After a night's rest aboard the Genesis and the first real sleep any of them had gotten since fleeing Eden-Five, Tanya called everyone back to the main lounge. The luxurious seating felt less surreal now, more like expensive furniture they were borrowing rather than exotic core world technology they were. Small mercies.
"Right," she said, settling into the adaptive chair at the head of their informal circle. "Nothing gets accomplished by sitting around feeling sorry for ourselves, so we need a plan."
Drew gave her a keen look, the prospect of concrete action apparently agreeing with him. "What kind of plan? Because last I checked, we're fugitives flying around in a ship that every government in the galaxy would love to get their hands on."
"That's exactly the problem," Tanya replied. "We need resources, such as materials, components, fabrication equipment, and basic supplies. But we can't exactly dock in any human stations and place orders. The Genesis is too recognisable, too valuable, too dangerous for routine commerce."
Amara pulled up her tablet, already running economic projections. "We have limited funds in untraceable accounts, but not enough for major purchases. Maybe six months of basic operations if we're careful and we find favourable markets in other kingdoms."
"Which is why we need to retrofit the rescue ship prototype," Tanya continued. "It's already modular, designed for rapid reconfiguration. The cargo holds exist, and the rescue pods can be converted into additional storage space."
Janet looked intrigued. "Convert it into a trading vessel? That seems like a waste of all our engineering work."
"Temporary conversion," Tanya clarified. "And not for conventional trade. We're going to be salvage operators."
Carlos looked confused. "Salvage? What kind of salvage operations could possibly generate enough revenue to support... whatever this is we're doing?"
Tanya gestured toward the viewport, where vortex space shined with its characteristic distortions. "Lost ships. The deep vortex is full of vessels that made navigation errors, suffered system failures, or simply vanished during the chaos of the past two centuries. Ships that nobody else can find because they lack our dimensional navigation capabilities."
[Historical records indicate approximately two thousand vessels reported missing in vortex space over the past fifty years,] Sage added to the conversation. [Many would retain significant salvage value despite extended exposure to dimensional effects. I suspect there are far more once we start searching]
"Two thousand ships," Simran said, excited by the prospects of finding so many different styles of ships. "Even if half of them are total losses, the metal alone would be worth millions. Add in intact components, rare materials, technology samples..."
"And we're the only ones who can navigate deep vortex with any reliability," Cameron finished. "It's a monopoly on an untapped resource base."
Drew leaned forward, his earlier resentment replaced by genuine interest. "That... actually makes sense. Convert the rescue ship into a heavy salvage vessel, use the Genesis as our base of operations, gradually build up resources for whatever comes next."
"Which brings us to the bigger picture," Tanya said, her voice growing more serious. "I want to build a peacekeeping fleet. Search and rescue operations, post-battle salvage, humanitarian aid. A neutral organisation that helps anyone who needs it, regardless of which side they're on."
Amara's stylus paused over her tablet. "Neutral organisations require significant political manoeuvring to maintain legitimacy. And the resource requirements for fleet-level operations..."
"Would be massive, yes. But look at what's happening out there." Tanya activated the room's holographic display, showing star charts marked with current conflict zones. "A war is coming. The major powers are positioning fleets, building up military resources, and establishing forward bases. All the signs point to a massive conflict in the near future."
Drew, Simran, and Carlos exchanged glances, clearly processing this information for the first time. Tanya knew they would be wondering how the information had come into her possession, but she could just blame Sage.
"What kind of war?" Simran asked carefully. "We've been focused on engineering work for months. What's changed?"
"Political tensions that have been building for years are finally reaching a breaking point," Tanya replied, keeping her explanation general. "Multiple factions with incompatible goals, territorial disputes, resource conflicts. The kind of pressures that historically lead to large-scale military action."
She gestured at the fleet movement indicators on the display. "When that war comes—and it will come—someone needs to be ready to help the people caught in the crossfire. Civilian evacuations, medical aid, search and rescue operations in contested space."
"You're talking about building a space-based Red Cross," Carlos said slowly. "Medical ships, rescue vessels, evacuation transports..."
"More than that. Ships designed to actively prevent conflicts from escalating, to create safe zones for civilian evacuations, to enforce humanitarian corridors during active combat." Tanya's engineering mind was warming to the topic. "This would require entirely new ship classes, capabilities that don't exist in any current navy."
She manipulated the holographic display, calling up a design interface. "After we've established basic fabrication capabilities aboard the Genesis, I want to begin serious design work. The rescue ship would be one core element, but we'd need specialised vessels for different operational requirements."
"Such as?" Cameron asked, though his tone suggested he was already intrigued by the engineering challenges.
"The Aegis-class would be our primary intervention vessel," Tanya said, her hands already sketching preliminary concepts in the holographic space. "Think of it as an armored tugboat in the shape of a hammerhead shark with a massive reinforced prow designed to push through debris fields and establish safe corridors."
The design that emerged was brutally functional. The hammerhead configuration concentrated armor and shielding in the forward section, creating a virtually impenetrable barrier that could be positioned between hostile forces. The wide-set sensor arrays provided comprehensive battlefield awareness, while the dorsal and ventral surfaces mounted defensive systems designed to intercept incoming fire.
"Heavy armor, massive shield arrays, and some form of gravity manipulation system for battlefield control," Tanya continued, adding details to the projection. "The idea is to physically interpose between hostile fleets and force them to negotiate rather than shoot."
//Gravitational field generation would require significant power systems and advanced crystal matrices,// Sage observed privately. //Theoretically feasible with proper dimensional resonance programming.//
"The prow section would house the primary gravity projectors, I have been told they are possible but we will need to study them" Tanya explained, highlighting the hammerhead's distinctive shape. "Multiple redundant systems to ensure the vessel can maintain position even under concentrated fire. The wide sensor spread provides early warning of incoming threats and coordinates defensive responses."
Cameron studied the technical specifications flowing past the design. "The power requirements would be enormous. You're talking about a vessel that can generate gravitational fields strong enough to affect other ships' movement."
"Which brings us to the Vortex Interdictors," Tanya said, her excitement building as she moved to a new design template. "These would be the most ambitious vessels in the fleet. The ships designed to forcibly remove hostile vessels from realspace and deposit them in vortex space or vice versa, then prevent their return."
The Interdictor design was sleek and predatory, its hull bristling with dimensional manipulation arrays. Unlike the Aegis's brute-force approach, these vessels relied on precision and timing, using advanced dimensional physics to essentially edit hostile ships out of space.
"Imagine being able to make an entire enemy fleet simply disappear from the battlefield without harming anyone aboard," Tanya continued. "No destruction, no casualties, just temporary relocation until tensions can be resolved through negotiation."
Drew whistled softly. "That's not just advanced technology but rewriting the rules of naval combat entirely. That's not something humans can do"
"Exactly. But it would require unprecedented precision," Tanya admitted, adding technical annotations to the design. "The margin for error would be minimal. Miscalculate the dimensional vectors and you could place two ships in the same space, destroying both."
[Dimensional manipulation on such scales would necessitate new understanding of vortex physics,] Sage noted. [The risk analysis would be complex.]
"Then there are the support classes," Tanya continued, warming to her topic. "Pacifier-class vessels focused on electronic warfare and non-lethal systems—EMP generators, computer viruses, targeted system disruption. Their goal would be to disable enemy vessels while leaving all crew alive and unharmed."
She sketched rapidly, showing smaller, more agile ships bristling with electronic warfare equipment. "These would work in coordination with Salvation-class boarding vessels, modified rescue ships designed to take control of disabled vessels and convert them into temporary holding facilities."
The Salvation design retained the modular approach of their rescue prototype, but with specialised pods for prisoner processing, medical treatment, and temporary accommodation. The ships could reconfigure themselves based on mission requirements, adapting to handle everything from mass evacuations to prisoner transport.
"And Observer-class stealth vessels for reconnaissance and intelligence gathering," Tanya finished, adding the final design to their growing fleet projection. "Good intelligence can end battles before they start, and neutral observers might be the only way to verify ceasefire compliance."
The holographic display now showed a complete fleet architecture of specialised vessels working in coordination to prevent conflicts rather than win them. It was ambitious to the point of impossibility, requiring technologies that barely existed and resources they didn't have.
It was also exactly what the galaxy needed.
"This is..." Simran paused, studying the tactical projections. "This is completely insane. You're talking about building ships that can outfight military vessels while maintaining humanitarian missions."
"I'm talking about building ships that make fighting pointless," Tanya corrected. "When you can forcibly separate hostile fleets, disable weapons systems without destroying ships, and evacuate civilians faster than they can be targeted, traditional naval combat becomes obsolete."
Amara was running economic calculations, her expression growing increasingly concerned. "The development costs alone would bankrupt most governments. We're talking about revolutionary advances in multiple technological fields, all implemented simultaneously."
"Which is why we start small," Tanya replied. "Salvage operations to build capital, rescue ship modifications to prove concepts, gradual expansion as resources allow. But we need to begin with a clear vision of where we're going."
Carlos looked around the room at their small group, counting. Six people with ambitious dreams and limited resources, planning to revolutionise galactic politics from the comfort of a two-hundred-year-old research vessel.
"You really think we can do this?" he asked.
Tanya looked at the holographic fleet display, at ship designs that represented ninety thousand lives saved to balance her ledger of guilt. It would take years, maybe decades. It would require technologies that pushed the boundaries of possibility and resources they had no idea how to acquire, but she felt like she had a purpose worth pursuing.
"We're going to find out," she said simply.
The meeting continued for another hour, covering logistics, resource allocation, and immediate next steps. By the time they dispersed, everyone had assignments—Amara would handle financial planning, Cameron and Janet would work on rescue ship modifications, Drew would survey potential salvage sites, once a method of detection was worked out, Simran would begin developing fleet coordination protocols, and Carlos would establish medical capabilities for their future operations.
It wasn't much of a fleet yet. But it was a beginning.