Quote:Though to be honest, if Rhodes keeps bragging about his Peacemakers, the Generalissimo might authorize building a Mriya just to shut the loudmouthed bourgeois Yankee the hell up.The nice thing about this, from Noah's point of view, is that he'd have more than one source to rent some "heavy lifting" capabiity from if he ever needs it. Usually, he doesn't.
Even Wonderland doesn't need anything that big for cargo - Stellvia's right next door and other clients don't buy quite as much food from them, so a small fleet of cargo haulers each the size of an 18-wheeler will work for most purposes. No, wait - the 'wave says that larger ships have slower top speeds, and food is perishable. But a large fleet of panel trucks instead of a small fleet of semis means more maintenance... Hmmmmm...
These megaprojects are great for "who's got the biggest?" competitions (which in some circles is justification enough), but are they really cost-effective?
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012