Charles waved his friend over to his desk as he pushed a couple of buttons on his console. The Lights in the office dimmed slightly and a large holographic display of a spacecraft sprung into being in the centre of the room.

The Invictus was a sleek and ferocious looking ship. Alyssa shivered slightly at its intimidating profile, the top deck bristling with weaponry. Charles zoomed in the display so that now they were looking at the ship's internals. From what she could tell, this Assault Cruiser was easily 10 times bigger than John's current freighter.

"You could upgrade the engines and FTL drive, using this extra space here" The admiral pointed animatedly at the rear of the ship. "You also won't need the barracks, so you could turn this area of the ship into a cargo bay" He gestured excitedly at the holographic map.

“I'd keep the docking bay for a shuttle in case you need to Land somewhere the Invictus is too big to dock at."

"You're still on the books right?" Charles asked John. John glanced Alyssa's way and nodded. "Great!" enthused Charles "That means we can keep the gun decks unchanged!"

Alyssa suddenly realised this was a pet project for Charles. Perhaps he had speculated on what he would do with the ship if he had ever been in John's current situation. It was funny to see the mid-50's Vice Admiral behaving like an enthusiastic schoolboy. She managed to keep a straight face.

“What about crew?" John asked.

Charles waved his hand dismissively "Automation will take care of that."

“Ok I'm interested" John replied cautiously “Just how much does a Terran Federation Assault Cruiser go for nowadays?"

"Well I can pull a few strings for an old friend" Charles grinned “Besides, not having to decommission all the weapons will save the shipyard a fortune" he went on conspiratorially.

John waited, patiently.

“Call it 150 mil. Most of that will be covering the new parts and retrofitting costs"

John's face spread into a big grin, matching that of the Vice Admiral.

“Wow, he's actually going for it" Alyssa thought to herself. "Boys and their toys!" she smiled, unable to resist the eye roll. She looked back at the men to see they were shaking hands vigorously, grinning Like maniacs.

They left the office, John bouncing along with a spring in his step as they walked back to the Fool's Gold. Charles had volunteered to start the retrofitting work immediately and had promised they would get everything completed in a week.

The navy munitions team had unloaded the Tyrenium the moment the deal had been struck, so it was strange to see the cargo hold looking so empty when they had boarded the freighter. The couple entered the cockpit, taking their usual seats. John was humming happily to himself as Alyssa rotated her co-pilots chair to face him.

“So what's the plan now?" Alyssa asked curiously.

“Well I did promise you a shopping trip" John smiled at her as he entered the course to take them down to Gravitus, the planet they were currently orbiting. The freighter's engines ignited with a shudder and the ship lifted off.

Alyssa clapped her hands excitedly. "I doubt I can top your spending spree though... 150 million credits in one morning! That's got to be some kind of record!"

John grinned, excited at the prospect of owning his old military vessel.

“Commander John Blake, proud owner of the Invictus" She stated, emphasising his rank.

John smiled at the teenager “Ah, I wondered if you had picked up on that. It's my old naval rank before I retired."