Tara had purposely kept her opening statement short and to the point, no need to divulge anymore than needed.

"We happen to have specialized in a... 'retrievals' service in the past." Michael jumped in. "As a matter of fact we've added a few modifications to make us ideal for such work."  There was one reservation however. "I am rather curious to know how your ship came to be there, while you are here without it."

Tara knew that question would come up sooner or later. "Yes well on that matter we were enroute to make a delivery when Interpol decided to stop us." Tara struggle with just how she should word this next part, in the ended she just said it plainly. "The owner of our cargo, the very same benefactor that is bankrolling this venture, could not afford to let that take place...." Tara paused a moment and sipped some tea... "Things turned a little dicey about then with the end result being my ship on Bernedette and me not on it."

There was a long awkward pause as Tara sipped her tea. Before Chris or Michael could ask a follow up question Tara continued."I Don't... or I should say, I can't divulge anymore information about Gryphon's demise. Suffice it to say, the ship is where I said and just waiting for us." Tara paused a moment thinking of where she should direct the discussion next. "It is my intention to retrieve a few of my crew members along the way, so all you will have to do is delivery us to the ship and we will take it from there...that ends our contract."

"Do I want to know about any possible complications?" Chris wondered. "Can I afford not to?" She had her own crew and husband to think about and she knew the answer, even if she didn't like it. Asking the question correctly was going to be the challenging thing and she decided to think about that for a bit.

Picking up crew was something she could explore the details of, if only for logistics and calculating the charter bill. The financial side and even the organising of provisions was Addison's work but making sure that they had adequate and apporpriate spares and bunkering was something that she would work with the new engineer on. "Bunkering," she mused. "Where does that term come from?"

She didn't spend too much time on that; there were many terms that were in use that didn't seem to have a logical provenance. Of course Chris didn't think in such big words but big concepts were perfectly fine.

"How many crew be we picking up and how many people be joining here?" Chris asked.

Tara felt the conversation was moving along fine as she navigated her way through their questions. "Well no one will be joining us here, there was a change of plans for some. As for on the way I had planned on three, though timing has to work out." Tara paused helping herself to one of the treats Chris had offered. "Question is how soon can we fly and what do you need to make that happen?" Tara glanced around the room they were in. "She looks fine but I'm sure our Benefactor can provide some critical assistance."

"The first thing we need is an engineer or ship's mechanic to tell us what be wrong and what be needed to fix. You have seen the right rear landing strut; that need fix along with the right engine an' some electronics. So we might be needin' a tech too." Chris responded and then added, "oh, an' I suppose a pilot."

It didn't sound a small amount of work when she said it out loud.

"Findin' crew we can start on now. If'n we have trouble finding a ship's mechanic for the crew soon enough I be guessin' we can try find a local outfit to get us started." She didn't like that idea but she wasn't going to put the charter at risk by being that fussy. She just hoped she wouldn't have to sell her soul to keep it.

"Finding a crew I'll leave up to you, as for parts just give me a list and I can have them here in two to three days tops." Tara was quite sure of this as she knew there was a ship on standby waiting for word from her concerning their needs. "If required I might be able to dig up some help if you fall short on essential crew members."