes were added to the station’s defense network.

No Compact military support was allowed through.

Trade continued normally.

That arrangement attracted attention from the other neutral stations, but Aurelian still refused to rush new agreements.

Astercourt supported him.

Barely.

"They will keep asking."

"They can ask."

"You realize that every one of these stations is trying to understand whether joining early gives them better terms."