The United Empire of Earth Navy caused quite a stir last November when it announced that it would be putting 200 decommissioned Javelin Destroyers up for sale. Each 1,132-foot-long spaceship has the sort of amenities that your average interstellar mercenary finds hard to resist: four primary thrusters, 12 maneuvering thrusters, a heavily armored bridge, private quarters for a captain and an executive officer, six cargo rooms, general quarters for a minimum of 23 crew members, and a hangar big enough to accommodate a gunship. There's even a lifetime insurance policy.

The document that announced the Javelins' impending sale took pains to stress that these warships were fixer-uppers. "They are battle-hardened and somewhat worse for wear," it read, "and have been stripped of the weapons systems." Thus, any would-be buyer would eventually have to shell out extra to equip the 20 gun turrets and the two torpedo launchers. The asking price for each ship: $2,500. And that wasn't some form of fictional futuristic space bucks; it was 2,500 real dollars. Actual, real, present-day American Earth dollars.