“Drak! We can't avoid it; they will probably send my old colleagues as well.” Jork leaned back from the screen. The workshop was remarkably clean, and the ship they were working on was almost finished.

“Up to you. If you say no, I will tell them no.” Adam replied, and Musby Jord peeked over from the craft.

“Just get it over with better now when they are in a good mood. You might even get them to strike a deal with you. Start a small shipbuilding company and have him build the ships here. I know a few people you could hire if you think it’s doable.”

They both looked at him, and Adam called him over. “What do you mean?”

“Let's be honest. They want his ship-building abilities. Those old farts in the administration are now thinking about the money they can save if they can buy him off you. They can make him work for as little as possible. So, offer them a deal. They can buy those ships from you, and you will make a profit. With his reputation and the fact that he had a whole workshop to control would ensure high quality. Of course, that means you need more people, and I know a guy who might fix that problem for you. He is a piece of work, though. An old Haran, old being the key part. He has an illegal operation that custom builds smuggling ships, and he knows they are catching up on him. He wants out, but he doesn’t dare sell to the criminals as they would see it as a weakness and just kill him and take it, and no sane person would buy his whole operation of forty mechanics and engineers with a record. So they are sitting targets. My nephew is one of them, and I can vouch for him.”

Adam looked at Jork. “Vorts will kill me.”

“Roks will kill you first, but desperate men tend to be the most loyal if you save them.” He replied.

“I need to think about it,” Adam said as he started to got towards the door.

“Oh, one more thing, they got a human working there.” Musby said and Adam stopped looked at him.

“A Human? Are you sure?” He didn’t believe it. Another human this far out?

“Yeah, she is the bodyguard of the old man. Crazy lady, they say, but good at her job.”

“Okay, one thing at the time. Do we allow the professor to come?” He turned to Jork.

“Yeah, let's get it over with.” He replied.

“Okay, I will contact the lawyers and set up a shop with a delivery point at the hub just to cover our ass. And then about the other guy. I need his name so I can have him checked out. “ Adam replied as he addressed them both.

“The old man is Kor-Nan; he operates out of the Surga Hub, the next stop on the hyperplane, so ten days past our hub.” Musby replied, and Adam thanked him.

”Good, I'm going to let the students know. Expect the professors in a month's time. Let's see how much we can have done with the atmosphere by then.”

Then he left for the office to contact the lawyers. Min-Na had heard of the man. A famous businessman who got caught up in a pirate scandal. They stole his haulers, and he was accused of selling them. By the time he finally proved his innocence, his reputation was destroyed, so he started a workshop for haulers as nobody would trust sending gods with him. He had constantly been accused of working with criminals but never proven. She could check him out and approach him as a representative of a potential seller. Adam permitted her to reveal his species but nothing more, and the whole operation would have to be relocated. He also wanted to know if the rumor of a human was true but to do it discreetly as he didn’t want to come off as a creep.

Then he told the students the good news and allowed them to send the reports. Roks had his man check the messages to prevent the place from being located.

When he finished, he realized he had not much to do for a while. The oxygen problem was fixed, and the large dome was being built. It would be finished within the month, so he also had to start planning that. He sat down at the admin chair and looked at it.

Five kilometres wide, well, time to play city builder. He started the program and gave it the perimeter. Then, he started to play around with the program. Maidy brought him dinner at one time, and he continued to work. He vaguely remembers having the kids around to help him design a school. It had a swimming pool and drone stations, among other things. He continued to work as the kids got all away, and when he looked up, he saw the sunrise. He looked down at the town he had built in the program. The price tag was 5 million, and it had everything. It looked more like a hideaway for the rich and famous than a place for colonists. He saved it for later. He got up and yawned as the kids came up for their drone work.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“What do I pay you guys?” He asked

They looked at each other and then nudged Kywar to answer. “Playtime.”

“We have to fix that.” He yawned as he walked out. “I need to sleep.”

Adam woke up in the evening and checked the reports. In the first attempt to extract nitrogen from Onic, they tried to get a block of 1 cubic kilometer, but it broke up, and the pieces were dragged back to the planet by gravity. So, they were working on adjusting the forcefield. The students were working hard to present all their findings and theories; they had little over a month to prepare. Roks said it seemed like they were getting ready for exams. He was busy drilling his crew for an attack, so Adam picked up Miker and went exploring. They ended up with the farmers. They were initially surprised to see him but became happy when they saw Miker. Adam found their company quite relaxing. They spoke about the plants and fields and how they grew so much better now that they had added the nitrogen and the plans for the coming weeks and months. When he asked them for plant suggestions, they had many suggestions, and he started making a list. The fisherman also had some suggestions for animals, so he spent a few hours discussing the matter with them.

The rescued family was among them, and they were quite happy with their situation. They treated Miker like a prince. He spoke with the parents of the children, and they agreed on a weekly pay of 2 bits, in addition to their playtime for the drone work. As he was leaving them, the oldest girl, Skee Laf, came over and shyly asked her if Jork had a mate, and Adam had to smile. “No, he don’t. God knows he needs one. Anyway, I'll leave you guys alone now. Come Miker, it's bedtime!” He said, and Miker came over and started to climb up to be carried. Skee Laf blushed and nodded as He and Miker went to find Jork. After he dropped off Miker and suggested to Jork to get to know the Buginos family they had rescued. Jork just looked after him at the suggestion. Adam smiled innocently as he left. Jork was young, all, about 30, he would guess.

It took them a week to fix the tractor beam problem. The first square cubic kilometer of Frozen Nitrogen was placed within view of the home base, now named Piridas by the old priest. Adam had completely forgotten that one of the farmers was a priest, but he liked the name. The name apparently meant something like a safe haven. So now he had an address and a title. Administrator of the colony Dirt, in the settlement of Piridas.

But more importantly, he had Nitrogen. They relocated one of the artificial suns to melt it and release the gas. He then went to check on the scans from the kids and called up the students and Skee.

“We have a small ocean, and nobody seemed to tell me?” he asked, showing them 10 million square kilometers of water around the South Pole on the screen. Around the North Pole were five grand lakes ranging from 500 to 5000 square kilometers, not counting the untold number of lakes that had appeared on the planet and rivers.

“You didn’t know?” Mirena replied, and Adam shook his head.

“I have been busy with other things. So we have lakes and oceans. Any life?” He asked and they shook their head.

“Sorry, empty water. And again, the Nitrogen.” Mir-na replied, and Skee Laf agreed.

“Of course, we can jump-start it if you dump some of that nitrogen in those oceans. Then we can take some of that algae soup we have been making and seed it, “ Skee added, and Adam smiled.

“I like the way you think. Okay. Do that. I get two blocks to be inserted into lakes, and you have to find a way to ensure it doesn’t evaporate into the atmosphere. “They looked at each other and then grinned.

“Wait. You take suggestions?” Ced-dry Miga asked, a little confused. Adam chuckled as he rarely heard her confused.

“Yes, I will listen to suggestions; if I like it, I will follow the advice.”

Kinita laughed while he said. “She has not been paying attention. So, I will take her back to the office and let her make her list. She has been getting ready to request equipment from the university.”

“Send it to me first. And maybe we can go shopping.” Adam smiled as they left, then went back to work. After an hour, Roks contacted him to arrange a meeting with one of his pilots.

“So you're saying you can make a long haul to the hub past these systems and then jump into the hyperplane at this point.” Adam pointed at the sector map. “And doing that will make it almost impossible to track us back here,” Adam asked.

“Yes, there are over seven hundred mining operations within five days of each point. So, there are too many potential points of origin. You can sell at this mining hub as well, then go from there to our Hub or to Surga hub; as you see, it’s a triangle hyper lane here due to the many colonies and mining operations. We are opposite this whole mess. There is nothing here, according to most surveys. Just empty planets. You do know the nickname for this sector area, right?” Kunna said as she explained everything.

“No. Actually, I don’t, and I have a feeling I would not have bought this place if I knew.” Adam replied and Roks laughed.

“The Dead Desert,” She replied, and Adam chuckled.

“Jupp didn’t know. So, this is going to be an oasis in the desert. We definitely need better defense because people love those things,” Adam said, then looked at Roks.

“It looks like we are going on a long new trip. We have a few things to sell and maybe something to buy.”