NARRATOR: Meanwhile...
HESH-BAZ: Hello, Ambassador Hioefua Far-Wanders. I am Vice-Undersecretary Hesh-Baz.
HIOEFUA: Well-met, honored Hesh-Baz. This is Meld-Minister Maiamumla Well-Flesher, and this is our military attaché, Captain Alexia Murtaugh.
HESH-BAZ: The tide waits for no-one. Let's begin.
HIOEFUA: With alacrity, then.
HIOEFUA: Population growth here in Sol system tracks the energy economy.
Energy expenditure is greatest in the fusing and fabrication of post-transuranic elements, molecules, and macromolecular lattices.
HESH-BAZ: The tide, Ambassador. I am well versed in basic economics.
HIOEFUA: The U.N.S. is currently scrambling to replace lost fleet units. This is chewing deeply into the manufacturing budget that must be met for continued population growth.
Our models suggest that within two years you will begin to see pockets of scarcity and overcrowding, while simultaneously failing to maintain a proportional military force.
HESH-BAZ: I am not in a position to comment on our own modeling of these circumstances.
HIOEFUA: Of course you're not. But when you next run projections, consider how the outcomes differ if you exchange the fabrication capacity of one penta-class battleplate for ten thousand annie-powered, PTU-rich hulls.
HESH-BAZ: Ten thousand? Corvettes, like your vessel?
HIOEFUA: Sizes vary. Some are significantly larger.
MURTAUGH: At risk of mixing metaphors, Undersecretary, there's easily enough mass in those hulls to affect the tides.
HESH-BAZ: Yes, yes. I'm passing water as we speak.