While cautiously approaching the refinery, we signaled the crew a few times to let them know that we intended to dock and refuel. The atmospheric interference was clearing off as we were approaching, so our transmissions were fully intelligible more often than not.
However, having only four docking ports, the station could not serve even one half of the fleet at the same time, so ships had to wait in a queue to get refueled. Ships with lowest percentage of propellants had priority, of course.
Finally, it was Lodos' turn to dock. A mining ship left the station before Mei got us closer. She aligned the docking ports perfectly and with a soft touch, we were coupled. The umbilical lines were connected and refueling operations began. The station's commander, right then, indicated his interest in getting aboard our ship - and with little thought, I accepted. The airlocks were opened, and the station commander came aboard.
"Welcome aboard, commander." I greeted him with the professor by my side.
"Thank you." he said. "It is great, I- I- I can not express how much great it is, to have fully operational battle cruisers covering up our sky. When we got the news of the apocalypse, and you know how hard it is to get the news all the way out to Neptune clearly, we thought we were doomed for eternity. And yet, hoping that someone would find us, someone friendly, we kept working. For a long time, no ships visited us - no regular transport missions, no peacekeeping missions to check on us, nothing! You, commander, you are a blessing!"
I had to stop the commander's highly enthusiastic speech.
"We share the same thoughts; and just so you know, if we didn't find your station, it would be us who would've been doomed... but we are in a little bit of a rush here, so let's continue our conversation on the bridge."
"Oh, yes... p-please." he said.
On our return to the bridge, Mei greeted the new passenger her own way, by simply glaring at our general position with the corner of her eye, accompanied by a small nod.
"So..." I said. "Commander, I am sure you would've been very useful by extracting fuel here, but, uh... Unfortunately, we have multiple reasons to believe that Neptune system is the AI hivemind's next target. Quite frankly, we are in no position to defend the facilities here against even a single enemy fleet; so we have to ask you to evacuate your station. The Fleet is willing to assist your crew with the ships that are already in air, but if you have your own ships, using those would be preferable."
"You want me to abandon this station?" the station commander asked. "Sir, I understand your reasoning, but this station is too valuable of an asset to simply leave. Not only has it been expensive to construct, its strategic value is undeniable."
"Neither the station nor the crew will be useful once the Neptune system is attacked." Professor Yamamari supported me. "Even if you somehow survived, either by hiding or running, no ships could use the station for refueling anyway."
"And if you didn't intend to get off, why come aboard Lodos?" I changed the subject a little.
"Lodos? You mean Norilsk?" he asked. "I just wanted to take a look, honestly. Not a lot of Russian ships survived."
"Not a lot of ships survived at all." I said. "This was an Alliance station, wasn't it? I take it... you are Russian?"
"Russian? If ethnicity matters, yes, I am Russian." he said. "However, I doubt nationality is still something relevant. Nation-states were things of the past now, and so is nationality. We are just homo sapiens, the kind of life forms with the highest mess-everything-up potential in the nature."
"It is hard to argue with such an assessment." I said.
"Either way, we strongly urge you to evacuate the station." Professor Yamamari tried to get the conversation on track. "The expertise of your crew could be useful aboard our warships. We need good engineers to force our ships to fight fleets greater than ours."
"I will consider it." the commander said.
"We don't have much time." I reminded him. "It is either you are evacuating now, or you are not evacuating."
"How much of a strength do we have, in firepower?" he asked.
"This fleet, and three more warships." I said. "If they are still in good shape, we have some facilities on the dwarf planet Makemake. That's all. We are yet to encounter any other survivors of the massacre."
"I see." said the station commander. "Let me get back to the station and make some preparations."
"So, you are evacuating?" I asked.
"I am." he replied. "I am... evacuating the station. We do not have ships of our own though, so we will trust you with the transportation of our crew."
"Very well, commander." I said.
"And thank you." added the professor.
Mei's reaction was a barely noticeable smile, which only I saw.
The station commander walked to the airlocks and went back to the station. After a while, some of the station's crew came aboard Lodos, mostly consisting of engineers. They were quickly organized and given jobs by the two previous engineers we had, Omar and George. With those new hands aboard, the ship had much better combat potential.
"Refueling is almost complete." Mei reported. "There. Checking stability... Detaching umbilicals."
We could hear the propellant transfer connections being removed.
"Sealing airlocks, preparing for undocking..."
The airlock doors were closed and the intermediate section was pressurized for final air-leak checks.
"All good, we are good to go."
The docking clamps were retracted, and Lodos was set free. Mei, using small thruster bursts, navigated us safely away from the station. The Fleet was to rendezvous in low Neptune orbit, so Mei started making her calculations.
Just then, we heard a knock on the bridge's doors. It was the station's commander - he was among those engineers who came aboard Lodos.
"Great to see you again." I said. "Sorry about your station, but sometimes-"
"No, I understand, I have no regrets." he said. "You are right, it would be no use staying there."
"I'm glad." said the professor.
"Oh, but the station still has some propellant reserves left." the commander said. "You know, the good stuff; unstable, hard to store, and highly explosive. The kind of stuff that spontaneously combusts on contact with an oxidizer at certain temperatures. Rocket fuel, essentially."
"Are you trying to... imply something, commander?" I asked.
"The station is set to orbit Neptune instead of falling into the planet, on auto-stationkeeping." he said. "But if some AI driven vessel comes too close, I will have a good surprise waiting for them."
"Hmm." the professor said. "I assume a spectacular-explosion type of surprise."
"Exactly."