Second Chance

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Construction
December 2448: Work is completed on the ship which will eventually be Second Chance. She is named Tashia at her birth, one of four Kepler Class vessels commissioned from Bellestra Shipworks by the Union of Allied Planets to explore the far reaches of the known Verse, beyond the inhabited border of the Blue Sun system. The flotilla of four ships forms the second phase of the much criticised Blue Sky exploration project, delayed following funding cuts from Parliament.

Launch
March 2450: More than a year after originally planned, the Blue Sky Phase II flotilla ships are transported to Meridian and fitted with the latest scientific instruments. The ships are crewed by scientists and engineers who have been unable to secure assignment to more prestigious and less dangerous projects.

April 1, 2450: BSPII launches from Meridian's moon, Burnet, to little fanfare. The occasion is marked by a short article in an obscure science journal on the Cortex.

Disaster
The voyage of the ships of BSPII is a short one. A miscalculation caused by an error in the navigation systems brings the vessels close enough to the Blue Sun for a solar flare to cause a catastrophic malfunction. The temperature regulators for the primary drives in all four ships develop faults.

Two of the ships' drives explode within a few minutes, destroying them entirely. Tashia and her sister ship Miskia suffer partial systems failure. They drift for several days before being caught in the gravity well of New Canaan. Miskia flies directly into one of the planet's rings and is torn apart by debris, killing everyone aboard. Tashia is more fortunate and narrowly misses the rings of debris that rip apart her sister ship, but pieces of Miskia collide with Tashia throwing her out of New Canaan's orbit and setting her adrift in space.

May 9, 2450: All contact is lost with the crew of Tashia.

Discovery
September 2501: Travelling away from Highgate, out of the Blue Sun system, the Heavy-Bulk Transport Eldorado picks up an anomalous signal a considerable distance from inhabited planets. The captain of the Eldorado makes the decision not to investigate, and the signal is logged but no further action is taken.

November 2504: Noted irregularities during a routine external audit for the accounts of the shipping company which owns the Eldorado, MCG Consolidated, lead to the discovery of evidence of contraband smuggling from the Core Worlds to the Rim Systems. Criminal proceedings are started, the ship impounded and company files seized. Among the items seized by the Prosecutions Service is the navigational log for the Eldorado.

June 2506: Ibrahim Ducksworth (22), gains employment as a paralegal working in the Prosecutors Office on Osiris. Ibrahim has recently graduated with a bachelor's degree in History, gaining a first for his dissertation, "Blue Sky: Factors Leading to Failure".

November 2507: While working on compiling evidence for the imminent prosecution of MCG Consolidated, Ibrahim comes across the log entry which describes the signal anomaly encountered by the crew of the Eldorado. He believes that it may be the first recorded contact with Tashia since her disappearance in 2450.

Recovery
May 2512: Following the war, Lieutenant Ibrahim Ducksworth (28) arrives on Highgate and sets to hiring a salvage vessel, the Marybelle and her captain, Darik Von Dorn. Ibrahim crews the Marybelle with former comrades in arms. As much as the official media denies their existence, Reavers are a reality on the Rim which he cannot afford to ignore.

October 9, 2512: The scanners on the Marybelle picks up a signal matching the anomalous signal recorded in the logs of the Eldorado. Ibrahim orders a change of course towards the source of the signal.

October 17, 2512: Ibrahim makes visual confirmation of the Tashia against archived images from its construction. The ship is badly damaged, and completely without power, but intact. A salvage operation begins.

November 2512: Marybelle lands on Highgate, with the Tashia in its hold. Within hours of landing, Ibrahim discovers that his funding has been cut and he cannot afford to pay Von Dorn the agreed fee for hiring the Marybelle. Von Dorn is furious, but settles for the credits Ibrahim has plus the salvage from the mission.

August 2513: Darik Von Dorn sells Tashia to a junkyard on Glynis, one of the moons orbiting Dragon’s Egg. The owner of the yard, Earl Harley, takes a shine to the battered old ship, and rather than scrap it, he decides to transform it into the offices for his business.

July 2516: Earl Harley retires, and his son, Bobby, takes over the business. Bobby has grown deeply fond of the old ship which now serves as the Harley Scrap offices and decides to renovate it and put it up for sale.

“Guess we’re giving you a second chance, old girl,” says Bobby, and the name sticks.