Sunday April 5, 2009
Book 11: Massively Parallel — Part I: High Olympus Command
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Transcript

Narrator: High Olympus Shipyards, Berth Six Observation Area: The Touch-And-Go has been here for a little over one week.
Narrator: (If you're keeping time, Kerchak will start making calls in five hundred and thirty hours.)
Driggs: You see, the original blueprints just won't work. Not at all.
Elf: They have to work. Thurl, tell him they have to work.
Thurl: Let's hear what he has to say, Commander.
Elf: Do I need to make that an order?
Thurl: Only if you want to look like a fool, now hush. He's trying to explain
Driggs: Your Captain gave me a budget, the original blueprints, and he gave me this wreck. He expects a solid, fit-for-battle warship.
Driggs: If you let me change the budget, I can turn this wreck into the warship on the blueprints.

If you'd given me less of a wreck to start with, I could deliver a warship on this budget.
Driggs: If you decide you don't want a warship, I can deliver not-a-warship using this wreck, these blueprints and this budget.
Elf: None of that is acceptable, and you know it.
Driggs: Exactly.
Driggs: That leaves us two options. First, the smart option: We alter the blueprints so that this wreck can become a warship on your budget.
Elf: I assume there's a stupid option?
Driggs: You scream, shout, point weapons at us, and we all end up in court. You get no warship, your budget goes to the lawyers, and we keep the wreck.
Driggs: I almost hope that's the one you're thinking about picking. We re-sell a lot of wrecks that way.