Quoted By:
"When I was taking my usual shuttle ride to work, I noticed what looked like a brand new Nazagar class freighter parked in the docking queue," you say in a carefully disinterested tone. "And I recalled hearing something about the new models coming with a Red Dwarf Mk3 reactor installed by default. High output, high efficiency. And I thought myself: if only we could get one of those for our grid."
"You're talking about just... gutting a visiting cargo ship?" the kasath frowns.
"Not at all," you shake your head. "After all, moving a reactor is a lot of work. You need to spin it down, remove it from the housing without damaging anything, prepare a new housing, move it, install it, then run a bunch of safety checks as you spin it back up... we're talking couple weeks worth of work, at least. I was more thinking about doing it... the Barter way."
The guy from Command looks down at his hands, clenching and unclenching them carefully.
"Technician, you are of course aware that these are not the old days anymore. You cannot add a new node onto Barter wherever and whenever you please. There are multiple sections to consult, consideration given to the environmental impact on surrounding nodes, the effect it will have on local commerce and profit potentials... and that's not even touching upon the fact that forcefully integrating a ship being considered an act of piracy under most jurisdictions we travel through."
"I will remind you, sir, that I am looking at the problem purely from a technical perspective, with an eye toward the quickest possible resolution to the power deficit problem. I simply assumed that given the circumstances and your earlier statement, Command could... expedite the usual approval process."
"Let's say it would be an exceedingly hard sell to my superiors."
Oh buddy, if you think that's a hard sell, wait till you hear this next one.
(cont)
