Good day to you, Mr Burton. I am Simon Giraud, and I head the spacecraft engineering department at ALG's Research and Development Division.

I have not met with your ships personally, but my company has had encounters with the Phoenix from time to time, when we have operated in the Edge worlds. As I understand it, you are also quite close with the Order, as we are. This should make for a good basis for cooperation, especially as we have further plans for our operations in the region. I cannot speak of anything concrete yet, but these could yet be relevant.

Now, for your question. It is true that the construction and deconstruction of spacecraft is among our main branches of business. Of course, when you bring up the word "Bismarck", that is quite evocative. I can assume, I am sure, that this will be a major project, but something that we could well be of assistance with. Some decades ago, ALG was in competition for the next generation of Rheinland battleship ourselves.

So, please let us know more.

You display great trust in providing us with these detailed and fascinating logs right away, and for that I am grateful, and honoured. What a remarkable history the panels of this ship could tell us, if indeed they could speak. With proper examination though, we may yet learn their language.
The Military's Bismarck-classes were always locked away to us behind Daumann's monopoly contract, but we are familiar with the Guild's Daishouri and have assisted in routine maintenance. But our main experience with the class came in the Civil War, as the democratic forces were reliant on us for such tasks.

So, if I may sum this up. We are dealing with a Bismarck-class, launched as Blitzkrieg, that was seized in the 80-Years-War by the Gas Miners Guild and renamed Namura, was then lost deep in the Edge but found by you to be renamed Vega, and returned with heavy damage close to your home base. And now it is adrift in this sector and in danger of reactor failure. Is this assessment correct?

If so, and the first step is safely disabling the reactor, that can certainly be done.

I will make my way to this location right away, with a team.
Expect another reply shortly, when I have seen this site.

So, let us exchange updates after so much progress has been made.

After the successful towing of the Vega to Carthage, I have been in close contact with the staff at Memphis to establish the feasibility of constructing a replacement reactor on-site. Barring some of the more exotic materials, much of the necessary metallurgy can be supplied with reconstitution from local sources, so the supply situation should not be prohibitive.
We have drawn up plans for something in the 6GW range. Toroidal magnetic confinement deuterium-helium fusion, very standard things, though on a scale we have not attempted beyond stationary testing reactors. The space has been an issue, as individual segments are having to be assembled and anchored in zero g for assembly. There is no individual manufacturing bay large enough to accommodate assembly on such a scale.
We have considered moving the process to Carthage itself, but all the rest of our production is at Memphis, as are our crews. It would be an effort in itself to shuttle supplies back and forth, and put the burden of accommodation on the Order for this, so we will make do.

The station is rapidly expanding anyway and we intend to have a partial rigid anchoring bay completed within the scheduled time for completion of the reactor. Meanwhile, we are experiencing bottlenecks in the shipment of neodymium and some other rare metals, but are otherwise progressing well. Around half the containment ring is complete, and the latter half should progress much faster.

Reminded as we are in this process of the remoteness of our location, we have been looking into ship-board hyperspace technology. This is a field you have a great deal of experience in, as I understand. For me, it is knowledge only in the theoretical. We may be interested in a technological exchange, as it were, for your and our challenges in our projects.

I suppose it is about time for a review. It is hard to put into exact parameters what should be the check-in intervals for such an experimental setup, but with the reactor now in operation for a few months, we should conduct one. We would be interested in the extrapolated power output and coolant temperature readings over this time period. The systems are balanced such that there is a high degree of redundancy in the circuitry, wet and dry, so that long distance, low maintenance operation is assured to occur within safe margins. Depending on the results, the setup which may be considered overly cautious, can be toned down to achieve greater efficiency if the margins are not closely approached at all.
Preferably, we would like to do a full systems check at Memphis. Removal of the reactor unit itself should not be necessary, but it will need to be taken offline for at least a few days.

For the topic of the hyperspace machinery, I suppose you know this already, but we have been coordinating with the staff at Athens, and have engaged in operation of these devices. From the experimental phase, we are currently in fully routine operation of this systems on some vessels, thanks to your personnel.

Please keep us up to date.