They ran a shipyard where old ships were completely refitted, rebuilt if need be, and sold at a price that allowed people to get their very first ones. The interesting area was where the gravy drives were repaired, cared for, and helped back into service so they could once again travel to the stars. -- Anon Guest
[AN: Gravy drives are very rarely abandoned. The Nae'hyn who care for them will go to extreme lengths to see them to an area of safety. Many are retired. Some rare few die of old age. It's a complicated universe]
Ships with Gravity Drives are usually retired. Sometimes, the larger part of the hull is cut away and the minimum space necessary is taken to a Nae'hyn station-hive. There to join with the community of fellow Nae'hyn and their drives to exist as they chose.
That's at the end of a ships life.
For the most part, ships are repurposed, refurbished, re-designed, and re-launched with their original Gravy Drives and associated Nae'hyn families. Those drives who don't want to retire, yet whose vessels are effectively ruined, go into new hulls. That is why Reborning Station exists.
It's quite the operation, Ruined hulks go in, set into 'drydocks' where they're locked in an atmosphere so the workers can operate with less danger. There, the hull's remains are stripped down to the minimum necessary substructure. From that ground base, the new ship is built around it.
Once in a great while, a Gravity Drive is re-homed. The ship around them is taken down completely, leaving the naked Drive and a palanquin built specifically for it. The attending family, some Nae'hyn mechanic-priests, and calming choir then take the machine from its old holding to the fresh, new hull where it shall take residence.
There's incense, offerings, and a special ritual to seat the old Gravity Drive in a new hull.
There's also a welcoming festival in which the attending Nae'hyn hold an enormous party for at least a Standard Week[1]. Once the drive feels welcome in its new home, the rest of the vessel is finished. Starting with the accommodations for the Nae'hyn's family residence.
[1] Ten days.
[Photo by Polina Kuzovkova on Unsplash]
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