OV means most likely that the fleet is overhauling. So it is waiting for overhaul to finish, before it can complete the task to refuel. Also, do you have Refuelling Capability on Earth? I don't play conventional start, but it is possible that there is no Spaceport or Refuelling Station present.

Number in System Generation and Display window shows if there is possibility for ground geological survey to discover new deposits. Higher number means higher chance. In main window, on the left side there is Survey Sites tab that show all these discovered sites.

Thanks - I figured out the OV thing after my ship finished overhauling and then completed the orders.  Ugh - patience, not my strong suit. 

Thanks also for explaining the number.  I suspected it was something like that, but having it confirmed helped. 

Now that my Starfire campaign is wrapping up, I'm re-familiarizing myself with Aurora.  I've got the latest version installed, and after some trial and error I've managed to get a simple race up and running, starting from a conventional start.  The learning curve was a bit steep in the beginning, as a lot has changed since I last played Aurora, but I've mostly been able to figure things out, even if I'm not taking advantage of all of the bells and whistles yet.  I've built a couple of geo-survey ships and freighters, surveyed the inner solar system, and set up a couple of automated mining outposts.  Also, built simple garrison infantry battalions and then organized them into an infantry brigade with an HQ.  I know I made some mistakes there, but I'm learning, and the ground combat stuff is one of the biggest changes, I think, so I'm happy to have gotten that far. 

Having said that, I'm confused by some notations that have popped up that don't have any obvious explanation. 

The first is on the Naval Organization screen, Fleet selected, Movement orders tab.  I'm trying to give my survey ship orders to refuel, but its stuck.  I managed to run my survey ships out of fuel, something I used to do a lot in the old days until I learned to watch closer and set reasonable contingency orders.  So I figured out how to turn on SM mode and then manually relocated them to Earth.  One of them is overhauling, but the other one just sits there.  When I add an order to either refuel or overhaul, it shows up in the movement orders section, but with the following notation: Terra: Refuel from Colony (OV).  I suspect that the (OV) is trying to tell me there is a problem, and what it is, but I can't figure it out.

The second one is curiosity more than anything.  On the System Generation and Display window, the first column is the name of the system body, and the second is the type of system body.   In between is a column that shows the survey status.  I understand U, for un-surveyed, and M, for minerals present, but sometimes there is a number.  What is that number?  Sometimes it's just a number, and sometimes it's an M with a number, as in M3. 

I'm sure I'll have more questions in a bit.  Thanks in advance to anyone who can help!