Brent stopped to look at the updated specifications on her computer pad. He took a while to move through the more advanced computer that she had but finally nodded with a smile. "It would be well worth it for the added performance. Also we have now a place to use to repair the higher technology equipment if we get in trouble. It would be nice to have more acceleration but that just means we need to be more careful and make use of our improved sensors and electronics to stay away from bad guys." He gave her a big hug and kiss. "Amazing job! I think we should get on it right away. It does look like we may need a couple more engineering crew."

"The runabout has an AI, which we could also employ," Joxe says. "That way, we don't need more crew."

Brent nodded and smiled. "I would much rather work with you than get tangled up in the affairs of the mighty. I think there is a lot we can still do here and at Egg but there is also a lot of unknown territory and your family to discover."

Joxe excitedly led the way back to where Edak and the others were conferring about the system support ship. "We'd like to upgrade Wanderer so that we can quickly bring more people here."

After a brief owners' meeting, Edak addressed the group. "The shipyard will start refurbishing  the trader, which will take no more than two weeks. In the meantime, you may attend training sessions for the Imperial technology aboard all of the ships. Even with the refurbishment, this facility can still produce ten thousand displacement tons of shipping with the resources and supplies we have on hand. Is there anything else we should start building?"

Radshir looked around the room. "Any suggestions? New ships will take anywhere from a few months to a year or more to complete, depending on the ship's size." She shrugs. "Also, we will need to train crews for them, which will take just as long."

"Advanced training will be good, thank you." Brent nodded. "Does the shipyard have intrinsic defenses? One thing we might do is build a few small system defense boats both for defense here as well as some of the other worlds with which we may ally. If nothing else these vessels will work good for training the crews we will need."

"Any of those craft we build would only be useful against small ships," Edak says. "We do not have defenses, simply because they are ineffective against warships. We had the Navy to protect us, and we were fortunately able to hide from the enemy units."

" My thought is that the smaller vessels to be used to defend some of the less-developed worlds we have found. Also, I don't expect to encounter large naval vessels anymore. A 500 or 1000 ton defense boat should be able to handle most anything running around."

Radshir nodded. "Maybe we can build two or three smaller ones, and one bigger one?"

Brent nodded. "I would start small for certain. Anything smaller than 500 tons would be ineffective in my opinion. I would also build at a lower technological level to make training crews and field repairs easier. We are going to be limited in crews even when we get help from Egg. They are only used to technological level 9 and will require training to use even what would be considered lower Imperial technology. I can personally attest to the difficulties adjusting to the higher technology equipment aboard the Wanderer."

Radshir and Joxe conferred for a few moments. "I think we can build the system defense boats to Imperial tech for use here, since the shipyard is here," Joxe says at length. "It lets us use smaller hulls for the same capabilities. The holographic controls should be easier to learn than the older systems. I think."

"Here's two designs to consider," Radshir chimed in. "First is a thirty ton fighter that carries a laser and missiles. Edak can build two of them in a week, and they are more than enough to kill anything that's not a warship. The average pirate won't even detect it until it fires."

"Second is a five hundred dee-tee system defense boat. It uses up to ten crew, and it even has a short-range jump drive for transferring from one planet to the next. The jumps still take about a week, but it's good to have, and it doesn't cost much performance. It has decent armor and a pair of heavy laser barbettes."

OOG: Workbooks are in the Dropbox folder. Feel free to modify them to suit yourself.

Brent checked the designs carefully carefully. He was not used to the more advanced design packages but was coming up to speed quickly. "I can see what advantages you get with the higher tech. It was not so obvious to me earlier. I agree with you two on building at TL-15 for the local ships." He paused. "What about streamlining? It would provide more flexibility."

"We could streamline them, but this system has no planets with atmospheres other than Lucan (the gas giant), and none of these boats have fuel scoops," Joxe replied.

"It saves some mass and materials to not streamline them, too," Radshir added.

"Could you apply partial streamlining to let them lurk in the gas giant atmosphere?"

"Oh, sneaky," Radshir said with a grin.

"We can do that," Joxe replied. "So, we have the two fighters, the S-D-B, and the refit for Wanderer. Edak, what does that leave us?"

"Nine thousand, four hundred sixty displacement tons," the avatar answered. "We can begin collecting more materials to increase our reserves."

"One consideration may be a jump tug to carry bulk cargo and ferry smaller vessels."

"For now, we have the logistics ship," Joxe replied. "We need a crew for it, though. But, it can carry a decent-sized ship, if needed."

"Do we want to start mining again," Radshir asked. "We have a large stockpile, but we will need more soon, depending on what we build."

"We should definitely start mining as soon as practical. We may be able to purchase raw and partially refined materials from Egg directly as well. I would rather be out ahead of the problem for materials if that works for you Radshir." Brent glanced over at Joxe and nodded. "Good point on using the logistics ship. My thought was we might build a smaller ship that is more easy to crew as we train up a larger group to man logistics ship."

Before Joxe could reply, Edak spoke up. "Excuse my interruption, but we are ready to take Wanderer into the shipyard. Would you like to remove your personal belongings to the quarters I have selected, or attend to those duties yourselves?"

"We are also starting work on the system defense boats and the fighters, if you would like to visit those building slips at some point. Those projects and the logistics ship will occupy all four of our available building slips."

Brent glanced at Joxe and then shrugged. "Go ahead and move everything unless you would rather do it yourself Joxe. I know she has been your home for a long time. We really need to get the big ship moved right away but I can help while you move the stuff."

It takes the Wanderer's crew an hour to collect their belongings and find their new quarters. The ship's cargo bay and locker is also emptied into a storage area, and the ship is towed from the bay to the shipyard. Being a smaller vessel, it is fully enclosed in a pressurized bay, but everyone is required to wear their vacc suits while in the construction bay.

The logistics ship is ready for its trials, but it has no fuel or other supplies aboard. The computer is capable of operating the ship, although it's not recommended until after the trials are successfully completed.

Ken turned to Joxe and the others as they finished moving the equipment. "Let's get the logistics ship fueled and filled with minimal emergency supplies." He will lead the others down to the bay if they were ready and amenable.

Joxe, with Brent's input, assigns the crew to specific tasks:

Kevin and Emii Eason start an abbreviated piloting and navigation course on the big ship's bridge, working with the ship's computer.

Murla Lear and Eleni von Ritterburg go with Joxe into Engineering, where they begin courses on operating the powerplant and the drives. They also supervise the fueling operation, and the powerplant's startup procedure.

Radshir van Adair and Shunami Lambert work on provisioning the ship. They approach Brent with a report. "The shipyard has a huge ag facility," Shunami says. "They can probably feed a thousand people every day."

Radshir continues. "There's also tons of stored food. Some of what they produced was used for fertilizers and to replenish soils, while more is used for the animals. The rest has been stored and cycled though to keep it edible. Edak says they have enough meals to feed twenty thousand people for a year."

Edak's remotes begin opening up Wanderer to replace her drives and electronics, while the two fighters' and the SDB's production gears up in the other slips. The avatar smiles at Brent. "It's good to be truly productive again, and to have people here."

Brent will join in on the piloting and navigation training when he can. Otherwise he will work with Radshir and Shunami to stock the ship with food and crew equipment items like vac suits, emergency equipment, weapons and the like. He will get input from Joxe on what is useful.

"That's amazing that they have so much agricultural capability. I'm sure that the closed cycle agriculture technology would be of use in systems like Egg that have no habitable home world. We should bring several tons of the stored food with us and it will be helpful in many of the worlds." He returns Edak's smile. "It is good to have this facility to use as a base to restore an advance the entire subsector if not more."

Edak smiles. "That was our hope when we began work."

"Now, we have to ensure that it doesn't fall into the wrong hands," Radshir says. "It would be a disaster if Keipes finds it, although I think that the ship could fight them."

"Well, we could help Kide at some point," Shunami replies. "We don't know much about them, though."

"Joxe and I plan on spending our time scouting the surrounding systems while we work on training crews and upgrading the capabilities at Egg. Kide would be a priority for our investigations. Also I think we should develop some kind of stealth drone to allow us to scout the Keipes system from a distance. The Wanderer could drop it off in the outer system and let us monitor things there long-term."