36.Announcement

Riker addresses the UN assembly to announce that the Bellerophon will carry all of Earth's remaining population in stasis pods. He outlines the logistics of pod construction, shuttle capacity, and resource allocation, then fields questions from delegates about manufacturing priorities and bottlenecks.

Riker commands attention in a chaotic UN assembly meeting and announces that the Bellerophon will transport Earth's entire remaining population. He explains that Herschel and Neil are already building stasis pods aboard the Bellerophon during their journey, though relativistic time dilation limits them to three and a half years of subjective work time. When Representative Misra asks if the ship could slow down to allow more time, Riker confirms this is technically possible but undesirable given the unknown threat posed by the Others and the need for quick transit. He distributes task lists and outlines a plan to move approximately one million people per trip using refurbished shuttles and cargo vessels, with the goal of expanding that capacity. Representative Hubert questions whether resources should be redirected entirely toward manufacturing stasis pods and printers rather than shuttles and colony ships. Riker responds that manufacturing is constrained by multiple bottlenecks—printer production is slow and defect-prone, material scarcity, and insufficient drones and roamers for assembly. He explains that optimizing for any single resource simply shifts the bottleneck elsewhere. He confirms he has already ceased colony ship production to free materials for shuttles and pods, striking what he believes is the optimal balance. The assembly reacts with numerous new requests for the floor.