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

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

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

“Nu-uh,” she replied unconvincingly.

He chuckled once more but he didn’t increase his pace. The play had been Nancy’s idea. She was the Head of Learning for the Eden’s End Council. The woman had approached Alexander about the idea a week after the last 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 costumes. Yulia didn’t know that though, so she thought she was going to be extra special in her costume.

As they arrived in the atrium, 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 large 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 even then it couldn’t be all the parents.

He knew the drifters were a pragmatic lot, but he thought for sure they would have taken the time to watch their kids perform. While some had, it seemed he still had a long way to go to change their minds.

Alexander stood in the back and watched the kids perform. He had no clue what the play was about as he wanted to be surprised, but the content didn’t much matter. This was more of a chance for the kids to express themselves and have some fun, while also helping them forget the dangers out there.

The older kids seemed less enthusiastic about the play than the younger kids, but Alexander clapped when their part of the play was over. The large backdrop made of flexible plastic that the kids had drawn scenes on rotated to the next one. It appeared to be the inside of a ship with stars outside large windows.

Yulia strode onto the stage, doing her best to look regal 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 continued, he realized they were doing a play about the start of the Great Expansion. She only had a few speaking lines and soon the scene changed to a planet. Her group hurried off the stage to the applause of the parents as the next group of kids took their place. One boy planted a flag and declared the new world to be Borrus.

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

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

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

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

“Ok!” she exclaimed as she ran over to Sarah and Claire.

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

That was fine, at least people weren’t overtly hostile or completely dismissive anymore.

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

“You said you wanted to discuss something after the play?” 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 wanted to establish an academy of sorts. It would be to offer advanced training in engineering, sciences, and starship operation.” He had planned on waiting a few years to implement his academy idea, but he was running into a shortage of skilled workers and people capable of operating spaceships.

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The woman looked pensive at 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 anyone to accept the offer.”

He was aware of the drifter's general dislike of open conflict after getting to know them a bit more. It's why some chose to leave STO space. Not all of them mind you, but a good chunk just wanted someplace away from all the politics and violence. It 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 shortsighted. If they ever wanted to set down roots, they needed to show people they couldn’t be pushed around. Alexander was hoping to change that attitude, but he knew it would take time.

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

Nancy sighed. “It’s your facility, Alex, and you can do with it what you want, but I think it’s a mistake. First off, I don’t know anything about engineering, science, 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 plan is to have a crew for those ships in space.”

“That is one of my goals, yes, but I don’t expect to see any results 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 teaching experience, I hoped you would be willing to design a basic curriculum plan. Nothing concrete, but something we can use as a starting point.”

While she still seemed skeptical, she stopped to think about his proposition. “I suppose that’s something I can do. It’s going to be a rather vague outline though since I’m not an expert. You have that scientist 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 combat. If that’s fine with you, then I’ll see what I can do.”

“Understandable,” Alexander replied. “I’m good with those terms. As for Dr. Lund, you’re free to ask.” He hadn’t been planning 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 man retired 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.

Alexander thanked Nancy for accepting the offer and left the atrium. His jovial mood didn’t last long as he spotted one of the STO survivors. The man was staring at him with a scowl. It was the Marine, the 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 revelation was though. It seemed Krieger had already figured that part out. Knowing things like this ahead of time was important and Alexander was glad he was recording their conversations. While he hoped they would behave themselves, he had been burned one too many times by things coming out of the STO. It was safer to keep them under surveillance.

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

While their actions were annoying, they hadn’t stepped out of line or attempted anything, which is why Alexander allowed them to continue their 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 space infrastructure 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 refueling depot looked like a cobbled-together mess of ships stuck onto each other. Three of the six ships were in salvageable condition. All of which just so happened to be more frigates. They were renamed Eden’s Resolve, Eden’s Might, and Eden’s Revenge. He probably wouldn’t stick with that naming convention 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 malfunctioning 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 efficient 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 managed to save the fusion activation sequence, but that was about all that he was able to recover off that ship. Alexander was already working on designing a new gunship for the boy. Considering it would be at least four years before Markus was qualified to captain a vessel, Alexander had time.

The laser array had also finished the first two layers around the planet with another two layers, in a much higher orbit, planned. That meant there were two hundred and fifty-six weapon systems up and running. Individually they were weak, but they were also extremely cheap and quick to make. Any pirate fleets dumb enough to attack Eden’s End now would be in for a world of hurt especially since Lucas had completed his multilink program.

Speaking of his resident computer 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 done with their defenses though. He already had plans to put just as many laser satellites around the nearest moon. That would need to wait until he could build a new control ship though. The nearest moon was far enough away that radio lag would make trying to target anything frustrating at best. He hoped the control ship would resolve that issue. Alexander was not taking any chances for a repeat of the last 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 back on track.