Aria sat in the Co-pilot's chair as she got in touch with Celis Station.
Aria had been doing this for almost 3 months now with most of the operators recognising her and the ship.
Jake had been doing frequent deliveries to the station since he started and it was the perfect training scenario for both Aria and Lyra, who consecutively passed their IS exam 4 months prior.
Jake was not surprised by his elder sister, who could have written the paper long before, however, he was quite impressed by Lyra who by sheer dedication, had passed the exam.
The entire IS Examination Board was in disbelief when they found 2 more prodigies mere months after Jake had passed his.
The 3 geniuses who had suddenly appeared from New Canberra led to a lot of attention from the rest of the GOE closing in on Jake, which he did not like.
With the help of the mayor, who also shared Jake's sentiments they had managed to coax the IS Board to not hold a public ceremony for the two, instead, it was a private affair, with no news covering it either.
Luckily for Jake, both Aria and Lyra had much preferred the new arrangements and happily received their awards, both Elizabeth and Grace could not hold back their tears and the ceremony was much more emotional than Jake's.
Elizabeth was worried as Aria received a lot of extremely good offers which would have required Aria to go off-world for quite some time.
However, both mothers sighed in relief when the two girls had made it clear they were going to join Jake and declined the rest of the offers presented to them.
Jake had easily arranged DTG Licences for both girls and they were easily able to join Jake when he left on his next mission.
Iris was extremely angry and sad as now everyone else would be out of the house and she would be alone.
After hours of fussing and crying, Jake had managed to convince his little sister that he was not abandoning her and he would take the rest of their family too once she had gotten a little older.
He promised her that he would take short trips only and would take everyone else as soon as possible.
It wasn't something Jake had said at the time but he had been planning for it ever since he had a deep conversation with the Atlas a few months prior.
As soon as he was capable, he would take the rest of his family permanently away from Serenitia Prime, after all, there were too many eyes now watching the Planet and with Nexus Corp just a few jumps away, Jake could not take many chances.
Jake made his way to the cargo hold after leaving Aria in charge of the helm.
Jake watched Lyra take final confirmations of the cargo before they arrived at Celis.
(She picked up quickly.) The Atlas complimented Lyra.
'She did, I'm proud of her.' Jake spoke to the Atlas.
(Then you should tell her that. I'm sure she will feel much happier if you say that.)
Jake walked over to Lyra and tapped her shoulders.
Lyra turned around and smiled at Jake. Although they were still young, Lyra had changed a lot alongside Jake. Most of her baby fat was gone, her round face had become much slimmer and Jake could easily see Grace's features appearing on her face.
Her raven black eyes were much more expressive and her long silver hair suited her perfectly.
"Yes, Jake?" Lyra asked as she closed her holopad.
"Nothing much Lyra, just wanted to check if you told the Port Loaders not to touch the reserve compartments." He asked.
"I did, I've also told them that we can only carry 90% of our cargo capacity in case we need a little extra space." Lyra told Jake who was happy she was making smart decisions herself.
"Thank you Lyra, I'm happy to see you adjusting well on the ship. I am proud of you." Jake rubbed the top of Lyra's head, heeding the Atlas's advice.
Lyra, who only wrote the IS exam to be around Jake froze in place, her mind going haywire as a large blush filled her face.
Jake quickly noticed her behaviour became meek and shy, and asked if she was okay.
'Atlas, why is she behaving like this? Did I do something wrong?' Jake asked the Atlas.
(No Jake, it's the opposite, Lyra seeks your attention and care, rubbing her head may have been too much for her, for now. She's just feeling embarrassed so tell her you're going now.) The Atlas spoke.
'Alright, Alright.' Jake heeded the Atlas's words, after all, until he unlocks his other memories, the Atlas would know how to deal with these situations better and he would learn from them as well.
Jake stopped rubbing her head before speaking "Alright Lyra, I'm going to go back upstairs and check on Aria, finish up quickly with the stores and join us okay?" Jake then walked away, leaving Lyra who quickly covered her face after noticing the blush on it.
'Did he notice? No, I don't think he did, otherwise he wouldn't have been so casual. Did he hear my heartbeat, no, no he's not superhuman.' Lyra procrastinated in her head.
So far Jake had been teaching them and his behaviour was the same, however, when she heard him say he was proud of her, she could barely contain her excitement.
'I should ask my mum what I should do.' Lyra thought, only her mother would be able to understand why she felt this way, after all, Jake was her only and best friend for so long and with them living together since they left Naru, he was practically family.
Lyra looked around before walking to the corner of the cargo bay and called her mother.
Jake entered the cockpit and watched Aria who was still on the radio with Celis Station.
He sat down next to her as she finally finished the conversation.
"What happened, everything okay?" Jake asked his sister who looked a little annoyed.
"Ugh, they want us to deliver these supplies to another station a little further away from Celis." Aria explained.
"What, that was not in the contract though?" Jake spoke confused as to why Celis Station would say something, that too so late.
"I don't know either, just that it was mandatory for us to deliver there and we would be paid double." Aria spoke again.
"Double? That's good but what's the problem with them delivering it themselves? Why pay us double if they can just transport it themselves in the system? Anyway, what did you say?"
Aria smiled before saying "Of course I said we would do it."
Jake knew his sister's personality well enough to realise she would not back down from a challenge.
Jake smiled at her back before speaking "Good, where's the station?" Jake asked.
"Not far, it's near Corinne 1, all they said was that it's an observation post for a new mining well." Aria told Jake about the station.
(So they're building one here too.)
'You think it's an SRB base.' Jake asked the Atlas.
(Definitely, this much cargo for an observation post is extremely odd, this should still last them a year without an issue as an SRB Base. It seems they want to go unnoticed before and after the Station goes live.
A smart idea but that means there must be something very important on Celis or in this System to justify two SRB bases this close to each other.)
'If there's any information, I'll try to get it from Marcus the next time we go back.' Jake spoke to the Atlas.
(Good, we will need all the advantages we can get, we cannot have any unknown surprises derailing our objectives. Also, compliment your sister.)
'Why?' Jake asked as the Atlas had changed to a different topic.
(I will tell you later, but do it, if it's beneficial to you.) The Atlas encouraged Jake.
"By the way Aria?" Jake called his sister who gave him her full attention "Hmm?"
"You're doing a great job with the comms and navigations and it's gotten much easier since you joined, Thank you." Jake spoke.
Aria unlike Lyra had a blank expression on her face before making a proud look and speaking "Of course I am, you think your genius big sister would not be able to do simple tasks like this." She spoke in a joking tone and both Jake and her laughed together.
"I mean it sis, thank you." Jake said as he hugged his sister who hugged him back.
Aria had noticed her brother was getting taller and would soon be bigger than her, she smiled inside before wrapping her arms around him tighter 'at least while I still can.' she thought.
"I love you Jake." Aria spoke while she hugged him.
"I love you too, Aria." Jake spoke as Aria felt warmness in her heart.