As of Wednesday's Meta session, we've reclaimed the Ark (surreptitiously, and with it remaining in Dr. Simone's safekeeping), rescued the little girl, Meg, from the IISS base and the stranded LSP personnel from Prometheus station, finished installing our new jump drive, and docked at Garrison Station. We've done an under-the-table deal with the megacorporation in which we got to basically "loot" Prometheus Station for whatever we wanted, including two LSP shuttles. The shuttles are going to be claimed as lost by the company, however, so we can't sell them in Sector 268. We also got a reward from the IISS for our assistance in stopping and containing the mysterious plague (which occurred for reasons unknown). The Company Docs are currently correct. The Ares Specs, Cargo Holds and Ship's Manifest tabs are all up to date and mathematically sound. I've also sold off the excess loots from the Ship's Locker and added in all the goodies that we grabbed from the IISS Base and Prometheus Station. We have already turned Meg and Steve the Station Survivor over to Garrison Station. At this point it's safe to say that we can have all the routine repairs done, leaving only the Structure damage (1 point), which should cost 1d6 weeks. The Shuttles As relates to the two LSP Unmarked Shuttles that we... happened upon, they are 90 dTon System Shuttles with a base value of 33MCr each, but we can't sell them in District 268. We also can't currently fit Ares with docking collars here (facilities aren't up to the job), and our smaller J-Drive couldn't take the additional mass without taking a hit in performance, anyway. That means we have the following options: We can basically chop-shop them and sell them off as salvage. That would take time and certainly would net less than the base value of the shuttles. We can pay a tender 1.8MCr to tow them the 3 parsecs to our next Port of Call (Caliburn/Sword Worlds-1430). Another asteroid mining system, Caliburn should have ready buyers for the shuttles, so we should be able to get a good price for them there. We can decide to keep the shuttles for our own use, assuming we're going to pay another 1.8MCr (or more) to tow the shuttles to yet another system with a serious Star Port, refit the Ares with docking collars to carry them, re-replace our new(ish) Jump Drive with another large one, and build in additional fuel tanks somewhere for the additional fuel required. Sebastien recommends choice #2. Should we decide to go with #3, we would have to tow the shuttles to either two stops along our original course, at a cost of 3.6MCr, to Tenalphi to get all of the refitting done, or we could pull the shuttles one jump to Grote/Glisten (1731) and get the work done there, but that adds two or more jumps to our itinerary. The Ark The Ark, of course, presents us with even more of a quandary. It is very powerful, very dangerous, very valuable and very illegal. Again, we're going to have to choose from among options that are more complicated and morally ambiguous than some of us would like. At the moment, it is safe to assume that LSP, the Imperium and the Darrian Confederacy all know that the artifact is around, though we almost certainly know more about it than anybody else. Some or all of the above also probably assume that we have the artifact or that we know where it is. That uncertainty is one very good reason to keep the two Psi-corps officers as our guests for the time being at the very least. Zenobia certainly knows that we have the Ark and Davebh, well, he's crazy. In the short term, our choices with the Ark pretty much binary: we either keep it, or we sell it. A whole nest of branching choices unfold from each of those choices, but let's start with giving the Ark to one of the powers in system; LSP, the Imperium or the Darrians. Get Rid of the Damned Thing While we could probably get the best deal out of LSP, even Sebastien doesn't want to see them get the Ark. It is technically illegal for any non-governmental entity to possess Ancient artifacts or technology by Imperium law, but Sebastien can get us a hefty "finder's fee" from the Imperium for dutifully handing the Ark to the appropriate Imperial authorities. The meaning of "appropriate" here is pretty wide open. Let's consider the Navy (as represented as the RayEagle), the Darrians (as represented by their newly arrived contingent, and perhaps Admiral Galen), and the Aristocracy (as represented currently by Marquis Sebastien of Lunion, but eventually to turn over the artifact to the Spinward authorities that empower him). Navy>Psi-Corps>Maarg. Non-starter, to my way of thinking. The IISS probably has the best legal and ethical claim to the artifact, as they dug it up. The problem is, they were working with Psi-corps right at the dig. See above. That leaves the Aristocracy. Obviously, Sebastien prefers this choice, although it doesn't have its downside. Namely, in order to hand the Ark over to them (and get paid), we have to get it to them. That's four jumps. Politically and personally there are lot of reasons for Artemis Group to build this bridge to the Nobility. Not the least of these, of course, is because we're currently heading into their territory under summons. They are also specifically trying to counter-balance the machinations of Captain Maarg's boss, Duke Norris. They would have very reason to keep the Ark safe and hidden from him and Psi-Corps. But, of course, there is also the Darrian Confederacy. As I've mentioned before, Jacob feels that we were used and betrayed by the "our" darrians in this matter, so he'll be against this, but he could be out-voted. There are certainly points in favor of turning the Ark over to them, and we have dealt with them in similarly sensitive matters before, and it worked out well for us. Keep It I'm lumping any scenario in which we leave the Bowman System with the Ark in here, including #3 above, selling the thing to Sebastien's "bosses." If we keep the Ark for any period of time we're going to have to deal with the twin security threats of the cursed thing itself, and those who will come after us to get it. Aside from the whole us dying part, we could certainly kiss any hope for stealth or anonymity goodbye. Why would we want to hang on to the Ancient Psionic Zombie Apocalypse Egg? Here are the reasons I've heard so far: To Destroy it. There is a case to be made that this thing is too dangerous for anybody to have it. Of course that means we have to figure out a way to destroy it, and we probably get nothing but grief from the folks who want it, on top of the grief we've already experienced getting it and closing it. An interesting version of this notion is that we could try to find somebody who would be willing to pay us to destroy the Ark. I'm not feeling that one, but it gets points for creativity. I suppose we could try to run a kind of galactic protection racket. "Pay us to destroy this thing, or at least take it away, or we turn everybody in your star system into Pullers!" To Study it. While there is a certain appeal to this idea, it only increases the danger that the object poses to us and everybody else. There are potentially unimaginable (literally!) rewards at the end of the long, expensive and difficult of researching the Ark. You know, if we survive and don't become middle-aged suicidal psionic zombies (MSPZ).