Blue Star Enterprises

Over the next week or so, Alexander helped Lucas get the processor manufacturing up to full capacity by adding the three additional manufacturing lines. Two were still going to be producing the older design, while one would be producing the new pseudo-computronics.

With the way the lines were designed, he could easily scale one way or another depending on need, but the need for the best supercomputers he could build wasn't all that great at the moment. It essentially boiled down to new ships and retrofits for existing fleet assets. There was a much greater demand for the older processors, which controlled missiles and their orbital infrastructure.

The missiles were smart enough with the current generation of processors, so he wouldn't be upgrading those. The printers and smelters may get updated at some point, but there wasn't much need to outfit them with more powerful processors at the moment.

Alexander knew it was a bit premature to increase production on those components, but he knew how quickly a fleet went through missiles. The weapons hadn't been effective against the Shican's capital ship, but they were deadly to their fighters, and enough of them might overwhelm even their defensive field.

Despite how much he wanted to get done, Alexander made sure to balance his schedule by spending time with Yulia. The problem was that she was rarely home when he got back to make supper or when he came to make breakfast. He stayed home one night to wait for her, and she came in after midnight.

"Where were you?" he asked.

Yulia had the decency to freeze at being caught.

"I was with my friends," she replied, a bit of annoyance in her tone.

Alexander knew that, because he had checked on her. "You could have asked or left a note."

She muttered something under her breath before heading to her room.

"What was that?" Alexander asked, not catching the girl's quiet words.

She turned around and glared at him, "I said you already knew where I was. What does it matter?"

"It matters because I'm your father," he said.

Yulia threw her hands up in the air and stomped off. "Ugh, I'm going to bed."

Alexander was about to go speak with her, but Dog woofed quietly and pushed past him, plopping himself down in front of her door and staring at him.

He gave the mechanical companion an incredulous look before shaking his avatar and exiting the house. It felt like Yulia was pulling away from him, and her resentment towards him was growing at every turn. He didn't know what to do about it.

When he returned in the morning, Yulia and Dog were both gone again. At least he knew she wasn't skipping classes.

Now that it was a decent hour, Alexander went in search of someone who might be able to shed some light on dealing with a teenager. The books were turning out to be useless, and while Katalynn had been helpful aboard the ship, the way Asgardian children were raised was far different than how he was raising Yulia. They had a sort of community approach, which made a lot of sense given the fact that a large chunk of their population served aboard a ship at some point in their lives.

Serving wasn't a requirement for Asgardians, but it was seen as a duty that they took very seriously. The community approach to raising kids also prevented children from being orphaned, in a sense. It wasn't a perfect system by any means, since kids often got raised by strangers instead of their biological parents, but what system was?

Alexander wasn't looking to poke holes in the Asgardian way of life. He just needed someone who understood a more traditional way of raising a child. The only person he knew who had raised children was Eva Wu. Technically, she had helped raise the Na children, but he got the feeling that she understood the process better than Huang Na. Mingyu's mother would probably be a better source, but Alexander didn't know her very well and felt weird about imposing on someone like that.

The more he thought about it, the more he realized there were a few other people he knew who had raised children. The problem with those was that the children were estranged, either from their work or their own efforts. Not exactly a good track record for parental advice.

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Eva was still his best option.

Alexander found the woman in the security office. She was now the Deputy of Security, a change Theo had implemented during his absence, but not without his blessing. He had seen the woman take charge during a crisis more than once, and if she had been younger, he would have made her the Head of Security over Damien.

He was about to knock on the woman's door when it opened, and Jorvin Morrow stepped out. The man gave a slight squeak of surprise. "Sorry, Mr. Kane. I didn't see you there."

"No need to apologize," Alexander replied before he moved aside and let the bowing man through.

Alexander watched the man leave for a moment. The once loudmouth had become a well-respected official on Eden's End, and Theo wanted to make him the Head of Immigration once they officially established that department. Considering everything Alexander had seen so far, he would definitely put his stamp of approval on that.

"Alex?"

Alexander turned back toward the door and smiled at Eva's surprised yet questioning expression. "Do you have a few minutes?"

She nodded and gestured for him to come in and shut the door.

"Is there some trouble I should know about, or is this a social visit?"

He shook his avatar to quell the woman's concern. "Nothing like that. I was just looking for advice."

"Oh? What sort of advice could an old woman like me provide?"

"Parental," he replied.

"Ah. Yulia's a teenager now, and I assume rebellious, given her nature?"

"I wouldn't say rebellious," Alexander quickly added. "Just… harder to manage? More independent? I'm not really sure. Did you go through something similar with Markus?"

She laughed. "Markus? No. That boy is so fixated on making the most of his life that he never even tries to push the boundaries like most teens. Mingyu, on the other hand, was a handful."

"Mingyu?" Alexander asked in surprise. The former council captain for Petrov Station was many things, but Alexander could never picture him as a handful.

"Oh yes. Don't let his current demeanor fool you. As the oldest son by quite a few years, the boy grew up knowing he would inherit his father's ship and title. It was safe to say he was spoiled, which caused both his father and mother no end of grief, despite their strict upbringing. It wasn't until his father brought him along during mining trips that he started to settle down."

"Was that due to your efforts?" Alexander asked, seeing a new side of his friend that he hadn't seen before.

Eva shook her head. "I was certainly strict with him and didn't let any of his antics slide, but it was mostly his efforts that eventually changed how he viewed things."

"How? And can I apply those same lessons to Yulia?"

"He simply learned from his mistakes. The thing you need to know about teenagers, Alex, is that they're trying to figure out who they are. The only way to do that is to screw up, over and over, and over again. It's not your job as a parent to hold their hands and stop that from happening. It's your job to ensure those mistakes are small and manageable enough that they become a learning exercise instead of something life-ruining. It's a hard line to walk."

Alexander frowned. "That's not exactly the advice I was hoping to hear. I was hoping to hear something that would bring my old Yulia back."

"I'm afraid those days are gone," Eva replied. "But don't lose faith. The old Yulia is still in there; you just have to give her time and space to figure things out. Be there for her, but don't smother her."

Somewhere deep down, Alexander suspected he already knew that. He just didn't want to acknowledge the fact that his little girl was growing up and becoming her own person, with her own dreams and desires.

He thanked Eva for her advice and headed off to work. When he arrived home in the evening, he found Yulia waiting for him. He had messaged Sarah's parents and asked them to send her home early.

Yulia looked upset, but she was also engrossed with something on her printer.

He made a noise to get her attention.

"Can we talk for a moment?" he asked, gesturing to the couch, which had been changed out for a normal-sized one during their absence.

He would have to thank Theo for that.

Yulia shrugged and plopped on the couch, and Dog came over to stare at him as he moved into a protective position nearby.

"When did you figure out I was using Dog to keep tabs on you?"

A flash of anger crossed Yulia's face, but she quickly suppressed it. "Before we left."

Alexander nodded his avatar and handed her a tablet.

She looked confused, but took it anyway. "What's this?"

"That's the monitoring program. If you click yes, it'll erase the program from Dog's interface, and I'll promise never to add any other programs to him without your consent."

"You could just track me through other means," she said, dropping the tablet to her lap.

Alexander never regretted teaching Yulia science and engineering, but her knowledge certainly made it more difficult to prove he was giving her space to be herself.

"That'll be true for any place on Eden's End. I can't do anything to turn off security features, but I'll agree not to access them if you agree to notify me if you have plans. Does that sound fair?"

"I want to be able to go outside the facility and ride my dune buggy whenever I want."

Alexander shook his avatar. "Not without adult supervision."

He might be willing to reduce his surveillance, but he wasn't willing to go that far.

"Any adult?" she asked hopefully.

Somehow, Alexander got the feeling she would try to abuse this little concession, but he had offered, so now he had to either commit or turn around and deny her. He knew if he denied her, she would probably find a way to do it anyway.

"Any registered adult. You will also be restricted to within a few miles of the facility, and you have to notify the security office of your destination before going outside. Think of it as mission planning."

Yulia frowned at that, but she paused to think about it for a bit before nodding. "Deal," she said, pressing the yes button on the tablet.

Dog barked, but Alexander couldn't tell if it was in approval or if the robotic companion thought he was being stupid. Time would tell.