ADS: Like A Phoenix

[Thexare]

Another day saw Victor dropping in to the office of the Director of Aquila Defense Systems unannounced. This time Jones knew he was there, though. "Hegemons are rather large vessels, yes?" Victor started immediately.

"Yeah. They have to be, gotta house a lot of equipment and a sizable crew for months at a time. Considering a new career?"

Victor closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. "No, Jones. I'm considering contingencies. You know about the Gong's most recent job."

"Yeah. Not too pleased with you dropping that one on my people without telling me first, especially with this Crayter situation."

Victor was, as usual, unfazed by Jones's complaints. "Indeed. Thus the contingency. You have several Hegemons still, we used them to move some of the civilians and equipment. How long would it take to refit them as dedicated long-haul passenger vessels?"

Jones needed some time to consider that, and pulled up the diagrams of the Aquila Hegemons to figure it out. "Hmm. One of them basically already is set up that way. A lot of the equipment rooms are pretty easy to repurpose. The on-board smeltery..." He sighed and shook his head. "is not. At all. A starter refit would take probably a week or so for each ship, plus some time for furnishings. A total refit, including replacing the refineries? Infeasible without a proper shipyard, and a slow process with one."

Victor took some time to think on this answer. "I see. What are we losing by not repurposing the refinery?"

"About... two hundred passengers per Hegemon, I would say. It's an issue, but honestly a pretty minor one. We can just keep the refinery offline and use the space for storage instead; it's not ideal, but it'll work."

The Minister of Intelligence nodded once, pleased with the analysis. "Good, we can work with that. You can't use them for mining anyway, you said so yourself. How many refits can you have going simultaneously?"

Jones smiled, unusual when dealing with Victor. "All of them. My engineers don't have a whole lot they can do right now, they'll appreciate having something to do. I'll put the order in, and get the Gong out for some of the extra materials."