There is the question of how many crew there are out there to be rescued. If it's about five or fewer, you can probably cram a few extra hybernaut capsules in somehow, save the crew and the (carefully sealed) data cores, scavenge anything useful/small and valuable, and leave the rest to rust.
This, incidentally, was one of the reasons I was suggesting time dilation - more as the idea that the drive was somehow consuming the internal timestream (or shifting it around in productive-for-travel ways) than as any direct result of relativity.
On the other hand, I'm also interested in Fnord's Idea. (Warp gates, perhaps?)
Incidentally, where does Gina fit on this thing?
This, incidentally, was one of the reasons I was suggesting time dilation - more as the idea that the drive was somehow consuming the internal timestream (or shifting it around in productive-for-travel ways) than as any direct result of relativity.
On the other hand, I'm also interested in Fnord's Idea. (Warp gates, perhaps?)
Incidentally, where does Gina fit on this thing?