My name is Brandon Wright, I chair the Department of Hyperspace Cartography within Ingenuus. I'm reaching out to Synth Foods today in hopes that you'll be able to help with a Biome modification aboard one of our Colony Ships.
The Quetzalcoatl, or the Big Q as she is more affectionately known, has been in service for over 300 years. As she has transitioned from building and supplying colonies and Freeports across the Omicrons; to research and development within Ingenuus, we have found some of her original design to be limiting. In this case her Biomes have been a rather large thorn in both their usability for hydroponic food production and overall aesthetics for employee wellness during long duration missions.
With these goals in mind our hope is that Synth Foods will be able to help us update one of the two biomes aboard the Big Q to produce Synth Gel to better provide long duration missions with higher quality foodstuff. With the additional requirement of converting the second biome into an employee wellness park, with lots of greenery and such. My hope is that the extra green space for the research teams along with the higher quality food stuffs for the cafeterias will help boost employee moral along with increasing employee production while assigned to long duration missions. If Synth Foods is interested in such a venture please let me know an estimated cost for such an upgrade.
Brandon Wright
Department of Hyperspace Cartography
Ingenuus Research Group
Posts: 1,947
Threads: 175
Joined: Feb 2013
Staff roles: Systems Lead Server Administrator
To Brandon Wright:
Pleased to make your acquaintance, Mr. Wright. I'm glad to talk with you at length about our biodome products, and more specifically this unique request you have brought to us today. We've worked with a variety of requests over the years, from the most traditional food production methods to difficult challenges such as those posed by the radiation-bombed Freeport 5. We've also worked on many non-food producing domes, such as one of our earlier projects with Interspace Commerce to provide them with an orbital golf park outside Manhattan. Needless to say, I believe we have the expertise to provide you with the product you desire.
Technology has come a great long way in three hundred years, that much I can assure you. Our first products under the NutraForm label were certainly ground-breaking, but iteration upon iteration has delivered benefits that would put those developments to some great shame. To that end, I recommend a custom-built, heavily modified Mark VI model, rebuilt for maximum surface area and efficiency. I imagine that, with some modification, we could develop a hydroponic solution for Synthcrop development and processing that takes up the space of only one of the Biodomes aboard the "Big Q" while simultaneously providing food and oxygen supplies in excess of those required for a population of three thousand souls. As for your second request, our standard issue Mark III biodome, model T, is built for terrariums and other such biomes, and would be a very cost effective method of developing your desired morale-boosting biome. Assuming that you would wish to maintain the armor plating that would be present aboard such a vessel, I imagine that the total cost of such a venture would be somewhere in the ball-park of two-hundred fifty millions, assuming the entirety of the shipping and construction burden is laid upon Synth Foods, and that at least some of the existing Biodomes would be usable for our purposes.
If you're interested in proceeding with such a venture, let me know and I can lay out a more complete timetable and an estimated list of supplies that would be necessary. Of course, I would assume that you would be using one of your installations, perhaps Livadia, to complete this modification, correct? Do let me know as well where this operation would take place, so that our logistics operations can be rerouted effectively.
The specifications of the two biomes do meet with not only my personal goals but our departments long term goals with the Big Q. While Livadia is our intended refit destination there are a multitude of other vessels and refits that will be running concurrently to this project. Due to these ongoing constraints we would need this project broken into three stages.
Stage One would consist of Synth Foods Logistical Personnel delivering the needed retrofit material to orbital storage satellites. Stage Two would consist of the Big Q entering Lividia to have her Biomes removed and towed to a moor point; this will enable the Big Q to vacate the Drydock until Synth completes the retrofit. Stage Three will involve the now retrofitted biomes being towed and reintegrated into the Big Q's superstructure.
If these Stages can be worked into your time table we are more than happy to proceed with a down-payment of 20% for this project to get underway.
Brandon Wright
Department of Hyperspace Cartography
Ingenuus Research Group
Posts: 1,947
Threads: 175
Joined: Feb 2013
Staff roles: Systems Lead Server Administrator
Mr. Wright,
These stages fit perfectly within the traditional timetable of Biodome development, and we should have no problem with instituting such a plan as soon as you desire. Here is what our traditional timetable for such construction would look like, modified as per your stated plans:
Planning: Synth Foods Bio-Engineers will be dispatched to [Livadia Shipyard], where they will work in-tandem with your own logistics teams throughout the entirety of the construction process. At this stage, they will work alongside you to plan out the best location for your chosen biodome solution, and work to implement it as to your exact needs. This process can take anywhere from three to seven days.
> 25.000.000 s.c.
Construction (2.000 s.c. per): Shipping contracts will be delivered as early as the Planning phase, detailing a list of materials that are required to construct the planned installation. While Synth Foods will automatically handle such deliveries as part of their construction contract with you, taking on part of the shipping responsibility either directly or indirectly through your own hires and affiliates may result in a contract price decrease. Those individuals that may be operating an installation in a restricted zone or outside the traditional legal or territorial boundaries may wish to designate which shipping contractors they or Synth Foods may hire for this project, which should be made clear during the Planning phase. This process largely depends on the speed of delivery, but typically takes between seven to fourteen days.
Integration: Once all deliveries are made and construction has begun in earnest, the lion's share of the work is now done station-side as our Bio-Engineers work to integrate the in-construction biodome(s) with the rest of the vessel. Depending on various factors, this process may take a large portion of time, anywhere between fifteen to ninety days. The cost of construction will be directly derived from the perceived time required to complete such integration, and part of our Synth Foods™ promise is that any delay not caused directly by any form of contract breach or fault of the contractee will not be penalized by additional fees.
> 50.000.000 s.c.
Sub-total: 250.000.000 s.c.
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Leasing: After Integration, the Biodome product(s) should be fully functional and tested. At this point, maintenance contracts if necessary will be negotiated, as well as sowing of the first crop of the customer's choice, free of charge. Should the customer choose Synthetic Agriculture as their food source of choice for their Biodome product(s), leasing contracts for Synth Foods Bio-Engineers and the requisite equipment to process Synthcrop will be negotiated as well. Otherwise, final checks will be made to the structure before it is turned over entirely to the customer.
60.000.000 s.c. every six months following WAIVED
I hope this is to your satisfaction. If you have any questions or concerns, please do let me know. Otherwise, I hope to commence our partnership in earnest. Should you wish to continue with the down payment, the Planning Stage fee can be submitted to Synth|Biome.One at your convenience.
I am pleased to see your laid out timetable and I have reached out to the Shipyards Administration to schedule the removal of the Biomes from the Big Q. Furthermore I was informed that my accounts payable clerk is going out on maternity leave so we have processed a payment for the full 250 million s.c., a receipt of which is available here.
The Big Q should be arriving in the Kappa System later today and can be boarded by Synth Engineers at your leisure.
Brandon Wright
Department of Hyperspace Cartography
Ingenuus Research Group
Posts: 1,947
Threads: 175
Joined: Feb 2013
Staff roles: Systems Lead Server Administrator
To Brandon Wright:
Our Bio-Engineers have arrived at Livadia Shipyard and have begun their in-depth investigation of the Quetzalcoatl. As I understand it, the designs will take some time, but they believe that the material costs should not deviate much from standards. As such, I have made the call for Synth Foods vessels to begin shifting the necessary supplies to Livadia Shipyard. Their deliveries will be noted below - if you have any other concerns in the meantime, please feel free to let me know on this frequency.