January 1, 2063
Captain's Log
Today was a wonderful day. Today was the day George Payne, newly minted Infrastructure Minister, moved into his new office, his new, enormous office in the capitol building. Today was the day Payne got to finally, finally begin making his mark on the Terran Federation.
"What does a man have to do to get a coffee here?" He said as he finished dragging in his desk, a task he would trust to no one but him self.
"Pay your poor, beleaguered assistant a lot more," said his well-treated and very well compensated assistant Nathanial Murphy, "And get a coffee maker."
"Details, details," said Payne with a wave of his hand as he rolled in his favorite computer chair, a task he would have freely given anyone if they had been around, " I have more important things to do. Get your tablet ready, Murphy, I have my orders for the factories."
"First of all, let's get our industry rolling, I want 25% of construction to go towards creating more Construction Factories and 10% to go towards creating new Manned Mines"
"Then, start construction on a new Commercial Shipyard with 20% of capacity and a new Military Shipyard with another 20%. We must go to the stars."
"Finally, when we get to those stars, we must be prepared for what lies there, so we must devote production towards making academia flourish. We must allow for 25% of our capacity to be used to create new Research Laboratories."
"Didn't you promise to build ship components with industry in your time as Infrastructure Minister?" challenged Murphy.
"I did, but reality got in my way. We have but one shipyard, and that will hamper expansion much more than a longer construction time," replied Payne.
"Moving on, I plan to delay any expansions or slipway additions until we get a design from the Survey or Military ministries that can be built there, and if we can get the shipyard Payne Shipyard that would be great."
"Really?" asked the bemused assistant.
"Well, if the public is really against that we can name it something worse such as the New Hope Shipyard, Armstrong Shipyard (or Gagarin Shipyard), or some other such nonsense," relented Payne
"Alright," said Murphy, "I think that's it, I'll get it sent out, with a few changes for tact."
"Tact?! I'll show you tact!"