"I am A-R-G's interim facility director. My name is Edak."

"Thank you Edak.  Is the facility active?  We noted that the asteroids seemed dark and cold as we came in."

"I'm sorry, Brent, but you have not yet been cleared for information about this facility."

"Do I have the needed clearance," Radshir asks as she walks up beside Brent.

"Provisionally, yes," Edak replies. "I will have to run a bio scan to positively identify you." She produces a small medical scanner similar to ones aboard Wanderer.

Radshir, with the impetuousness of youth, steps forward and extends her hand. "Scan away."

Edak holds the scanner's head on Radshir's hand and activates it. The device takes a tiny sample of skin and blood, and considers it for a moment. It beeps to signal that the process is complete, and Edak smiles.

"Radshir van Adair, you are officially confirmed as a descendant of this facility's majority shareholders. As such, you are granted provisional access to this facility. The former managers have established a vetting process which you, or your designees, must complete before you may take full control. I have transmitted the relevant details to your personal ship's computer for your review."

"Well, now that's impressive," Joxe observes as she steps up on Brent's left.

"Hello," Edak says to Joxe. "Are you Miss van Adair's assistant, as well?"

"Oh!" Radshir exclaims. "Edak, these are my friends." She introduces each person in turn, including those standing watch. She indicates that Brent and Joxe are a couple, and that they own Wanderer. "Can we see the facility now?"

"May I respond to Brent's question, then?"

"Oh, sure, uh, yes."

Edak turns to Brent. "All non-essential systems were shut down to conserve power, and to aid in hiding this facility from detection. Only the life support system in this structure has remained active. I can take you to the administration center, if you wish."

Brent shook his head slightly at the denial of clearance but didn't object.  He smiled and nodded as Radshir took the initiative to show herself as a descendant of the owners of the place.  "Ahhh... that makes sense.  What caused the decision to go into hiding?" Brent also shrugged.  "Let's see the admin center while we consider what to do."

The group climbs into the ground car, which is done in a light, soft leather-like material. The seats are ridiculously comfortable, and the entire top of the vehicle is transparent from the inside.

Edak sits in the driver's compartment at the front, and the vehicle rolls soundlessly across the polished deck toward a large door.

"Oh, this feels like real leather," Radshir says.

"I'm sure it's synthetic, but it's really nice," Joxe comments.

The door rolls upward as the vehicle approaches, and they find themselves in a wide tunnel that turns out to be about 500 meters long. They roll out into daylight, and the group looks to see that the entire asteroid has been hollowed out.

The central spire, a polished ceramacrete needle perhaps a kilometer tall. rises out of the rolling hills and forest of the habitat. Blue sky, white clouds, and a glaring star shine overhead. As they watch, the vehicle rolls across a stone bridge that spans a river, which empties into a lake to their left.

OOG: Pic in Dropbox. The area is a combination of forest and open fields.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:52, Sun 03 Jan 2021.

Brent smiles at the luxury but then again they were on a rather elite shipyard that was building yachts.  He expected that they would have top notch equipment at least for the VIPs.  When they reached the habitat portion of the station Brent gave a low whistle. "Very sophisticated.  Are you using mirrors to bring in the central sunlight?"

"No, the light is artificial," Edak replies. "We are too far from the primary to receive any useful starlight."

As they drive along, the group sees animals like deer and squirrels in the meadows, and small birds fly overhead. They also spot a robot trimming a tree near the roadway. The trip takes about ten minutes, but Brent can see that they are driving slowly.

They arrive at the base of the spire, where Edak parks the ground car next to a set of glass doors. "There is a conference center at the top of the spire. You will have an unobstructed view of this facility from that vantage point."

Brent marveled at the effort put into the habitat.  "The quality of the life support and habitat is breathtaking.  Are all the other asteroids terraformed like this?"

"We are, or, I suppose were, the main depot for this area. This habitat supported ARG's employees, staff, and clients as they visited this facility. This is the only one of its kind here, though."

Edak leads the way into the building. It's spotlessly clean, well-appointed with live plants, and yet eerily empty. Beside Brent, Joxe shudders and grasps Brent's hand.

The group enters a glass-walled lift, and it whizzes upward at truly impressive speeds, while only giving them a slight sense of upward motion. They step out into a large open area at the top of the spire.

From here, they can see that the ground below is a mix of forests and open fields spread across a series of low hills. A river runs in two directions from a central source, and empty into a lake at one side of the area.

At the edges, they see a series of low buildings near the exterior walls. Other than the spire, they are the only visible buildings.

Brent nodded absently as they walked through the spotless, elegant rooms and up to the elevator.  He gripped Joxe's hand and gave a return squeeze.  Brent marveled at the gravitic control with the elevator and even more so at the view. "Magnificent, truly magnificent.  I've not seen anything near the equal.  Where are your crews and workforces?"

"Please, sit down," Edak motions to a conference table near the windows. She sits, and a large holo display comes to life over the table. A woman, who looks a lot like Radshir, but older and clearly tired, looks out of the display at them.

"Hello from the Adair-Ritterburg Group, or what's left of it, at least. I'm Hattie van Adair, the facility manager. If you are seeing this, then Edak has identified you as one of my family members. I wish I could meet you, but I will probably be dead and gone by this time." The woman sighs softly.

"It's been a rough two years since the war ended. At least, it's ended for everyone around here. The damn Navy just trashed everything they could find. Fortunately for us, this facility wasn't on the official installations list. This is, or was, an off-the-books shipyard for our own projects, and it has been a life saver. We've repaired several ships, including some of the remaining traders who've come here."

"Now, though, the gathered survivors have decided to go elsewhere. I thought we could stay here, and I advocated for it. But, the vote went to travel to Depot, there to hopefully find more survivors. Some people are planning to travel to Hiver territory, but I will go to Depot."

"In the meantime, this facility is yours, once Edak is confident that you have the skills and training to operate it. The maintenance remotes and automated systems can keep the place running indefinitely. We took what we needed, but we did leave enough supplies and equipment to get you started."

"By the way, watch out for Keipes. If those bastards ever get this base, this sector is screwed. The Kideans are gearing up to fight them, even though both systems took a pounding from the Navy."

Hattie smiles wanly. "I'm sorry to drop all of this on you, but maybe it will be enough to rebuild. Good luck."

The screen fades to the ARG logo.

Brent listened and then let out a low whistle.  "Well... that's a dump of data."  He thought for a moment and then turned to Edak.  "So how many went to Depot?  I'm assuming you heard nothing more of them correct?  Also, what is known about Kidde and Keipes especially what would make the latter so dangerous?  There is a lot to consider but let's start from the top."

"We never got an exact count," Edak replies, "but there were about four thousand people gathered from all over the subsector. I have heard nothing from anyone since they departed."

"Keipes was an oppressive dictatorship that survived the attack on their system, and Kide was working to oppose them with their own surviving warships. This information came from the traders we encountered, so it is over two centuries out of date."

"I hope they made it safely.  Everything we've seen had been quite bleak though." Brent pondered.  "I'll need to do some reading about the pre-war political situation it seems.  We'll be wary of Keipes even though it has been a while."  He looked about; "So what capability do you have here for ship manufacture?"

"Our largest slip can accommodate a ship of up to five thousand displacement tons. We can construct all components and associated equipment, as well."

Robert lets out a low whistle.  "That is impressive.  What tech level can you build?"

"We can build anything in the Imperial ship register of five thousand tons or less, with up to six-parsec jump drives and bonded superdense hulls."

Joxe lets out a low whistle. "They probably built the runabout," she observes.

"If you are referring to Miss van Adair's ship, then yes, it was constructed here," Edak says.

"Jump six?"  Brent shook his head.  "That was the very top of Imperial capability.  What we have here is a priceless capability and must be preserved at all cost." He looked to Edak. "Do you have the components and raw materials available to build now? I'd imagine your supply chains are a bit disrupted."

"We have enough materials on hand to construct approximately ten thousand displacement tons of shipping," Edak answers.

Brent took in the capability of the yards and glanced out at the scene before them. "This is a priceless find not only for the ability to make ships but for the plans of the ships themselves and the plans of the equipment to build the ships.  We should get a dump of the database for ship designs, especially the lower tech level workhorses that can more easily be built at Egg."  He took a deep breath. "But this place needs to remain secret as it has been all these years.  It is too precious of a resource to be held by any one system."

"The location was a secret until all those people came in here, and then left," Emii points out as she takes in the view.

Shunami nods. "That's true. But, there's been no one here for over two hundred years now, correct?"

"That is correct," Edak replies calmly.

"Then," Kevin finishes the thought, "it's probable that no one alive knows about it, or cares, at least."

Radshir turns to Brent. "The first thing I want to do is to make you all co-owners."

"They can be minority shareholders only, unless they are family," Edak interjects.

"Why?" Radshir looks at the android.

"The company's charter specifies this."

"Okay, so we change it," Radshir declares. "We can figure out how later." She turns back to Brent. "What about shares, then?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:55, Sun 24 Jan 2021.

Brent nods at the points made in the discussion.  "I would say that we all get minority shares for access.  We want to keep this place as a joint resource but it also has to be slef supporting."  He thought for a bit.  "I think that the best use of the shipyards would be to build jump drives and power plants that can be fitted into lower tech hulls.  That will boot strap us the fastest."  He looked at Edak; "How well are you supplied and do you have defenses?"

"We can support the facility while it uses the materials we have on hand. There have been no surveys of what materials might be available in this system beyond that. We do not possess defenses beyond passive sensors."

"Let's prioritize retrofit drives for boot strapping and some small defensive craft. We need to decide exactly who we want to work with and how to do so. That also leaves continued scouting in this system for resources and the wider neighborhood for threats and allies."

OOG: Let me catch up with the thread, and I'll get a response out by Friday (10/27) night.