On 26Jan2018 1229, Catherine Berry wrote:

> One thing that I recall being mentioned somewhere -- maybe on this list --
> is that one would imagine that, especially early on, the powers enforcing
> the isolation of this system would concentrate heavily on making sure that
> the robots didn't capture a working J-drive. Canon already tells us that
> getting a working example allows for quick replication. It may be that the
> robots would ignore such an opportunity; it may also be they'd be boiling
> out into the galaxy on a crusade against everyone else a year later. Not
> the sort of risk you want to take. Thus it's surprising to the point of
> jaw-dropping that the Vilani were so willing to land ships there once they
> figured out most of what was going on.

I would assume that the 'ships' landed had no jump drives, and their
parent vessels were in high orbit, out of meson gun range.

Rupert Boleyn <xxxxxx@gmail.com>