Chapter 17
by 
Nemo of Utopia
* What Came Up? *
* A Visitor From Another World... *
^We have received a visitor from another world, he calls himself 'Commander Sparky' and offers to teach us how to repair and maintain our ships better than we can now,^ Berylia says, and then grimaces, ^But the price he is asking... It would drain the treasury! I just don't know, would it be better to send him on his way?" Berylia asks.
You know all about "Commander Sparky", and he's a stronger choice for empires that are not 'creative', but he does give you the 'Advanced Damage Control' tech, and that's nothing to sneeze at, especially this early in the game when no one else has it yet...
However, other than that tech, he's a fairly weak choice: he repairs the ship he's on during combat and increases its abilities with missiles, but those are not especially useful. If your ship is taking significant damage at all you've already fucked up, and missiles are the weakest type of weapon in the game due to how easy it is to shoot them down.
It's all going to come down to how much Sparky is asking for, and what else you will need to give him...