On the Crosspath

[RedEclipse]

Christian nodded thoughtfully, looking at Donagan. Behind him, he could see the clear outline of Vega and multiple flashes all along the hull - the workers had just begun to secure the scaffolding. In any case, it was necessary for the complete reconstruction or disposal of the ship. Vega looked menacing - a reminder of the consequences of living on the edge of human reaches. With scorched scars everywhere, from simple superficial ones to deep internal. Some decks had suffered more than others, and some had previously been pierced through. Among the classic Rheinland, flashes of greenish armor were visible, interspersed with gray-white plugs. Multiple holes had already been hastily patched up in Carthage. Truly titanic work lay ahead.

He nodded slightly, agreeing with Donagan and James' arguments. "That's why I called you to this meeting," he said, looking calmly but determinedly at his companions. "We need to find a way to get her back into service, as if we had to get her back into service yesterday." He leaned slightly over the table and made a few movements above it, and a dim turquoise hologram of the ship appeared above the table. Christian glanced at it, quickly scanned the report, and continued. "Our original reports of armor damage based on visual inspection were, unfortunately, accurate to the last hundredth. To return her to service according to all our standards, we need to replace all the armor." He glanced at James, gauging his reaction, but decided to remain silent, as Christian's assertiveness was beginning to annoy him. Without showing it, he took a sip of beer, and Christian continued.

"I figured we'd have a problem fitting armor from the Nephilim or any other ship - after all, according to the documentation we got from the Gas Miners Guild, they have a very specific method of attachment, dimensions, and, as Donagan already mentioned, geometric proportions." He sighed. "We have some industrial capacity, we also have access to supplies from the houses, as well as our own source of iridium and free space at Athens Station and Delta Mining Corp. - so the question is more for you, Donagan, if we buy all the equipment to recreate the armor and configure it according to the GMG drawings, how much will that speed things up?"

James thoughtfully twirled his beer glass, then took a sip and beat Mac Donagan to the answer. "Let's make the armor even better than Hyperion's - the ship is more about the equipment and software inside. To restore it as a combat ship, not a Starflier that needs routine maintenance and repairs almost every day." They exchanged glances with Mac Donagan, and James continued, laying out the situation as it was.

"Ideally, we need to remove all the avionics and subsystems and toss them toward the star of Omicron Kappa as useless junk," he picked up his glass and took a small sip, the chronic fatigue of the last few weeks gone and the hop slightly hitting his head. "And install new parts. But if you open the Gas Miners Guild blueprints, you'll see that it's very superficial, since they based it on the original working units." He shook his head. "It's all junk anyway, even if we manage to reverse engineer the signals and reprogram the new equipment - it will be extremely expensive and not stable to get this product up and running, especially considering the deadlines you mentioned." He popped a few more jerky pieces into his mouth, chewed slowly, and took another sip of beer, thinking about how to get out of this situation. "We can't handle such an ambitious project on our own." James squinted at Christian. "What about ALG? Can you unfold the truth about them - If they were kind enough to create a new reactor, could they help with the rest of the equipment?"