Quick recap: Wanderer and her crew have found a Imperial tech shipyard, and are deciding how to proceed from this point.

"Let's start formal training for our younger members. That will take a bit of time and allow us to perform maintenance and upgrades. The Wanderer should be gone over and fine-tuned. I would like to look into a couple of system defense boats as well. Then we can and figure out our grand strategy while that is in work."

Edak nods. "There are training facilities in this building, if you wish to use them. I can make more space in the building slips if you can move the vessel in the largest one."

"We will get the ship moved immediately. Let's get started on the training program as well as a thorough maintenance overhaul and upgrade of the Wanderer. Then we can figure out how we want to continue our scouting actions and liaison between Egg and the other worlds. For the meantime I think we want to keep this facility as hidden as possible until we can understand the threat and create adequate defenses."

"Very well," Edak replies. "Shall I take you to the slip, then?"

Brent glanced at the others, his gaze lingering on Joxe. "Are we all in agreement? If so then take us there."

"Let's go see," Joxe replies. Edak takes everyone to a ground transport that drives away from the main spire back the way they came. There, they enter a pinnace that Edak pilots to another asteroid, taking thirty minutes for the flight. They dock in another bay, and disembark to another ground car. The ride takes them through several open areas with warehouse doors, passing many parked vehicles of all types along the way.

Finally, they approach an apron fronting a viewport larger than Wanderer. On the other side, powerful lights come up, illuminating the massive hull occupying the building slip. The ship is rectangular and thin for its length.

"It looks like a table top," Joxe says with a chuckle.

Brent looked around the sprawling facility with continued amazement. When they reached the viewport he chuckled as well. "What is that thing?"

"That," Edak says, "is the last ship this facility constructed. It is a system support ship, configured for planetary support after a disaster. It's built on a five-thousand-ton hull."

Brent considered the large and odd looking vessel. "So what type of emergency services can it provide? Also is it fueled up? It might take a while to spin up the fusion reactors if it has been shut for a long time."

"I want to know why it's still here, and not out wherever the people went," Joxe put in.

Edak nodded. "To answer the second question first, this ship is too slow to have kept up with the fleet. It was meant for subsector operations, so it is limited to two-parsec jumps and two-gee acceleration. It hasn't been out of the dock yet, so it's not fueled. There are facilities for medical treatment, fabrication and repair shops, and accommodations for Marines and construction crews, plus their vehicles and equipment."

"if you have the trained personnel to properly man the vessel you could do wonders around the subsector. That will be one of our ongoing concerns. Meanwhile, can you start the fueling process Edak? Also where do you want us to move it?"

Joxe and the other crewmembers page through the ship's data as Brent talks with Edak.

"This crew could move the ship," Edak says. "The normal compliment is sixty, with sufficient Marines to man the weapons. I have started the fueling process, and the powerplant pre-start sequence. It is preferable to have an engineer aboard for the actual startup."

"For a support ship, this thing is armed to the teeth," Joxe says excitedly. "It has fourteen one-hundred-fifty-megajoule turrets! Whatever that hits won't be happy."

"I'm looking at those missile barbettes," Eleni adds. "Whatever those hit will be dead, especially with Imperial tech laser head missiles."

Kevin Eason shakes his head. "This is probably the largest and most powerful ship in the subsector right now. The navy could certainly make use of it."

Brent nods to Edak. "We'll get her moved for you. It's good to feel like we have an opportunity to make a major difference in the welfare of the subsector and may be the whole sector if we can leverage this facility. The problem will be training and organization. We will need people to operate this but more importantly a political arrangement."

Turning to the side, Brent looked at the ship specifications as well. "This is pretty mind-boggling at all built at maximum Imperial tech level. Even though it is a vessel of mercy it is definitely a power. Let's all get down to the ship and get her moving. We can discuss the rest of this later." Brent pulled Joxe aside. "We're going to need to do some thinking on how this all gets run. It is far bigger now than just the two of us in the Wanderer."

"I think most of this will be up to Radshir. This is her inheritance, after all," Joxe says. "That said, you and I own Wanderer. If Radshir agrees, we either can take the big ship to Egg, and then figure out how to get back here. Or, we take our ship to Egg, pick up more people, and bring them back here to train."

Brent nodded in agreement. "You are right, I need to not get ahead of myself with this." He gave her a hug and a kiss. "Thank you for keeping me balanced and focused."

"That's what wives are for," Joxe replies with a smile. "Which option do you think is better?"

Brent slipped his arm around Joxe's waist with a matching smile. "I think the best course of action is to head back to Egg and get a few more people for trainees. I like the idea of traveling together in our ship rather than another. We need to be careful that Radshir stays in firm control. Some of the people back at Egg may want to take the place over."

"I don't think Edak will allow that," Joxe replies. "But, we will be careful, all the same. We can take Wanderer back ourselves, and leave the others to train on the new ship. They still have the runabout if they need it."

"let's plot out a route back to Egg and get back as soon as possible. We will want to get maintenance done on the ship before we go though."

Joxe consults her handcomp. "It's four parsecs to Egg from here. That's an eight to nine week round trip. We don't have to refuel for every jump, though."

Brent nodded in agreement as he looked over Joxe's hand computer. "Good point, we can avoid some of the more dangerous locations on our way or at least have more flexibility. One thing we can bring as a gesture of goodwill would be enough lanthanum to build a small jump capable ship. Egg otherwise has the technological base to build jump drives."

"Jump drives, hmm," Joxe's voice trailed off as she tapped and swiped on her hand comp. "Okay, so if we... wait, no. How about..." She went on like this for a couple of minutes. Brent could see that she had Wanderer's deck plan and specifications displayed on her screen as she worked.

Brent smiled as Joxe slipped into an engineering fuge. He slowly guided her down to the big ship as she worked on her new brainstorm.

Five minutes later, Joxe looked up. "I think you will like this. Let's update Wanderer to a four-parsec jump drive." She showed her husband the updated specifications. "We can replace the current jump drive, the power plant, the maneuver drive, the ship's computer, the weapons, and all the electronics without changing the ship's structure. We would get the updated performance and new equipment. The M-D would still be limited to one gee, since the ship can't handle more accel without a lot of bracing. Edak says that it would take only two weeks to finish it."