Chapter 390: Changes While They Were Away
With Lysara’s expedition underway, Aurelian finally had fewer immediate military problems to deal with.
That did not mean he had less work.
It only meant the work had changed.
For the first time since Sanctuary Ardent entered his life, most of the reports reaching him were not about enemy fleets, demolition charges, prisoners, damaged reactors, or people trying to destroy something before he could stop them.
They were about housing.
Food production.
Medical staffing.
Transport schedules.
Repair priorities.
Population registration.
Training.
And all the other things that turned a captured position into somewhere people could actually live.
Aurelian preferred those problems.
They were slower and less exciting, but solving them properly meant fewer emergencies later.
Sanctuary Ardent had changed the most.
The first two hundred people selected from the reserve halls were being awakened in groups of twenty-five instead of all at once.
Doctor Marr had insisted on that pace because every group needed several hours of observation before the next one entered the awakening process.
Vaela supported her completely.
Aurelian did too.
The first group included six doctors, eleven engineers, three teachers, two administrators, and three people who had worked on Sanctuary Ardent’s environmental systems before preservation.
Their arrival helped almost immediately.
One of the engineers recognized a damaged water-control section that the Arcturus repair teams had been treating as an unfamiliar Vhaloric design and explained that it had actually been modified locally before the sanctuary was sealed.
Another found old maintenance schedules for the lower habitation levels.
The teachers began organizing lessons for awakened children, many of whom had become tired of being told not to run through damaged corridors.
Astercourt considered that one of the greatest improvements so far.
"They are someone else’s problem for several hours each day," she said while reviewing the new education schedule.
Aurelian looked at her.
"That is not how I expected you to describe education."
"It is not the official description."
"That is reassuring."
Astercourt continued working without looking up.
The civilian council had also settled into a more useful routine.
The first meetings had been dominated by emergency questions because everyone still expected another Compact attack.
Now that the shield network was recovering and the outer Compact positions were becoming quieter, the council had started discussing what Sanctuary Ardent should become.
Some survivors wanted to remain inside the sanctuary permanently.
Others wanted to move to Larkspur Haven once housing became available.
A smaller group had already asked about Helion Bastion Twelve after hearing that another old Human stronghold existed within the Crownward March.
Aurelian had expected disagreement.
Instead, the council reached a simple conclusion.
Nobody would be forced to stay.
Nobody would be forced to leave.
The sanctuary would remain a protected settlement of the Crownward March while its population recovered, and individual families could decide later whether they wanted homes somewhere else.
That suited Aurelian.
Trying to move eighty-one thousand people into one place would create a disaster.
Spreading them across several developed settlements over time would strengthen the whole March.
Larkspur Haven especially needed people.
The Kharov attack had damaged more than buildings. It had disrupted farms, medical services, manufacturing schedules, and the local workforce.
The Continuity Vault’s agricultural processors and construction frames were already helping, but machines could only do so much.
People were still needed to manage everything afterward.
Elowen sent the latest Haven report that afternoon.
Aurelian opened it in the command center.
The Whiteheart had completed another environmental sweep over the rebuilt agricultural zones.
Contamination from the Kharov biological attack had fallen to safe levels across most of the settlement region, and the new treatment reservoirs were working properly.
More importantly, local food production was increasing again.
"We can stop importing emergency food for the southern settlement block within three weeks," Elowen reported. "The northern farms will take longer."
"How much longer?" Aurelian asked.
"Two months if nothing goes wrong."
Aurelian almost smiled.
"If nothing goes wrong" had become a dangerous phrase around the Crownward March.
Elowen seemed to realize it too.
"I should not have said that."
"No."
"I withdraw the statement."
"That probably helps."
Her expression remained calm, but there was a little amusement in her eyes before the channel ended.
Helion Bastion Twelve was developing in a different direction.
Meridian had finished the first inspection of the captured Compact ships.
Eight were worth keeping intact, just as Eirenne predicted.
Five more could be restored cheaply enough to justify the work.
The rest were being stripped.
Weapons, shield parts, power systems, sensors, and usable armor were removed before the empty hulls were cut apart for material.
Seris and Meren had also begun assigning awakened Helion personnel to training programs for the captured ships.
Aurelian had been careful about that.
He did not want to create a large conventional fleet overnight with barely trained crews.
Instead, the first crews would operate only inside Helion-controlled space.
Patrol work.
Cargo escort.
Local defense.
Nothing beyond that until they proved they could work together safely.
The arrangement had another advantage.
It gave Helion’s awakened population something useful to do beyond restoring ancient machinery.
The moderate machine leadership had handled the bastion well, but the Human population there was still rebuilding its own place inside the facility.
A local defense fleet gave them responsibility without handing them more power than they were ready for.
By the end of the week, the Crownward March finally looked less like several isolated projects.
Neris had reorganized the transport network between Sanctuary Ardent, Larkspur Haven, and Helion Bastion Twelve.
Instead of sending whatever ship happened to be available whenever someone requested supplies, she created fixed cargo schedules.
Medical transport twice a week.
Heavy industrial shipments every five days.
Food and civilian cargo on alternating routes.
Emergency reserve ships remained separate.
It sounded simple.
Apparently it was not.
Neris spent nearly an entire day arguing with three different departments, all wanting priority access to the same heavy transport.
Aurelian found her asleep at a command desk afterward.
He did not wake her.