[quote=Voltaire]
I knew I saw it mentioned somewhere.The ship is turian military right? Since when does the Gov care what's illegal? And for that matter, we're mercenaries. Since when do we care what's illegal?
[/quote]

So, how do you propose Nova obtain an illegal AI that, if discovered, will get them all imprisoned, possibly for life? They aren't exactly common, since development's been outlawed for 300 friggin' years. NOBODY has AIs, especially not any government. It's expressly outlawed in Citadel space. 

The ship is [I]ex[/I] turian military. It was decommissioned and legally bought. The fact it's a stealth prototype is a reason they managed to get it for so cheap because that's not technology that civilians should have, and the guy who sold it kind of realized how fucked he would be if he was audited and this improperly classified frigate was discovered.