"Yeah, it looks like it's a mess there, and I doubt they would go after every random civilian either, seems they took an issue with what Quantum does specificialy. Which in turn is the reason for my concern, because Quantum used the same materials we want to gather and sell."
He took another puff from the cigar, mostly to keep it alive, before he continued.
"Long story short, the plan is to mount expeditions into the so-called Earhart system, the source of these materials. The issue is the only way to access that system - at least to our knowledge - is through the use of a Jump Drive. The plan is to purchase or comission a Bustad, a carrier ship available on the civilian market, which is capable of using said Jump Drive. That alone is not an issue, even though it will be a significant investment, but what worries me is the fact that Bustard is rather large design, way larger than anything we usually use. Simply put, we currently don't have people to crew it, which is the main reason I made Lachlan to organise this little meeting."
"And because you know more about this particular situation than me," Finn noted, turning towars his brother, "I'll let you to explain this."
"How very thoughtfull of you, brother," Lachlan said dryly, while putting down his whisky glass, "but yes, I do know a little bit. I have read the specs of the ship and while it doesn't need nearly as much crew as a proper capital ship of a similar size, it still needs more crew, expecialy with the Jump Drive and the expanded medical facility we want to put in it, than any other ship any of you have used before."
He pulled up his terminal and quckly tapped on the screen, opening a file with notes. He clearly expected to be the one presenting this.
"I have asked around a bit and it looks like there are enough volunteers among our ranks down on New London who would be happy to leave the planet behind, for one reason or another, but the issue is none of them are spacers. They are eager, but inexperienced. We have hoped to secure training for them from some outside group, but those effors were a dead end, so we'll need to train them ourselves. The crux of our problem is in the amount of crew we'll need to train and in the fact we don't have any real experience with training people. My brother and I have some ideas, but we wanted to hear your opinions and ideas on this, before we decide how to approach thé situation."
He put down his tablet and picked up his whisky, a clear sign he said all he wanted and was now waiting to see if anyone else present wishes to speak.
