Saving the Soul of a Ship

[Excitable.Boy]

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Ian laughed, then looked at Theobald with mischief in his eyes.
"Forgive me, did you just assume our Salvagers aren't capable of transporting large things?
Friend, if worse came to worst, a lone Salvager could easily drag a dead warship from one corner of the Omicrons to the other..."
He allowed himself a sly grin, and continued.
"That said, I mean, yeah. I think I get what you mean. At best I could organize one Salvager on top of my own.
Perhaps an extra transport or two could make things much easier, in terms of efficiency."

Ian pulled an extremely old-looking datapad from his jacket and laid it between them.
He pulled up a map of Texas, with clear marks, indicating a rather simple operation.
His face looked a bit smug as he took a deep breath.

"I'm thinking efficiency, here, so bear with me."
He began, thrusting the datapad toward Theobald.
"I leave Beaumont, with my crew in my Salvager, equipped with mining lasers.
Its implements can either cut or shred the remains, which can then be collected. We can carry just a bit over 3,000 standard cargo units.
Between our mining lasers and our onboard processing capabilities, I'm figuring we can have the majority of the remains collected within a few days' work.
Add in an extra OS&C transport or two and we could cut that down to a day, I suppose."

He produced a pipe from his pockets, and lit it.
An acrid, musky smell filled the air as he puffed.

"Then it's just a matter of getting the material to our Smelter, Culebra.
We'll have to discuss the route if you're unfamiliar with it."
He took a deep drag of his pipe, and took out a flask, from wish he took a quick swig and then coughed.
He continued again after catching his breath.
"Puerto Rico, our home system is rather treacherous, you'll need adequate radiation shielding.
And whatever you do, if you fly along, stick to the flight plans unless you want to meet a sticky end.
Hell, if you don't fly along, make sure your men aren't too stupid to listen to reason..."
He took another deep breath.
"Then it's just a matter of melting everything down into Manifolds, essentially bars of many mixed metals.
The Shipyard can make use of these in various ways.
Perhaps we can save a few pieces intact, but given the look of things, I'm sorry but I doubt it."

Ian then sat back in his chair, crossing one leg atop the other.
He laughed,
"Good God, Theo, you really do look out of place here."

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