"Honestly, the past two years have been complete set of boondoggles," said Eager. "We are over budget and behind schedule - and even if we weren't I can't imagine the market potential of the things we're working on. Silo One has been working on what I surmise are components for a combat-capable spacecraft, Silo Two has about perfected the servo-motors and neofabric arrays that'd let something the size of a garbage truck do parkour. Silo Three has been working on neo-cryptographic defense networks so we'll be safe if anyone skips ahead two generations in the quantronic arms race, and Silo Four has developed a new kind of optical plating that doesn't catch fire. That last one is the only thing that'll make money on the open market, and even then not a lot."

He sighed, leaning back on his chair. "So we've been doing this kind of weird, blue sky basic research for the entire duration of your predecessor's stint in office. And I won't lie - it's been fun, we've solved some really hard problems. But frankly, right now R&D is a financial black hole and I'm concerned we're going to suck the entire rest of the company into it. If you're here to tell me to pull my head in and get back to commercial technology I understand, but we've been specialized into these moonshot projects for so long that there'll be a significant switching cost involved. We've got a lot of the kinds of people who are only here because this is the only place that is letting them build the cool parts of the future, and if we stop letting them do that they're going to go elsewhere - and there isn't a noncompete in the world that'll stop them."