What happens to Colos on "traded-in" ships?
Have you ever had some surplus ships cluttering up your Sector in parking orbit? Maybe you've been building your Alignment by capping Red Aliens and Ferrengi, just because you have a shiny new ISS or IC and enough Colos producing figs, that you have some to expend on the fun of a Ferrengi hunt. Maybe you've actually got so many colos that they're breeding like rabbits, and you need to get rid of some of them. You can always re-distribute them to a new planet, but what if there are no more planet numbers available, or you have already maxxed out your Sectors with planets? You could blow up their planet, and start over, or just jettison them in orbit from a ColoTrans, but that will hurt your alignment. And if the over-populated planet has a Citadel above Level 2 or 3, you probably would think twice about blowing it up, right? Well, there's another way for Blue players to dispose of surplus Colonists that costs some turns, and money or figs, but won't cost you alignment: Load those breeders onto your captured Alien ship, stock it with surplus Figs if you have any to spare, then tow that ship to StarDock and sell it at the Shipyard! You'll make a little money from the hull, holds, and figs, and best of all, those Colonists simply "disappear". You'll never hear from them again, and your Alignment won't be affected.
Now the question is, what happens to those Colonists that are aboard ships being sold or traded in at StarDock? Here's my speculations:
1. They're being transhipped back to Terra (as if Terra needed any more people!).
2. They're being sent into the Wormhole at DS9 - let the Dominion deal with them.
3. The Feds are jettisoning them in space without telling anybody.
4. And my favorite: They're being sold to the Soylent Corporation for processing into Soylent Green, which is used in TW2002 as the emergency rations stocking the Escape Pod. Next time you end up in a Pod when someone blasts you, or you blind t-warp into an obstruction, better look closely at what's actually in that Emergency Ration Pack before eating!