By the time Aurelian left the fabrication yard with Lysara and Astra, the next step was already waiting for him.

He had barely crossed back into the central administrative wing when Astra, who was following next to him, informed him that Seris and Meren had sent word from the bastion.

They had spoken with the awakened population under their oversight and reached an initial result much faster than most ordinary groups would have.

That did not surprise him much. Once awakened minds understood that the choice before them was real, they usually made up their minds quickly.

The long hesitation came before that, when everything still felt uncertain, and no one knew whether the future being offered to them was genuine or just another cage with a cleaner shape.

"Bring them through," Aurelian said as he stepped into the command room.

A few moments later, Seris and Meren appeared on the main display through a stabilized link from the bastion.

They both looked the same as before, but instead, they had an air of tiredness that he could sense from the screen.

Seris spoke first.

"We have an answer from most of them."

"That was quick," Lysara said from one side of the room.

"It helped that there were only two real paths," Meren replied. "Once it became clear they were being allowed to choose, there was less confusion than expected."

Aurelian remained standing in front of the central display, his arms loose at his sides.

"Go on."

Seris gave a slight nod.

"A large group wants to remain in the bastion," she said. "Some of them do not want to leave the only place they have known, even if their lives inside it were incomplete. Others simply believe their skills are more useful there. They are willing to work under your authority, provided the arrangement remains as you described it."

Aurelian accepted that without surprise.

That had always been the more likely outcome for a fair portion of them. People did not leave familiar places easily, not even when those places had once been prisons.

If they had built their habits, relationships, and sense of self inside that place, then asking them to abandon it entirely would feel like asking them to erase part of themselves. He had no reason to force that unless necessity demanded it.

"And the rest?" he asked.

This time, Meren answered.

"They want to come to Larkspur Haven."

At that, Lysara shifted slightly, interested in the reasoning behind it, while Astra just looked at all of this with the same neutral expression.

Meren continued, "Some want to see an open sky. Some want to work somewhere that feels less buried and less sealed. Some simply want to know what your main foothold actually looks like before deciding what kind of future they want. They are willing to work under your rule there as well."

Seris added, "There were a few who were uncertain, but not many. Most of them settled once the two paths were explained clearly."

Overall, it was very close to what Aurelian had expected. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

No major split. No hidden resistance surfacing at the first real decision. No attempt to turn the matter into some symbolic struggle over autonomy.

Just a practical divide between those who wished to stay where they were and those who wanted to see something beyond it.

That was manageable.

"How many in each group?" Aurelian asked.

Meren brought up the figures at once, and Astra placed them alongside local labor projections in the air between them.

The numbers were good enough to matter.

The group remaining in the bastion was large enough to restart a useful amount of internal work if organized properly.

The group willing to come to Larkspur Haven was smaller, but still more than enough to improve oversight in the fabrication yards, orbital repair sectors, and port administration.

It was not a total solution, but it was a ’better than nothing’ kind of situation.

Lysara looked over the numbers and gave a small nod.

"That helps."

"It does," Aurelian said. "And it makes the next problem transportation."

That dimmed the room’s mood slightly, not because anyone disagreed, but because it was true.

Right now, movement between the bastion and Larkspur Haven was still limited. He had ships, but not enough that he could casually leave one assigned to ferry duty while also maintaining local defense and command flexibility.

The problem was not impossible, but it needed to be handled the first time properly, rather than turning into another avoidable pile of inefficiency.

Aurelian looked back at Seris and Meren.

"The group coming here will need to remain in place a little longer," he said. "I’ll arrange transport, but I’m not stripping my own immediate mobility just to move them in one pass."

"We assumed as much," Seris said.

"There is no unrest about waiting," Meren added. "Not after the decision has already been made."

That was one less thing to worry about.

Aurelian let the numbers remain in the air while he thought through the rest. The bastion still needed supervision, and the awakened group remaining there needed structure from the beginning, or they would drift into wasted effort.

At the same time, once the first movement to Larkspur Haven began, someone reliable had to be present on both ends of the route.

Lysara could not be split in half. Astra was not a body he could deploy into every corridor, and he had already learned that trying to handle all of it personally would only cause bottlenecks elsewhere.

And the other ship girls have their own jobs to do and cannot be called in.

Which meant he needed reinforcements from his own side.

More specifically, he needed the right people in the right places, not just whoever happened to be available.

He exhaled slowly and opened the command network.

The connection took hold a moment later, and with it came the familiar strain that always followed distance.

It was manageable, but not pleasant. His rank was still not high enough to make long-range contact feel effortless, and keeping multiple channels open across system distances always left a faint pressure behind his eyes.

Still, it worked.

One by one, the links stabilized.